Chapter 83: Spread

Li Qingzhi discussed with Zhu Qian for a long time and didn’t leave until after lunch. When he left, he took several books from Zhu’s house that he hadn’t read before.

After leaving Zhu’s house, Li Qingzhi went to Sister Wang’s house to find Jin Xiaoye.

Jin Xiaoye had received a new order, so Sister Wang’s house was very lively. There were many women waiting for Jin Xiaoye and Sister Wang to cut the fabric.

Fang Jinniang’s eyesight was poor, so she cut the fabric slowly and didn’t go up to help. Instead, she sat on the side, doing needlework. Li Qingzhi glanced at her and noticed that she wasn’t working on products from the Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Workshop, but rather on ordinary clothes.

Judging by the color of the clothes, they were probably for Jin Dajiang and his wife.

“You finished so quickly?” Jin Xiaoye saw Li Qingzhi.

“Yes,” Li Qingzhi replied.

Jin Xiaoye said, “We need to buy some things for the house. Can you go buy them?”

Jin Xiaoye listed several items, both food and household items. After she finished, Li Qingzhi said, “I’ll go buy them now.”

Jin Xiaoye knew that Li Qingzhi had a good memory and wouldn’t forget her instructions, so she continued to work busily upon hearing his words.

Li Qingzhi carried a basket and bought a lot of groceries, like oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. When he had bought almost everything, he saw Jin Xiaoshu coming out of the carpenter’s shop carrying some wood.

Li Qingzhi asked and learned that Jin Xiaoshu and Fang Jinniang didn’t plan to continue earning money these days.

Jin Xiaoshu planned to tidy up the house and buy some things. As for Fang Jinniang, she wanted to make two sets of clothes for Jin Dajiang and his wife.

Jin Dajiang and his wife’s padded jackets were no longer warm. Now that they had money after the split, they definitely needed to buy some new clothes for them.

“I bought a bed for my parents, and there are still some things missing at home. Tomorrow, I’m going to find someone to build a house. I plan to build two more rooms so that we can live more spaciously…” Jin Xiaoshu was full of excitement and hope for the future. “Brother-in-law, I also ordered a boat. Now I have my own boat!”

Before the split, Mrs. Jin was stingy and restricted everything, so Jin Xiaoshu never thought about improving the living environment.

But now that he had built a new house and started a new family, he was the pillar of the household…

Li Qingzhi thought this was quite good.

However, they bought quite a lot of things, so they probably needed to take some back first and then come back to the county town to get the rest.

In Miaoqian Village,

These days, there was no shortage of topics in Miaoqian Village.

The heat of Jin Xiaoshu’s marriage and the recruitment of laborers by the county government had not yet subsided when there were several consecutive incidents.

“This time they’re giving meat for building the dock, did you know?”

“I know! Jin Biantou regrets letting his nephew go there.”

“Yesterday, even the magistrate went to the dock!”

“The most important thing is that Li Qingzhi actually knows the magistrate!”

The villagers in Miaoqian Village couldn’t figure out how Li Qingzhi, who had been idle at home after breaking his arm, could know the magistrate? They had many speculations but no definite answer, so they started talking about the split of the Jin family again.

“The Jin family shouldn’t have let Jin Dajiang go to build the dock.”

“That’s right, Jin Dajiang is already so old! How can Jin Xiaoshu bear to let him go?”

“Did you hear? Out of Jin’s family’s twelve acres of land fields, Jin Dajiang only got three acres.”

“His old mother is really biased.”

“Fortunately, Jin Dajiang’s children are promising.”

…

Many people also approached Jin’s mother to inquire about the split of the Jin family.

Jin’s younger sister even went to Li Qingzhi’s house: “Second sister-in-law, your mother is so biased. She gave you only six acres of paddy fields, aren’t you angry?”

Jin’s mother said, “That land belongs to our parents…”

“You are just too easy-going, that’s why you are always bullied by your elder sister-in-law!” Jin’s younger sister chattered on.

Jin’s mother didn’t respond. She knew she had been doing quite a lot of work, but she didn’t mind.

Jin’s mother’s family was very, very poor. After her parents passed away early, her sister-in-law even treated her poorly, making her live with the family’s sheep.

After she married into the Jin family, although she had to work hard, she could eat well and dress warmly. Jin Dajiang was also very kind to her. In fact, Jin’s mother was quite content.

With these thoughts in mind, Jin’s mother looked up at Li Damao and Li Ermao. Seeing the two children playing happily, Jin’s mother couldn’t help but smile.

Having experienced hardship during her own childhood, she tended to spoil the children a bit and didn’t want her own children to suffer even a bit of grievance.

