Chapter 190

Upon learning that Qian Changsheng wanted to try hatching chicks after reading a book, Mrs. Qian immediately had a servant take money and go buy eggs that could hatch into chicks.

In rural areas, chickens are mostly raised for eggs, so people would collect eggs from the chicken coop every day. If a hen didn’t have enough eggs to sit on, she would continue laying eggs obediently.

However, since Juewei Zhai started buying chickens and ducks everywhere… Recently, people around Chongcheng County had been creating conditions for hens to sit on eggs, resulting in many chicks being hatched.

Since the Qian family had money, they quickly bought a batch of eggs that could hatch chicks and even bought a chicken coop with a hen.

There were eight eggs in the chicken coop. After some thought, Qian Changsheng found two silk pouches from home, stuffed them with silk, and then took out two eggs from the chicken coop and put them in…

Qian Changsheng kept these two egg-filled pouches close to his body and wrapped a hand warmer around them… This way, the eggs next to his body should be at the right temperature.

In the evening, he planned to find a wooden box to put the eggs in and then put them in his quilt. With a hand warmer in his quilt, the eggs shouldn’t get cold.

While Qian Changsheng was concentrating on these two eggs and thinking about how to hatch them, Guo Ying had already taken Li Damao and the others back to the Li family.

Hearing the commotion, Li Qingzhi put away his manuscript and went downstairs. Li Damao and Li Ermao rushed over and hugged him. “Dad!”

“Damao, Ermao.” Li Qingzhi crouched down and asked them what they had eaten at school today and how their day was.

Li Damao recounted everything they had encountered today, while Li Ermao, on the other hand, mentioned some memorable things: “Dad, Brother Ying treated us to pig trotters at lunch today. They were delicious!”

Guo Tongzhi was not short of money, and since his son lived outside, he wouldn’t skimp on money matters. Every noon, the servants of the Guo family would prepare a rich lunch for Guo Ying, as well as prepare meals for Li Damao and Li Ermao.

Li Qingzhi didn’t refuse. After all, Guo Ying lived at his school, and he often came over to eat at Li Qingzhi’s place.

“Damao, Ermao, you’ve worked hard studying. Have some potstickers.” Li Laogen boiled six bowls of potsticker tea with boiling water and brought them out, giving one to each person, including Li Qingzhi and Chang Cui.

Potsticker was a local food made with glutinous rice. After boiling glutinous rice with water until it was soft, it was mashed into a paste with a spatula, then the pot was heated, and the glutinous rice paste was evenly spread on the bottom of the pot to form a thin layer…

The glutinous rice paste would be baked dry and turned into a thin crispy slice with a slightly burnt yellow color, which was potsticker.

Potstickers could be eaten dry or soaked in hot water. When soaked, if you could add some brown sugar, it was definitely one of the favorite foods for children.

The potsticker tea brought by Li Laogen was sweetened, and Li Damao and the others ate happily. Li Qingzhi also brought a bowl. “Thank you, Dad.”

Li Laogen breathed a sigh of relief at his words.

After talking about wanting to marry a wife at lunchtime today, he felt more and more guilty.

Li Qingzhi, his son, had come to him actively. He had never raised Li Qingzhi. Actually, it was Li Qingzhi and Jin Xiaoye who had raised him. If it weren’t for these two, he might have starved to death!

In any case, he couldn’t be without Li Qingzhi as his son!

He must treat Li Qingzhi well and not let Li Qingzhi think about changing his father!

That Governor Zhang, and the businessman who gave him gold coins when he came to their house during the New Year… Those people were all very good to Li Qingzhi, and they probably all wanted to be Li Qingzhi’s father.

This son couldn’t be stolen by anyone!

As for that “Xiao Xu” who wanted to marry him… Was it just boasting or was the braised food from Juewei Zhai not tasty? What did he need a woman for?

Li Laogen took a sip of sweet potsticker tea and felt particularly content.

The bowl of potsticker tea he held had an extra spoonful of sugar, making it extra sweet. After drinking the potsticker tea, his body also warmed up. Guo Ying said to Li Qingzhi, “Mr. Li, I’m going to teach the students!”

“Go ahead.” Li Qingzhi smiled.

Guo Ying didn’t want to spend the whole day reading books at Li Xiucai’s place. He came back early every day not for any other reason but simply because he wanted to teach the students at Chongcheng Elementary School!

Li Qingzhi fully supported Guo Ying’s idea. He even specially trained Guo Ying on how to teach students.

Apologies for the oversight. Here’s the corrected translation:

As for what Guo Ying teaches in class… Li Qingzhi has Guo Ying tell stories to the students.

Whether it’s various anecdotes, historical stories from different dynasties, or local customs and practices, he can tell them all.

Guo Ying’s knowledge and experience are much richer compared to those of the students, and he’s lively and willing to tell stories…

Guo Ying’s classes are the most popular among the students.

However, since he has to study during the day, he only teaches the students after school. He teaches two sessions a day, one for each of two different classes.

Guo Ying took Li Damao and the others to class – Li Damao and the others would listen nearby when he teaches.

Li Qingzhi thinks that after a while, he can let Li Damao, Li Ermao, and Zhao Xiaodou try teaching those students.

The class content can be storytelling, teaching the students how to play Chinese chess, or even presenting some interesting math problems to them – there are many options.

For example, Li Damao is very good at problems like “The Chicken and Rabbit in the Same Cage,” and he can teach those students, expanding their thinking.

Of course, there’s no rush. They can take it slowly.

After they left, Li Qingzhi returned upstairs to continue writing his book.

Guo Ying’s classes are the students’ favorite, and the students from the two classes scheduled for today’s lessons were very happy.

