The tower boat gradually sailed farther away, and Maple Forest Ferry became nothing more than a dark line of light. Before he knew it, tears blurred his eyes.
Li Mu Yang did not like crying.
The weaker he was, and the more he was bullied, the less willing he was to shed tears.
If others bullied you, that could only prove you were weak.
But to shed tears while being bullied—that meant weakness ran too deep in your bones.
So Li Mu Yang always clenched his teeth and held on, enduring everything.
But when he saw his mother, Luo Qi, waving at him while shedding tears and forcing herself to smile, while his father, Li Yan, a taciturn and hard-edged man, also had reddened eyes and struggled to speak, and Li Sinian desperately leaped up from within the crowd in hopes that Li Mu Yang would see her—
Li Mu Yang could no longer hold back.
A true man did not shed tears lightly; he shed them only when faced with parting.
"Brother Mu Yang, a good man's ambitions lie in all four corners of the world. Our journey to the imperial capital is precisely the perfect opportunity for us Kun Peng to spread our wings. Why are you so sad? All this sobbing and weeping makes you look like a little girl." A young scholar in a blue student robe cupped his hands and greeted Li Mu Yang.
Li Mu Yang wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with his sleeve and looked at the man. "Do we know each other?"
"Jia County Zhang Linpu. I believe Brother Mu Yang must have heard of me." Jia County was a prosperous county under Jiangnan City. Although Zhang Linpu had taken the county examination there, his results had been