Chapter 80: Meals

Li Qingzhi finished talking with the village chief and went back to Magistrate Gou.

After he left, the village chief of the neighboring village asked the Miaoqian Village chief, “Who is that? He actually knows the county magistrate!”

The Miaoqian Village chief felt a bit proud and said, “That’s Li Qingzhi, a scholar from our village.”

In Miaoqian Village, although there were quite a few conflicts between families, they wouldn’t speak ill of their own village when facing outsiders. The village chief and the others praised Li Qingzhi, saying he was good to his children, good to his wife, used to earn a silver coin a day copying books, and was highly regarded by Master Zhu…

Now, even the county magistrate values him highly!

The people from the neighboring village listened with envy. “How come our village doesn’t have someone as talented as him? How did he get to know the county magistrate? This is too amazing!”

The people from Miaoqian Village didn’t know how Li Qingzhi had met the county magistrate, but hearing these praises, they felt honored and proud.

After asking Li Qingzhi, those people asked about Jin Dajiang, mainly because Yao Zuming had said in front of them that Jin Dajiang’s son was unfilial…

Jin Dajiang was Li Qingzhi’s father-in-law, and Li Qingzhi had just taken Jin Dajiang to meet the county magistrate!

The villagers couldn’t possibly speak ill of Jin Dajiang at this time, and even Yao Zuming didn’t dare to speak indiscriminately.

“That’s Jin Dajiang. His son isn’t unfilial; that boy is very filial. Despite being young, he helps his father with work. Besides, his son is still young, not even eighteen yet, so he doesn’t need to work.”

“He’s here on behalf of his nephew; his nephew is quite lazy.”

“Speaking of Jin Dajiang, he’s very fortunate. His children are all successful!”

“His daughter does business in the county town and can earn ten taels of silver a month.”

“His son rows boats in the county town, and he should earn quite a bit too. Not long ago, he even married a girl from the county town. That girl looks like a celestial being, and she brought along four boats of dowry!”

…

The people from the neighboring village listened with relish. If nothing unexpected happened, soon the people from nearby villages would all know about Li Qingzhi and Jin Dajiang’s situation.

But they didn’t chat for too long; soon, someone came to arrange them for work.

There were a lot of conscripted laborers, but Magistrate Gou had made a lot of preparations in advance, taking into account the suggestions of Li Qingzhi and Zhu Qian, and had arranged these people in an orderly manner.

The short and weak ones were picked out to make bricks or do other tasks that didn’t require much strength, while the strong ones were divided into different teams to level the land or dig mud.

Magistrate Gou had instructed these laborers to bring some hoes, and he also provided some. There was no shortage of tools at this time.

Magistrate Gou also arranged for people to patrol among the laborers, awarding medals to those who worked diligently. Those who received medals would get an extra boiled egg when they ate later.

As Magistrate Gou watched, everyone worked harder than the other. 

Magistrate Gou called for a brand new hoe to try digging the mud, but after he forcefully plunged the hoe into the ground, he couldn’t dig out the mud no matter how hard he pulled. 

Although he wasn’t weak, he wasn’t quite cut out for physical labor.

Because of this, Magistrate Gou had a bit more admiration for those laborers. He said, “When I was young, my father took me to do farm work. I thought I knew how to farm, but now, looking back, I’m afraid I was just pretending.”

“County Magistrate, have you worked the land before?” Li Qingzhi asked curiously.

Magistrate Gou replied, “Yes, I have. My father believed that people should know about farming and sericulture.” Bringing up this matter, Magistrate Gou then talked about his own past.

The Gou family wasn’t a big clan, but they were also scholarly. For the long-term consideration of the family, they had high expectations for the children in the family. Magistrate Gou started studying at a very young age and had to learn many things like music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

He had a talent for studying, so later on, he focused on the imperial examinations, while others who didn’t have the talent went down different paths.

Li Qingzhi thought the Gou family’s approach was quite good.

Speaking of which, the previous owner’s father had high expectations for several sons. At that time, the previous owner’s family was still relatively wealthy, but the previous owner had to do many things himself, and later learned to be an assistant, even running around doing a lot of hard work.

If it weren’t for having enough life experience, the original owner wouldn’t have been able to escape to Miaoqian Village so smoothly.

In the future, he must make sure that Li Damao and Li Ermao work hard. He couldn’t let them end up like Yao Zhenfu next door, unable to accomplish anything.

The laborers had just started working when the smell of meat wafted from afar.

This time, for the construction of the wharf, they were provided with two meals a day. All the laborers who came to work could receive a pottery basin. When it was time to eat, they would line up to get their food. After they received their food, someone would pour a spoonful of vegetables on top of their rice.

These pottery basins were donated by a porcelain shop in the county town, with the name of the shop printed on them. When the laborers received the pottery basin, someone would tell them the name of the porcelain shop.

And the dish they were eating today was stewed pork with dried tofu.

The pork was diced and cooked together with diced dried tofu. Mixing the meat and dried tofu together made it less likely for there to be conflicts over who got more meat.

“This dish is really good!”

“Can we eat like this every day?”

