Chapter 188

During the bustling times in the capital, the book “Travels of Alone” finally made its way to Chongcheng County.

In Chongcheng County, this book sold for one and a half yuan, which was equivalent to fifteen hundred cents.

At present, one or two silver coins were worth about thirteen hundred cents… This book was much more expensive in Chongcheng County compared to the provincial capital, but still, many people centst to buy it.

The reputation of the author, Lone Wanderer, was quite significant, and… the situation of this book had already spread to Chongcheng County!

“I heard that this ‘Travels of Alone’ describes an unheard-of utopian world!”

“This book is also different; it has an engraved line!”

“People in the provincial capital are rushing to buy this book. I want to buy it too.”

…

Among the teachers in Li Qingzhi’s school, there was one person who bought this book and brought it to the school to read.

This person was a former classmate of Li Qingzhi when he was studying with Li Xiucai.

His academic performance was average, he didn’t even pass the county exam, but his family owned a shop and had some wealth.

However, his family’s shop would be inherited by his elder brother in the future. As the third child in the family, he would only get some land, so he had to find a way to make a living for himself.

He originally wanted to be a shopkeeper, but unfortunately, he couldn’t find a suitable position, so he came to Li Qingzhi’s school to work as a teacher.

Being a teacher at the Chongcheng Elementary School didn’t pay much, but his father was still alive, the shop was still in his father’s hands, and he was relatively well-off, so he bought books whenever he wanted.

“After controlling the temperature, the eggs can hatch without a hen?” This person was extremely curious. “I want to try it!”

The other teachers standing beside him were also curious and wanted to give it a try.

But maintaining the temperature for hatching eggs day and night was somewhat troublesome.

“Let’s put that aside for now and continue reading.” someone suggested.

The teacher who bought the book continued reading.

When Li Qingzhi entered with Qian Changsheng, he heard these teachers reading “Travels of Alone.”

Li Qingzhi had gotten up early today.

It was already February, and Chongcheng County had warmed up a lot, and it was getting light earlier.

Recently, things at the elementary school had stabilized, and Li Qingzhi didn’t need to watch over it all the time. He started having breakfast at home so he could spend more time with his sons, Damao and Ermao.

Today, after getting up, he did the same as before, bringing Damao, Ermao, and Zhao Xiaodou for morning study.

Li Lao stayed true to his routine and centst to the teahouse for tea. They all had breakfast together with Chang Zhan and Chang Cui.

With few people in the house, Chang Zhan had the time to make some fine breakfast dishes. For example, today, he made bamboo shoot and shepherd’s purse dumplings.

Shepherd’s purse was a common wild vegetable in Chongcheng County, often seen in the fields. However, villagers generally didn’t dig it up to eat it.

Firstly, this kind of wild vegetable didn’t taste good without oil, and secondly… shepherd’s purse was small, and it took a lot of effort to dig up, and the energy spent eating it couldn’t be replenished!

But villagers didn’t like it, city dwellers did. Families in the city who had no worries about food and clothing liked to bring their children out of the city to dig shepherd’s purse to eat. Big families didn’t dig it themselves; they bought it.

The shepherd’s purse at Li Qingzhi’s house was dug up by Liu Daniu, Jin Xiaogu’s daughter-in-law, and sent over by Jin Xiaogu.

Liu Daniu was thoughtful and occasionally sent them some vegetables. Li Qingzhi had a good impression of her.

With shepherd’s purse, bamboo shoots dug up in the bamboo forest, and pork bought yesterday… Chang Zhan made over a hundred dumplings with shepherd’s purse, bamboo shoots, and pork.

Shepherd’s purse didn’t taste good without oil, but mixed with pork as filling, it was very delicious.

Li Qingzhi ate three big bowls of dumplings in one breath and burped after finishing.

Damao and Ermao once again envied their father’s appetite.

If only they could eat like their father! Then they could eat a lot more good food!

After they finished eating, Gou Ying arrived.

