Rogue Scholar (5)

It was late in the evening but the streets in the county seat of Donggu County are still lively—people from nearby farmhouses who work in the county seat will always buy something before going home.

Yan Jing Ze rushed to the night market, bought all the pots and pans, and bought some rice, vegetables, and meat dishes. The money was almost spent.

Can't go on like this…

Yan Jing Ze put the things he bought into the pot and walked back with the pot. While walking, he thought about what he could do to make money.

At the age of thirteen or fourteen, the original owner went to the casino to collect debts for the casino.

The casino knows the net worth of gamblers very well. When they meet someone with a little money in the family, they will encourage them to borrow a lot of money from the casino, and then let the thugs go to their houses and collect it. When the money is collected, thugs like the original owner can also divide a sum.

In addition, the original owner can also eat for free in the casino and it does not matter if you want to sleep in the casino at night… If it weren't for this, the original owner, this person who spent the money immediately, would have long been unable to survive!

In fact, doing this work can make a lot of money, but Yan Jing Ze really doesn't want to bully people.

In this case, if he wants to make money, he can only go to the dock in the county seat to help people carry the sacks.

The original owner started eating and drinking at the casino at the age of 13 or 14 and developed himself into the strongest man in Donggu County. If he goes to the dock to carry sacks with such a physique, others can only carry one bag but he can carry two bags at once. He should be able to make a lot of money but this can only make him and Wei Lingxiu have enough to eat and drink. It is difficult to live a better life.

"Yan Da!" A voice suddenly sounded.

Yan Jing Ze turned his head and saw a manager of the casino where the original owner worked looking at himself with an old smoking pipe. He smiled as he answered, "Manager Li."

Manager Li was chubby and looked very kind. He pinched a handful of shredded tobacco from his pocket and put it into the buzzer, and took a sip: "Yan Da, I heard you got some money? Will you come to play at night?" Manager Li is very fond of Yan Da. In the past, if you ask Yan Da to collect debts, there is nothing he can't get. Even better, if you offer him a reward, the money would be in the casino's hands within two days.

In the past few months, Yan Da has a lot of money, and even lost 700-800 taels of silver in the casino… Who doesn't like such a person?

"Manager Li, there is someone in my family, so I won't come tonight and won't come again." Yan Jing Ze smiled sensibly: "I want to live a good life."

These days, those who can open casinos have a little background. There are people behind the casino where the original owner worked. It is the Li family who is not weaker than Wei's in Donggu County.

In recent years, the Li family is more powerful than the Wei family—the master bookkeeper of Donggu County is from the Li family.

Moreover, the Li family is thriving, there are many small officials in the county office, all of them are Li family members.

It is precisely because of this that the Li family can open the casino so big, and also because of this that the Li family has some rules. For example, it stipulates that thugs like the original owner can use various methods when collecting debts, but normally you can't make a move on ordinary people, lest you make a scene and drag the casino and the Li family into it.

Even for debts, things like loss of human life will never be allowed.

The Li family pays attention to long-term development but they don't want to cause public grievances.

The original owner was one of the casino thugs, the casino will not make a contract with them. They can basically come and go freely, many people just have no money and will become thugs for a period of time, once they have enough money, they will leave.

At this moment, when Yan Jing Ze said he wanted to live a good life, Manager Li was a bit surprised: "You are going to live a good life with that Young Master Wei?"

The Li family and the Wei family do not deal too well with each other, and thus when the Wei family's Young Master followed Yan Jing Ze and ran away… Manager Li is smiling and watching the good show. As for what Yan Jing Ze said that he will live a good life with the Young Master Wei, he did not believe it at all.

He felt that Yan Jing Ze is just trying to get along with that person and willing to listen to a few words. As for the future?

Many gamblers are obedient to their new brides for a few months, after being managed for a few months, they will come back to the casino, and in the end, it is not uncommon to sell their wife.

This Yan Da's mother, wasn't she also sold in the end?

"Yes." Yan Jing Ze revealed a smile.

"Then you live a good life, when you want to come back, then come back." Manager Li pinched a pinch of tobacco again, looking even kinder.

After talking to Steward Li, he took the pot with him and ran home.

It took him another quarter of an hour to get home. After running, he was hungry. As soon as he arrived at the door, he saw a lot of people gathered around his house, all probing and looking curiously at his house.

