Chapter 48: Naming 3/3

But the next day, Li Qingzhi’s reading and writing plan was interrupted again — Ding Xi and Zhu Qian came together!

Ding Xi also came to see Li Qingzhi, and it happened that Zhu Qian wanted to discuss some matters regarding the County Magistrate of Gou with Li Qingzhi, so they came together.

The day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Li Qingzhi handed the book he wrote for Ding Xi to the steward of the Ding family.

In the evening, when Ding Xi returned home, the steward brought out the book. It was already late, and Ding Xi hadn’t planned on reading it, but Zhu Qian came with Zhu Xunmiao, who was particularly eager to read it.

Ding Xi quite liked his nephew Zhu Xunmiao, so he ended up reading it together with him, and once they started, they couldn’t put it down.

Zhu Xunmiao was even more engrossed, standing by Ding Xi’s side, craning his neck to read. When Zhu Qian was about to leave, he couldn’t get Zhu Xunmiao to leave!

The two of them ended up reading until midnight, and Ding Xi couldn’t stay awake any longer, so he went to sleep first, while Zhu Xunmiao stayed up until he finished the book.

On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the first thing Ding Xi did after waking up was to read the book. The more he read, the more he liked it, clapping his hands in admiration several times. After finishing it, he was itching to know what happened next.

Then… he heard that Li Qingzhi’s arm was broken.

How could Li Qingzhi, who was perfectly fine, break his arm?!

If Li Qingzhi’s arm was broken, could he still write books for him?

Ding Xi asked Zhu Qian for information, and then his book was taken by Zhu Qian.

Zhu Qian spent a day finishing the hundred thousand words, and they agreed to go see Li Qingzhi together.

“Old Zhu, can Li Qingzhi really write with his left hand?” Ding Xi still found it hard to believe.

He couldn’t even eat with his left hand, and Li Qingzhi could write with his left hand?

“He can; Amiao saw it with his own eyes when he visited him.”

“Then can he finish my autobiography quickly?” It seemed a bit unfair to ask someone with a broken arm to continue writing books, but Ding Xi really wanted to see what happened next.

The book portrayed him as a hero! He even wanted to have hundreds of copies made and give them away, to show how awesome he, Old Ding, was.

“I’m afraid not. He should write for the County Magistrate first,” Zhu Qian said.

Li Qingzhi had to write for the county magistrate, so his book would have to wait. Ding Xi felt a bit disappointed.

Zhu Qian and Ding Xi came after having their meal.

Ding Xi praised Li Qingzhi’s book repeatedly and left fifty taels of silver for Li Qingzhi. As for Zhu Qian, he talked about some cases mentioned by the County Magistrate when chatting with him.

The County Magistrate didn’t think he could go far in his official career, so he focused his attention elsewhere.

Reading… the County Magistrate loved it, but he didn’t want to read those classics after passing the imperial examination.

As for poetry, painting, and playing musical instruments… the County Magistrate’s family was quite wealthy, and he had learned them all, but he wasn’t interested.

Nowadays, what he loved to do was eating and solving cases.

Solving cases was really fun, and there was a great sense of achievement in solving them. For this reason, the County Magistrate spent a lot of time on it, and indeed, he solved some cases by his own ability.

What ordinary people knew was actually not much; the County Magistrate himself was the most clear about it, and he told Zhu Qian all about it.

Zhu Qian had a good memory, coupled with the fact that he had inquired about some related information, so he gave Li Qingzhi a detailed account.

All of a sudden, Li Qingzhi had a lot more to write about, and he cursed himself for not having enough time to write it all down.

Zhu Qian and Ding Xi stayed for a while and then left, but their visit inevitably excited the people of Miaojin Village.

“Do you know? Master Zhu came to see Li Qingzhi too!”

“When Master Zhu came, he took a particularly grand boat!”

“Master Zhu and another Master Ding wore really nice clothes!”

“Li Qingzhi is really making something of himself!”

“I heard Master Zhu brought something again; Li Qingzhi is really lucky to encounter such an important figure.”

…

After Zhu Qian and Ding Xi left, Li Qingzhi swiftly wrote his book.

He was determined to write quickly, and indeed, his writing speed increased, but the words were a bit sloppy.

While Li Qingzhi was writing, next door, Yao Zhenfu, upon hearing that Zhu Qian had come to Miaoqian Village, started feeling uneasy again!

In the end, he could only swear to himself, like he did a few days ago, that he would study properly the next day.

Studying, writing, and recovering from his injury passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, ten days had passed since the Mid-Autumn Festival.

It was around this time that Li Qingzhi, with his ugly and sloppy handwriting, wrote two short stories about the County Magistrate solving cases.

Initially, he thought that just writing about solving cases—a few thousand words for each case—would be enough. But when he started writing, he realized that those few words wouldn’t suffice. He wrote around twenty thousand words for each case.

In any case, he managed to finish them!

Li Qingzhi didn’t want to copy them out neatly. He made some alterations to the original manuscript and then had it packed up. He asked Jin Xiaoye to deliver it to Zhu Xunmiao and have it copied out by someone else.

After sending off the manuscript, Li Qingzhi looked at his left hand and felt a bit proud of himself.

This time, in pursuit of speed, he wrote without care, and although the handwriting was indeed sloppy, as he wrote… he found that his left-handed writing, although ugly, had a certain momentum between the strokes.

He was really something!

After sending off the manuscript, he began writing Ding Xi’s book.

Ding Xi sent him another fifty taels of silver, so he wanted to finish the book quickly for the sake of the money.

Li Qingzhi wrote with his left hand every day at home, and the people in Miaoqian Village naturally noticed.

So rumors started spreading in the village, saying that Li Qingzhi’s right hand couldn’t be healed, so he was practicing writing with his left hand.

The people in the village respected scholars a lot. When Li Qingzhi was writing, no one disturbed him, but after he had been busy all day, when he went out for a walk in the evening, people from the village would strike up conversations with him.

One day when Li Qingzhi was out exercising, he ran into Aunt Jin. “Ah Qing, is your arm feeling better?” she asked.

“It’s almost healed,” Li Qingzhi replied.

He was telling the truth. Thanks to his abilities, his right arm had almost healed.

But he still didn’t dare to use his right hand, fearing suspicion from others.

“Ah Qing, is your arm really going to get better?Aunt Jin asked again.

“It will,” Li Qingzhi affirmed.

Hearing this,Aunt Jin started complaining about Yao Zuming, who had a deep-seated grudge against her family. “I told you your arm would definitely get better! Ah Qing, you don’t know, Yao Zuming has been speaking ill of you all this time, saying your arm won’t heal, his mouth is really foul, you must teach him a lesson!”

Aunt Jin tirelessly wanted them to go cause trouble for Yao Zuming.

But Li Qingzhi really wasn’t interested in being bitten by a dog just to bite back.

Li Qingzhi cleared his throat. “Sister Jin, let him talk. I can’t beat him. What if he breaks my other arm?”

Aunt Jin could only leave in frustration.

At the same time, when Li Xiucai’s school was dismissed, as Zhu Xunmiao just walked out, he saw Jin Xiaoye paddling a boat.

“Young Master Zhu, my husband has something for you!” Jin Xiaoye waved to Zhu Xunmiao.