“Little Brian...” Emily Scott was moved—no mother could remain indifferent to such a filial gesture from her son. However, she still said, “There are only a few eggs left at home. I was saving them for you to build up your strength. Grace and I have humble lives; we don’t need to eat such good things.”

“Mom, what are you saying?” Brian Cooper said unhappily. “You’re getting older, and this is exactly the age when you need more nutrition. Grace is still young and growing—how can she not eat well? Don’t worry, there will be eggs, there will be bread, there will be everything.”

“Bread? What’s that?” Grace Parker blinked her beautiful big eyes and asked. As she ate the delicious egg custard and savored that long-missed taste, her heart felt warm. This was the brother she wanted. In a few years, he would also be her husband. If he could always be this considerate, how wonderful that would be.

“Bread... is something really tasty. I’ll make it for you in a few days,” Brian Cooper promised. In his eyes, the 15-year-old Grace Parker was just a little girl. In modern times, she’d be hanging out with classmates at McDonald’s all day, skillfully ordering sundaes and chicken wraps like a little rebel. But unfortunately, she was born in the wrong era—so young, yet already forced to do hard manual labor.

“And also, I’m announcing that Grace doesn’t have to go collect firewood anymore,” Brian Cooper continued. “I’ve already remodeled our stove. After personally testing it, it saves at least sixty percent of the firewood.”

“What? Did you really take the stove apart?” Right now, Emily Scott felt more fear than joy. She didn’t really believe her son could cook, but even if he did it badly, at worst they’d just have to force it down. But fixing the stove was no joke—if he broke it, they’d have to hire a mason to build a new one, which would cost at least a tael or two of silver—a huge expense.

Grace Parker had similar thoughts to Emily Scott. The two women put down their bowls at the same time and rushed into the kitchen. Brian Cooper shook his head helplessly and followed them in.

Chapter 007: Rural Women’s Visiting Group

“Is this stove easy to use?”

Looking at the stove Brian Cooper had fixed, Emily Scott asked, half in doubt. Visually, the stove Brian Cooper had worked on was a bit bigger than before, mainly because the walls were thicker. The mud plastered all around was neat, and compared to the old stove that had been used for decades, it did look much better. This gave Emily Scott a bit more confidence in Brian Cooper. But whether a stove was good or not wasn’t decided by its appearance.

“Just try lighting it and you’ll see,” Brian Cooper said with a grin, leaning against the kitchen door.

“Mom, I’ll cook the pig feed,” Grace Parker thought of a way to test the stove. The family raised a pig, which they planned to slaughter for some extra money at New Year’s. Cooking pig feed was a daily task, so it was perfect for testing the stove.

Emily Scott nodded in agreement. Grace Parker went to the woodshed, grabbed a bundle of straw, pulled out a small handful, lit it with a fire striker, and stuffed it into the stove to start the fire. Emily Scott scooped a few ladles of water into the pot and covered it. In just a few minutes, steam was billowing out of the pot.

“That fast?” Emily Scott was truly shocked.

“Mom, this stove is really easy to use. The fire is strong, and there’s no smoke.”

“Did you use a ton of straw?”

“No, I only used a few handfuls, and the fire started right up. It really saves fuel!” Grace Parker shouted joyfully.

“Heh, you still don’t believe in the scholar’s handiwork?” Brian Cooper said proudly.

Emily Scott looked at Brian Cooper and asked, “Little Brian, did you really build this stove?”

“If not me, then who?” Brian Cooper felt a bit offended at being underestimated.

“You didn’t hire a stove master to fix it?”

“What stove master? I am the stove master, okay?” Brian Cooper replied.

“My brother is even better than a stove master!” Grace Parker declared. “The village head’s stove was built by the best stove master in Shitan Town. Last time they had a celebration, I helped with the cooking and used their stove—it’s not even half as good as ours.”

“How did you learn to build stoves?” Emily Scott asked in surprise.

Brian Cooper could only attribute these unexplainable things to books. He said, “Mom, you see me reading all day—do you think I’m just reading about pigs? A scholar doesn’t need to leave home to know the world. All this well-digging and stove-fixing is knowledge; it’s all written in books.”

“But how come you never mentioned it before?” Emily Scott still didn’t believe it. Her son suddenly had so many skills, with no sign of it before—how could she believe it?

Brian Cooper said, “Before, I was busy studying for the scholar’s exam, right? That exam mainly tests the Four Books and Five Classics—you just need to recite them. Now that I’ve already earned the scholar’s title, the next step is to take the provincial exam. That’s different—it tests practical abilities. So I started learning these things.”

Emily Scott still didn’t believe it. “You’re saying the provincial exam tests stove-fixing? Then how come Lord Tingzhao doesn’t know how?”