Back in the dormitory, Xu Chuzhi put the package in his arms on the table and hurriedly unwrapped it, ignoring the change of his wet clothes.

The scene inside was disappointing, the paper was a third wet, and a piece of the ink stick was broken.

——These are the tools provided to him by him to copy books for Shusi.It takes him at least five days to finish copying a book, and he can earn up to forty pennies.

It's okay if the ink stick is broken. The wet paper can still be used after drying, but it will inevitably leave marks, so it is definitely not good for copying books.

If he calculates this way, not only will he not be able to earn any money this time, but at least he will have to put fifty cents into it.

Xu Chuzhi pursed the corners of his lips, looking depressed, and then seemed to remember something, and kicked the corner of the table.

It's all the fault of that apprentice.

After getting angry, Xu Chuzhi had to take another trip to the bookstore, because the specifications and types of paper copied in each bookstore are different, and he can't buy it elsewhere.

The shopkeeper of the book shop is his distant sixth uncle, who takes good care of him on weekdays.

"That's it," the shopkeeper hesitated for a while, then said bluntly, "Since it was an accident, there's nothing you can do about it. How about this, I'll give you the paper, and forget about the money."

"How can I do that?" Xu Chuzhi said repeatedly: "Uncle Six, you have taken good care of me, there is absolutely no reason for Uncle Six to lose money."

After speaking, he took out a bag of copper coins from his cuff and stuffed it to the shopkeeper.

"No, if you say no, then don't..."

At first, the shopkeeper refused to accept whatever he said, but later seeing that he couldn't resist him, he could only let go: "Okay, I can accept it if you want, but it's too much money..."

As he spoke, he opened the cloth bag, returned more than a dozen copper plates to Xu Chuzhi, and gave him the white paper that had been cut with a single knife.

Seeing this scene, Xing's face on the side was a bit ugly, and his tone was also weird: "Chu Zhi, be careful next time, don't break things again, let alone you, even my family, it won't stand up to you." It’s always such a toss, isn’t it.”

Xu Chuzhi's face froze, and the hand hanging by his side tightened and tightened.

In the past few years, he has indeed caused a lot of trouble for the shopkeeper.

But he can't help it.

He suppressed his shame and embarrassment: "Auntie taught me that."

When Xu Chuzhi's figure completely disappeared at the corner of the street, the shopkeeper turned his head and complained: "You are full, so what are you talking about?"

Xing rolled his eyes, picked up the feather duster on the cabinet, and swept the dust on the shelf: "Why, you are allowed to be a good person, and I am not allowed to say a few words?"

"What do you know?" The shopkeeper patted the table: "This is investment, do you understand investment?"

Besides, Xu Chuzhi also helped him copy a lot of books in the past few years, and generally speaking, he still made money.

"I understand. Don't you just expect Xu Chuzhi to be admitted to Juren in the future so that he can be your backer?" Mrs. Xing scolded: "But don't think about it, Wuding Prefecture hasn't had a Juren in so many years. And it's just him In the current situation at home, there is a sick old lady and a gambler father who are holding back, if he can be admitted to Juren, my name will be read backwards."

"And you just wait, you are so kind to him now, he remembers, when something happens to his family, he will be the first to find you, and I will see what you will do then."

Hearing this, the shopkeeper stopped drinking tea, and his expression was uncertain. He obviously felt that Mr. Xing's words had some truth, but he was still stubborn: "Okay, you have a sharp tongue, I can't tell you..."

On the other side, when Xu Chu returned to the dormitory, an officer knocked on his door, saying that the new Mr. Xuezheng wanted to see him.

Xu Chuzhi immediately adjusted his clothes, followed the guards, and went to the official residence.

As soon as he entered the door, Xu Chuzhi bowed and said: "Student Xu Chuzhi, I greet Master Xuezheng."

"You are Xu Chuzhi, you really are a good-looking talent." Meng Zezhi, who was sitting behind the case, immediately stood up, walked behind Xu Chuzhi, and closed the door with a bang.

For no reason, Xu Chuzhi's heart tightened.

He raised his head subconsciously, unexpectedly facing a familiar face, and stared at him.

How could it be him?

Just when Xu Chuzhi was in a state of confusion, Meng Zezhi said again: "I heard from Teacher Zhao that you have good knowledge and rapid progress. You will definitely be admitted to Juren in three years."

Xu Chuzhi managed to suppress the uneasiness in his heart, and he replied respectfully: "It's Mr. Zhao's absurd praise."

He thought, maybe he had identified the wrong person, or maybe Meng Zezhi didn't dare to do anything wrong in the state school.

Unexpectedly, the next moment, Meng Zezhi broke the luck in his heart.

"I came to you today, firstly because I want to meet a great talent from our state, and secondly," he changed his voice: "It was my fault that I knocked down your package that day, how about this, I have a gold ingot here , you take it, and treat it as my apology for you."

As he spoke, he took the gold ingot and stuffed it into Xu Chuzhi's hand.

Xu Chu subconsciously refused: "No, I can't have..."

