Chapter 94: Moving 1/3

Li Qingzhi relied on his remarkable ability to memorize and had memorized many books over the past few months.

He had read quite a few books collected by Zhu Qian for Zhu Xunmiao, which were beneficial for the imperial examination. He had also read all the books recommended by County Magistrate Gou.

He would quickly skim through them first and then slowly understand them, making notes whenever he didn’t understand something… Li Qingzhi planned to start visiting Li Xiucai every day from tomorrow to seek clarification.

But not today, it was already late.

When Li Qingzhi visited Li Xiucai, he brought along many things, including a large piece of pork that had been marinated twice, which Li Xiucai quite liked, inviting him to eat at his house.

However, considering the large number of children and grandchildren Li Xiucai had, Li Qingzhi ultimately refused.

Coming out of Li Xiucai’s house, he walked slowly forward. Passing through an alley, he saw the shop they had just bought.

Li Laogen was talking to someone in front of the shop, “My son is not an ordinary person, you know? He wrote stories like ‘County Magistrate Gou Punishing Zhang Chuqian’ and ‘Magistrate Zhang’s Incognito Inspection’!”

Li Laogen was short and had a pointed mouth and monkey cheeks, but the people around him looked at him with respect in their expressions and said, “Your son is really amazing! No wonder there were constables following him before.”

Someone else asked, “Did he write the recently released ‘County Magistrate Gou Punishing the White-Eyed Wolf’?”

Li Laogen said, “He wrote it! I was the first one to hear this story!”

Actually, Li Laogen wasn’t the first to hear it at all. When Li Qingzhi wrote this story, Jin Xiaoye had already read it, and as soon as he finished writing it, he sent it to the county government.

It wasn’t until a few days ago when Li Qingzhi had nothing else to do that he recited this story to Li Damao and Li Ermao, and that was when Li Laogen heard it.

But this didn’t stop Li Laogen from boasting.

The neighbors in the city were extremely envious, but some whispered sourly, “Your son is nothing like you.”

They had seen Li Qingzhi that day. Although he was thin, he was very tall. The person in front of them was more than a head shorter than Li Qingzhi!

Li Laogen said, “What’s not like me? We’re both thin!” Actually, Li Qingzhi not resembling him was normal. After all, this was the cheap son he had acknowledged, and they had no relationship whatsoever.

However, Li Laogen wouldn’t actively mention it to people.

The neighbors: “…” Could they really say such things?

“Dad,” Li Qingzhi smiled as he walked over.

Seeing Li Qingzhi, the smiles on the faces of the neighbors became even more genuine. They greeted Li Qingzhi one after another, praising him for writing great stories.

“Mr. Li, I really like the story ‘County Magistrate Gou Punishing Zhang Chuqian’.”

“Actually, the story of Magistrate Zhang is also very good to listen to, but Zhang Chuqian deserved his misfortune the most.”

“The people under Zhang Chuqian are really despicable!”

The people in the county had been greatly harmed by Zhang Chuqian, so now they cursed with great enthusiasm. After finishing their curses, they began discussing the new story, “The new story is only available at the big tavern now. There’s nobody reading it at the teahouse yet.”

“Old Wang said he’ll be reading stories at the teahouse tomorrow. We can go listen then.”

“Alright! Let’s go together tomorrow!”

Someone also asked Li Laogen if he wanted to join them for tea tomorrow morning.

Li Laogen used to think that he wasn’t the same as these people in the county, and he even feared them. But now things are different!

He was wearing new clothes, and his son knew the county magistrate!

Without hesitation, he agreed.

The teahouse these people were going to was different from the one he used to go to, but he didn’t mind changing teahouses.

The people in the previous teahouse didn’t like to hear him boast… no, speak.

Li Qingzhi chatted with these people for a while before entering the house, where he saw Jin Xiaoye holding bricks and building a wall.

For the front of the shop, Jin Xiaoye planned to use the second floor as a warehouse and the first floor for the women to work, so there wasn’t much need for changes. But for the backyard where they were going to live, some adjustments were necessary.

Zhao Sanni was grateful to them for leaving the furniture in the house. Even though it had all been used by the shopkeeper Shen didn’t mind and intended to continue using it.

The quality of this furniture was much better than what they had bought themselves before. Back then, they didn’t have much money, and she was worried that buying too good furniture would attract jealousy, so they only bought cheap ones.

While the furniture stayed, some changes were needed in the rooms. For example, in a large room downstairs, she planned to divide it into two rooms for Li Laogen and Zhao Xiaodou to live in.

This partition didn’t need to be too elaborate; a low wall in the middle would suffice, and they didn’t even need to install doors. Jin Xiaoye would do it himself.

She hadn’t built walls before, but since she wasn’t working for others, nobody would criticize her for doing it badly. So, why not do it!

With mud in her hands, Jin Xiaoye looked attractive to Li Qingzhi, who watched for a while before asking, “Is this wall built with mud?”

“Yes, I had my younger uncle dig up the mud. This kind of wall isn’t very sturdy, but it’s just a partition, so it doesn’t need to be too sturdy. It’ll be convenient to dismantle it in the future if needed, and we can reuse the bricks!” Jin Xiaoye said.

In Daqi, to make a wall sturdy enough, you needed to boil glutinous rice to make a paste, then mix it with ground shell powder and other things before using it to build the wall.

Walls built like this wouldn’t collapse for hundreds of years.

Their shop was probably built like this, especially sturdy, but she didn’t plan to go through all that trouble.

“You go upstairs and take a look. If there’s anything you want, we can buy it in a couple of days. I want to have the house cleaned up before the tenth day of the first lunar month, and we can move in on the tenth day.” Jin Xiaoye added.

Li Qingzhi nodded and went upstairs.

The house in the backyard also had two floors. In the middle of the house was a staircase, with a large room on each side. The layout upstairs was the same, with the two large rooms already divided into four smaller rooms.

Out of these four rooms, one was for Li Damao and Li Ermao, one for him and Jin Xiaoye, one for himself as a study, and the last one for the three children.

After looking around, Li Qingzhi decided to let Li Damao and Li Ermao use the beds in their room. They would buy a new bed, and the two beds originally used by the shopkeeper Shen’s children would be given to Li Laogen and Zhao Xiaodou.

He still preferred to sleep on a new bed.

They also needed to buy desks—four in total. Additionally, they would have the carpenter custom-make three high chairs for the children, so they could saw off a section of the chair legs later, when the children grew taller, and continue using them.

They didn’t need to buy bookshelves; there were spare cabinets here that could be used to store books for the children.

As for himself, he didn’t need bookshelves, and he probably wouldn’t buy too many books… after all, he could remember them all.

After planning everything out, it was almost time.

There was a well in the courtyard, and Jin Xiaoye washed her hands before calling everyone back home.

There was a gate at the back of their house, opening onto stone steps extending into the water. In the future, they could sit on these steps and even take boats, which would be very convenient.