Speaking of which, James Thompson likes to eat hotpot. Later, he heard that quite a few hotpot restaurants use "spit oil"—that is, the layer of oil collected from hotpots that customers have already eaten from, which is then reused. This stuff is hardly any cleaner than leftovers. James Thompson figured he must have eaten it plenty of times before, but back then he didn’t know, so he just ate it. Still, thinking about it now makes him feel a bit disgusted. Because of this, he rarely eats hotpot outside anymore. Now, faced with these leftovers, he really can’t bring himself to eat them.

“Brother, why aren’t you eating?” In the blink of an eye, Lily Thompson had finished a whole bowl of stew, and now, licking the bottom of the bowl, she looked at James Thompson in confusion and asked.

“I’m not hungry, you go ahead and eat.” Seeing Lily Thompson like this made James Thompson’s nose sting with emotion. After speaking, he pushed his own bowl of stew in front of Lily Thompson, then turned his head away, afraid that if he kept watching, he wouldn’t be able to hold back his tears.

“Brother, what’s wrong? Is your wound hurting again?” The well-behaved Lily Thompson naturally noticed James Thompson’s odd behavior and immediately asked with concern.

“It’s nothing. Is the stew tasty?” James Thompson took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and then gave Lily Thompson a warm smile as he asked.

“It’s delicious! I even got two pieces of meat just now. I remember the last time we had meat was last year, when Dad won some money and bought us lamb offal. It was so good!” Lily Thompson said happily, her face full of bliss. For her, being able to eat meat was the greatest happiness.

“In the future, when brother earns money, we’ll have meat to eat every day!” Looking at Lily Thompson’s innocent smile, James Thompson once again felt his nose sting, and he rubbed her little head as he spoke.

“Mm! When Lily Thompson grows up, I’ll help brother earn money to buy meat too!” Hearing her brother’s words, Lily Thompson nodded vigorously.

A big bucket of leftovers was eaten clean by more than a dozen children, who ended up sitting on the ground rubbing their bellies and groaning. But at this moment, James Thompson called Billy over and said in a low voice, “Billy, let’s find a way to make some money, at least enough to feed all these mouths!”

“Big brother, you’re right, but we don’t have strength or skills. Even if we want to earn money, no one would hire us.” Billy showed a troubled expression. In his mind, earning money meant working for others, and to do that you either needed strength or skills—neither of which they had.

“You don’t need to worry about that. I have a way to make money. But before that, all of you go collect firewood, then come back to light a fire, take a bath, and wash your clothes!” James Thompson now showed a confident smile. Just now, he had finally thought of a way for them to earn money.

“Take a bath? It’s pretty cold at night, why take a bath?” Billy asked in confusion. Although it was already spring, it was still a bit chilly at night. Plus, as orphans, they sometimes had to beg, and if they were too clean, they wouldn’t look like beggars—how would they get any money then?

“Nonsense! Aren’t you all going to work at the restaurant? That’s a place where people eat. But look at you—all dirty and grimy, you can smell the stench from several steps away. How do you expect people to eat? Do you still want to keep working there in the future?” James Thompson glared as he spoke.

Billy and the other kids struggled every day just to get enough to eat. Besides food, nothing else interested them. With no adults to teach them, they were all as dirty as mud monkeys—including James Thompson and Lily Thompson. If James Thompson’s foot wasn’t injured, he’d probably be the first to jump into the tub for a bath.

“Big brother really knows best!” Billy said admiringly, then took off his clothes and ran off to squeeze into the water tub with the other kids. Lily Thompson took Billy’s clothes to wash, and after the boys finished bathing, she and a few girls heated more water and washed up in the wooden tub in the room. In the end, she even helped James Thompson wipe down his body.

After bathing, James Thompson pulled Billy aside and gave him a long list of instructions. Billy only half understood, but he remembered a few of James Thompson’s key requests. Finally, James Thompson had him repeat the instructions, and only then let Billy and the others go rest.

It was already late. Usually at this time, James Thompson and the others would go to bed early, since they couldn’t afford lamp oil. As soon as it got dark, they would lie down to sleep. Of course, the main reason was that they were always hungry—sleeping meant they wouldn’t feel hungry, and it also saved energy.

But tonight, James Thompson tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. With nothing in his stomach, his empty belly felt as if it was being squeezed hard, and the hunger tormented him so much that he couldn’t feel the slightest bit sleepy. Meanwhile, Lily Thompson, who had just been pestering James Thompson for a story, had already fallen fast asleep.

In the end, James Thompson couldn’t stand the hunger any longer. He quietly got up, went to the kitchen outside, and searched around in the bright moonlight, hoping to find something to eat. But he found that the grain jar was almost empty—a thin layer of millet didn’t even cover the bottom. Other than that, there was nothing else edible in the whole kitchen, not even oil or salt.