Chapter 47: Mooncakes 3/3

Their family was too poor!

But now… there was no need to worry at all!

Li Qingzhi smiled, “Our family will be even wealthier in the future.”

Jin Xiaoye was actually a bit too excited.

But considering that Li Qingzhi was injured… she didn’t say much, just kept urging Li Qingzhi to sleep.

She even slept in the same bed as Li Qingzhi, dividing the bed into two with a roll of cloth in between, just to avoid accidentally pressing on Li Qingzhi’s wound in the middle of the night.

Despite Li Qingzhi’s objections, he eventually reached out his hand, crossed over the cloth in the middle, and held Jin Xiaoye’s hand.

“Why are you holding hands?” Jin Xiaoye asked. Wouldn’t it be uncomfortable with the cloth underneath his arm?

“Xiaoye, I was imprisoned for a long time before, and I always had trouble sleeping at night. I can only sleep well when I’m close to someone,” Li Qingzhi said.

“You…” Jin Xiaoye remembered how Li Qingzhi had always liked to be close to her or the two children before. In the end, she took away the cloth dividing them.

Li Qingzhi must have suffered a lot in the past few years, no wonder he has undergone such a big change in temperament.

In the future, she must pay more attention to Li Qingzhi.

And Li Qingzhi’s health—she must take good care of it!

Jin Xiaoye felt a bit uncomfortable because of Li Qingzhi’s broken arm, but Yao Zhenfu, the neighbor, was quite happy about it.

Many people gathered at the Li family’s house this evening. Yao’s mother went over and learned about Li Qingzhi’s broken arm, and she told her family about it.

Yao Zhenfu has already told his family about his plan to take the county exam next year. At first, Mr. Yao’s disagreed, but later, Yao Zhenfu said he wouldn’t spend much money this time, so Mr. Yao’s agreed.

Yao Zhenfu has been studying for so many years. If he completely gives up on taking the exam… Mr. Yao’s also feels regretful.

Since the decision has been made… Yao Zhenfu got up early today and started studying.

But he couldn’t help thinking about Li Qingzhi participating in the poetry gathering. Various thoughts circled in his mind, and he couldn’t concentrate at all.

When the Li family was holding the banquet, he questioned whether Li Qingzhi was slapped in the face. Was everyone in the village making fun of him?

Will Li Qingzhi discuss his situation at the poetry gathering at the Hong family’s house?

Are Zhu Xunmiao and Li Qingzhi making fun of him behind his back?

Restless all day, Yao Zhenfu nearly laughed out loud when he heard about Li Qingzhi’s broken arm in the evening.

As for Li Qingzhi saving a servant… Yao Zhenfu felt that Li Qingzhi was meddling too much.

“Li Qingzhi broke his arm and can’t copy books to earn money anymore. He will be useless in the future and will have to be supported by Jin Xiaoye…” Yao Zhenfu said happily to Jin Moli.

Jin Moli heard about this and also felt a bit happy.

After being reborn, she really didn’t want Jin Xiaoye to live a better life than her.

But amidst the joy, she also felt a bit of lingering fear.

She didn’t expect Zhao Xiaodou to not go to the Hong family, and Zhao Mancang was taken there instead.

She knew Zhao Mancang too.

In her past life, when Zhao Xiaodou had just gone to the Hong family, Zhao Mancang’s father was very jealous. He used to beat Zhao Mancang every day, thinking that Zhao Mancang was useless and that’s why he wasn’t chosen by the matchmaker.

Later, when Zhao Xiaodou died, Zhao Mancang’s father stopped doing this. There was a period of time when he treated Zhao Mancang fairly well.

But Zhao Mancang’s father always got drunk. Once, when he went to someone else’s house for a feast and they served a lot of rice wine, he stubbornly refused to leave until it was dark, and then accidentally fell into the river and drowned.

At that time, Zhao Mancang was only eleven years old and started working in the fields, doing all sorts of hard work to support his younger siblings… Probably because he was doing heavy labor from a young age, Zhao Mancang grew very short. When he reached the age to get married, nobody wanted to marry him because of his height. So, he simply didn’t get married and continued to save money, later marrying a wife for his younger brother.

