Chapter 62: Wu Baichuan2/3

While crying, Li Laogen kept talking, repeatedly saying he never expected to have such a good life.

After crying, Li Laogen wiped his tears, blew his nose, then wiped his hands on his pants…

Realizing it wasn’t right, Li Laogen went out to wash his hands, wiped them dry on his clothes, then put on the new padded jacket and went to show off to the neighbors next door.

Today, he went to drink tea with Mr. Yao, he already considered Yao a friend!

Mr. Yao: “…” He didn’t want such a friend.

Mr. Yao didn’t like hearing Li Laogen boast, but he had a good temper and didn’t drive him away. So Li Laogen kept talking, “My son and daughter-in-law are really filial. I haven’t given them anything, but they made me new clothes and padded jackets. Aqing knows I like going to the county to drink tea, and he said he’d give me five cents a day so I can go to the county to drink tea and eat noodles every day…”

Mr. Yao didn’t really want to go to the county teahouse every day, let alone eat noodles.

But if Li Laogen, who used to be inferior to him in every way, could go to the county to eat noodles every day now, why wouldn’t he?

Mr. Yao said, “That’s great, I’ll go with you to drink tea and eat noodles from now on.”

Although their family had sold four acres of land, they didn’t have any external debts, and renting out the boat brought in income… spending five cents a day was not a problem for him.

In this way, after a month, it would only cost him a silver coin, and he wouldn’t need to spend two taels of silver in a year.

Previously, what his son spent on other women was much more than this!

Mr. Yao made plans with Li Laogen to go to the county town together tomorrow. When Li Laogen left, Yao’s mother became unhappy, “You want to go to the county town every day to eat noodles? Are you spending money like this?”

Back when Mr. Yao earned more money, he always brought his own lunch when he went out to row the boat!

Mr. Yao said, “We used to save money every day, but in the end, didn’t we lose all our money? Wait till tomorrow, I’ll buy some buns for you to eat.”

If he could also eat buns himself… Yao’s mother balanced in her heart, “Buy two, give some to the two children to eat.”

Yao Zhenfu: “…” So he won’t have any?

In the past, when he was in the county town, he often ate buns. The current treatment was indeed a far cry from before.

As for Jin Moli, her mood was also very bad.

In the previous life, by this time, Li Laogen had already died.

After Li Qingzhi sold his two acres of land for fifty taels of silver, she and Li Laogen parted ways, and Li Laogen quickly squandered the silver, only to return to live with his younger brother.

When he was young and able to help with work, his younger brother treated him well, but by then he was very old, and he had already spent all the money from selling the land…

Li Laogen’s younger brother mistreated him everywhere, and Li Laogen starved to death. It was said that when he died, he was as thin as a skeleton.

But now, not only was Li Laogen getting younger and younger, he even planned to go to the county town every day to eat noodles.

For the next ten days, Li Qingzhi did not go to the county town, but stayed at home every day to read and practice calligraphy.

He meticulously transcribed and modified Zhu Qian’s autobiography, copying three thousand words every day. As a result, his right-hand writing improved with practice, and now, in addition to having neat handwriting, he had developed his own style.

In addition to this, Li Qingzhi also wrote two thousand words every day with his left hand in Ding Xi’s book, as Ding Xi had paid him, so he had to finish writing the book.

Li Qingzhi also wrote two thousand words every day on the story of Magistrate Gou, where this time he wrote about Magistrate Gou’s judgment of Zhang Yunquan’s case.

The story began with Zhang Yunquan’s rampant behavior in Chongcheng County. After Magistrate Gou discovered Zhang Yunquan’s misdeeds, he conducted a secret investigation and ultimately rounded up Zhang Yunquan and his associates…

Li Qingzhi thought this story could be written in fifty thousand words.

When writing with a brush, after getting used to it, the speed was actually similar to writing with a hard pen. However, even so, the task of writing seven thousand words a day still took Li Qingzhi a whole afternoon.

In the morning, he had to read books and teach children, and his time was fully occupied. If it weren’t for Li Qingzhi’s ability, which allowed him to erase fatigue from his body when he was tired, he would definitely not be able to do this.

Also, having experienced the apocalypse, what he once found extremely difficult to learn now seemed trivial. For these ten days, Li Qingzhi did not go to the county town, but Jin Xiaoye would tell him various things happening in the county town.

The construction of the wharf wasn’t progressing as quickly as expected. Magistrate Gou had to spend a lot of time just buying land and hiring people.

Li Qingzhi found out when talking to Magistrate Gou that, like the previous owner’s father, Magistrate Gou was very good at reading books, but he was not good at handling various matters or arithmetic.

The previous owner’s father initially hired a private teacher because he couldn’t handle the many miscellaneous matters in the county government office by himself.

The size of the county town in Daqi, if estimated in modern terms, was probably equivalent to that of a town. In modern towns, there is a mayor and deputy mayor, with specialized people in charge of the economy and sanitation, with clear division of labor, not to mention different departments like tax offices and police stations.

In Daqi? Magistrate Gou had to handle everything!

This was indeed a bit difficult for Magistrate Gou, so usually, magistrates would hire private teachers or advisers to help.

So, nothing much happened in these ten days, but Magistrate Gou’s reputation in the county town was undoubtedly getting better and better.

Li Qingzhi was quite satisfied with this situation.

However, Jin Xiaoye was a bit uneasy these two days. “Ah Qing, are you sure there’s no problem with Shopkeeper Wu? I’ve done so much work on my end, and he hasn’t come to check on anything…”

When Wu Baichuan first placed an order with Jin Xiaoye, she felt she shouldn’t miss the opportunity and immediately accepted it on the spot.

But afterwards, she had Li Qingzhi help find out about Wu Baichuan’s situation.

Li Qingzhi did go to inquire as instructed. According to Zhu Qian’s words, Wu Baichuan was a good person, and he did indeed plan to purchase a batch of goods to sell in the capital.

Speaking of which, Zhu Qian also knew about Jin Xiaoye’s business. At first, he didn’t pay much attention, thinking Jin Xiaoye was just doing some handicraft work to supplement her household income. But later, Jin Xiaoye’s business became more and more successful.

After noticing this, Zhu Qian specifically sought out Li Qingzhi and said he could give Jin Xiaoye some pointers, but Li Qingzhi refused.

Zhu Qian could certainly help Jin Xiaoye, but if he did, Jin Xiaoye’s business would go exceptionally smoothly and wouldn’t withstand any setbacks.