But as soon as he picked up a wooden brush or held a book, his shortcomings were immediately exposed. No matter how hard he tried, his handwriting was still crooked and slanted, even worse than a child just beginning to learn to write. It took him nearly half a month to barely manage to recite a thousand-character essay stumblingly from start to finish.

"This kid, if I'm not mistaken, must be from a military family!" As the saying goes, when you lose something, you gain something else. Eric Scott's lack of talent in studying actually put the Fifth Chief Frank Thompson at ease. He deliberately chose a spot where the young man couldn't hear, pulled the Second Chief Brian Scott aside, and whispered.

"Even among military families, it's rare to see someone this hopeless!" The Second Chief Brian Scott secretly glanced a few times at the young man in the distance, who was "holding the brush like a rafter," and shook his head with a wry smile.

Who says a gentle and fair appearance means someone is cut out for studying? Out of ten fat people, nine are just gluttons! If Little Ben had even half the talent for studying as he does for martial arts, in peaceful times, he would have easily made the honor roll. But as he is now—well! Given his current state, being born in troubled times is actually just right for him!

"Actually, the way he is now is best for us!" The Third Chief Richard Foster also strolled over with a pot of strong tea, sipping slowly from the spout as he smiled and reminded them.

Even if someone suffers from amnesia, the skills they were familiar with before the illness can be gradually recovered with reminders. Yet after nearly half a month of hard training under Brian Scott's supervision, the young Little Ben still couldn't make sense of punctuation in reading, and his writing was missing strokes and limbs, but his martial skills had improved by leaps and bounds. Clearly, before his head was smashed by the Khitan with an iron mace, he had a solid foundation in martial arts, but had never put much effort into books.

You can win the world on horseback, but you can't govern it that way. The abducted Emperor of Jin, Shi Chonggui, no matter how muddle-headed, would never neglect to hire famous teachers to educate his own son, nor would he be so ruthless as to hand over his imperial offspring to be trained by a mere warrior. Unless—unless he already knew he would lose his country sooner or later, so he prepared his son in advance to live as a commoner!

Shi Chonggui had more backbone than his adoptive father Shi Jingtang, who was content to be a puppet emperor, but his foresight was lacking. Otherwise, he wouldn't have lost his country so foolishly after resisting the Khitan invasions for years. So, the worse Little Ben performs in his studies, the less likely he is to be Shi Chonggui's son.

So everyone's earlier suspicions were just scaring themselves. Looking back now, it's really laughable!

"Good or not, it's all the same—he's not my son anyway!" The Fifth Chief Frank Thompson now believed he had indeed been overly suspicious before, but he wouldn't admit it out loud. After thinking for a moment, he added with a cold laugh, "But Second Brother, you just picked up a successor for nothing! By the way, this kid has a decent character—why not just adopt him as your son?"

The final suggestion was clearly well-intentioned. Who would have thought that the Second Chief Brian Scott would shake his head firmly after hearing it, "No, my life is too hard—I can't drag this child down with me! Whoever his father is, he deserves a better life than ours!"

Turning to look at the boy practicing his writing, his eyes were full of hope.

You must live better than I do! This is the wish of most fathers for their sons. Even if life has bent their backs, even if they crawl in darkness every day, when a father looks at his son, his eyes are always filled with light!

Note 1: The Thousand Character Classic is one of the three great classics for children's enlightenment in ancient times. It was compiled during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Chapter One: Sharpening the Sword (IV)

"How come I never noticed your life was so hard?!" Frank Thompson couldn't stand Brian Scott's constant self-pity, and scolded him with a frown. "So you became a bandit—it's still better than being killed because you couldn't escape. Besides, who in the whole outlaw world doesn't know you, Second Master Scott, these days?!"

"So what? Don't you dream of washing your hands of all this?" The Second Chief Brian Scott glanced at him and continued to shake his head with a bitter smile. "If there were a choice, who would want to be the son of a bandit chief?!"

The Fifth Chief Frank Thompson was stunned by the question, biting his lip and left speechless for a long time. The jianghu is a road of no return—if there were a choice, who would want to be a bandit? No matter how famous you are, no matter how impressive you seem among your peers, if you raise a son outside the mountains, he's still a bandit's child. Generation after generation, they'll never make it onto the proper stage!

Thinking this way, it's clear why Brian Scott refused to take Little Ben as his adopted son. It's not that he's afraid of his own hard life, but that he doesn't want Little Ben to bear the stigma of being a bandit chief's son. That child doesn't look like a bandit, and he has a kind heart. He deserves a brighter future, not to carry the burden of sin like the older generation until death.

But in these chaotic times, what honest way is there to make a living if you don't become a bandit? Even the regional military governors are just bigger bandit leaders! There's really no difference between them and those who rule the mountains.

"I heard that the Great Tang in Jiangnan has reopened the imperial examinations!" As if guessing Frank Thompson's doubts, Brian Scott withdrew his gaze from Eric Scott and spoke in a very low voice. "The Li family father and son have humbled themselves to recruit talent, and many people from north of the river have been given important positions. If only Little Ben had a clean family background..."