Chapter 130: The Capital 1/2

Only five days remained until the Shen family’s caravan reached the capital.

In the early morning, Li Qingzhi set aside the pen in his hand and massaged his shoulder.

These days, after Jin Xiaoye fell asleep, he would come to the study to write, then return to sleep in the morning.

To avoid being discovered, he even hung a curtain in front of the study window to prevent the light from leaking out. He quietly returned to the bedroom and saw that Jin Xiaoye was still asleep… Li Qingzhi lay down beside Jin Xiaoye and slept deeply for an hour.

When he woke up, Jin Xiaoye was already gone.

He went downstairs to the kitchen and saw Jin Xiaoye cooking noodles.

“Where did the noodles come from?” Li Qingzhi asked curiously.

Making noodles is quite troublesome, Jin Xiaoye had never done it before, even if she made flour products, she would make dumplings or mix it into a paste and spread it into pancakes.

Jin Xiaoye said, “I ordered them from a noodle shop, Dad brought them to me early this morning.”

The noodles in the noodle shops in the county were made by themselves, and some noodle shops even sold fresh noodles.

She just found out about this yesterday, so she ordered some—Li Qingzhi has been very busy lately, so she wanted to give him some delicious food to replenish him.

It was Li Laogen who brought the noodles back for her. After delivering them, Li Laogen couldn’t wait and went out to drink tea. Since coming to the county, Li Laogen has changed a lot.

Seeing that the old men in the city dressed neatly, he also began to pay attention to his appearance, and some bad habits have changed.

As for gambling… Li Qingzhi privately talked to Li Laogen and said that if Li Laogen continued to gamble, it would affect his examination for the imperial examination, then he wouldn’t consider Li Laogen as his father anymore.

Li Laogen was very afraid. If Li Qingzhi found another father, what would he do? He didn’t dare to gamble anymore!

After a long time, he even felt that gambling was meaningless.

It’s much better to go to the teahouse in the morning, chat with people, and eat noodles!

If there’s extra money, buy some candies for Li Damao, Li Ermao, and Zhao Xiaodou to eat. The three children will be closer to him!

As for Chang Cui… Li Laogen wouldn’t buy candies for Chang Cui. This girl has nothing to do with him, why should he buy candies for her? He might as well eat them himself.

Jin Xiaoye cooked a pot of pickled vegetable and shredded pork soup in advance, put the cooked noodles in it, and that was their breakfast!

Then, she scooped the remaining noodles into an empty bowl, added lard and soy sauce, and handed them to the female workers.

The female workers would treat these noodles as a dish to accompany their porridge.

In their eyes, mixed noodles were still a very good dish.

When Li Qingzhi was having breakfast, Chang Zhan came out from the house with Cui Cui.

Since Chang Zhan returned to Chongcheng County, Cui Cui has been staying with Chang Zhan, while Li Damao and Li Ermao still shared a room as before.

They had two beds, but they always slept in one, while the other bed was filled with building blocks and a chessboard.

Chang Zhan, Cui Cui, and they ate noodles together. Cui Cui’s cute attempt to pick up the noodles with a spoon made Li Qingzhi smile…

Li Qingzhi went to chat with Jin Xiaoye.

He was quite interested in the gossip about the neighborhood.

“Miss Qu and Xu Qifei’s marriage has been settled, but they will wait until after the provincial examination to get married. In the next few months, Sister Wang and Mrs. Xu don’t intend to let them meet to avoid affecting Xu Qifei…” Jin Xiaoye mumbled.

Li Qingzhi didn’t think it mattered much whether it affected them or not.

Xu Qifei was too young, not even eighteen yet, and he didn’t come from a scholarly family background, so he didn’t receive the best education since childhood… Although he managed to pass the county and provincial examinations, it would be difficult for him to pass the imperial examination next.

Unless he got extremely lucky.

