"Thank you so much, Zhao Yuanwai. Without your righteous help this time, we would surely have been seized by the patrol inspector and publicly flogged!"
"A trifling matter, hardly worth mentioning. Your surname is Zhao too, young master. Perhaps we were one family five hundred years ago. We ought to help each other."
"Indeed..."
At Zhao Yuanwai's home, the young gentleman chatted with him in the inner hall, surprised to learn that he, too, was a Zhao living in this harbor city.
Tulin Harbor was a large, thriving commercial city with a sizable population. He had never known there was such a household nearby.
Then again, perhaps they had moved here from elsewhere.
Sure enough, Zhao Yuanwai's next words confirmed his guess.
He had indeed moved into the city twenty years earlier.
"The city is much safer than the countryside."
Speaking of the matter, Zhao Yuanwai explained with a genial smile, then asked about the young gentleman's family.
Simple and honest by nature, the young gentleman answered truthfully. Zhao Yuanwai shared some matters concerning his own household as well, and before they knew it, it was past one in the morning.
Zhao Yuanwai sighed. "I truly regret not meeting you sooner, my worthy nephew. To tell you the truth, more than ten years ago, I had a child myself. Sadly, my son lacked the fortune to live and died young..."
For a moment, the young gentleman did not know what to say.
He had merely found Zhao Yuanwai refined, witty, and wonderfully talkative, and had become engrossed in their conversation without realizing it. He had never imagined this was why the man had taken a liking to him.
Zhao Yuanwai said, "It is late now. My humble home has a few guest rooms, and I have already had the servants