Chapter 112: Return Gifts 2/2

The next morning, Li Damao and Li Ermao voluntarily took care of their sister, feeding her breakfast.

Chang Cui was actually a bit timid, but she wasn’t afraid when she saw Li Damao and Li Ermao, who were only slightly older than her and looked exactly like her. After waking up in the morning, she stopped crying and even called out “brother” in a soft voice.

This made Li Damao and Li Ermao extremely happy, calling her “sister” joyfully.

After breakfast, Li Qingzhi took the three children to study with Li Xiucai as usual.

At noon, he brought them back home for lunch.

Li Xiucai accepted children of all ages, so their learning progress was uneven, and they only studied for half a day each day.

When Li Qingzhi returned home, the cook had just finished cooking, and Jin Xiaoye was busy.

Seeing this, Li Qingzhi went straight to the kitchen.

The cook looked at Li Qingzhi curiously.

In Miaoqian Village, it wasn’t rare for men to cook. Some men couldn’t even find wives, so they had to cook for themselves. And some men, like Li Laogen, who finally married, cherished their wives and would even cook for them.

However, most men, especially those who owned a few acres of land, wouldn’t cook.

Li Qingzhi was already the top scholar in their county, yet he was willing to cook. This was quite rare!

More importantly, Li Qingzhi was a good cook, and the food he cooked looked delicious.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t their turn to eat.

But the female workers didn’t mind. Most of them only ate two meals a day at home, both consisting of vegetables and coarse rice cooked in one pot without any oil. But here, they could eat white rice and even meat.

For example, today they had pork stewed with bamboo shoots.

It was said that in the evening, they would also cook a dish with fava beans, shepherd’s purse, bamboo shoots, and salted pork for them to eat!

Li Qingzhi cooked two hearty home-cooked dishes, then invited the others to join.

The four children didn’t sit at the table; they sat on small stools and ate from bowls. At the table were Li Qingzhi, Jin Xiaoye, Jin Xiaoshu, Fang Jinniang, Li Laogen, Sister Wang, and Mrs. Xu.

Sister Wang and Mrs. Xu were in charge of the embroidery workshop, and their treatment was different from that of the female workers.

Sister Wang was quite talkative and kept talking during the meal, asking about what was happening in Linhu County.

Li Qingzhi picked out some things to tell her. Just as he was speaking, a bailiff came in from outside. “Mr. Li, Magistrate Gou is looking for you. He wants you to come over.”

“What’s the matter?” Li Qingzhi asked.

“I’m not sure, but it’s definitely good news. Magistrate Gou is very happy,” the bailiff replied.

“I’ll go over right away.” Li Qingzhi headed out. Magistrate Gou, looking for him, should be related to Chang Zhan. But… How could this be considered good news? Why would Magistrate Gou be happy?

Magistrate Gou was happy because Magistrate Zhang had returned his gift.

magistrate Zhang had returned his gift!

Although the Gou family wasn’t a big clan, they were considered a small noble family. Magistrate Gou had learned about social interactions from a young age, so giving gifts was quite common for him.

However, this was the first time he had sent a gift after coming out to work as an official. He carefully selected the gifts to give to magistrate Zhang, but not only did magistrate Zhang accept them, he also returned the favor!

But… Li Qingzhi wanted to arrange for his relative to work at the county office, but his relative ended up following magistrate Zhang to the capital…

I wonder if Li Qingzhi will be happy about this.

Magistrate Gou happily inspected the return gift from Magistrate Zhang.

A dried sauce duck, some dried sausages, and even a painting by magistrate Zhang!

A painting by magistrate Zhang!

Why didn’t magistrate Zhang send it earlier? Then he could have shown it to Magistrate Yan, who would surely envy him.

Thinking like this, Magistrate Gou instructed someone to steam the duck. Even if he had to eat late today, he had to taste this duck!

Just as he was feeling happy, Li Qingzhi arrived.

Magistrate Gou immediately said, “Zixiao, magistrate Zhang sent me a return gift!”

