"Big Brother?"
Hearing that incomparably familiar voice, Little Bean Sprout hurriedly raised her head and looked at the figure ahead. She blinked her large eyes, then, unable to believe it, lifted her hands and rubbed her eyes.
"Ha ha ha..."
"Little Bean Sprout! It's us! We can come out and play on the streets today!"
"Little Bean Sprout, we're so happy to see that you're all right!"
"Yeah! Little Bean Sprout, are you all doing well now?"...
Li Dingguo had just strode up to Little Bean Sprout and had not even had time to greet her when dense footsteps sounded behind him, accompanied by excited voices.
It was Tang Guangqiang, Cao Yongxiang, and the others. They came running over with loud laughter, each of them calling out to Little Bean Sprout.
"Ah!"
Seeing the dozen or so companions she had once lived with in the Land God Temple in the eastern part of the city, all of them greeting her, Little Bean Sprout finally believed that she was not dreaming.
She stared fixedly at Li Dingguo, whose build and complexion had changed completely. Looking at that face she would never forget, she could no longer contain her excitement, and tears instantly brimmed in her eyes.
"Big Brother!"
Her lips trembled slightly, and her whole body shook. "It's wonderful that you're all right!"
Tears streaming down her face, she turned her tears into a smile. "Ever since those soldiers under Eight Great Kings called you away, I've been worrying about you."
"Until a few days ago, when the companions came back one after another but I still didn't see you, so I hurriedly asked them."
"They said Eight Great Kings had taken a liking to you, that you were being treated very well, and that you had already become a Martial Artist. Only then did I finally feel relieved."
"But I was still worried about you in my heart..."
Little Bean Sprout's dark, thin face was covered in tears, yet she was smiling so happily that Li Dingguo felt a wrenching pain in his heart for no reason.
He had met this little girl three years ago, outside the city, when she had been holding a wooden stick and fighting a wild dog over a steamed corn bun that it had carried from somewhere.
At that time, Li Dingguo had just luckily survived his wandering journey from a nearby village to this county town.
After driving away the wild dog and seizing the steamed corn bun, Li Dingguo immediately discovered Little Bean Sprout lying unconscious from hunger by the roadside.
Back then, he had been innocent and kindhearted, so he broke off half the bun, crushed it with his hands, and slowly fed it to the unconscious Little Bean Sprout.
Little Bean Sprout had a life as tough as weeds, and she survived.
From then on, she became Li Dingguo's most loyal little follower.
Of course, she later saved Li Dingguo's life as well. The two truly depended on each other through life and death, closer even than biological brother and sister.
"Little Bean Sprout, it's all right now."
He stretched out his slightly trembling hand and stroked Little Bean Sprout's filthy little head, comforting her. "From now on, Big Brother will take care of you. I won't let you go hungry again."
"Big Brother has learned many skills from the King now. I'm very formidable."
As he spoke, Li Dingguo looked at Little Bean Sprout before him, dressed in ragged old clothes and still trembling faintly. An overwhelming sorrow welled up in his heart of its own accord.
"Mhm, mhm..."
Little Bean Sprout was so happy she could hardly contain herself. She nodded her little head again and again, then said joyfully, "I already asked the companions who were driven out of the Wang Family Courtyard. With your body so tall and strong now, Big Brother, you must have become very formidable."
"And there's more!"
Little Bean Sprout had already wiped away her tears. Tilting up her little face, she looked at Li Dingguo, who was a full head taller than her. "While you were gone, Eight Great Kings ordered most of the hooligans and gangs in the city cleared out. No one bullied us anymore, and we were even able to eat our fill every day."
"I really hope Eight Great Kings never leaves this place. Then we companions will have good days ahead."
"Ever since the companions who were eliminated from the Martial Artist selection returned a few days ago, all the beggars in the city have known that Eight Great Kings favors you, Big Brother. None of them dare bully us anymore. Instead, whenever the adult beggars see us, they avoid us from far away..."
Now that she saw how completely Li Dingguo had changed, and saw him wearing a clean, well-fitting Martial Artist outfit, Little Bean Sprout became even happier. Once she began talking, she simply could not stop.
Yet one of her little hands tightly clutched the corner of Li Dingguo's clothes, as though she feared that he would vanish again. It was painful to watch.
At this time, the fifteen young Martial Artists who had just greeted Little Bean Sprout, along with the companions who had each received a bowl of thin porridge from the porridge shed and walked over, were laughing, playing, and teasing one another.
The difference was that those beggar boys had all been eliminated from the selection.
Looking at Li Dingguo and the others as they were now, they were both deeply envious and seemingly ashamed of themselves, deliberately keeping some distance from the youths who had already become Martial Artists.
The more than twenty little girls, however, behaved completely differently.
Each of them was delighted beyond measure. After gulping down their bowls of thin porridge in several big mouthfuls, they set their bowls aside and gathered around the fifteen young Martial Artists, chattering, jumping, and bouncing about. Clearly, they were ecstatic.
Once everyone's excitement had passed and they quieted down again, Li Dingguo thought briefly before saying to Tang Guangqiang beside him, "A-Qiang, take a few people to the market and buy everyone a set of new clothes and shoes."
"They don't need to be anything good. Coarse cloth clothes that fit, and straw sandals, will do."
"Also, go to a nearby eatery and buy two baskets of white-flour steamed buns, so everyone can first eat their fill."
"Oh, and one more thing. Remember to buy several bars of soap and a few large wooden buckets."
"Then have everyone return to the Land God Temple in the eastern part of the city where we used to shelter. Go to the old well where we often drew drinking water. Separate the men and women, have everyone take turns drawing well water, wash themselves clean, and then change into their new clothes."
Looking at these ragged, filthy little beggars before him, Li Dingguo, who came from the twenty-first century, simply could not get used to it.
Leaving aside how uncomfortable it was just to look at what they were wearing, hygiene alone had to be taken extremely seriously.
As the saying went, illness entered through the mouth.
The vast majority of diseases people suffered throughout their lives basically arose because they neglected personal and dietary hygiene, ate uncooked food or poisonous and harmful food, and thereby bred all manner of illnesses.
The reason people in ancient times did not live long and had such short average lifespans was, on one hand, because they overworked themselves and drained their vitality.
On the other hand, they neglected hygiene, often went hungry, and suffered endless natural disasters and man-made calamities, which together caused this abnormal situation.
In truth, the quality of food people ate in this era was far better than that of the twenty-first century in his previous life!
If ordinary citizens of the twenty-first century in his previous life could eat these pure, natural, pollution-free good things every day, every household would save who knew how much in medical expenses.
Of course, that was on the condition that they did not believe those so-called experts and doctors, allowing themselves to be hoodwinked and brainwashed into getting injections and taking medicine at every turn, or even undergoing those so-called internal surgeries, ruining their perfectly healthy bodies and ending up losing both people and money.
In fact, as long as one paid attention to personal hygiene and a healthy diet, did not indulge in things that harmed the body, and relied only on the human body's own immunity and recovery ability, the overwhelming majority of illnesses would heal without medicine and leave no lasting effects.
"Got it, Boss!"
Tang Guangqiang immediately accepted the order loudly. "I'll take ten Martial Artists and handle it right away! I was just worrying about how to spend the money the King gave us!"
Afterward, he excitedly picked out ten ordinary young Martial Artists beside him, took the sixteen strings of cash everyone had pooled together, turned, and strode away.
Before you continue