Chapter 85: Magistrate Zhang 2/3

“I also ate a lot of meat in the mess hall…” Jin Dajiang also felt that he was eating too well. Well, no matter what, he never felt hungry while working in the mess hall.

The two looked at each other, and finally split the egg.

The eggs from before were given to Li Damao and Li Ermao, but tomorrow they would be busy building their house, so she wouldn’t go to Li Qingzhi’s house.

Jin Xiaoshu was eager to start building the house. Originally, he wanted to start construction today, but then he found out that there were still some things to purchase, so he postponed it for a day. They would start building the house tomorrow. Thinking of this, Jin Mu began to worry again: “Xiaoshu bought so much meat today… Will he spend all that money?”

“It shouldn’t, right?” Jin Dajiang hesitated.

The next day, Jin Xiaoshu started building the house again. This time, not only the people he hired came to help, but also other villagers came to help, and then they asked Jin Xiaoshu about Li Qingzhi.

Li Qingzhi was now a “big shot” in their village!

Li Qingzhi’s days in Miaoqian Village returned to normal. A few days later, the villagers’ attitudes towards him became much more natural.

After all, he didn’t look down on the villagers just because he knew the county magistrate.

He still wrote at home, taught children to read, went for walks as before, and even when he saw vegetables in the fields, he would still pick them and taste them.

He was the familiar Li Qingzhi!

Time flew by, and Li Qingzhi finally finished writing Ding Xi’s autobiography and copied Zhu Qian’s autobiography.

At this time, Jin Xiaoshu’s house was also completed. Jin Dajiang and his wife finally didn’t have to live in the main hall anymore. Instead, they had a room of their own.

The couple had been living under Grandma Jin’s control, and for many years, they had been sharing a room with their children…

Now they had a new room, with a new bed, a new quilt made by their daughter-in-law on the bed, and a brand new wardrobe beside the bed…

Jin Dajiang and his wife felt like they were living in a dream!

Not only that, probably because they were eating well and not doing much work, but in just half a month, their complexion had improved a lot.

Their changes were huge, and when the villagers saw them, they couldn’t help but congratulate them. These congratulations made them even happier and filled them with hope for the future.

Early the next morning, Jin Dajiang got up and put on the new cotton coat made by Fang Jinniang.

“You’re going to work, why wear a new cotton coat…” Fang Mother couldn’t help but say.

“I don’t want to wear it either, but didn’t they tear up the old cotton coats?” Jin Dajiang said.

The old cotton coats and quilts of the couple had been torn up by Jin Xiaoshu, saying they were going to be used as diapers.

The children were nowhere to be seen, but the diapers were already prepared!

Although Jin Dajiang and his wife often grumbled about their son’s wastefulness in private, they didn’t dare say it in front of him. And they also knew that their son did it out of concern for them.

After putting on the new cotton jacket, Jin Dajiang hurried to gather at the village entrance.

He was eager to go to the mess hall to work.

As soon as Jin Dajiang left, Jin Xiaoshu’s couple also got up. After getting dressed, they called Jin Mu, “Mother, let’s go.”

They were going to have breakfast at Li’s house.

They had porridge at Li’s house this morning.

It had been a long time since they had porridge, and Li Qingzhi missed the taste of it a bit. Plus, he had bought some salted duck eggs, so he cooked a large pot of rice porridge and steamed the duck eggs.

After being marinated for a long time, the salted duck eggs would release oil, and the egg yolks were very tasty but also a bit salty, not suitable for children to eat.

When Li Qingzhi bought the duck eggs, he bought two kinds. He gave one big, oily big duck egg to each adult and gave the three children one freshly marinated duck egg each, which was not salty at all.

In addition to the salted duck eggs, there was also a large bowl of stir-fried vegetables and a bowl of radishes marinated overnight.

Fresh radishes, sliced thinly and marinated overnight, would be ready to eat the next morning. But because they were quite spicy, the children didn’t like them.

Jin Mu had never eaten a whole salted duck egg before, but after half a month of good days, she had adapted a bit. She cracked the eggshell and used chopsticks to dig out the egg to eat.

“Xiaoshu, I’m going to the county town today. Can you take me to the county office?” Li Qingzhi said to Jin Xiaoshu.

These days, Jin Xiaoshu has resumed his business of doing business by rowing a small boat as before.

“Brother-in-law, are you going to see County Magistrate Gou?” Jin Xiaoshu asked.

“Yes.” Li Qingzhi smiled. County Magistrate Gou had mentioned this to him before, asking him to transcribe Zhu Qian’s autobiography and bring it to him first.

“Brother-in-law, you’re really amazing!” Jin Xiaoshu exclaimed. His brother-in-law could meet County Magistrate Gou just by wanting to. Ordinary people didn’t have this ability.

As Li Qingzhi followed Jin Xiaoshu to the county town, he saw boats transporting people to the new dock.

With a little money from County Magistrate Gou, the laborers from two relatively distant villages were brought over by boat.

It cost almost nothing.

Chongcheng County was a very prosperous county town with a large population, far surpassing Yu County, where the original owner of Li Qingzhi’s body lived. However, Chongcheng County had a very small land area.

The population was dense in the Jiangnan region, and the county towns and prefectural cities here also had a small land area.

For example, their current Hexing Prefecture… In some places where the land was vast and sparsely populated, the area of a county was larger than that of Hexing Prefecture!

Hexing Prefecture was tiny in total. On top of that, there were seven counties below it! Chongcheng County had a relatively small area within them…

Because the county town was relatively small, all the laborers who came to work could go home to sleep, allowing the people to rest better.

Speaking of which… even if you walked from Chongcheng County to the prefectural city, it would only take three or four hours. Taking a boat was faster; you could arrive in the morning.

However, at this time, ordinary people rarely traveled far. In front of the temple in Miaoqian Village, besides Mr. Yao, Yao Zhenfu, there was also Jin Dahai. No one else had been to the prefectural city.

The original owner of Li Qingzhi’s body used to roam around the prefectural city, so he had no impression of it.

Jin Xiaoshu first stopped the boat near Wang Jie’s house, let Jin Xiaoye and Fang Jinniang get off the boat, and then took Li Qingzhi to the vicinity of the county government office.

When Li Qingzhi arrived at the county government office, it was still early, but nowadays no one slept in, and County Magistrate Gou had already finished breakfast.

Upon learning that Li Qingzhi had arrived, County Magistrate Gou immediately had him summoned.

“Sir, it’s been half a month since we last met. You seem to have lost some weight. Are you too busy at the end of the year?” Li Qingzhi expressed concern for County Magistrate Gou as soon as he entered.

County Magistrate Gou was very pleased and had tea and snacks served to Li Qingzhi.

At this time, Li Qingzhi handed over Zhu Qian’s autobiography to County Magistrate Gou.

After County Magistrate Gou opened Zhu Qian’s autobiography, the first thing he looked at was Li Qingzhi’s handwriting.

He quite liked Li Qingzhi’s handwriting. Those neat characters were a pleasure to look at.

With this glance, County Magistrate Gou was amazed.

From beginning to end, Li Qingzhi’s handwriting had actually improved!