Samuel Thompson scratched his head. “I can’t read, so I can only memorize the strokes by heart, but there are just too many of them. I’ll have The Carter Brothers take a look when I get home.”

At this, he turned his head and asked Evan Carter, “The Carter Brothers, how are you doing?”

Evan Carter, struggling to stay conscious through his dizziness, managed to say, “I’m alright.”

“You’re sure to pass the exam!” Samuel Thompson exclaimed with great joy. “Brother, you go ahead and scout out the academy first. I’ll come find you next year.”

Let’s not talk about how cheerful they were on the way back. After getting home, Samuel Thompson got a good scolding.

“Nothing’s even set in stone yet, what are you so smug about!” The aunt stood with her hands on her hips, eyebrows raised in anger. “How could you let Little Evan end up like this!”

Samuel Thompson, feeling guilty, scratched his head. “Are you his real mother or mine...”

“Pah!” The aunt picked up the rolling pin. “Which one of you three didn’t I raise, feeding you one bowl at a time? That makes you real brothers!”

Samuel Thompson said, “You’re playing favorites?”

“Me, playing favorites?” The aunt tugged his ear. “Why don’t you take a look at yourself—such a funny-looking kid, do you look as handsome as he does?”

Evan Carter sat on a bamboo chair to the side, slowly fanning himself, watching with great interest as Samuel Thompson got a beating.

Come to think of it, he really was raised by the aunt’s own hand. The little fool’s three meals a day were all taken care of by her. The little fool used to run around everywhere, fell into the water, and after Evan Carter took over the body, when he woke up, it was still the aunt who was looking after him.

After beating Samuel Thompson, the aunt came over to check on him and poured him some water.

Evan Carter held the cup and sipped it in small mouthfuls.

“Why do you look like a little kitten!” the aunt laughed. “Drink some more.”

Evan Carter found this kind of relationship fresh and wonderful.

But no matter how carefully he was looked after, his body was still weak. After being out in the sun all day and then traveling, Evan Carter wilted like the young crops in the field.

He stayed wilted for half a month. When the “Shangling List” was released, among the five people from Ning’an Prefecture, Evan Carter’s name was indeed on it. Samuel Thompson came back excitedly to deliver the news. After the family finished celebrating, Evan Carter continued to feel weak.

After recovering from heatstroke, he caught a cold from sitting in the draft with wet hair.

“A cold in the middle of summer!” The aunt was very surprised.

Evan Carter coughed as if half his life was gone, even moving his fingers was exhausting, and he couldn’t explain to the aunt what “low immunity” meant.

In his previous life, he had already built his foundation at six or seven years old and was never sick again. He truly didn’t know what it felt like to be ill.

So, sickly as he was, another half month passed. In August, it was finally time to set out for Shangling Academy in Shuzhou.

The aunt didn’t feel at ease letting Evan Carter travel alone, so Samuel Thompson went with him. They first rented a carriage from Ning’an Prefecture and headed south, then took a ferry at Baojiangkou to Dongting, and from there traveled west by land into Shu.

When they left Ning’an Prefecture, a fine rain was falling from the sky.

Samuel Thompson reached out to catch the rain. “It’s still too little. The fields are all dry. What good can this bit of rain do?”

Evan Carter lifted the carriage curtain, looked at the cracked, parched earth by the roadside, then turned to look at the aunt standing by the road with an oil-paper umbrella.

Seeing him looking at her, the aunt stepped forward a few paces and said, “Be careful on the road!”

Evan Carter felt a warmth in his heart and nodded.

Samuel Thompson cracked the whip at the horse in front and shouted, “Giddy-up—!”

The wheels began to rumble and the carriage moved forward.

The aunt stepped forward a few more paces and said to Evan Carter, “Come home next year, and I’ll make you a good meal!”

Evan Carter replied, “Alright.”

The horse’s hooves gradually sped up, and the misty rain soon swallowed up the aunt’s figure. Evan Carter looked at the fields on both sides, and after taking it all in, turned his gaze back toward the direction they had come from.

He hoped the rain would get heavier, he thought.

Samuel Thompson asked, “The road’s a bit bumpy, brother, are you alright?”

Evan Carter said, “I’m fine.”

—Oh, now strictly speaking, Samuel Thompson shouldn’t be called Samuel Thompson anymore. The system had given him a new name, Charles Thompson, but the pronunciation was still the same, so everyone still called him 鸭毛 as usual.

With this journey, another month passed.

Along the way, Evan Carter could more or less observe some local customs. The cities were far less prosperous than in modern times; it truly was a less developed ancient era.

Once they entered Shu, things gradually became more bustling.

One day, Samuel Thompson was driving the carriage along the official road when he suddenly said, “The Carter Brothers, look!”

Amidst the encircling mountains and thick mist, a majestic city faintly revealed a corner of its walls. The city towers stood tall and imposing, exuding a powerful aura that took one’s breath away.

Evan Carter was completely in the dark about this world, and Samuel Thompson, having been trapped in Ghost City for ten years, wasn’t much better off. Neither of them knew what this place was. After stopping to look for a while, Samuel Thompson asked a passerby and finally learned that this was actually the capital of Southern Xia.

The traveler said, “Our capital—that’s real grandeur!”

Samuel Thompson was filled with longing. “If I get the chance someday, I must go see it for myself.”

But the academy’s opening day was fast approaching, and taking a detour might make them late, so after a look, the two continued on their way.

When they reached the foot of Shangling Mountain, it was mid-September. The scenery in Shu was beautiful, and with the crisp autumn air, it was truly delightful.