When I was a kid, I could buy a lot of candy for just a dime. The old man who sold candy dipped a stick in it with so much candy that I could lick it and eat it all in one class.

In terms of purchasing power, a dime when I was a child was probably not as good as a penny in the late Han Dynasty, that is, the money was written as half a liang in Han Dynasty.

Li Mengxi came to the old man selling sugar. The old man was carrying a basket. In the basket was a pottery basin filled with yellowish-brown semi-solid maltose juice.

"Two cents." Li Mengxi took out two cents and gave it to the old man, and bought two cents of candy for his younger brother.

Li Mengxi felt dirty and refused to eat sweets.

The younger brother was like a greedy cat. After buying the candy, he immediately stretched out his tongue to lick the sweet maltose. After licking it for a long time, he finally thought of his older brother.

"Brother, here you go, would you like to take a lick too."

Li Mengxi decisively refused.

The younger brother then took all the candies for himself with peace of mind.

Li Mengxi took his younger brother to buy sweets. Very close to his brothers, there was another pair of brothers in the queue of refugees.

These two brothers are very similar to the Li Mengxi brothers.

Li Mengxi was eight or nine years old, and Xiao Bian was three or four years old. Among the two brothers, the older brother, who was in ragged clothes and leaning on a stick with a broken leg, was also eight or nine years old. The younger brother he was holding was also three or four years old.

Watching Xiao Bian eating sweets, the younger brother of the two brothers looked straight at him, his mouth watering with greed.

The little brother holding the stick felt sorry for his younger brother. He wiped his saliva with his sleeve and said, "Xiao Fei, if you want to eat sweets, I will buy you sweets when the second brother makes money from work." The little brother's eyes were filled with tears.

love.

The drooling little brother looked away and said very sensibly, "Brother, we don't buy candy, I don't want to eat it, I don't want to eat candy."

The little brother sighed, pulled his brother into his arms, and held him tighter.

Someone is coming.

A young man with a nice smile held two large balls of maltose in his hand and handed them over.

"Here, I'll give you some candy."

The little brother rubbed the clothes on his chest awkwardly with his hands, and he blushed, "We don't have money..."

"No money." Li Mengxi smiled.

After hesitating again and again, the little brother lowered his head and glanced at his younger brother who was looking at the candy in Li Mengxi's hand. He sighed and took the candy from Li Mengxi's hand.

"I'll pay you back when I can earn enough money from work." The little brother stared into Li Mengxi's eyes and said in a neither humble nor overbearing tone.

"No need!" Li Mengxi smiled and shook his head, "I can afford it for just a few cents of candy."

The young man insisted on paying it back, but Li Mengxi had no choice but to say, "That's fine. When you settle down, you can find a job. Come and join our rebel army. Don't dare to say anything else. If you are willing to work, you won't be hungry."

When the little brother heard what Li Mengxi said, he looked Li Mengxi up and down again. He mistakenly thought that Li Mengxi only had money to buy sweets because of his work. He raised his head and asked Li Mengxi seriously, "Brother, where are you doing?

I’m alive, can I go?”

Want to work like me? Li Mengxi is happy. I am Liu Bei's military advisor, so I have no shortage of food, drink and money.

You also want to go...

Li Mengxi glanced at the boy with a runny nose and childish expression on his face. Li Mengxi laughed out loud. After laughing for a long time, Li Mengxi suddenly stopped.

Because Li Mengxi suddenly realized that he was laughing so boldly and without caring about other people's emotions. It seemed that he was mocking this dirty young man for not overestimating his abilities.

Knowing that he had made a mistake, Li Mengxi secretly said, "It's my fault."

Then, Li Mengxi corrected his mentality.

He told the young man sternly, "I see that your leg injury has not healed yet. It won't be too late until the injury heals."

As for what to do, look for an opportunity to read some books and learn some calligraphy. At your age, my brother is a great time to read and learn calligraphy."

The young man looked blank and scratched his head, "Reading?"

"Yes, study!" Li Mengxi nodded with a smile.

Talking about speculation with this young man, Li Mengxi slowly moved forward with the team, chatting as he walked.

When asked about the two young brothers, one is Li Peng and the other is Li Fei. Li Peng is the elder brother and Li Fei is the younger brother.

An ordinary name, even if it is placed in future generations, will not violate the law.

When asked again what was wrong with the young man's legs, the young man was silent for a long time, "My brother is stupid. I went to steal food and he caught me." The young man answered calmly. Si Hao did not take the suffering he had suffered seriously.

Li Mengxi could imagine the life these two brothers had lived in the Yellow Turban Army just from the description in words.

The little brother was starving to death because of the Yellow Turbans. The older brother went to steal food, but was caught and beaten half to death, and his leg was broken.

Li Mengxi looked at his little brother who was concentrating on eating sweets. If his brother was beaten to death, there would be no one to protect this child. A child of three or four years old would not be able to survive without a single family member.

He will be unable to keep up with the march, be left behind alone, be eaten by wolves, insects, tigers and leopards that come out to forage. He will be sick and have no one to care about him, and he will die of illness. He will have nothing to eat until he faints from starvation, or even dies of starvation.

, he was stoned to death by some hungry bad guys and eaten as meat.

Fortunately, the two brothers came alive.

People in similar situations, with insights and knowledge far ahead of their times, met like the cheating brothers Li Mengxi and Li Zhuan, and the extremely ordinary brothers Li Peng and Li Fei in the troubled times of the late Han Dynasty.

Li Mengxi was naturally a hero among men, and he was even recognized as a military advisor by Liu Bei, and he was very energetic. Li Peng, a young man, was illiterate and had no long-term plans. It was difficult to live a life, so there was no need to talk about the world's situation in order to find an opportunity to advance.

Li Mengxi had long since escaped his original fate. In this troubled world, he was the only one who was so lucky.

As for the Li Peng brothers, their life trajectories are still like those of other helpless children in troubled times. Even though they are lucky enough not to starve to death for the rest of their lives, they are still miserable.

——

Because he had become friends with the two brothers Li Peng and Li Fei, Li Mengxi felt that these refugees who had finally traveled a long distance to reach the city of Zhuozhou, and the frightened children among the refugees, if someone gave them sweet candies at this moment, how many children would they be?

happy.

So, Li Mengxi followed the hawking sound and found the old man selling sugar.

"Old man, you bought so many candies, even the bowls, how much do you think they cost?" Li Mengxi asked.

The old man smiled cheerfully with his toothless mouth open, his face deeply wrinkled, and his smile turned into a flower.

"Brother, if you want it, I'll give you fifty cents!"

Fifty coins is not expensive.

Li Mengxi opened his money bag, found six pieces for ten coins, and gave them to the old man.

As for why I gave six, it was because during this period I discovered that when buying things, people prefer to ask for half a penny worth of a penny instead of asking for ten cents.

Don't know why.

Because when Li Mengxi had half a tael when buying things, he spent half a tael.

Like now, if something worth fifty cents is given, six pieces are given as ten cents, so that others won't be unwilling.

Li Mengxi rounded up the old man's bowl of maltose.

Then, an interesting scene appeared under Zhuozhou City.

A half-year-old boy led a smaller child through the crowd, looking for children everywhere. Whenever he saw a yellow turban refugee holding a child, he would give them candy.
Chapter completed!