The room wasn’t big; after placing a bed, there was only enough space left for a table and two stools.

Grace stood by the bed, struggling to move a stool, and slowly climbed up onto it.

She leaned over the table to grab a strip of cloth, then turned around and saw her smiling brother.

“Brother, do my hair. It has to be pretty.”

“Alright!”

Ethan Sullivan carried her outside, and while cooking, took time to do her hair.

By the time the aroma of fish porridge had the neighboring tenants sniffing the air, Ethan Sullivan had finished tying two little buns in Grace’s hair.

Ethan Sullivan leaned back slightly and exaggeratedly praised, “How is my Grace so beautiful!”

Grace lifted her chin and said, “Beautiful!”

After breakfast, the siblings wandered around the city for quite a while.

As night gradually fell, Ethan Sullivan’s stall opened for business.

The potstickers in the pan slowly turned golden brown, and Grace sat in the back, watching the bustling scene.

The vendors were shouting, all kinds of delicacies gathered together, making it feel like a glutton’s paradise.

There were so many people that Ethan Sullivan even saw an official with his attendants eating along the way.

“Potstickers are ready!”

Ethan Sullivan lifted the lid, and steam billowed out. The customers who had been waiting for a long time all started scrambling for them.

“I’ll take them all!”

“Get lost!”

“Give me five!”

Ethan Sullivan was overwhelmed with work, while the vendor selling noodle soup nearby was so jealous he could hardly stand it. Ethan Sullivan glanced over and said, “You’re close by, and with all these people, your business will get better too.”

The vendor forced a laugh, but didn’t really believe it.

When his business did start to pick up, Ethan Sullivan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

A tree that stands out in the forest is sure to be blown down by the wind.

His potsticker business was booming, almost to the point of dominating the market.

Good business is, of course, a good thing, but Bianliang was still a strange place for him and his sister.

He couldn’t afford to get carried away!

Ethan Sullivan made more than ten batches of potstickers, then shook out his bag again, signaling that business was done for the night.

As usual, the customers grumbled, then prepared to leave.

“If you’re out here doing business, how can you just stop like this!”

Three ruffians pushed their way through the crowd. The leader, with a fake smile, said, “This food is good, but Bianliang is too big. How can you handle it all by yourself? How do you make this stuff? Tell me, I’ll pay to learn!”

This was Ethan Sullivan’s first time facing the criminal element in Bianliang. He stared at the three of them in a daze.

It was only early spring, and still cold, but the three ruffians had their chests bare, as if they had little furnaces inside them.

“Such good health.”

Ethan Sullivan sincerely admired them.

A gust of wind blew by, and one of the ruffians turned pale and couldn’t help sneezing.

That sneeze deflated most of their bravado.

Under everyone’s gaze, the ruffian leader snarled, “You have three days, or you’ll have no place in Bianliang.”

Ethan Sullivan put on a frightened face and said, “Why not learn right now?”

The ruffian leader waved his hand without looking back. “I keep my word!”

With a chorus of sighs, the customers all dispersed.

The vendor selling noodle soup nearby, whether out of sympathy or schadenfreude, squeezed out a bit of concern and said, “There are a lot of ruffians in Bianliang. These are the worst—they love to follow people home and threaten them every day.”

He glanced at the well-behaved Grace in the back and said, “Be careful!”

“Thank you.”

Ethan Sullivan still packed up his stall as usual, carrying the stall on one end of his pole and his sister on the other as they headed home.

Back home, he boiled water to wash their faces and feet. Grace yawned all the way, but before going to sleep, she still remembered to say, “Brother, they were so fierce.”

Ethan Sullivan tucked her in. “They’re just bluffing. In a few days, they won’t be fierce anymore.”

He got into bed, pulled up the covers, and let out a contented sigh.

……

“Brother!”

After breakfast the next day, Ethan Sullivan said he’d take Grace out shopping.

An eager Grace, bundled up in thick clothes, stood by the door shouting.

“Coming!”

Ethan Sullivan hurried out, and the siblings left Yulin Alley together.

Ethan Sullivan felt that Bianliang had more restaurants and brothels than anything else.

Restaurants are for eating, brothels for pleasure.

When people are well-fed and warm, they think of pleasure!

But restaurants are expensive, so as in any era, street stalls are king.

Whatever the restaurants have, the street stalls have too, and for much less.

That’s the way to survive.

Carrying his sister on his back, Ethan Sullivan looked around and saw countless small vendors.

Finally, he stopped in front of a small stall, where the owner was a young man.

On an irregularly shaped iron plate, several crooked ‘potstickers’ were burnt black.

Ethan Sullivan sighed as he held his sister’s hand. “What a waste!”

The young man said dejectedly, “I don’t know how that guy does it.”

“Want to learn?”

“I do!”

“I’m Ethan Sullivan, and I’m the one who came up with potstickers.”

……

By afternoon, Kaifeng Prefecture received a report that a group of people were gathering near the imperial city, shouting passionately from time to time, looking very much like they were about to start a rebellion.