Chapter 174 1/3

On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, it was the day for the students of Chongcheng Elementary School to go home.

Many of the students who came to study with Li Qingzhi were orphans.

Medical conditions weren’t good these days, and the average lifespan of common people was low. Plus, there weren’t any contraceptive methods… So, there were quite a few orphans.

Therefore, Li Qingzhi asked these students in advance if they wanted to go home.

Those who wanted to go home could go, and after half a month, they could come back to school after the New Year.

As for those who didn’t want to go home, they could also spend the New Year at school. He wouldn’t let them go hungry, but of course, they would have to help with some chores.

In the end, five girls and nineteen boys stayed, and the rest went home.

The children who stayed were mostly homeless, and it was normal for there to be more boys than girls.

If parents had accidents, girls might be taken away to be foster daughters-in-law, and relatives would be willing to take them in—letting them work at home, giving them food, and marrying them off with a dowry when they were fifteen or sixteen. For ordinary people at that time, it was very cost-effective.

But it was different for boys. A half-grown son eats up his father’s savings, and unless the family lacked labor for farming, or lacked a son, otherwise… what’s the point of raising them?

Among the boys who stayed, one was driven out by his stepmother. If he were a girl, he probably wouldn’t be driven out, but of course, the outcome wouldn’t be good either. The stepmother would probably marry her off to anyone for a high dowry.

The five hundred students Li Qingzhi recruited were all very thin, and the twenty-something who stayed were even darker and thinner.

Several of them had white spots on their faces, a sign of having many roundworms in their stomachs. As for their hair…

Li Qingzhi felt that if they just scratched their heads, they could probably catch a handful of lice.

In fact, when he first crossed over, the original owner of the body also had lice, as did Jin Xiaoye, but neither Li Damao nor Li Ermao had them; they had always been bald.

Later, he paid a lot of attention to hygiene, and gradually the lice disappeared.

It wasn’t easy to raise these people well.

Li Qingzhi was thinking of finding a doctor to buy some wumei pills to treat the children’s roundworm disease.

As for lice… he might just have the male students in the school shave their heads, and the girls could use combs to comb their hair more.

After deciding that, the students who were going home left early in the morning, and Li Qingzhi chatted with the remaining students.

Among the five girls, there was Ah Yue, the first female student he recruited into the school.

Ah Yue was the prettiest among these five girls.

As for the other four, one had a big scar on her face and was a beggar, another was driven out with her brother by their stepfather, and the last two were sisters who had lost their parents.

Among the nineteen boys, there were all kinds of situations. Some had lost their parents, some used to be beggars, and some had accidents and were kicked out by their parents… Anyway, they were all miserable.

There was even one who was only seven or eight years old but lied about his age, saying he was already ten. Li Qingzhi took pity on him and let him stay.

He couldn’t save everyone, but if he saw it, he had to help a bit.

Of course, these people would have to help him with things in the future.

Li Qingzhi directly had the nineteen boys shave their heads and then let them go to boil water for a bath.

The girls didn’t need to shave their heads, but they also had to bathe.

Li Qingzhi also said, “You guys take a good bath. I’ll call you for dinner later.”

After saying that, Li Qingzhi went back to his nearby house.

He and Jin Xiaoye had already started moving.

The furniture and beds used in Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop were still very new, so they all moved over. They would sleep here tonight.

As the New Year approached, Li Damao and Li Ermao didn’t need to go to school anymore. When Li Qingzhi returned, the two children were helping to carry firewood, working very hard.

Chang Zhan was also here, preparing lunch.

Seeing Li Qingzhi, he smiled, “Mr. Li, Juewei Restaurant is nearby, so I can come back to cook lunch every day.”

“That would be great,” Li Qingzhi said, “When the time comes, you can go to the school and pick a few people to be your apprentices and help you.”

His elementary school had just started, and he was already worrying

about the employment of those people…

“Okay.” Chang Zhan agreed in one breath.

He indeed planned to take in some apprentices, teach them cooking skills, and in the future, they could cook at Li’s house or at Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop. This way, he could save some trouble, and those apprentices would have a skill to support themselves.

Li Qingzhi and Chang Zhan made some more rice and steamed some more salted fish. They cooked a large pot of seaweed and tofu soup for the students who stayed.

On the other side, the twenty-odd children had finished bathing. The girls were combing their hair with combs, and the boys were playing with their hair amusingly.

Although it was said that they were shaved, their hair wasn’t completely shaved… There were no barber tools nowadays, and it was a bit dangerous to shave their heads with a blade.

So Li Qingzhi actually used scissors to cut off their hair at the roots, giving them a crew cut.

“It’s really nice here. I can eat enough every day.”

“Mr. Li even gave us new blankets… It’s the first time I’ve ever used such a warm blanket.”

“Just that my hair is gone, and it’s a bit uncomfortable.”

“I used to like to catch lice to eat, but now I can’t catch them anymore.”

…

They were talking when Li Qingzhi came over to call them for dinner.

The group immediately followed, cautiously and cautiously. These people didn’t have a concept of rules because they hadn’t been to school, but as common people, they were used to bowing their heads.

Li Qingzhi was also quite helpless about this… He could only teach them slowly.

Li Qingzhi led them to the courtyard where he lived and gave each of them a large earthenware bowl to serve themselves according to their appetite. He also ladled a large spoonful of tofu soup for each of them and gave them a piece of salted fish.

After serving them, Li Qingzhi said, “I don’t have tables and chairs here. You can go back to the cafeteria to eat.”

These people were still a little dazed, and a boy stuttered, “M-Mr… Mr. Li, are you really giving us this to eat?”

“I’m giving it to you to eat. Hurry up and eat. You’ll have to work in the afternoon,” Li Qingzhi smiled.

The students held their bowls, leaving in a daze.

In their bowls were white rice, freshly cooked, steaming tofu soup, and salted fish!

They were all homeless children, who hadn’t even had a hot meal for who knows how long. Such food… they hadn’t eaten it in a long time.

When the group returned to the cafeteria, those who used to want to stuff all the food into their stomachs as soon as they saw it actually hesitated a bit.

A girl said, “Alain shouldn’t have gone back. If she stayed, she could eat so well. If she goes back, she probably won’t even get enough to eat.”

The girl she mentioned, Alain, was one of the female students at the school.

When her father went to the county town to carry goods, he fell into the river and died. Her mother remarried, and she started living with her uncle’s family.

At her uncle’s house, she had to work every day and couldn’t even eat enough. She was only eleven years old, thin and small. She couldn’t marry off for a dowry for the time being, and her uncle didn’t like her.

Going to school not only saved her family a meal, but if she went to work at Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop in the future, she would also get paid… so her uncle sent her over.

After the girl spoke, others also mentioned people they knew.