When Liu Tong heard this, his pupils shrank, he couldn't help but take a few steps back, and said in a deep voice: "Master Jia, what do you want to do?"
Jia Heng chuckled lightly and said: "How much is the price of this book? I think it would be better to let the owner behind Mr. Liu evaluate it. What does Mr. Liu think?"
Liu Tong's expression changed slightly, and he had various speculations in his mind at this moment. He thought to himself, could it be that the so-called selling of manuscripts was a fake, and he was using this to ask for a meeting with the boss behind him?
Liu Tong could not help but be suspicious. Although the fact that the owner of Hanmo Zhai was the Princess of Jinyang was secret, it was not difficult for some people to find out.
A look of awe appeared on Liu Tong's old face, and he said, "With all due respect, Mr. Jia, do you know who is behind my Hanmo Studio?"
Jia Heng said: "I heard that His Highness Jinyang is fair in dealing with matters and the most important thing is beautiful articles. I don't think he will make the "Three Kingdoms" manuscript secretly cast."
Liu Tong pondered for a moment and said: "Mr. Jia, you don't just meet such a noble person just because you want to. Do you know that even a serious young man with a daughter in the Rongguo Mansion may not fall into the eyes of His Highness... Besides, if His Highness knows that you are Because we have to negotiate the price of buying books, if we treat them as ordinary people, there will be even less hope of seeing them.”
At the end of the sentence, shopkeeper Liu even smiled a little bit.
The young man in front of him brought him some trouble, but he didn't say anything bad. It was Liu Tong who upheld the principle of being a friendly businessman and making money.
Moreover, although he is the shopkeeper of the Hanmo Studio, he also has some understanding of the nobleman's temperament. Whether it is the scholars who submit letters to the princess's house and are rewarded, they all have a characteristic that makes a scholar and scholar feel ashamed to talk. profit.
It can be said that they all came here unintentionally to get the silver gift.
On the contrary, those who have ulterior motives are often dismissed as villains by His Highness and shut out.
Jia Heng said calmly: "Let's see it first and then talk about it."
Liu Tong pondered for a moment and said: "His Royal Highness's maid is in the studio. If Mr. Jia wants to visit, he can bring the manuscript and ask for his opinion."
At this time, Liu Tong still did not forget about the manuscript.
Obviously Jia Heng's recurrence of trouble is his own business, and now he just wants to take the manuscript with him.
Jia Heng thought for a while and said, "Old sir, wait a moment."
Then, I returned home and took the manuscript from the study. After these few days, I had six chapters.
He started writing in regular script, then in running script, and then in cursive. He said that writing made his hands and arms sore, and that was no lie.
When other people sell manuscripts, they have been writing for a long time, but he has to submit the manuscript at the end of the month, so he only gets one or two taels.
The more I write, the more... I don’t want to write.
As soon as Jia Heng entered the courtyard, he saw Qingwen reading "The Thousand Character Essay" under the eaves of the corridor.
In the past few days, under Jia Heng's guidance, Qingwen has recognized forty or fifty characters, but some of them are always misremembered. Jia Heng simply stopped learning new characters and asked Qingwen to read according to the thousand-character text.
Anyway, the sky and the earth are dark and yellow, and the universe is arranged in rhyme, which is catchy.
Qingwen asked curiously: "Master, didn't you go to Qin's house? Why did you come back so early?"
Jia Heng said: "The wedding date has been finalized. It will be during the Mid-Autumn Festival. I will come back to get some things and go out to do errands."
Qingwen put down the book in her hand, with a somewhat inexplicable look on her charming and bright face, and asked: "Then the young lady will be here in three days?"
Jia Heng nodded, not wanting to say more.
Qingwen's eyes flashed, and she watched Jia Heng take a cloth bag from the house, then left in a hurry, picking up the "Thousand Character Essay" beside her, but for some reason, she couldn't read it.
I sighed inwardly.
The young master is going to get a wife after all. Now that the young mistress has passed the marriage, she will no longer be able to pester the young master to learn how to read.
The girl's originally ignorant mood was nothing more than worry about being distracted, not jealousy or jealousy.
Jia Heng took the manuscript and went out to see shopkeeper Liu Tong. The two of them took a donkey cart and headed towards Hanmo Studio.
On the third floor of Hanmozhai, in a beautifully and luxuriously furnished apartment, there is a young woman wearing a light white embroidered plum dress and a morning-scented bun. The woman is sitting by the window, sipping tea, waiting quietly, holding something in her hand. Holding a scroll.
Not far away, two nuns with women's hair in buns stood beside a screen with their hands down.
Few people come here. It was originally where Liu Tong used to entertain Princess Jinyang who occasionally came to inspect.
