A dozen or so village women had been either watching their children at their doorsteps or doing chores. At the sound of shouting, they hurriedly got up in alarm, scooped up their children, grabbed their things, and rushed into their homes.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of countless doors slamming shut echoed through the air. The once lively fortress instantly fell silent.

Andrew Bennett stared in shock at the scene, feeling as if he had become a street-clearing tiger, a terror even to ghosts.

Sigh!

He slowly turned around. A duck was standing there, looking up at him.

Andrew Bennett smiled, “At least there’s one duck that understands I’m not a jinx. That’s nice.”

Before he finished speaking, the duck quacked loudly, flapped its wings, and ran off as if fleeing for its life.

Andrew Bennett returned home. David Clark asked, “Ping’an, were the villagers mean to you?”

“No, just disliked and shunned.”

Andrew Bennett asked, “Cousin, do we have any money left at home?”

David Clark shook his head. “We’ve been broke for a long time.”

Truly so poor we’re eating dirt!

Andrew Bennett frowned. “Is there anything else we can sell?”

He just needed some startup capital—not much, but the Jia family was dirt poor, so he had to think of another way.

“The only things of value at home are those few sets of books you got when you were studying. Back then, it turned your uncle and aunt’s hair white with worry. They sold a lot of things just so you could copy them.”

Uh!

In this era, the printing industry was very underdeveloped. Most scholars obtained books by copying them by hand.

“Pawn them.” Andrew Bennett said boldly, making David Clark secretly happy.

These days, you can sell anything, just not books. But Andrew Bennett had studied to the point of making his teachers despair—what’s the point of keeping those books? If you say to leave them for your descendants… In David Clark’s eyes, someone as unlucky as Andrew Bennett would never get a wife, let alone have children. No chance!

This was Huazhou, one hundred and eighty li from Chang’an. The seat of Huazhou was Zheng County, and the Yang family fortress was five li outside Zheng County town.

David Clark slung the book chest over his shoulder and hurried out. Seeing that no one was around in the fortress, he was a bit surprised. Then, outside the fortress, he ran into a villager, who asked, “David Clark, isn’t that Andrew Bennett’s book chest? You used to treasure it like gold. What are you doing with it?”

David Clark wasn’t considered a jinx, so the villagers had no such taboos. He lowered his voice and said, “Ping’an isn’t studying anymore. What’s the point of keeping it? I’m pawning it.”

Seeing his happiness, the villager nodded. “He used to study so much he drove his teachers to death, spent all the family’s money and grain, and it was all useless. Pawning it is good. Now he can just focus on farming.”

The villager thought of Andrew Bennett settling down to farm and couldn’t help but sigh, “But with someone as unlucky as him farming… I’m afraid even the crops won’t grow!”

David Clark was speechless, but somehow felt the words made sense.

He went to town and pawned the books. When he got home, he handed over the money.

“Ping’an, our days will be much better this year.”

With this money, plus the harvest from the fields, this would be a good year.

“Cousin, buy ten jin of soybeans.” Andrew Bennett said calmly.

He was now considered a jinx, so no one in the village would sell him anything. Only David Clark could do it.

“Buy soybeans?” David Clark said, “Ping’an, our family doesn’t grow soybeans.”

“I need them for something.” Andrew Bennett couldn’t stand living like this for even one more day. He had to improve his life before thinking about anything else.

David Clark hesitated, feeling that his cousin had changed completely since being buried alive.

Buy them, then.

He went around the village, bought ten jin of soybeans, and when people asked what for, he just gave a wry smile.

“That jinx is up to something again,” someone sighed, then added, “When he finally gets himself killed, the whole village will throw a feast to celebrate.”

The news reached the village head, Brian Clark. His wife was sick in bed, so he said irritably, “He’s just wasting his family’s money! Leave him be.”

His wife, Harris, gasped, “Husband, I must be seriously ill. Just hearing about that jinx… I feel scared!”

Brian Clark said, “Don’t be afraid. If he dares come here, I’ll deal with him myself. Just tell everyone not to act like they’ve seen a ghost—don’t run home and hide every time he goes out.”

Harris nodded, “Andrew Bennett has been in the village for over ten years. If he was going to bring disaster on anyone, it would have happened by now. Why wait until now?”

Soon, this sentiment spread. The villagers thought it made sense, but the timid ones still said that if they saw Andrew Bennett go out, their whole family would stay inside.

……

The soybeans soaked overnight. At dawn, Andrew Bennett yawned as he put David Clark to work like a donkey.

David Clark pushed the millstone while watching his cousin pour the soaked beans into the mill. White liquid flowed out from the spout.

This is my first bucket of gold!

Andrew Bennett couldn’t help but feel secretly delighted.

Some say tofu was invented by Liu An, the King of Huainan in the Han dynasty, but as a researcher of Tang and Song history, Andrew Bennett had never found any record of tofu in the flourishing Tang era. Later, he subtly asked his cousin David Clark, and upon learning that tofu didn’t exist yet, he couldn’t help but get excited.

This is fate’s way of making me rich!