flstandardbreds Chapter 126 Lin'an Tabloid
Chapter 126 Lin'an Tabloid
There is no news in the tabloids for the time being, so Lin Xiaoman is not in a hurry.
There are the earthworms dug by Lin Guyu, and the old hens raised last year lay an egg every day.
Some of the twenty chickens and thirty ducks caught this year died, and now there are only eighteen chickens and twenty-eight ducks left, all of which are bigger than Lin Dajiang's palm.
The original chicken coop was not enough, so Lin Dajiang took Lin Jingzhe to cut four or five mangosteens from the mountain, sliced them into thick bamboo strips, sharpened the bottoms, and inserted them into the soil at even distances.
Each bamboo is tied with straw rope to prevent ducks from squeezing out from the middle.
Li Dali's backyard was perfectly utilized by the Lin family, not even leaving out any corner.
Even Li Erli expressed his admiration after seeing it.
The days of waiting are very long.
Because they kept it a secret from their family, Li Taohua and Lin Dajiang had no idea what the twins were doing. They just thought that they were acting strangely recently.
She was acting weird while eating, especially Jingzhe. If she didn't look exactly like her son, she would have suspected that Jingzhe was swapped.
Lin Xiaoman, like Lin Jingzhe, is looking forward to the next ten-day holiday.
I thought it would take another seven or eight days before the ten-day holiday, but who would have thought that after only four or five days, Gu Changsheng would rush over.
When Gu Changsheng arrived, he didn't even have time to drink a sip of water before rushing to Xie's house.
The four of them sat in Xie Ci'an's study, looking at the purse on the desk.
Except for Gu Changsheng, the other three looked at each other, obviously shocked by so much silver.
Gu Changsheng said with joy, "At first, we didn't dare to print more, so we only printed 200 copies. The 200 copies were placed in a prominent position in the Jixiang Bookstore in Lin'an Prefecture. Because the words in the tabloids were small, it was obviously not enough for the scholar to read all the stories in half an hour. Moreover, the stories were not yet complete, and it said to read the next chapter to know what would happen next."
"Many scholars approached the waiter and the shopkeeper, trying to find out where the tabloid came from. If they couldn't find out the origin, they would ask about the back story."
"Xiao Man, you really have a talent for business. After printing the words in smaller sizes, the tabloid has more content. The scholars can't finish reading the tabloid in the Jixiang Bookstore, so many of them spend a hundred coins to buy the tabloid and go home to read it with three or four friends."
"The tabloid was sold for 100 wen, which was only one-fifth of the price of a piece of rough-edged paper. Seeing that more people were buying it, many scholars followed suit and bought a lot. The first issue of the tabloid, 200 copies, sold out quickly. Later, the bookstore printed 400 more copies, which also sold out quickly. Some students even asked when the second issue would be released."
The two were surprised when they heard Gu Changsheng's story.
Gu Changsheng added: "The tabloid is published every ten days. I will take the story there today. I hope you can come up with the following content quickly."
For the sake of the silver, Lin Xiaoman said without hesitation, "The story of the second chapter has already been written, Changsheng, you can rest assured."
After deducting the money spent on the initial modeling and engraving, and the investment needed to print the tabloid each time, there was still twenty taels of silver left.
Gu Changsheng wanted to divide it equally among the four of them but was stopped by Lin Jingzhe, "I basically didn't contribute anything. The story was all thought up by Ci'an and Xiaoman."
Lin Xiaoman also felt that Gu Changsheng was busy all day and had a hard time. In addition, Gu Changsheng deserved at least half of the credit for the success of the tabloid, and it would be unfair to share it equally among the four of them.
"Brother Changsheng, you contributed the most, so you should take 40%. The remaining 60% will be shared among the three of us."
Xie Ci'an nodded: "Indeed, this division is reasonable."
Gu Changsheng couldn't convince them and had to give up.
He got eight taels of the twenty taels of silver, and the remaining twelve taels were divided among the other three people in proportion.
This time, Gu Changsheng did not wait until the evening to have dinner before leaving. He rushed back to the town with the remaining rough-edged paper before 3 p.m., and hired someone to rush to Lin'an Prefecture overnight to deliver the paper to the bookstore.
The second issue of the tabloid will be published in three days.
-
Early morning three days later.
The bustling Lin'an Prefecture was densely populated and filled with grain ships.
Steam was rising from the breakfast shops along the moat, and the storytellers in the teahouse had already begun to talk incessantly.
The ship unloading workers coming and going were squatting on the stone road beside the moat with bare chests and wearing only short clothes.
Scholars wearing blue gowns and carrying bamboo boxes walked across the stone bridge over the moat. The heated discussions soon disappeared amid the noisy crowd.
"I wonder if that flower demon is good or bad? Did the passing scholar have his yang energy sucked out?"
"The flower demon is also a demon, and must be bad. I wonder if the newly appointed Dali Temple Shaoqing, Lord Mo, has solved the case of the beheaded man in the moat..."
