Chapter 175 2/3

Ah Yue also nodded, “I’ll go too. I can do needlework.” Yesterday, when they were pounding rice, it was those few male students doing the pounding. She and the other female students didn’t do much, and she felt a bit guilty about it.

Moreover, her mother had instructed her to behave well.

Liu Daniu thought these people were a bit foolish.

He had noticed that the noodles the Li family ate today, the aroma wafting from them, was much more appetizing than their noodle lumps.

Once Li Qingzhi gave them some to eat, these people were so grateful…

But these people had already decided to actively look for work. He couldn’t stop them, and besides, he didn’t want to stay behind pounding rice… “I’ll go with you.”

Seeing this, a few more children volunteered to go.

The noodles the Li family ate today were indeed delicious. Li Damao and Li Ermao ate until their bellies were round.

Now they lived outside the city, a bit far from Li Xiucai’s school, but after they finished eating, Li Qingzhi still took them to school.

Children needed plenty of exercise!

Jin Xiaoye walked with them, but she went to the Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop. In the future, if Li Qingzhi was unavailable, the children would be escorted by her, or she would arrange for a boat to take them.

Li Qingzhi had considered hiring someone, but ultimately decided against it.

They didn’t have much work for people to do at home. If there was no one to cook in the future, when school reopened, they could go to the school cafeteria.

After sending the children back, Li Qingzhi was planning to write some books when he saw several children standing outside their courtyard, apparently waiting for him.

“Is there something you need?” Li Qingzhi asked them with a smile.

Liu Daniu said proactively, “Mr. Li, there’s only one stone mill, and we don’t need so many people for pounding rice… Is there any other work for us to do?”

Li Qingzhi thought for a moment and finally said, “Alright, I’ll bring back some fabric scraps for you to learn to make floral decorations. Just work on it when you have time.”

On New Year’s, with a group of skinny children like this, Li Qingzhi didn’t plan to give them a lot of work to do. Just some simple handicrafts would suffice.

Speaking of which, when he had them make lanterns a few days ago, they didn’t earn much money either. These children were inexperienced and worked quite slowly.

Li Qingzhi wrote a note, asking Liu Daniu and the others to take it to the Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop, get some fabric scraps, and learn how to make floral decorations while they were there.

After giving instructions, he went back upstairs to prepare to write.

He had written several books under his real name, but besides getting paid for writing autobiographies for Zhu Qian and Ding Xi, he hadn’t received any royalties for the others. Now he wanted royalties, preferably using the pen name “Qiongdu Sanren.”

But as for this pen name… After writing “The Record of Injustice,” “The Record of Fleeing from Calamity,” “Qiongdu Collection,” and “Flood Control Strategies,” it wouldn’t be appropriate to write purely entertaining stories anymore.

He needed to maintain his style.

So, he decided to write something more high-minded and also spread some seeds of thought and technology.

Li Qingzhi started writing with his left hand, penning down “The Travels of Qiongdu” on the paper.

His previous books all started with Qiongdu Sanren arriving at a certain place, and this time would be no different.

As for what to write… Li Qingzhi planned to write about a “Utopian World.”

He would write about Qiongdu Sanren arriving in the future and seeing the world of the future.

The modern society he had lived in before couldn’t be considered a true utopia, but in the eyes of the common people of Daqi, it definitely was.

Writing like this had many benefits. Firstly, it would be easy to write; he felt he could effortlessly write a few thousand words every day.

Secondly… Writing this book would allow him to include some personal thoughts.

These thoughts weren’t just ideological but also from other aspects.

For example, he could start by writing that “Qiongdu Sanren” arrived in modern rural areas, becoming an illegal resident, and then someone came to help him out of poverty, registering his identity for him…

In this process, Qiongdu Sanren could see how modern people farmed.

The increase in modern food production mainly relied on chemical fertilizers, but some modern farming methods were still more advanced than those of Daqi.

Afterward… He could write about how to handle simple illnesses, among other things.

Anyway, regardless of what he wanted to write, he could include it, even drawing a picture of a weaving machine and including it.

In the world he had lived in before, even during the Ming Dynasty, changes in the West had already begun… At this point, there might have been huge changes outside of Daqi as well.

They couldn’t fall behind!

Wait, his “Travels of Qiongdu” could also include Qiongdu Sanren’s observations in other countries.

Of course, that could wait. For now, writing about the future utopia would do.

Li Qingzhi wrote quickly. This time, his story was still written in the first person.

His opening also imitated “The Peach Blossom Spring,” but the content afterward was completely different.

“When I came to my senses, I saw rows of brick houses, some children wearing brand-new clothes playing around…”

After “transmigrating,” Qiongdu Sanren arrived in a remote mountainous area near a primary school in the modern world, encountering children studying in the school.

He intruded in a daze and was mistaken for a fool due to the language barrier, but out of pity, the school gave him a bowl of rice…

Li Qingzhi wrote three thousand words in the morning.

This story, his language was similar to “The Four Great Classical Novels,” unlike “The Record of Injustice” and “The Record of Fleeing from Calamity,” which were very colloquial due to being narrated by the common people. Therefore, in just three thousand words, there was already a lot of content.

After finishing writing, Li Qingzhi went downstairs and saw Li Laogen burning firewood while Chang Zhan was cooking.

Jin Xiaoye would eat at the Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop. For lunch, Chang Zhan’s cooking was relatively simple. He used cinnamon, star anise, and a few other simple spices to boil pig hearts to remove the fishy smell. Then he sliced the pig hearts, stir-fried them with chili and other seasonings… It tasted amazing!

In addition, he made a soup with sliced meat, vegetables, and eggs. This was a large pot dish. They kept some for themselves to eat, and the rest was given to the students who stayed at school.

While eating, Li Qingzhi praised Chang Zhan’s skills.

In the provincial capital, Governor Zhang was

also praising Chang Zhan’s skills. Every day, Chang Zhan would have someone send him vegetables. If he had some left over from the Li family’s dinner the night before… Early the next morning, he would have someone send it to Governor Zhang.

Although they were leftovers, eating them a day later was still fine.

Anyway, Governor Zhang particularly liked it. As he ate, he would also read the letters Li Qingzhi wrote to him.

During this time, Li Qingzhi would write to him every day, telling him about the situation at the Chongcheng Elementary School. Governor Zhang liked reading such letters.

If the court could allocate funds to build such schools and teach the common people to read…

Just thinking about it made Governor Zhang excited.

After dinner, Governor Zhang looked at the people around him and asked, “I heard that the head of the Shen family has returned from the capital?”

After receiving confirmation, Governor Zhang said, “I’ll go to the Shen family and take a look.”

Governor Zhang already knew what had happened in the capital, after all, he had a few good friends there.

Those people had hurriedly informed him of the situation in the capital.

He wanted to go to the Shen family not because of what happened in the capital, but… a few days ago, Li Qingzhi sent him some manuscripts.

These manuscripts were actually a book, with a very simple name, just called “The Storybook”!

Inside were many interesting stories, such as “The Magic Brush of Ma Liang,” “Jingwei Filling the Sea,” “Chang’e Flying to the Moon,” and so on.

Some of these stories he had never seen before, but most of them were original myths or idioms, rewritten in simple and understandable language.

According to what Li Qingzhi wrote in his letters… Li Qingzhi planned to wait a few days before printing this book and letting the students in his school read it.