On the other side of the ravine, along a small path overgrown with wild grass, a figure was moving toward them. Samuel Young quickly ran to meet the person, while Billy shot Nathaniel Brooks a look, “James, you go back first!” He then followed as well.

Nathaniel Brooks, however, was feeling rather bored, so he trailed behind at a leisurely pace.

He was very curious about this world and was still exploring it.

His memories of this life were somewhat hazy, perhaps because he had sometimes been a bit muddle-headed in this lifetime.

The newcomer turned out to be a woman, who scrambled and crawled her way to meet Samuel Young in the fields, then began to wail, “Third Brother, how miserable I am!” She cried pitifully and incessantly, yet her voice was strangely charming and melodious, with a weeping tone that was almost bewitching.

Standing atop the trench, Nathaniel Brooks couldn’t help but chuckle. The woman was carrying a huge bundle, and as she descended into the ravine, she stumbled, causing the bundle to loosen and reveal a large “gold ingot” inside. Of course, what passed for a gold ingot these days was actually brass, but it looked to weigh twenty or thirty jin. It was a wonder how this woman had managed to carry it all this way.

This woman, needless to say, was Samuel Clark’s concubine, Emily Young. With Samuel Clark in trouble, she was trying to escape with stolen goods, sneaking this heavy “treasure” out of the other estate.

Nathaniel Brooks had never met Emily Young before, but her reputation as a beauty was well known.

When the tenant farmers worked in the fields, they would often joke and gossip, telling bawdy jokes to mock the heavy-handed rent collector “Liu the Skinner.” They didn’t dare use the dignified Lady Gan as the butt of their jokes, so poor Emily Young often became the subject of their fantasies.

Of all those jokes, the one that stuck most in Nathaniel Brooks’s mind was about how Emily Young’s waist was so slender and soft that even Robert Clark didn’t dare try her, for fear of breaking her delicate body; and that after years of widowhood, Robert Clark had suddenly become addicted to taking wives and concubines, but it was just a cover for his old age and impotence, while Emily Young, unable to bear the loneliness, had long since strayed.

But looking now at the woman in the ravine, covered in dirt and mud, Nathaniel Brooks found it amusing. He really wondered how someone so frail-looking had managed to steal that chunk of brass. Truly, as the saying goes, “Men die for wealth, birds die for food”—the ancients did not deceive me!

Wait, something’s not right? Nathaniel Brooks suddenly realized that this woman, escaping with stolen goods, was in fact stealing from him now, wasn’t she?

“Fifth Sister, I… I’m still a bit scared. Maybe… maybe you should go back!” In the ravine, Samuel Young rubbed his hands nervously. It seemed he had agreed to help his sister escape, but now that the moment had come, he was frightened.

The woman, who had been crying, immediately stopped, brushed the messy hair from her forehead to her temples, and revealed a face as beautiful as a flower, her phoenix eyes glistening and captivating. “Third Brother, can you really live with yourself?! We drifted here from Jiangnan, relying on each other. For your sake, I humbled myself to that old wretch and lived as a widow in all but name. Heaven knows, now that old man is in trouble, I’m just a nameless nobody—why should I die with him? If you can’t bear to leave the property, I’ll escape on my own. I don’t believe there’s no place in this wide world for me, Emma Young!”

Samuel Young seemed terrified of his sister. After her tirade, he looked ashamed and stammered, “No, that’s not… that’s not what I meant…”

“You there, young man! What are you looking at? Get down here!” Emily Young looked up and spotted Nathaniel Brooks, then glared at Samuel Young. “Bringing all these farmhands—are you afraid I’ll get away? Did you bring all these eyes on purpose, so they’ll spread the word after I’m gone?!”

“Ah, no, I only brought Billy with me. He’s strong and honest, and can help you carry your things for a bit. This, this Mr. Brooks didn’t come because I called him…” Samuel Young hurriedly explained.

Nathaniel Brooks jumped down into the ditch, indifferent, pondering what he should do. Should he just pretend not to see and let the siblings leave? It didn’t really matter to him; he had no desire to play the local tyrant. That chunk of brass, if minted, would only be worth a few strings of coins—letting them use it for travel expenses was no big deal.

“Kid! You’re quite handsome, but too sickly!” After sizing up Nathaniel Brooks, Emily Young snorted coldly. “Just pretend you saw nothing today. If you dare breathe a word, I’ll gouge your eyes out!”

Nathaniel Brooks was speechless. In fact, Emily Young was only fourteen or fifteen, just precociously seductive by nature. In this world, girls could legally marry at fifteen, but concubines were often taken at eleven or twelve.

He himself was sixteen in this world, but with his past and present lives combined, he felt old enough to be Emily Young’s grandfather—yet here she was calling him “kid.”

Still, his complexion was indeed a bit pale, making him look sickly. He’d just have to nurse himself back to health.

Lost in thought, Nathaniel Brooks shrugged and said, “Don’t worry, I didn’t see anything.”

Emily Young nodded in satisfaction, thinking to herself that these peasant men were all timid and ignorant, easily frightened into submission.

Just then, a voice from atop the ditch chuckled, “Isn’t that Samuel Young and Emily Young? Are you two siblings planning a long journey?”