“That’s really great! Master, magistrate Zhang must value you very much,” Li Qingzhi said.

“Hahaha!” Magistrate Gou laughed happily for a while, then suddenly remembered something. “Oh right, your relative ‘Xiao Zhang,’ magistrate Zhang left him in the capital.”

“I didn’t expect him to have such good fortune! It’s all thanks to you, Master County Magistrate, for giving him the opportunity!” Li Qingzhi immediately complimented.

Seeing Li Qingzhi so happy, Magistrate Gou said, “He can earn the recognition of magistrate Zhang; his future prospects are definitely bright!”

“If it weren’t for your guidance, he wouldn’t have had this opportunity.”

The two of them happily conversed, and Magistrate Gou took out the painting from magistrate Zhang, admiring it with Li Qingzhi.

Magistrate Gou wasn’t actually good at painting, nor did he know much about evaluating artwork, but Li Qingzhi was even worse, only understanding the basics.

He immediately expressed that he wasn’t good at painting, and incidentally praised Magistrate Gou. This made Magistrate Gou even happier. He invited Li Qingzhi to stay for lunch and taste the sauce duck sent by magistrate Zhang.

Although they had already eaten, Li Qingzhi still happily agreed.

The sauce duck sent by magistrate Zhang was quite ordinary.

There were many families in Hexing Prefecture that raised ducks, and sauce duck was a common dish.

In wealthy households, sauce duck was often seasoned with various spices, making it delicious. However, the sauce duck sent by magistrate Zhang obviously didn’t have anything besides soy sauce.

But it was from magistrate Zhang!

Magistrate Gou praised the sauce duck for its original flavor, and praised magistrate Zhang for his integrity as an official.

He felt that magistrate Zhang must be eating such plain sauce duck because he didn’t have money. Next time, he could send magistrate Zhang a few delicious sauce ducks.

While they were eating, Magistrate Gou mentioned the upcoming provincial examination and reminded Li Qingzhi to prepare well for it.

The county examination was in February, and because it lasted for a long time, the results weren’t released until March. The provincial examination was in April.

In just a few days, Li Qingzhi and the others would be participating in the provincial examination.

Li Qingzhi smiled and promised to work hard and not disappoint Magistrate Gou’s expectations.

In the following days, Li Qingzhi resumed his concentrated study.

However, unlike before the county examination, he still found time for other activities, such as cooking.

Cooking delicious food was also a very interesting thing to do.

A few days later, Li Qingzhi learned about the outcome of the case where Hong Hui falsely accused Magistrate Gou.

Magistrate Yan appeared fair and strict on the surface, and as someone who worked for King of Jin, he couldn’t be bought by small fries like Hong Hui.

He investigated the whole matter very thoroughly.

Before the county examination, Hong Hui had been spreading rumors about Magistrate Gou and criticizing Li Qingzhi’s lack of knowledge. He even wrote some poems criticizing Magistrate Gou.

After the county examination, he even bribed some people to publicly question the fairness of the examination.

However, because Hong Hui didn’t succeed and genuinely believed that Li Qingzhi lacked knowledge, his crime wasn’t particularly severe.

Hong Hui’s scholarly status was revoked, and he had to serve time in prison.

Nowadays, you could buy your way out of punishment with money. Although the Hong family had declined, they still had some resources left. After selling a shop, they managed to buy Hong Hui’s freedom, and he didn’t end up in prison.

Besides Hong Hui, others implicated in the case included the students of Sun Juren, who was prominent in the county examination, and Fang Zijian.

The exam scores of these two were also invalidated, and they were similarly punished.

Of course, their families also paid money to help them avoid punishment.

Although Li Qingzhi publicly questioned Hong Hui on the day of the announcement, he didn’t really expect anything to happen to him.

The current situation was also a pleasant surprise for him.

Hong Hui no longer had the ability to harm him.

In fact, lately, Li Qingzhi has been so busy with the affairs of Linhu County and the provincial examination that he has almost forgotten about such a person.

After the case was settled, it was time for the provincial examination, and Li Qingzhi was going to the capital city to participate.