Meng Zezhi grasped Xu Chuzhi's hands, thinking his wife's hands were so slippery and beautiful, and said with a smile: "I told you to keep them, so you can keep them. I heard that your mother is not in good health. , you can use this little money to buy some supplements for your mother to nourish your body, and then change yourself into a new, thicker padded coat. If you don’t have enough money, just ask me for it.”

Xu Chuzhi heard Meng Zezhi's implication, and his face turned pale: "You, how dare you—"

He broke away from Meng Zezhi's hand, staggered back two steps, and stared at him.

Meng Zezhi was not annoyed, so he simply opened his mouth and said, "I fell in love with you the first time I saw you. If you follow me, I will definitely not treat you badly. If not—"

He thought, his wife is also pretty when she stares at people.

Xu Chuzhi's chest heaved violently: "You... shameless... Thanks to the fact that you are still an official of the imperial court, if you do this, you won't be afraid of being known and cast aside by thousands of people?"

"If you don't tell me, if I don't tell you, who will know." Meng Zezhi didn't care.

"You—" Xu Chuzhi said with red eyes, "Even if I die, I won't obey your wishes."

As he spoke, he grabbed the gold ingot in his hand and slammed it on Meng Zezhi's body.

Meng Zezhi's face darkened in an instant: "It seems that you want to toast instead of eating fine wine?"

Xu Chuzhi turned around and left.

Meng Zezhi immediately said: "Then you have to think clearly. If you really make me anxious, I can do everything. I don't want your studies, your fame, or your future?"

Xu Chuzhi's footsteps were confused.

The big deal is that the fish will die and the net will be broken.

With such a mentality, Xu Chuzhi left without looking back.

In the official residence, Meng Zezhi touched the place on his arm where the gold ingot hit, but it didn't hurt at all.

It's probably because Xu Chuzhi couldn't bear to hit him hard.

Thinking of this, Meng Zezhi clicked his tongue and left happily.

On the other side, Xu Chuzhi, who had returned to the dormitory, collapsed on the bed like a deflated puffer fish.

He thought that Meng Zezhi would impatiently attack him, but in fact, for several days, Meng Zezhi did not move at all.

It was only later that Xu Chuzhi found out that it was because Meng Zezhi was ill again, and it was quite serious.

Before he could heave a sigh of relief, his neighbor rushed over to find him: "It's not good, Xu Xiucai, something happened to your mother."

His old gambling man found out about their new residence from somewhere, and came to the door. After searching the house, he went to gamble again.

That was the money Xu Chuzhi had saved for the exam three years later. His mother tried desperately to stop his father, but during the pushing, she knocked her head on the corner of the table and passed out on the spot.

His father ran away without hesitation. Fortunately, the neighbor heard the movement and came over to take a look...

Seeing his mother lying unconscious on the bed with incense ash smeared on her forehead, and looking at the bloodstains on the ground, Xu Chuzhi's hands and feet felt cold for a while.

The doctor will be here soon.

"Doctor, how is my mother?" Seeing that the doctor withdrew his hand from Xu's mother's wrist, Xu Chuzhi asked impatiently.

The doctor said: "Lingtang's head was injured, and she was not in good health, so she died in one accident.

I know a prescription, the main medicine is ginseng, it should be able to cure Lingtang's illness, but—"

"Just what? You said it!" The neighbors on the side were also anxious.

Then the doctor said: "It's just that this medicine is not cheap, at least three taels of silver, do you think?"

Three taels of silver?

The crowd was in an uproar.

You must know that in these days, a stone (153 catties) of rice costs only three renminbi.Three taels of silver, what you eat is money, what you eat is life.

Everyone looked at Xu Chuzhi together.

The doctor is a well-known doctor in the city, so it is impossible to deceive him on this matter.

Xu Chuzhi gritted his teeth: "Just prescribe the medicine."

The one lying on the bed was his own mother, and he had no choice.

Could it be that the neighbors in the neighborhood were moved, they reached out and patted Xu Chuzhi on the shoulder, and some even offered to lend him a sum of money, which made Xu Chuzhi very comforted.

After more than ten days like this, the borrowed money in Xu Chuzhi's pocket bottomed out, but Xu's mother's illness did not improve much.

Xu Chuzhi had no choice but to ask the neighbors for help again, but this time, Xu Chuzhi suffered a lot of rejection.

"Xu Xiucai, it's not that I don't want to borrow it, it's just that you see, our family is not rich, and my eldest grandson has reached the age of seeing a girl. The family really can't afford that much money..."

What the old woman didn't say is that today is different from the past. In the past, they were willing to help the Xu family because of Xu Chu's future prospects, but now the Xu family is a bottomless pit. Looking at Xu's mother's situation, it seems that it will not get better for a while, but it is also dead. It looks like it can't be done, but this is the most annoying thing. The medicine money of three liang of silver a day, plus the money for hiring someone to take care of Xu's mother, Xu Chuzhi dares to spend it, and they dare not borrow it.

She looked at Xu Chuzhi and couldn't help shaking her head, what a wonderful child, just ruined by his father.

