Ethan Brooks's strange illness that flares up occasionally every year only adds insult to injury, placing yet another heavy burden on top of all the others.

Mr. Brooks has gritted his teeth and stubbornly held on all these years.

This winter's fishing harvest was terrible, and the family's silver is in dire shortage—there's simply no extra money.

No one knows when the eldest child will cry again.

If the eldest sheds tears once more and there's no money to buy ginseng medicine to save his life, he might really die young.

Thinking of this, Mr. Brooks fell silent, burying his head in worry and taking deep drags of his old dry tobacco.

Maybe, the child's mother is right.

If they send the eldest to work as a servant in a wealthy household in the county, life will be bitter, and he'll often be beaten and scolded by the masters, but at least they could get ten taels of silver in exchange, enough to buy ginseng medicine in time to save a life.

In these hard times, just surviving is already a blessing from heaven—how could they dare hope for anything more?

If there's no money for ginseng medicine and the eldest dies, then everything is lost.

The old fishing boat, shrouded in smoke, with the oil lamp dim and low.

Inside the shack, Mrs. Brooks let out intermittent sighs of sorrow.

Most of the time, Mr. Brooks just smoked in silence, thinking that when the eldest came back, he would talk things over with him. Maybe the eldest... would agree.

……

Outside the dilapidated old Su family fishing boat.

Ethan Brooks stood all alone on a small bamboo raft. The joy of returning from fishing had long since vanished; his face was pale as snow, his eyes full of despair, his thin and frail body trembling uncontrollably, and his small hands gripped the bamboo pole tightly.

His lower lip was bitten so hard it nearly bled.

Ethan Brooks knew he had been born with a strange illness. Every time he cried, his tears would turn into blue stones, leaving him gravely ill and nearly costing him half his life, while also bringing disaster to his already storm-tossed family.

His fragile life was like a flickering bamboo lantern on the water, ready to be snuffed out by a cold wind at any moment.

Whenever that happened, his parents would be worried sick, spending most of their yearly savings at the county pharmacy to buy a ginseng root, boiling it in fish soup to restore his strength.

Ethan Brooks had always felt guilty about this.

Since he was five or six and became sensible, he started helping his parents with chores. By the time he was a little over ten, he could already catch small fish and shrimp on his own to earn a bit of money, trying every way he could to ease his parents' burden. He saved up copper coins to buy ginseng medicine, just so he could survive.

But hearing his parents talk about selling him to a wealthy family in the county as a servant, Ethan Brooks still felt as if struck by lightning, his heart torn apart.

His parents didn't want him anymore—they were going to sell him!

Ethan Brooks's mind was a complete blank, only emptiness remained, and he fought hard to hold back the stinging in his eyes.

The bad news he had avoided facing all these years had finally come.

He tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and only after a long while did he recover from the shock.

He dared not feel even a trace of resentment in his heart.

His father left before dawn every day to fish on the big lake, not returning until sunset. His mother helped cast nets during the day, and at night mended nets and wove clothes at home, always working late into the night.

His parents had worked hard to raise him for twelve years, their hair turning white early, their kindness as heavy as a mountain.

They had already done their best.

But... but~ hearing his parents discuss selling him to a wealthy family in the county as a servant, Ethan Brooks truly felt miserable, so miserable he wanted to cry.

But if he cried, he would fall seriously ill, and there was no money for expensive ginseng medicine.

Without ginseng, he would die.

He didn't want to die!

Ethan Brooks dared not cry, biting his lip hard, his heart aching, forcing himself to hold back the tears.

He lingered outside the old fishing boat for a long time.

He was more mature and sensible than other children his age, but in the end, he was still just a bewildered twelve-year-old boy. Faced with such a drastic change in his fate, he was helpless, lost, and confused.

It seemed his illness could never be cured, and he couldn't keep dragging his family down. Without the burden of his strange illness, the family's pressure would be much less.

It was time to go to Gusu County to find work and support himself. Maybe he could even earn some extra copper coins to send home and help ease his parents' burden.

If he fell ill... then he would just live or die on his own out there!

Ethan Brooks showed a look of determination.

He felt cold all over, almost stiff, and rubbed his hands and feet hard. He gently placed a fish basket full of fish and shrimp from the bamboo raft in front of the old fishing boat.

After thinking for a moment, he untied a small hemp money pouch from his waist, which held forty or fifty copper coins.

Every time Ethan Brooks caught a big fish at night and went to the county with the adult fishermen from Zhouzhuang to sell it, he would secretly keep one copper coin, just in case he shed blue stone tears and needed to buy ginseng medicine to save his life.

The small pouch of copper coins he had saved wasn't much, not enough to buy a ginseng root. With the New Year coming, he decided to leave these coins for his younger siblings to buy a couple of new clothes, so his parents would have a little less to worry about.

Ethan Brooks placed the small money pouch in front of the fishing boat as well.

All he had left in his arms was a small cloth bag with a dozen blue tear stones, and half a cold steamed bun from his dawn fishing trip. Other than that, he had nothing of value.

Ethan Brooks knelt on the cold, water-soaked bamboo raft and solemnly kowtowed three times toward the old fishing boat.

I'm leaving!

Father, mother, take care. Forgive your child for not being able to fulfill his filial duty at your side!