In the early morning, many scholars from Huguo Temple who came to eat at the stalls were attracted by some childish shouts.
Many children who have just turned ten years old carry a huge cloth bag on their chest, almost half a person tall, filled with newspapers. It looks like a lot but is not heavy, as can be seen from their fast steps.
"Bianliang Daily, Bianliang Daily, folk current affairs, beautiful articles, wonderful storybooks, commercial advertisements, everything is available, and they only cost five cents each."
Song Wenyan is a son of a wealthy family in Suzhou. Like Su Shi, he came to Bianliang to participate in the scientific examination. He did not come as early as Su Shi. He came to Bianliang City on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year and has only lived in Bianliang for 20 days.
.
Because of his wealthy family, he did not choose to live in Huguo Temple, but rented a small house by himself.
The house is only about 20 square meters in size, but fortunately it is transparent from both sides. Sunlight often shines in, so it doesn't feel cold.
Like an ordinary student, he studies hard every day just to have a chance to be called in the Donghua Gate.
As usual, he went out to have some breakfast and then came back to continue reading.
As soon as he went out, he heard a child shouting "Bianliang Daily". He didn't care about the others. When he heard Jinxiu's article, he immediately became interested, called the child over, and asked: "Young man, what are you talking about?"
Is the beautiful article about it true?"
Maybe business came to the door, and the boy selling newspapers smiled happily.
He can get one penny for selling a newspaper. He has sold a lot before. He can still hear the sound of copper coins clanking together in his pocket when running. In just half an hour, he has earned more than ten pence.
It is almost more than his father earns in one day.
There were not many newspapers left in the cloth bag on his chest. He thought that after selling this newspaper, he would go to the Xinhua Bookstore to get some more newspapers to sell.
The young man selling the newspaper smiled and said: "Don't dare to deceive me. You should have heard of Mr. Su Shi, a talented man from Meizhou. A few days ago, many of his poems were published, and each one was highly sought after by everyone, including the sisters in the building.
I can't put it down when I read Su Shi's words. The article in this newspaper was written by him and his brother Su Che. Articles like this can't be considered beautiful articles."
Song Wenyan had already heard of Su Shi's talent and reputation when he was in Suzhou. After coming to Bianliang, Su Shi's reputation became even more popular.
Especially the four poems that appeared in Chunyulu, he must read them every day, and they still have a fragrance on his lips and teeth. Now that he thinks about it, he still regards Su Shi and Lu Yao as heavenly beings. How could there be such talented people in the world, as if they were banished to immortals?
.
How could he not read the articles written by Su Shi?
"Young man, how do you sell this newspaper?" Song Wenyan asked.
The young man took out a newspaper with four sheets from the bag. The size of this newspaper was similar to that of later generations. "A copy only costs five copper coins, which is very cheap."
Song Wenyan held the newspaper in his hand and felt a little surprised.
The paper of newspapers is definitely a little worse than that of books, but it is paper after all. The price of the paper alone is more than five cents, let alone the densely printed words on it.
And the young man said that he only sold it for five cents. Isn't this a loss-making business? Who is doing a good deed here?
"Really five cents?" Song Wenyan asked again.
The young man nodded, "Sir, why did I lie to you? You see, the newspapers in my bag are almost sold out, and they are all sold for five cents. If you don't believe it, you can ask others. A family on the corner of this street just sold it.
Bought a copy.”
Song Wenyan doubtfully gave the boy five cents.
After the young man put the money in his pocket, he was about to run away, but was stopped by Song Wenyan, "Since Su Shi has an article, does Mr. Lu have any new works in the newspaper?"
The one who is more famous than Su Shi is Lu Yao. Since those few lyrics, Lu Yao has no new works, which makes countless students feel regretful. If this newspaper can publish Lu Yao's works, it will be impossible.
Better.
The young man turned around and said with a smile: "The Xinhua Bookstore that sells newspapers is opened by Mr. Lu. The three chapters in the newspaper were written by Mr. Lu. If you are interested, you can take a look."
After Song Wenyan got the newspaper, he didn't even eat breakfast, hurried home, sat in front of the desk and began to read Su Shi's articles carefully.
When he saw the Dream of Red Mansions written by Lu Yao, he was immediately attracted, and the story of Jia's family appeared in his mind.
When he came to his senses, it was almost noon, and he had to sigh, "Master Lu is really a talented person."
Finally, he saw an advertisement that said, 'Big discount for the opening of Xinhua Bookstore, book prices start at 20 yuan.'
"Twenty cents!" Song Wenyan sat up from his chair in shock. Why book only sold for twenty cents? He had to go to Xinhua Bookstore to check it out.
There are many people like Song Wenyan.
Selling a book for ten cents is really shocking. Could it be that Lu Yao thought that his family had too much money and wanted to be a boy who spread money around?
Regardless of whether they had money or not, these literati rushed to Xinhua Bookstore. Everyone wanted to see what the book looked like.
Some people like the popular news in it, such as, 'A house was robbed, and the crime was committed by a brother.', 'Shocked! A man and a woman actually did such a thing in broad daylight.'
There are also some storytellers who saw business opportunities after getting the newspapers, gave up their previous speeches, and talked about the Red Mansion in restaurants.
