Chapter 150: Mid-Autumn Festival

The “Anjiang Collection” was released on the fifteenth of every month. This day happened to be the fifteenth of July, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival or Ghost Festival.

According to the customs of Chongcheng County, on this day, ordinary people would light candles at their doorsteps or along the roads.

After chatting with Li Qingzhi, Guo Tongzhi wanted to invite him to dinner, but Li Qingzhi politely declined and went home early.

Then he saw Jin Xiaoye playing with a pile of candles.

“Why did you buy so many candles?” Li Qingzhi asked.

“It’s the fifteenth of July today, we need to light candles tonight,” Jin Xiaoye replied.

“I don’t remember lighting them last year?” Li Qingzhi recalled. Last year at this time, he had already arrived in this world, but he didn’t see Jin Xiaoye lighting candles.

Jin Xiaoye replied confidently, “We didn’t have much money back then, so why would we light candles?”

Li Qingzhi wasn’t around during those years, and she never bothered with these things that cost money. Last year, Li Qingzhi came back, but he looked frail, and she didn’t feel confident, so naturally, she wouldn’t buy candles to light.

Apologies for the oversight. Here’s the corrected translation:

This year was different.

She managed the accounts, and now, excluding all expenses and the wages she paid to Chang Zhan and the others, she could earn five to six taels of silver in a day. That amounted to over a hundred taels in a month!

The money earned from Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Shop wasn’t as much as from Juewei Restaurant, but it still brought in about thirty to forty taels of silver each month.

Combining the earnings from both shops, Jin Xiaoye could now make around two hundred taels of silver per month. Buying some candles was no big deal!

Li Qingzhi smiled and went to look at the candles Jin Xiaoye had bought.

For the common people of Daqi, candles weren’t cheap.

After buying a pair of candles, ordinary farming households would only light them on important occasions.

For example, they would light them during the New Year to worship their ancestors, then blow them out after a while. They would also light them during the Qingming Festival when visiting graves, and if there were any family anniversaries, they would also light candles during the sacrificial rites.

Being frugal, a pair of candles could last a year.

Of course, those who were better off wouldn’t do this. They would buy new candles each time they needed them. The candles that were lit but not completely burned could be used for lighting on regular days or placed at the doorways during the Ghost Festival.

There were two types of candles in Chongcheng County. One had a cotton wick in the middle, while the other had a thin bamboo tube wrapped around the wick.

People generally bought the latter because the hollow bamboo tube in the middle allowed them to be stuck on pointed candle holders. When visiting graves, the thin bamboo tube could be inserted directly into the soil.

Jin Xiaoye bought this kind, and she inserted the candles into a split winter melon, ready to be lit at night.

Dinner that evening was still prepared by Chang Zhan. He stir-fried the leftover winter melon shreds, and they tasted quite good.

The female workers also had winter melon for dinner that day. Kelp, winter melon, and pork were cooked together in a large pot, making it especially delicious when poured over rice.

However, Li Ermao didn’t like winter melon and didn’t touch it at all. He wasn’t picky before, but now that life was getting better, he had become choosy. He didn’t like several kinds of vegetables now.

Fortunately, he didn’t completely refuse to eat them. Li Qingzhi bought some cucumbers and soaked them in water. Whenever he felt hot or thirsty while playing, he would fish one out and eat it.

Seeing this, Li Qingzhi didn’t bother about his picky eating habits anymore.

He used to be picky when he was a child and didn’t like winter melon either. But now… raw winter melon tasted quite good, and the skin was chewy. However, it needed to be washed before eating to avoid being pricked by the small thorns on the skin.

After dinner, the children started waiting for it to get dark.

It wasn’t completely dark yet, but they lit the candles, as happy as if it were New Year’s.

The children had no concept of the Ghost Festival and just thought it was beautiful to see candles lit everywhere in Chongcheng County.

Li Ermao also took some used paper to burn and play with.

Li Qingzhi didn’t stop him and joined in the fun with them.

He rarely came back to join them, so he had to play with the children well!

Seeing him having fun, Chang Zhan also joined in, and Li Laogen even collected the drips of wax from the candles to play with, saying, “When I was a child, I envied others who could play with candles. I didn’t expect that at this age, I could play with them too!”

But after playing for a while, Jin Xiaoye started calling out, “Li Qingzhi, you should take Li Ermao and Li Ermao to bathe and sleep!”

They slept later than usual that day. After Jin Xiaoye finished tidying up and lying down on the bed, she couldn’t help but ask Li Qingzhi, “How old are you? You’re always playing with children like a child.”

Li Qingzhi replied seriously, “I’m three years old!”

The next day, before dawn, Jin Xiaoshu came to pick up Li Qingzhi.

