Old Beijingers say "a warm kang makes the house warm", which is absolutely true.

The north wind was howling outside and the weather was freezing cold, but with the kang heated, the whole room was as warm as spring. If the cat stayed on the kang and didn't go out, it would be much more comfortable than spending the winter in Jinling.

Zhao Shixi came into the inner room, and only then did he feel like he was alive again. But with the fierce god Gao Wu behind him, he still did not dare to slack off, and stood up straight, saying to Zhao Hao respectfully: "Grandpa, please forgive Sun, Sun really knows he is wrong..."

"Son of a bitch, stop playing tricks on me. Who are you calling grandpa?" Seeing that he was still trying to play tricks secretly, Zhao Hao sneered and said, "Call me uncle!"

"Yes, uncle." Zhao Shixi shrank his neck. He didn't expect Zhao Hao to speak Cantonese so fluently. His face turned pale immediately, knowing that he had shot himself in the foot again.

"It seems that you still don't know what's wrong." Then Zhao Hao asked coldly: "Then continue to accept the transformation."

As he said this, he instructed Gao Wu, "Let this kid eat, live and train with you guys before the New Year. Just treat him as an ordinary guard. No need to treat him specially!"

"Ah..." Zhao Shixi felt dizzy suddenly. If Gao Wu hadn't grabbed his collar in time, this kid would have fallen to his knees.

"Also, from now until the New Year, you are forbidden to leave the West Courtyard, you are forbidden to contact those bad friends, you are forbidden to drink and gamble, and you are forbidden to do anything that is forbidden."

Zhao Hao was not moved at all. He picked up the paper written by Wang Wuyang and handed it to Gao Wudao: "Take it and strictly implement it!"

"Yes!" Gao Wu responded in a muffled voice and took over the rules and regulations that Zhao Hao had drafted for Zhao Shixi.

Then, he turned around and went out with Zhao Shixi in his hand, but met Zhao Shouzheng coming in from outside at the door.

"Oh, I'm freezing to death..." Zhao Shouzheng stood at the entrance, rubbing his hands and stamping his feet. Fang Wen helped him take off his fur hat, sable coat, and heavy felt boots.

"Hey, why are you here again?" Zhao Shouzheng couldn't help but frown when he saw Zhao Shixi.

"Call someone." Zhao Hao's voice came from the inner room through the thick door curtain.

"Grandpa." Zhao Shixi immediately bowed his head and said, "It's all my fault. I apologize to you."

There is no erhua sound this time.

"That's more like it." Zhao Shouzheng's expression eased a little after hearing this and he said, "Remember, kid, you won't suffer any loss if you are too sweet."

As he said this, he took out a ticket from his sleeve pocket and said, "This is the gift that Uncle prepared for you. If you had pretended to be a grandson earlier, it would have been yours long ago."

Zhao Shixi took the ticket with both hands and looked at the amount on it. It was actually a full one thousand taels of silver. He couldn't help but open his mouth wide and regretted it deeply.

Originally, he just wanted to ask for a hundred or eighty taels...

Unfortunately, there is no medicine for regret in the world. Now I have money but don’t know where to spend it.

~~

Gao Wu carried Zhao Shixi out, and Zhao Shouzheng went into the inner room. He smiled at his son who stood up to greet him, "Why, did my son take care of this bad boy?"

"I can't help it. My elder brother begged me so hard, I can't refuse." Zhao Hao smiled bitterly and curled his lips. He was so lazy that it was hard enough for him to write books and teach his disciples every day. If it wasn't for the fact that his elder brother could embark on the journey without any worries, he wouldn't care about this.

However, although he agreed to help discipline his nephew, Zhao Hao did not want to spend any time on this bad boy, so he kicked him directly to Gao Wu for punishment.

"Then you have to take good care of him." Zhao Shouzheng washed his hands and face, took off his shoes, got on the kang, leaned back on the quilt, stretched slowly and said, "I'm so tired..."

Eryang and Zhao Shizhen took away the pens, ink and books on the table and asked the servants to start serving the dishes.

