“Be careful, this stone is worth several hundred taels. If you break it, not only can you not afford to pay for it, but I’ll have to jump into the river with you!” At this moment, a young man dressed in a moon-white long robe walked in from outside the garden. When he saw the laborers pushing the cart, he immediately broke into a brilliant smile and spoke.

Rather than calling him a young man, it would be more accurate to say he was a teenager, as he looked at most fifteen or sixteen years old. With sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, he was quite handsome. However, there was a maturity in his expression that didn’t belong to someone his age, so when people met his gaze, they felt he seemed older than he actually was.

“Don’t worry, Young Master Bennett, these dozen or so brothers are all strong as oxen. There’s no way your things will get damaged!” Seeing this young man so warmly and playfully joking with them, the foreman directing the workers also laughed heartily.

“Hey, stop calling me ‘young master’! Now, everyone in Songjiang Prefecture knows that our The Bennett Family business has collapsed, and I’ve sold off everything at home. Right now, Mr. Bennett doesn’t have a penny to his name. In a few days, I might even have to ask you for a job!” The young man addressed as Young Master Bennett laughed loudly again as he spoke.

The foreman hurriedly exchanged a few polite words, but seeing how cheerful the other was, he couldn’t help but wonder to himself: Everyone says Young Master Bennett used to be a prodigy, passing the scholar’s exam at a young age. But now the The Bennett Family business has failed, and they’re deep in debt. Yet, no matter when I see him these days, he’s always smiling. Could it be that after his father’s death and the bankruptcy, this Young Master Bennett has gone mad?

As for the foreman and the others’ suspicions, James Walker—or rather, he should now be called Charles Bennett—didn’t care in the slightest. He’d thought he would surely drown after falling into the sea, but unexpectedly, when he opened his eyes, he found himself in the Ming Dynasty several hundred years ago, and had become a wealthy young master. Unfortunately, he was never meant to be a young master; after only a few days in this role, he received the tragic news that his father’s ship had encountered a violent storm at sea and was destroyed, with all lives lost.

His father’s death didn’t matter much; after all, this new Charles Bennett had no real feelings for that cheap father. The key issue was that the ship had been carrying a lot of goods, and the The Bennett Family business had already been struggling for years. This voyage had been funded by loans to buy goods, and now that everything was lost, the creditors were naturally crowding at the door demanding repayment.

Charles Bennett was the only legitimate son and heir of the The Bennett Family, and his mother had died early. He had two younger sisters, but they were half-siblings, both born to his father’s concubines. So now, he was the only man in the family who could take charge. Faced with this situation, Charles Bennett had no choice but to step up.

Charles Bennett’s father was named David Bennett. The The Bennett Family were newcomers to Songjiang Prefecture, having moved there just over a decade ago. David Bennett made his living as a merchant and owned quite a few shops. In recent years, the imperial maritime ban had loosened considerably, so the The Bennett Family also secretly engaged in smuggling. In fact, it wasn’t just the The Bennett Family; any well-known wealthy family in Songjiang Prefecture had some connection to smuggling in their business.

Through commerce, David Bennett had accumulated a vast fortune and become one of the richest men in Songjiang Prefecture. However, he didn’t want his son to follow in his footsteps as a merchant. After all, in the Ming Dynasty, studying and passing the imperial exams was the proper path. So from a young age, he had Charles Bennett study diligently, hiring renowned tutors to teach him. Charles Bennett lived up to expectations, being exceptionally intelligent and quick to learn, soon earning a reputation as a prodigy. Last year, he even passed the scholar’s exam at just fourteen years old.

Just when everyone thought the The Bennett Family would produce a great talent, and might even become an official family in the future, the young Charles Bennett fell seriously ill, fainting several times and nearly dying. The last time he woke up, the original Charles Bennett had already been replaced by the soul of a young man named James Walker from the twenty-first century.

Afterwards, David Bennett died unexpectedly, and the The Bennett Family suffered such a drastic change. If it had been the previous so-called prodigy—who was really just a bookworm—Charles Bennett, he probably wouldn’t have been able to cope and might even have been driven to suicide by the creditors.

But this Charles Bennett was different. In his previous life, he was called James Walker. His parents died in a car accident when he was in high school. Relying on the savings they left behind and his own hard work, he eventually graduated from a second-tier university with a degree in computer science. He had been working at an IT company in Shanghai, earning a decent salary. He even sold his old family home to make a down payment on a small apartment in Shanghai, paying the mortgage on the rest. Everything seemed to be going well.

Unfortunately, later on, James Walker couldn’t stand his boss harassing female employees and discriminating against “outsiders” like him. When his anger finally boiled over, he beat up his boss on the spot. As a result, he not only lost his job but was also detained for a period of time.