Chapter 21: Each Takes What They Need

  Two officers were searching the yard, what could they find? It wasn't that they didn't think of searching the pond, but rather they thought it was unnecessary. Li Wenjun had been summoned by Zhou Weizhou and given a book, after which someone had been keeping an eye on him at all times, without seeing him throw anything into the pond.

  The police searched until the second half of the night, but they didn't find anything at Li Wenjun's place. The two men reported back to Wu Xuemei truthfully, and she had a frosty expression on her face. A man in black whispered something to her quietly.

  Wu Xue Mei pointed to the dictionary on the stone table and said, "Li Wen Jun, the head of the hospital has always been my idol. He personally gave me this set of dictionaries, I like it very much, can you give it to me?"

  Wu Xuemei's phoenix eyes flashed with a determined light, and Li Wenjun dared not utter half a word. She would not only rob him by force but also let Li Wenjun taste the skills of this county magistrate's daughter.

  Li Wenjun had no idea that there was such a thing as a dictionary in the world, but now he knows and doesn't care about this set of dictionaries anymore. He said with a smile: "Miss, if you like it, just take it."

  Wu Xue Mei waved her hand and a bailiff stepped forward, collecting all the dictionaries without exception.

  Wu Xue Mei looked at Li Wen Jun with a gaze as if looking at an ant, disdainfully slanting her eyes and spoke in a tone used to address an inferior: "Li Wen Jun, remember this, from now on no matter what the Institute Head gives you, you must bring it to me first. If you dare to hide anything from me, I'll have my father throw you into prison, got it?"

  "Yes, I remember." Li Wenjun was willing to cooperate more at this moment. He just wanted to get rid of Wu Xuemei, the female plague god, as soon as possible.

  Wu Xue Mei nodded in satisfaction and led the crowd away with a flourish.

  Wu Yiming took out a silver ingot, weighing ten taels, and placed it on the stone table. He said to Li Wenjun with some embarrassment: "Sorry, Brother Li, please buy another set of dictionaries."

  Just as Li Wenjun had sent away several plague gods and closed the gate, he sat down at the stone table to catch his breath when someone else knocked on his family's gate.

  Li Wenjun opened the gate, and one of the two bailiffs from earlier returned. He stretched out his large hand towards Li Wenjun and said: "Youngster, hand over the silver that Second Young Master gave you earlier."

  Li Wenjun stepped aside, making way for the constable. He pointed to the stone table and said, "The silver is over there, I haven't had a chance to put it away yet. Constable sir, if you want it, take it."

  The official burst out laughing and said: "Young man, you're quite straightforward. I won't make things difficult for you."

  He took the silver ingot in his hand and then took out a string of copper coins from his pocket and threw it on the stone table, saying: "You take this string of copper coins to find that junk collector, you can also buy a set of dictionaries."

  After finishing speaking, the official put the silver in his bosom and walked away with a happy smile.

  Li Wenjun secretly shook his head, what kind of master there is, what kind of servant there is. This Wu Xue Mei and the yamen runners are not good people, it's not easy for him to conflict with them now.

  Although he had killed wolves and old Dao, he had never confronted a strong adult man head-on. If he really fought with the county magistrate, he would be at a disadvantage eight or nine times out of ten. Losing was minor, but the key was that it wasn't worth offending Wu Xue Mei for a set of dictionaries. Li Wen Jun still needed to keep his useful life, and go learn the immortal family's skills, there was no need to conflict with the county magistrate before he learned them.

  The next day, Sun Jianing and his mother came to see Li Wenjun. The two of them inquired about what had happened the night before, and after confirming that Li Wenjun was safe and sound, they also felt at ease.

  San Shan Academy is no longer an option, Li Wenjun starts to consider whether he should take out the old Daoist's book and start learning its contents. However, without a dictionary at hand, Li Wenjun is somewhat hesitant to learn, fearing that if he encounters unfamiliar characters or phrases, he might misinterpret them and get into trouble.

  Li Wenjun thought for a moment and decided to stroll around the county town to see if he could find any bookstores that sold Tai Zu dictionaries.

  For the time being, Li Wenjun did not intend to leave the county seat of Sanshan County. If he left now, Wu Xue Mei might mistakenly think that he was guilty and if Wu Xue Mei found someone to throw him into the county yamen's big prison, he would be skinned alive.

  Taking everything into consideration, it's still safer to stay in the county town of Sanshan for the time being. Moreover, if he can learn the immortal family techniques from Lao Dao here, Wu Xue Mei will think twice before making a move on him again. If she really pushes him to desperation, he can just throw a fireball and burn her to death first.

  Of course, now he can't compare with the power controlled by County Master Wu Tao and his family, let alone resist.

  The news that Sanshan Academy is going to be dissolved has spread, and Sun Jianing will no longer attend school. He plans to stay at home to take care of his injured father, and in the future, he may have to bear the burden of supporting his family.

  Li Wenjun called Sun Jianing and asked him to accompany himself in the county town, looking for a place where he could get a dictionary of Tai Zu.

