After Tang Ji left the Jianghai Chamber of Commerce, he walked around the market and bought many decorations. Finally, he walked into a small building on the main street of Beicheng and greeted the delivery guys with a smile: "Can you please help me?"
Put things on the table."
The guys put the goods in the designated places according to his instructions.
After a while, Tang Ji stood in the middle of the small building, stretched out, and looked around. He saw that both sides were filled with long bookshelves and bookcases.
None.
There was a brand new counter in front of him, and diagonally behind the counter was a wooden staircase leading to the second floor.
At this moment, a figure walked down from the second floor. After seeing Tang Ji, he quickly came up to him: "The shopkeeper."
"Old Yao, we are all acquaintances. No need to be polite. Where are the people in the store?" Tang Ji waved his hand casually. He was the accountant of the Jianghai Chamber of Commerce. He couldn't stay in the bookstore all the time because we had gotten along for a while before.
Over time, I found that the other party was honest and practical, so I hired Yao Jin from Yue Shuhua.
With a smile on his face, Yao Jin cupped his hands and replied: "They are all cleaning up the quiet room on the second floor. What are the instructions from the shopkeeper?"
Hearing this, Tang Ji nodded. Because the bookstore was large enough, the second floor was simply set up as a private room with good sound insulation effect for guests to read or drink tea and chat. Then he pointed to the decorations on the table and said: "Evening
At some point, let people put up these decorations and hang them up."
"Yes!" Yao Jin responded.
Afterwards, Tang Ji walked around the building again and found nothing unusual, so he planned to go to the backyard to take a look. Unexpectedly, Li Yu suddenly rushed out from behind the curtain leading to the backyard.
He raised his arms, his hands stained dark with ink, and excitedly rushed towards Tang Ji: "Tang Ji, it's amazing!"
Seeing this, Tang Ji quickly turned aside to avoid it, took two steps back, and asked with a look of disgust: "Why are you here?"
"Nonsense, leave the engraving and printing matters to me. Of course I will be responsible to the end. Don't talk so much, I will show you!" At this time, Li Yu seemed to have discovered some new world. He turned back in three steps and urged Tang
Keep up with the season.
Not long after, Tang Ji followed him into the backyard.
The backyard is very large, with a lobby in the front and two small buildings on each side. There are many busy figures in each building.
Tang Ji followed Li Yu into the small building and saw two old masters on the right hand side teaching several middle-aged craftsmen to carve handwriting on the wooden boards, while the printers on the other side began to dye ink for printing.
Li Yu returned to where he was before, took out a piece of clean rice paper and placed it on the ink-soaked engraving, and then lightly brushed it with a brush. Writing appeared on the originally clean rice paper. He quickly raised it to Tang Ji.
, smiled and said: "Look!"
Tang Ji looked indifferent, feeling a little bored, and asked: "Where are the engravings made?"
Li Yu smirked and put the paper on the table aside to dry, pointing to another wooden building and said: "The ones next door are all made of very strong pear wood, so don't worry!"
Then, he turned around and looked at the busy printers behind him, and sighed: "I really admire you. Why did you come up with a method that no one has thought of since ancient times?"
Tang Ji did not answer, but he was sure that as long as culture continued to prosper and develop, printing would be invented sooner or later. He shrugged and replied casually: "What does this mean? Block printing also has flaws, and there will be movable type printing in the future.
!”
After finishing speaking, he found Li Yu stroking his chin with gleaming eyes and thinking about something. Anticipating the other person's next question, he rushed out.
Li Yu quickly came to his senses and was about to ask a question, but found that Tang Ji had disappeared and hurriedly chased him out: "Tang Ji, what is movable type printing?"
...
Tang Ji successfully got rid of Li Yu, got on the carriage and went to Yuexian Tower to pick up Jiang Ran and Jiu'er.
When the carriage drove to a certain street in Nancheng, Tang Ji lifted the curtain and directed Pang Qing. "Uncle Pang, turn right on the fork in front of you."
"Okay." Pang Qing responded, slightly tightening the horse's rope and lowering the speed to make it easier to turn.
In the carriage, Jiu'er stretched out her little hand to pull open the curtains and asked curiously: "Mr. Tang, aren't we going home?"
"I'll do something on the way. It'll be quick." Tang Ji turned around and replied.
"Oh, Jiu'er wants to eat smoothies." The little girl murmured.
Jiang Ran glanced at her, pinched her nose, and said angrily: "You little glutton, didn't you eat yesterday?"
"I want to eat it today too." Jiu'er laughed playfully, quickly took Jiang Ran's arm and started acting coquettishly.
Tang Ji shook his head and added: "Go back and do it for you!"
Hearing this, Jiu'er's eyes lit up and she said sweetly: "Young Master Tang is the best!"
Not long after, the carriage stopped in a quiet alley. Tang Ji and Jiang Ran said hello, got off the carriage and walked straight to a small courtyard at the corner.
When he walked outside, he found that the courtyard door was wide open, and Tang Ji looked inside.
The furnishings and decorations in this small courtyard look a bit old. The window paper of the house has turned yellow and is discolored. There is a dead old tree in front of the house. The path at the feet is covered with moss, but the most conspicuous thing is
There are still plaques of different sizes and styles leaning here and there.
Tang Ji made sure he was looking for the right place, knocked twice on the courtyard door, then stepped in and asked loudly: "Is anyone home?"
Soon, the door to the back room opened, and a short old man wearing gray linen clothes came out. He had a sallow complexion and white hair in his hair. He narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "What's the matter?"
"You must be Senior Wang. Brother Cheng Tie asked me to come to you." Tang Ji explained with cupped hands.
Wang Ruichun nodded in sudden realization and replied: "You must be Mr. Tang. Cheng Tie told me, come in and sit down."
Tang Ji glanced at him and found that the other person still had a carving knife in his hand and a lot of sawdust on his body. Apparently he hadn't finished his work yet. Moreover, he heard that Cheng Tie said that the other person was not good at talking, so he didn't choose to go into the room and took it out from his sleeve.
He handed over a piece of folded rice paper and said with a smile: "Junior has something important to do, so I won't bother senior. These are the words that need to be engraved on the plaque. When the plaque is made, I will thank senior again."
"That's fine." Wang Ruichun took the rice paper, unfolded it, took a look at it, nodded and said, "Okay, I understand."
Just like that, Tang Ji said a few more polite words and turned to leave, only to see a figure hiding outside the door and peeking.
Seeing that he was discovered, Jiu'er turned around and ran away.
Tang Ji returned the same way, got on the carriage, looked at Jiu'er and asked, "Didn't I ask you to wait for me in the carriage?"
"Hmph, who knows if you are secretly doing something bad!" Jiu'er crossed his arms over his chest and stuck out his tongue arrogantly.
"Jiu'er!" Jiang Ran gave her a look to signal her not to talk nonsense, then looked at Tang Ji and asked doubtfully: "Aren't there many craftsmen from Prince You's Palace in the bookstore? Why do you still need to find someone to make the plaque?"
Tang Ji sat down in his seat, coughed twice, and replied: "There are not enough manpower, and of course the making of plaques must be left to professionals!"
Jiang Ran nodded, lightly flipped the ends of his hair, and asked, "What's the name of the bookstore?"
"Keep it secret for now!" Tang Ji blinked and showed a mysterious smile.