Zhu Xunmiao’s academic abilities were better than Xu Qifei’s—Li Xiucai had taught Zhu Xunmiao far more than anyone else.

But it was right to let Xu Qifei study well and get married later, he thought Sister Wang’s daughter was a bit young.

After mentioning Sister Wang’s daughter, Jin Xiaoye brought up the Fang family again: “Jin Niang hasn’t been feeling well these days. Her mother is looking for a husband for Xiu Niang and asking for a dowry of one hundred taels of silver…”

“What’s going on? Isn’t their family relying on Xiu Niang’s embroidery to support the family?” Li Qingzhi frowned.

Fang Xiuniang’s ability to earn money was not bad, marrying her off would be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

“Who knows! They’re asking for so much money, but no one is willing to marry Fang Xiuniang,” Jin Xiaoye said.

Fang Xiuniang was very beautiful, but Fang Zijian’s reputation was currently very poor, who from a wealthy family would be willing to marry Fang Xiuniang?

As for ordinary families… not everyone could come up with so much money.

Even if they could… were girls like Sister Wang’s daughter not better than Fang Xiuniang? Wang Jie had even told Mrs. Xu that whatever dowry the Xu family gave, she would give it to her daughter as her dowry.

Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Workshop was bustling with activity. After Li Qingzhi finished breakfast, he felt fully revitalized and went with Chang Zhan to the new dock.

When they arrived, Chang Duan and the leaders of the laborers were already selecting typefaces.

The leader of these laborers was surnamed Feng, everyone called him Feng Da. He was the son of a prostitute in Linhu County, but no one knew who his father was.

He grew up in a brothel, and the madam of the brothel liked him very much, so she taught him how to read.

When he was eighteen, a steward from the Lou family came to the brothel for pleasure and beat his mother to the point where she was covered in bruises. After that, his mother lay in bed for several days and died of a fever.

He was determined to seek revenge, so he took a kitchen knife to find the steward… Unfortunately, he didn’t manage to kill the man and was sent to the quarry.

He arrived at the quarry a little later than Li Qingzhi, but by now, he had been there for more than four years. He became the leader of these laborers because he was good at swimming and could catch fish with his bare hands.

Eating raw fish isn’t ideal, but these laborers have reached such a point that they naturally don’t refuse… After catching fish, he will eat some himself and share with others.

However, the guards keep a close eye on them, making it difficult for them to catch fish during breaks from digging stones.

Feng Da has no relatives or connections, and the steward has already been dismissed by Magistrate Zhang… So he followed Chang Duan to Chongcheng County.

Seeing Li Qingzhi and Chang Zhan approaching, Chang Duan and Feng Da quickly greeted them. At this moment, a thin and weak laborer emerged from the kitchen, saying that breakfast was ready.

“You should go eat now,” Li Qingzhi said, then began to write his story.

He planned to finish writing after today and not continue. Over the next few days, he would help with formatting and printing.

At first, he wanted to write two hundred thousand words, but later he thought it unnecessary.

One hundred and fifty thousand words were already enough! These stories weren’t long; with one hundred and fifty thousand words, he had included a total of fifteen stories.

With three stories per book, they could bind five books.

There were over thirty people on their side. Chang Duan was the best cook among them, but he had never cooked before.

He had more important things to do.

The cooking chores were given to the weakest among them, while others were busy printing books.

As a result, the taste of the cooked meals wasn’t great, but no one complained, and everyone ate happily.

Compared to what they had eaten before, this was already exceptionally delicious!

They ate communal meals and slept on the floor, but they were hopeful for the future.

Chang Duan had told them that in a few days, after he went to the capital, Chang Zhan would stay here to open a braised food shop, and they could all stay to help cook and sell braised food.

By then, their lives would be stable.

After eating, everyone continued to work diligently. After writing for an hour, Li Qingzhi also got up to help find typesetting, and put the used type back in the type case — making it easier for Chang Duan and others to find.