In the evening, the orange sunset slowly faded away its last rays.
Red lanterns were lit in the courtyard, fruits and snacks were placed on the stone tables, and the maids, wives, and eunuchs were sitting around them.
Cheng Wanwan sat on the recliner and slowly began to tell a story.
"By the way, in a place called Haizhou..."
Ninglan became bolder and asked: "Where is Haizhou? How come I have never heard of it..."
"Ahem, it's just a place name. I made it up." Cheng Wanwan continued, "There is a family in an official residence in Haizhou. Their surname is Jia. They are about the third or fourth grade. The eldest daughter of the family has a pretty face. After the age of fourteen, there was an endless stream of people coming to seek marriage. However, this Miss Jia had already made an appointment as a child when she was young. She was a well-matched young master of the Zhou family. The Zhou family was also in Haizhou, and Miss Jia and Young Master Zhou grew up together. The two of them are deeply in love, and they only waited until they were sixteen to get married."
"But when Miss Jia was fifteen years old, Mr. Zhou was promoted and his family moved to Liangcheng. The lovers were separated, and they could only rely on letters to express their love. Unexpectedly, Mr. Zhou suddenly He died suddenly, and the Zhou family plummeted, and they were no longer on par with the Jia family..."
At this point, she paused deliberately.
Ning Lan couldn't wait to ask, "Isn't it possible that Miss Jia wants to regret her marriage?"
Mrs. Qi shook her head: "The young lady doesn't know what it means to be well-matched. The old slave thinks that Mrs. Jia wants to regret her marriage."
"Originally, the Jia family had no intention of regretting their marriage. After all, the two families are family friends, and the Jia family did not want to do anything that would add insult to injury." Cheng Wanwan took a sip of water and continued, "But I didn't expect that the person who came from Liangcheng would A marquis fell in love with Miss Jia. What is the identity of the marquis? Can the Jia family afford to offend her? Under the marquis' repeated temptations and coercion, the Jia family had to write a letter to the Zhou family, proposing to regret the marriage."
"Miss Jia cried heartbrokenly at home, and even thought about seeking death... At this time, the Marquis told her that in order to restore their former family status, the Zhou family had clung to the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister was planning to give away his little wife. Miss Jia collapsed when she heard the news that her daughter was marrying Master Zhou."
"Ah, Master Zhou is really nothing!" Mrs. Yang scolded, "Miss Jia fed the dog with all her heart, how pitiful she is."
Ninglan said: "Fortunately, Mr. Marquis is with Miss Jia, so Miss Jia is not too pitiful."
Cheng Wanwan smiled: "Then let me talk about Liang Cheng. After Mr. Zhou died, Master Zhou worked harder to study. He was already talented and full of poems. He won the Huiyuan exam directly. , was attracted by the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister wanted to marry his daughter to Master Zhou, but Master Zhou clearly informed him that he already had a fiancée and firmly refused the marriage. Therefore, Master Zhou offended the Prime Minister. The prime minister used tricks to remove Mr. Zhou’s identity as a Gongshi..."
"When Master Zhou was redressing his grievance, someone in Haizhou told him that his fiancée was engaged to the young Marquis. At the same time, Master Zhou received a letter of regret from the Jia family... One after another, Master Zhou's whole body was also shocked. collapsed……"
Ning Lan covered her mouth: "Oh my God, this is too tragic. We both like each other obviously, why can't we be together?"
Aunt Qiao urged: "An Ren, what happens next?"
Cheng Wanwan was very satisfied with their reaction and continued to tell the story. The follow-up was that Miss Jia escaped privately to Liangcheng, while Master Zhou rushed back to Haizhou. The two met in a city in the middle. After lovers meet, those misunderstandings will naturally disappear. ... Later, with the help of Miss Jia, Master Zhou returned to Liangcheng to continue to redress his grievances. Mr. Hou was moved by the love between the two of them and helped Master Zhou clear his grievances. In the end, Master Zhou was admitted to the Jinshi , restored the lintel of the Zhou family, and married Miss Jia as his wife.
