Sir Samuel was the previous scholar in the village, and also the father of the village head, Mark Cooper. Before Brian Cooper passed the scholar’s exam, this Samuel Cooper was the most learned person in the whole village, but no one had ever heard of him being able to repair stoves. On the contrary, he was always saying things like “a gentleman stays away from the kitchen,” meaning that scholars shouldn’t go into the kitchen.

This kind of quick-witted question was no challenge for Brian Cooper. He laughed and said, “Didn’t Sir Samuel fail to pass the provincial exam? That’s because he didn’t know how to fix stoves.”

“You’re lying.” Grace Parker, being young, was much sharper and immediately caught on that Brian Cooper was making things up. “You said before that the provincial exam is about writing essays, and you never said anything about fixing stoves.”

“That’s where you don’t understand.” Brian Cooper replied glibly, “Scholars don’t compete by actually holding a trowel; instead, they have to write out the process of fixing a stove. The examiner reads it and knows whether you can do it or not. This is called ‘theory guiding practice’—it’s very profound.”

“Oh… is that so?” Grace Parker was truly confused now and began to doubt her own intelligence.

Not a fair victory at all… Brian Cooper secretly scolded himself. Using modern jargon to fool a little girl from the Ming dynasty was really not honorable.

After a tiring morning, Brian Cooper ate lunch and went to sleep. He knew that his mother and sister had gone to work in the fields, and that sleeping at home was really a guilty thing to do, but his health was too poor—he wanted to help but couldn’t, so he decided to rest up and later think of some way to make money with his brains to help out at home.

He had only slept for about an hour when he was woken by the commotion outside the door. Listening carefully, it sounded like his mother and several other middle-aged women from the village were coming home together. There weren’t many of them, but with the loud voices of these country women, it sounded quite spectacular.

“Mom, why are you back?” Brian Cooper got up from bed and went to the door to greet his mother, Emily Scott.

As soon as the women saw Brian Cooper, they started chattering away:

“Oh dear, we must have disturbed the scholar boy’s reading, haven’t we?”

“Emily, just look at your Little Brian—so handsome! I’ve always said that Little Brian is sure to become a high official.”

“That’s for sure. I heard from my late husband that yesterday Little Brian was talking with that feng shui master, and even the feng shui master couldn’t outtalk him.”

“The scholar boy will definitely come out top in the exams, Emily, you’re sure to enjoy a good life.”

…

Emily Scott was both excited and embarrassed by the women’s praise, and kept saying:

“My Little Brian only knows how to bury himself in books and can’t do anything else. If he could just pass the provincial exam, I’d be over the moon—how could I dare dream of him coming out top?”

Brian Cooper was completely confused, not knowing why his mother had brought a group of middle-aged women home. Could it be that his luck had exploded and these women wanted to play matchmaker for him? As he recalled, all these women had daughters at home. But didn’t he already have a child bride? Well, if their daughters were pretty, he wouldn’t mind being introduced, but let’s be clear—they could only be concubines…

While Brian Cooper was daydreaming, he saw Emily Scott timidly come up to him and whisper, “Little Brian, it’s all my fault for being too talkative. I told your aunties about you fixing the stove, and now they all want to come and see. What do you think…”

Uh… Brian Cooper was speechless. So they came not to see him, but to see the stove he fixed. He didn’t even have to think to guess—he must have done a great job fixing the stove, and his mother, feeling proud, went around bragging, so these village women organized a tour group to come and take a look.

“It’s fine, let them see.” Brian Cooper said generously.

Led by Emily Scott, the group of women entered Brian Cooper’s kitchen. Before they even started the fire, they were already exclaiming, all saying how beautiful and exquisite the stove was. After all, compliments are free, so no one held back on the praise.

Emily Scott brought over a bundle of straw and poured some water into the pot. The women then took turns trying to light the fire. As soon as the fire was lit, everyone quieted down. These women cooked every day, so they could tell the quality of a stove at a glance and by feel. Before coming to Brian Cooper’s house, they were a bit skeptical about how good this stove could really be, thinking that Emily Scott was exaggerating. But once they tried it themselves, they were completely amazed: so a stove could really be this easy to use!

“Emily, do you think your scholar boy has time to help me build a stove like this at my house?”

Someone started making requests to Emily Scott. Their visit to Brian Cooper’s house wasn’t just to broaden their horizons, but more importantly, to see if the stove was really as magical as rumored. If it was, they would beg Brian Cooper to help them build one too.