"I wonder if the second issue of Jixiang Bookstore's tabloid has been published? If it has, I'd buy a copy and bring it to the academy."
"You still dare to buy it? Last time you bought one, didn't your father almost chase you through several streets with a stick?"
"Don't mention this kind of embarrassing thing again. My father thought it was another tabloid. Later, I said the tabloid was a court newspaper, and my father stopped talking to me and asked me if I had enough money."
"Brother Wang, it's not good to lie like this, right? Besides, the stories in the tabloids are no different from picture books, and they are of no use to reading."
The scholar called Brother Wang is called Wang Baogen. His father started out as a peddler and has been very lucky along the way. He now runs a grocery store in the back street of Lin'an Prefecture.
Father Wang could not read a single word. He thought that if he could read, he would never run a small grocery store. So he placed high hopes on his only son, Wang Baogen. Since he entered a private school at the age of five, he had been advising him every day, asking him to study hard and inherit the family business in the future. He hoped that he would see his son carry forward the family business in his lifetime.
But reality is often cruel.
Wang Baogen didn't like reading. His favorite thing was the picture books from Jixiang Bookstore. He could read them for a whole day during the ten-day holidays, which made Wang Baogen's father think that his son had reached the point of neglecting food and sleep.
Now I am over seventeen years old, and I have taken the college entrance examination twice, but I failed both times by a few places.
Father Wang always thought that his son was just unlucky in the exam and placed high hopes on him to try again next time.
Wang Baogen no longer had any hope for the imperial examination and only hoped to pass the academy examination and at least become a student. Otherwise, it would be a waste of all the money his father had invested.
As they were talking, several scholars walked to the Jixiang Bookstore.
At this moment, a long queue has formed outside the bookstore.
Wang Baogen saw that something was wrong and hurriedly left his companions and ran to the team.
"Oh, I should have gotten up two hours earlier. I wonder if all the items will be sold out by the time it's my turn?" Wang Baogen muttered to himself in regret, looking up at the situation ahead.
"Brother Wang, why are you running so fast?"
The scholar who came with Wang Baogen walked to the end of the queue, and there were already more than ten people between him and Wang Baogen.
This shows how popular tabloids are.
Seeing that the line was too long, the readers in line came forward to discuss with Wang Baogen, "Brother Wang, after you finish reading the tabloid, can you lend it to us?"
Wang Baogen frowned suddenly.
He carefully kept the previous issue of the tabloid at home, and also checked the sketchbook he had bought before regularly.
He didn't want to lend the tabloid to his classmates from the bottom of his heart.
Since his classmates had said so, he was too embarrassed to refuse. But when he thought about letting his classmates taste the sweetness this time, what should he do if they ask him to borrow tabloids every time in the future?
Just when he was worrying about it, Wang Baogen saw a word "For Rent" posted outside the bookstore next to Jixiang Bookstore. An idea suddenly came to his mind and he thought he could also rent tabloids.
This way, maybe his classmates won't ask him to borrow money anymore.
"Sure, but you have to pay ten copper coins for each viewing, and you have to pay for any damages you cause."
When the other readers heard that they had to pay to borrow the book, they all shook their heads. One of them jumped out and accused Wang Baogen of being greedy for money.
"Brother Wang, how can you be so mercenary? You are a scholar, but you think money is so important. You are really full of money!"
"Brother Wang, the friendship between classmates is so rare, how could you do this?"
Wang Baogen's face turned red after being criticized by his classmates, but he did not think he was wrong. He asked back: "In that case, Brother Xu thinks the queue is too long, this time I will help you queue up to buy the tabloid, and you can lend it to me after you finish reading it~"
The scholar who was mentioned earlier as Wang Baogen was the scholar named Xu.
At this moment, his face turned pale.
He had never thought of buying tabloids. He had read the novels for free in bookstores before. He did not buy the first issue of the tabloids. He borrowed the tabloids from his classmate and read them for two days before returning them.
"This... I don't buy tabloids. They are just as useless to reading as storybooks. You are putting the cart before the horse by reading tabloids!"
The scholar surnamed Xu fled in panic. After he left, another scholar complained: "Brother Xu borrowed a tabloid last time and returned it two days later. One corner of it was stained with oil. It's a pity for my tabloid. I wanted to keep it well."
After this incident, the scholars who originally wanted to read the tabloid for free had nothing to say. Two or three of them chose to queue up to buy newspapers, and four or five scholars made an appointment with Wang Baogen to pay him ten copper coins to read it for two days.
When it was Wang Baogen's turn, he bought two tabloids, one for himself and one to rent to his classmates.
This way your share won't be damaged.
Wang Baogen hurried to the academy. When lunch time came, he didn't bother to eat and directly took out the tabloid to look through it. He found the "Notes of the Dali Temple Shaoqing's Case-Solving" and read it carefully.
The case of the decapitated man in the moat has been solved, and now there is a case of a missing father and daughter who sold themselves to bury their father. The female corpse with her face peeled off under the cliff, could it be the poor woman who sold herself to bury her father?
