"You little bitch, do you think I'm kidding you?" Although Li Guanchai was a lowly clerk, he was a well-known bully in the Caijia Lane area. How could he allow a little girl to name and scold him? He waved his hand and ordered fiercely: "What are you doing? Arrest her. If Fang doesn't pay, let his daughter pay for it!"

Several white servants were about to surround them with a smile. Qiaoqiao's mother quickly protected her daughter and begged desperately.

Stall owner Fang became anxious and wanted to step forward to protect his daughter, but was pulled away by two white servants.

The old captain couldn't bear to watch it any longer, so he stood up to block the unemployed servants and said to the officer Li, "Jiutian, we are just neighbors on the street, collecting money from the stall, is it necessary to do this?"

"Old Yu, stop meddling in other people's business." Officer Li was not in a good mood towards the old captain, and said with a dark face: "The master got angry this morning. If you don't collect the silver today, he will beat me with a stick tomorrow!"

Although the old Jiachang has the word "chang" in his name, he is only the head of ten households, with no power, no influence, and no status. If the officials respect him, it's fine, but if they don't respect him, there's nothing he can do. Seeing that Li Jiutian didn't give him any face, he stood there, feeling quite embarrassed.

"You shouldn't collect this tax from him!" The old man at the side suddenly said in a cold voice: "According to the rules, the tax on door stalls is only collected from merchants sitting in stores. I have been in Nanjing for so many years, and I have never heard of collecting taxes from breakfast stalls!"

"Old Zhao, you damned exile, stop quibbling over words! Do you think you are still the imperial censor who speaks for the emperor?" Li Jiutian rolled his eyes, took out the ticket of Shangyuan County from his pocket and said, "I only listen to the master. He has to pay what the master says!"

As he said this, he glanced at the two old men and said teasingly, "If you two want to meddle in this matter, go ahead. Just pay the five taels of silver for him and I will leave immediately without saying anything."

"This..." How could two old people who only eat porridge all day long take out five taels of silver?

Just when he didn't know what to do, something shiny flew over and hit Li Jiutian.

Any hidden weapons?

Li Jiutian subconsciously reached out to catch it, but saw that it was an ingot of five taels of official silver.

He followed the path of the silver and saw a young man with his back to him, holding a bowl and eating porridge slowly.

"What are you still standing there for? Get out of here right now..."

I just heard the young man speak softly without even looking at him.

"My mood for drinking porridge has been ruined."

"Hey..." Li Jiutian stared as he clutched the silver. But seeing that young man was wearing a well-cut brocade robe and a jade pendant sachet hanging from his waist, even if he was sitting in this shabby mess, it couldn't hide his outstanding temperament. He didn't know which young master was visiting incognito, how could he, a small clerk, dare to offend him easily?

"roll!"

At this moment, a loud shout exploded in his ears, and the ferocious Gao Wu finally uttered this word.

Gao Wu was a skilled warrior, had killed Japanese pirates as a soldier, and had a bad temper. Li Jiutian would not dare to provoke him easily. Seeing that he had become the bodyguard of the young man, he was more certain that he had provoked someone he could not afford to offend. In a moment, he changed his expression and said with a full smile:

"Please forgive me, sir. It is because the Southern Ministry of Revenue suddenly demanded the overdue taxes and silver. The master had no choice but to assign the money. If Old Li had not been forced into a corner, he would not have been so unkind."

"..." Zhao Hao wanted to say something to him. But he was speechless after hearing this. It turned out that it was all because of the old man's deficit. Now he couldn't justify himself, so he nodded and continued to eat his porridge in silence.

"I won't disturb you from eating." Li Jiutian nodded and bowed hurriedly, while asking the waiter to let go of the stall owner Fang, and walked away dejectedly.

After all the officers left, the stall owner and his wife hurriedly thanked Zhao Hao profusely.

"Don't thank me, this is an advance payment for Fang Wen's wages." Zhao Hao smiled faintly, stood up and smiled at the woman, "Just now, the stall owner has agreed to let your son be my father's book boy for three years."

