Henry Clark isn’t stupid—there’s both meat and vegetables, and it’s so cheap. After hearing what the other person said, anyone with half a brain would know where these dishes came from. But for someone as poor as him, he couldn’t afford to be picky. When his family faced famine as a child, he’d begged for food with his parents and even fought stray dogs for scraps. So in his mind, as long as it was edible, it didn’t matter if it was “clean” or not.

“Give me a ladleful!” Henry Clark pulled out a copper coin and slapped it into Billy’s hand. Billy happily shouted, “Alright~” and personally served Henry Clark a ladleful. Since he was their first customer, Billy even added an extra half ladle at the end.

People tend to follow the crowd, and the zhelao smelled so good—at least much better than the pickled vegetable soup that laborers usually drank. Plus, with Henry Clark holding a big bowl and eating heartily with loud slurps, the others were even more tempted. They all rushed forward, scrambling to pay.

Faced with such a bustling scene, Billy and the other kids were flustered at first. But soon they discovered a problem: they didn’t have enough bowls. James Thompson’s family was so poor they barely had any bowls, and even after adding the chipped begging bowls from the dozen or so orphans, there were still only a handful—far from enough. In the end, they had to wait for the first group to finish eating and return the bowls before serving the next.

Originally, James Thompson had prepared water to wash the bowls, but to his surprise, no one cared—they just grabbed a used bowl and kept eating. On second thought, it wasn’t strange; after all, anyone willing to eat zhelao wouldn’t care about that.

A big pot of zhelao was sold out in just half an hour. Some laborers who didn’t get any still clung to them, refusing to let them leave. Only after James Thompson promised to come back the next day did they finally manage to get away. Billy and the other kids, excited with their earnings, bought thirty big flatbreads, packed up, and pushed James Thompson as they ran home.

“Big brother, we made so much money at once! We’ll never have to worry about going hungry again!” Billy said, pushing the cart and tearing off a piece of flatbread to stuff in his mouth, speaking with his mouth full.

At that moment, James Thompson was counting the money. Billy and the others couldn’t count, only knowing they’d earned a lot of copper coins, but not how much. When he finished counting, he beamed and said, “We made sixty-four wen this morning. That’s over nineteen hundred wen a month—almost two strings of cash.”

“Two strings! That’s enough to buy so many flatbreads. Doesn’t that mean we can eat flatbread every day from now on?” Billy exclaimed with wild joy at James Thompson’s words. The other kids cheered as well, and even their steps pushing the cart felt lighter.

“Useless! I’ll make sure you all have meat to eat every day—until you’re sick of it!” James Thompson couldn’t help but laugh and scold at Billy’s words. He weighed the copper coins in his hand. After subtracting the fifteen wen spent on flatbreads, they still had forty-nine wen left. This was their first income, and also the capital for James Thompson to make a living in the Northern Song.

When the cart returned to the charity house, before James Thompson could get down, Billy rushed into the yard with the flatbreads, shouting, “Lily Thompson, Martha, come quick! We’ve got flatbread to eat!”

As soon as Billy finished speaking, cheers and shouts of joy erupted from the yard, making James Thompson, still outside, break into a rare smile. After dividing up the flatbreads, James Thompson took a deep breath of the grainy aroma. It was the first time he realized how sweet and fragrant flour could be. He took a big bite, and his mind was filled with just two words: “So delicious!”

In the days that followed, James Thompson divided the orphans like Billy and Martha into two groups. Martha took a few kids to work at the restaurant, while Billy led a few others to get up early every day to sell zhelao. James Thompson also had Billy approach the managers and staff of other restaurants to buy their leftover food at extremely low prices. After all, relying on just one restaurant couldn’t meet the demand at the docks.

People in the Northern Song era were far less wasteful than those in later times, especially when it came to food. So there usually wasn’t much leftover food in restaurants. The better leftovers were eaten by the staff, and the rest was dumped in the slop bucket. No one ever thought of selling leftovers for money, so now that someone was willing to pay for them, all the restaurants were more than happy to oblige.

As the sources of zhelao increased, James Thompson and his group’s income also rose. In just five days, James Thompson saved up a whole string of cash, finally letting him breathe a sigh of relief. With this capital, even if he stopped selling zhelao, he could start another business and at least provide for Lily Thompson and the other kids.

“Let’s go buy some meat—today we’re having a feast!” After gnawing on flatbread for days, James Thompson felt like his mouth was about to dry out. Although Liu’s flatbreads were chewy and tasty, eating nothing but steamed buns wasn’t a solution. Now that their livelihood was secured, James Thompson felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his heart, and it was time to celebrate.