Fortunately, his younger brother wasn’t as heartless as Li Laoer, and he was always very good to him.

This time, Zhao Mancang almost died?

Jin Moli couldn’t describe the feeling in her heart.

The next morning, Li Qingzhi got up early as usual and went to the kitchen with Jin Xiaoye.

He wanted to help with chores as before, but Jin Xiaoye wouldn’t allow it. So, he could only read books to Jin Xiaoye and teach her how to recognize words.

In the Li family that morning, everything was more or less the same as usual. However, after Jin Xiaoye left, many people came to the door to inquire about what happened yesterday.

Li Qingzhi didn’t hide anything and explained the situation in detail to everyone who asked.

The villagers couldn’t help but sigh once again.

After Li Qingzhi finished speaking, he made an excuse of being tired and sent away the villagers. Then, he took out a piece of paper, held a pen in his left hand, and wrote down a case he had heard Jin Xiaoye mention before, a case from the magistrate of Gou County.

In writing this, he definitely couldn’t use the first person perspective; it had to be in the third person, and he had to praise the magistrate of Gou County a lot.

How should I put it, this book had to be like one written by a student who worships the magistrate of Gou County!

Writing with his left hand was really uncomfortable for Li Qingzhi.

But the words he wrote with his left hand were almost as recognizable as the ones he wrote with his right hand when he first went to the Zhu family. It didn’t reach the point of being unrecognizable.

Although he wasn’t used to using his left hand, at least it was healthy. At that time, he was covered in injuries and felt unwell all over.

His right arm kept hurting, but for Li Qingzhi, this little pain didn’t count for much. He wrote the words very seriously, organized what he wanted to write in his mind, and then began to write.

This matter of the case in Magistrate Gou didn’t need to be very long, just a few thousand words. He planned to write it out as soon as possible.

Speaking of which… after writing books for the magistrate of Gou County and Ding Xi with his left hand, he should have practiced writing with his left hand.

In the future, he would be able to write with both hands, with different handwriting, which would be quite interesting.

While Li Qingzhi was writing seriously, at this time in Chongcheng County, countless people were talking about the case that the magistrate of Gou County judged yesterday.

“They say the Hong family is a scholarly family, but I didn’t expect them to actually condone their lunatic hitting people.”

“This is not just condoning, they actually bought someone and let the lunatic hit as he pleased!”

“This is not taking human life seriously…”

“I have a relative who works at the Hong family. He said that a servant couldn’t bear it when the young master of the Hong family hit him, and he hit back, leaving some bruises on the young master. Then he was held down by the Hong family and given twenty lashes!”

“My goodness, you can’t even defend yourself if you get hit!”

“What’s that? Someone told me before that the aunt who died of illness in the Hong family last year didn’t actually die of illness at all.”

…

The good reputation of the Hong family was ruined in an instant because of yesterday’s lawsuit. As people chatted, they also found out that the Hong family had actually been involved in many messy things.

Leaving aside how angry the people of the Hong family were, early the next morning, Zhu Xunmiao packed up some things and planned to go to the temple village to see Li Qingzhi.

Xu Qifei was also very worried about Li Qingzhi, so he followed along.

The two of them arrived at Miaoqian Village on Zhu’s boat. After asking for directions to the Li family’s location, they headed straight for the Li household.

At the entrance of the Li family’s house, three children were playing, and a thin old man was speaking to someone: “The mooncakes given by the Zhu family are so delicious. One kind is filled with meat, all meat inside, and the other kind has red bean paste and salted egg yolk… Master Zhu is such a good person. Compared to the Hong family, the Zhu family is much better!”

Hearing this, Zhu Xunmiao’s face turned red.

Then, Zhu Xunmiao’s face turned even redder out of embarrassment.

He saw Li Qingzhi, who had lost his arm, writing with his left hand!

While people outside were chatting, Li Qingzhi was completely focused, writing meticulously with his left hand.

He realized he had been too lazy before! If he had Li Qingzhi’s determination and diligence, his scholarship would definitely be much better than it is now!