Chapter 182 1/2

This book, The Solitary Travel Journal, has become completely different from what Li Qingzhi initially planned and even from the content he originally wrote.

Considering the length, he deleted all the initial parts about how people in the modern world were curious about “my” origins after “I” arrived.

Instead, he uses the first-person perspective to explore a world that people of this era have never seen and cannot imagine.

In Miaoqian Village, the land belongs to the collective of the village, or more precisely, to the state.

After birth, every villager, regardless of gender, is allocated a certain amount of land that cannot be bought or sold. This ensures that ordinary people do not become homeless or starve because of lack of land.

Besides farming, men and women in the village also work in the village factory, ensuring they have enough to eat and live comfortably.

All the children in the village can attend school and learn to read and do arithmetic, regardless of gender.

In the opening chapter, Li Qingzhi describes the environment of Miaoqian Village in detail and then writes about how the villagers farm. He also mentions the biogas digester.

Li Qingzhi lived in the post-apocalyptic world for twenty years and spent many years living alone afterwards.

At that time, his only entertainment was reading, and he read a bit of everything.

For example, there was a period when he hid in a village and read some books on farming and animal husbandry in the reading room designated by the village committee.

Li Qingzhi has a good memory and remembered a lot. He revised and included this knowledge in his writing.

He also wrote about heating stoves to hatch eggs and unified poultry farming… Oh, he hadn’t had time to write about that yet.

When Governor Zhang opened the manuscript, he was first drawn to the punctuation. As he continued reading…

This was clearly the utopia many scholars dreamed of!

And the farming and fertilization methods described… With his planting experience, he thought these things could actually be applied.

But… why did Li Qingzhi write so little?

“My lord, the food is getting cold,” Butler Li reminded.

After the dishes from Jueweizhai were served, he went to the kitchen to fry two vegetables and placed braised pork at the bottom of a bowl, covering it with hot rice to bring to his master.

Yet his master wasn’t in any hurry to eat!

Governor Zhang came to his senses and started eating, but his mind was elsewhere.

Suddenly, he thought of something and hurriedly finished his meal. Then he said to Butler Li, “I need to go out.”

Governor Zhang went to the Shen family.

Shen Zhilan had just finished eating. When he learned that Governor Zhang had arrived, he hurried out to greet him, only to hear Governor Zhang say, “Shopkeeper Shen, I have a remarkable book that I would like your help in printing.”

“A remarkable book?” Shen Zhilan was surprised. Li Qingzhi’s Childhood Stories Collection was just about to be printed, and now Governor Zhang was bringing another book? And a remarkable one at that?

“Yes, this book is written by the solitary scholar and is unlike any other book,” Governor Zhang said, taking out the manuscript for Shen Zhilan to see.

Shen Zhilan immediately noticed the punctuation: “The punctuation is well-marked, making this book easy to read!”

Shen Zhilan didn’t enjoy reading partly because the dense texts were hard to read.

But this book… was genuinely smooth to read!

As Shen Zhilan continued reading… he understood why Governor Zhang called it a remarkable book.

These scholars loved such utopian worlds!

And… since it was written by the solitary scholar, once printed, many people would surely want to buy and read it!

Shen Zhilan immediately said, “Just like The Record of Famine Relief, my Shen Family Bookstore will offer ten taels of silver per thousand characters for this book!”

“Great. Shopkeeper Shen, I have one more request,” Governor Zhang said.

“My lord, please go ahead,” Shen Zhilan replied.

Governor Zhang said, “Can the Shen Family add punctuation when printing this book?” Punctuation was also a feature of The Solitary Travel Journal, and if it could be included in the printing…

Governor Zhang actually hoped that all books could have punctuation, making them easier to read.

Including punctuation in the printing was not difficult, as it just required making some “movable type” with punctuation marks… Shen Zhilan readily agreed.

Governor Zhang sighed in relief.

Meanwhile, at Chongcheng Elementary School.

The students had finished their meals. Those who hadn’t bathed in the morning continued to bathe, while those who had were doing laundry.

Li Qingzhi went to the kitchen and asked the cooks, “Are you managing okay?”

The steward of the Zhu family, who was in charge of the kitchen, was surnamed Fan. Upon hearing Li Qingzhi’s question, Aunt Fan cheerfully replied, “We’re managing.”

Preparing meals for so many people was certainly busy, but since it was large pot cooking, the main hassle was in the initial preparation. Cooking just involved adding water and simmering everything together, which wasn’t too troublesome.

Moreover, each student had their own set of tableware. They would bring their dishes to the kitchen for food and then wash their own dishes afterwards, saving the cooks a lot of work.

“That’s good. Auntie, you all take a break,” Li Qingzhi said.

These cooks had been busy for half a day and could now take a rest—they would need to prepare dinner later in the afternoon.

Aunt Fan smiled and agreed. Li Qingzhi had specifically arranged a resting place for them. After washing her hands, she went to rest.

Two of the remaining three cooks also went to rest, leaving only Aunt Jin behind.

Aunt Jin earnestly said to Li Qingzhi, “Ah Qing, these students come to study without paying any fees, yet you still let them eat so well. How much does this cost per day? Wasn’t the coarse rice and vegetable porridge before the New Year good enough?”

Today, seeing that every student had meat to eat, Aunt Jin was extremely distressed.

In her opinion, no matter how wealthy, one shouldn’t waste like this!

The most critical thing was… her family didn’t eat this well!

Aunt Jin had a good meal at the school today. In the morning, there was white rice porridge and eggs, and at noon, besides salted meat, Li Qingzhi even had some braised tofu from Jueweizhai sent to them cooks.

But her family didn’t have the chance to eat so well!

Thinking about how the students at the school could eat meat… Aunt Jin was deeply jealous.

“Auntie, this is only for the first meal. They won’t be able to eat this well in the future,” Li Qingzhi said.

What Li Qingzhi said was true.

This was ancient times, with limited productivity. It was almost impossible to provide so much meat for so many students every day.

If he really did that, they would need to slaughter pigs daily, and eventually, the pigs raised by the people of Chongcheng County wouldn’t be enough for them!

Moreover, in an era where everyone’s living standards were so low, feeding the students too well wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Li Qingzhi planned to wait until later to cook the pig blood, duck blood, chicken blood, chicken intestines and duck intestines produced by killing chickens, ducks and pigs at Juewei Zhai for these students to eat.

As for eating meat seriously, you only need to eat it a few times during the holidays.

“That’s not bad.” Aunt Jin felt a little more comfortable and asked Li Qingzhi: “Ah Qing, can your cousin come to school to study? Also, do you have a shortage of cooks here? Your cousins ​​have a lot of strength… …”

Aunt Jin is trying to bring her son and daughter-in-law to school? Li Qingzhi insisted: “There is no shortage of people in the school for the time being. If there is a shortage someday, I will definitely tell my sister-in-law.”

“Okay, okay, if you need someone, you must remember to find your cousins!” Aunt Jin yelled.

Li Qingzhi was a little funny when he heard this.

The next day, elementary school officially started.