Chapter 100: Becoming Famous 2/2

Li Qingzhi smiled back at him.

Actually, it was quite normal for Yao Zhenfu to lose his balance emotionally, and it was normal for Mr. Yao to believe Yao Zhenfu.

They weren’t his family, and he didn’t care about their opinions.

Now that he had moved to the county seat… he and Mr. Yao’s family would definitely drift further apart.

Li Qingzhi turned back and continued talking to Peng Jingliang and the others.

Jin Moli stood at the entrance of the restaurant and glanced inside. Seeing Li Qingzhi surrounded by several well-dressed scholars, she felt a bit lost.

She had been a village woman in her previous life and didn’t know much about scholars. Li Qingzhi now belonged to a different world from hers.

After she was reborn, why did she choose Yao Zhenfu?

Jin Xiaoye had such good judgment. How could the person she chose be inferior?

At that moment, Jin Moli suddenly realized that she might really not be as good as Jin Xiaoye.

Ironically, before the county exam, she had been feeling sorry for Jin Xiaoye.

This made her extremely uncomfortable and made Yao Zhenfu even more annoying to her.

“Li Qingzhi relies on his photographic memory! He has never told me about this; he has been hiding it from me all along, just to embarrass me in public…” Yao Zhenfu kept muttering.

Jin Moli couldn’t help but say, “You blame others for everything when you can’t accomplish anything yourself!”

Yao Zhenfu immediately became furious. “Jin Moli, what do you mean? Are you attracted to Li Qingzhi? You…”

Mr. Yao didn’t even think about it; he slapped Yao Zhenfu across the face. “Shut up!”

His son was simply out of his mind, saying such things out in the open!

Jin Moli had been married into their family for several years. Although not flawless, she was more than suitable, far better than his son deserved. Yet his son was talking nonsense like this; wasn’t he afraid Jin Moli would leave?

“Dad!” Yao Zhenfu protested.

Mr. Yao said, “Go home and tend to the fields!”

Yao Zhenfu felt as if he had been struck by lightning at his father’s words.

As for Jin Moli, she couldn’t help but cry at this moment.

Jin Moli was very upset, while Jin Xiaoye was feeling very cheerful.

When they first went to the private room in the restaurant, she was very worried, afraid that Li Qingzhi might get hurt.

She had no mood to talk to Zhu Xunmiao and the others, just leaning against the window, looking down.

Then… she saw Li Qingzhi stealing the limelight.

Jin Xiaoye knew that Li Qingzhi had a good memory, but it wasn’t until now that she realized how talented he really was.

When Li Qingzhi said he wanted to become the most famous literati in Daqi, this might actually have come true.

Now that she was sure Li Qingzhi was fine, Jin Xiaoye finally had the heart to talk to Zhu Qian’s wife and Mrs. Xu.

Zhu Qian’s wife was married to him after Zhu Qian became rich. She was much younger than Zhu Qian and very beautiful, but she was a bit introverted and shy, not good at socializing unlike Zhu Qian, who was outgoing and sociable.

Several people were chatting when Zhu Qian arrived.

As soon as Zhu Qian came in, he said to Zhu Xunmiao, “Xunmiao, it’s crowded downstairs. You and Xiao Xu, go down and invite Li Qingzhi and the others upstairs.”

Zhu Qian was a bit disappointed in his son.

Peng Jingliang and the others were all well-known scholars. If it were him, he would have definitely gone downstairs to talk to them already. Yet his son had been staying upstairs indifferent all this time!

“Dad,Brother Li asked me to take care of his wife upstairs,” Zhu Xunmiao said.

“Is your mother incapable of taking care of Li’s wife? Hurry up and go downstairs! Magistrate Guo has already left; the next private room is empty. You can invite them over there for some food.” Zhu Qian tried to teach his son.

At this moment, Zhu Xunmiao also realized, “Dad, I’ll go down right away!”

