Chapter 163 1/3

The Li family bought four pigs for this banquet.

Two laborers from Juewei Zhai, who had learned how to slaughter pigs, came over to help with the slaughter. Chang Zhan also came to help with the cooking.

Chang Zhan cut the pork into pieces and stewed it using Juewei Zhai’s braised pork recipe. He also had someone clean the pig’s internal organs and prepared them for cooking separately.

There weren’t many guests invited by Li Qingzhi, so killing four pigs at once was mainly to distribute some meat to the villagers later, plus there were many helpers… Chang Zhan wasn’t too busy.

He quickly prepared the dishes, and by this time, the braised pork was also ready. After cutting it into pieces, it was time to serve the meal!

Li Qingzhi didn’t sit with Jin Xiaoye this time; instead, Zhu Qian, Zhu Xunmiao, Xu Qifei, Li Xiucai, and Wu Baichuan were all here.

With Du Yongning and Chang Zhan… Li Qingzhi and they sat together, filling up a table.

As for Jin Xiaoye, she sat with Jin Xiaoshu, Fang Jinniang, and others.

Jin’s parents didn’t come today; they were busy looking after their braised meat shop in the city.

In fact, they ran the braised meat shop together. After deducting the rent, they only made about two taels of silver a month, but they were already very happy. They didn’t want to miss a single day.

Originally, they had agreed that Jin’s father would come to help at Li’s house, while Jin’s mother would run the shop in the city. However, when they learned that there were many helpers, Jin’s father didn’t come.

During the meal, Li Laogen started boasting again.

“Did you see the scholar in blue next to Li Qingzhi? His uncle is a high-ranking official in the capital! He comes to see Ah Qing every day now. Ah Qing is really impressive!”

“Master Zhu and the others came specially!”

“This time, when Ah Qing hosted the banquet, although Magistrate Wang didn’t come, he sent a gift!”

“If you have any problems in the future, you can come to me, and I’ll make sure to take care of it for you.”

…

Li Laogen spoke with an air of self-satisfaction, shaking his head and wagging his tail. In the past, when Li Laogen boasted like this, people in the village often didn’t believe it, but now… after what happened to Jin Xiaoye’s family, when Li Qingzhi actually brought Magistrate Wang, the people in the village no longer thought Li Laogen was boasting.

Li Qingzhi was indeed very powerful, something they couldn’t compare to!

Li Laogen’s luck was also too good, and Jin Xiaoye’s luck was also good.

In the beginning, why didn’t they realize how capable Li Qingzhi was? If they had recognized Li Qingzhi’s talent earlier and acknowledged him as their father or married their daughter to him…

The Yao family, sitting with Li Laogen, felt even more depressed.

They had always thought that their son would become a scholar. They even thought about how to arrange the banquet when the time came. But in the end… they could only attend other people’s banquets.

That was not all; their son and daughter-in-law didn’t even come to the meal… thankfully! The Yao family was feeling down when someone cheekily asked Mr. Yao, “Old Yao, is your son willing to work now? You’re so old, shouldn’t it be his turn to harvest in the autumn?”

Mr. Yao’s face turned dark.

His son… definitely wouldn’t be willing to work in the fields.

The surrounding voices were chaotic, and Du Yongning couldn’t quite hear what people were saying, but Li Qingzhi got the gist.

However, he didn’t pay much attention to the people around him; his focus was still on the food.

The dishes made by Chang Zhan were really delicious!

Zhu Qian kept praising, “This intestines are so delicious, I’ve never eaten such delicious intestines before.”

“Indeed,” Li Qingzhi agreed. He picked up a piece of intestines and dipped it in some chili powder to eat.

With Chang Zhan’s deep culinary expertise, he loved to experiment with cooking.

Li Qingzhi bought some chili peppers, removed the seeds, and planted them. They hadn’t harvested yet, but the skins had been ground into powder.

