Chapter 183 1/2

Li Qingzhi stayed at Qian Fugui’s place for a while longer, had a meal, and then returned to the school.

Today was the Lantern Festival. Although the people of Chongcheng County didn’t traditionally celebrate it, many shops near the new dock had put up beautiful lanterns.

However, the weather was cold, so probably not many people would come out at night.

Once the weather warmed up, though, the night market in the new dock area would likely resume.

When Li Qingzhi got back to the school in the afternoon, he found the female students doing embroidery under the guidance of the female workers from Jin YeEmbroidery Workshop. Ten workers from the workshop had come to study here, including Jin Mao’er, whom Li Qingzhi had high hopes for.

Initially, Jin Mao’er’s parents were reluctant to let her study because it would reduce her earnings from working at the workshop. But since Li Qingzhi was now a scholar, they had to agree.

Moreover, the female workers from Jin YeEmbroidery Workshop could still earn money by doing some work at the school.

Additionally, Li Qingzhi paid them 500 cents a month to teach embroidery to the female students and help manage the girls’ dormitory.

Most of the students Li Qingzhi had recruited came from poor backgrounds and had various minor issues.

Some students were not very clean and were often dirty, some snored loudly at night, and some were constantly quarreling and being petty.

In modern universities, even a dorm room with four people can have conflicts. Now, with dozens of students sleeping in bunk beds in one room, it was inevitable that problems would arise!

Some teachers stayed at the school and did not go home at night. Li Qingzhi had them oversee the boys’ dormitory, but he couldn’t have male teachers watching over the girls’ dormitory, so he relied on the female workers from Jin YeEmbroidery Workshop to handle the various minor conflicts among the female students.

When Li Qingzhi arrived at the school, the female workers from Jin YeEmbroidery Workshop reported an issue to him.

It seemed that one of the female students was gossiping a lot, spreading rumors and causing conflicts among her classmates.

“What did she say?” Li Qingzhi asked.

“One of the girls spoke to a boy from the same village during a meal, and she accused the girl of flirting with him. She’s made such remarks more than once. Previously, she spread rumors about another girl asking questions in class just to seduce the teacher…”

Li Qingzhi frowned. “I’ll look into it later. Such students cannot stay here.”

Gossip could be dangerous, and a student who liked to spread rumors couldn’t remain at his school.

After all, this wasn’t compulsory education!

The issues among the female students were relatively minor. Most of them were well-behaved and followed instructions.

Moreover, with the female workers from Jin YeEmbroidery Workshop living with them and supervising them at night, there were fewer problems.

The situation with the boys was different. Although there were teachers supervising them, the teachers didn’t live with them…

There had already been fights among the boys.

And just like the gossipy girl, there were boys who loved to talk about others behind their backs.

There were even two boys who teamed up to make inappropriate comments about the girls…

Li Qingzhi had been observing the students for some time and had noted these issues. He planned to send these troublemakers home in a few days.

Speaking of disappointments, the one who disappointed Li Qingzhi the most was Liu Daniu.

During the New Year, some students had nowhere to go, so Li Qingzhi let them stay at the school for the holidays.

Feeling sympathy for these homeless children, Li Qingzhi provided them with very good meals, even though it meant sharing his own food with them.

His intention was to identify a few well-behaved and smart students from these kids to train as trusted aides.

To this end, Li Qingzhi spent more time with these students.

Having interacted with many people and given that these students were young, he could pretty much guess their thoughts from their micro-expressions.

At first, he thought Liu Daniu was decent, but later he realized Liu Daniu was the least appreciative of the bunch.

Li Qingzhi didn’t expect gratitude, but Liu Daniu’s attitude clearly showed he felt he wasn’t getting enough.

Considering that Liu Daniu’s stepfather had kicked him out, Li Qingzhi didn’t expel him from the school but removed him from the list of students to be groomed.

However, Liu Daniu’s resentment seemed to have increased over the past few days.

If Liu Daniu was dissatisfied with the school, why should Li Qingzhi “force” him to stay?

Liu Daniu had a chip on his shoulder, while his sister was quite good. However, having such a brother made Li Qingzhi think twice.

Among the orphans, Li Qingzhi had the highest hopes for Zhang Zao and Ah Yue. Ah Yue was a girl and would be useful to Jin Xiaoye, while Zhang Zao could become a formal student and help Li Qingzhi in the future.

While the girls were embroidering, the boys were taken to cultivate a plot of land not far away that Li Qingzhi intended to use for growing chili peppers.

Last year, they had planted the chili peppers during the hot season, which made the growing process quite troublesome. This time, Li Qingzhi planned to plant them while the weather was cooler.

By the way, you can also do some research to see when is the best time to plant peppers.

The students were all busy, and the cooks were also busy in the kitchen. When Miss Jin saw Li Qingzhi, she came over again and said, “Ah Qing, chicken intestines, duck intestines, pig blood, etc., it’s such a waste to feed them to the students, what are you still doing?” Why don’t you give it to me and I’ll take it to Miaoqian Village and distribute it to your relatives…”

Li Qingzhi: “…” When it comes to sharing it with relatives, Aunt Jin wants it, right?

Li Qingzhi disagreed, so Aunt Jin asked her son and daughter-in-law to work in the school.

However, there is no shortage of people in the school now, so Li Qingzhi refused again.

“They are all relatives…” Aunt Jin muttered.

“Sister-in-law, if you want to talk about relatives, how many people are there in the Jin family? Xiaoye also has an eldest sister…Sister-in-law, it’s not good if I only take care of you and not the eldest aunt, otherwise the cook will be fucked by the eldest aunt?”

“Ah Qing, you are really good at joking. Your aunt has to take care of her grandson at home, so she has no time…” Aunt Jin ran away in a flash. She worked as a cook in the school. She ate well every day and brought some home… She I don’t want to lose this job.

Li Qingzhi smiled and went home. The next day, Li Qingzhi went to see Qian Fugui again and treated Qian Fugui again, but he did not stay for dinner that day – Qian Fugui left Chongcheng County at noon.

On the twentieth day of the first lunar month, Li Qingzhi called some students out, talked to them, and asked them to pack their things and leave.

There were more than twenty of these people in total. Some of them stole other people’s things, some gossiped about others, and some tried to form gangs to bully others. Of course, Liu Daniu was among them.

If Li Qingzhi had asked them to leave years ago, they would have been willing, but now…

Everything here was a bit fishy, ​​and they were reluctant to leave.

They can’t eat so well at home!

As for work, rural children of this age also have to do a lot of work at home.

The girl who spread rumors about the female classmates around her all day immediately cried and said she didn’t want to leave and that she would never dare to leave again, and so did the boys.

Li Qingzhi insisted: “You pack your things and leave now. I won’t say anything to the outside world. If you don’t leave, I will tell you the reason why you left the school.”