After the story was told, several palace maids cried, tears streaming down their cheeks.
Cheng Wanwan asked: "What do you think needs to be improved in this story?"
Ninglan sniffed and said, "Miss Jia is so miserable. In order to find Master Zhou, she turned into a beggar along the way..."
"If it wasn't so tragic, would the audience sympathize?" Cheng Wanwan laughed, "If there was a book on the market specifically about the story of Miss Jia and Master Zhou, would you want to read it?"
Everyone in the courtyard nodded.
The next day, Cheng Wanwan asked the shopkeeper to invite him over.
Shopkeeper Yu thought that the people from Sui'an wanted to check the accounts, so he sorted out the account books for the past few days and brought them over. Just as he was about to report, he was interrupted by Cheng Wanwan: "I have something for shopkeeper Yu to do. Let's read the pavilion." Since it has been open for so many days, many people have put forward valuable opinions. Among them, many women feel that the Reading Pavilion is for men. I want to add some books for women to read. But there are too few such books on the market. It is not as good as our own Come and write.”
Shopkeeper Yu was surprised: "Write a book by yourself?"
Didn't the people of Sui'an get to where they are today by farming? How come they can still write books?
Oh, yes, I heard that the Sui'an people can also speak the Assab language, so they have been reused by Honglu Temple.
"I will tell you the outline of the story. You can just find a scholar to fill in some details. In addition -" Cheng Wanwan said, "Insert a beautiful picture every two pages, so that both pictures and text are included. Because this is the first time I write this. When planting a book, the story doesn’t need to be too long, just less than 10,000 words. Shopkeeper Yu thinks, can it be completed in seven days?”
Shopkeeper Yu nodded: "Ten thousand words is not too many. A fast-writing scholar can write it in three to five days. It mainly involves drawing, which is more time-consuming..."
Cheng Wanwan took out two pictures from her sleeves. They were hand-painted ancient pictures she found in the mall last night. They tried to fit the style of this era. One was a portrait of a woman, one was a portrait of a man, and two people. The three pictures are examples of cuddling together.
"If you have a sample, the drawings will be produced quickly." Shopkeeper Yu laughed, "The first draft will be produced within five days, and then it will be presented to the people of Sui'an for review."
Shopkeeper Yu has been dealing with scholars over the years. Many scholars would copy manuscripts from him to earn some living expenses. He found an honest scholar with good handwriting to write stories, and then went to the alley to find someone who was good at it. Old scholars who painted portraits... These old scholars were depressed after failing the examination. They basically made a living by helping people write letters and paint. Naturally, their paintings could not be compared with those of the masters, but they would be more popular and more in line with readers' aesthetics.
In less than five days, the first draft was out, with easy-to-understand words and exquisite graphics, compiled into a book of thirty or forty pages.
Cheng Wanwan took it in her hand and flipped it over. Not to mention, it really looked like that. However, the cost of this book was a bit high. It cost 800 yuan to hire someone to write the story. There were a total of twelve patterns, which cost a lot of money. Two taels and four, which adds up to more than three taels of silver. It will take a long, long time to get back the money just by renting it out.
She asked casually: "If this book needs to be printed in large quantities, how will it be done?"
Shopkeeper Yu cupped his hands and replied: "There are many booksellers in the capital who specialize in this business. They basically print at least five thousand volumes. For a small book like this, it costs about 40 cents per copy. If you need to print the pattern in color , that single volume is about a hundred words, the details need to be discussed."
Cheng Wanwan nodded.
Printing technology in ancient times was relatively backward. If you print in black and white, nothing can be seen. If you print in color, it will look very inferior. Therefore, the colors of the patterns on some precious books in ancient times were individually traced by people, and they can keep the color from fading for many years.
She said: "First let me copy ten copies and put them in the reading pavilion to see the effect."