This chili powder, Chang Zhan used it when cooking, and he even made a special dipping sauce with it, which Li Qingzhi used to dip the intestines he was eating.

Sesame, Sichuan peppercorn, fennel, and a few other spices were ground into powder, mixed with chili powder and fine salt… the dipping sauce made this way was delicious no matter what you dipped in it!

Li Qingzhi really liked it, but… he felt it wasn’t spicy enough.

Du Yongning had been quietly eating the braised pork.

He had eaten intestines before and quite liked them, but after witnessing the pig slaughter today, he didn’t want to eat intestines anymore.

It was a bit nauseating to think about.

But everyone around him was eating…

Du Yongning still managed to overcome his disgust and picked up a piece of intestines to eat.

It was really delicious!

Li Qingzhi’s culinary skills were excellent, and Chang Zhan, the cook, was also extremely talented!

Du Yongning couldn’t help but ask Li Qingzhi about the chili powder, “What is this?”

“This is chili powder,” Li Qingzhi replied.

“This chili powder is so delicious, where can I buy it?” Du Yongning asked again.

“This is a proprietary recipe and not for sale,” Li Qingzhi said.

Du Yongning looked disappointed and then picked up a piece of fried meat, dipped it in some chili powder, and ate it—this was really delicious!

“You really like it? This chili powder contains spices imported from overseas, which are quite expensive. But you’re my friend, so I can give you some for free,” Li Qingzhi said with a smile.

Du Yongning gave him 200 taels of silver, which he didn’t mind spending on this chili powder.

More importantly… a few days ago, when Chang Zhan went out to buy seasoning, he also bought some chili peppers!

Unfortunately, although the chili he planted had grown, they were still green, and it would probably take some time for them to turn red.

Du Yongning was deeply moved, and then he saw Li Qingzhi looking at Zhu Qian, Li Xiucai, and the others, saying he wanted to give them some too.

Du Yongning: “…” So everyone else has it too? He felt a bit unhappy!

Feeling unhappy, Du Yongning tasted all the dishes on the table again, and surprisingly, he still liked the intestines the most…

While Du Yongning was enjoying the banquet in front of the temple, the Du family was also hosting a banquet.

Du Yongning passed the imperial examination, and the Du family was definitely going to host a banquet to celebrate.

Unfortunately, the protagonist of this banquet wasn’t here… The Du family felt a bit helpless. Normally, when

someone passed the imperial examination, they would hurry home, but Du Yongning went to play in Chongcheng County with his friends!

However, Du Yongning’s friend, named Li Qingzhi, was indeed good. His future was boundless, so the Du family didn’t mind him making friends.

They would let Du Yongning relax for a while, and after this period, Du Yongning would have to come back to study.

Li Qingzhi’s banquet for passing the imperial examination was similar to the last one, and… just like last time, many people came hoping to gain some literary talent.

There were even classmates of Li Qingzhi who came over after hearing about it, bringing gifts and asking for a piece of braised pork after delivering the gift, all hoping for a good omen, so they could also pass the imperial examination in the future.

Li Qingzhi felt a little helpless about this.

But this was how people were nowadays, and even in modern times, there were people who went to burn incense before the college entrance examination… It was just a habit.

After the banquet, Li Qingzhi began to busy himself with the construction of the school and houses. He became increasingly aware that he had few people he could rely on.

Fortunately, this was just building houses, and he didn’t need too many loyal helpers… Li Qingzhi hired people to help him with the work, but if the school was to be built, it was his own planning.

He wanted to build a school where people could study for free, not a fancy mansion for wealthy people to vacation in, so the design of the house was very simple, focusing more on practicality and safety.

He had people build two rows of brick houses, with twenty houses in each row, ten facing south and ten facing north, sharing a wall in the middle.

Li Qingzhi planned to use the rooms facing south as classrooms for the students to use during the day, and the rooms facing north would be for them to live in at night.

As for why they were divided into two rows… mainly because he planned to accept both male and female students.