Chapter 1: Can't afford to keep him!

The midday sun was poisonous enough to scorch and crack the ground.

In front of a earthen grave on the back hill of Fengyang Mountain Village, a dark, dense crowd had gathered.

Fourteen-year-old Shiniu was neatly setting the fifth empty bowl before the grave.

"Dad, today is Laba Festival Festival; we ought to have porridge."

The boy scratched his messy hair and spoke in a simple voice: "But our village… has no rice; don't blame me, first take the empty bowls as a stopgap, and whenever I get full I'll make it up to you."

Behind him, dozens of villagers kept their heads low, not daring to let out a breath.

It wasn't fear of Shi Laosan in the grave; it was fear of this boy standing before it.

Shiniu stood up and turned around.

Eight chi tall, broad-shouldered and thick-backed, his coarse shirt pulled tight, revealing arms with knotted muscles like the roots of old trees.

He bent to lift the two bulky items leaning against the grave, wrapped tightly in coarse hemp, one in each hand, lifted them lightly, and hoisted them onto his shoulder.

Someone in the crowd swallowed hard.

That thing—last month Wang Tiejiang had tried it; a single hammer was so heavy three strongmen couldn't lift it.

But Shiniu lifted it as easily as two bundles of firewood.

"Shi... Shiniu!"

The village head trembled forward from the crowd, holding a coarse cloth bundle, and said: "These are three biscuits the whole village scraped together; eat sparingly, they'll see you to Xuzhou."

Shiniu took the coarse cloth bundle, hefted it, and gave an honest smile: "Thanks, village head."

Shiniu's smile was clean, showing a mouthful of white teeth.

But the villagers bowed their heads even lower.

There was nothing they could do.

This simple-minded kid could eat a ton.

It all began last year.

Shiniu's father, Shi Laosan—the village's old hunter who fell to his death while hunting—left him this foundling adopted son.

The kind-hearted villagers began taking turns to help him.

But who would have thought that this thirteen‑year‑old half‑grown boy could eat a dou of rice and ten jin of meat in one meal?

Of course, the village had no meat to give him; this was merely an exaggeration.

In the first month, the village could still manage.

By the second month, every household's rice bin had run dry.

By the third month, even the seed grain for next spring's planting was about to be devoured.

"This isn't raising a person; it's raising a glutton!" the Widow Li from the east end of the village cried in private.

This morning at the ancestral hall meeting, the village head, eyes red, slammed the table and said: "If we don't send him away, the whole village will starve; but where can we send a simpleton who's only good for brute strength and knows nothing else…"

Outside the ancestral hall, Shiniu was squatting by the well, washing his two cloth‑wrapped hammers.

The well water splashed gurgle‑gurgle as he scrubbed earnestly, as if he hadn't heard the voices from the ancestral hall.

In the end, Wang Tiejiang managed to blurt out: "Send… send him to the army… the army will feed him."

The hall fell silent.

The village head's hand trembled as he said: "The army… that's a place of war, where people die…"

"That's better than starving to death in our village; besides, look at Shiniu's strength—you saw him haul back an eight‑hundred‑jin wild boar last month, all by himself. If he joins the army, he might still earn a full meal and a future." Widow Li wiped her tears and said.

"Exactly, if there were still food on the mountain it would be fine, but now he's eaten everything up—even the grasshoppers on the mountain flee at the sight of him…"

A villager couldn't help but let out a wry laugh.

And so this scene before the ancestral hall came to pass.

Shiniu shouldered the hammers, carried the bundle, and stood on the yellow earth road at the village entrance.

Behind him stood the whole village—men, women, old and young.

"Shiniu! It's not that the village doesn't want to keep you… it's just that your appetite is more than we can bear!" the village head said, tears streaming down his face.

Shiniu turned his head and looked at those familiar faces.

Aunt Zhang, feeling guilty, had mended his winter clothes the previous year.

Li Uncle, gritting his teeth, had once taught him how to recognize wild vegetables.

And Ergouzi from the village head, who'd once dug out bird nests with him…

Shiniu gave an honest nod and said: "I know…"

He paused, then added: "My father once said, never cause trouble for others."

These plain words made several women burst into tears right then.

Shiniu turned and stepped forward.

His straw sandals were torn, toes showing, but he walked steadily, the two large hammers on his shoulder swaying with each step.

After walking a dozen steps, his stomach suddenly let out a sound.

That sound was like low thunder from the heavens.

Someone in the crowd let out a 'pfft' laugh, then quickly covered their mouth.

Shiniu stopped, embarrassed, and turned back to say: "Um… village head, I'll save the biscuits, and once I'm full at the army, I'll definitely return the food to everyone."

Having said that, he strode forward without looking back.

By the time the sun slanted west, he had already walked thirty li.

Of the three biscuits in the bundle, only one and a half remained; the other one and a half had been eaten half an hour earlier.

He sat on the roadside stone, breaking off biscuits to send to his mouth, chewing each bite carefully.

Besides the biscuits, the bundle contained two other things.

It is also half a jade pendant.

Made of green jade, the edges are chipped; one can barely make out a carved character, but it is heavily worn, leaving only half the outline.

When Shi Laosan found him, he hung it around his neck, saying it might be a keepsake left by his birth parents.

However, he usually calls himself Shiniu.

Shiniu took out the jade pendant and looked at it in the sunset.

He couldn't understand it, so he stuffed it back.

At the same moment, in Nanjing city, the imperial palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang had just finished reviewing a stack of memoranda, rubbing his brow as he walked to the window.

The afterglow of the sunset streamed through the lattice window, gilding his face with a golden edge.

This forty-two-year-old founding emperor of the Great Ming, with a full heavenly court, straight nose and square mouth, long beard and fine whiskers, was renowned for his handsome appearance in his youth; though now he has gained wrinkles, the dignity between his brows is even greater.

"Zhong Ba, if you're tired, take a rest." Empress Ma walked in holding a teacup.

She wore a plain cotton robe, her hair bun pinned with only a wooden hairpin, and a gentle smile on her round face.

Zhu Yuanzhang took the tea, sighed, and said: "I'm not afraid of fatigue, it's just the northern front… Chang Yuchun… the battle at Kaiping, I don't know how it will turn out."

Empress Ma gently pressed his shoulders to comfort him: "Chang Yuchun fights bravely in battle; he will surely return victorious."

"We know, it's just that we keep worrying in our hearts; the Northern Expedition is a major affair, we cannot allow any mishap." Zhu Yuanzhang said after taking a sip of tea.

Empress Ma did not respond, her gaze drifting to the darkening sky outside the window.

For some reason, she suddenly recalled the child who got lost in the war fifteen years ago.

At that time she had only just given birth to twins; when the army relocated its camp, they were ambushed by Yuan troops, and in the chaos, the infant in swaddling clothes was taken by a civilian woman, never to be found again.

She wept for three full years, until Zhu Yuanzhang captured Yingtian, before she could barely bury that pain deep in her heart.

If that child were alive, he would be fourteen years old now.

"Little sister, what are you thinking about?" Zhu Yuanzhang turned his head to look at her.

Empress Ma shook her head, pushing aside those thoughts that shouldn't be had.

The world is so vast; it's not that easy to find him again.

"It's nothing, I just see that you've been overworked these days, your complexion isn't good; even if the Northern Expedition is urgent, you must look after your health." She said with a smile.

Zhu Yuanzhang patted her hand and said: "I understand; once Chang Yuchun takes Kaiping and stabilizes the northern front, we'll be able to catch our breath."

Empress Ma nodded, saying no more.