My daily mountain driving, I met a fox at the beginning and got married

"Yes." The little girl nodded.

"Go find the clerk later and redeem your father's jade pendant. The fee will be deducted from my account. You can continue to live here, and don't worry about food for now. We will talk about the rest later."

As soon as Zhang Hao finished speaking, a glimmer of hope instantly ignited in the little girl's eyes, and then tears welled up in her eyes.

"Really? Can I really redeem my father's jade pendant?"

Although she was still young, she already had a basic sense of shame and knew that it was wrong to pawn the jade pendant.

"Of course, go ahead. I have plenty of money, but you have to remember that I am not a good person."

Before Zhang Hao finished speaking, the little girl rushed to the clerk in excitement. She pointed in the direction of Zhang Hao and chattered something, probably explaining the jade pendant.

The waiter looked at Zhang Hao in the direction of her finger. Zhang Hao nodded slightly. Seeing that Zhang Hao was willing to exchange his own property, the waiter turned and walked to the back hall. Not long after, the waiter came out with a jade pendant and handed it to the little girl. The little girl held the jade pendant in both hands, as if she was holding the most precious treasure in the world. With a happy smile on her face, she jumped back to Zhang Hao.

"This treasure is finally back in my hands! Thank you, brother!"

"This is the last thought your father left you. It is of great significance. You must keep it well. Even if you encounter great difficulties in the future, you must rely on your own hands to make money. There is no need to sell this thing."

"But I was really desperate at the time. I couldn't even get enough food to eat. I was starving. If I didn't sell it, I was really afraid that I would starve to death..."

Zhang Hao didn't want to continue dwelling on the issue of eating, so he quickly changed the subject.

"What's your name?"

"My name is Xiao Qiao."

"Xiao Qiao, I will be staying here for the next month. If you want, you can follow me. I can teach you some basic skills to make a living, so that you won't go hungry after I leave. If you want to learn, come to my room upstairs after dinner."

After saying that, Zhang Hao stood up and slowly walked back to his room.

He had no interest in wandering the streets outside. After all, he already had a general idea of ​​the world's security situation, so there was really no need to go out for a walk.

Not long after Zhang Hao sat down in the room, there was a knock on the door.

Xiao Qiao gently pushed open the door, stood timidly at the door, and whispered, "The waiter just said that he would change your room later. Should I...should I come in again?"

"Come in. The store is the busiest in the morning. They probably haven't had time to change my room yet. Let me tell you something first."

Although Xiao Qiao was still young, he was very sensible. After hearing what Zhang Hao said, he knew that he had something important to say, so he hurried into the house and sat obediently on the blanket in front of Zhang Hao.

"You should know that there are many strange things appearing here at night, right?"

"I know there are a lot of scary things at night. I saw them when I was a child, and my father also told me not to wander around the streets at night and to find a house to hide in."

Listening to Xiao Qiao's words, Zhang Hao became more and more certain that in this world, people have long been accustomed to these things, and even the education of children revolves around these.

"That's right. I happen to have a skill, which is to subdue those evil things. If you learn it, you can catch evil spirits and help people protect their homes like those Yin-Yang masters who can still walk freely on the streets at night, and earn money for it. However, if you enter this line of work, you may be a little out of touch with the lives of ordinary people, and those normal people may even stay away from you because of this. But for now, this is the only way I can teach you."

Zhang Hao felt that he and the little girl were destined to be together, and he could have left many rare treasures for her so that she would never have to worry about food and clothing for the rest of her life.

But Zhang Hao understood the principle of "giving a man a fish is not as good as teaching him how to fish". Instead of giving her so many strange treasures, it would be better to teach her some real skills, so that she might be able to make more money in the future.

Zhang Hao thought the girl would be somewhat resistant, and he was even ready to persuade her. Unexpectedly, she agreed without hesitation.

"I am willing to learn anything you teach me, brother. I will definitely learn it well!"

The words of persuasion that Zhang Hao had prepared were now of no use, and he cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Well, that's good. It saves me from having to persuade you again. I can't guarantee how much I can teach you in a month. I may have to go out today to find out what kind of evil spirits there are here. When I come back, I will think carefully about how to help you."

