Chapter 34: Photographic Memory 2/3

Zhu Qian and Ding Xi were astonished. It wasn’t just that his memory was good, Li Qingzhi clearly had a photographic memory!

Zhu Qian used to think his son was very smart and had a talent for studying, but now he realizes that his son struggles to memorize things.

When Zhu Xunmiao returned from school that day, Zhu Qian asked him, “How many times do you have to recite a passage?”

Zhu Xunmiao replied, “You have to read it dozens of times, and then you have to recite it repeatedly.” Reading dozens of times was for memorization, and then you had to recite it repeatedly to remember it.

Zhu Xunmiao didn’t like memorizing texts and often slacked off, but in the past two months, after reading Li Qingzhi’s book, he decided to work harder and started to take memorization seriously.

“Your memory is so poor!” Zhu Qian complained.

Zhu Xunmiao said, “…” How could his father be so mean to him? His father couldn’t even remember his birthday!

“It’s impressive how Mr. Li can memorize everything after just one listen.”

“What?” Zhu Xunmiao was stunned.

So, when Li Qingzhi was about to leave after dinner, Zhu Xunmiao stopped him, “Mr. Li, do you have photographic memory?”

“Is there such a thing?” Li Qingzhi said.

“Then why didn’t you know the contents of the Four Books and Five Classics before?” That day they had discussed the things they learned in school, and Li Qingzhi seemed clueless.

“I’ve never been to school, so I’m not familiar with those books, but I’ve started memorizing them now,” Li Qingzhi said.

He hadn’t memorized all the books yet, but he had memorized two of them.

“What books did Mr. Li memorize?” Zhu Xunmiao asked.

Li Qingzhi mentioned the titles.

These happened to be the books Zhu Xunmiao had memorized. He immediately recited a few sentences and asked Li Qingzhi to continue.

Li Qingzhi recited them all perfectly.

Zhu Xunmiao realized something and handed Li Qingzhi an article he had just written, “Mr. Li, take a look at this article and see if you can memorize it.”

Li Qingzhi took the article, read it silently once, glanced over it quickly, then handed it back to Zhu Xunmiao and began reciting it.

Zhu Xunmiao was dumbfounded.

Li Qingzhi had memorized it all, word for word!

Li Qingzhi actually had a photographic memory!

No wonder Li Qingzhi, with average knowledge, wanted to take the imperial examination. It turned out he had this ability!

At this moment, Zhu Xunmiao remembered what Li Qingzi had said before… Li Qingzhi had said he had never been to school.

Li Qingzhi had never been to school before!

Did he secretly study?

And his handwriting, was it something he had only practiced for the past two months?

And he had mastered it so well in just two months?

Zhu Xunmiao realized why his father had been complaining about him, and he felt a bit useless himself.

He had to work harder!

Seeing Zhu Xunmiao’s changing expression, Li Qingzhi smiled. Some people, when they see someone talented, might feel jealous or want to trip them up, but Zhu Xunmiao wasn’t that kind of person.

Probably because he came from a merchant family, Zhu Xunmiao wanted to make friends with talented people.

Li Qingzhi had seen this and had proactively revealed his abilities.

Zhu Xunmiao, still in a daze, said, “Master Zhu, my wife is waiting for me. I’ll take my leave.”

“Mr. Li, take care,” Zhu Xunmiao said.

Li Qingzhi led his two children out of the Zhu household. Just as they stepped out, Li Damao asked, “Dad, are you very powerful?”

Li Qingzhi was not modest at all. “Of course, Dad is very powerful!”

“Dad, can I be as powerful as you?” Li Damao asked.

“Of course you can,” Li Qingzhi said, patting Li Damao’s head.

His ability could also be transferred to others, but it required physical contact.

With his current weak ability… he needed prolonged contact with others to be effective. Since he was still physically weak and had to constantly use his ability to maintain a normal life, he wouldn’t use his ability on others for now.

But in the future… there would be no problem making Li Damao and Li Ermao a bit smarter.

“I also want to be as powerful as Dad, and then eat meat and white rice every day!” Li Ermao exclaimed immediately.

“You will,” Li Qingzhi smiled.

The three of them walked towards the riverbank, but they found that Jin Xiaoye hadn’t arrived yet. However, Grandma Jin was already there.

