His accent was strange and his speech was slurred. The two children didn’t understand him, but didn’t care at all. The younger one immediately pounced, hugging his neck and rubbing against him, saying, “Third Brother, you’re awake…” The older one no longer looked so bitter and sorrowful; while wiping away tears, he smiled and said in a muffled voice, “Third Brother, you really scared us.”

The one lying down, though he also found it hard to understand, could still make sense of the simple sentences. He stared wide-eyed and said, “You… you two, what did you call me?” As he spoke, he slowly raised his hand and pushed away the little child rubbing against his cheek, saying, “Little one, you should use a handkerchief to wipe your nose, not uncle’s face…”

Before he could finish, he froze, because as he lifted his hand, he saw a wrist as thin as a reed. Horrified, he looked down along the wrist—wrist connected to forearm, forearm to upper arm, then to his body…

What the hell, how could this be an adult’s arm? Could it be that after falling into the water, a water ghost had eaten him down to the bone? The horror spread through his whole body. He reached up to touch his chin—smooth as an egg. Further down, there was no Adam’s apple. Further still, his little bird was hairless… Now he was completely stunned.

The two children were also dumbfounded, watching him lying there, touching himself as if possessed, not daring to breathe. Then, seeing him struggle to get up, the older child hurried over to help. After all, they were young and didn’t know what to say, just stared at him in a daze.

“Don’t just stand there staring. Is there a mirror? Let me have a look too.” He glanced at the honest-looking child with a bald crown and two short braids on either side of his head, and actually felt a bit of affection.

“Does Third Brother want a bronze mirror?” The child guessed, and seeing him nod, said gloomily, “The madam surely won’t allow it…”

“All right, all right…” He didn’t bother arguing with the little brats, and slowly lay back down, saying, “Go get an adult, that madam or whoever…”

“Must we?” The child hesitated, clearly a bit afraid of that madam.

He didn’t insist now. At least the child was speaking properly; maybe that was just his natural accent. He quickly calmed down… The situation was just too bizarre. Before figuring things out, it was best not to make a fuss: “Forget it, let me rest for a while.”

The two children obediently shut their mouths and squatted quietly by the bed, giving him some peace.

※※※

Once it was quiet, he began to sort out his thoughts… He had been exercising by the river in the morning, when a van lost control and plunged into the water. For some reason, without thinking, he jumped in after it. He couldn’t even remember how many people he’d saved; in the end, he was exhausted, swallowed water, sank, and then lost consciousness.

How did he wake up and turn from ‘The Bolton Family’ back into a kid not even through puberty? What was going on? It made no sense! The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt, the pain growing sharper, as if it would split open! When the pain reached its peak, there was a loud bang, as if his skull really had cracked open, and a flood of memories that clearly didn’t belong to him surged in from all directions. His vision went black, and he fainted again.

When he came to again, it was already dark, and the hut was pitch black. But he didn’t care, since the darkness could hide the terror and confusion on his face… In his mind, there was now a set of memories belonging to a ten-year-old child from ancient times.

In those memories, the child’s surname was Brooks, father but no mother, four brothers… The two in front of him were his younger brothers, the older called Robert, the younger called Henry. The reason it sounded confusing was that, in this era, cousins were counted together in the family ranking. His father and his father’s brother had six sons between them, ranked from oldest to youngest.

He was called Charles, and had an older biological brother, Edward Brooks, who had started studying in the county town last year. As for the child’s father, Edward Brooks, he was a scholar, and since it was a year of major exams, he was traveling around with his peers, leaving this child and his two younger brothers at home…

Clearly, this hut was not the home of Edward Brooks. Edward Brooks’s house was in the village, with a spacious courtyard. Strictly speaking, it was the shared home of William Brooks and Edward Brooks. Though the two brothers had both married and had children, and both their parents had passed away in recent years, they had never divided the family.

The The Brooks Family had made their fortune by making bamboo charcoal, owning the largest charcoal kiln in Shiwang Village. Though not truly wealthy, the family had a pair of rough servant girls, and the factory employed more than a dozen workers—already the top household in Shiwang Village.

But why were Edward Brooks’s three children living in a hut at the charcoal yard?

A ten-year-old’s mind was simple; he only knew that once his father left, the three brothers were driven here by the madam. The older two, Charles and Robert, had to work every day… Making charcoal required a lot of water. There used to be a waterwheel at the yard, but it broke in the spring, and the madam didn’t get anyone to fix it, just made the two brothers fetch water together. Only if they hauled enough water each day would the three of them get dinner.

Even if a ten-year-old used all his strength, he couldn’t fetch enough water. Luckily, the workers took pity on the brothers and would help out when they could, so the three boys could eat.

Even with help, and even if each load was only a third full, for two kids around ten years old, it was still overwork and overtime. From the time the waterwheel broke to now, more than a month had passed, and the brothers had been living like this the whole time. No wonder Robert Brooks always looked so bitter and miserable…