Henry Thompson loves dumplings with pork and cabbage filling the most. He already has the pork, but not the cabbage yet. He remembers that cabbage seems to be a hybrid of two vegetables, so maybe he can try to work on that in the future. Henry Thompson plans to make dumplings with pork and radish filling, because in winter, radish is the only available vegetable. As for using bean sprouts as filling, first, he’s never actually tried it, and second, bean sprouts are too expensive. The situation in the village has only just improved, so it’s better to keep the bean sprouts for sale.

He mixes the filling, rolls out the dough, and wraps the dumplings. Once the water boils, he puts the dumplings in, and after a few boils, they’re cooked. In Henry Thompson’s hometown, people like to eat dumplings with soup. At this point, he adds salt, vinegar, and chopped scallions to the soup. If there’s cilantro, that’s even better. Once the soup is seasoned, he fills a bowl to the brim for himself, eats a dumpling, drinks a sip of the sour soup—the original soup helps digest the original food—no matter how much he eats, he never gets tired of it.

After two big bowls of dumplings, Henry Thompson feels a bit stuffed. By now, it’s already dusk, so he goes out for a walk along the small river. Across the way, smoke curls up from the chimneys of the Li family’s village, with every household cooking dinner. The air carries a faint aroma of meat, and if you listen carefully, you can even hear the laughter and shouts of children. This gives Henry Thompson a gentle sense of happiness in his heart.

Unconsciously, he arrives at the edge of the Huang Canal, where a tall, imposing middle-aged man carrying fishing gear comes walking toward him from the riverbank. This middle-aged man is the same Mr. Ma who once brought Henry Thompson roast chicken. However, the man doesn’t seem to have a good impression of Henry Thompson; when he sees him, he just snorts coldly and walks away. This makes Henry Thompson smile helplessly—looks like he really did offend the man last time.

Running into this Mr. Ma reminds Henry Thompson that he’s been so busy with the bean sprout business these past two weeks that he actually forgot to ask William Foster Sr. and the others about the man’s background. From what the man revealed before, he should be a military officer of the Tang Dynasty, and being able to eat at the same table as Li Jing means his rank isn’t low. But Henry Thompson really can’t recall any famous general surnamed Ma from the early Tang period.

Thinking of this, Henry Thompson originally wanted to go to William Foster Sr.’s house to ask, but it’s dinnertime now. If he goes, he’ll probably be dragged into staying for dinner, so he decides to wait until tomorrow to ask.

But what Henry Thompson never expected was that early the next morning, before he even got out of bed, he was suddenly awakened by a rapid knocking at the door. When he hurriedly put on his clothes and went out, he heard Grace screaming desperately outside the gate: “Master, open the door quickly! My father and the others are in trouble!”

Chapter 9: The General Who Calls Himself a Family Servant

In the courtyard, William Foster Sr. and the others, who should have been in the city selling vegetables, were lying all over the ground, faces twisted in pain, occasionally letting out a few groans. Some even had blood on their heads, crudely bandaged with strips of cloth, looking even more miserable. The women and children of each family were also gathered here, quietly wiping away tears.

“Uncle Foster, what on earth happened?” Henry Thompson ran into the courtyard, immediately squatting down in front of William Foster Sr. and asking. Earlier, Grace had run to him crying, but couldn’t explain what had happened, only saying that William Foster Sr. and the others were hurt. This made Henry Thompson extremely anxious, so much so that he ran over without even properly dressing.

Among these people, William Foster Sr. was the most seriously injured—not only was his head bleeding, but his cheek was also badly swollen, with a clear handprint on it, obviously from being struck. This made Henry Thompson angry, but having lived two lives, he could already control his emotions. The most important thing now was to figure out what happened, and then decide what to do.

“Master, disaster has struck. Someone has set their sights on our bean sprouts!” William Foster Sr. said bitterly at this point. He didn’t care much about being beaten; the key was that just as the village was starting to look up, someone wanted to take away their lifeline. That was what made him feel so bitter.

Hearing this, Henry Thompson was shocked. The thing he feared most had finally happened. He hadn’t expected that such a small thing as bean sprouts could bring him several strings of cash every day—and that was only because of limited productivity and supply. If they could produce more, they’d earn even more. With such huge profits, he’d always worried that someone would get greedy. After all, in any era, there are always scoundrels who use power or violence to seize what they want. Now, he’d finally encountered them.

“What exactly happened? Who are these people? Uncle Foster, tell me everything in detail!” Henry Thompson asked again after a moment of silence, his voice tinged with suppressed anger. He had only wanted to be a peaceful little landlord—why did someone have to come and provoke him?

At that, William Foster Sr. recounted what had happened. The whole process was actually very simple and rather clichéd. Every day, they would get up before dawn, push the freshly sprouted bean sprouts to the gates of Chang’an, and once the gates opened, enter the market to sell them. But today, before they even entered the city, they were stopped on the road not far from the gate by a group of people, who then forced them to reveal how they grew the bean sprouts.