During this time, Gou Ying had been living in Li Qingzhi’s school and also had breakfast in the school cafeteria.

Breakfast at their school was basically porridge.

The students had pickled vegetables as side dishes, and the teachers would get an extra egg and salted duck egg. As for Gou Ying… the servants from the Gou family would buy him buns and fried dough sticks from the new pier.

Every morning, Gou Ying would ladle a bowl of porridge in the cafeteria, then eat it together with the buns brought by his servants.

After eating, he would come over to Li Qingzhi’s place to sit for a while. When it was almost time, he would take Damao, Ermao, and Zhao Xiaodou to Li Xiucai’s place to study.

They would read books at Li Xiucai’s place for most of the day, have lunch there, and return together around three in the afternoon.

They left an hour earlier than other students, but Li Xiucai wasn’t that strict. As long as they talked to him about it, coming home early wasn’t a problem.

“Mr. Li, are you having dumplings for breakfast today?” When Gou Ying arrived, he saw two small bowls of dumplings left on the table, and his eyes lit up.

“These are for you.” Li Qingzhi handed one bowl of dumplings to Gou Ying.

This small bowl contained only five dumplings. As a teenager who was still growing, Gou Ying had already eaten his fill but could still eat more.

Sure enough, after sitting down, Gou Ying happily started eating the dumplings.

After Gou Ying ate for a while, Qian Changsheng also arrived.

Some days ago, Qian Changsheng arrived relatively late; when he came, Jin Xiaoye and Gou Ying had already left.

But yesterday, Li Qingzhi specifically instructed him to come earlier today.

“Changsheng.” Li Qingzhi greeted Qian Changsheng with a smile, inviting him to come in and eat dumplings.

Another small bowl of dumplings was left for Qian Changsheng, containing only two — Qian Changsheng must have already had breakfast before coming; he couldn’t eat too much.

After entering, Qian Changsheng first greeted everyone present earnestly before sitting down to eat dumplings.

“Your name is Qian Changsheng? The Changsheng that doesn’t age?” Gou Ying looked at Qian Changsheng curiously.

Li Qingzhi used to take Qian Changsheng to school some time ago. Although Gou Ying hadn’t seen Qian Changsheng, he had heard about him.

“Yes.” Qian Changsheng felt a bit awkward.

“You’re really handsome.” Gou Ying couldn’t help but remark.

Qian Changsheng felt a little embarrassed, his face turning slightly red.

In a blink of an eye, Jin Xiaoye and Li Damao, Li Ermao, were all shining as they looked at Qian Changsheng.

Hmm… in the future, Qian Changsheng must be made to get more sun!

Jin Xiaoye didn’t know Li Qingzhi’s thoughts; she just hoped that her two children would grow up to be like Qian Changsheng.

As for Li Damao and Li Ermao, their curiosity was purely about a stranger when they looked at Qian Changsheng.

After eating, Gou Ying and the others went to study, Jin Xiaoye went to the embroidery workshop, and Li Qingzhi took Qian Changsheng to the school.

The teachers and students at the school had already had breakfast but had not started class yet. When Li Qingzhi entered the office, the teachers were reading “Travels of a Alone.”

Seeing Li Qingzhi, one of the teachers asked, “Mr. Li Qingzhi, have you read ‘Travels of a Alone’?”

“I have,” Li Qingzhi smiled and took out the two “Travels of a Alone” books that Zhang the Governor had sent him. “I bought two copies. I’ll put them in the reading room later. If you want to read them, you can go and take a look.”

After saying that, Li Qingzhi also looked at Qian Changsheng. “Changsheng, if you’re interested, you can also read this book.”

“Can I read this book?” Qian Changsheng asked. His family didn’t allow him to read the books written by Qingdu Sanren before.

“You can read this book,” Li Qingzhi said.

Qian Changsheng became interested immediately and excitedly looked at the book in Li Qingzhi’s hand.

