Lao Hong

Lao Hong is a Chinese boy about fifteen years old who is living in a village in the Tianquan district of China in the sixteenth century. He is an outspoken boy, known for his defiance to authority and independent personality. He has a reputation s an excellent trainer of fighting crickets and he cares for his crickets with great attention.

Hong is the third son in his family, and so sometimes called Three Brother. His mother, an educated woman, has died and he lives with his brother, Lao Chen, and his father, Lao Lu, in a small village house. Although once comfortable, he and his father and brother now live in near poverty because of his father's drinking and gambling since the death of his wife.

Hong is fiercely loyal to his older brother, Chen, and to his dead mother. He has promised his mother to help...