Previous
Fiction Page
Next
Font Size:
Chapter 147: The Lone Wanderer 2/2
Guo Ying said, “The common people in ‘Record of Injustice’ are too pitiful!”
Lí Qīngzhí said, “In the future, don’t read these kinds of books in the school. In the school, you should focus on studying.” Seeing Guo Ying like this today, he must not have studied well in school.
“I just intended to take a casual glance at it!” Guo Ying said.
Lí Qīngzhí said, “Alright, go wash your face and let’s eat.”
“Have you never read this book?” Guo Ying asked. “You must go and take a look. The people in this book are too miserable!”
“I have read it, and I can even recite it,” Lí Qīngzhí replied.
“Really? I don’t believe it!”
“Pick a passage, and I’ll recite it for you,” Lí Qīngzhí said.
Guo Ying selected a passage, and Lí Qīngzhí began reciting it. But when he finished…
“You can indeed recite it, but you got some words wrong!” Guo Ying showed the book to Lí Qīngzhí, pointing out where he went wrong.
Lí Qīngzhí: “…” It wasn’t him who got it wrong; it was when Cháng Duān and Cháng Zhān printed it that they used the wrong words! They printed it wrong!
Because it still made sense that way, Governor Zhang didn’t pick out the mistake, so Magistrate Guō just followed suit.
The mistake was in the book, not in him!
“Brother Cháng, when you recite the book, you show no emotion. Can you understand the pain of the people in the book?” Guo Ying asked again.
“Of course,” Lí Qīngzhí replied.
Because this book was written by him!
And everyone thought that this book was recorded by The Lone Wanderer after the common people’s narrations, but in reality… it wasn’t!
He learned about the tragic events of the stone-mining laborers from the original owner’s memories, listened to some things from Cháng Duān and Cháng Zhān, then wrote it all out of thin air, adding many details himself.
And he could express the pain and despair of ordinary people because he had experienced it all.
In the last life, all his relatives died, and he was always starving, always starving!
When Lí Qīngzhí wrote this book, he didn’t have much feeling, but when he finished writing and looked back… he realized that in writing this book, he had actually brought out some emotions that he had buried deep inside.
So the overall tone of the book was suppressed, making the readers unable to help but want to cry.
Lí Qīngzhí took Guo Ying to have a meal, but after they finished, they didn’t go to the lantern festival area.
It wasn’t because they felt bad after discussing “Record of Injustice,” but because… it started raining.
No one in Chóngchéng County cared much about the summer rain. After all, it was summer, and a little rain wouldn’t hurt.
Li Damao, Li Ermao, Zhao Xiaodou, and the others liked playing in the water, so they just rushed into the rain to play. Later on, even Cháng Cuì went along.
Lí Qīngzhí didn’t stop them either. These four children had good constitutions; a little rain wouldn’t hurt them. After getting wet, they could just go back and take a bath.
Thinking like this, Lí Qīngzhí also walked into the rain.
The feeling of raindrops falling on his body felt quite nice.
In the post-apocalyptic world, rain was polluted and couldn’t be casually enjoyed. But now it was different! He could enjoy the rain however he wanted!
Sitting in the rain, thinking about Guo Ying’s reaction just now, thinking about how “Record of Injustice” was becoming more and more popular… Lí Qīngzhí felt a stir in his heart.
These past few days, he had been writing essays, intending to make a name for himself.
But when he wrote, he felt a bit irritable.
Because the essays he wrote for the imperial examinations had too many regulations, and many things couldn’t actually be written. If he wrote them, he might easily get into trouble.
Should he… write under the pseudonym of The Lone Wanderer?
He could write about things like land consolidation, and he could write however he wanted without worrying about rules and rhymes.
After writing, he could submit them to “Anjiang Collection.” It would be great if they could be published, but if not, it wouldn’t matter.
Moreover, didn’t “Juewei Studio” still have a complete set of printing equipment? He could just print them himself and distribute them.
Occasionally, Lí Qīngzhí felt an impulse to reorganize this society.
“Lí Qīngzhí, how old are you? Yet you’re still playing in the rain.” Jīn Xiǎoyè looked speechlessly at Lí Qīngzhí, who had moved a bamboo chair to sit in the courtyard.
Lí Qīngzhí looked at Jīn Xiǎoyè innocently, “I’m three years old this year.”
Jīn Xiǎoyè didn’t expect Lí Qīngzhí to say that, and suddenly burst into laughter.
After Lí Qīngzhí ran into the rain, Guo Ying couldn’t restrain the impulse in his heart any longer and followed, running into the rain to frolic.
Although his grandparents spoiled him, they would never allow him to do something like getting caught in the rain.
Now, he let the heavy rain soak him, feeling extremely excited and relaxed, even wanting to howl at the sky.
Of course, he felt embarrassed to do such a thing, so… he only burst into laughter when Lí Qīngzhí said he was “three years old.”
Guo Ying returned home relatively early that day.
As he walked in drenched, he heard his father ask, “Why are you in such a state?”
“It’s raining heavily!” Guo Ying didn’t care at all. “I’m going to take a shower!”