Previously, when she wanted to give some eggs to Jin Xiaoshu and Fang Jinniang, the two eggs that Jin Xiaoshu and Fang Jinniang didn’t want were given to Li Damao and Li Ermao.

After Jin’s younger sister talked about some things related to the Jin family, she began to complain about her husband and son, and she complained about the Yao family.

Jin’s mother didn’t pay much attention; her focus was mainly on the two children.

“Sister-in-law, how did Li Qingzhi meet the magistrate?” Jin’s younger sister asked.

“I have no idea,” Jin’s mother said, looking puzzled.

Jin’s younger sister: “… ” This sister-in-law of hers was completely clueless; she deserved to be bullied.

In the village, news spread quite quickly. Li Qingzhi’s acquaintance with the magistrate and the Jin family’s split were soon known to the Yao family.

The Yao couple thought highly of Li Qingzhi’s abilities, but Yao Zhenfu was furious.

How could Li Qingzhi know the magistrate?

Since Li Qingzhi broke his arm, his mood had been quite good, except for the few days when he learned that Jin Xiaoye wanted to sponsor Li Qingzhi’s education. But later, Li Qingzhi didn’t go to study, did he? Yao Zhenfu thought that Jin Xiaoye was just casually saying it, so he completely relaxed.

But now… Li Qingzhi actually knew the magistrate?

“It must be Jin Xiaoye spending money to help Li Qingzhi establish connections, otherwise how could he know the magistrate?” Yao Zhenfu complained at home, blaming his parents for not giving him money to establish connections.

Yao’s father said, “Our family’s money has all been spent by you. Where would we have money?”

Yao Zhenfu fell silent.

Yao Zhenfu was very unhappy, but the one who was most unhappy was Jin Moli.

She never expected that Li Qingzhi would know the magistrate.

Li Qingzhi… how could he have such abilities?

With this in mind, Li Qingzhi would be more capable than Yao Zhenfu, wouldn’t he?

And then there was the matter of the Jin family splitting.

Jin Moli wanted to marry her cousin to Jin Xiaoshu, but it failed. After that, she wanted the Jin family not to split.

In the previous life, at this time, the Jin family had not yet split. After Jin Xiaoshu married Jiang Chunfeng, they had considered splitting the family, but Jiang Chunfeng disagreed, so the family remained undivided.

It wasn’t until Jin’s mother broke her leg and passed away from fatigue that Jin Xiaoshu couldn’t bear it anymore, and the two families finally split.

During the previous split, her parents took advantage of the situation. However, even after the split, when Jin Xiaoshu became prosperous, her family didn’t benefit much.

Not long ago, she had even advised her mother to be kinder to Jin Dajiang and his wife, but in the blink of an eye, they split up?

Jin Moli hurriedly returned to her mother’s house and became increasingly irritated after learning the reason for the split.

She felt her mother was too foolish!

In the previous life, due to Jiang Chunfeng’s reasons, there were many conflicts between the two families. However, even so, her mother didn’t let Jin Dajiang go to build the pier.

No, it should be said that in previous life, there was no pier in the county at all.

At that time, when the county government conscripted laborers in the dead of winter, they were either sent to repair the old pier in the county or to do other tasks. Because her second brother didn’t become Yao’s apprentice, it was all her second brother who went…

A lot has changed in the past six months.

“Jin Dajiang’s family is not a good thing. Why should I tolerate them?” Jin’s aunt was annoyed at Jin Moli for trying to make her tolerate them, especially after Jin Liushu was forced to go and build the pier today. She felt Jin Moli was being hypocritical.

While the mother and daughter were in conflict, Jin Zaoshu came in from outside. “Mom, Jin Xiaoshu and Li Qingzhi bought a lot of things back. Have they never seen money before? They just spend it recklessly.”

Jin Zaoshu said that Jin Xiaoshu and the others were buying things recklessly, which was completely unfounded.

What Jin Xiaoshu bought was actually affordable, and he bought so much at once because Jin Dajiang and his wife had very little in terms of household items.

Back in the village, after docking the boat, Jin Xiaoshu began unloading the goods one by one.

He didn’t ask Li Qingzhi for help. In his and Jin Xiaoye’s eyes, Li Qingzhi was quite weak.

Because of this, Jin Xiaoshu thought it would take him a long time to finish unloading the goods. However, after he had just unloaded a few items, some idle villagers came to help. In addition to helping, these people also curiously asked Li Qingzhi, “Li Qingzhi, did you go to the new pier with the county magistrate yesterday?”

“How did you get to know the magistrate?”

“Li Qingzhi, did you already know the magistrate before you came to our village?”

…

Li Qingzhi was surrounded by villagers and felt quite good about it.

