Chapter 180

Chapter 180: Wish Granted

Miss Wei, Madam Zhang, and the constables filling the courtyard all looked confused.

His family is here? Where?

They searched the area, but saw no one besides themselves. Yet Official Yu and Li Qing Miao acted as if they could see those people clearly.

Miss Wei hugged her arms and said: “Why do I feel a little cold?”

Madam Zhang and the constables nodded, saying: “It is cold.”

No one answered their questions.

At that moment, Li Qing Miao was venting his fury. He shouted: “Why do I hate them? Of course it is because they are hateful!”

He snapped his head toward his birth mother, Madam Chen, and said: “You, a mother hen who can do nothing but lay eggs! You could not fly, yet you hoped I would become a dragon and carry you up to power and wealth. Look at yourself, do you even deserve that?”

He glared and said: “From childhood to now, I never slept in once. The villagers got up around the mao hour, about five to seven in the morning, to work the fields, but you made me get up at the yin hour before dawn, around three to five in the morning, to read!”

He spat and said: “Those soups and tonics you made me drink every day made me want to throw up!”

Madam Chen’s white, empty eyes were full of confusion as she said: “Those were strong tonics. I worried about your health. And the day’s plan is made in the morning. If you study early, you remember better. Did you not feel that yourself?”

Li Qing Miao shouted: “I wanted to sleep! I wanted to rest! I wanted to play like other people!”

He turned to his grandmother and said: “And you, you snobbish old woman who looked down on the poor and chased the rich. I loved Cui Hua, and she loved me. You insisted she did not deserve me. You said she only wanted our family’s money and forced us apart. Because of that, Cui Hua married a butcher. He was violent and beat her every day. One day she only came to complain to me, and that butcher beat her to death. You killed Cui Hua, so I want you dead too!”

He pointed at Li Da Niu and the other brothers and sisters and said: “And you lot, with no ability of your own, were just like this greedy and useless woman, hoping I would carry you to a better life! Yes, you worked the fields every day, and yes, you paid for me to study, but did any of you ask whether I wanted to study?”

He laughed and said: “You thought that after I made a name for myself you would live well. I will shatter your hopes on purpose. I will make you see how ridiculous you are! Hahaha…”

By the end he looked half mad. The Li clan, both sad and furious, let their resentment surge and boil. Their resentment grew so heavy that their forms appeared, scaring everyone in the courtyard.

Yu Zhi Yi flicked her finger; a thread of golden light shattered the darkness. The Li clan people went clear-minded at once.

She said calmly: “Do not worry. I will make him turn over a new leaf.”

As she spoke, she tossed a talisman toward Li Qing Miao. The talisman paper stuck to his forehead by itself. Li Qing Miao froze in place and stopped moving. He closed his eyes like he had fallen asleep.

Miss Wei and Madam Zhang asked nervously: “Lord, what happened to him?”

Yu Zhi Yi said: “Mm, I am letting him get what he asked for.”

It was a Dream-entering Talisman. Its effect was similar to that demonic cultivator’s Hundred-Dream Slaughter, but different in one key way. The Dream-entering Talisman would not kill. It would build the most real dream from the deepest desire in a person’s heart.

So now, Li Qing Miao became a mediocrity. With all his memories, he became an ordinary man.

He returned to the Li clan, a time when everyone was still alive.

At age three, when he started his primer, the teacher judged that he had no talent for study, while his big brother was recognized as a genius. So Li Qing Miao was driven out of the school just as he wished.

The Li clan had some property, but as a farming family they could only afford to support one child in study. If they had lived in the Capital City, he might have gone to Joseph Academy for free. But their home was far, far from the Capital City.

Besides, Joseph Academy was not what it had been a hundred years ago. Back then, the academy clashed with the values of the noble families and was not accepted by high officials and nobles. It could only take in poor children. Those children often had to help with farm work. People wanted schooling, but compared to the faraway dream of being the top scholar in the metropolitan exam, a sure sack of grain helped more. So when Joseph Academy first opened, they struggled to enroll students. In the first class there were fewer than a hundred students.

Now, officials, nobles, and commoners all wanted to squeeze their children in. Ordinary people could not get a place at all.

Li Qing Miao got his wish and did not have to go to school. Yet for some reason, he felt a little unhappy in his heart. He did not think too much about it. Since this had always been what he wanted, he quickly pushed away that strange feeling and happily went home.

His parents did not blame him for lacking talent. When they learned that his big brother was a genius, they were very happy, just as when they had once heard that Li Qing Miao was gifted. That night they killed two chickens and bought a pound of pork to make a big meal.

His big brother smiled so hard from everyone’s praise that his face almost split. Li Qing Miao watched coldly and thought: [Just wait a few years and you will know how bitter it is.]

He did not expect that the first person to taste that bitterness would be himself.

Farm work was too hard. Even though he was only three and did not go into the fields, in a farming family as soon as a child could walk, they had to help. If they could not do heavy work, they pulled weeds, caught bugs, fed chickens, or went up the hills to find wild greens.

Every day, by the mao hour at daybreak, around five to seven in the morning, he had to get up and go into the hills with his brothers and sisters to look for wild greens and catch insects. Sometimes he followed his father to the fields to pull weeds. When it was busy season, the family wished one person could split into eight. Even he, a little turnip head, had to go pick up leftover ears of wheat.

The first year passed in a haze. Li Qing Miao felt a bit of regret, but it was not too strong. These chores were not the heaviest kind, and he got used to them.

That year he also watched his big brother, hoping to see him suffer. But his big brother never complained. Sometimes after school he would teach the other brothers and sisters a few characters and show them how to do sums. The younger ones admired big brother very much.

Seeing the admiration in everyone’s eyes, Li Qing Miao felt unbalanced and thought: [Why do these people only tell me to work and work and work so I can become a top scholar and lead the family to a good life, but when it is big brother they say, Wow, big brother, you are amazing?]

Soon he had no energy left to be jealous. As he grew older, his work grew more and more, and heavier too. In the village, children at twelve or thirteen had to start going into the fields. Making compost, opening new land, planting, harvesting, even hiking into the mountains to plant trees, or carrying a shoulder pole to the big market in the next village to sell things-every one of these jobs was exhausting. He was tired to the bones every day.