"Can I go with you? I promise I won't cause any trouble for you. I can even help you carry your things!"

Zhang Hao looked at Xiao Qiao's thin arms and legs and thought that he would be a terrible person if he asked this little girl to help him carry things.

"I don't need your little arms and legs to help me. Go wash your face first. Look at your dirty face. Give this to the waiter later and ask him to find you a set of clean clothes."

As he spoke, Zhang Hao took out another night-shining pearl and handed it to Xiao Qiao. Although Xiao Qiao didn't know how precious this thing was, as long as it was given by Zhang Hao, she regarded it as a treasure, held the night-shining pearl carefully, and turned to leave.

About half an hour later, there was another knock on the door.

"Sir, your room has been cleaned up. Is it convenient to change rooms now?"

Zhang Hao opened the door and said to the waiter, "I don't have any personal belongings here, so you can just clean the room. I'm going to take the girl out later, so please arrange a safer room for her. After all, this town is not safe at night, right?"

Zhang Hao seemed to mention ghosts casually, and the waiter did not shy away from it. He followed his words and responded with a smile: "Yes, it is indeed not peaceful here at night. We have to be extra careful at night!"

Do they have to be careful at night too?

Zhang Hao started to wonder, could it be that they wouldn't turn into ghosts at night, and others would have to be on guard against them?
Zhang Hao didn't express his doubts, but just nodded and walked out.

Downstairs, Xiao Qiao was standing there, wearing a clean dress, the same style as the girls on the street, which was the latest fashion in town. The warm yellow dress made her pale and thin face look even more obvious, and people didn't know whether to feel pity or find her funny.

Seeing Zhang Hao, Xiao Qiao waved excitedly and turned around to show off her new clothes. "Brother, what do you think of my clothes?"

Zhang Hao shook his head helplessly and went downstairs.

"You have to call me Master from now on. After all, I am going to teach you the real skills. Do you understand?"

"I understand, Master! From now on, you are my Master!"

Xiao Qiao was quite straightforward. When she heard Zhang Hao say in person that he wanted to take her as his disciple, she actually knelt down in the lobby.

The eyes of the people around him turned to Zhang Hao. Zhang Hao suddenly felt embarrassed and hurried forward to help Xiao Qiao up before she finished bowing.

"Alright, alright, let's not bother with these empty formalities. Don't kowtow to me again. Let's go."

Xiao Qiao didn't know what she had done to make Zhang Hao unhappy. She looked aggrieved, but didn't say much.

At this time, the street outside had completely lost the bleak and deserted feeling of last night, and looked like a prosperous town. The vendors hawking their wares along the street all had happy smiles on their faces. If someone didn't know this place well, they would think that this town was nothing special.

But Zhang Hao had witnessed everything that happened last night, and when he looked at this lively scene again, he felt a huge contrast and was filled with confusion.

Why do these people think that ghosts and monsters are rampant in this era, and this is normal? Is it supposed to be this way?
"Sir, would you like to try some osmanthus cake?" An old man with a kind face suddenly called Zhang Hao and enthusiastically promoted his freshly baked osmanthus cake.

It was the season of sweet-scented osmanthus, and the air was filled with the fresh and rich fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus. When Xiao Qiao saw the sweet-scented osmanthus cake, she could not move her feet and kept swallowing her saliva. However, no matter how tempting the sweet-scented osmanthus cake was, she did not take the initiative to ask Zhang Hao for it, but just followed Zhang Hao obediently, swallowing her saliva silently.

Zhang Hao glanced at Xiao Qiao, and Xiao Qiao quickly turned her head away, trying to hide her greedy look, which made Zhang Hao want to laugh.

"How much is it?"

"Two cents a portion, freshly baked. Business hasn't been good these past two days, so I'll give you half a portion, or else I'm afraid we won't be able to sell them all today!"