Because he had to go to the prefectural city to deliver goods to Fang Xiuniang, he got up early every day to pick up the freshly made cured meats from Juewei Restaurant.

Recently, Fang Jinniang and her parents had been taking Jin Sangshu’s boat to the county seat.

After Li Qingzhi got on the boat, Jin Xiaoshu started rowing hard, with the sole purpose of reaching the prefectural city as soon as possible.

Li Qingzhi asked Jin Xiaoshu, “Xiaoshu, are you tired of going back and forth to the prefectural city every day?”

“Tired!” Jin Xiaoshu replied.

He had indeed been very tired recently. He left early every morning and then rushed back, allowing himself a short nap in the afternoon before going to help out at Juewei Restaurant…

Li Qingzhi said, “Since you’re tired, why don’t you hire someone to help you with the deliveries? That way, you’ll have less to worry about.”

Jin Xiaoshu looked a bit bewildered.

Li Qingzhi continued, “Now that you’re in charge of managing the shops outside, after you get the cured meats from Juewei Restaurant, you can sell them to Fang Xiuniang at a slightly higher price. The delivery costs can be factored into that. With the extra money, you should be able to afford to hire someone to help with the deliveries, right?”

Jin Xiaoshu nodded. Despite his recent fatigue, he was earning quite a bit. He bought the cured meats from Juewei Restaurant for ten taels of silver and sold them to Fang Xiuniang for eleven taels of silver!

Of course, Fang Xiuniang also made a profit from this. She sold the cured meats in the prefectural city.

“If you hire someone to help with the deliveries, you’ll have more free time. You can use that time to open shops in Linhu County or other nearby counties. That way, you’ll be able to earn even more,” Li Qingzhi explained the business strategy to him. “Once you have more shops, you can buy more boats and hire more people to help with the deliveries. Since these people go to the prefectural city or Linhu County at fixed times every day, you can also have them carry things for the common people of Chongcheng County. That’s another way to make money…”

Why was Jin Xiaoshu working so hard every day? He could easily expand his business by opening a boat company and delivering other items along with the cured meats.

“Brother-in-law, how did you come up with this idea? You’re amazing!” Jin Xiaoshu exclaimed.

“It was your sister’s idea. She didn’t have time to tell you herself, so she asked me to tell you today,” Li Qingzhi said.

Last night, when he was chatting with Jin Xiaoye, she mentioned how busy Jin Xiaoshu was and suggested that he start a boat company. He helped refine her idea.

He felt ashamed that he hadn’t noticed Jin Xiaoshu’s exhaustion earlier…

In fact, Jin Xiaoshu could afford to deliver the goods to Fang Xiuniang a little later—her shop usually opened around ten in the morning.

Li Qingzhi instructed Jin Xiaoshu to take it easy on rowing the boat and then explained the idea he had discussed with Jin Xiaoye to him.

Jin Xiaoshu’s Notes

He was especially excited in his heart.

He was determined to earn more money, to give his children a good life. If he opened a boat company… he would definitely make a lot of money!

By the time Li Qingzhi arrived at Chongwen Academy, it was almost noon. He planned to have a meal first before starting his afternoon study session.

Actually, before entering the academy, Li Qingzhi had already eaten buns with Jin Xiaoshu, but he didn’t mind having another meal.

His body was fine now, but he could strengthen his muscles and bones with his abilities.

If he wanted to go far in the imperial examinations, he needed to have a good physique.

And… he had once bragged to Li Damao and Li Ermao about how skilled he was, claiming that he could take on a dozen people by himself… He couldn’t lie!

As soon as Li Qingzhi entered the academy, he encountered several classmates.

After Zhu Xunmiao came to Chongwen Academy, he had been approached by troublemakers, but Li Qingzhi had not encountered such a thing.

Zhou Shanchang had publicly examined him before and then personally invited him to study at Chongwen Academy. People in the academy saw Zhou Shanchang’s appreciation for him, so they naturally wouldn’t speak nonsense in front of him.

However, because he didn’t attend classes with the others, his relationship with the people in the academy was quite ordinary and not close.

But today… as soon as those classmates saw Li Qingzhi, they came up to him with smiles on their faces. “Brother Li, congratulations!”

Li Qingzhi was somewhat puzzled. “What’s happened, Wang Brothers?”

These two were not familiar with Li Qingzhi, so they were surprised that he could accurately call out their surnames. “Brother Li, your article is in this month’s ‘Anjiang Collection’!”

“Brother Li, you’ve given face to our Hexing Prefecture!”

“Brother Li, everyone is talking about this!”

…

During this period, Li Qingzhi had read the “Anjiang Collection” from previous years and had also heard from Zhou Shanchang about the situation with the “Anjiang Collection”. He knew that if someone’s article could be published in the “Anjiang Collection”, it would be of great benefit to them.