But as soon as Yan Jing Ze came, these people ran away, and one of the children fell while running, but the mother ignored him.

The child didn't cry and just kept running when he got up.

Yan Jing Ze: "…"

When he entered the house, he saw Wei Lingxiu sitting dumbly on the bed, and when he saw him, his expression became vivid: "Brother Yan, you're back!"

"Well, I'm back." Yan Jing Ze took out the warm buns wrapped in oil paper from his arms: "I bought meat buns, you eat quickly."

There were only two meat buns. Wei Lingxiu took one, but Yan Jing Ze stuffed the other into his hand: "They are all for you, I have eaten them."

He actually didn't eat it, but he's so poor now, he won't eat meat buns.

This kind of meat bun, he has to eat ten before he is full.

Although Wei Lingxiu used to be unwelcome at home, he really had no shortage of food. At least this kind of meat bun, he can eat it whenever he wants.

At this time, he didn't think too much, so he ate slowly.

He had no appetite originally, but when he was eating, he watched Yan Jing Ze busily working inside and outside the house. He looked at him and his appetite suddenly improved. He ate two buns thoroughly and felt a little thirsty.

Where do I get drinking water?

Wei Lingxiu was at a loss but Yan Jing Ze boiled the water.

The teapot and cups in Wei Lingxiu's room were also brought by him. He scooped water from the pot with a gourd scoop and prepared a pot of water for Wei Lingxiu: "Be careful."

"Okay." Wei Lingxiu smiled up towards Yan Jing Ze. His smile looked sweet, but it was devoid of his previous flighty and domineering look.

Yan Jing Ze had another burst of distress again.

It was late and it was getting dark. Yan Jing Ze asked Wei Lingxiu to go to bed earlier – he gave Wei Lingxiu the furnished bedroom to sleep in, saying that he will live in another room.

But when Wei Lingxiu went to bed, instead of going to bed, Yan Jing Ze went out the door.

He bought pots and pans today. He bought the old pots and pans that the farmers have taken to the pawnshop for some money. It saved the need to cook the pot and it can be used directly, so he could boil water as soon as he came up. However, the original owner's house had very little firewood, it was used up after boiling the water.

He took the person he liked home, he was feeling a little excited and couldn't sleep. So, it was better to go out and chop wood!

When there was no sound in Wei Lingxiu's room, Yan Jing Ze went out empty-handed.

He didn't have a knife for chopping wood. Fortunately, his arm strength was amazing and the firewood can be broken off and brought back directly.

After such a tossing, it was midnight when Yan Jing Ze returned home with a bundle of firewood on his back and started cooking.

He is too hungry and must eat something.

As for what to eat… When Yan Jing Ze bought food before, he bought two kinds of food.

One is the more expensive, cleanly hulled new rice, and the other is the cheaper, stale rice.

Putting water and stale rice into the pot, Yan Jing Ze cooked it up. When it was done, he washed a pickle and ate it directly at the pot.

He ate half a pot of porridge, then went out quietly, and continued to chop wood. He was also thinking about getting some wood and bamboo and repairing the roof of his house.

When he left, Wei Lingxiu came out of the room and walked towards the kitchen.

During the day, he experienced being kicked out of the house. Although he fell asleep at night, he was awakened from dreaming in the middle of the night.

As soon as he woke up, he heard a rustling noise outside. In the middle of the night, what was Yan Da doing?

The room Wei Lingxiu lives in is next to the main hall. It is the best room in this house. However, the "wall" made of wood and bamboo on the mud wall is already ripped and there are many gaps.

Wei Lingxiu moved a stool and looked from the hole to the main hall.

The moon is good today, and the door of the hall is wide open, so the situation inside the house is clear.

Yan family's kitchen is connected. He sees that Yan Jing Ze is cooking. After finishing cooking, one person eats quietly. Looking at it, he should be eating porridge.

Didn't Yan Jing Ze say that he had eaten it at night? Why did he get up in the middle of the night to make porridge again?

Wei Lingxiu was very curious, and when Yan Jing Ze left, he went out and quietly entered the kitchen.

There is half a pot of porridge in the pot and a few pickles next to it.

Wei Lingxiu drank a little porridge with the gourd scoop that Yan Jing Ze used to scoop the porridge. He felt that the porridge was mixed with rice husks, and he hurt his throat while eating.

