Chapter 47: Mooncakes 2/3

“What happened after this matter went to court?”

…

Jin Xiaoye said, “The Hong family compensated fifty taels of silver… Let’s hurry home for dinner.”

Jin Xiaoye took out a carrying pole, picked up the fabrics from the boat, and handed some other things to Li Laogen and Jin Xiaoshu, then walked towards home.

Since Zhao Laosan didn’t get anything, he asked Li Qingzhi, “Ah Qing, do you want me to carry you?”

“Uncle San, I can walk.” Li Qingzhi smiled.

“Zhao Laosan asked again, “Ah Qing, was the child you saved named Zhao Mancang?” When the Zhu family came looking for Zhao Mancang’s father before, they didn’t say much, so he only knew that Zhao Mancang had almost been beaten to death. Now, hearing Jin Xiaoshu’s words, he realized that Li Qingzhi’s injury was related to Zhao Mancang.

“Yes,” Li Qingzhi replied.

The villagers were very curious and followed Li Qingzhi and the others to Li’s house, asking various questions. With this question, they roughly understood what had happened.

“Li Qingzhi is really unlucky, going to attend a poetry gathering and ending up with his arm broken.”

“That Hong family is despicable. They knew their own child was crazy, yet they didn’t keep an eye on him!”

“What was it like in court? What does the county magistrate look like?”

“They actually compensated fifty taels of silver; that’s a lot…”

“Li Qingzhi has a really good heart. I knew he was a good person.”

…

Li Qingzhi had broken his arm, so naturally, the villagers sympathized with him. But knowing that the Hong family had compensated them with fifty taels of silver, they also felt a bit envious.

If someone were to break their arm and then offer them fifty taels of silver… they would gladly accept it.

At the same time, everyone also thought highly of Li Qingzhi.

Someone willing to stand up for justice like that would never be disliked by people.

The villagers were all praising Li Qingzhi. Jin Xiaoye glanced at Li Qingzhi and also felt that he was quite good.

Her judgment was really spot on; she had found herself a good man!

They soon arrived at Li’s house.

Since Li’s family hadn’t eaten yet, the villagers didn’t follow them in. They just chatted outside with Zhao Laosan, after all, Zhao Laosan also knew some things.

At Li’s house…

As soon as Li Qingzhi entered the main room, Li Damao and Li Ermao surrounded him, “Dad! Dad, what happened to you?”

The two children looked curiously at Li Qingzhi’s suspended arm.

Li Qingzhi said, “Dad’s arm is broken.”

Li Ermao was startled, “Dad, will you not have an arm anymore in the future?”

Li Qingzhi coughed lightly, “I still have it…”

“Your dad’s arm is just broken. It will heal, and they even compensated fifty taels of silver!” Li Laogen said happily.

After hearing that Li Qingzhi had broken his arm, Li Laogen was very worried at first. However, when he found out that they were compensated with fifty taels of silver, he became happy again.

That was fifty taels of silver!

With this in mind, Li Laogen even said to Li Qingzhi, “Breaking your arm is actually not bad. You won’t have to work anymore, but you can still wander around.”

Li Qingzhi: “…”

The dinner tonight was prepared by Li Laogen, which consisted of stewed duck with dried bamboo shoots, two steamed dishes, and nothing too sumptuous.

Li Qingzhi originally wanted to buy some mooncakes in the county town to bring back, but he didn’t have time.

“Master Zhu sent mooncakes!” Jin Xiaoye suddenly said while organizing the things sent by the Zhu family.

They had seen the fabrics sent by Master Zhu, but they didn’t know what was inside the other boxes.

However, seeing the somewhat excited expression on Jin Xiaoye’s face… the items inside those boxes must be valuable.

Jin Xiaoye took a deep breath and placed one of the boxes on the table.

There were sixteen mooncakes in the box, with slight variations in appearance, likely divided into two flavors.

Mooncakes can last for several days, but not too long… Jin Xiaoye gave two to Zhao Xiaodou and four to Jin Xiaoshu. The remaining ten were just enough for her, Li Qingzhi, Li Laogen, and the two Li brothers.

