Samuel Green looked at Miss Harper with great interest, as if still considering how to answer. Grace Harper looked displeased—did it really take that long to consider her name?

The Little Girl holding Samuel Green's hand spoke up quickly: “My father's surname is Huang, his given name is Hechen, and my name is Helen Miller. You can call me Helen White.”

Miss Harper turned her back and retorted, “I wasn't asking you.”

Samuel Green chuckled softly and, instead of answering, asked, “I remember you just vomited, and quite badly, didn’t you?”

Miss Harper blushed even more and spat, “I still feel like throwing up. So what?”

“You were vomiting so badly just now, but when you heard there were kidnapped girls in the side room, you rushed in without hesitation to check, not even afraid there might be accomplices hiding inside. Now, to wake those girls, even though your heart is pounding, you’re still standing straight here, waiting for the well water… Be careful, you’re still holding a child.”

Reminded of the “culprit,” Miss Harper couldn’t help but start vomiting again—yet even so, she held the child in her arms tightly, careful not to get any on the child.

Suddenly, her arms felt lighter. Samuel Green had used some unknown method, and Miss Harper barely noticed his movement before the child was already in his hands.

“You can call me William Ford… hmm, let’s just use that name for now.”

“William Ford? Are you from Jinhua in Wuzhou?”

Samuel Green—now William Ford—asked blankly in return, “Do I look like I’m from Jinhua?”

“Then are you from Jiaxing in Zhejiang?”

William Ford shook his head in confusion. Miss Harper asked again, “Are you really neither from Jinhua nor Jiaxing?”

The Little Girl nervously wiped her mouth: “He’s been beaten silly. The kidnappers were afraid he’d wake up, so they kept giving him knockout drugs for a whole month. Even if he really was from Jinhua or Jiaxing, now he remembers nothing.”

Miss Harper bent down to meet Helen Miller's gaze, patiently explaining, “I’m asking him now to help him recall his past. Don’t keep answering for him—let him speak for himself. He could say ‘William Ford’ so casually, so that must be his real name. The Shi family in Jiaxing and the Shi family in Jinhua are both big clans, and one of their illegitimate sons happens to be called ‘William Ford’. This William Ford is a famous painter… Fool, can you paint?”

William Ford scratched his head. “Paint? I don’t know if I’ve forgotten or not, but I’m definitely not the ‘William Ford’ you’re talking about… Well, since someone already has the name William Ford, I’ll change mine to ‘David Ford’.”

Miss Harper's eyes flashed. “What’s your courtesy name?”

David Ford thought for a moment, looking pensive. Everyone held their breath, afraid to disturb him. After a long pause, David Ford hesitantly said, “Changqing…”

“David Ford, Charles Ford—you have both a given name and a courtesy name. Looks like you really are a scholar. Do you have a ‘hao’ as well?”

In these times, only scholars usually gave themselves a courtesy name in addition to their given name. Most commoners addressed each other by their birth order—for example, Wu Song the tiger-slayer was called “Wu Erlang,” and the three Ruan brothers were simply called Ruan Xiao’er, Ruan Xiao’wu, and Ruan Xiao’qi.

Having both a given name and a courtesy name already marked one as a highly educated person. In addition, among literati, there was a trend—those who liked to doodle in their spare time, or those of high moral standing, or those with students all over the world, would give themselves a ‘hao’ (pseudonym). For example, Su Shi called himself Dongpo; Ouyang Xiu was known as Zuiweng and also Liuyi Jushi; Wang Anshi was called Banshan…

Miss Harper was trying to probe David Ford's identity in a roundabout way, but this time she was disappointed. Samuel Green shook his head firmly and decisively: “As for a hao… I haven’t had time to pick one yet. How about I pick one now?”

A name and a hao were sacred things. Many people didn’t choose their own hao; it was given by friends or bestowed by teachers, and it would stay with them for life. Could it really be chosen so casually? Grace Harper twisted her body in annoyance, but then caught sight of the steward’s servants bringing water, so she went to meet them directly.

Waking people up with cold water sounds easy, but it’s not so simple in practice. Miss Harper slapped and shouted, finally managing to wake the sleeping girls inside. She was careful and quickly asked where their homes were… That John Ford was so vicious—could he be someone with an unknown background, maybe even one of the kidnappers who just turned on his own at the last minute?

She had to find out his true identity quickly.

Chapter 7: Name Not on the Register

As soon as she asked, all the girls in the room burst into tears—they really weren’t from here, and all had been kidnapped. Of course, the kidnappers only picked the prettiest girls.

Once she confirmed they’d been kidnapped, Miss Harper’s suspicion of Helen Miller’s strange behavior lessened. Maybe it was just panic after a disaster. The two of them had always been kept together by the kidnappers, the man always naked, the two of them together… Maybe they really did have some secret, but that was understandable. It’s not easy for a girl to keep her reputation intact; if she needed to cover for someone, she’d just be a bit more tolerant.

So, when Grace Harper led the girls out of the room, even though she felt that David Ford and Helen Miller looked rather furtive when talking in the courtyard—like how Helen Miller would desperately avoid her as soon as she appeared, and they deliberately kept their distance—she pretended not to notice it all.