The ox cart climbed up the slope, Henry Clark running behind it. The old ox had truly done a good job today and shouldn’t be treated poorly. When they returned to their spot, George Wright immediately darted out, picked up his daughter from the cart, and examined her carefully. Seeing that she didn’t seem to be coughing much anymore, he joyfully hugged and kissed the child repeatedly. Henry Clark stood by, watching with a beaming smile, feeling very content himself.

He unloaded the satchel from the cart, poured out half of the copper coins inside, put them in his own money pouch, and handed it to George Wright. Patting his chest, he said, “If you want to buy anything in the future, just make a triangle mark on this big stone, and I’ll come over. As agreed, I need a little benefit too—I have to support my younger brother.”

After saying this, he stuffed the little girl’s medicine into George Wright’s arms, repeated the doctor’s instructions, then drove the ox cart toward the construction site. From afar, he heard George Wright shout loudly, “I’ll come to you again next time.”

Henry Clark returned to the worksite with a face full of smiles. The women helping in the kitchen had been eagerly waiting. When they finally saw Henry Clark return, they quickly came over to help. They noticed there was much more brown rice today, and after hearing Henry Clark’s explanation, they were even happier. Country folk aren’t that particular—so what if there are a few more stones in the brown rice? Once the meal is cooked, they can just pick them out. Each of the three of them could get a whole dou of polished rice.

The pig liver was to be saved for Clark the Second to supplement vitamins, otherwise the child might develop night blindness. The pig intestines, heart, and kidneys were to be served in the evening when the old clan leader and the villagers who had helped him would come over for a drink. As for the pig lungs, they were reserved for Clark the Third. Poor Clark the Third had never seen any meat since following his two brothers.

He found a big pot and put everything in to cook together. There were plenty of spices in the mountains—wild Sichuan peppercorns and dogwood everywhere, and cinnamon bark was not lacking either. The only regret was not being able to find star anise. He smashed two large pieces of ginger and threw them in, then left it alone. Mountain folk could be fooled with just a handful of salt—this was already quite fancy.

Henry Clark sat alone by the stove, cooking his family’s meat, feeling extremely satisfied. This was his happiest day since coming to the Song Dynasty. He had saved a child, earned some money, and gotten so much meat—a great day.

Chief Foster arrived, looking quite pleased. Seeing Henry Clark alone by the stove, cooking with delicious aromas wafting out, he curiously lifted the lid, laughed, found a stick, poked at the top half of a pig kidney, saw it was cooked, skewered it and ate it. It was so hot he kept exclaiming, but after finishing the kidney, he sat by the stove, leaned against the warm oven, and rummaged in his coat for a long time before pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. He said to Henry Clark, “You talked big yesterday, so I just listened. Today, the old registrar came up with a tough question. If you can answer it, I’ll take care of your exam sponsorship. If not, here’s three strings of cash for you to live on.”

With that, he handed the paper to Henry Clark. Henry Clark glanced at it and said to Chief Foster, “Foster, next time bring a harder question. I’ve already solved this one.

A rooster costs five, a hen costs three, and three chicks cost one. With a hundred coins, buy a hundred chickens. How many roosters, hens, and chicks are there? Is this the question? There are three solutions: first, four roosters, eighteen hens, seventy-eight chicks; second, eight roosters, eleven hens, eighty-one chicks; third, twelve roosters, four hens, eighty-four chicks.”

Worried that Chief Foster wouldn’t remember, he went back to his shabby desk, wrote down the three sets of numbers, and handed them to Chief Foster. Then he fished out a piece of intestine from the pot, cut off a bit with his small knife, tasted it, and, perhaps because he hadn’t eaten meat in a long time, found it delicious. He couldn’t help but fish out another piece to eat.

Chief Foster kept exclaiming with his mouth full. After Henry Clark finished the pig intestine, he turned and explained to Chief Foster, “Don’t use questions my mentor has already given me. Find something harder. But honestly, there probably aren’t any tough questions left in our Dousha County.”

“You know the answer?” Chief Foster was finally not so surprised. If he’d known in advance, it wasn’t so strange.

“Don’t get too happy yet. There probably aren’t many questions in Dousha County that I haven’t seen. You’ll have to work hard to find a tough one. If you can’t, ask the county magistrate to help you. If our county produces a prodigy, it’ll bring honor to the magistrate too. A reputation for mentoring talent and educating the region is something he can’t escape.”

Chewing on pig intestine, Chief Foster nodded repeatedly and said to Henry Clark, “I’ll take your answers to the old registrar for review. He’s considered the top scholar in our Dousha County—after the magistrate, it’s him. But seeing how calm you are, your answers are probably right. Also, I have good news for you. The method you suggested for building the pond—the magistrate agreed. He even pointed at Dousha Pass and said the soldiers there are all useless, not as sharp as a single constable from our county. To tell you the truth, the magistrate praised your old brother a lot. I didn’t say it was your idea—I said I thought of it. Don’t let it slip in the future, or others will laugh at me.”