Chapter 283 3/3

At most, he would just play with Qi An when Qi An wasn’t crying.

Additionally, since Qi An was young and couldn’t speak much before, their interactions were limited.

He liked Qi An very much and wanted to pass the throne to him, but they weren’t particularly close. In fact, he wasn’t even as close to Qi An as he was now with Li Damao and Li Ermao!

Because of Li Qingzhi, Li Damao and Li Ermao were used to being affectionate, and Qi Jun would bring them food and toys every day, teaching them how to play chess…

They quickly grew fond of Qi Jun and stayed by his side all day long.

Qi Jun had two daughters, but both the eldest and second princesses were raised by their mother and weren’t close to him. This was the first time he had been so close to children. With a child on either side of him, he felt a sense of fulfillment, like being surrounded by loved ones.

Qi Jun’s eyes squinted with joy, and he wanted to give all the good things to Li Damao and Li Ermao: “Grandpa will draw a hen for you right now. Whatever you want Grandpa to draw, Grandpa will draw it! By the way, Grandpa has a few beautiful paintings at home. Tomorrow, Grandpa will bring them for you to see.”

Li Qingzhi glanced over and realized that Qi Jun had become a doting grandfather.

A few days ago, when Li Damao and Li Ermao were learning to play chess, Qi Jun had given them two extremely precious chess sets made of jade and ivory.

Now, as these two children learned to draw, the paintings Qi Jun mentioned were likely also priceless.

The things from the palace were unlikely to be inferior.

An empty-nest elder was really easy to coax into giving things away.

Qi Jun had never enjoyed the pleasures of family life before, but now, with Li Qingzhi, he was thoroughly enjoying it.

He returned to the palace in an excellent mood and immediately recounted the day’s events to Lü Qingxi.

Lü Qingxi: “…” He also wanted to experience such family joy!

The next day was the hot spring outing.

The hot spring resort Qi Jun chose was closer to the capital than the one Lü Qingxi had arranged for Li Qingzhi last time.

For safety reasons, Qi Jun went to the resort alone first. As for Li Qingzhi and his group, he had Lü Qingxi arrange for someone to pick them up.

Mrs. Qian was due to give birth around January, so she couldn’t join them in the hot spring, but Li Laogen, Jin Xiaoye, Zhao Xiaodou, Li Damao, Li Ermao, and Zhang Zao all went.

Lü Qingxi arranged two carriages to pick them up, and by mid-morning, they arrived at the hot spring resort.

Li Qingzhi let Jin Xiaoye and the others soak in the hot spring and play in the water first, while he went to help Qi Jun with his herbal bath and massage.

As they did this, the two inevitably chatted a bit. Mostly, Qi Jun asked and Li Qingzhi answered.

In the beginning, Li Qingzhi mainly talked about his past experiences, but now their conversations had shifted to other topics.

Li Qingzhi said, “I really like the books by Qiongdu Sanren. My dream is for everyone to have enough to eat and wear, and for everyone to be able to study. Not necessarily studying for the imperial exams, but everyone should at least be literate…”

“That’s not easy. Most of the people in this world are dull and incapable of learning,” Qi Jun said.

“That’s because the characters are too complicated now. I think they can be simplified,” Li Qingzhi replied.

In his previous life, during a certain era, someone had said, “If Chinese characters are not abolished, China will perish.”

The reason for this statement was that traditional Chinese characters were too difficult to learn, with too many strokes.

Learning all those traditional characters required a very long time!

In modern society, children learning simplified characters and vernacular Chinese, taking two language classes a day for three or four years, could already recognize most common characters and read large books. But learning traditional characters was definitely not as easy.

Of course, this wasn’t urgent. Li Qingzhi was just mentioning it in passing to Qi Jun.

If someone else had told Qi Jun this, he would have thought they were talking nonsense and that characters couldn’t be simplified.

But since it was Li Qingzhi saying it… Qi Jun said, “That’s a good idea, but many people would resist it.”

Of course, those who had mastered knowledge didn’t want ordinary people to become literate.

If everyone could read, scholars would lose their status.

After soaking in his herbal bath, Qi Jun didn’t rinse off with clean water as he usually did but went directly to the hot spring, planning to soak a bit.

Knowing that Qi Jun wanted to see his back, Li Qingzhi naturally went with him, openly taking off his clothes and wearing only shorts as he entered the water.

Unlike the previous hot spring visit where Li Qingzhi and the scholars each had their own pool, this time was different.

Qi Jun had arranged a large, shallow pool for all the men to soak together.

In this pool, adult men could sit with their shoulders and heads above the water, making it perfect for children to play in. Li Damao and Li Ermao were having a great time.

Qi Jun, who didn’t need to undress, had already entered the water. When Li Qingzhi came over, Qi Jun immediately circled around to look at Li Qingzhi’s back.

On Li Qingzhi’s back was a mole that looked exactly like the one on Qi Jun’s back!

The positions of the two moles were identical!

Qi Jun let out a long breath, feeling particularly happy.

The person in front of him was likely his son; there was no mistake!

For Li Qingzhi’s safety, he wouldn’t publicly announce Li Qingzhi’s identity as a prince for now, but he wanted to immediately acknowledge Li Qingzhi as his son!