Currently, Abraham Brooks is presiding over Kaifeng Prefecture. After receiving the report, he was extremely anxious and didn’t have time to look for any patrol officers. He immediately led his yamen runners to rush to the scene.

When they arrived at the edge of the imperial city behind Fanlou, Abraham Brooks saw fifty or sixty people raising their arms and shouting, so he shouted, “Arrest them!”

The yamen runners charged in like wolves and tigers, punching and kicking.

“A bunch of rebels, kneel down!”

The crowd all knelt down. Abraham Brooks frowned and looked over, only to see a young man in the middle staring blankly.

A stove was set up there, and the potstickers in the iron pot were giving off a delicious aroma.

What’s going on here?

Ethan Sullivan quickly grabbed his younger sister, ready to run at any moment.

“What are you all doing gathering here?”

Abraham Brooks asked in a deep voice.

Ethan Sullivan pointed at the iron pot and said, “I’m just teaching them how to make potstickers.”

Abraham Brooks walked over to take a closer look, then asked, “Then why all the shouting?”

Ethan Sullivan replied innocently, “They were afraid they wouldn’t learn it well, so I was just encouraging them.”

Abraham Brooks turned to look at the kneeling men, then said with an unpleasant expression, “Go back!”

After walking just a few steps, Abraham Brooks couldn’t help but look back.

The group of men had already gathered together again, raising their arms and shouting in unison.

“Hoeing grain at noon, sweat drips onto the soil beneath the crops…”

Hearing this, Abraham Brooks couldn’t help but stroke his beard and smile, thinking that this young man even knew to teach them such things—he must have some background.

“…Learn to make potstickers, earn five coins a day!”

Abraham Brooks’s face instantly turned livid.

“Today it’s radishes and cabbage, tomorrow it’s carriages and fine horses…”

“Today you sleep on the floor, tomorrow you’ll be a rich man!”

Abraham Brooks saw a man raising his arm and shouting, then suddenly choking up, and gradually bursting into loud sobs.

“My wife… she left me and our son because I was poor…”

Everyone looked at him sympathetically, but didn’t know how to comfort him.

Ethan Sullivan walked up to him, placed both hands on his shoulders, then looked at the people around and said with raised brows, “What are you afraid of? If you don’t stay with me when the sun sets in the west, who will you be when I rise again in the east?”

The sobbing man stopped crying, his face resolute as he said, “Right! If you don’t stay with me when the sun sets in the west, who will you be when I rise again in the east! When I get rich, even if that woman kneels before me, I won’t forgive her!”

Ethan Sullivan said with relief, “A real man needn’t worry about finding a wife…”

He thought of the official from earlier, and when he looked over again, he saw the yamen runners of Kaifeng Prefecture had already whisked the official away in a flash, as if ghosts were chasing them.

“Five coins a day. The first month is free—whatever you earn is yours. But if you can’t make money in the first month, it means you didn’t work hard enough, and you’re not suited for this line of work, so I’ve taught you for nothing. But if you want to keep going into the second month, it’s five coins a day, and we’ll write that into the contract. In other words, you can all try it for a month for free. If it doesn’t work out, I won’t take a single coin!”

Chapter 0004: United as One, Their Strength Can Cut Through Metal

The night market at Zhouqiao was still bustling.

Ethan Sullivan’s business was still booming.

Three ruffians arrived as promised.

“This is your money.”

A small string of copper coins was thrown to the ground. The lead ruffian casually picked up a potsticker and said, “You should change your line of work.”

Ethan Sullivan looked at the coins on the ground and shook his head with a smile.

They were planning to force a sale.

The ruffian casually ate a potsticker and said, “From now on, only we can make these potstickers. You don’t agree?”

That sounded rather high and mighty.

Ethan Sullivan held his sister’s hand and smiled openly.

The ruffian shouted angrily, “Flip his stall!”

Ethan Sullivan sighed, “I agree.”

The ruffian’s anger turned to joy, and he said gruffly, “At least you know what’s good for you…”

Ethan Sullivan looked troubled and said, “But…”

“But what?”

The ruffian glanced at Ethan Sullivan’s side at Grace, and sneered, “There are plenty of orphans in Bianliang.”

Ethan Sullivan chuckled and pointed behind him, “But I’m afraid they won’t agree.”

The ruffian shouted angrily, “Who?”

He spun around, only to see a group of men standing behind him.

He recognized a few of them—they were just other street vendors from elsewhere. Usually, he could take their things at will and no one dared resist.

Even if dozens more like them showed up, he wouldn’t be afraid.

“Get lost!”

He roared, feeling quite heroic.

Ethan Sullivan silently mourned for him for a second, then the group of vendors got angry.

“Beat them up!”

These vendors were all counting on Ethan Sullivan’s potstickers to turn their lives around. Now someone wanted to steal the secret of making potstickers—what did that mean?

It meant cutting off everyone’s livelihood!

People throughout history have always been kind, as if they wouldn’t resist even with a knife at their throat—but that’s only because no one threatened their survival…

The three ruffians could survive in the night market because they were strong fighters.

But in the eyes of Ethan Sullivan and the onlookers, these three were like children.

In just a moment, the three ruffians were swallowed up by the crowd.

The screams were truly miserable.

Ethan Sullivan saw that Grace was staring intently, so he covered her eyes.

But Grace was still peeking through her fingers.

The three ruffians were pinned to the ground, with the vendors surrounding them and stomping on them.