When the boatmen steered the boat into the makeshift dock, it was noon. The eager boatmen insisted on escorting the children home—truthfully, they just wanted to see the legendary Brooks Hollow. Henry Clark was lost in thought and didn’t object, while the children, innocent and carefree, skipped ahead, leading the boatmen up the mountain path.

Crossing over the ridge, under the intense midday sun, they saw on the opposite slope rows of brand-new brick houses stretching from halfway up the mountain down into the valley. The boatmen all gasped in unison, and this sound startled Henry Clark awake. He kept signaling to the children with his eyes, and they quickly caught on, quietly surrounding the boatmen.

“Tsk tsk tsk, what... what a grand set of houses... Ah, even the county magistrate’s residence isn’t as fine as this.” Master Cole stood on the ridge, sighing in admiration, but suddenly realized something was amiss.

During the Song Dynasty, transportation was not well developed, and common folk followed the idea that “the sounds of chickens and dogs can be heard from neighboring villages, but people live and die without ever meeting.” Many people never left their own small villages for their entire lives. Although the boatmen traveled far and wide, they had never seen an entire village of brick houses like this. Even more unexpected was that such a prosperous village was hidden away in this remote, impoverished mountain valley.

Brooks Hollow still had to remain hidden for now, because if they registered, the prefecture would send a local gentryman to manage them. Only if someone from Brooks Hollow became a scholar-official and registered with the authorities would it be worthwhile to come under official governance. At the same time, Henry Clark didn’t want Brooks Hollow to be discovered too soon, because he still didn’t have a suitable identity.

After Master Cole finished sighing, he saw that Henry Clark was already looking at him with a fierce glint in his eyes. Having traveled all over, Master Cole was skilled at reading people, and immediately tried to get closer: “This old man is Eli Howard. That neighbor... ah, once said the teacher of Brooks Hollow knows everything about astronomy and geography—look at how that boat is built, so steady!... Do you need boatmen? I’ve been piloting boats for twenty years and am looking for a place to settle down.”

In fact, Master Cole wasn’t that old, but years of wind and rain had made him look elderly.

Still, compared to the young Henry Clark, he was qualified to call himself an old man.

Henry Clark stared at him for a while, then suddenly beckoned to Ethan Brooks, instructing, “Take them to see your father.”

With that, he gestured for Master Cole to go ahead.

This was a gesture of escorting a prisoner, but Master Cole had no way to refuse.

Entering Brooks Hollow, Henry Clark seemed to forget about the boatmen and walked straight home. Ethan Brooks hesitated for a moment, then realized what was happening and led the boatmen toward the ancestral hall.

In the mountains, house doors were generally left unlocked, because everyone in the village shared the same surname and there were no thefts. In this environment, Henry Clark never locked his door either. But he remembered closing the main gate tightly before leaving, and now it stood wide open, with the sound of sweeping coming from inside the yard. Surprised, he stopped in his tracks, listened for a moment, and, puzzled, walked into the courtyard. There, he saw Julie Brooks sweating as she swept the ground.

They were from the same village, so of course he had seen Julie Brooks before. It was said that this girl was the prettiest unmarried woman in the village. Because she was to marry a city man, Brooks the Seventh had raised her from a young age to learn the manners of city folk. Thus, among a group of rustic village girls, Julie Brooks appeared especially gentle and refined.

Brooks the Seventh had no sons, so his position in the village was awkward. According to Song Dynasty law, his land would be shared by Julie Brooks and his nephew. But since Julie Brooks was to marry into the city, the village land was of no use to him, so Brooks the Seventh had long ago handed it over to his nephew to manage, and he and his daughter lived off the portion of rent the nephew paid. He even had to save from this small sum to prepare a dowry for his daughter, so life was rather tight.

When the whole village was being rebuilt with brick houses, Brooks the Seventh couldn’t afford to keep up. It was Henry Clark who couldn’t bear to see this and instructed Ethan Brooks to lead his classmates in helping Brooks the Seventh rebuild—this act alarmed the clan leader Adam Brooks.

For Adam Brooks, it was shameful that his own clansman needed the pity of outsiders. Moreover, his own son was still young, and Adam Brooks hoped the boy would study and pass the exams, so he was unwilling to let him do heavy labor. Thus, at Adam Brooks’s command, all the able-bodied men in the village turned out to help Brooks the Seventh complete the new house.

It was during that house renovation that Henry Clark had a few encounters with Julie Brooks. Although in the end the labor came from the clan and the credit went to the clan leader, without Henry Clark as the catalyst, there would have been no new house. To show her gratitude, Julie Brooks made several pairs of new shoes for Henry Clark.

Henry Clark didn’t care much for those handmade cloth shoes; his only impression was that the stitching on the soles was very even. Considering Brooks the Seventh’s poverty, those few pairs of shoes might have cost the girl part of her dowry, so Henry Clark’s return gift was generous. For this, Brooks the Seventh personally came to thank him several times. Through these exchanges, they got to know each other.

Julie Brooks was a quiet girl, and since she was engaged, all their interactions were polite and proper. It was from Brooks the Seventh that Henry Clark learned that, surprisingly, women in the Song Dynasty also had inheritance rights and could participate in the division of their father’s property.

Song Dynasty women were divided into unmarried daughters, married daughters, and daughters who returned to their natal family. Unmarried daughters referred to women who had not yet married, and in terms of inheritance, they had equal rights with male heirs. Daughters who returned to their natal family were widows who came back after their husband’s death; their inheritance rights were slightly less than those of unmarried daughters. Married daughters had even fewer rights, almost none at all.