Two brothers, Lu Yao and Su Shi, were sitting in the Jiuzhongxian Restaurant opposite Xinhua Bookstore. They sat by the window and could see the bookstore when they raised their heads.
Next to them sat a chattering Pan Wen, blaming Lu Yao for being so ungrateful. He didn't even ask him to go out to play with him yesterday. He also worked hard to look after the restaurant for Lu Yao. He was really unhappy.
Lu Yao covered his ears and looked at the crowded bookstore. He was glad that he was not in the store at the moment. Seeing how busy the bookstore clerks were, he knew how tired he was.
And if he were in a bookstore, there would definitely be countless questions waiting for him. How could he be as comfortable as drinking and eating food now.
Su Shi sighed: "There is only one line of small characters in the newspaper about the book price, but it can attract so many people. It shows how big the impact of the book price is, and the impact on the court will not be small. Officials
My family will definitely come to you for this matter."
Lu Yao drank half a sip of the 30% white wine from his restaurant and looked slightly tipsy. He still felt that this medium-alcohol wine was the best, not intoxicating but just tipsy.
He smiled and said: "Whether the official is looking for me, I happen to have something to give him. The cellar at home is almost full, so I want to send something to the palace."
Lu Yao underestimated the profit from the lottery. For more than half a month, several warehouses and cellars were filled with copper coins, and there was no place to put the money anymore.
Having too much money is also a worry. He still misses the paper money of later generations. Just carrying a few coins on his body is enough for spending. But now, he has to carry a small half bag of copper coins every time he goes out. If he buys big items, he has to bring a special servant with him.
Carrying money.
When the time comes, he wants to introduce banknotes as well.
There is an endless stream of people in the bookstore, and everyone who enters the bookstore buys a few books.
Because they are cheap, a few books don't cost much, and they found that the quality of the books in Xinhua Bookstore is better than the books at home. The paper is as white as gelatin and the fonts are also very novel.
The cheapest ones are the Analects of Confucius and The Doctrine of the Mean, which only sell for twenty copies. The most expensive ones are the Records of the Stone printed overnight by Lu Yao.
However, there are too many words in "The Story of the Stone", but the font used is very small. It is impossible to print only seventy-five characters on one page like the Analects of Confucius. Instead, it is printed in a font one size larger than that of a newspaper. That's it, "The Story of the Stone"
The entire book is twice as thick as The Analects of Confucius.
It was also thanks to Lu Yao who stayed up late to copy the book that he contributed half of the Dream of Red Mansions.
In the past few days, Lu Yao has not only printed these books, but also printed enlightenment books such as "The Practical Application of Punctuation Marks", "Primary School Mathematics", "Three Character Classic" and "Disciple Rules".
He didn't expect that the most popular item was the storybook, which was sold out as soon as it was put on the shelves.
Gradually, many people also turned their attention to these enlightenment books. For a time, the popularity of enlightenment books was not inferior to that of Huaben. There were also many people outside the bookstore shouting for increased prices to buy them.
On the other hand, there are still many Analects and Zhongyong on the bookshelf, mainly because they already have these books at home and there is no need to buy another one.
Lu Yao was not originally prepared for these literati children. What he wanted to sell most was the children of poor families.
He found the children selling newspapers in the villages outside Bianliang City. Most of them came from poor families and could hardly afford to eat.
Lu Yao gave profits to these children in order to reduce the number of poor families and at least to feed some of them first.
When Lu Yao, Su Shi and others were chatting happily, the waiter from the restaurant hurried over and whispered to Lu Yao: "My boss, there is someone looking for you downstairs."
"Who?" Lu Yao asked.
No one should know that he was hiding in his restaurant, so why would someone come to his door?
The guy shook his head and said, "I don't know him! He's just an old man."
"Old man?" Lu Yao was even more confused. The oldest person he knew was Bao Zheng, and Bao Zheng was not an old man. Who was this person? Could it be that he was evil?
In the Northern Song Dynasty, when Confucianism was everywhere, the etiquette, benevolence, and filial piety in the book were the most important. Even if Lu Yao didn't want to see the old man in his heart, it was necessary to respect the old man, not to mention the old man visiting the house in person.
"Go and ask him to come up quickly. No, I will go down to greet him personally."
Before Lu Yao could get up, he heard someone say: "I can just go upstairs by myself. You might as well welcome me in person from County Lu."
Seeing the gray hair of the visitor, Lu Yao knew that the person was old and needed help when walking, which showed that he was not in good health.
Lu Yao didn't know this person, but Su Shi did!
After seeing the old man's face, Su Shi was so frightened that he woke up from drinking. Together with Su Che, he saluted to the old man and shouted respectfully: "I have seen Master Hu."
The person who came was Hu Ai, a direct lecturer of Taixue. He was the founder of Taixue. He was known as one of the three gentlemen in the early Song Dynasty. Even the officials were polite when they saw him.
He was also the only person who could write a memorial in three provinces and send it directly to Zhao Zhen.
His status in the literary world is not low.
Seeing Su Shi's salute, Lu Yao also bowed to Hu Ai and called him Master Hu.