He hadn’t gone down earlier because Li Qingzhi had told him to stay upstairs; he knew Li Qingzhi wanted to make a name for himself on this occasion.

But now, he could go down, invite Li Qingzhi and the others up to the private room, and order some extra dishes for them.

It was already noon, and Li Qingzhi must be hungry!

Zhu Xunmiao went downstairs with Xu Qifei to find Li Qingzhi.

At the same time, the people from the county office began posting the candidates’ answer sheets.

Naturally, the first one posted was Li Qingzhi’s answer sheet.

Li Qingzhi had written publicly before, and he had even distributed some of his manuscripts. But there were still many people who hadn’t seen his handwriting until now.

“His handwriting is so beautiful!”

“Just looking at it makes me feel good!”

“His answers are brilliant!”

“I want to copy his essay!”

“I thought my answers were good… I’m afraid they’re not even one-tenth as good as his!”

…

People crowded around Li Qingzhi’s answer sheet. Meanwhile, the clerks from the office began posting other candidates’ answer sheets.

“Compared to Li Qingzhi’s, these answers are just too ordinary!”

“That student of Sun Juren kept accusing the magistrate of favoritism. If the magistrate really showed favoritism, he wouldn’t have chosen him!”

“His answer sheet doesn’t match Li Qingzhi’s in any aspect.”

“That’s right. I thought my answers were good until I saw his.”

“After seeing Li Qingzhi’s answer sheet, the others are hard to look at!”

…

When the county exam results were announced today, Li Xiucai gave his students the day off and came to the county office with several other scholars.

There were too many people earlier, so they stayed at a nearby teahouse. It wasn’t until now that they came here.

After the other scholars except Li Xiucai talked, they became even more jealous of Li Xiucai.

Li Xiucai had a smile on his face, feeling even better.

At this moment, the news from the county office spread quickly.

The ordinary people of Chongcheng County didn’t pay much attention to the county exam, but when such a thing happened…

“Do you know? That Li Qingzhi, who wrote stories for Magistrate Guo, came first in the county exam this time!”

“I know! I heard someone accuse Magistrate Guo of favoritism!”

“These people… his stories are so good, shouldn’t he get first place?”

“He’s not just good at storytelling; I heard he can recite any book!”

“That’s too amazing!”

“He is indeed amazing. The blind fortune teller at the end of our alley said so too—he’s like the literary star descending from the heavens!”

“The scholars from the prefectural city all praise his knowledge!”

…

For a moment, everyone in Chongcheng County was talking about Li Qingzhi.

At the Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Workshop, Wang Jie and her workers chatted while they worked, discussing the county exam.

“I wonder if Li Qingzhi and Xu Qifei will be selected…” Sister Wang’s voice had just fallen when a woman from the neighborhood walked in. “Li Qingzhi lives here!”

As soon as she spoke, some men and women followed her in. “So he lives here. The feng shui must be excellent!”

“Shouldn’t be, right? This place used to be a coffin shop.”

“What’s wrong with a coffin shop? Coffins are coffins, but if you’re talented and hold an official position, what’s wrong with that?”

“Exactly!”

“This embroidery workshop belongs to his family. Perhaps everything here is imbued with his talent…”

“Let’s buy something!”

“I definitely need to buy something!”

…

Many of these people were parents of the exam candidates this time.

Most of the exam candidates were quite young, many of them not yet adults. After their parents learned about Li Qingzhi’s situation from the county office, they came especially to see if they could catch some good luck.

At this moment, they were scrambling to buy things in the embroidery workshop.

Sister Wang was dumbfounded, but business was already at her doorstep… She had to sell!

Not only did she sell at wholesale prices, but she also sold at the prices of a regular clothing store.

However, it wasn’t just buying things, some people were even touching this and that in the workshop. Some even asked about Li Qingzhi’s son, wanting to touch the child…

Sister Wang: “…” This is going too far, really too far!