Seeing this, Li Qingzhi simply handed one of the books to Qian Changsheng. “You can take this book and read it.”

Qian Changsheng happily put the book into his arms. At this moment, the teacher who was interested in hatching chicks asked Li Qingzhi, “Mr. Li Qingzhi, the book says that eggs can hatch without a hen, as long as the temperature is kept slightly higher than ours… Do you think it’s true?”

“Of course it’s true,” Li Qingzhi said.

“And about that biogas pit…”

“The book describes this place where they actually use paper to wipe themselves, such extravagance!”

“And regardless of gender, everyone can attend school!”

“The school described in the book, is it similar to our elementary school?”

…

“Everyone, it’s time for class!” Finally, Li Qingzhi reminded them.

Upon hearing this, the teachers quickly grabbed their lesson plans and went to teach.

Once they had left, Li Qingzhi turned to Qian Changsheng. “Changsheng, shall we find a classroom to hang out in?”

“Okay,” Qian Changsheng agreed.

Li Qingzhi led Qian Changsheng into one of the classrooms and they took seats at the empty desks and chairs in the back.

Qian Changsheng brought a textbook and listened attentively during class, while Li Qingzhi began studying from the book Governor Zhang had sent him.

This August, he was going to participate in the township exam.

The township exam was held in the provincial capital. He was actually quite confident about the township exam, but the key was… he planned to immediately go to the capital after the township exam and participate in the imperial exam next spring.

He was confident about the township exam, but the imperial exam was a different matter altogether.

In modern society, some people could find loopholes to get into university, but the imperial examinations of this era… to be honest, they weren’t fair at all.

He had some reputation in Jiang’an Province, but in the capital, he was nothing. It wouldn’t be easy to achieve good results in the imperial exam.

He still needed to study.

As for why he came to the classroom to study… Li Qingzhi did it to supervise the teachers in the school and make sure they were teaching the students seriously.

Qian Changsheng enjoyed attending classes very much. He found what Li Qingzhi’s school taught very interesting, especially the mathematics.

Li Qingzhi’s school taught a form of “simplified numbers” to do calculations, which made it much easier.

During breaks, Qian Changsheng glanced at the book Li Qingzhi was reading.

He recognized the characters in the book, but didn’t understand their meaning when put together… his cousin was really amazing!

Li Qingzhi spent the whole morning reading. At noon, he took Qian Changsheng home for lunch and to take medicine.

Jin Xiaoye and the others were not there. Joining them for lunch were Chang Zhan, Li Laogen, and Chang Cui.

At first, Li Laogen was a little afraid of Qian Changsheng, but after Qian Changsheng came a few times, he learned that Qian Changsheng’s father was just an ordinary merchant, so he wasn’t afraid of Qian Changsheng anymore.

He even boasted in front of Qian Changsheng, saying that he had dinner with Governor Zhang and Deputy Magistrate Gou…

The Qian family’s business was quite large, but Qian Changsheng actually didn’t know much about his family’s business and didn’t know that his uncle had met someone like the King of Yan.

The family matters, the Qian family never told him.

To Qian Changsheng, the governor and the deputy magistrate were very big officials. So when Li Laogen said this, he kept admiringly looking at Li Laogen.

Li Laogen immediately liked him. Every time he saw him, he would tell him some things about Li Qingzhi or what he saw and heard when he went to the provincial capital…

Li Laogen made a lot of exaggerated statements, but Qian Changsheng was very supportive. Every time he looked astonished and listened very seriously.

Li Qingzhi was ready to listen to Li Laogen’s bragging while eating, but he didn’t know what was going on with Li Laogen today. He hadn’t said a word all along and seemed a little distracted, smiling from time to time. He looked very happy, but the way he looked… it was really creepy no matter how you looked at it.

“Dad, did you encounter something good?” Li Qingzhi asked — it was obvious that Li Laogen was acting strange.

Li Laogen chuckled and said to Li Qingzhi, “Ah Qing, a woman has taken a liking to me!”