He had anticipated this situation when he followed the county magistrate to the pier yesterday. As for the answer…

Li Qingzhi said, “I didn’t know the magistrate before, but I’m the one who wrote the stories about the county magistrate in Chongcheng County, such as ‘Magistrate Gou Punishes Zhang Chuqian.'”

These stories were written by him, and this was known by the people in Li Xiucai’s school, as well as many people in the government office. It would spread sooner or later.

The villagers looked at Li Qingzhi in shock.

Many people in the village had gone to the teahouse in the county to listen to stories. Even if they hadn’t heard them all, they knew how much they liked these stories.

And Li Qingzhi wrote them?

Li Qingzhi was so talented! No wonder Magistrate Gou valued him!

Furthermore, they hadn’t heard all these stories… Could Li Qingzhi tell them?

More and more people surrounded Li Qingzhi, and this news spread farther and farther.

The villagers felt that Li Qingzhi was particularly talented to write such stories, unlike some of the scholars in the county.

Although Hong Hui’s reputation wasn’t very good now, he still had some friends. At this moment, they were drinking and chatting, criticizing the person who wrote these stories.

“The person who wrote these stories is excessively flattering to Magistrate Gou.”

“He wrote these stories just to please Magistrate Gou, right? I wonder what his intentions are!”

“I’m ashamed to associate with someone like him!”

…

As they continued, someone else said, “This person even blackened Mr. Hong in the book, which is too much.”

Hong Hui had been silent before this, but now he spoke up, “My brother accidentally injured him before, so it’s natural for him to hate me.”

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately realized something, “The one who wrote this book is Li Qingzhi?”

“Yes,” sighed Hong Hui.

People began to express their hatred for Li Qingzhi.

“He was unwilling to reconcile privately back then and insisted on going to court. Now, he’s blackening Mr. Hong in the book. His intentions are despicable.”

“He relied on flattery to participate in the Mid-Autumn Poetry Gathering with Zhu Xunmiao before, and now he’s flattering Magistrate Gou… That’s all he’s capable of.”

…

Just then, someone previously arranged by Hong Hui spoke up, “I heard that Magistrate Gou went to the pier yesterday, and he followed along. Magistrate Gou now holds him in high regard.”

Following that, the person mentioned other things related to Li Qingzhi, such as how he hadn’t read many books before and had allegedly only recently read the “Three Character Classic.” Another example was the ugly handwriting in Li Qingzhi’s previously circulated manuscripts.

The crowd became filled with indignation, all condemning Li Qingzhi.

Hong Hui was very satisfied with the situation.

He was now planting a seed in the hearts of these people. In the future…

According to what he had learned, Li Qingzhi intended to participate in the county exam. With Magistrate Gou’s high regard for him, he would likely receive a good ranking in the county exam.

Based on his investigation, Li Qingzhi’s own academic qualifications weren’t that great. Once the results of the county exam were out, he would publicly accuse Li Qingzhi of cheating and then give him some difficult questions, surely causing Li Qingzhi’s downfall.

Of course, before that, he would first cause trouble for Magistrate Gou. However, although the matter of labor conscription to build the pier couldn’t bring Magistrate Gou down, it would definitely make him face some blame.

Moreover… Li Qingzhi could write articles, and he could write poems too. He wanted to write some works to spread around, making Magistrate Gou’s reputation disappear!

With these thoughts in mind, Hong Hui began to talk about Magistrate Gou’s construction of the new pier.

Throughout history, the common people have always been oppressed. They recited some poems to accuse the oppression and then cursed Magistrate Gou, feeling that Magistrate Gou had caused suffering to the people.

Hong Hui knew that Magistrate Gou had given meat to the laborers yesterday, but he believed that it was just a show for the first day and that Magistrate Gou couldn’t possibly give meat to the laborers every day.

Furthermore, even if they could eat meat… the forced laborers must be unwilling due to the arduous work.

Sun Juren will try to get the magistrate to come to Chongcheng County to inspect. When the magistrate arrives, they will incite the laborers and arrange for people to lodge complaints before the magistrate. At that time, Magistrate Gou will certainly be unable to defend himself.

The more they talked, the more excited they became. Some even wrote poems cursing Magistrate Gou on the spot.

After reading them, they were particularly satisfied with their own compositions.

What Li Qingzhi wrote lacked any literary grace, but theirs were different, all filled with literary elegance.

Once their poems spread, the people of Chongcheng County will surely know that Magistrate Gou is not a good person!

Now, some scholars who are still on good terms with Hong Hui are either Sun Juren’s students or have local influences opposing Magistrate Gou. They all loathe Magistrate Gou.