Chapter 6: Plans

Most of the people in the village eat two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, but families with better conditions will have a “snack” at noon.

Their family’s condition wasn’t good, so they only had two meals, breakfast around nine in the morning and dinner around four in the afternoon.

Because there were no timekeeping tools, the time wasn’t precise; they just watched when Jin Xiaoye cooked.

Today’s dinner for Jin Xiaoye was bean and brown rice porridge.

After finishing the porridge, Jin Xiaoye greeted Li Damao and Li Ermao and went out to the fields.

Firstly, because the summer days were long and it was still bright, and secondly… it was hot now, so many people preferred to work early in the morning or in the evening.

Jin Xiaoye was worried that those people in the village who liked to gossip would come to disturb Li Qingzhi. If those people said something inappropriate, it would be even worse… So she specifically closed the door before going out.

Li Qingzhi was at home, lying there, talking to his two sons.

When he first woke up, it was difficult for him to talk, but now, after eating two meals, he had finally recovered somewhat, and the more he looked at Li Damao and Li Ermao, the more he liked them.

These two children were thin and dark, if it were before the apocalypse, they wouldn’t even be as good as refugees, but in Li Qingzhi’s eyes, who had experienced the apocalypse, these two children were really good in every way.

Li Qingzhi let Li Damao and Li Ermao lie on either side of him, then held their little hands and told them stories.

The apocalypse he experienced wasn’t just about humans turning into zombies; animals and plants would also become zombies due to contamination. The ubiquitous pollution consumed all life, leaving only him alive because of his special ability.

Compared with other people with special abilities, his “golden finger” had almost no combat power, so most of the time he silently survived alone, not wanting to survive until the last moment.

During the years of living alone, when he had nothing to do, he would read all kinds of books and even read some novels.

For Li Qingzhi, who had read a lot of novels, telling stories to children was not a difficult task at all.

Thinking of the two children feeding the chickens during the day, he told them a related story about two children helping the landlord’s family raise chickens. The reward given by the landlord was one egg per day. One of the children ate the egg every day and didn’t save anything, while the other child saved the eggs and exchanged them with others for little chicks to raise. Later, after the landlord stopped asking them to work, the former child couldn’t eat eggs anymore, but the latter child could still eat eggs, and even chicken meat…

After telling the story, Li Qingzhi took out the two eggs Jin Xiaoye gave him and shared them with the two children.

He ate one himself, and Li Damao and Li Ermao each ate half.

Li Damao looked at the egg and said, “Dad, let’s not eat it. Let’s exchange the eggs for little chickens!”

“You’re not eating it? Eggs are delicious!” Li Qingzhi peeled the egg and took a bite.

The egg white and yolk melted in his mouth, spreading a wonderful taste on his tongue…

Li Ermao immediately said, “I want to eat the egg.”

Li Damao also craved it, but still said, “Mom said these two eggs are for Dad to eat and help him recover.”

This child was really filial!

Li Qingzhi couldn’t bring himself to eat the eggs while the two children watched, so he broke the eggs meant for the two children and gave them each a portion: “Eat, Dad already had lunch, this is for you.”

Li Damao and Li Ermao couldn’t resist the temptation of the eggs after all and took them, eating them bit by bit.

For them, who usually only ate brown rice porridge, the eggs were already delicious, and both children ate them with great satisfaction.

Seeing this, Li Qingzhi was even more eager to recover quickly.

It would take a long time for his body to fully recover, but it shouldn’t be long before he could walk again.

When the time comes, he definitely has to figure out a way to make money.

On this matter, Li Qingzhi already has some ideas.

In the Miaoqian village, some people go to the county town to work, but most of them do laborious work and earn very little money. However, he is different.

He possesses the memories of the original owner, knows the traditional characters of this era, and can even do accounting!

The world he traveled into is an era that he is familiar with from history, but one that never existed before, known as the “Daqi” era.

According to the memories of the original owner… in the poor county where the original owner lived before, there were very few literate people. The county of Chongcheng where he is now located has relatively more literate people, but not to the extent of being common. Generally speaking, it is quite easy for literate people to find work.

He could work as an accountant, help out in the households of wealthy families in the county town, or even become a temporary official in the yamen.

The so-called “temporary official” is a casual worker in the ancient county government. When the father of the original owner served as a county official, even if he managed a sparsely populated poor county, he still needed a lot of help. Not only did he specially hire a teacher, but he also hired several temporary officials who were lower-ranking than the teacher.

The work that temporary officials had to do was familiar to the original owner, so he would naturally be able to handle it.

Of course, the prerequisite for finding work is that he has to fully recover his health.

Li Qingzhi’s ideas for making money all involve working, and as for the ways of making money like making soap or glass, or selling steamed buns or barbecue that he read about in the time-travel novels he used to read, he didn’t consider them at all.

This is because he lacks capital, and secondly, it’s not realistic.

For example, using lard to make soap… In the memories of the original owner, the pigs raised by rural families are usually black pigs. If these pigs are raised on the estates of wealthy families and given better food, they could weigh around a hundred kilograms after six months. However, pigs raised in ordinary households are fed with pig grass, vegetables, pumpkins… and if lucky, some leftovers. These pigs, when fully grown, only yield about seventy to eighty kilograms of meat. Moreover, these pigs have relatively little fat, so purchasing pig fat in large quantities is not easy.

Furthermore, during this time, there already exists a form of “soap”. The original owner’s mother used a type of medicine called “fat beads” or saponaria to bathe and wash clothes. In their county town, there are even people selling “soap” made by mixing fat beads with flour and spices.

