At this time, woodblock printing had not yet appeared. Although there was stone rubbing, it was mainly used for Buddhist scriptures, while books relied on manual copying. Therefore, there was a special profession of book copyists. For an ordinary family to own even a single book was already difficult, and it was only because Evelyn Brooks was born into a prestigious family that she could possess so many books.

William was very interested in Evelyn Brooks's book chest. He leaned his little head forward and grinned, “Auntie, let me see, what good books do you have?”

Evelyn Brooks gently tapped him on the head, “Sit nicely. I’ll let you see them later.”

William had no choice but to sit next to Daisy, holding his head. Daisy scraped her fair little finger across her face, gloating over his being hit. William stuck out his tongue and made a funny face at her, but after making the face, he regretted it—why was he acting more and more childish?

“Let’s begin!”

Evelyn Brooks took a few books and sat in front of them, with paper and brush all prepared. She had already taught her daughter several hundred characters, but she didn’t know how literate William was, so she smiled and asked, “William, how many characters do you know?”

Actually, although the characters of this era were not simplified, William recognized almost all of them. He didn’t dare to startle his aunt, so he scratched his head and smiled, “About a thousand characters!”

“A bit better than Daisy. All right, let’s not worry about literacy, let’s just start reading.”

Evelyn Brooks picked up a Book of Songs, casually flipped to a page she had dog-eared, and smiled sweetly, “Read along with me.”

“Reeds and rushes lush and green, white dew turns to frost. The one I long for, stands on the other side of the water.” …

From then on, the sound of reading echoed in the little house every day. Not long after, Philip Harris left to take up his post as Prefect of Songzhou, and Mrs. Walker, worried about her husband, went with him. William lived even more freely. Though studying was hard, Evelyn Brooks took meticulous care of him, treating him as her own, letting him experience a childhood filled with a mother’s love.

Half a year later, William had grown taller again. As time passed, he became thoroughly familiar with every corner of Harris Mansion, except for the sleeping quarters in the back courtyard. The strong women guarding the door strictly followed Mrs. Walker’s orders and did not allow William to take a single step inside.

Soon, William discovered a new “continent” in Harris Mansion.

That afternoon, while playing hide-and-seek with Daisy in the east courtyard, he found a yard surrounded by high walls, from which shouts could be heard from time to time.

“Daisy, what’s going on in there?” William asked curiously.

Daisy shook her head; she didn’t know either. William vaguely guessed that this might be the training ground of Harris Mansion. The Sui Dynasty was known for its martial spirit, and Thomas Harris had risen through martial prowess—how could the mansion not have a training ground? William hadn’t discovered it in half a year, so he thought this was probably it.

“Let’s go take a look!”

He turned and ran off to look for a door. Daisy had already become his little shadow, letting him make all the decisions. “William gege, wait for me!” she called, running after him.

But after searching all around, they couldn’t find a main entrance. Only then did William realize that the entrance to the training ground wasn’t inside Harris Mansion, but outside. To enter the training ground, one had to first leave the mansion.

“How about we climb a tree and go up?”

Although William was only two and a half years old, he was big for his age and mature in thought. His desire to learn martial arts was already very strong. He knew nothing about the martial arts of this era, but he knew that troubled times were coming, and to survive, he had to take the path of martial arts.

He found a tree with low branches, spat into his hands, and began to climb. There was an apricot tree in their courtyard, and he was already very skilled at climbing trees.

Daisy, however, took a few steps back. She had fallen from a tree before and was most afraid of climbing. She turned and ran, “I’m going back first!”

“Daisy!”

William called out, but it was too late—he could only watch as she ran off. He laughed at himself. The Lady in Red was supposed to be highly skilled in martial arts, but Daisy didn’t seem interested in martial arts at all. How would she become a heroine in the future?

Before his thoughts could wander further, a shout from inside the courtyard caught his attention.

“Is this how you practice martial arts? You’re just playing with knives!”

He slowly climbed higher and soon peeked over the wall, unable to hold back an exclamation, “It’s huge!”

The training ground of Harris Mansion was actually as big as two modern football fields, vast and open, covered in pasture grass like a prairie. Dozens of horses grazed leisurely in the northeast corner, and in the center of the field stood more than a dozen straw targets for practicing mounted archery.

Right below him, inside the wall, was a resting area with more than a dozen large logs scattered on the ground. Dozens of young men, about sixteen or seventeen years old, sat on the logs resting.

The training ground of Harris Mansion was mainly for the Harris family’s sons to practice martial arts, and also for the mansion’s household guards. What William saw today was just a group of Harris family sons practicing mounted archery.

While the Harris sons rested, they could also spar with each other. A martial arts instructor hired by Harris Mansion was guiding one of the Harris sons in practicing sword techniques.

William lay on a tree branch, watching intently as the young man practiced with the sword. From a modern perspective, this Harris son’s swordsmanship was quite good—very skilled, the blade flashing coldly, the movements smooth and continuous, without the slightest pause. Even a martial arts competition would be no better.

But the instructor frowned deeply, clearly dissatisfied, and kept scolding, “Where’s your momentum? Where’s your strength? Why are you waving that sword like a woman doing embroidery?”

“Master Carter, I think Bā Láng’s swordsmanship is already quite good.”