The case is so confusing that it is hard to guess the ending.
Wang Baogen was still not satisfied after reading it and wished the third issue of the tabloid would go on sale today.
He turned the tabloid and finished reading another article titled "The Horror in the Ancient Temple".
The abbot wearing a cassock, holding a bead, with a kind face and compassion for the world, turned out to be a murderous demon hiding in the thousand-year-old temple. And the martial arts villain Xing Hentian, who is hated by everyone, turned out to be a hero who robs the rich to help the poor and upholds justice!
Wang Baogen didn’t react for a long time after reading it!
Looks good! It's really beautiful!
Compared with these two articles, the previous scholars' counterattacks are nothing but dwarfs and not worth mentioning at all!
You can read the rest of the story slowly. Wang Baogen was about to put the tabloid away when he saw two lines of small words in the corner of the rice paper out of the corner of his eye.
Collecting storybooks?
Having been accustomed to reading stories about scholars and ladies, this was the first time that Wang Baogen read a picture book about suspenseful crime solving.
But once he saw it, he couldn't stop. He felt that the Shaoqing of Dali Temple was too powerful and had solved many strange cases.
Xing Hentian, who feels misunderstood but still firmly upholds justice in his heart, is simply a great chivalrous figure and is worthy of admiration.
Wang Baogen, who was already overwhelmed with emotion after reading the story, also thought that one day he would be able to write such a wonderful story.
-
The third issue of the tabloid was sold, which completely made the Lin'an tabloid famous.
Not only in Lin'an Prefecture, but also in several surrounding counties, the Lin'an tabloids were sold out.
The stories in Lin'an Tabloid are different from those in previous storybooks. The stories in them are unprecedented and they tickle the readers' hearts, making them unable to stop reading.
The teachers in the academy saw that the students did not read serious books but were busy reading tabloids, and they wished they could squat in front of the auspicious bookstore with a teaching stick in their hand every day.
Is it that pretty?
A scholar who didn't believe in superstition bought a Lin'an tabloid and became addicted to it from then on.
On the days when the Lin'an tabloid went on sale at the beginning, middle and end of the month, I would get up early at the sound of roosters crowing, dress neatly and go to the Jixiang Bookstore to queue up.
Every time, the first person to buy the Lin'an tabloid was a teacher at a nearby academy. The shopkeeper would then open a back door and promise to leave a copy for the teacher later.
For a while, there were many customers in front of Jixiang Bookstore, and the business was much better.
When Lin Xiaoman saw the Lin'an tabloid at the Jixiang Bookstore in Dayi Town, he knew that the tabloid had been spread throughout the Lin'an Prefecture.
Fortunately, they found a big backer, otherwise they would just be a few small minions. The better the tabloid sold, the faster they would die.
"Boss, why are there only 20 copies of Lin'an tabloid?"
"Sir, I'm really sorry, Lin'an tabloid is very popular, and our store only managed to grab 20 copies..."
The shopkeeper bowed and nodded to apologize, thinking that next time he met the young master, he would ask him for a few more servings.
-
Just after a month, Gu Changsheng rushed to Shanglin Village with silver again.
This time, the bag containing the silver was carried by Ping'an and Kangtai.
A full two hundred taels of silver.
It was the first time that Lin Xiaoman saw so much cash. Last time, he got silver notes for selling sauerkraut fish and grilled fish recipes. They were so thin that he didn’t feel anything at all.
Now there were twenty silver ingots on the table, almost blinding her eyes.
Lin Jingzhe carefully picked up a silver ingot and touched it again and again, and said with emotion: "I actually made so much money this time? It's really easy to make money as a scholar!"
Gu Changsheng smiled and said, "Don't talk about you. I once wondered why a Lin'an tabloid that costs 100 coins a copy is so popular."
"Even my father was alarmed by us. Originally, I asked him to print a tabloid in the bookstore, and my father agreed to my small-scale plan without hesitation. I didn't expect that there would be such a big move now."
"This is yours." Lin Xiaoman took eight silver ingots and pushed them to Gu Changsheng.
Unexpectedly, Gu Changsheng just smiled and remained unmoved.
He looked at the three people and said, "I have already taken away 40% of the two hundred taels of silver."
Lin Jingzhe's face was filled with shock.
Xie Ci'an's eyes widened instantly.
Lin Xiaoman: “!!!!!!”
I never expected that these twenty silver ingots actually belonged to the three of them!
Lin Xiaoman was so shocked that he couldn't speak and just stood there.
"What are you doing?" Gu Changsheng was amused by his friend's surprised look, and said casually, "There will be so much money every month in the future, won't you be shocked every time?"
In fact, he was even more shocked than they were when he saw the silver.
My father even made fun of me for this.
The son of the richest man in Lin'an Prefecture was actually stunned by a mere few hundred taels of silver.
This matter must not be known by Xiaoman and the others...