He thought his article would be published eventually, but he thought he would have to wait until next month or a few more months to see his name in the “Anjiang Collection”.

He didn’t expect it to happen so quickly!

Li Qingzhi was pleasantly surprised, and at that moment, a teacher from the academy passed by.

The teacher saw Li Qingzhi and also had a smile on his face. “Zixiao, your article is very well written, and it has given face to our Chongwen Academy!”

Chongwen Academy had connections with Anjiang Academy. After receiving ten copies of the “Anjiang Collection” this morning, the teachers at the academy were overjoyed.

Before, they didn’t understand why Zhou Shanchang was so determined to have Li Qingzhi study at Chongwen Academy, but now they understood.

With such a talented student from their academy, it was a great honor to spread the word!

Early this morning, Zhou Shanchang had already arranged for someone to go to the provincial capital to buy more copies of the “Anjiang Collection” to bring back, so they could give them away in the future!

“I just got lucky,” Li Qingzhi said.

“Your knowledge has always been excellent. There’s no luck involved,” the teacher smiled.

Afterwards, Li Qingzhi encountered people congratulating him from time to time along the way. Zhou Shanchang even gave him five copies of the “Anjiang Collection,” asking him to keep them for his collection or give them away.

That was not all; by dinner time, Zhou Shanchang had brought several people to find him, saying that several Jinshi from the provincial capital wanted to meet him.

For the past month, Li Qingzhi had been diligently studying and was eager to discuss his studies with others. Talking with these people, he actually learned quite a bit.

During this time, Zhou Shanchang kept boasting, “Zixiao’s knowledge has been praised by Governor Zhang!”

“Zixiao’s calligraphy is outstanding, better than mine!”

“In the future, Zixiao’s articles might even make it into the ‘Anjiang Collection’!”

…

Previously, Governor Zhang had taken two of Li Qingzhi’s articles from Zhou Shanchang, and this time, one of them was published.

This article had obviously been revised by someone and was much better than the original version… Thinking that Governor Zhang had personally visited Li Qingzhi, Zhou Shanchang felt that this article must have been improved under Governor Zhang’s guidance.

Governor Zhang couldn’t have just had Li Qingzhi revise one article… He must have also given guidance on the other article for Li Qingzhi to revise.

Therefore, Li Qingzhi still had one article that could make it into the “Anjiang Collection.”

Zhou Shanchang felt a little envious of Li Qingzhi, but more than that, he was happy.

As for the others… They all began to ask Li Qingzhi for calligraphy supplies.

Li Qingzhi smiled and wrote a few characters for them.

He could feel that although these people didn’t have malicious intent towards him, there was some other emotion, like jealousy, perhaps.

But he didn’t care.

He wanted to make a name for himself, and his calligraphy was indeed good. So why shouldn’t he write?

Writing didn’t take much effort, and the calligraphy supplies were provided by Zhou Shanchang.

At first, the Jinshi who came to find Li Qingzhi were indeed a bit jealous of him, and they didn’t feel very comfortable. They had all submitted articles to the “Anjiang Collection,” but none had been published. Now, seeing a much younger student’s article in the collection, it was hard for them to feel at ease!

But Li Qingzhi’s attitude was very good. He didn’t show any arrogance when facing them, and he happily wrote for them when they asked.

And with Li Qingzhi’s calligraphy being so good, even surpassing theirs…

These people felt a bit embarrassed—they really couldn’t compare to Li Qingzhi, so was there any need to be jealous?

After leaving Chongwen Academy, several Jinshi praised Li Qingzhi endlessly and showed his calligraphy to others.

Li Qingzhi was a gifted talent. With such praise, the fact that their articles couldn’t make it into the “Anjiang Collection” while Li Qingzhi’s could seemed reasonable!

For a while, the scholars of Hexing Prefecture were all praising Li Qingzhi, and almost everyone knew who “Li Zixiao” was.

“This time’s top scorer in the provincial examination must be from our Hexing Prefecture!”

“I’ve seen Li Zixiao’s calligraphy, it’s really excellent! I never expected him to not only excel in writing but also have such remarkable calligraphy!”

“My teacher has always praised him. He truly has both talent and learning.”

…

Amidst the praises of the crowd, August arrived, and Li Qingzhi had already put in a last-minute effort… no, he had immersed himself in studying for a month and a half.

It was time for him to go to the provincial capital to prepare for the provincial examination. Chongwen Academy had several students preparing to go to the provincial capital for the examination, but Li Qingzhi didn’t go with them.

He and Zhu Xunmiao planned to return to Chongcheng County first. After staying there for one night, they would then proceed to the provincial capital together.