Chapter 131: Li Zhu 1/2

Li Qingzhi and Chang Zhan were busy for most of the day, until dusk, before leaving the shop together, preparing to return to the county town.

Just as they stepped out, they saw Jin Dajiang.

“Ah Qing, someone said they saw you here, turns out it’s true.” Jin Dajiang’s face lit up with joy.

He still had no teeth, but had gained some weight, looking considerably younger.

“Dad, are you done with your work?” Li Qingzhi asked.

These days, hiring common folks for work meant no days off, meaning the new dock area worked every day.

Of course, if someone was unwell or had family matters, they could take leave, but Jin Dajiang hardly ever did.

Plus, since Li Qingzhi and the others moved to the county town, he had been busy with the county exam… Li Qingzhi hadn’t seen Jin Dajiang much this year.

He had seen him at the village before, but they hardly exchanged a few words.

“Done, was just about to head back!” Jin Dajiang glanced at the shop behind Li Qingzhi, “Ah Qing, is this your shop?”

Someone saw Li Qingzhi enter this shop and told Jin Dajiang, which prompted him to come over.

“Yes, this shop was given to me by Mr. Zhu.” Li Qingzhi smiled.

Jin Dajiang was extremely pleased, “That’s great, our family’s life is getting better and better…”

Jin Dajiang felt like he was living a fairy tale life.

He could earn two taels of silver a month, indulging in meat every day. His son could also earn two taels a month, and his daughter-in-law was even more amazing, earning three taels a month!

As for his daughter, not to mention, she could reportedly earn ten taels of silver every month, and her husband even topped the city exam… truly remarkable!

“Yes, it will only get better in the future,” Li Qingzhi smiled, “Dad, I’ve hired someone to renovate this shop. In a few days, I’ll open a shop selling braised food. If you want to eat, just come and take it.”

“No, you’re running a business,” Jin Dajiang quickly refused, “But if you sell that braised food, many people will definitely buy it.”

Li Qingzhi chatted with Jin Dajiang for a while before returning to the county town.

That night, he wrote all night again and finally finished writing the story he wanted to write.

So the next day, after Li Qingzhi arrived at the shop, he kept helping with the typesetting.

They didn’t have many lead types, so once one side was set, others had to print quickly, and once enough paper was printed, they had to dismantle the lead types and put them back.

This work was very tedious, but Li Qingzhi did it exceptionally fast.

For example, at this moment, he stood in front of various colored compartments filled with lead types. With a casual throw, he could accurately throw the lead types into the right compartments.

Chang Duan glanced at it and asked Feng Da, “Has Li Qingzhi learned martial arts?”

“I don’t think so?” Feng Da looked puzzled. He had been digging stones with Li Qingzhi for three years and hadn’t noticed anything special about him.

But now… not to mention anything else, just the way Li Qingzhi threw the lead types into the compartments so accurately was something ordinary people couldn’t do.

But they only mentioned it briefly and didn’t discuss it further, continuing to work busily.

They all knew that they were doing this to save Magistrate Zhang… they would do their best!

Every day after Li Qingzhi left, they would keep the lights on for a while and work a little longer, even if it was just printing a little more, it was still good.

In the blink of an eye, it was the day before the departure of the Shen family fleet.

The Shen family’s fleet would depart from the provincial capital, make a brief stop at their dock, pick up Wu Baichuan, and then continue north.

Wu Baichuan had long since cleared a space on his own ship for Li Qingzhi to store goods.

That afternoon, he parked the boat on the new dock, and Li Qingzhi, along with those laborers, carried large bundles of paper onto the ship.

Wu Baichuan valued Li Qingzhi greatly, personally coming over to load the goods, but then he was stunned.

The workers who worked for Li Qingzhi… their problem wasn’t just being thin, several of them looked like they could drop dead at any moment.

He had always known Li Qingzhi was thin, and these people were as thin as Li Qingzhi!

Where did Li Qingzhi find so many skinny people?