The old man carefully wrapped the osmanthus cake with lotus leaves and handed it to Zhang Hao. Zhang Hao handed the osmanthus cake to Xiao Qiao, who immediately picked up a piece and ate it with relish.

Zhang Hao's attention was drawn to what the old man had just said.

"Is your business bad these past two days? I see there are quite a lot of people on the street, and your sweet-scented osmanthus cake smells so good, it shouldn't be unsellable, right?"

"Alas, there is nothing I can do. These past few days, things have been turbulent and no one dares to go out easily. A few days ago, the streets were bustling with people, and every time I made a pot of osmanthus cake, it was snapped up. Now it is not as good as before!"

"What happened recently? I saw yesterday evening, before it got dark, there were not many people on the street. I'm new in this town."

After hearing this, the old man smiled with sudden enlightenment.

"I see you're from out of town, young man. The clothes you wear don't look like the ones we wear here. Are you from the Western Regions, or did you come from the North?"

"I came from the east and wanted to travel around and stop here for a while. I didn't expect this town to look so weird. It made me feel creepy. In the middle of the night, someone knocked on my window, and I live on the second floor!"

Zhang Hao deliberately pretended to be aggrieved, and the old man immediately put on the attitude of a "landlord".

"Oh, why did you come all the way here to suffer like this? Among the Sixteen Kingdoms in the Central Plains, our place is the most chaotic. Every night, those unclean things come out to make trouble. But as long as you stay in the house honestly, you will be fine. After resting your feet, you should leave quickly. This is really not a place for people to stay!"

It can be seen that the old man is already accustomed to those things.

Seeing that Xiao Qiao was almost finishing the osmanthus cake, Zhang Hao paid for another one.

"Hearing what you said, I am really a little curious. What are those unclean things you are talking about?"

"How should I put it? In this world, there is yang and yin. Where there are clean things, there are naturally dirty things. Those things wandering on the street are not necessarily all ghosts. It may also be that a cat or dog died and they were unwilling to accept it. They suffered in the human world and cultivated into spirits, and came out at night to take revenge. However, these things may not necessarily harm people. As long as we hide in the house, they generally won't break through the window to harm you. But if you don't listen to advice and walk out of the room, then no one can protect you."

When Zhang Hao heard this, he pretended to be enlightened.

"No wonder when I was closing the window last night, I saw a talisman stuck to the corner of the window. It seems to be used to ward off evil spirits. I've heard people mention it before, but this is the first time I've seen it with my own eyes!"

The more reverence Zhang Hao showed, the more smug the old man looked.

"You don't understand this, right? The talismans here were all drawn by Lord Zhang. Lord Zhang is truly a good official here, and he takes the safety of the common people to heart. If there really is an evil creature that wants to harm someone, Lord Zhang will subdue it even if he has to chase it to the ends of the earth, and then send it to the family of the deceased."

Hearing this, Zhang Hao finally caught a key name - Lord Zhang.

Mr. Zhang is the official here, probably just like the mayor. Although this town is not big, it looks very prosperous and the prices are not low. It should be a good place. If there were no demons and ghosts running rampant at night, there would definitely be many people coming here to play, instead of only the people in the town living here.

Zhang Hao kept chatting with the old man. Every time Xiao Qiao was almost done with her sweet-scented osmanthus cake, he would buy her another one, using this as an excuse to continue chatting with the old man.

But no matter how hungry Xiao Qiao was, she had already eaten a lot in the morning, and now she stuffed several servings of sweet-scented osmanthus cakes into her mouth, which was already bulging like a hamster. Seeing that Zhang Hao was about to pay for it again, she quickly grabbed Zhang Hao's arm.

"Master, I really can't eat any more, please don't buy any more."

"That's it."

Seeing a trace of disappointment flash across Zhang Hao's face, the old man immediately slapped his thigh, feeling that he had met a soulmate.

"I'll give you another portion. Whenever you want to eat sweet-scented osmanthus cake in the future, just tell me and I'll make it for you anytime. I've lived for most of my life, and I've never met a young person like you who loves chatting with the elderly. As expected, people from the east are all good people, just like Mr. Zhang." (End of this chapter)