Chapter 122 Night Talk
"Thank you, Taoist Priest Li. If you hadn't been here, I don't know what I would have done." Zhao Laosan was holding a lantern with a look of relief on his face. His anxious expression gradually eased, and his eyes were full of worry for Master Zhao.

Li Daoxuan naturally glanced at Zhao Laosan's expression, with a smile on his face, and pointed at Mr. Zhao who was being helped up and said: "Don't take off the talisman I put on Mr. Zhao for the time being, keep it for two days to drive away the evil spirit."

"Okay, I'll tell the maid." Zhao Laosan nodded, turned his head to look at the dark corner, and asked again, "Did my father do anything strange?"

"Who is the Third Young Master referring to?" Li Daoxuan asked pretending to be confused.

Zhao Laosan looked at him and then gave an apologetic smile.

"I told the little Taoist priest last time that my father liked to dig holes in the yard in the middle of the night. I wonder if the priest noticed the hole just now?"

"Before I had the chance to check, I saw that Master Zhao had a breakdown. I looked around and saw that no one was helping, so I took action rashly. As for the hole that the third young master mentioned, could it be the hole dug over there?" Li Daoxuan said calmly, pointing to the black hole on the wall.

After hearing this, Zhao Laosan stopped where he was and waited for a while before he let out a long sigh.

"It's there. My father has been doing weird things like this in the middle of the night recently." Zhao Laosan sighed, then led his men to the pit.

He picked up the lantern and looked into the hole. After a moment's silence, he asked someone to fill it up.

He was responsible for taking care of Mr. Zhao, telling the servants to look after the yard, and dealing with all the noises that Mr. Zhao made. Mr. Zhao was like the eldest son of a wealthy family, worrying about everything.

It seemed that no one except him was taking care of the Zhao family's affairs. Li Daoxuan hadn't even seen Mrs. Zhao today.

Li Daoxuan was confused and puzzled about the strange things happening in the Zhao family. After all, in a normal wealthy family, the head of the family and his wife are mostly in charge of things, and the eldest child in the family is usually the heir. Although he has the qualifications to interfere in household affairs, he must obtain the consent of the head of the family and his wife.

This was the family class structure in the old society, and it was also the inevitable power structure of a clan. It was rare for the third child in the family to be in charge of household affairs, and some would even directly skip over the second child.

Take the Li family for example. The affairs of the Li family are managed by Mr. Li and Mrs. Li. Although the eldest brother is the future heir of the Li family, he seldom intervenes directly in the internal affairs of the Li family. At most, he follows Mr. Li around and learns the ways of doing business and human relations.

However, Li Daoxuan still knew about the Zhao family's household affairs, so it would be better for him to pay less attention to them.

No matter how strange the Zhao family's affairs were, they had nothing to do with him. After he went to the Zhao family's house and solved the problem of Mr. Zhao being cursed, he took the money and immediately left with Li Yanming.

After Zhao Laosan had dealt with everything, he came forward with an apologetic look. He bowed to Li Daoxuan and said with a forced smile: "I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Taoist priest."

"It's okay. I can understand the Third Young Master's difficulties." Li Daoxuan replied.

"I am really sorry for disturbing you so late at night. But if you are not in a hurry to rest, why don't you go sit in the hall? I will ask the servants to prepare some supper. By the way, I also want to hear about my father's situation. What happened to him?"

"Good." Li Daoxuan did not refuse and accepted Zhao Laosan's kindness frankly.

He put the peach wood sword on his back and followed Zhao Laosan into the hall.

The servants have already lit the lights in the hall, which is no worse than during the day.

Li Daoxuan secretly counted the candles in the hall, and there were more than 30 candles lit. He could not help but be amazed, thinking that the Zhao family was really rich. Although the Li family was also a wealthy merchant in Jinling, they were not so extravagant as to light dozens of candles in a room. After all, the price of candles at that time was much higher than that of oil lamps. Even ordinary candles used by the people cost about 30 or 40 coins to buy one. If the candles in this room burned for a night, one tael of silver would be burned.

Ordinary people used oil lamps for lighting, and if they occasionally used candles, they would be extinguished at 12:00 p.m. and a candle would often be used for several days.

All I can say is that the Zhao family is worthy of being the local rich family of Dingjiao Town. They are really rich.

Sit down with Zhao Laosan, and the maid brings tea.

Pick up the teacup and take a sip of tea, the warmth will dispel the chill of the midnight.

"Master, I'm sorry to disturb your rest today. How about I ask my servants to find you another room after dawn?" asked Zhao Laosan.

"It's okay, it's not a bother." Li Daoxuan smiled and shook his head. "Since you live in the Zhao family, your father's problems are unavoidable. I'm just curious, did the Zhao family just let your father dig holes and dig in the yard in the middle of the night?"

"Alas, it's really something we can't help." Upon hearing this, Zhao Laosan sighed again, and then explained the reason why no one was looking after Master Zhao.

It turned out that it wasn't that no one was looking after Master Zhao, but that the maids and servants who were looking after Master Zhao were all frightened out of their wits, and some were even scared to the point of going crazy.

After Master Zhao became like this, he had to change several people to take care of him. He even asked a Taoist priest to perform a ritual to remove the evil spirits. Who would have thought that the maids who were normal the day before would go crazy the next day. When they were found, their faces were pale, the corners of their lips were black, and they hid in the corners and talked to themselves. Some of them were even afraid of light. Once they saw the sun, they would be like having epilepsy, foaming at the mouth and twitching on the ground.

This happened two or three times, and the maids and servants in the house dared not serve Master Zhao at night. The other members of the Zhao family were also very afraid of getting into trouble, so after a while, apart from the servants who stayed around to watch over him, there was no one else serving him in the house. If Master Zhao left the house in the middle of the night, no one dared to follow him. Everyone just pretended not to know what Master Zhao was doing at night.

"After listening to me, Taoist priest should understand why there was no one to look after my father at home in the middle of the night. Speaking of which, our family once invited Taoist priests and monks to watch over my father all night, but unfortunately, they ran away the next day without asking for any money, saying that there was a powerful evil spirit in the house and they dared not stay any longer. You talk about this... Alas." Zhao Laosan said with a wry smile.

Li Daoxuan listened and nodded, indicating that he understood Zhao Laosan's difficulties.

"But today, the Taoist priest came and was able to stabilize my father's condition. I am really happy. If you need me to trouble you with these things in the future, I will definitely double your reward." Zhao Laosan smiled sincerely and personally added hot tea to Li Daoxuan's cup. "The Taoist priest is really a man of great ability. I am lucky to meet him."

"Third Young Master, there is no need to do this. These are what I should do. Exorcising evil and punishing the evildoers, and restoring Haoran, are the responsibilities of my Taoist sect. Even if Third Young Master did not mention it, I would not have allowed Master Zhao to be in this situation." Li Daoxuan spoke with great righteousness. Although his face was young and immature, he was also quite majestic.

Zhao Laosan stared at him for a long time and bowed devoutly: "The Taoist priest is the real Taoist!"

"I don't deserve it. I don't deserve it." Li Daoxuan said hurriedly.

The two smiled at each other and exchanged pleasantries for a while.

From the distance came the sound of night watchmen beating the drums, first slow and then fast. "Dong! Dong! Dong!"

It was already four o'clock in the morning, and the passion in Li Daoxuan's eyes faded, revealing a hint of depth.

(End of this chapter)