The brother and sister chatted as they walked home. As they pushed open the door and entered, Emily Scott came up to them. She circled around Brian Cooper several times, making sure that not even a single hair on Brian Cooper's head was missing, before muttering, “Bodhisattva bless us, as long as my son is safe, that's all that matters.”

“Mom, what are you fussing about?” Brian Cooper asked. He retained the memories from the original owner of this body, so calling Emily Scott “mom” didn’t feel strange to him. He remembered that this farmer woman, not yet forty years old, cared for her son with all her heart—she would have given him her very heart if she could. Whenever there was something tasty at home, Emily Scott wouldn’t touch it herself, nor would she let Grace Parker have any; she saved it all for Brian Cooper. Ever since her husband died, Emily Scott hadn’t bought a single new piece of clothing for herself, but whenever Brian Cooper needed money to buy books or to visit a teacher in the county, Emily Scott never hesitated to give him silver.

Earlier, when all the men in the village went to worship the Dragon King, Emily Scott had arranged for Grace Parker to keep an eye on Brian Cooper from a distance, afraid that the naive Brian Cooper might cause some trouble. She herself went to a distant pond to fetch water for the fields. When she returned home, she heard from the neighbors about what had happened at the worship site, which scared her out of her wits. She was just about to go out and look for Brian Cooper when she saw Brian Cooper and Grace Parker coming back, chatting and laughing.

“Haor, I heard you hit the constable?” Emily Scott asked anxiously about what had happened, only after making sure Brian Cooper was unharmed.

“I did,” Brian Cooper replied bluntly.

“So what did the constable do to you?”

“What could he do to me?” Brian Cooper said. “He can’t even dig a well himself, but he’s all about superstitious rituals. If I went to the county magistrate and reported him, he’d be in real trouble.”

“Don’t you dare,” Emily Scott said. “Son, the constable didn’t hold it against you—Bodhisattva must be watching over us. You mustn’t stir up any more trouble. I’ve heard people say, ‘commoners shouldn’t fight officials.’ We’re just ordinary folks—how could we afford to provoke a constable?”

Brian Cooper laughed, “Mom, don’t take the constable so seriously. I asked around—this constable named Zheng Chun is just a nobody at the county office. He can bully commoners, sure, but in front of the magistrate, he wouldn’t even dare to fart.”

Emily Scott, being a rural woman, didn’t have much concept of these things. Hearing her son speak so confidently, she felt a little more at ease and moved on to the next topic:

“Haor, I heard you went down into the well? Was it the constable who punished you?”

“Mom, my brother went down the well on his own. He went down five wells, then pointed to a spot and told the constable that if they dug a well there, they’d definitely find water,” Grace Parker answered for Brian Cooper.

“Is that true?” Emily Scott stared wide-eyed. She knew her own son—when did he learn to read feng shui?

Brian Cooper could only attribute it to his reading: “Mom, it’s true. The feng shui master the constable hired is just a charlatan who doesn’t know anything. The books I’ve read explain clearly how to find water. The spot I pointed out wasn’t random—it fits the principles of the five elements and eight trigrams. There’s a method to it.”

“That’s good, that’s good. If we really can get water from the well, the whole village will be saved.” Emily Scott knew her son might not have the highest emotional intelligence, but he was honest and not one to make things up. Since he spoke with such certainty, she figured the well location was probably reliable.

“Mom, is dinner ready? After running around all day, I’m really hungry,” Brian Cooper said.

“I’ll get right on it,” Emily Scott said as she hurried to the kitchen.

Seeing Emily Scott go to cook, Grace Parker went to the woodshed, came out with a basket on her back, and called toward the kitchen, “Mom, I’m going to gather firewood.”

“What are you gathering firewood for?” Brian Cooper asked, puzzled.

“For the stove, of course,” Grace Parker rolled her eyes at him. She went out to gather firewood every day, but her bookworm brother knew nothing about it, which was really annoying. Grace Parker had no respect for Brian Cooper's obsession with the imperial exams, but she couldn’t go against Emily Scott's wishes. In other families, a seventeen-year-old boy could handle the fields on his own, but in their family, they still had to rely on the women to farm.

“For the stove?” Brian Cooper was still confused. The previous bookworm had never paid attention to such things, so Brian Cooper had no information about it either. He walked into the kitchen and saw Emily Scott busy lighting the fire to cook porridge, so he asked, “Mom, don’t we burn rice straw at home? Why does Grace say she’s going to gather firewood?”

Emily Scott said helplessly, “Haor, this isn’t something you need to worry about. You’ve been running around all day, you must be tired. Go rest in your room—dinner will be ready soon.”

Sigh, my predecessor really was a foodie, Brian Cooper thought to himself.

Chapter 005: Fuel-Saving Stove

People who do geological exploration travel all over the country and often have to stay with local villagers, so Brian Cooper was no stranger to rural life. In his memory, in the early years, southern rural families mostly burned crop stalks from the fields as fuel. Later, as the economy developed, more and more families could afford coal, and even liquefied gas, so burning crop stalks gradually became less common.