Guo Ying went to take a shower, while Magistrate Guō couldn’t help but complain, “This child, so impetuous.”
Mrs. Guō remained silent, quietly shedding tears on the side.
Guo Ying had come back from Lí Qīngzhí’s house, and being soaked like this must mean that Lí Qīngzhí hadn’t given him an umbrella.
Did Lí Qīngzhí hold a grudge against her for her earlier unpleasant words? To the extent that he wouldn’t even give her son an umbrella?
Thinking like this, Mrs. Guō felt even more bitter.
When Magistrate Guō turned his head, he saw his wife looking mournful. Suddenly, he felt that his son was still adorable, so he went to find him.
Then… father and son had another argument.
It was Magistrate Guō who started it this time. “Look at you, so reckless. When you came back, the rain wasn’t as heavy anymore. Why did you still get yourself soaked like this? Can’t you learn from Lí Qīngzhí…”
“Lí Qīngzhí was the one who got soaked first, and then I followed!”
“He went to get soaked? There must be a reason for that. Maybe he was inspired to write poetry…” Intellectuals sometimes behave strangely. I heard there’s a scholar in the provincial capital who dressed as a woman and jumped into a lake!
“You’re the one who was inspired to write poetry!” When did Lí Qīngzhí get inspired to write poetry? He just went to play in the water with the children!
Why couldn’t Guo Ying’s dad be more like Lí Qīngzhí’s dad? Why was his dad like this!
“Who allowed you to talk to your father like that?!” Magistrate Guō became angry.
The father and son started arguing again, but fortunately, it was getting late, and remembering what Lí Qīngzhí had said, they ultimately didn’t escalate into a full-blown confrontation.
The next day, Guo Ying left home early, feeling that he hadn’t handled things well the previous night. He had prepared a bunch of reasoning and planned to have a good talk with Magistrate Guō early in the morning. However, Magistrate Guō was nowhere to be found, so Guo Ying had to abandon his plan and do other things.
During the busy day, Magistrate Guō suddenly felt fortunate that he was so busy.
When he first came to Chóngchéng County, he had a lot of free time. If he still had that much free time now, he would probably be watching Guo Ying study every day, and then they would argue every day… Having a wife who cried every day was bad enough, but having a son who argued with him every day would make life even more difficult to bear.
Magistrate Guō went to the lantern festival area and found that all the lanterns there had been taken down.
Some of these lanterns were stored in nearby shops. If they decided to continue the lantern festival, they could still be used. Some lanterns had been taken home by the people before the rain, intending to keep them for later use.
Magistrate Guō: “…”
Magistrate Guō went to find Lí Qīngzhí and asked him how to proceed with the lantern festival.
Since the lanterns were made of paper, the lantern festival couldn’t last long, especially since it was inevitable that it would rain sometimes.
“Lí Qīngzhí suggested, “Sir, in the future, instead of calling it a lantern festival, we could call it a night market, providing the people of Chóngchéng County with a place to go at night. There’s plenty of empty space near the new dock, right? We can reserve a spot for the people of Chóngchéng County to set up stalls and enjoy the coolness in the evening.”
In modern times, which city didn’t have a square or park!
In this era, there were no parks. Those gardens belonged to wealthy people and were not accessible to ordinary people.
But we can provide the people with a square.
After all, there was no square dancing at this time, so there was no fear of disturbing the peace.
“Agreed,” Magistrate Guō said, then he mentioned Guo Ying getting caught in the rain last night and asked Lí Qīngzhí, “I heard you got caught in the rain too?”
Lí Qīngzhí: “…”
Sometimes, the same incident, when described differently, could give a completely different impression! Lí Qīngzhí said, “Sir, yesterday, Guo Ying and I watched ‘Record of Injustice’ together. We were deeply moved and decided to enjoy the rain together.”
Magistrate Guō hadn’t expected it to be like this… “I see! Ah, the common people depicted in ‘Record of Injustice’ are truly pitiful. After reading it, I also had trouble sleeping.”
“Sir, you truly empathize with the common people! With you as the magistrate of Chóngchéng County, the people of Chóngchéng County are fortunate!” Lí Qīngzhí immediately remarked.
After a heavy rain, the day became a bit cooler.
Some people came to Zhu Qián’s bookstore to buy “Record of Injustice.”
Recently, this book had become popular in Héxīng Prefecture, and even in the provincial capital, many people were reading it. So some bookstores often encountered people asking for this book.
If these bookstores didn’t have it, they would inquire everywhere to find out where to buy it. In the end, they found their way to Zhu Qián’s place.
They planned to buy some books from Zhu Qián to sell back and then print their own copies.
“I heard that Governor Zhang’s promotion was due to this book!”
“This is a book that even officials in the capital are reading!”
“I heard that the emperor instructed court officials to read this book to understand the common people.”
“We should read it too!”
“My uncle is an official in the capital. He said the court also sent this book to nearby cities, but our area is too far, so we didn’t receive it.”
“…”
“Record of Injustice” became popular in Jiāng’ān Province.
The name of “Lingdu Sanren” was also becoming more and more known.
Previous
Fiction Page
Next