Hearing this, Xu Chuzhi straightened his back and looked haggard: "I understand, then I'll go to Aunt Zhang's house and try again."

As a result, after walking around and typing out a bunch of IOUs, he only had a tael of silver and more than 300 copper coins in his pocket, which was not enough for his mother's medicine money for half a day.

Xu Chuzhi couldn't help but feel a little disheartened. He sat helplessly on the steps, staring at the passers-by in a daze.

At this moment, his eyes fell on a scholar holding two books in his hands, as if he remembered something, his eyes lit up.

He gritted his teeth, stood up, and rushed out.

Seeing Xu Chuzhi approaching, Mrs. Xing showed such an expression.

Xu Chuzhi tried his best to ignore the contempt in Xing's eyes, bent down and said, "Auntie, is Uncle Six here?"

"Not here, I went to Fucheng to buy goods." Xing Shi said.

"Then, when will he come back?" Xu Chuzhi said respectfully.

Xing said directly: "If you are here to borrow money, then you can avoid it."

Xu Chuzhi clenched his fists fiercely.

Xing Shi only said: "Don't blame us for not helping you, you offended someone yourself, the state school has already greeted us, if we dare to help you, we will let us go around... "

State school?

Xu Chuzhi suddenly thought of someone.

Mrs. Xing was still saying: "...We can't help it, so don't make things difficult for us..."

"I understand." Xu Chuzhi gave a wry smile, without dragging his feet: "I've been bothering Uncle Six all this time, please ask Auntie to convey my thanks to him on my behalf."

After a while, the shopkeeper surreptitiously opened a corner of the curtain, making sure that Xu Chuzhi had already left, and then came out...

Qi Tingye——

Xu Chuzhi gritted his teeth and walked towards Meng Zezhi's residence.

Unexpectedly, Meng Zezhi was already waiting for him in the yard.

"I knew you would come to me." He said leisurely, with a look of grasping the universe: "I also know why you came to me."

Xu Chuzhi pursed the corners of his lips, as if he wished to tear Meng Zezhi to pieces.

Without waiting for him to speak, Meng Zezhi said directly: "It is true that I ordered the shopkeeper of the book store not to help you any more, so there is no need to say any more about this."

As he spoke, Meng Zezhi clapped his hands.

Each of the two guards came out with a tray, one tray contained rows of silver ingots, which are always available at 80 taels, and the other tray contained three ginseng plants.

"No one can help you now." Meng Zezhi acted in his true colors: "I'll just ask you, do you follow or not?"

Xu Chuzhi calmed down, and then turned pale.

Yes, it's all up to this time, what's the use of talking about these.

One side is innocence, and the other side is mother's life.

How else could he choose?

Seeing this, Meng Zezhi suddenly shot out a bright light in his eyes, he immediately stepped forward two steps, and directly hugged Xu Chuzhi who was on the verge of falling.

Xu Chuzhi did not resist as expected, but closed his eyes as if accepting his fate.

Meng Zezhi laughed loudly, and walked straight into the room with the man in his arms.

When he got there, he threw him on the bed and jumped on him.

He arched and arched Xu Chuzhi's body, and the clothes on Xu Chuzhi's body quickly became messy, and the flagpole under him stood up honestly, but there was no reaction at all.

"Why, you don't want to?" Meng Zezhi stood up straight, with a bad tone.

Xu Chuzhi's eyes were closed tightly, tears flowed down the corners of his eyes onto the pillow, and blood was already bleeding from the corners of his mouth.

"Forget it," Meng Zezhi said with a dispirited look, "I'm not interested in rape | corpses, so I'll let you go today."

Unexpectedly, Meng Zezhi let him go like this, Xu Chuzhi was stunned for a moment.

In the next second, strong gratitude and an inexplicable emotion came to his heart.

There was a rustling sound next to him, and he subconsciously held his breath.

Then, the lights went out.

After an unknown amount of time, Xu Chuzhi carefully opened his eyes listening to the soothing sound of breathing in his ear, and then boldly turned his head to see that Meng Zezhi had fallen asleep under another quilt.

His heart fell completely, but soon he fell into the abyss of despair.

You can hide for a while, but you can't hide for a lifetime.

Meng Zezhi would not let him go.

Xu Chuzhi thought that he would not be able to fall asleep, but in fact, maybe it was because the bed was too warm, or because he hadn't closed his eyes for several days and was extremely tired.

In short, it didn't take long before he fell into a deep sleep.

Meng Zezhi suddenly opened his eyes.

He reached out and lifted the quilt from Xu Chuzhi's body, dug him out, and put him in his own quilt.

When he stretched out his hand to cover the quilt, Xu Chuzhi had already found a comfortable position in his arms with ease, buried his head and continued to sleep soundly.

It is conceivable that when Xu Chuzhi woke up the next morning, he found himself lying in Meng Zezhi's arms in a daze.

Meng Zezhi narrowed his (eyes) sharply: "I didn't force you to do this. You crawled into my bed by yourself last night."

Xu Chuzhi was struck by lightning.

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