Chapter 27: Update

After writing an introduction for Zhu Qian’s autobiography, Li Qingzhi immersed himself in it, and it got better as he wrote.

By “better,” it didn’t mean literary prowess, but mainly emotions.

Although Zhu Qian came from a poor family, he was determined to live a better life and was willing to strive for it… Li Qingzhi could empathize with such emotions.

His current thoughts were exactly the same as Zhu Qian’s when he was young.

He also wanted to live a better life; he wanted to eat well!

In addition, he embellished some of Zhu Qian’s experiences… Unknowingly, ten days had passed, and he had written thirty thousand words, and Zhu Qian hadn’t asked him to revise anything.

Zhu Qian was truly an ideal client.

After ten days of writing, Li Qingzhi’s writing speed had increased significantly, but he still wrote three thousand words a day and consciously wrote more neatly.

He aimed to take the imperial examination, and to do so, he needed to have good handwriting.

By “good,” it didn’t mean having a unique style but rather writing that was neat, uniform in size, and resembled printed text.

Li Qingzhi understood this very well. Before the college entrance examination, he had practiced handwriting for bonus points.

Now he was practicing handwriting again from scratch with a brush.

He also had to write smaller characters… The characters written by people at this time with a brush were generally smaller than an adult’s thumbnail, with some as small as five millimeters square, almost indistinguishable from pen writing.

He couldn’t write such words at all now, so he had to practice slowly.

Helping Zhu Qian write his book happened to allow him to practice handwriting for free.

With more food these days, Li Qingzhi had a bit more energy, which he used to strengthen his hand strength and repair his hand bones, making his writing more stable.

And there was his memory… Li Qingzhi reserved some energy every day to optimize his brain.

As a result, he had no spare energy to repair his body.

So the steward who ate with the Zhu family and Li Qingzhi every day saw that Li Qingzhi ate two to three times more than them but didn’t gain any weight.

Mr. Li could really eat!

That day at noon, Li Qingzhi ate boiled pork again.

Li Qingzhi separated one-third of the pork and placed it in a clean bamboo tube, intending to bring it back to Jin Xiaoye and Li Laogen for an extra meal.

The amount of meat Zhu’s family gave him for each meal wasn’t much, but for Jin Xiaoye and the others, even just eating a thin slice of meat was a luxury.

After dividing the remaining dishes and sharing them with the two children, and after eating four bowls of rice, Li Qingzhi took the two children back to the study to coax them to sleep.

Li Damao and Li Ermao, who were still in kindergarten in modern times, had the habit of taking a nap. In no time, they lay down on the straw mat and fell asleep.

Seeing them lie down, Li Qingzhi took out his pen and paper and started writing his book.

Thirty thousand words later, in his autobiography, Zhu Qian already had thoughts of doing business. He secretly learned to read and saved some money. He planned to lease a boat and start a business after the five-year contract expired.

Zhu Qian had talked to Li Qingzhi about his experience in business. In reality, Zhu Qian’s success was largely due to his good luck, but in writing his autobiography, it was necessary to highlight Zhu Qian’s efforts.

Li Qingzhi had read some inspirational books in his previous life and used them to motivate himself in the post-apocalyptic world, plus he was naturally hopeful and loving towards life…

He added some inspirational quotes in the book.

Zhu Qian intended to leave this book for his descendants, hoping to inspire them.

“A person’s life is not entirely determined by their background.”

“If a person only has ideas but takes no action, they will inevitably achieve nothing.”

“One must avoid complacency and acknowledge their shortcomings in order to progress.”

“The fuller the rice grains, the lower they bow; a gentleman should be modest.”

…

Li Qingzhi incorporated these thoughts or sayings into Zhu Qian’s word in the book. Whenever Zhu Qian saw them, he would applaud and feel that everything he thought of was expressed by Li Qingzhi.

Li Qingzhi: “…”

According to Zhu Qian’s account of his experiences, the Zhu Qian of that time didn’t have such thoughts. At that time, Zhu Qian’s thoughts should have been very simple—he just wanted money.

However, when writing a book for the benefactor, portraying the benefactor in a positive light was necessary!

The Zhu Qian in his book was truly an inspirational model.

At this moment, Li Qingzhi had written about some related events again, mainly about the people who worked with Zhu Qian at the time. They thought Zhu Qian’s desire to become wealthy was unrealistic, but Zhu Qian firmly believed in himself and was willing to strive for it.

As Li Qingzhi was writing, Zhu Qian entered from outside.

In the past few days, Zhu Qian had been very busy. Although he was very satisfied with the book Li Qingzhi had written, he didn’t have time to chat with him much.

Today, he finally had some free time, so he took out what Li Qingzhi had written earlier and read it again. Then he became anxious to know what he had done next.

Although what Li Qingzhi wrote was his own experiences, for some reason, what Li Qingzhi wrote seemed different!

“Mr. Li.” Zhu Qian came in with a smile and asked Li Qingzhi if he had just finished writing the manuscript.

Li Qingzhi handed over what he had written today to Zhu Qian.

Zhu Qian quickly finished reading all the content.

Before he went into business, he had been ridiculed by other servants. He had argued with those people, eager to prove himself to those who looked down on him… When Li Qingzhi wrote about this, Zhu Qian instantly appeared much more imposing!

In the book, he didn’t argue with those people; instead, he thought that those who didn’t want to change would always be servants…

Yes, that’s what he thought!

“Mr. Li, could you write the next part faster?” Zhu Qian asked.

“Mr. Zhu, I’ve just recovered from a serious illness…” Li Qingzhi smiled bitterly.