Zhao Jin had already come over to tell Zhao Hao that he had an appointment tonight and asked them to have dinner by themselves.

Of course, the chef from the Guanglu Temple who was on duty at the mansion would take care of everything, so they still didn't have to worry about anything.

Soon, the kang table was filled with large plates and bowls of scallion-fried sea cucumber, stewed lamb, braised prawns, nine-turn large intestine, grilled lamb skewers... Even the cold dishes were the four major dishes of Jiaodong.

"Today's chef must be a Shandong cuisine chef." Zhao Shouzheng smiled and picked up a piece of scallion-fried sea cucumber with chopsticks and said, "This Shandong cuisine is salty, fresh and authentic. It is very different from the Jinling cuisine and Huaiyang cuisine we often eat."

Zhao Hao and his disciples also started eating around the table, chatting while eating: "What has father been busy with today? Why is he so tired?"

"Oh, forget it. The guild hall was robbed." Zhao Shouzheng took a sip of the spicy liquor and frowned, "Our Yingtian guild hall was robbed for two consecutive nights. Half of my classmates who came to Beijing with me were robbed."

"Really?" Wang Wuyang and Hua Shuyang looked at Zhao Shouzheng in surprise. The former said hurriedly, "Today, when I was visiting my fellow villager Wang Shishu's house, I heard that the Suzhou Guild Hall and Changzhou Guild Hall were also stolen."

"Is the security in the capital so bad?" Zhao Hao was also surprised. He was also somewhat glad that he agreed to live in his elder brother's house. Chunsong Hutong was full of official residences and guarded by soldiers. Thieves would not dare to visit.

"I heard that it was because of the previous invasion of Altan, and there were too many refugees fleeing to Beijing." Hua Shuyang replied, "The New Year is next month, so naturally there are more people who are taking risks."

"Yes." Zhao Shouzheng nodded and said, "The officials from Shuntian Prefecture also said the same thing."

"Oh, Shuntian Prefecture?" Zhao Hao asked curiously, "Shouldn't this kind of theft case be handled by Wanping or Daxing County?"

The capital is similar to Nanjing, with two counties attached to it. In theory, when a case occurs, it should be under the jurisdiction of the county. When the county has completed the case or cannot handle it, it will report it to the prefecture. It is rare to hear that the prefecture will directly handle such trivial matters.

"I heard that Shuntian Prefecture took over the case because the property of more than a dozen candidates was stolen." Zhao Shouzheng smiled happily at Zhao Hao and said, "It's good that Shuntian Prefecture took over. I never expected that the prefecture's prime minister was actually your brother Wu's uncle. He promised to help pay attention to the case and invited you to visit his home."

"Oh?" Zhao Hao was a little surprised. He knew Wu Kangyuan would try to introduce him to his uncle, but he didn't expect it to happen so soon. He thought they would have to wait until the New Year to meet.

Feeling that things were a little complicated, he nodded to show that he understood.

~~

When the two disciples and Zhao Shizhen went out before going to bed, Zhao Shouzheng reported the matter to Zhao Hao:

"After leaving Shuntian Prefecture, I saw that they were all penniless, so I gave each of them two hundred taels of silver, and then went to Dazhalan to hire a security company to protect their residence in the guild hall. Now, of the ten thousand taels of silver you gave me, nearly four thousand taels were spent in one day."

As he said this he couldn't help but smile and said, "It seems that with my father here, maybe I can even exceed the task."

"This is a good start." Zhao Hao also nodded and said in agreement: "After today, my father's reputation as a timely rain will spread among the candidates, and there will be more and more opportunities to spend money in the future."

It was freezing cold outside, and Zhao Hao wanted to stay in bed all day without going out, so the burden of spending money fell on Zhao Shouzheng.

"I'm not bragging, but when it comes to spending money, I'm an expert..." Zhao Shouzheng said confidently.

ps. Sixth update, extra update for 2800 votes... Woohoo, it’s the middle of the night again.