Fortunately, after being hit with chopsticks a few times, the children all had a good memory and did not give Nai a chance to hit the backs of their hands with chopsticks.
After dinner, Lin Yuanqiu returned the Grasshopper to Lin Yuanbai, and then followed his father to look at the book cover, and found that his mother and the others had already done a lot in just ten days. The book covers are also embroidered with book titles, including the Three-Character Classic, hundreds of surnames, the Analects of Confucius, the University, and so on. The words he used were exactly what he wrote that day. They were in official script style, simple and frank, childish and natural, and looked very different.
This time, Lin Sanzhu planned to send the book covers to shopkeeper Gao after he had enough stock, so as not to be copied by others before he made much money.
Lin Yuanqiu definitely supports his father's plan. In ancient times, there were no patents. People could learn good things if they wanted to. Some of them might be better-looking and more popular than yours.
So when you start your first business, earn as much as you can.
Obviously, Wu and Lao Lintou also had the same idea and had great expectations for this batch of embroidery work, otherwise they would not have invested sixteen taels of their own capital.
Back in the room, Lin Yuanqiu lit the oil lamp. He had to take advantage of his time at home to draw more patterns.
Plum blossoms, orchids, bamboos and chrysanthemums are the four noble flowers, symbolizing all the beautiful qualities of a literati. Therefore, Lin Yuanqiu was ready to use them all for the patterns on the book cover.
The two-day holiday ended quickly. After a trip to Master Wang's place, Lin Yuanqiu returned to the private school.
After hearing that you had to pay extra money to eat eggs in the private school, when she went out this time, Wu took out another twenty coins and wanted her grandson to take them with her.
Lin Yuanqiu refused, "Nai, my grandson still has some silver. I'll ask you for it when it's all used up."
Seeing Wu's disobedience, Lin Yuanqiu said again, "Nai, my grandson is still young. It's not good to carry too much money with you. Just listen to your grandson. I'll ask you for it when it's all used up."
Lin Sanzhu originally wanted his son to bring the money. When he heard this, he nodded quickly and said, "Gouzi is right, mother, let's just listen to Gouzi."
"Gouzi Gouzi, you still call me Gouzi, didn't you agree before that you are not allowed to call me Gouzi again?"
Mrs. Wu said as she swung the broom towards her youngest son.
Lin Sanzhu reacted very quickly, jumping up and down, and the broom didn't even touch his clothes.
Lin Yuanqiu felt that the reason why his father was not hit by the broom was not because of his excellent dodging skills, but because his mother was reluctant to attack her precious little son, so she deliberately deflected him.
Unexpectedly, this thought came up in his mind, and the next second he saw his mother rushing forward in two or two steps, grabbing his father's ear, then bending down to pick up the broom on the ground, and then pointed towards his father's ear. I slapped you on the butt, "I let you hide, let you jump, let you jump. It shows that you are very capable, right?"
"Ouch, oh, mother, my ears are going to fall off!"
Lin Yuanqiu: "..."
I definitely made a mistake in my judgment just now, he was really cruel.
…
A total of six students from Class A participated in this government examination. It can be said that except for Lin Yuanqiu, several students in the class who had passed the county examination all attended.
The results were released half a month later. Except for two students from Changting Academy in Hengxi Town, all others were on the list.
I heard from Master Zhou that there were 87 students in Hengxi Town who participated in the government examination this time. It seems that the passing rate is less than 3%. It can be seen that it is not easy to pass the government examination. thing.
This made Lin Yuanqiu pay more attention to his lectures every day.
Master Zhou talked about the policy topic of this government examination. Lin Yuanqiu found that the way to answer the question was very similar to the argumentative essay in his previous life. He also first clarified the argument and expressed his own opinions and opinions. Then comes the arguments, using factual arguments and theoretical arguments to increase persuasiveness, and finally establishing the argument.
After having these understandings and summaries, Lin Yuanqiu suddenly felt that writing policy papers did not seem to be difficult.
On this day, after lunch, Lin Yuanqiu went to shopkeeper Gao's bookstore during the lunch break to find out if there was any job copying books.
Hearing Brother Lin's plan, Zhou Zixu quickly followed him. The roommate he lived with before was copying books. At that time, Zhou Zixu was moved and wanted to try copying. He always felt that he was making money. It sure feels good.
Therefore, when he saw Lin Yuanqiu going to the bookstore now, of course he wanted to go there too.
Seeing Lin Yuanqiu coming over, shopkeeper Gao greeted him with a smile, thinking he was here to buy pens, ink or paper.