Zhao Xiaodou and Jin Xiaoshu didn’t eat the mooncakes; they wanted to bring them back home to share with their families. The two Li brothers agreed to eat two mooncakes each first, one of each flavor, and save the rest for the next day. Jin Xiaoye only ate one.

Only Li Qingzhi and Li Laogen ate both mooncakes.

The mooncakes were all made with flaky crusts and were likely freshly made. Li Qingzhi bit into one and found it filled with meat.

The flaky crust wrapped around the meat filling was really delicious! Unfortunately, the mooncake had cooled a bit, it must have been even more delicious when it was freshly baked.

As for the other mooncake, it was filled with red bean paste, but it had a hidden surprise – there was actually a salted egg yolk inside.

This red bean paste with salted egg yolk-filled mooncake tasted almost identical to a traditional mooncake with salted egg yolk. Their crusts were made in the same way.

Both mooncakes were very delicious. Li Qingzhi slowly finished eating them and then ate two big bowls of rice.

Li Laogen had prepared a lot of food for dinner. After everyone had eaten their fill, Li Qingzhi even finished the leftover rice and the bits stuck to the bottom of the pot.

With a broken arm, he needed to eat more to replenish his energy.

Jin Xiaoye looked at Li Qingzhi in surprise and asked, “How can you eat so much?”

“I didn’t eat anything at noon today, and I was starving.” Li Qingzhi didn’t mention that he had actually eaten two portions of snacks before going to the Hong family.

Well, before going there, he had also had an extra breakfast with the Zhu family.

“Even if you’re hungry, don’t eat too much at once, so you don’t upset your stomach.” Jin Xiaoye looked at Li Qingzhi’s stomach with concern.

Li Qingzhi smiled and promised.

After they finished their meal, it was already dark outside.

Jin Xiaoshu put the mooncakes in his pocket and headed home, while Zhao Laosan picked a small branch from the peach tree next door to the Yao family and stuffed it into Zhao Xiaodou’s arms. Then, he left while holding Zhao Xiaodou.

The villagers who had gathered at the Li family’s door had long since dispersed.

Jin Xiaoye poured some bean oil into the oil lamp and lit it with a match.

At this time, people had already begun to use soybeans to extract oil, but the soybean oil at this time didn’t have a very good taste, so many people didn’t like it and mainly used it for lighting lamps.

In Chongcheng County, the most commonly consumed vegetable oil was rapeseed oil, followed by sesame oil.

Of course, everyone’s favorite was still lard.

“I’m not going to bathe you guys today. Your dad needs to rest, and I won’t tell you a story either. You should go to bed early,” Jin Xiaoye instructed Li Damao and Li Ermao, then moved the gifts sent by Master Zhu to the room where she and Li Qingzhi lived.

“What did Master Zhu send?” Li Qingzhi asked Jin Xiaoye.

“Master Zhu sent jewelry!” Jin Xiaoye opened a box and showed it to Li Qingzhi.

Inside the box were several pieces of jewelry, including a pair of twisted silver bracelets, a gold ring, two gold earrings, and a gold necklace.

The styles were all very beautiful, and they were quite heavy, worth at least a hundred taels each.

Master Zhu was really generous!

He had just been thinking about giving some jewelry to Jin Xiaoye, and Master Zhu had already sent some… if he gave Jin Xiaoye more, she probably wouldn’t be as surprised as she was now.

“These pieces of jewelry are worth quite a bit of money, aren’t they? Would it be inappropriate for us to take them?” Jin Xiaoye looked at Li Qingzhi with concern after seeing the jewelry.

Li Qingzhi said, “It’s okay, you can take them.” Master Zhu was probably so generous because he had helped Master Zhu fend off the Hong family’s young master’s bite towards Master Zhu.

Master Zhu’s face was worth a lot of money.

“Qingzhi, I feel like it’s a bit unreal,” Jin Xiaoye took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

“Why?” Li Qingzhi asked.

Jin Xiaoye said, “It’s only been a short while, how come our family suddenly has money?”

Before Li Qingzhi came back, she had been worried that Li Damao and Li Ermao wouldn’t be able to find wives when they grew up.