“Definitely not. Is today the first day we can eat like this?”

“This basin is really good; it can hold a lot of rice!”

…

Just as people were talking, they saw Magistrate Gou lining up too!

Magistrate Gou was actually eating the same food as them!

For a moment, the laborers working there were deeply moved.

And the respectful and moved gazes from these laborers made Magistrate Gou feel even more that he couldn’t mistreat these common people.

Li Qingzhi saw this situation and felt quite pleased.

He made sure that Magistrate Gou had a good reputation in Chongcheng County, and this reputation would support Magistrate Gou and make him a good official.

The taste of the communal pot wasn’t that great.

These days, husking grains was quite troublesome. Although there were machines that used hydropower to hull rice, the efficiency was still very low. So what they were eating today was brown rice.

Stewed pork with dried tofu was such a simple dish.

But because he was in a good mood, Magistrate Gou didn’t mind. Seeing the people enjoying the food so much, he even decided to donate the gold box that Zhu Qian had given him earlier to buy pork for the people to eat.

If ordinary laborers could eat so well, then the people in the mess hall could eat even better!

Jin Dajiang was brought over by someone close to Magistrate Gou. Zhu Qian treated him like a brother, and the mess hall workers all thought highly of him, treating him with special respect.

Although no one would say anything even if Jin Dajiang didn’t do any work in the mess hall, he wasn’t that kind of person — Jin Dajiang had been working hard all along.

Clearly having connections but still working so hard… The mess hall workers all had a good impression of Jin Dajiang. During meals, Chef Zhou even gave him two large spoonfuls of vegetables.

Jin Dajiang rarely ate so well; he held his bowl and seemed a bit overwhelmed.

On the other side, after Li Qingzhi finished eating one bowl of rice, he went back to line up for another.

Ordinary laborers could only line up once, but he was a person close to Magistrate Gou, so it was okay for him to eat a few more bowls. Of course, to avoid attracting attention, eating two bowls was about enough.

Magistrate Gou and the others were already dumbfounded — Li Qingzhi had such a good appetite!

After finishing his second bowl of rice, Li Qingzhi went home. Because they only provided two meals a day at the wharf, they ate relatively early. When Li Qingzhi returned home, Li Damao and the others hadn’t yet eaten their egg fried rice.

Li Laogen root was careless in his work; he might burn the eggs and rice… Li Qingzhi took the initiative to take the ladle and cooked a pot of egg fried rice for them using low heat and six eggs.

“Ah Qing, this egg fried rice is too delicious!” Li Laogen root said without lifting his head.

Fried rice was indeed very fragrant. Seeing that the others had had enough, Li Qingzhi finished the remaining portion himself.

The fact that their family might not have enough food to eat was partly due to his excessive eating habits…

Magistrate Gou didn’t stay at the dock all day either. After eating, he left.

The laborers thought that once Magistrate Gou left, they wouldn’t have any meat to eat, but that wasn’t the case.

That night, they had pig offal and blood soup.

The offal, pork, and blood were all diced and cooked in thick soup poured over rice… It was incredibly delicious for those lacking in nutrition!

As the villagers of Miaoqian Village returned home after work, they couldn’t stop reminiscing about the two meals they had today.

“We ate so well today; we can’t even eat like this during the New Year.”

“Yeah! Plenty of rice and meat!”

“Magistrate Gou is indeed a good person.”

“I heard it was money donated by merchants from the city, and those pigs were bought by Mr. Zhu.”

“I brought a rice ball out this morning, but didn’t eat a single bite. I even managed to bring back an egg.”

…

Everyone was in high spirits, and some asked where Jin Dajiang had gone.

“The magistrate knew I could cook, so he asked me to help in the kitchen,” Jin Dajiang replied.

“How nice.” Everyone was quite envious; after all, they were already eating so well, and the cook would definitely eat even better.

Jin Dajiang did indeed eat better, with Chef Zhou even giving him two extra eggs.

But he knew not to mention this to anyone.

Speaking of eating… when others left home in the morning, they all brought food, fearing that they wouldn’t have enough to eat with just the gruel provided by the county office. But he had nothing to bring.

He wanted to bring food too, but his mother heard they were providing meals for the laborers and didn’t let him take anything.

Jin Dajiang hadn’t even returned home yet when Jin Xiaoye and Jin Xiaoshu already knew about his work at the dock.

Jin Xiaoye was furious when she heard. Li Qingzhi told her everything, knowing that this time, Magistrate Gou would provide decent meals and the work for the laborers wouldn’t be too exhausting.

But the Jin family didn’t know about this! They didn’t let their young and strong sons go, but instead sent her father!

Jin Xiaoye looked at Jin Xiaoshu. “Xiaoshu, let’s go back together later and demand an explanation. Dad can’t let people bully him like this. If possible, it would be best to divide the family.”

Jin Xiaoye had wanted to split the family since she was very young, but unfortunately, she was just a girl, and no one listened to her. She used to have nothing and was worried that if the family split, her parents would not live well.

“But now… she really feels that splitting up the family is better, and she believes that her eldest uncle’s family thinks the same way.”