Lin Yuanqiu didn't hesitate and asked directly, "Uncle Gao, is there any work for copying books in the library? Yuanqiu wants to take advantage of his free time to copy some books."
Zhou Zixu, who was behind him, also said familiarly, "Uncle Gao, I also want to make money by copying books."
Make money by copying books?
Shopkeeper Gao was stunned. Of course their bookstore had the job of copying books, but this was the first time that he encountered such a young boy asking for copies.
Shopkeeper Gao smiled and said, "There must be some, but I have to see your calligraphy first."
That's natural. Lin Yuanqiu and Zhou Zixu nodded in unison.
After a while, the store clerk came over with pen, ink and paper.
After thinking about it, Zhou Zixu first took up his pen and wrote: "Sail a cypress boat across the other side of the river, and cross the river there." Seeing this, Lin Yuanqiu continued to write: "The two are both fashionable, and they are actually maintaining my courtesy."
This is the "Wind Chapter" in the Book of Songs. In the morning, Master Zhou asked everyone to write silently. At this moment, the two of them are remembering it deeply.
Shopkeeper Gao picked up the two people's words and read them carefully. He had seen Lin Yuanqiu's calligraphy before, but looking at it now, not only was the handwriting still neat, but it was also more powerful than before. He thought he had practiced it a lot. Looking at the handwriting of another child, it is also very good. The writing is very clear stroke by stroke. Such handwriting is absolutely no problem for copying books.
"That's right," Shopkeeper Gao nodded, "Both of you are good at handwriting, so you can copy books."
The wages for copying books are calculated based on the number of words. For every thousand words copied, you will be paid one hundred cents. In the end, both Lin Yuanqiu and Zhou Zixu decided to copy a thousand-character essay. According to shopkeeper Gao, the best-selling books in bookstores nowadays are elementary school books. Although they can be printed, they are much more expensive than hand-copied ones. Therefore, there are many Parents are still willing to buy manuscripts for their children.
Back at the private school, Lin Yuanqiu and Zhou Zixu first put the blank paper in the dormitory. They had the Thousand-Character Classic on hand, so they did not take the sample copy from the bookstore.
After school and dinner, the two of them quickly returned to the dormitory.
This was the time when the writing was most fresh. After grinding the ink, the two of them started copying without any delay.
In fact, it is not considered copying. After all, Lin Yuanqiu and Zhou Zixu have already memorized the Thousand-Character Essay by heart, so it is more accurate to say that it was written from dictation.
Uncle Zhong still gave each dormitory two spoons of lamp oil, so Lin Yuanqiu and Zhou Zixu didn't dare to copy it too late. When it was almost Xu o'clock, they blew out the lamps and took a rest.
On the fifth day, the two of them sent the copied thousand-character essay to Shopkeeper Gao.
It was agreed before that if it was bound into a book by a bookstore, five cents would be deducted. Where did Lin Yuanqiu and Zhou Zixu get the binding tools? Even if they had them, they were afraid of damaging the pages, so they still had to use the book. Come and bind it.
The shop assistant acted skillfully, and soon two newly bound thousand-character texts came out of the furnace. After shopkeeper Feng Gao checked that they were correct, he paid the two men 95 yuan each.
Zhou Zixu laughed so hard that he couldn't see his eyes. After returning to the dormitory happily, he opened the whole bunch of copper coins, spread them out one by one, and counted them over and over again.
This was the first time Zhou Zixu had earned money by his own skills, so how could he not be excited.
The same goes for Lin Yuanqiu. Although his movements of counting coins don't look as exaggerated as Zhou Zixu's, the smile on his face cannot fool anyone.
…
In September, the day came for Lin Yuanfeng to end his employment period.
It is said that nothing bothers the two masters. This time, the Wu family still invited Mrs. Wang to help out. In addition to the necessary cakes, snacks, cloth and clothes, the Lin family also gave eight taels of silver as a betrothal gift to the woman.
When the dowry burden tied with red silk was loaded onto the ox cart, the small mountain village exploded. The villagers all remembered the mute girl that matchmaker Zhang told Lin Yuanfeng earlier, and also said that the girl's family would have a dowry of two taels of silver. With.
But now, the groom's family gave him eight taels of silver alone, not to mention the betrothal gift. So, who did the matchmaker look down on earlier?
…
Chapter 51 Selling Book Covers
Hearing that Lin Yuanfeng had given such a large betrothal gift to his wife, everyone in the first house had mixed feelings. They really didn't expect that the life of the second house would start so quietly.