Using lard to make soap, aside from the uncertainty of whether it can be done, even if it is successfully made, the production volume would not be high. Poor families couldn’t afford it, and wealthy families wouldn’t buy something from an ordinary person like him.

Making glass follows a similar logic. He is not a specialized craftsman, so making glass would require hiring many craftsmen to experiment with, which would involve a very large initial investment.

These things, even if he manages to make them, might not necessarily sell well… To make things like soap or glass, one must have influence and connections.

As for selling barbecue… In this era, the necessary seasonings for barbecue are not readily available, and some of those ingredients are expensive. For example, pepper was as expensive as gold in the previous dynasty, and although it’s cultivated in Great Qi, it’s still not cheap. So, selling barbecue that requires many seasonings might be profitable in upscale restaurants but is not practical for selling in the county.

Making steamed buns could work, but the fine white flour in this era is not cheap. Steamed buns made with white flour target wealthier customers, but those people probably wouldn’t buy buns sold by a roadside stall.

If he were to make ordinary buns using the whole wheat flour he used to eat before, and sell them to ordinary people in the county or at the docks…

In modern households, making dumplings for the New Year’s Eve involves the whole family kneading dough and chopping filling, which takes quite some effort. In this era without meat grinders, it would take half an hour just to chop enough filling for a hundred buns, and kneading and fermenting the dough would take a long time too. The buns need to be fully steamed before selling, which takes even longer…

He simply doesn’t have the physical strength for it, and relying on Jin Xiaoye… Jin Xiaoye works tirelessly all day long, but she probably couldn’t make many buns either.

And then there’s the time spent selling!

Selling buns is a physically demanding job and doesn’t earn much money. He hasn’t seen those people who sell buns in the county get rich.

Compared to that, literate people earn more money by copying books and manuscripts, which is less strenuous.

Unfortunately, the original owner of this body didn’t like practicing calligraphy, so he temporarily can’t copy books.

He also doesn’t have the physical stamina to copy books for long periods of time.

Li Qingzhi was pondering about finding a job. As the day slowly turned dark, Jin Xiaoye returned with moisture all over her body — she probably took a bath by the river before coming back.

Jin Xiaoye laid down some straw on the ground and then placed a worn-out straw mat on top of it, then said to the two children, “Damao, Ermao, it’s time to sleep!”

There was only one bed in the house, and for the past two days, Jin Xiaoye had been sleeping with Damao and Ermao on the ground to avoid them accidentally bumping into Li Qingzhi’s wounds.

However, upon hearing her words, Ermao didn’t go down, “Mom, I want to sleep with Dad!”

Damao thought about it and said, “Mom, I want to sleep with Dad too.”

They had just gained their dad, who would tell them stories. They cherished this and wanted to sleep with him!

Jin Xiaoye was a bit surprised by their response, as Damao and Ermao had always been very attached to her before.

But after the surprise, she felt a sense of warmth.

The closeness between Li Qingzhi and the two children indicates that Li Qingzhi treats them well, which is a good thing.

At this moment, Li Qingzhi said, “Let them sleep with me.” Sleeping with one child on each side, just thinking about it, he felt like he was going to die happily!

Since Li Qingzhi said so, Jin Xiaoye did not object.

She had been busy all day today and was exhausted. After lying down, she fell asleep in no time.

The two children also fell asleep quickly, and amidst the even breathing of the three, Li Qingzhi entered the dreamland as well.

Because they went to bed early, the next day, the family woke up before dawn.

The first thing Jin Xiaoye did after getting up was to bring the chamber pot for Li Qingzhi to relieve himself. Then, she went out.

When she went out, according to modern time, it was about five o’clock. By around eight o’clock, she returned and then called Li Damao and Li Ermao out to help her start a fire and prepare the meal.

Not long after, Li Damao brought a bowl of rice noodles in, and together with Li Ermao, they fed Li Qingzhi.

Yesterday, Jin Xiaoye had set aside a bit for them to taste, but today she didn’t prepare any for them. However, the two children were obedient. Even if Li Qingzhi wanted them to eat, after taking a bite, they didn’t want to eat anymore.

“Dad, you eat!”

“Dad, you need to take care of your health.”

“Eat more to get better.”

…

The two children spoke one after another, taking turns feeding Li Qingzhi the rice noodles, and after finishing that, they held bowls of porridge made with cowpeas and brown rice to eat.

Inside the house was very harmonious, but outside was different. Li Laogen, who was also eating the cowpea and brown rice porridge, complained softly that there seemed to be too few grains of rice.

Jin Xiaoye never spoiled Li Laogen: “If you’re not satisfied, you don’t have to eat!”

How could Li Laogen possibly be dissatisfied? He didn’t have sons before, and when he lived with his younger brother, they had even less to eat than this.

After finishing the porridge in a few bites, Li Laogen took a bamboo basket and went out: “I’m going to catch snails.”

In the middle of summer, soaking in the river was the most comfortable, and catching snails was an easy task.

While Li Laogen went out, Jin Xiaoye stayed inside. She gave Li Qingzhi two more eggs, instructed him not to give any to the two children, and then moved the family’s rice to the door to dry – the rice at home was almost gone, and they needed to pound some more out, but before pounding the rice, it needed to be dried a bit.

As for Li Damao and Li Ermao, they continued to go out to catch insects to feed the chickens as usual.

Li Qingzhi watched them and couldn’t help but restrain himself from laughing.

He had regained a new lease on life, and that was truly wonderful!