When Zhao Hao had shaken enough, Li Zhi pulled out his hand without leaving a trace, wiped it on his back, then looked at him vigilantly and said:

"If we share the same values, we share the same heart. If we share the same heart, we share the same principles. How does Dr. Zhao know that I share the same values ​​with you?"

"Uh..." Zhao Hao then realized that he was so excited that he lost his composure.

After all, at that time Li Zhi was just an ordinary university teacher struggling to make a living. He had not yet stepped onto the podium in Jinling to spread his shocking and heretical ideas throughout the world.

Naturally, I don’t know how famous I will be in a dozen years, nor do I know how bright a star I will become in the long river of history.

I don't know what kind of expectations and trust Zhao Hao's "comrade" contains...

Let us start a great friendship from now on!

He asked Qiaoqiao to make some more tea, and sat down on the floor opposite Li Zhi. After greeting each other again, he smiled and asked:

"Dr. Li, what are you doing here?"

"I want to go up to the sky and take a look." Li Zhi said with a dry laugh.

"I don't believe you have the leisure and elegance to do so." Zhao Hao shook his head decisively.

Li Zhi's face changed when he heard this. He first looked at Zhang Jian who was serving beside him, but then he realized that he had never mentioned his family situation to Zhang Jian.

"How did you know?" Li Zhi became alert again. At his age, after going through so many hardships, he would not be as gullible as young people in believing in the kindness of the world.

"I just know it." Zhao Hao smiled faintly, almost choking Li Zhi to death.

"But how do I know this? Is it important?" Zhao Hao thought to himself, it would be strange if I could explain it clearly.

"Uh..." Li Zhi frowned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "It's really not important."

"So what is your real purpose?" Zhao Hao asked slowly.

"Okay, I admit, I'm not interested in science at all. I just want to see if I can get some money from you."

"After all, people have to be full to study science, right?" Li Zhi spread his hands and said truthfully, "My whole family is hungry."

Originally, several of Zhao Hao's disciples wanted to come over to join in the fun, but when they heard what was said, they hid far away.

Who has nothing better to do than to make himself unhappy? Uh, Master, we are not talking about you.

~~

Zhao Hao knew that Li Zhi was in a very miserable situation at this time.

His family was originally wealthy businessmen in Quanzhou.

You guessed it correctly, it’s a maritime merchant.

Then when the Japanese invasion broke out, the Quanzhou Maritime Customs was closed and the Ming Dynasty imposed a maritime ban.

Not all sea merchants have the guts to continue smuggling. Moreover, even if you have the guts, you have to have the skills to do it, otherwise you will just be delivering food to others.

So the days in Old Li's family were like Wang Xiaoer's New Year, and each year was worse than the last.

By the time of Li Zhi's father's generation, they were extremely poor and could barely make ends meet. It was not until the ancestors' graves began to smoke that Li Zhi passed the imperial examination.

However, the Li family’s hard days were not over yet. After Li Zhi passed the imperial examination, he failed the imperial examinations twice in a row.

With a large family to feed and his younger brothers and sisters not yet married, Li Zhi had no choice but to take the exam. He gritted his teeth and signed up for the imperial examination at the Ministry of Personnel. As a result, he was appointed as a teacher in Huixian County, Henan Province.

Huixian was a poor place, and the teachers' salaries were pitifully low, so the Li family's financial situation did not improve at all.

It was not until five years later that he was promoted to Doctor of the Nanjing Imperial College because of his outstanding teaching.

Li Zhi happily took up his post. Although Nanjing was no longer a political center, it was still the richest city in the world. In particular, the students in the Nanjing Imperial College were all children from wealthy families who paid donations to enter the school.

I heard that these people would give gifts to teachers during festivals and before exams, and they would not have to worry about their livelihood just relying on this gray income.

However, his bad luck had just begun.

Just a few months after arriving in Nanjing, Li Zhi received the obituary of his father's death, so he had to resign and return home to mourn.

There was no income during the period of mourning, and Quanzhou was in trouble with Japanese pirates at that time. Li Zhi participated in the anti-Japanese war while running around for the livelihood of dozens of people in his family. Not only was he exhausted, but he also owed a lot of debts.

After three years of mourning, Li Zhi brought his wife and children to Beijing to wait for the vacancy. This wait lasted another ten months. By this time, he was extremely poor, and his second son died young.

But fate did not stop playing tricks on him. After Li Zhi had finally waited for a doctoral position at the Imperial College in Beijing to become vacant, news of his grandfather's death came again...

Because his father was gone, Li Zhi had to mourn for his father. He had no choice but to leave office as soon as he took office, just like he did three years ago. But this time, Li Zhi had no money to return home with his wife and children, so he had to divide the "condolence money" given by his fellow townsmen in Beijing into two parts, one for his wife. Let her take the children back to Huixian to buy a piece of land to live, and the rest for his return home to pay for the funeral.

Three years later, when Li Zhi ended his mourning period and rushed back to Huixian to reunite with his family, he learned that Henan had suffered a famine in recent years and his second and third daughters had died of poverty and illness.

The successive blows almost destroyed the family. Li Zhi, feeling deeply guilty, took his wife and children back to Beijing and continued to teach at the Imperial Academy...

"The court ran out of money and we haven't received any salary for several months..." Li Zhi sighed in frustration and smiled bitterly at Zhao Hao, "And when I arrived at the Imperial College, I realized that although students did give gifts, they were all given to the officials who controlled their fate, such as the Dean of Education and the Secretary. No one was willing to waste a penny on doctors like us who only taught and did not do anything."

He pointed at Zhang Jian and said, "This kid is an exception, but he is also poor and can't even support himself."

"I didn't know the doctor's family was in such a difficult situation." Zhang Jian couldn't help but look apologetic.

He was no longer the poor man he was when he became a disciple last year. He had saved two to three thousand taels of silver from various rewards from his master. Moreover, his master had rewarded him with five thousand taels of silver for making the "Drain King". In addition, he had an income of one hundred taels of silver a month as the technical director of Xishan Coal Industry. He was already a real rich man.

Zhang Jian was a grateful person. If he had known that Li Zhi's family was so poor, he would definitely help them.

Li Zhi waved his hands and sighed, "If it weren't for your master telling the truth, I wouldn't have said these things."

As he said this, he looked at Zhao Hao and said, "The reason I came to see Dr. Zhao is because I first heard that you are rich."

"Well, I'm very rich." Zhao Hao nodded.

"Second, I think you need my help." Then Li Zhi continued, "I know you have recruited many students, all of whom are here for the imperial examination, but your science obviously has nothing to do with the imperial examination..."

Zhao Hao couldn't help but blush when he heard this. Li Zhi is a wise man.

Li Zhi was certainly a wise man. There was no one in the Ming Dynasty who could see things more clearly than him.

"You may be good at the imperial examination or not, but no matter whether you are good or not, I believe that human power is limited. You should focus on teaching things that no one else can teach, and leave things that others can teach to others."

Li Zhi said, looking at Zhao Hao with a clear gaze, "For example, me."

ps. Chapter 4, please give me monthly tickets and recommendation tickets~~~~