The neighbors all poked their heads out, watching as Henry Walker left on the sedan chair. Then Aunt Smith called out loudly, “That’s Foster Family Girl taking Little Ben out boating. They say they won’t be back until tomorrow!”

  “Tsk tsk…” The neighbors all exclaimed in amazement. Strange things happen every year, but this year there are especially many. Could this be the legendary ‘bad boys get the girls’?

  Henry Walker didn’t hear any of that gossip; he was already sitting on the sedan chair, traveling through the main street of Fuyang County.

  This was actually his first time out since waking up. Although the markets and shops looked just as he remembered, only by seeing with his own eyes the eaves and corridors on both sides of the street, the shop signs and banners, the crowds of people coming and going, and the hawkers selling all kinds of goods from north and south… could he truly feel the vividness of life in the Ming Dynasty.

  The sedan chair bearers, oblivious to the mood, soon delivered him to the dock, where Uncle George was already waiting.

  Uncle George paid the fare and sent the bearers away, then carried Henry Walker on his back toward a black-awning boat.

  As they walked, he quietly warned, “Boy, if you dare wrong my girl, I, Benjamin Field, will cut you down!”

  Henry Walker thought, what’s this all about? But how could he explain? If he said, “You’ve misunderstood,” he’d probably get tossed straight into the river.

  He boarded the boat in silence. After tossing Henry Walker into the cabin, Benjamin Field turned into the boatman and rowed away from the dock.

  Benjamin Field assumed the two had already done “that,” so he just vented his anger by throwing Henry Walker in and leaving it at that. Who would have thought that Emily Foster, hearing the commotion and about to lift the curtain to greet him, would see a dark figure tumble inside.

  With a startled cry, she was knocked to the ground by Henry Walker, and with another muffled grunt, Henry Walker landed squarely on top of her.

  Emily Foster was instantly stunned. Her pure and chaste self had never been in such close contact with a man before.

  Henry Walker, on the other hand, was fully conscious. With Miss Foster’s soft body as a cushion, he wasn’t hurt at all. He also realized that their current posture was highly improper for a young lady, so he tried to get up quickly.

  But his arms weren’t strong enough to support his weight. Henry Walker managed to lift himself three inches before falling back down.

  “Oh…” Emily Foster had just breathed a sigh of relief when she was pressed down again, and tears immediately welled up—whether from shame or from being squashed, she didn’t know.

  “Help me up,” Henry Walker said. Although he found her body soft and comfortable, he didn’t want to be thrown into the river to feed the turtles by Benjamin Field, so he needed to get up quickly.

  Emily Foster’s face was flushed, tears streaming down as she bit her rosy lower lip and sobbed, pushing him with all her might. Henry Walker also struggled, and finally managed to roll off and land beside her.

  At that moment, Benjamin Field lifted the curtain and said, “Miss…” but seeing the two lying side by side in the cabin, he quickly covered his eyes and backed out.

  The air inside the cabin was thick with awkwardness. Miss Foster hugged her arms, turned toward the wall, and began to cry, her shoulders shaking.

  Henry Walker struggled to sit up, glanced at the upset Miss Foster, and not knowing how to comfort her, pulled a book from his pouch and started reading. When he got absorbed, he even made humming noises.

  Miss Foster, not hearing an apology, grew even more frustrated. But then she thought, could she really expect an apology from a rascal? So she wiped her tears, sat up with a grievance, and, too embarrassed to go out and face Uncle, could only hug her knees and sit across from Henry Walker.

  At that moment, she took a closer look at the book in his hands and was stunned. She had thought it would be some romantic or racy tale, but it turned out to be “Hongwu Zhengyun.”

  There weren’t many books in Henry Walker’s home—besides a few law books, there was only this “Hongwu Zhengyun,” which his father used as a dictionary. He read it partly to learn some traditional characters, and partly to study official Mandarin. No matter what he did in the future, he’d have to know how to speak Mandarin.

  Henry Walker seemed to be studying pronunciation very seriously, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, looking rather comical. Emily Foster tried to hold it in, but finally couldn’t help bursting into laughter.

  Henry Walker looked up in confusion and asked, “What, am I pronouncing it wrong?”

  “Of course it’s wrong.” Emily Foster had been lectured by this guy so much lately that she felt like an idiot. Now that she had the chance, she put on a stern face and scolded him, “There are too many authors of ‘Hongwu Zhengyun,’ so it ended up a jumbled mess. If you use this book to learn Mandarin, you’ll only end up speaking gibberish. You should read ‘Yunhui Dingzheng,’ not ‘Hongwu Zhengyun.’”

  “Huh?” Henry Walker gaped in shock, realizing he’d been reading it for nothing.

  “Yep, all for nothing.” Emily Foster nodded, looking quite pleased.

Chapter 0011: Father

  But to Emily Foster’s surprise, Henry Walker quickly put aside his disappointment and earnestly asked her to teach him the correct pronunciations.

  Emily Foster was delighted to finally have something she was better at than him. Ming Dynasty Mandarin, also called Jianghuai Mandarin, wasn’t as soft as Wu dialect, nor as harsh as Cantonese, nor as rough and simple as northern dialects. As the official language of the Ming, it was upright and dignified, and more elegant than the Central Plains Mandarin, which had been influenced by the Mongols.

  In this era, both scholars and merchants had to learn Mandarin, because local dialects varied greatly—especially in the south, where even within a single prefecture there could be several dialects, which to outsiders sounded like birdsong. Only by speaking Mandarin could one communicate with local gentry and officials.

  Simply put, Mandarin was the language of the upper class. If you couldn’t speak it, you had no chance of moving up in society.