In the charcoal yard, the hired workers had just gotten up. For the past two days, there had been no crowing of the big rooster to wake them, nor the noisy nagging of the old shrew, so naturally, they were happy to be lazy. At this moment, they were eating and chatting idly. Unsurprisingly, the topic was the tragic family incident from the other day.

Some said, “Seeing how badly ‘Mother Tiger’ was hurt, with her never-suffer-a-loss temper, she’ll definitely report it to the authorities. Things are going to get lively at The Brooks Family now.” The Chinese love giving nicknames; it’s a tradition passed down from the Song Dynasty.

“Report it? Everyone says family scandals shouldn’t be aired in public. Is she really so proud of herself?” The man whom Robert Black called Uncle Reed said angrily, “Forcing the children like that—are there any aunts like her in the world?”

“Alas, poor Charles, such a clever and sensible child. If he hadn’t been pushed to the brink, would he have done such a thing?”

“That child has guts.” Lewis Monk expressed his admiration, “Seeing both his younger brothers collapsed on the ground, not knowing if they were alive or dead—who wouldn’t go mad? If Mother Tiger really sues him, I’ll have to speak a few words of fairness.”

“Count me in, count me in,” several echoed with Uncle Reed. “That wicked woman, Mother Tiger, really needs to be taught a lesson!”

As everyone was talking animatedly, someone suddenly saw Stephen Brooks coming in. They quickly stopped talking and stood up to greet him, “Edward Brooks is here.”

“Everyone, Stephen greets you.” Stephen Brooks cupped his fists to the group and said, “You can probably guess why I’ve come. I heard that incident happened here. I just want to know what really happened that day… You don’t need to cover for my family’s Charles, I just want the truth!”

His eyes, usually calm and reserved, now shot out like arrows, piercing straight into everyone’s hearts, making them feel as if any lie would be instantly seen through. They couldn’t help but think to themselves, ‘Is this really the same honest and easily bullied Edward Brooks from before?’

A gentleman’s brilliance is hidden within; he neither bullies nor is bullied, yet is seen as easy to take advantage of by fools. Is this what is meant by ‘a gentleman can be deceived by his uprightness’?

It was also because Holt had offended everyone over the years that the workers had no hesitation. They led Stephen Brooks to the shed by the yard.

“When we saw it, your eldest sister-in-law was already on the ground, being kicked hard by your family’s Charles.” The group all started talking at once to Stephen Brooks: “We shouted for him to stop, but he jumped up, pressed his knee onto your sister-in-law, and knocked her out cold…”

“Charles, why would he… commit violence?” Stephen Brooks asked grimly.

“Probably for the sake of Robert and Henry.” They replied, “When we got there, Robert and Henry were both passed out on the ground. Later, after pinching their philtrum and splashing cold water, we finally woke the two children.”

“How did they end up here?” Stephen Brooks asked.

“Because they’ve been living here.” Old Reed pointed to the shed, “It’s been over forty days now. The day before the incident, I came to check on them. Living here is just… too pitiful.”

“What?” Stephen Brooks strode in disbelief to the shed, pushed open the door, and saw that even though it was broad daylight, it was dark and damp inside. Apart from a bamboo bed and a few broken bowls and chopsticks, there was nothing else.

Seeing a tiny child’s shoe on the ground, Stephen Brooks bent down to pick it up and examined it closely. He realized it was the very pair he had bought for Little Henry at Wang Qiaopo’s shoe shop in Qingshen County during the New Year.

The reason he had to look so closely wasn’t because his memory was poor, but because this once finely made, brightly colored tiger-head shoe was now full of holes, the sole nearly falling off, and the color long gone… The tears he had been holding back finally fell.

Stephen Brooks gripped the little shoe tightly, his voice chilling: “How could they be living here? Why aren’t they at home?!”

“We asked your sister-in-law. She said the three children made a mistake and were being punished.”

“What kind of mistake deserves forty days of punishment?” Rage surged in Stephen Brooks’s chest; he had to fight hard to control the urge to burn the place down.

“We don’t know. Anyway, from that day on, Charles and Robert had to fetch water every day—only if they brought enough for the kiln could they eat. Their food was the same as ours: either rice bran cakes or coarse wheat buns. Even so, they often went hungry.”

“That’s right. Two days before the incident, Charles accidentally fell into the water while fetching it, and was sick the next day. Your sister-in-law refused to give them food. Early that morning, she started yelling about a missing chicken, then came here to look for it. We didn’t follow. When we heard her scream, we rushed over and saw what we just described.” They paused, “But there really was a chicken leg on the ground, so it probably wasn’t your sister-in-law framing them…”

Stephen Brooks listened to everything with a cold expression. After a long silence, he took a deep breath and said, “Brothers, is everything you just said really true?”

“Of course it’s true. There are so many of us.” They nodded. “How could we all make up a lie together?”

“In that case, may I write a statement and ask you all to sign it?”

“No problem.” They agreed without hesitation. In the eyes of Song people, taking responsibility for one’s words was only natural.