Chapter 88: Finding a House 1/3

Probably because it wasn’t easy to gather the ingredients, the villagers in Miaoqian Village didn’t have the habit of cooking Laba porridge, but the people of Chongcheng County did.

Now that Jin Xiaoye had money and was willing to make an effort, she bought some ingredients.

Rice was essential, which didn’t need to be soaked in advance, but red beans, lotus seeds, soybeans, and peanuts all needed to be soaked beforehand.

Li Qingzhi and Jin Xiaoye soaked them in water, and the next day they began to cook Laba porridge.

In addition to rice and soaked ingredients, they also added some dried longans.

Li Damao and Li Ermao had never seen such porridge cooked at home before. They stood on tiptoe, peering at the stove with their small hands gripping its edge.

Li Qingzhi just stuffed two dried longans into their mouths.

The sweet dried longan was an absolute delight for the children. Li Damao and Li Ermao happily ate it, their eyes squinting in happiness.

While cooking the porridge, Li Qingzhi told stories to Jin Xiaoye, who listened attentively, carefully deciphering the words on the paper as she listened.

After Li Qingzhi finished reading two paragraphs, she even copied them down and read them back to him to see if she had made any mistakes.

“You’re really amazing, Xiaoye,” Li Qingzhi praised her.

Jin Xiaoye replied, “I don’t know what’s happening, but my memory has improved a lot lately.”

Li Qingzhi chuckled, “Reading does make your brain sharper. Keep learning, and you’ll become even smarter. I’ll teach you Mandarin in the future.” In fact, Jin Xiaoye had recently felt this way because he had used his abilities to help Jin Xiaoye develop her brain while she slept at night.

He didn’t overdo it, but even so, Jin Xiaoye’s memory had improved significantly.

Jin Xiaoye believed him and said, “I should learn Mandarin. It would be convenient for doing business with people from other places.”

The dialect in Chongcheng County was incomprehensible to people from farther away.

In the past, Jin Xiaoye wouldn’t have thought that far ahead, but hadn’t she read the autobiographies of Zhu and Ding recently?

Before, Jin Xiaoye had no idea what the outside world was like, but now she did, and she wanted to go out and see it.

Jin Xiaoshu stood behind Jin Xiaoye, listening attentively to her reading.

Before, he simply listened to her stories, but now it was different; he was starting to learn how to read.

He was married now, and in the future, he would have children. If he learned to read, his children would be proud of him, and he could even read stories to them.

As for Jin’s mother… she watched proudly from the side—her child was so amazing, already learning to read!

Jin’s maternal family was still very poor, and she even had a sister who was struggling even more.

Before, she had already lived a better life than her siblings at Jin’s house, but recently, her life has been even more like that of a fairy.

Making porridge took longer than making rice, and Laba porridge required even more time to cook. It wasn’t until the daylight shone brightly that the porridge was ready.

Jin’s mother hurried to serve the porridge, then diligently added the dried longans to Li Qingzhi, Jin Xiaoye, Li Damao, and Li Ermao’s bowls.

She felt that since her daughter and son-in-law had bought the ingredients and cooked the porridge, they should eat more.

Li Qingzhi and Jin Xiaoye accepted her kindness.

After eating, Li Qingzhi went to the county with Jin Xiaoshu.

He had to go to the county office today to see Magistrate Zhang.

Jin Xiaoshu took off his padded jacket and paddled the boat towards the county, while at the new pier, the conscripted laborers were enjoying Laba porridge.

Previously, Magistrate Gou had them eat two meals a day, partly because it was common for rural families to eat twice a day, and partly because cooking was troublesome.

But today was different!

After yesterday’s events, Magistrate Gou was deeply moved. He specifically took out some silver and had his men buy Laba porridge ingredients to be sent to the kitchen, so that the laborers could have an extra meal of Laba porridge today.

Last night, the kitchen staff had already soaked all the ingredients like red beans. As soon as the sky began to lighten, they started cooking the porridge, and by now, everyone had already enjoyed their Laba porridge at the new pier.

The Laba porridge here didn’t have dried longans. It mainly consisted of rice, soybeans, red beans, and a small amount of lotus seeds and peanuts.

So those who could eat peanuts and lotus seeds felt very lucky.

Of course, in the porridge the constables drank, there were more peanuts and lotus seeds. In Jin Dajiang’s bowl, there were several peanuts and lotus seeds.

Jin Dajiang had never eaten lotus seeds before and found them especially delicious. Just then, Chef Zhou took out a packet of brown sugar and gave him a big spoonful.

In Chongcheng County, some families would grow sugarcane, and some wealthy households owned vast fields of sugarcane.

Brown sugar is made from sugarcane juice. In Chongcheng County, bringing a packet of brown sugar when visiting a patient was considered generous.

“I… I couldn’t possibly…” Jin Dajiang felt very embarrassed.

Chef Zhou said, “Go ahead and eat quickly. I have plenty.”

Only then did Jin Dajiang take a sip of the porridge. It was really sweet!

Meanwhile, Jin Liushu was drinking porridge and talking about his heroic deeds from yesterday.

At that time, the prefect almost got beaten, and he saved him!

Jin Liushu tried hard to speak, finishing one part before moving on to another.

The constables didn’t stop him from doing so, but they were a bit speechless.

At first, they thought Jin Liushu was just bragging, but then they realized… Was this guy just trying to slack off?

But not everyone followed to the county office yesterday and knew about the interrogation. It was quite nice to hear Jin Liushu talk about it… so they just listened.

Jin Liushu’s eloquence was better than others’, and what he said was good.

Jin Liushu even knew how the prefect treated patients: “The prefect is very skilled in medicine. Yesterday, someone went to him for treatment, and he…”

The magistrate, who was being praised profusely by Jin Liushu, was currently lying in bed unable to get up. Doctor Zhang was helping him recuperate.

He had suffered a lot. He had a bad back from overworking, and when he twisted it yesterday, he could initially bear it, but after a night’s sleep, it became uncomfortable.

Fortunately, Doctor Zhang often helped the poor treat their illnesses and was good at treating this kind of ailment. He heated up a plaster and applied it to the prefect’s back, making him feel much better.

The magistrate didn’t like eating in bed. After the plaster was applied, he got out of bed. Then, he saw that County Magistrate Gou had prepared a table of breakfast, including both salty and sweet Laba porridge.

The prefect didn’t quite like County Magistrate Gou’s style, but considering all the things County Magistrate Gou had done for the people, he didn’t mind much.

After finishing breakfast, the magistrate asked, “Why do you want to build a new dock?”

When County Magistrate Gou heard the magistrate’s question, he immediately had someone bring the plan written by Li Qingzhi and started explaining it to the magistrate.

He spoke about the things Li Qingzhi had told him earlier. The prefect listened with fascination, finding it very reasonable.

The person who proposed this was someone who got things done!

“Who wrote this? A clerk from the county office?” The prefect looked at the writing on the paper in front of him and thought it must have been written by a clerk who understood the people’s suffering.

County Magistrate Gou said, “This was written by a scholar from Chongcheng County. He is very knowledgeable.”

County Magistrate Gou was very grateful to Li Qingzhi and wanted to do something for him.

It wasn’t appropriate to give Li Qingzhi money, nor did he want to… but he could recommend Li Qingzhi to the prefect.

“A scholar? He’s very knowledgeable?” The prefect looked at the words in front of him with disbelief.