If Yan Da ate steamed buns, he would definitely not have to cook such porridge in the middle of the night… Wei Lingxiu returned to the room, his heart was sour and heavy, and threw himself on the bed crying.

Crying and crying, he fell asleep again.

Although he cried, but when Wei Lingxiu woke up the next morning, he was in good spirits. Probably because the depression in his heart was completely gone.

The dazzling sunlight came in through the hole in the roof. It's probably not too early now!

Wei Lingxiu jumped up abruptly, put on his clothes and opened the door. He saw Yan Jing Ze chopping bamboo with a hatchet outside the house.

Yan Jing Ze was busy all-night last night and went home in the morning. He ate half a pot of porridge left over from yesterday and cooked the porridge for Wei Lingxiu. Then he went to the village chief's house to borrow an axe and other tools.

The village chief didn't dare not lend it, so at this moment, Yan Jing Ze was chopping the bamboo, planning to weave the bamboo pieces together before repairing the house.

"Lingxiu, are you awake? There is porridge in the pot. I have eaten it. That is for you." Yan Jing Ze smiled.

Wei Lingxiu was ready to endure hardships with Yan Jing Ze and planned to eat the porridge no matter how bad it tasted.

As a result, he lifted the lid of the pot and surprisingly saw a pot of white rice porridge, and on the steamer rack, there was also a bowl of pickled vegetables and steamed egg.

"I didn't do anything delicious, you can eat whatever you like." Yan Jing Ze said.

Wei Lingxiu nodded, his eyes sore again.

The pickles were chopped very finely and a little oil was added when steaming. It was delicious to eat with rice porridge. Although the whole egg was just put in a bowl with water and steamed, most likely Yan Da did not eat one.

Wei Lingxiu peeled the egg, bit into a bit of egg white to eat, and then came outside the house, handed the egg to the mouth of Yan Jing Ze, and smiled, "I do not like to eat the egg yolk, it chokes people, you eat it."

"I'll give you scrambled eggs to eat at noon," Yan Jing Ze said, eating the egg yolk in one bite.

Wei Lingxiu ate the egg whites and the porridge was shared with Yan Jing Ze. Then he began to tidy up his desk and took out the contents of his book basket.

There are pens, inks, papers, and inkstones in the baskets. In addition, Yan Jing Ze also brought all the books and copybooks he used for enlightenment and literacy.

Wei Lingxiu thought about it, he had no way to make money, the only thing he could do was copy books.

At the time, his brother had teased him about his poor knowledge, saying that he could only read the characters and could copy the book for some money.

He was also stupid at the time, saying that even if he didn't study, Wei family would be his own in the future, while his younger brother would have to take the exam to earn himself a family business…

Who can think of today?

If you think about it, which one of the students outside the family is like him, who is watched by his grandmother all day long copying Buddhist scriptures? People always copy only those rare books. They will copy one to read for themselves. And copying one more than that will delay the time of studying.

Wei Lingxiu found the " Three Character Classic" and copied it slowly.

He doesn't read much but he can memorize the "Three Character Classic". It's easy to copy this. Should he get some money after copying it?

When Wei Lingxiu was copying the book, Yan Jing Ze came in.

These days, scholars have a very high status, and the original owner is also afraid of scholars. Speaking of it, if it were the original owner yesterday, he would definitely not have the guts to threaten a Juren master like him.

The way Wei Lingxiu writes now, Yan Jing Ze feels even better.

Wei Lingxiu is a scholar, if possible, shouldn't he pay for Wei Lingxiu's education?

These days, people who study are very popular! If Wei Lingxiu has a good reputation, he will definitely be able to live a good life in the future!

Thinking this, Yan Jing Ze went over to see Wei Lingxiu write.

He did not know any of those characters, but felt that Wei Lingxiu wrote particularly well, even better than what was printed in the book.

Yan Jing Ze is very big and has a strong sense of presence. He stood beside him, Wei Lingxiu was flustered and he had missed a word, but he hadn't noticed it yet.

"You've written it wrong," Yan Jing Ze pointed at the character and said.

Only after being pointed out by Yan Jing Ze did Wei Lingxiu realize that he had written it wrong and was a bit surprised: "How did you see that?" He thought Yan Da couldn't read?

"These two characters are different." Yan Jing Ze pointed at Wei Lingxiu's spread out Three Character Classic and said naturally.