Chapter 6: Using Remaining Money to Buy Firewood

As the howling head fell off, the screaming immediately stopped. However, a ferocious face still glared at Li Si with resentment.

“Low-level ghost creature—Walking Corpse killed. Gained 2 soul points.”

Li Si pondered briefly, recalling the earlier information that said the contract required 2 points, and now he had gained 2 points. This indicated that the soul points needed for contracts and those gained from killing were the same.

This jiangshi that had been killed was probably a recently animated corpse, so it was very weak and couldn’t compare to the Beheaded Ghost. That’s why even in his weakened state, Li Si was able to chop off its head.

At this moment, the bystanders who had witnessed the jiangshi’s howling and Li Si’s decisive beheading gathered around.

“Young Master Li is truly a divine person.”

“So impressive. I secretly saw Young Master Li punch the fox spirit away earlier. He’s truly accomplished in both literary and martial arts.”

“Who would have thought Young Master Li had the ability to subdue demons.”

“Indeed, scholars possess righteous qi that repels evil spirits.”

“Fortunately, Young Master Li drove away the fox spirit and subdued the jiangshi. Otherwise, who knows how many people would have suffered misfortune.”

…

The onlookers immediately burst into discussion, with words of amazement, fear, and praise.

Seeing the crowd’s admiration and praise, even Li Si felt his face grow hot.

So he cupped his hands and interrupted, “Everyone, I have broken the evil energy of this jiangshi, but it might still revive. We’d better burn it today. Is there anyone who can help me burn this corpse?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the young man who had handed Li Si the chopping knife earlier stepped forward with a few others. He cupped his hands towards Li Si and said, “Leave this matter to us. We sell firewood for a living, and we can use today’s firewood to burn this corpse.”

Li Si handed the chopping knife back to him, then took out the remaining twenty or so copper coins from his sleeve and gave them to the young man, saying, “This money is compensation for you. Consider it as me buying that firewood.”

“How can we accept this? Sir, you have already done us a great favor by vanquishing evil for us. We’re just providing some firewood. How could we take your money?” The young man immediately refused when he saw Li Si offering money.

Li Si didn’t say much more. He directly put the money into the young man’s hand and said with a smile, “I’m alone, and this money isn’t of much use to me. But you have families to support. How can you work a whole day for nothing? If it’s not enough, come to my house for more.”

“It’s enough, it’s enough. Thank you so much.” The young man suddenly felt a sense of dying for a confidant, with tears almost coming out of his eyes.

Life wasn’t easy for people in this world. Many struggled greatly just for a meal. It was the first time they had met someone of Li Si’s status who understood their hardships.

“A real man shouldn’t act like a little girl,” Li Si said with a laugh. Then he cupped his hands to the crowd and said, “I have other matters to attend to, so I’ll take my leave. Oh, there’s one thing I’d like to inform everyone about, and I hope you can spread the word. This afternoon at the hour of Monkey (3-5 pm), I’ll be giving lessons at my home. If you have young children, you can bring them to my house for enlightenment.”

Li Si felt there wasn’t much to do here. If he were on Earth, he could play on his phone, browse Weibo, or play games. But here, there really weren’t any entertainment activities.

As for the “special” entertainment activities here, Li Si indicated he wasn’t that kind of person. Well, mainly for the sake of his life safety. What if yang essence had a suppressing effect on ghosts? For example, what if children’s urine could ward off evil?

So Li Si wanted to use his spare time to teach the local children, indulging his desire to be a teacher.

Seeing that everyone agreed, Li Si turned to go home. With no money in hand, his plan for an extra meal today was ruined. However, there was still some cured meat sent by Butcher Yu at home. He could go back and make some cured meat to tide himself over.

Lost in thought, he soon arrived home. He realized that this transmigration was actually profitable for him. In his original world, he was also without parents, growing up in an orphanage. Although he was diligent, often winning scholarships and doing part-time jobs while studying, he never had much savings. Most of the money went towards tuition fees.

Now, he had a two-bedroom house with a living room and a fairly large courtyard. He had become a homeowner. Moreover, the original owner had a hundred taels of silver. One tael of silver was equivalent to 1000 copper coins. Given that 1 copper coin had a purchasing power of about 0.5 yuan, a hundred taels of silver was roughly equivalent to 50,000 yuan. For someone like him who previously had savings of less than 10,000, this was quite a windfall.

It was just a pity that the house had some leaks and needed repairs. But thinking again, Li Si felt he could find someone to fix it tomorrow. Today was busy, and the sun was strong, not looking like it would rain.

He still needed to do some morning exercises to train his body. This body was really too weak.

Back home, Li Si went to the backyard, first taking off his long robe and changing into more comfortable clothes. Then he did some stretching exercises before starting to run around the backyard.

After just a few laps, Li Si felt his body couldn’t take it anymore. He started walking, but after not long, he couldn’t walk anymore and sat down on a stone step.

After resting for a while, Li Si started running again. After a short run, he began walking again, then stopped to rest. After resting enough, he continued running. This cycle repeated for about an hour until he finally couldn’t run anymore.

Finally, enduring the fatigue, he did some stretching exercises and massaged his few muscles.

Looking at the sun, it was already noon. Li Si walked to the kitchen door, took down a piece of cured meat, went to the big vat, and used a gourd ladle to wash off the dust on the surface of the meat. Then he went into the kitchen and used a kitchen knife to slice the cured meat.

He then arranged the cured meat on a plate and sprinkled some finely ground chili powder on top.

While sprinkling the chili powder, Li Si felt grateful that this place had chili peppers. Otherwise, he wouldn’t know how to get through future days. It’s worth noting that in the world he came from, chili peppers were only introduced at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Before that, it was impossible to eat chili peppers.

Li Si then washed the rice, put it on a plate, and added the appropriate amount of clean water.

He washed the pot with water, then poured clean water into the bottom, placed a steamer rack above the water, and put the prepared rice and cured meat on the rack.

Covering the pot, Li Si took some wood from under the eaves at the kitchen door and entered the kitchen. He stuffed some wood into the stove, leaving some space between the pieces, then used the chopping knife to cut some fuzzy wood strips from a piece of wood.

Li Si took out a fire striker, shook it a few times, and a flame appeared. He placed the flame on the fuzzy part of the wood strip, lit it, and stuffed it into the stove. Soon, the wood caught fire.

After doing all this, Li Si sat down on the steps at the kitchen door.

“It’s really lonely,” Li Si sighed. He had come to this world without anyone to talk to. The original owner was also someone who liked to stay at home reading classics. He didn’t have many friends outside and, although he got along well with neighbors, there weren’t deep relationships.

Thinking about reading, Li Si got up and walked towards a room opposite the bedroom. This was originally where the original owner’s parents lived. After his parents passed away, the original owner had converted this room into a study.
He hadn’t fully absorbed the original owner’s memories, so it was necessary to look at some books to understand the situation in this world.