"Although you were bought by me as a slave, I'm not from some wealthy family. As long as you don't forget your place, that's enough. From now on, just call me Master. By the way, what's your name? How old are you? Where are you from?"

"William Thompson, fourteen years old, from Min County, Lizhou West Road."

"William Thompson, that's a scholar's name. From now on, I'll call you Lily. I'm a blacksmith—everyone calls me David Clark. Blacksmithing is tough work, so you'll start with odd jobs! Remember, I hate laziness the most."

David Clark was a Han Chinese, his family originally from Lintao Prefecture. He ran a blacksmith shop in the east of the city and had taken on two apprentices over the years. The eldest apprentice joined the army last year, and now only the second apprentice remained. Because he was short-handed, he came to the slave market to see if he could buy someone cheap. He saw that William Thompson, though young, was sturdily built, and figured that in a couple of years he could become a good helper, so he bought him.

"We're here. This is my shop." David Clark pointed at a two-story wooden house.

"Your senior apprentice has a fiery temper—try not to provoke him."

"Yes!"

William Thompson had just followed David Clark to the door when a burly young man in his twenties suddenly ran out from inside. He looked at William Thompson and shouted loudly, "Master, this kid looks like a girl—what use is he!"

"Cut the crap! Lily, this is your Senior Brother Reed."

"Bah! A lowly Southerner dares call me Senior Brother." With that, he ignored William Thompson and turned to leave.

David Clark pointed to a mat by the door and said, "At night, you'll sleep here and watch the shop. In a bit, I'll bring you an old quilt. There's some leftover rice over there—go eat it. Starting tomorrow, you'll be in charge of cooking, chores, and cleaning the house. After a while, I'll teach you blacksmithing."

That night, William Thompson lay in this unfamiliar house. It was the first time in two months he had lain on something solid. The humiliating life of the past two months felt like a nightmare, but the scars all over his body told him that it had all truly happened.

As a boy, he had dreamed of being Bill Gates, imagining that he could one day build his own kingdom. But the hardships of job hunting after graduation and the blood and tears of buying a house finally made him realize how insignificant he was in the vast sea of humanity. Yet fate had suddenly thrown him into the Song Dynasty—what could he do now? Could he change history? But he couldn't even change the fate of a weak woman.

William Thompson suddenly felt a sense of irony and sighed.

"Forget it, let the past go! Just pretend I've really been reincarnated into the Song Dynasty."

He carefully traced the scars on his body. Suddenly, when he touched a wound on his leg, a wave of sorrow washed over him. That was from his father! William Thompson seemed to hear his father's dying cry again: "Little William, run! Run!"

Although his father had long since passed away, how could he not acknowledge the ten years of upbringing from Henry Thompson, the prematurely graying hair from supporting the family, and the unbending spine that never yielded.

"Father!" he called out softly, tears streaming down his face.

"Father! I will never let you down!"

"Shun was called from among the fields, Fu Yue was raised from among the builders, Jiao Ge was chosen from among fishermen and salt sellers, Guan Yiwu from among scholars, Sun Shuao from the sea, Baili Xi from the marketplace. Therefore, when Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a person, it must first distress their mind and will, exhaust their muscles and bones, starve their body, impoverish them, and frustrate their actions, so as to stimulate their resolve and toughen their nature, increasing their abilities. People always err, and only then can they change; when troubled in heart and weighed down in thought, only then do they act; when it shows in their appearance and is heard in their voice, only then do they understand. If, at home, there are no upright teachers and, abroad, no foreign enemies, the country will surely perish. Only then do we know that hardship breeds survival, while comfort leads to death."

Unknowingly, with his face covered in tears, he hugged a tattered quilt and fell into a deep sleep. In his dream, he seemed to return to his newly bought house. Grace had already gone to work, and there were steamed buns and porridge on the kitchen table. Suddenly, all the porridge on the table turned to blood, and in the big bowl was Aunt Walker's severed head.

William Thompson jolted awake from the nightmare. For the past month, he had had this dream almost every day. In his daze, he felt his face was a bit wet. Was it raining? No! He was indoors. William Thompson touched some of the liquid on his head and brought it to his lips—a foul, fishy stench hit him. It was urine!

William Thompson sat up with a start. In the darkness, he vaguely saw someone standing not far away, as if a pair of beast-like eyes were staring at him. A sense of shame he had never felt before stabbed deeply into William Thompson, but he said nothing, only silently stood up and wiped the urine from his head.

"Bang!" With a heavy punch, Jack Reed smashed William Thompson in the face. William Thompson staggered and fell to the ground.

"Kid, you think if you don't talk, I'll let it go? Letting you drink urine is already merciful. If Eldest Brother were here, he'd have tormented you so badly you couldn't get out of bed for three days. Too bad that's not my thing! What, you want a beating?" Seeing William Thompson struggling to get up, he went over and kicked William Thompson a yard away, his head hitting the edge of a hoe, blood gushing out instantly.

"Enough!" David Clark had appeared at some point. He stopped Jack Reed, who was about to pounce again, and said to William Thompson, "It's almost dawn. Go light the fire and open the door in a bit."

Then he slapped Jack Reed on the back of the head and said, "If you beat him to death, you'll have to pay me!"