When she came to the county town in the morning, she had brought a basket of vegetables, but now the vegetables were all gone, replaced by other things.

Li Qingzhi glanced at it and marveled.

From broken bricks to torn cloth strips, from rotten wood to river clam shells, there was everything.

Moreover, at this moment, Grandma Jin was standing in the water, picking snails attached to the stone steps.

She was indeed a hardworking old lady, never letting herself idle for a moment!

“Grandma,” Li Qingzhi called out.

Grandma Jin looked up at Li Qingzhi and sniffed. “Did Old Zhu leave you some leftovers again?”

“Yes, Grandma, would you like to have some?” Li Qingzhi asked.

“You guys go ahead and eat. I’m not hungry,” Grandma Jin declined.

Li Qingzhi thought for a moment and then asked, “Grandma, have you eaten lunch?”

“Why bother with three meals a day when I’m perfectly fine? I had breakfast,” Grandma Jin replied.

Grandma Jin’s so-called breakfast was probably the bowl of rice she had at their place in the morning, right?

People nowadays only eat two meals a day because they’re poor and have no other choice.

After having a bowl of rice in the morning, Grandma Jin probably hadn’t eaten anything else since then and must be very hungry by now.

The Zhu family mostly ate pork, and today they had pork stew with dried bamboo shoots.

Li Qingzhi had eaten the bamboo shoots, and he brought the meat back with him. Additionally, Chef Zhou had given him a few pieces of pumpkin cake.

To make pumpkin cake, you peel the pumpkin, steam it, add flour and yeast, then lay a piece of gauze on the steaming rack and put it on top to steam. This would result in pumpkin cake.

The taste of pumpkin cake was similar to that of steamed buns, but softer.

Li Qingzhi handed Grandma Jin a piece of pumpkin cake. “Grandma, have a bite to fill your stomach.”

“Such good things, you guys should eat them,” Grandma Jin refused.

But Li Qingzhi insisted, so Grandma Jin got out of the water, wiped her hands clean, and ate the pumpkin cake.

Seeing this, Li Qingzhi gave her a piece of meat as well.

“Zhu’s family is really wealthy. They’re willing to give you such good things,” Grandma Jin remarked.

Li Qingzhi smiled but didn’t say anything. After waiting for a while, they saw Jin Xiaoye rowing over in a boat.

“Did you wait long?” Jin Xiaoye asked Li Qingzhi.

“No, I just arrived,” Li Qingzhi smiled and took out pumpkin cake to give to Jin Xiaoye and Jin Xiaoshu.

“Brother-in-law, you’re so nice!” Jin Xiaoshu grinned, showing his white teeth.

He wasn’t very close to his brother-in-law before because he was resentful when his brother-in-law went missing. But recently… he felt that his brother-in-law was really great! His three cousins had never eaten such good things from Yao Zhenfu’s side!

“Is this pumpkin cake made with white flour? Did you put sugar in it? It’s so sweet!” Jin Xiaoshu said. People his age were the most prone to hunger, and he was just like Li Laogen, eagerly anticipating the food Li Qingzhi brought back from the Zhu family.

Grandma Jin glanced at Jin Xiaoshu, then got on the boat with her basket. She said, “Xiaoye, I’ll come find you tomorrow and go to the county town with you.”

“Sure,” Jin Xiaoye agreed.

When she was young, her grandmother often went to the county town to pick up scraps. Every time she went, she found all kinds of usable things.

In addition, some people in the county town would plant fruit trees in their yards, and the branches of these trees would extend outside the wall. When her grandmother passed by, she could pick up a few fruits.

But her grandmother had a sense of propriety. She remembered one time when her grandmother complained that she saw a household putting a bowl of food for the dog at the door with a small piece missing, which could have been used by people. Her grandmother wanted to pick it up, but she was afraid of being beaten, so she didn’t.

It was a good thing her grandmother didn’t pick it up, otherwise, the dog would have lost its bowl in no time!

“What are these clam shells for?” Li Qingzhi asked curiously, looking at the river clam shells in the old lady’s basket.

The old lady glanced at Li Qingzhi. “The shells are polished to remove the black outer layer, and the inside can be sold to jewelry stores!”