Although puzzled, Wu Baichuan didn’t ask a word.

“This is Chang Duan and Feng Da, they’ll be in charge of this batch of goods. They don’t like to talk to people, so they’ll probably stay in the cabin all the time. You don’t need to worry about them.” Li Qingzhi said.

Wu Baichuan smiled and agreed, then chatted with Chang Duan and Feng Da for a while.

Judging from their accents, although they weren’t from Chongcheng County, they were definitely from the surrounding area. Wu Baichuan felt relieved and didn’t object when Chang Duan and Feng Da proposed to board the ship today.

Seeing all the paper being delivered onto the ship, Li Qingzhi breathed a sigh of relief.

Right now, he didn’t want anything else; he just wanted to go home, take a good bath, eat a good meal, and have a good sleep.

Finally done with the busy work, he could rest for a while.

After resting, he planned to spend some time reading at the Chongwen Academy in the county town.

Li Qingzhi walked back home, entering through the gate of the Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Shop.

Recently, Jin Xiaoye wasn’t very busy, but she still had some work to do. Clothing shops in the county town placed orders with her to help make some clothes, and there were also people from the capital city coming to buy things from her.

Most of the time, Jin Xiaoye stayed in the shop.

However, today, Li Qingzhi didn’t see Jin Xiaoye after entering, and even Sister Wang and Fang Jinniang weren’t there. Only Mrs. Xu was standing at the door, looking somewhat off.

Li Qingzhi became somewhat worried and walked quickly inside.

Mrs. Xu didn’t stop him, and as he entered the backyard, he heard Jin Xiaoye’s voice, “Don’t worry, wait for Li Qingzhi to come back and let him help you think of a solution.”

It seemed like Jin Xiaoye was fine. Upon entering, Li Qingzhi saw Jin Xiaoye and Sister Wang sitting in the dining room, with Sister Wang embracing a girl he hadn’t seen before, who seemed to be crying.

Without any surprise, this unfamiliar girl was likely Fang Xiuniang.

“I overheard something when I came in… What’s going on?” Li Qingzhi asked.

Recently, Fang’s mother had been saying that she wanted to marry off Fang Xiuniang and demanded a dowry of one hundred taels of silver.

Fang Jinniang was afraid that Fang Xiuniang would be married off randomly by her mother, so she borrowed money from Jin Xiaoye to redeem Fang Xiuniang.

Jin Xiaoye agreed to lend her the money, which she mentioned to Li Qingzhi last night.

Li Qingzhi didn’t object. Even if it was just borrowing money, even if Jin Xiaoye never repaid it, he still felt that they should save the person.

Now that the person had been saved, what was the matter?

Jin Xiaoye immediately began explaining.

It turned out that after Jin Xiaoye agreed to lend money, Fang Jinniang went to find Fang Xiuniang and told her about it.

As a result… she learned another thing from Fang Xiuniang.

It turned out that Fang’s mother was just casually saying those words.

After the county exam, Fang Zijian was no longer favored in Chongcheng County. Naturally, he couldn’t bear such a situation and had been seeking a way out.

A few days ago, Fang Xiuniang accidentally overheard Fang Zijian and her mother talking. They planned to deceive her into leaving Chongcheng County by claiming they had found a good family for her, then hand her over to someone else, all to help Fang Zijian find a way out.

Fang Xiuniang had been thinking of ways to deal with it all along, planning to escape after leaving Chongcheng County or even to take her own life.

As a result, her sister found her and said she wanted to exchange her for one hundred taels of silver…

Fang Xiuniang immediately objected, but Fang Jinniang sensed that something was wrong. Without considering anything else, she forcefully took her back to the Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Shop.

And then Li Qingzhi saw the situation.

Li Qingzhi really didn’t know that Fang’s mother had plans to sell her daughter again!

During this period, he had been entirely focused on writing and printing books. Although he had heard about Fang Xiuniang’s situation, he thought Jin Xiaoye should be able to handle it, so he didn’t intervene.