“Great, there’s a reaction—finally, I don’t have to be a eunuch anymore!” Henry Clark looked at his now-erect little brother and let out a long sigh of relief. Then he took off his wet clothes and changed into dry ones. Originally, he had his own maid to take care of him, but ever since he was put under abstinence, his emperor father and empress mother had handed over the task of supervising him to Emily Foster. As a result, Emily Foster had all the females around him sent away, leaving the entire inner residence of the prince’s manor empty, with only those who had come as Emily Foster’s dowry remaining. That little bean sprout was the maid assigned to look after Henry Clark, and she ended up dumping a whole bucket of water on him.

　　Knowing his body was fine put Henry Clark in a great mood, and the frustration from being wrongly accused earlier vanished. Seeing the items on the bed still not sorted, Henry Clark sat down and continued organizing them.

　　Aside from his daily necessities and cigarettes with a lighter, there wasn’t much left. The most conspicuous items were two ears of corn and a sweet potato. Looking at these two things, Henry Clark’s previously improved mood soured again. If it weren’t for these two items, he might already be back at school teaching his students.

　　Originally, after picking up a package containing a microscope from the county, Henry Clark took the bus back to school. Unexpectedly, the bus broke down halfway. Seeing that it was getting late and the school wasn’t far, he decided to get off and take a shortcut back. He hadn’t eaten lunch in order to catch the bus, so his stomach was growling the whole way.

　　The shortcut Henry Clark took was flanked by cornfields, with the occasional patch of sweet potatoes. Feeling unbearably hungry, Henry Clark dug up a sweet potato from a field to stave off his hunger. But to his surprise, after digging it up, he noticed a sign at the edge of the field with six big characters: “Steal sweet potatoes, get struck by lightning.”

　　Normally, if someone walking by a field was hungry and dug up a sweet potato or picked a couple of cucumbers, it wouldn’t be considered stealing—at least, that’s what Henry Clark’s students had always told him. So when he was at school, if he got hungry at night, he’d go to the fields outside the school, pick a couple of ears of corn or some fresh peanuts, and boil them for a nice late-night snack. No villagers ever scolded him for it. But he never expected to run into such a stingy person here, someone who would curse him with lightning just for taking a sweet potato.

　　Henry Clark was a young man with a stubborn temper. At first, he just wanted a sweet potato to fill his stomach, but seeing that sign made him angry. So he went back into the field, broke off two fresh ears of corn, and stuffed them into his bag for a late-night snack. He wanted to see how this stingy guy was going to get lightning to strike him.

　　In truth, Henry Clark was in the wrong. If someone put up a sign, it meant they didn’t want others taking their crops. Sure, it showed the owner was stingy, but that was their business. The field was private property, and taking anything without permission was illegal.

　　Henry Clark was just acting out of spite, stuffing the corn and sweet potato into his bag and heading back to the road. He was about to take out the small knife on his keychain to peel the sweet potato when, to his utter shock, the field owner’s curse actually worked. A blue bolt of lightning suddenly appeared in the clear sky and struck him right on the head. He lost all consciousness, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw Emily Foster, the new bride, and his identity had become that of Henry Clark, the third son of Emperor Yingzong of Song in history.

Chapter 4: The Prince’s Three Meals (Part 1)

　　Thinking about how he’d traveled through time, and looking at the two ears of corn and the sweet potato in his hand, Henry Clark felt like crying but had no tears. Who would have thought he’d be cursed into the Northern Song Dynasty by a stingy guy, all because he took some corn and a sweet potato from someone’s field? If he’d known this would happen, he’d rather have starved than touched someone else’s things.

　　But it was too late for regrets. Henry Clark could only carefully put away the corn and sweet potato. As much as he wanted to bite these two culprits that caused his time travel into pieces to vent his anger, reason told him that would be unwise. After all, these two crops, originally from the Americas, were extremely high-yield grains. If they could be widely cultivated, they would bring tremendous change to the Song Dynasty.

　　In the end, only two plastic bags were left on the bed. The white one was something Henry Clark had bought for someone else. The school’s gatekeeper, Mr. Bennett, had chronic bronchitis, which flared up whenever the weather turned cold, so he often needed anti-inflammatory injections. Coincidentally, Henry Clark had once dated a medical student, and during his four years at university, he spent most of his time at the medical school, so he knew a bit about medicine and sometimes treated children. This time, Mr. Bennett had asked him to buy some injections so he wouldn’t have to travel dozens of miles to the town for treatment.

　　As for the last yellow plastic bag, it was also something Henry Clark had brought from the county for Mr. Bennett. Since Mr. Bennett lived and ate at the school while watching the gate, he had even opened up a small vegetable plot in front of the dormitory to grow his own food. This time, he’d asked Henry Clark to bring some seeds from an acquaintance in the county.