The woman was slightly startled, and the stall owner leaned close to her ear and whispered something. The woman was immediately overjoyed, and she agreed without hesitation, and even asked her son to kowtow to Zhao Hao.

"That's not necessary. You're not my servant." Zhao Hao turned sideways and refused his courtesy.

The stall owner and his wife thanked the old captain and his father-in-law for speaking up for justice.

The old captain said awkwardly, "We two old men are just taking advantage of our age. If people don't buy our advice, we can only fumble around."

Mr. Zhao also nodded silently, obviously feeling a little uncomfortable after being exposed by Li Jiutian.

Zhao Hao smiled and bowed to him, saying, "So my father-in-law's surname is also Zhao. Maybe we were from the same family five hundred years ago."

"Haha, there are so many people with the surname Zhao, they may not be from the same family..." Zhao's father-in-law had always been kind to Zhao Hao, but now he actually started talking to Qiao.

Zhao Hao smiled indifferently. He was more concerned about what Li Guancha said. This gray-haired, plain-looking old man was actually an imperial censor who was exiled. This must be a big deal...

But Mr. Zhao obviously didn't want to discuss this, so he had to put it aside for the time being.

Everyone helped the Fang family pack up their stall, and Zhao Hao asked the old head of the team to hire more bricklayers and have them work at his home later. After that, they gave the gifts to everyone and went home.

Qiaoqiao seemed to be frightened and remained silent, not saying a word from beginning to end.

~~

When I got home, the carriage delivering the furniture had already arrived. There were more than a dozen large pieces of furniture, filling up three large carriages.

Blacksmith Gao was inspecting the goods one by one there.

"The paint on your table leg has been chipped..."

"Why is the wood of the bed board different from that of the headboard?"

"Such a big bump on the table will break off in a few days. I think you are deliberately deceiving me, so you should just take it back..."

Although he was a blacksmith, his eyes were sharp as a gunsmith. He could tell at a glance where there were bumps and defects.

The boss who personally escorted the furniture was so angry that he blushed, but he could not refute it. He even took the initiative to return two taels of silver as the cost for the buyer to repair the furniture himself.

This operation made Zhao Hao very satisfied. He didn't expect that the old blacksmith also had the potential to be a housekeeper...

By the time the furniture boss, who was so exhausted from crying and shouting that the deal was in vain, left in dismay, the blue tiles that Zhao Hao had purchased for flooring arrived.

The bricks were of high quality and very solid, but Gao the blacksmith could not find any faults. This made Gao, who was ready to make further efforts, quite unhappy.

The old man stood by the well, directing the workers to stack the floor tiles neatly in the corner.

Gao Wu was a simple man, so he also helped to move the bricks. He could move three people's worth of bricks at a time, which stunned the other workers.

Zhao Hao was just watching at first, but soon he felt it was boring, so he casually asked Gao the blacksmith, "Uncle, where did Mr. Zhao come from? I think he's quite extraordinary."

"Hey, young master, you really asked the right person. I have been with him in the military camp for several years."

Gao the blacksmith immediately became interested and ignored the bricklayers. He gossiped to Zhao Hao in a low voice, "In fact, he was a Jinshi who passed the imperial examinations twice, served as a county magistrate, and worked as an imperial censor. Later, he offended someone and was sent to the army... At first, he was in Longchang Posthouse in Guizhou. Later, with the help of someone, he was finally transferred to the rear guard of the government army."

"Is it really the Imperial Censor?" Zhao Hao got confirmation from Gao Tiejiang, nodded slowly and asked, "Do you know his name?"

"It seems, it seems, his name is..." Gao Tiejiang thought for a moment and said, "Zhao Jin, right?"

"Zhao Jin?" Zhao Hao stroked his chin and thought for a moment, then patted Gao Tiejiang's thigh and said, "I know who he is!"

"Who is he?" asked Gao the blacksmith curiously.

"He is Zhao Jin." Zhao Hao blinked and answered vaguely with a smile.

ps. The second chapter has been sent, please vote for recommendation and comment on it~~~