Chapter 27 Reprimand
"Hey, what a fool." The child with a dirty face was playing with the purse with a smug smile. He, or rather she, looked at the purse tied with a rope and walked towards a corner of the market street. She seemed to be familiar with this place, and when she walked, she also took a look at the people pushing and searching outside.

With a hint of gloating in his eyes, he hummed a little tune and walked deeper into the village.

"Today I had an unexpected surprise. I didn't expect to meet the silly son of a landowner. He brought two servants with him and was not very alert, so I got it easily."

Muttering to himself, he walked through the houses with tile roofs. Suddenly, a small courtyard appeared. The child knocked on the gate of the small courtyard, and the gate opened a crack and a person came out.

He looked around and saw nothing unusual, so he opened the door and let the child in.

This small courtyard is just an ordinary house in Lijia Village, built with mud and stones. Walking into the courtyard, you can see two old tiled houses. One is an open pig and cattle shed, and the single room next to it is a kitchen for cooking. The other is a four-bedroom house, and you can see someone sitting on the door railing sharpening a knife from a distance.

There were three or four strong men in the yard. In addition to the man sharpening the knife, there were also people feeding pigs and cows, and some practicing martial arts by pushing the millstone.

Seeing the child coming in, the man who was practicing martial arts stopped breathing, pulled a clean towel from the clothes drying rack beside him to wipe his body, and smiled at the child, "Junior sister, did you gain anything from going out?"

"Of course there is." The child proudly threw the purse and walked to the water tank in the yard to fetch water to wash her face. After cleaning the mud on her face, she became a mischievous little girl. Her eyes were as bright as pearls, and her red lips were like peach blossoms in March. Her nose was small and cute, and you could tell she was a beauty at first glance.

"There are quite a lot of stupid sons of landlords in Lijia Village. I just took some things when I went out for a walk. It feels quite heavy inside, but I don't know how much silver it can contain." The little girl played with Li Daoxuan's purse. She was a little curious about the hard things in the purse. After all, opening a purse is like drawing a lottery, and it is always the most attractive curiosity before opening it.

The martial artist came up and looked at the wallet in the little girl's hand. He saw the capital letter "Li" on the wallet and knew where it came from.

"The man you stole from must be the foolish boy of the Jinling merchant Li family. I heard that the Li family is very wealthy, so the money given to their son must be quite a lot." The strong man smiled and put on his shirt to cover his muscular body. His body was like a leopard, and his back was like a tiger. He was really majestic and handsome. His eyes were like swords, and his eyebrows were upturned like the tip of a pen or a knife. Just standing there, he could make people feel daunted.

Hearing what her senior brother said, the little girl's face was even happier. After all, she always liked taking money from rich people. She was busy opening her purse and looking inside, then she uttered a puzzled sound.

"what?"

"Junior sister, what's wrong?" asked the burly man.

"There's no money in it." The little girl said in disbelief, and took out everything in the purse. First, she took out a small celadon bottle, which was round, thick, and a little silly. Then she took out two yellow talismans with runes and Taoist paintings on them. Then she took out three copper coins, all of which were Tongbao coins from the Qianlong period. Finally, she emptied the purse, and there was nothing else in it.

"How can he have no money?" The little girl stared at the burly man with wide eyes. "Brother, you just said that this guy is a fool from the Li family, right? Isn't his family a wealthy merchant from Jinling? How can he not have any money on him? How abominable!"

"Yes." The strong man sneered. "Junior sister, you took other people's things, but you blame them even though you don't have money?"

"Hmph! Blame it on him! What kind of dandy boy is there without money? He's a wealthy businessman from Jinling, but I think he's just stingy! Look what this is!" The little girl opened the small bottle and poured it into her hands. She saw a pool of transparent liquid flowing on her hands, giving off a strange salty and fishy smell.

"What is this?" The little girl looked at the liquid in her hand with some curiosity. This thing was as transparent and colorless as water, and seemed to be no different from water except for a strange smell. The strong man also came over, put his finger on it to check, looked at it for a moment, and smelled it.

"This looks like cow's tears."

"Cow's tears? Why did that guy bring this stuff!" The little girl didn't quite understand what this merchant's son was thinking. He went out to the market without any money, but brought all these messy things. What's the use of bottled cow's tears? Can it replenish the body?

Thinking of that scene, the little girl shuddered, and quickly put the cork in the small porcelain bottle, holding it in her hand and preparing to throw it away. But the next moment, she was stopped by her senior brother.

"Don't throw it away yet, it might be of some use."

"What's the use of this?" the little girl frowned and asked in confusion.

"Have you ever heard of a folk story? It is said that if you put cow tears on your eyes, you can see ghosts at night. This thing is usually collected by those Taoist priests with big noses. It is useless for ordinary people. But we came to Lijia Village this time to explore that place. Maybe it will be of some use at that time."

Listening to the strong man's words, the little girl didn't believe it, but she still stuffed the bottle into her purse. After all, she would listen to her senior brother's words. But in the end, she still muttered: "It's not that scary. What gods and ghosts are all lies made by monks and Taoist priests. Only you believe them."

Then she looked at the two yellow talismans again, but she couldn't understand the words on them. The strong man also couldn't understand what the talismans were for, and the two of them, one big and one small, looked at each other in the eye.

At this time, a veiled woman walked out of the house. She was wearing a blue and white dress and a white scarf on her face. Although her face was not clear, her pair of charming eyes, as bright as the moonlight, were enough to attract any man's attention.

Holding a whisk in his hand, his steps were light but very steady. He walked over to the two of them and picked up the yellow talisman in the little girl's hand. There was a bit of surprise in his charming eyes: "Is it a talisman for the gods? A talisman for exorcising evil spirits? It's actually a genuine spiritual talisman, it's really rare."

After reading the talisman, he looked at the little girl again and saw that she still had three copper coins in her hand. He couldn't help but frown and asked, "Where did these things come from?"

"This... Sister Xue, I stole it from the boy from the Li family..." The little girl explained in a low voice, her smart eyes secretly glanced at the woman, and then quickly lowered her head without daring to explain too much. She seemed to be very afraid of the woman in front of her, just like a mouse seeing a cat.

She hid behind a sturdy man, who quietly retreated halfway, leaving her junior sister no way to escape. The angry little girl stamped her feet and glared at her senior brother fiercely.

"You've stolen again." The woman's voice was somewhat stern, her eyes staring at the little girl like sharp swords. "I have taught you so many times not to steal other people's things casually, but you never listened to me."

"I know I was wrong, Sister Xue..." The little girl lowered her head in grievance, tears welling up in her eyes. She pouted, and the look on her face made people feel distressed and pitiful. Even the strong man who was watching the excitement couldn't help but feel pity, and coughed a few times, wanting to stand up and speak for his junior sister.

Unexpectedly, the woman glanced at him, and the strong man took another half step back and looked outside the yard pretending to be ignorant.

(End of this chapter)