The little boy looked embarrassed when he heard this. He was already five years old but didn't even have a name. His older brother and sister called him "little brother" and Bao'er called him "three."

His stepmother addressed him very casually, sometimes calling him "Third Brother," sometimes "Third Boy," and most of the time calling him "Little Cripple."

"Little Cripple," that's what the village children all call him.

Because of this, he rarely went out to play with other children.

What do you want to do?

Gu An'an peeled the persimmon and took a bite.

It was indeed sweet but not bitter, and very delicious. No wonder she used it to pay for her oxcart fare.

"Do you have a name you like? I can't keep calling you Jiang Xiaosan."

It sounds rather strange when you shout it.

The little boy looked slightly shocked upon hearing this. "I'll get it myself?"

“You’re uneducated, so you probably can’t get it out anyway. How about this?” Gu An’an thought for a moment. It seemed that the ghost doctor in the book didn’t have a large penis.

He was known in the martial arts world as the Ghost Doctor, and those he treated respectfully called him the Third Young Master Ming.

However, the famous Ghost Doctor is actually a pitiful little guy who doesn't even have a name.

He could heal countless people, but who could heal his heart?

Fortunately, it's not too late.

Gu An'an thought for a moment and said with a smile, "How about you call yourself Mingxu?"

After quickly finishing the persimmon, Gu An'an wiped her hands on the little boy's arm, then took his hand and wrote the character "Xu" in his palm.

"Xu means warmth, and Mother hopes that the three of us will grow up to be warm-hearted men." Don't become some gloomy ghost doctor, making yourself neither human nor ghost and unable to see the light of day.

How wonderful it would be to be a kind little angel.

The little boy hesitated slightly upon hearing this, "Is this character pronounced 'xu'?"

He looked at his palm, repeating the word his stepmother had just written over and over in his mind.

Every stroke is so clear.

"Yes, from now on your name will be Mingxu."

Gu An'an wrote those three words down again from beginning to end. "Did you remember them?"

Jiang Mingxu remembered it, but he shook his head with a slight hesitation, "No."

Given this woman's temper, she would definitely be very angry to hear this, and might even slap herself, right?

However, to Jiang Mingxu's surprise, Gu An'an rewrote it very seriously. "Then Mother will write slowly this time, and Mingxu will watch carefully. Do you understand it this time?"

Jiang Mingxu shook his head again; he wanted to see how much patience this woman had.

The journey from Jiangjia Village to the county seat is nearly twenty li (approximately 10 kilometers), a long and arduous one, and the oxcart doesn't travel very fast.

Gu An'an taught her three sons to write their names again and again. She was so patient that even the villagers who were riding in the oxcart with her to the county town couldn't bear to watch anymore.

"Hey girl, you've taught this kid hundreds of times and he still doesn't get it. Is he stupid?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Mingxu frowned, looking at the woman who had called him a fool, and hesitated to speak.

Gu An'an, who was standing to the side, looked down when she heard this. What kind of talk was that?

"Big sister, you look pretty smart. Here's what we'll do: if I teach you twice and you can write this character, I'll give you this whole basket of persimmons."

She carried two bamboo baskets with her on her back this time; one basket contained persimmons, and the other contained rose hips.

The basket was half full of persimmons; at market price, they should fetch at least a hundred or so coins.

The speaker's eyes widened immediately. "Really?"

"Everyone's listening, would I lie?"

There were a few people on the oxcart who looked over when they heard this, and most of them were a little envious—Liu Ergou's family was so lucky to get so many persimmons for free.

However, Liu Ergou's family was stunned when they saw the words written on their palms. "What are these words? They're not the ones from before."

"Who said I was going to ask you to write that? Ma'am, my son is only five years old, and you're twenty-five, right? How can you be so shameless as to recognize the same character? Besides, you've heard it hundreds of times and still can't learn to write it. Are you an idiot?"

Gu An'an retorted to what she had just said about Jiang Mingxu.

These words made Jiang Mingxu unable to help but look up at Gu An'an—

My mother seems to have really changed.

Even so, don't expect him to forgive her so easily!

Everyone else on the oxcart laughed and made fun of Liu Ergou's family.

This made the woman lose face, and her gaze towards Gu An'an was filled with resentment.

Gu An'an held the entrenching tool in her right hand and looked at the angry woman with a smile. Soon, her anger turned into resentment, and she went to discuss the matter with the others.

"You think you're so tough? You think you can be afraid of me?" Gu An'an relaxed, looking at Jiang Mingxu with a gentle, warm smile. "Mingxu, do you remember your name?"

Jiang Mingxu nodded reluctantly. He had memorized it the first time, but he just wanted to know whether what the woman said was true or false.

It seems I didn't lie to him.

Gu An'an had no idea that this child, who was not even five years old, was actually quite precocious.

She finally breathed a sigh of relief, "Okay, let's learn the names of the older brother, older sister, and younger sister now."

Jiang Mingxu learned it in no time; it's just one character different from his name.

How could he not know how?

It took dozens of lessons to teach him to write his own name, but his siblings learned it in one go. Gu An'an was so moved that she almost burst into tears. She hugged Jiang Mingxu and gave him a big kiss, "My good boy, you must be the legendary genius, right?"

Jiang Mingxu felt very uncomfortable with this intimate gesture. He tried to push Gu An'an away, but how could a skinny man like him possibly move her? He could only let Gu An'an do whatever she wanted on his face.

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