After coming out of the funeral clothing shop, Grace Walker was holding a stack of white linen in her arms. She placed a white silk flower in her hair as a sign of mourning for Andy. As for the funeral clothes, she would sew them slowly after returning to the city wall.

Ethan Brooks wore a white mourning cap on his forehead, hastily sewn by his mother in the funeral clothing shop. She wanted Andy to know that even in death, there was someone who remembered him.

The white cloth was of excellent quality and naturally not cheap. When Grace Walker spent thirty coins to buy these things, she didn’t even frown, nor did she go through her usual bargaining process. This made Ethan Brooks’s satisfaction with his mother rise to a new level.

The prosperity of Tokyo didn’t mean much to Ethan Brooks; the only thing worth mentioning was the ancient-style architecture everywhere he looked.

It was quite different from what was depicted in "Along the River During the Qingming Festival." Perhaps it was because, when painting, Zhang Zeduan deliberately left out the dilapidated shacks, filthy beggars, and the garbage scattered everywhere.

The ground was uneven and full of potholes. The emperor had gone on a tour yesterday, so a path of yellow earth had been laid down, and traces of it could still be seen.

But there was very little yellow earth. When Ethan Brooks saw an old man sweeping the yellow earth off the street, he finally understood why there was so little of it left.

With so many people in Tokyo, everything became precious—there was nothing useless in their eyes.

The food stalls lining the street from one end to the other held no appeal for Ethan Brooks. Swarms of flies bred and multiplied on the food, and just this alone made Ethan Brooks completely give up the idea of eating anything but milk. Other than breast milk, he felt that eating outside food would make it hard for him to survive long enough to marry and honor his mother.

After buying some grain and an iron pot, Grace Walker also bought a small piece of osmanthus cake, carefully wrapped it in a handkerchief, and planned to chew it up and feed it to her son when they got home...

Grace Walker carried her son on her chest, held the iron pot in her hand, and had a small bag of grain on her back. The four bamboo poles she bought were tucked under her arm as she hurried home, always worried about the money she had hidden away.

Only when she returned to the foot of the imperial city wall did she finally breathe a sigh of relief. On the avenue just ten steps from the imperial city, people came and went, but at the foot of the wall, there was not a soul in sight—not even stray dogs.

Of course, there were fully armed guards standing on the city wall, and at the corner, a huge bow was mounted on a stand. Her home was right at the corner of the wall. Not only did others not dare to approach, even Grace Walker herself walked there with trepidation.

The arrows on the great bow were as thick as eggs, their sharp tips glinting coldly in the sunlight. One look and you could tell they were deadly weapons.

Trembling, she walked to the corner. The guards seemed to recognize her and only stared at her without using the great bow. Only after reaching the corner did Grace Walker feel certain that from now on, this corner truly belonged to her and her son.

The little fox whimpered, pitifully calling out through the iron bars at the entrance of its little hole. Grace Walker just glanced at the fox, then put her son in the washbasin, broke off a bit of flatbread and placed it at the entrance of the hole. As for water, there was some inside the little hole.

By now, the sun had already risen. Once the May sun broke free from the clouds, it poured down its heat without restraint. In no time, the moisture in Tokyo was steaming up, and without moving, one’s whole body felt damp, as if in a steamer.

The imperial city was on higher ground and still relatively dry. The wind blowing from the direction of Xiangguo Temple carried the lingering sound of the morning bell—the monks were praying for the souls of the dead, hoping the distant bell would carry their spirits to heaven.

Grace Walker knelt on the ground, pressed her palms together, and sincerely prayed for her Andy, hoping that in his next life he would not suffer so much, and also praying that Ethan could grow up safely, free from illness and disaster.

With bamboo poles supporting an oilcloth, she made a simple shelter—this was the home for mother and son.

Grace Walker was very satisfied with their current situation. Having seen those who had been sold off, she felt her own life was not bad at all. If she could find her clan and live together, that would be even better. Uncle Brooks was very learned and would surely be able to teach Ethan well...

The days passed one by one.

Every day, Grace Walker would bring back a bit of building material, so the simple shelter gradually gained a real roof, and two walls began to take shape. These were made by Grace Walker using wheat straw and mud she had found.

If she couldn’t build a real house before the autumn winds arrived, she and her son would not be able to survive the winter. The summer heat in Tokyo was unbearable, and the winter would be just as icy and snowy.

Because they lived by the imperial city wall, no craftsman dared to come to the The Brooks Family to help build a house. Grace Walker knew this, but she valued her and her child’s safety even more. For a widow and her orphaned child without clan or husband’s protection, surviving in the Song Dynasty was no easy task.

Lately, people had been dying constantly in the city. Boats carrying corpses traveled endlessly along the waterways. It was said that an epidemic had broken out in the city...