Chapter 26 Little Thief
"The secret cannot be revealed." Li Daoxuan confirmed his thoughts and smiled. He patted his eldest brother's shoulder, and the two brothers put their arms around each other's shoulders.

"Brother, tell me which girl this is. She has made you lose your appetite and even want to become a Taoist priest."

"Hey!" The eldest brother didn't know where to start, he just sighed and covered his face with bitterness. "Little brother, how can I start talking about this?"

"You must say what you should say. Brother, you are not a girl, why are you so shy? If you really have a crush on someone, just say it, otherwise you will regret it if you miss her in the end." Li Daoxuan encouraged his brother and tried to open his heart and listen to the gossip. After all, the girl who made his brother miss her so much must be an outstanding person.

"." The eldest brother was silent for a while and then slowly spoke, whispering to Li Daoxuan what was hidden in his heart.

It turned out that the eldest brother went to Hangzhou to manage a shop and met a beautiful girl in Hangzhou. The girl was dressed in white and danced gracefully on the West Lake pleasure boat. The stunning appearance immediately entered the eldest brother's heart and made him never forget her.

The eldest brother stayed in Hangzhou for a few more days, looking for the girl in white everywhere. At first, he thought she was a daughter of someone's family, but he had never heard of her among the famous families in Hangzhou. Later, he started looking for her among the merchants and small families, but he found nothing. He thought that the two of them would never be together again, but he never expected that he would find the girl in a brothel and a boat in Hangzhou.

"I just like her and want to marry her, but you should know that my parents won't allow it." The eldest brother said with a wry smile. "I can marry any decent girl, from the Wang family, the Chen family, or the Su or Bai family. Even if she's a peasant, it doesn't matter, but I can never marry a prostitute like this."

Li Daoxuan suddenly realized after hearing this. It was no wonder that his elder brother had such a hard-to-tell secret. After all, as the eldest son of the Li family, he would inherit the family business sooner or later. No decent parent would let their child marry a prostitute. This would not only bring disgrace to the family, but would also make outsiders look down on the Li family.

The eldest brother can marry that woman as a concubine, or make her a concubine, but he cannot make her a concubine.

"But I only like her, I don't want to marry anyone else. I don't want to marry that girl from the Wang family, that's not what I want!" The eldest brother gritted his teeth and said angrily, and looked at Li Daoxuan with some expectation. "Daoxuan, you should understand the depression in your heart, right?"

"Brother, my parents will not let you marry a woman like this." Li Daoxuan could only shake his head. Even he, a man of the future, knew how much stigma one would bear if he married a prostitute in this era. Whether it was sincere or false, there was a thick wall between them. "I think you should think more open-mindedly and marry her as a concubine."

"You don't understand, you don't understand, Third Brother." The eldest brother said gloomily. "I will only marry her. I will only marry her in this life. I don't like anyone else. I don't like anyone else."

The eldest brother muttered as if he was possessed. He finished the breakfast in the bowl and walked out with a cold face.

Looking at his elder brother's crazy back, Li Daoxuan touched his head in confusion. He really didn't understand what was wrong. What kind of drug had been fed to his elder brother that made him want to marry a prostitute as his legal wife? Not to mention how much resistance there was at home, the secular perspective was enough to destroy him. Anyway, Li's father and mother would definitely not allow their eldest son to marry this person as the future mistress of the Li family, even if they had to sever ties with their elder brother for this.

Besides, isn't it good to be a concubine? It's better than that girl staying in the dusty place now, right? Li Daoxuan couldn't understand the eldest brother's train of thought, so he simply stopped thinking about it. After all, this is the matter of the cheap parents and the eldest son, and has nothing to do with him, the third child.

After breakfast, the other members of the Li family woke up one after another. A large table of people sat down, and Li Daoxuan left early.

There was nothing to do in the old house, except reading books and practicing calligraphy. It was boring to stay there for a long time, so Li Daoxuan decided to go out and visit various places in the village to appreciate the last afterglow of the rural area in the feudal era.

With two servants, he walked along the frosty dirt road. He looked around curiously, and was very interested in this bustling village. Lijia Village was a large village, more like a town than a village. From a distance, it was a dark patch of black tiles. In addition to the Li family, there were several other gentry living there, all of whom had large villas with white walls and black tiles.

As the village grows bigger, there will naturally be demand, and rural markets will be formed as a result.

The morning was a good time to go to the market, and the market in Lijia Village was also bustling. Farmers from the surrounding villages and towns came to the market with their donkeys and loads on their shoulders.

Li Daoxuan had only seen this kind of rural market in his childhood memories. As urbanization intensified, the villagers moved away or died of old age. The rural market gradually declined.

He still remembered that the last time he went back, the market village where he always wanted to go as a child had only a few households left, and only a small shop remained at the entrance of the village.

Walking on the streets of the market, people were coming and going, and the two servants were nervously guarding Li Daoxuan, fearing that he would be kidnapped. The people who came to the market saw that he was dressed in fancy clothes, and they all knew that he was the child of several landlords in the village, so they avoided him to avoid getting themselves into trouble.

As the saying goes, business is business, and the countryside is countryside. The landlords and gentry who went to the countryside have taken root, and their words are more effective than those of the big masters in the government. The villagers can disobey the government, but they cannot disobey the landlords and gentry. Otherwise, the disaster of breaking the door is inevitable, and if things go wrong, the family will be destroyed.

Seeing that there was nothing interesting to see, Li Daoxuan was about to go back home, but a skinny kid bumped into him. He didn't seem to stop after bumping shoulders with him, but was grabbed by a servant. It must be said that not all the servants raised by the Li family were just idlers.

"Master! I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." Seeing that he was caught, the child's eyes were full of anxiety. He looked at Li Daoxuan in fear, and his face covered with mud showed a pleading look. Seeing him like this, Li Daoxuan was not angry. He asked the servants who were holding him to let go and let him go.

The boy was like a loach. After the two servants let go of him, he ran towards the crowd of people in the distance and disappeared in a short while.

Li Daoxuan shook his head in amusement, but his expression turned strange after he had only taken two steps. He reached out and touched his waist, with a look of astonishment in his eyes, his purse was gone.

"Damn, I met a thief!" Li Daoxuan was very angry. He didn't expect that the guy he just let go was actually a thief who stole the purse he was carrying!

Although there was nothing valuable in the purse, just two talismans for protection and a small bottle of cow's tears, it was still his stuff.

This is called stealing. How can he still maintain his dignity as a disciple of Maoshan?

"My things were stolen by that kid." Li Daoxuan said angrily.

The two servants were stunned and looked at each other. After telling Li Daoxuan something, they went to look for him on the street.

(End of this chapter)