The young man at the very front was no more than eighteen or nineteen years old, but dressed in flowing white, gently swaying a folding fan in his hand. When he saw Henry Clark approaching, he narrowed his eyes and greeted him with a smile.

“Fourth brother?” Henry Clark recognized the person before him—it was his fourth younger brother, George Clark.

There were also two girls behind him: the second wife’s cousin, Grace Clark, and another girl whom he didn’t recognize, who didn’t seem to be from the Lin family.

Grace Clark was dressed in tight-fitting clothes, a red waist protector tied around her slender waist, and holding a riding whip in her hand—clearly just back from the stables. Her fair little face broke into a radiant smile the moment she saw Henry Clark.

The other girl wore a green short skirt, revealing her fair thighs, and a white top that faintly exposed her navel, with a silver bracelet on her wrist. Her looks were ordinary, but her skin and figure were excellent. At this moment, she was carefully sizing up Henry Clark and Yvonne Harris.

“Big brother, your outfit… why are you still like this?” George Clark’s smile faded as he asked in a low voice. “Are you planning to just stay up in the mountains and never come down?”

“My affairs are none of your business.” Henry Clark frowned.

“That’s not the point, big brother. You’re not that young anymore, and father can’t support you for a lifetime.” George Clark’s brows furrowed slightly. “I heard you came back this time and want to take money from the family to buy something? That’s a bit out of line.”

“I said it’s none of your business.” Henry Clark’s frown deepened.

“None of my business? Now that our Lin family is facing difficulties, you say it’s none of my business, but then you go around and ask father, and father comes to me, and in the end, it’s still up to me!” George Clark’s expression turned a bit cold.

“Brother Xingguang~~” Cousin Grace Clark called softly from the side.

George Clark seemed a bit exasperated.

“All right, all right, I get it.” He gave Henry Clark one last look, turned his head and exhaled, “Come over later and collect fifty taels of silver yourself.” With that, he strode past, brushing by and heading down the stone bridge.

As Grace Clark passed by Henry Clark, she squeezed his hand hard and forced a smile, then left as well.

Henry Clark felt a bit helpless, and a bit embarrassed—being yelled at like this by his own younger brother, it went without saying how badly this Emily Clark had fared in the past.

Yvonne Harris stood to the side, looking as if she didn’t quite understand, biting her lip and lowering her head.

Henry Clark also felt a bit relieved—fortunately, they spoke quickly and mixed in the Hong Song City dialect, so as an outsider, Yvonne Harris didn’t seem to understand much, and his embarrassment wasn’t too great…

Chapter 7 Lantern Festival (Part 3)

Crossing the stone bridge, a servant led him and Yvonne Harris to their respective rooms. After giving Yvonne Harris a few careful instructions, Henry Clark entered his own small courtyard.

In the oval-shaped little courtyard, there was everything from rockeries and streams to a sundial. A little maid in a green dress came up and offered to help him take the sword off his back.

“No need.” Henry Clark shook his head. “Go and heat some bath water for me first.”

“Yes, young master.” The little maid replied and left. She had taken care of Emily Clark since childhood, so there was no awkwardness.

Standing in the courtyard, Henry Clark glanced around, then fetched a stool from the house and placed it by the rockery, sitting down heavily.

This place was Emily Clark’s home, but not his. Sitting here, there was a sense of familiarity in his memories, but at this moment, it all felt strange.

He looked at the pond in front of him, where a few yellow fish swayed their tails and swam slowly. A few green leaves, blown in from who knows where, floated on the water’s surface.

Reaching out, Henry Clark dipped his fingers into the pond’s water—it was icy cold, almost piercing. His fingers stirred up a few ripples on the surface, spreading outward and startling the fish into darting to a distant corner.

Henry Clark shook his head, hearing the sounds of guests arriving from afar outside. It seemed the second and third brothers were accompanying their father, James Clark, to receive guests. The gatekeeper’s voice could be heard repeatedly announcing arrivals, clearly indicating that many gifts had been brought.

“Just sitting around like this is too boring…” Henry Clark got up and returned to his room, took off the sword from his back, and began to slowly practice the Hongsong Sword Technique without drawing the blade. It would take quite some time to make it second nature.

As he practiced, Henry Clark was troubled. This time, he planned to buy medicinal herbs and see if he could solve the long-eared tiger problem. But the money needed for herbs was no small sum. If he followed the recipe for Guiyuan Dan, it would take at least a hundred taels of silver to make a batch. Last time, after driving off the Hengdao Sect at the dojo, he’d made a windfall, and after selling the knives and counting the odds and ends, he still had a bit over twenty taels left. Far from enough.

“A hundred taels of silver… in today’s money, that’s over a hundred thousand…” Henry Clark grew more and more troubled. Even if his family was wealthy landowners, this wasn’t money he could get his hands on easily.

Outside, the gray-white sky gradually darkened. The little maid in the green dress finally came in, carrying a basin of hot water. Along with her came a beautiful middle-aged woman.

“Xinru…” The woman wore a water-red long dress and a golden phoenix hairpin. It was clear she had been very beautiful in her youth, but there was a faint sadness between her brows, as if she was always frowning.

Henry Clark immediately felt a headache—this was his mother. No… the mother of this body… Sophia Carter.

“You’ve gotten thinner again…” Olivia Clark’s mother walked over and gently touched Henry Clark’s face.