Li Xu had been bound to money by an inseparable bond from birth.
At his first-birthday object-grabbing ceremony, he picked the gaudiest thing in the pile-a large gold ingot-and clung to it, drooling and refusing to let go.
The sight of money made Li Xu giggle; whenever he saw money, he grinned.
Watching Li Xu love money more than life itself from such a young age, the scholarly Li Family felt their hearts sink, thinking this child was not destined to follow a proper path.
Li Xu was born late in his parents' lives. He had several older brothers and sisters, all with boundless prospects, so their expectations for their youngest son were not that high.
"Oh, well. It's not as though our family can't afford to raise one good-for-nothing son. We might as well keep him."
Li Xu had been mischievous since childhood. Before he was more than a few years old, he had already caused a heap of trouble and thrown the household into chaos.
Li Xu caused the biggest trouble and took the harshest beatings.
To keep him from causing some catastrophic disaster, everyone in the family older than him disciplined him under the family rules.
As the youngest, Li Xu resented it. Why did he have to be the youngest in the family, where absolutely anyone could boss him around?
Several times, he urged his parents to give him a younger brother or sister, only for his father to toss him out with a dark face and tell him to stop making trouble.
Today, as usual, he pestered them for a younger sibling and was routinely thrown out by his father, the Minister of Rites.
"The adults are discussing something important. Children should go play somewhere else."
"Hmph, what could you possibly need to hide from