Guo Ying painted for them a world they had never encountered before.

Listening to Guo Ying’s storytelling, many of them harbored ambitions – they wanted to see the outside world and didn’t want to stay in Chongcheng County forever, living aimlessly.

Even some of the teachers at the school would come to listen to Guo Ying’s lessons.

Many of the things Guo Ying talked about were unheard of to them before, like Lali Head Tang Chunrong, who was just a farmer who could barely recognize a few characters, and they didn’t know that the winters in the north were so cold.

Previously, their world was very small, limited to just knowing about Chongcheng County.

After energetically completing two class sessions, Guo Ying went to his residence to have dinner.

The steward’s son, who was in charge of taking care of him, had watched Guo Ying grow up and was very close to him.

The book boy and the young servant had always been by Guo Ying’s side. Although Guo Ying was a bit unconventional, he never mistreated those around him and had always been kind to them.

The three of them all admired Guo Ying and couldn’t bear to see him get hurt. They thought it was nice for Guo Ying to live in Chongcheng County.

“Young Master, your class today was excellent!”

“Young Master, those students all say you’re the best teacher.”

“Young Master, they say you’ll definitely pass the county exam in the future!”

…

Guo Ying was floating on air from their praise. “Of course, I’m very clever!”

These people all thought he was very capable and knowledgeable… He must study hard and not let them down!

On the other hand, Guo Tongzhi also thought the same: he must do more good things for the people and not disappoint them!

After arriving in the capital city, Guo Tongzhi had been very busy.

He led his subordinates to measure land, build bridges and roads, with the single-minded goal of ensuring that all the people in Hexing Prefecture could live a good life.

The common people in Hexing Prefecture all thought he was a good and upright official, and he must do his job well!

Before, Guo Tongzhi still had to take time to teach his son. Now that his son is gone, he is completely focused on his career and hardly comes home.

Mrs. Guo couldn’t help but feel aggrieved, but her nanny, Yang, who was with her, has been sent away, and the other maidservants, frightened and unwilling to speak ill of Guo Tongzhi, could only silently endure, nurturing her unborn child, planning that once this child is born, she will definitely not let others raise him.

She wants to raise an obedient son.

One evening, after returning to the bedroom, Li Qingzhi held Mrs. Jin’s hand and rubbed it back and forth while telling her about a woman who actively pursued Li Laogen and wanted to marry him.

Mrs. Jin blurted out without thinking, “She’s not interested in Mr. Li, she clearly wants to be your mother!”

“And yours too.” Li Qingzhi hugged her closer and continued to caress.

He didn’t get to see her during the day, so he was determined to make the most of the night!

Alas, Li Damao and Li Ermao were getting older, and he felt embarrassed to always hug them…

Mrs. Jin said, “She’s delusional! Ah Qing, this can’t happen. If Dad gets swayed, things will get complicated.”

“Don’t worry, Dad has already dismissed this idea.” Li Qingzhi said, recounting what happened afterwards.

Mrs. Jin breathed a sigh of relief.

Actually, if it weren’t for Li Laogen after Li Qingzhi disappeared, she would definitely be living more comfortably.

Li Laogen indeed helped her with some things, but if Li Laogen didn’t gamble and get into debt while she was pregnant, she wouldn’t have to work so hard.

She considered that she hadn’t mistreated Li Laogen, but she didn’t want Li Laogen to bring in a cheap mother-in-law for her.

However, speaking of matchmaking… Actually, this year, not only did people come to Li Laogen for matchmaking, but there were also those who wanted their daughters to become concubines to Li Qingzhi.

Some of these people were quite audacious, but they were all driven away by her curses.

She thought life was good now and didn’t want Li Qingzhi to take concubines.

Thinking so, Mrs. Jin turned over and pressed down on Li Qingzhi, “Husband, if people are showing interest on Dad’s side, are there any on your side? You can’t be swayed!”

“Rest assured, Xiaoye, I’ll only marry you.” Li Qingzhi reassured her. His wife was feeling insecure, so he had to reassure her.

Mrs. Jin kissed Li Qingzhi’s face satisfiedly.

Li Qingzhi blushed.

Mrs. Jin pinched Li Qingzhi’s arm, although not thick, but full of muscles, feeling somewhat unbelievable.

She was out and about all day, her flesh soft, while Li Qingzhi stayed at home every day. How did he manage to have such hard muscles?

Li Qingzhi felt Mrs. Jin’s admiration for the muscles on his body and happily hugged her.

The next morning, they woke up very early.

Li Qingzhi didn’t want to get up, so he just held onto Mrs. Jin, but unfortunately, not long after, Li Damao and Li Ermao knocked on the door, “Dad, Dad, it’s time for early study!”

Li Qingzhi resignedly got up and took the three children to study, while telling them stories.

Downstairs, Changzhan was cooking.

Today, Changzhan made scallion oil noodles, frying the scallions with lard, the aroma was delightful!

Seeing that it was almost time, Li Qingzhi went downstairs to eat. Just at that moment, he heard a knock on the door.

He quickly went to open the door and saw Qian Changsheng holding a food container.

Qian Changsheng’s face was fair and tender, and when he smiled, he revealed two small tiger teeth, “Brother Li, sorry to bother you.”

After he came yesterday, Li Qingzhi gave him dumplings to eat.

Qian Changsheng suddenly realized… he could have breakfast at Li Qingzhi’s place!

So he came early in the morning with his own breakfast.

But Li Qingzhi looked at Qian Changsheng’s protruding belly in confusion, “What’s wrong with your stomach?”

Qian Changsheng’s eyes lit up as he touched his own belly, “I’m hatching eggs!”