Yunmeng Village.
A clear rooster's crow rang out.
Inside the dim room.
Xiao Jian was awakened by a gentle call.
"Little Brother, it's time to get up. Wash up and do your morning reading first. Elder sister will make breakfast for you."
Xiao Jian opened his eyes and saw his elder sister place an oil lamp beside the bed.
The sky had not yet brightened. The dim yellow lamplight drove away the darkness in the room, casting elder sister Xiao Rong's slender figure into view.
Only thirteen years old, Xiao Jian struggled to sit up. As always, he first folded his old, thin bedding.
After washing up, he took out a book with incomplete, yellowed pages and spread it over the bed, reading aloud earnestly by the lamplight.
Elder sister Xiao Rong had already turned and left the room. Soon, a wisp of cooking smoke curled up from the kitchen.
It was the bitter heart of midwinter, and heaven and earth were freezing cold.
Xiao Jian shivered from the cold, constantly rubbing his hands together and breathing warmth into them. Unable to endure it any longer, he huddled beside the lamp for warmth, yet even so, he did not forget to recite an essay he had only learned yesterday.
At Yunmeng Village's private school, Xiao Jian was the most diligent student. Every villager in Yunmeng Village knew it.
Soon, dawn broke.
Xiao Jian immediately blew out the oil lamp and opened the window. A biting gust of cold wind poured in, making his whole body shudder.
Yet he still endured it, holding his book as he stood by the window.
Lamp oil cost money too. He and his elder sister depended on each other for survival, and merely keeping themselves alive each day was already immensely difficult. How could he