Actually, he could speed up his writing. Now he could write four thousand words a day without any problem. But if he did that, he would be very tired, and writing quickly would prevent him from using writing to practice his handwriting.

Seeing Li Qingzhi’s somewhat gaunt face, Zhu Qian realized that his request was a bit excessive.

According to his son… his son could only write a thousand words in a day, and Li Qingzhi could write three thousand words a day, which was already a lot!

“Mr. Li, my family’s garden sent over several old hens today. I’ll have someone stew one for you later, so you can eat it and replenish your health,” Zhu Qian said.

“Thank you, Mr. Zhu!” Li Qingzhi looked grateful. “Mr. Zhu is truly benevolent!”

Zhu Qian looked at Li Qingzhi and then at what Li Qingzhi had written… Li Qingzhi portrayed him so well, he must have a lot of respect for him… Wasn’t the treatment he gave Li Qingzhi a bit too low?

At the same time, in Li Xiucai’s school, Zhu Xunmiao also felt that the money his father gave to Mr. Li was too little.

After Zhu Qian requested the copying, Zhu Xunmiao took some of Li Qingzhi’s manuscripts to the school and asked one of his classmates to help copy them.

In Mr. Li’s school, there were many students from average backgrounds. Some of these students avoided Zhu Xunmiao and didn’t interact with him, but some tried to curry favor with him to gain some benefits.

This classmate belonged to the latter.

When he asked his classmate to help with the copy, the classmate readily agreed. According to the current market price, copying three thousand words would cost about one silver coin.

The money paid for the copy was the same as what the writer received!

At first, Zhu Xunmiao just felt that scholar Li wrote his father’s experiences truthfully and movingly, which deeply moved him when he read it. But later…

Some statements in the book began to shake him!

Although those statements were straightforward, after reading them, he suddenly felt that he wasn’t working hard enough.

When his father signed the contract to become a servant, he was working hard for the future, but what about him?

He had no worries about food or drink, but when he studied, he never exerted himself and always tried to slack off.

Zhu Xunmiao had read what Li Qingzhi had written repeatedly in the past few days, and every time he read it, he paid more attention when studying.

He didn’t even want others to copy it for him anymore; he wanted to do it himself.

But every day when he arrived at school, those classmates who copied for him would immediately ask him for the manuscript…

At this moment, the students in the school had just finished lunch.

The one who helped Zhu Xunmiao copy was named Xu Qifei.

Li Xiucai had seventy students and couldn’t teach them all. Xu Qifei had openly read Li Qingzhi’s manuscripts in the morning and even copied some. Now during lunch break, he excitedly said to Zhu Xunmiao, “Brother Zhu, your father is truly remarkable! No wonder he could amass a fortune!”

Previously, Zhu Xunmiao hadn’t mentioned Li Qingzhi much to Xu Qifei.

This was also for Li Qingzhi’s good, as helping a businessman write a book wasn’t considered a good deed.

At the time, Zhu Xunmiao had only told Xu Qifei that it was his father’s oral account, written down by someone else.

Therefore, in Xu Qifei’s eyes, this was Zhu Qian’s true experience.

Xu Qifei was very fond of this book and praised it several times, expressing his admiration for Zhu Qian.

Zhu Xunmiao didn’t know how to respond.

This book was indeed written based on his father’s experiences, but those principles… they were definitely not something his father could come up with or articulate!

That Mr. Li looked frail and ordinary, but he actually had great talent! And this could be seen from Mr. Li’s handwriting as well.

Zhu Xunmiao had previously looked down on Li Qingzhi’s handwriting, but after ten days, Li Qingzhi’s handwriting had improved significantly.

From this, it could be seen that Li Qingzhi’s previous poor handwriting was indeed due to illness.

Now, Mr. Li was still very thin, his health hadn’t improved, yet he could write three thousand words every day, and his handwriting was becoming more stable… Mr. Li was definitely not an ordinary person!

“What are you two talking about, Brother Zhu, Brother Xu?” one of Zhu Qian’s friends asked curiously. In the past few days, Zhu Qian suddenly stopped hanging out with them and became close with Xu Qifei instead.

Before Zhu Qian could speak, Xu Qifei said, “I’m expressing my admiration for Zhu Xiong’s father.”

Zhu Qian’s friend was a bit puzzled. In Chongcheng County, who didn’t know that Zhu Qian had once been a servant for someone else?

There were also many unfavorable rumors in the city, saying that Zhu Qian was only interested in profit, and so on… Even though Xu Qifei came from a poor family, he was still a scholar with decent knowledge. Why would he admire Zhu Qian?

Seeing his friend’s confusion, Zhu Xunmiao thought for a moment and then handed over the copy of his father’s autobiography to his friend.

So, during Li Xiucai’s teaching session in the afternoon, Zhu Xunmiao’s friend kept reading the book.

Fortunately, Li Xiucai didn’t bother with such things. With so many students and each having different learning progress, he couldn’t manage them all.

After Zhu Xunmiao’s friend finished reading… “Brother Zhu, I want to meet your father!” he exclaimed.

Zhu Xunmiao: “…”

“I used to blame myself and resent not being born into a scholarly family. But now, I realize that my starting point is already very good!” Zhu Xunmiao’s friend sighed.

His father was also a businessman, and like Zhu Xunmiao, he would be looked down upon by some aristocratic families.

Before, he was full of frustration, but now after reading Zhu Qian’s book… he realized he had been narrow-minded!

He also wanted to know what happened next… So he asked, “By the way, Brother Zhu, what happened next?”

Zhu Xunmiao also wanted to know what happened next.

He also wanted to go and see Li Qingzhi for a long chat!