When Princess Jinyang is in the mood, she will occasionally come to the Hanmo Studio to sit and sip tea, and the maid Lianxue, perhaps because of her influence, also holds a storybook in her hand to read.
While he was reading attentively, the sound of footsteps suddenly came from the stairs. Lianxue put down the book,
One of the two nuns hurried to the stairs, looked at Liu Tong below, and sneered: "Who do you think I am? It's you, old bastard. The girl has been waiting for you for a cup of tea, and she just came back now." ? If you are old and your legs and feet are not flexible, just resign from this job to the girl."
Facing the nun who was in charge of the back house of the princess's house, Liu Tong did not dare to reply. He just said: "I want to see the girl. The author of the manuscript has something to talk to the girl."
Lianxue in the room said: "Shopkeeper Liu, come in."
Liu Tong walked around the screen, quickly came to the window, bowed his hands and said, "Miss Lianxue, the author of the novel "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is downstairs. He has something to tell the girl."
Lianxue frowned, a look of confusion appeared on her flawless white jade face, and she said softly: "Didn't Shopkeeper Liu bring the manuscript? Why did he bring the author?"
The nanny on the side took the opportunity and said with a smile: "Girl, this Liu Tong is useless. The girl asked him to bring eggs, but why did he bring the old hen that laid eggs?"
When Lianxue heard this, a hint of annoyance flashed deep in her eyes, but there was no smile on her face. She ordered: "Mommy, go to the stairs and don't let anyone come up."
The grandma responded and turned around.
Liu Tongtong: "Miss Lianxue, there is another hidden story in this matter, please bear with me."
Lianxue nodded, picked up the tea cup on the side, took a sip, and listened to Liu Tong's narration.
After Liu Tong finished speaking, Lianxue's expression froze for a moment, and she said in a strange tone: "Then Jia Heng wants to see His Highness? Negotiate the price of the book?"
Liu Tong smiled bitterly and said, "That's what Jia Heng said. How do you think the girl should report back to His Highness?"
Lianxue said softly: "His Highness will most likely not see him. Besides, we can't let him talk about what the manuscript is like. Even if the manuscript is well written, the so-called gentleman means righteousness and the villain means benefit. He is so full of it. If a person who smells like copper talks to His Highness... His Highness will definitely walk away."
Liu Tongtong: "I think so too, but Mr. Jia insists on renegotiating the price. Looking at the situation, if we don't renegotiate with him, I won't write about it anymore."
Lingxue thought for a while and said, "Have you seen the manuscript he wrote? How is the quality?"
Liu Tong frowned, thinking about the rest of what he read on the way, and said: "It is no less written by the famous writers Meng Donglou, Lu Qing'an and others."
What Liu Tong said were all famous storytellers in Jinling. Jinling's engraving works were developed and the novel publishing market was even more mature.
"Since the price is repriced, then give him the same price as a famous artist." Lianxue smiled and said: "His Highness came to ask for the manuscript this time on a whim. If the manuscript is not outstanding, his interest will be gone. .”
She didn't want any random people to see the princess. If she made the princess unhappy and her hair down, she would be implicated.
"Isn't it appropriate?" However, after Lianxue finished speaking, she looked up at Liu Tong and saw a look of surprise on the old man's old face.
Liu Tong shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Before I came up, the young master seemed to have predicted the girl's reaction, and his words were almost the same."
Seeing the slight change in Lianxue's jade face and the uncertainty in his eyes, Liu Tong said: "Miss Lianxue, if not, we can resolve the contract with him and ask him to pay a deposit of one hundred taels."
Now that things have happened, he has a vague feeling that there may be some conspiracy in this, especially since that person's surname is Jia, could it be that he got the instruction from Ning Rong's second house? Do you want to get through to Her Highness the Princess for some purpose?
However, Liu Tong's doubts are destined to be a battle of wits and courage with the air.
Lianxue was silent for a moment and said: "Tell him to send the manuscript. If he wants to see it, I will help him bring it to Her Highness the Princess. As for whether the princess can see him or not, it depends on his luck. There are also manuscripts, such as those of famous writers. Meng Donglou used a thousand taels to polish his pen."
She naturally believed in the judgment of the old shopkeeper of Hanmozhai. Since it was not a work by a famous artist, she thought she could make a profit of five or six thousand taels by completely printing and selling it.
After thinking about it, Lianxue said in a low voice: "If the princess doesn't want to see him, and he no longer knows how to advance or retreat, and his desires are hard to satisfy, then stop accepting his manuscripts, and inform all the booksellers that no one is allowed to accept them. Manuscript!"
