His thoughts unknowingly became calm and delicate, no longer as impatient and reckless as before...

　　...

　　...

　　After the start of autumn, the mornings were a bit chilly. Henry Foster put on a thin robe and pushed open the door, taking the Black Cloud Bow and following the sounds of the household soldiers training as he walked through the west wing courtyard.

　　On the west side of the courtyard, a clearing of three or four mu had been leveled and rolled with a stone roller.

　　This was the training ground where the manor’s household soldiers usually practiced martial arts. Weapon racks lined the edge of the field, holding spears, staffs, halberds, longbows, and other weapons, along with several stone locks for strength training.

　　On the north and south sides of the training ground stood two more courtyards, which, together with the east courtyard where Henry Foster lived, formed the Qiuhu Mountain Villa.

　　The east courtyard was the most refined, with twenty or thirty rooms serving as the master’s quarters and the living spaces for personal maids, but at night, only Henry Foster stayed there.

　　The north courtyard was the largest, with fifty or sixty houses. It was where the household soldiers and their families lived, as well as the kitchens, stables, and other auxiliary buildings. However, all were quite simple, just thatched huts with earthen walls.

　　According to Chu law, these household soldiers were attached to his father David Foster, and their families were also registered under the Han family, serving as servants.

　　The south courtyard had only five inverted rooms and served as the entrance to the villa, blocking the mouth of the valley leading in and out. Usually, household soldiers guarded it.

　　Although Qiuhu Mountain Villa was only thirty to forty li from the capital city of Jinling, these days bandits were rampant, and even the area near Jinling was not peaceful. The manor houses and estates near the villa were often raided by bandits, so one had to be constantly on guard.

　　At this time, Charles Grant was arranging for people to build protective walls, intending to enclose the entire villa. However, the project was quite large and there were few available hands. For now, only a yellow earth wall had been built along the southern edge of the training ground by the south courtyard, to guard against large groups of bandits breaking in from outside the valley.

　　Although this place was called a villa, it was actually located in a mountain valley on the southern slope of Baohua Mountain.

　　To the west of the training ground, a stream flowed down from the mountains, flanked by bamboo and trees, with piles of rocks dividing the valley into two parts. The eastern side was the villa, while the western side was more open, with three or four hundred mu of cultivated fields. These fields, as well as the hills behind the villa, also belonged to the estate, with scattered thatched huts for tenant farmers who depended on the villa.

　　The stream passed through the earthen wall of the south courtyard, then dropped rapidly in elevation, and two or three li away, it emptied into a vast misty lake, stretching thirteen or fourteen li across as seen from afar.

　　This large lake was Chishan Lake, southeast of Jinling City, gathering streams from the southern slope of Baohua Mountain. A waterway led northwest, entering the Qiupu River at the southwest corner of Jinling City, passing through the water gate into the city, and finally flowing from the north city water gate into the Yangtze River...

　　Standing at the edge of the training ground, Henry Foster looked over the low wall of rammed yellow earth and could see many boats moored on Chishan Lake. A few brightly painted pleasure boats were especially eye-catching. He wondered if Yvonne Bailey, the courtesan of Wan Hong Lou, might be hiding on one of those boats, waiting for another chance to strike at him.

Chapter Five: Household Soldiers

　　By the stream bank at the training ground, elms and willows grew together, and several strong horses were tethered there.

　　Henry Foster walked straight toward those horses.

　　Perhaps it was the first time in days that the young master Henry Foster had come to the training ground with a bow. The household soldiers and their sons, who were practicing martial arts on the field, all stopped in surprise and looked toward Charles Grant, who was sitting on a bench at the edge of the field, basking in the sun.

　　Charles Grant didn’t know what the young master Henry Foster intended, so he craned his neck to look toward the east courtyard, as if wanting to call over the ugly maid Qingyun to ask if the young master had taken the wrong medicine today.

　　Henry Foster didn’t know which of these household soldiers might be secretly colluding with Yvonne Bailey, so he could only remind himself to stay calm and composed. Without showing any emotion, he walked toward a spirited horse with a purple mane, put the Black Cloud Bow into the bow case, untied the reins, and prepared to mount.

　　Henry Foster had been able to draw a two-stone strong bow since the age of twelve. After wasting six years, he didn’t think that suddenly repenting now would give him a chance to become an invincible general of his time, but when great changes came to the Han family in the future, he couldn’t count on the household soldiers to protect him loyally. At this point, he had to practice riding and archery hard, so that he could escape on his own if necessary.

　　“Young master, you’ve just recovered from a cold and your body is still weak. If you fall off the horse, this old servant can’t bear the responsibility. Besides, the master wants you to settle down and study at home. This is not the time for sightseeing.”

　　Charles Grant came over, his veined hand grabbing the reins, his gaze sharp as he stared at Henry Foster, signaling him to get off the horse.

　　Charles Grant had originally been a soldier in the Chu Prefecture army. His wife and daughter were separated from him during the war, and afterward he followed David Foster. Now, under David Foster’s orders, he stayed at the villa to supervise Henry Foster’s studies, and could be considered the current head of Qiuhu Mountain Villa.

　　In the past, Charles Grant had been “Old Dog Fan” or “the Nail” in Henry Foster’s eyes, and there had been many unpleasant incidents between them.

　　Thinking of how he might be betrayed by these household soldiers in the future, Henry Foster grew angry and instinctively raised his riding whip, about to strike Charles Grant across the face. But a thought flashed through his mind—would this really solve the problem? If it were the person from his dream, Simon Blake, in this situation, what would he do?

　　Henry Foster forcibly suppressed his anger, staring at Charles Grant, thinking that regardless of whether Charles Grant would be reliable in the future, right now he was only following his father David Foster’s “orders”; and the previous night, it was also Charles Grant who had led people to drive away Yvonne Bailey, so it was unlikely that Charles Grant was the inside man.