  The county town of Sanshan is not very big, seven miles east and west, five miles south and north. The whole county has only one bookstore. Li Wenjun went to the bookstore and found that there was no Taizu Zidian for sale.

  According to the owner of the bookstore, a set of Tai Zu Dictionary costs ten taels just for the purchase price, and after adding transportation fees and other costs, they usually sell for around fifteen taels. Such expensive books are unaffordable for most people in San Shan County, and those who can afford it may not necessarily need them, so they don't stock up on them.

  The owner of the bookstore asked Li Wenjun if he wanted it, and if so, he could help him buy a set, but he needed Li Wenjun to pay five taels of silver as a deposit first.

  Five taels of silver is absolutely not a small sum for a young man like Li Wenjun. The principle of not revealing one's wealth, Li Wenjun still knew, he was hesitating whether to accept or not when a scholar walked in.

  "Boss, do you buy used books here?" The scholar shouted as soon as he entered.

  "Lü Xiūcái, you're selling books again? Can't afford to open the pot at home?" asked the bookstore owner.

  The scholar smiled wryly and nodded, saying: "My wife is pregnant with her sixth child, and she's always yelling that she's hungry, eating up all the grain in our home. I have no other choice but to sell my books."

  The owner of the bookstore patted his head and said, "I remembered, Lü Xiūcái, your family has a set of Tai Zu Dictionary, right? It just so happens that this young man needs it. That book is just for show, can't be eaten, you might as well sell it to him. I'll just take a commission."

  Lü Xiūcái was also desperate, as long as he could make some money to buy rice and grains, he would do anything. "Young man, are you looking for a copy of the Tai Zu Dictionary? The set at my home is an heirloom from our ancestors, it's almost new, if you like it, I'll sell it to you for one or two silver coins."

  "I'll take a look at that set of Tai Zu dictionaries first, if it's really as you said, 80% new and in perfect condition, then I'll buy it." Li Wenjun said.

  "Alright, come with me."

  Lü Xiūcái led Lǐ Wénjùn and Sūn Jiāníng to his home, took out a set of Taizu Zidian from the bookshelf, and there was a layer of dust on the dictionary. It could be seen that Lü Xiūcái hadn't browsed it for a long time.

  Lü Xiūcái patted the dust off and handed the dictionary to Li Wénjùn with a sly smile.

  This dictionary is indeed 70-80% new, with some signs of browsing on it. When opened, Li Wenjun found that on the blank pages of the dictionary, there were also some notes written in tiny characters.

  Li Wenjun read a note and immediately decided to buy this set of Tai Zu dictionaries. He took out two taels of silver and handed them over to Lü Xiūcái.

  Lü Xiūcái hadn't expected Li Wénjùn to give him one or two more silver coins, and he was extremely grateful.

  Li Wenjun did not expect that two taels of silver could buy a complete set of Taizu Zidian, and what made him even more delighted was that this dictionary had many annotations, all left by Lu Xiuchai's ancestors, which were re-explanations of some words and sentences on the dictionary, and by cross-referencing these explanatory texts with the words and sentences on the dictionary, he could better understand the meanings of the characters.

  For Li Wenjun who has just learned more than 2,000 characters, this is indeed the most suitable set of toolbooks.

  Taking the dictionary, he returned home with Sun Jianning. Immediately, he didn't rush to get out the things he had hidden, but instead went to the horse market and bought a big dog to guard the house. He also spent some time building a kennel for the dog.

  Having a dog can largely eliminate the hidden danger of someone secretly peeping or sneaking into his house.

  Afterwards, Li Wenjun spent several more days secretly observing the surroundings of his residence and did not discover anyone secretly monitoring him. This could be because there was fundamentally no one monitoring him or it is also possible that the methods of those secretly monitoring him were too high-level, exceeding the scope of what Li Wenjun could handle.

  In comparison, Li Wenjun was more inclined to believe the former. The only one who might be monitoring him is Wu Xuemei. Last time, he let Wu Xuemei search his home inside and out, and even took away all the dictionaries given by his ancestors that were sent to him. There's nothing here that would make Wu Xuemei pay attention, unless she was overly suspicious, otherwise, she wouldn't waste her time and energy on him again.

  This day, Li Wenjun got up from bed after a good sleep, washed and ate, and after everything was ready, he took out the package he had hidden and took out both books.

  Li Wenjun can now recognize more than 2,000 characters. This time, he spread out two books and scanned them briefly before reading out the titles of both books. The first book was called "Changchun Gong" and the second book was called "Xiuxian Zalun".

  Li Wenjun recalled that night, when he eavesdropped on Sixth Brother and Old Seventh's conversation, they mentioned "cultivation" more than once. He didn't think much of it and decided to read "Miscellaneous Discussions on Cultivation" first.

  Li Wenjun opened the book and read it from cover to cover, carefully looking at every word. When he came across a character he didn't recognize, he would open up the Tai Zu Dictionary to look up its pronunciation and meaning.