A Poor Scholar's Rise to Nobility

In the winter of the tenth year of Zhenguan, a blizzard ravaged Qinzhou. Twelve-year-old Song Ziming crouched beneath the window of the clan school, secretly listening in. He fainted from hunger and was rescued by the teacher. That night, while making a charcoal brazier for his sick mother, he nearly succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning, but unexpectedly discovered a method for refining coal. The clan elders condemned his “base trade for sullying the sages' books.” He smashed a piece of coal and swore, “These hands can craft devices, and they can hold a vermilion brush!”