I was a god in the 18th century

Chapter 439: The Little Ghost in the Chimney
The beach house that Owen bought was not big and looked quite old, with the bricks and tiles looking a bit mottled and old. One of the exterior walls was covered with vines, which gave it a unique charm.

As soon as Xia Qingdai entered the villa, she had the idea of ​​renovating it, and immediately said to Owen with great interest: "Wait for me to get some tools to fix it up."

This time when they came to the beach, Owen flew here directly by drone, and Xia Qingdai relied entirely on Owen to perform space jumps, so she didn't bring any servants with her.

But when the original owner bought the villa, Owen also hired a servant who lived in the town and maintained the villa for a long time. Therefore, they didn't have to start from scratch when they came here now.

The servant who was tending the flower garden in the front yard of the villa heard the noise at the gate. He looked up and saw that the iron gate was opened and a very attractive couple walked in from outside.

Who else could that handsome guy walking in front be if not his new owner?

The servant immediately put down the shovel in his hand, stepped out of the flower garden, trotted to Owen, bowed and said, "Oh, Mr. Earl, you are finally here! The day before yesterday, I received your letter from London, and immediately started to do a thorough cleaning. I have cleaned the villa from top to bottom, so you can live in it without worry."

Owen nodded at him and casually praised, "Well done, Haim."

"Thank you. This is what I should do." Heim was praised and felt a little happy. He then looked at Xia Qingdai, who had an oriental face, and said, "This must be Miss Xia, right?"

"Yes, it's me." Xia Qingdai confirmed the other party's guess with a smile, walked into the villa with her head held high, and turned her head to look at the interior of the villa.

Before leaving the hall, Heim couldn't help but glance at Xia Qingdai again, muttering to himself.

This young lady looked different from ordinary upper-class white people, but just by looking at her extraordinary demeanor, one could guess that she was definitely not a personal maid or a governess. She could only be the cousin mentioned in the master's letter who was also made an earl by King George.

But he didn't expect that his cousin looked so different and didn't look like a white person at all.

As a countryman who had never left England in his life, he had never seen an Oriental person in his life, so naturally he didn't understand Xia Qingdai's origins.

However, as a master, there is no need to explain to the servant, so Xia Qingdai automatically ignored the other party's curious look and only said to Owen: "This place is a bit old, and there are many things that need to be replaced."

"Yes, I thought you might be interested in decorating it yourself. So after I bought this place, I simply cleaned it up and didn't ask anyone to make any major changes."

"Well, that's good. I'll go back and move my things later." Xia Qingdai walked around the villa, planning in her mind as she walked.

The second floor is mostly bedrooms, unlike the castle in Fucui Villa which has many function rooms. The place here is small and there are few rooms.

There are two bedrooms, one large and one small, facing south. One has only a four-poster bed and a sofa, but has a small balcony; the other has a built-in study separated by a bookcase. Both rooms have windows on both sides, with a wide view and bright light.

Xia Qingdai chose the room with a balcony but no study. On vacation, watching the sea is more important than reading.

As she was carefully inspecting the room, she suddenly heard a rustling sound in her sensitive ears. She concentrated and distinguished it, and found that the sound seemed to come from above the fireplace.

Every room in the villa has a fireplace, so there are many chimneys and flues. Now only the fireplace in the hall on the first floor is lit. The fireplace in this bedroom has never been lit. What kind of sound will it make?
"Hush!" Xia Qingdai put her finger on her lips, gave Owen a look, and then tiptoed towards the fireplace. Owen actually had some guesses, but he didn't say it out loud.

At this time, Xia Qingdai leaned on the edge of the fireplace with both hands, tilted her head, and looked up. A black mass suddenly fell into her sight. "Who!" Xia Qingdai shouted, and the black mass also screamed in fright, and fell down with a "plop", splashing a cloud of black ash.

"Cough cough!" Xia Qingdai took a few steps back, frowned, and fanned the black ash floating in the air with her hand.

"do not move."

Owen had already pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the black group, and stepped forward to block Xia Qingdai. Although he had some guesses in his mind, he could not rule out the possibility, so he was more cautious.

After all, the world is not peaceful, and wars are everywhere. Hunger, poverty and disease have always accompanied Europe. There are many refugees and displaced persons, and public security is naturally unstable. Murder and robbery are commonplace. It is Owen's habit to carry a gun when he goes out.

However, the black group kneeling on the ground begging for mercy in front of him obviously had no killing power. When he opened his mouth, he spoke in a baby voice. It was clearly still a child, but his body shape was a little deformed, as if it had been compressed.

The butler who was in charge of looking after the villa downstairs heard the noise, put down his work, ran upstairs, and asked loudly what had happened and whether he needed to help.

After just a short period of contact, Xia Qingdai had already left an impression of this male servant as a noisy person. His quality was far from that of the servants in their Fucui Villa who had been trained under the KPI assessment system.

"Who are you? Why are you hiding up there?" Xia Qingdai signaled Owen to put away his gun and stepped forward to ask.

What would have happened if the fireplace had been lit just now?

"I...I'm here to collect dust." The thin boy replied timidly.

Xia Qingdai looked at Owen with a confused expression: "What does he mean by this?"

Owen told Xia Qingdai about the "chimney sweep" in simple terms. Although there was a hint of sympathy on his face, his tone clearly showed that he was not surprised.

"Ah, but he's still a child." Xia Qingdai felt a little uncomfortable hearing this.

Owen said solemnly: "The size of the chimney means that only child laborers can do this job."

"But this is definitely wrong." Xia Qingdai looked at the six or seven-year-old child in front of her and asked softly, "Who asked you to clean up?"

"It's Mr. Heim." The little boy replied timidly.

At this moment, the servant Heim also ran to the door. He glanced into the room and saw a little boy dressed in black. He immediately cursed loudly: "Oh! You dirty little devil, you are lazy again. You have been sweeping the chimney for the whole morning, and you dare to crawl out from here! Get off the woolen blanket..."

Xia Qingdai turned around and glanced at Heim coldly, causing him to hold back all the curse words he was about to say and his face turned red.

"Take him downstairs to wash up. I have something to ask you later."

"Yes, yes, yes." Heim gave the child a fierce look, and the child followed him out of the room in a hurry.