Isn't it time to get up? There are few people in the countryside who are willing to spend so much money to marry a wife. You know, this is a full eight taels of silver, which can buy an acre of good paddy field.
Thinking of the paddy fields, Lin Quanhe's doubts still remained unanswered, "Dad, you said that my second uncle is having a better life now, why don't you see him buying fields?"
Lin Jincai has always wondered about this. After all, fields are the foundation of a farmer's family. After having money, which family would not buy fields first and then do other things.
But the second brother is doing well. He is building a house and spending so much dowry to marry his granddaughter-in-law, but the family still has the six acres of paddy field that his parents gave him when the family was separated. This is really puzzling.
Could it be that the second brother was a fat man who was trying to show off his face? Lin Jincai thought about it carefully and felt that this possibility was indeed possible. After all, girls from the city were not so easy to marry.
Furthermore, I have never heard of anyone making a fortune just by selling some embroidery work.
Therefore, I'm afraid the second brother has already emptied his family's wealth.
Thinking like this, Lin Jincai finally felt a lot more comfortable. Although he didn't want to admit it, no one wanted other families to live better than his own, not even his own brothers.
After listening to Lin Jincai's analysis, Lin Quanhe and Jin felt that this must be the case, because only in this way can they explain why the second house did not purchase land. It must have been because they no longer had any money on hand.
After thinking about it, the sense of superiority in the minds of the Jin family suddenly rose again. After all, their big house has twenty-four acres of paddy fields. Even if one acre of land is worth seven taels of silver, it still costs one acre. One hundred sixty-seven taels.
Ever since Lin Sanzhu stopped hiding the embroidery items he carried in his bags, everyone in the village knew that his family was selling embroidery work.
Later, some women in the village began to learn how to make fan covers and pencil cases for sale. To this end, they went to the embroidery workshop to buy a few samples, and planned to follow the patterns and colors on them and draw them accordingly.
Just doing embroidery work is not that easy. When the finished embroidery items were delivered to the embroidery workshop in the town, they only accepted a few pieces after sorting them out, and returned the others.
Not only did he not make any money, but Ben also got involved.
After this happened too many times, the women were reluctant to continue doing it, and felt that it would be safer to have a vaginal intercourse as before.
In fact, Lin Sanzhu knew that if he didn't have a supply contract with the bookstore, it would really not be easy to make money by selling embroidery.
So for this book cover, everyone in the family had the same idea, which was to make a big deal.
Therefore, from April to now, for nearly half a year, the whole family has been busy with this matter. Needless to say, the Feng family and the Zhou family have never stopped doing embroidery work every day.
As for Wu, she naturally took care of all the cooking at home, while Chunyan and Chuncao helped Nai choose vegetables and light the fire.
Lin Yuanbai and Lin Yuanhuai came back from collecting firewood basically every day.
As for Lao Lintou and his three sons, as well as Lin Yuanfeng and Lin Yuansong, in addition to working on the crops in the fields, they were also busy with embroidery at other times, helping to pass water and dry the embroidery cloth, and ironing and smoothing the cloth. .
The family has only one purpose, which is to make more book covers so that they can sell more coins.
…
After September, the persimmons on the trees are almost ripe again.
When he went to the mountains to pick wild persimmons this year, Lao Lintou specially asked his three sons to go with him, so that he could pick more at once and avoid having to run to the mountains too many times, which would cause confusion among the villagers.
It rarely rains in October, so the good weather is very suitable for making persimmons.
During this period, Lin Yuanqiu happened to have two days of ten-day vacation, so he didn't take a break. Together with his third brother and fourth brother, he helped peel the persimmons.
In this way, the family was busy for more than half a month and finally made all the persimmons.
As before, there will still be some persimmons left on the persimmon trees in the backyard. When they are ripe, Lin Dazhu and Lin Erzhu will pick them up and sell them in the town.
In November, the three brothers went to the county town again. In addition to selling persimmons, they also wanted to buy things for Lin Yuanfeng's wedding.
Shopkeeper Yu had been waiting in the store for a long time. When he saw the three brothers coming over, he was overjoyed. In the past two years, relying on the business of "Jixiang Ruyi Cake", the sales of his other cakes have been very good. few.
To be honest, if it weren't for the worry about unstable supply, Shopkeeper Yu would have already responded to many customers who wanted to order "Auspicious Ruyi Cake" in advance.
This time, shopkeeper Yu did not ask Lin Sanzhu and the others to deliver the goods to the shop. Instead, he called a carriage and horse and took all the persimmons from the inn directly to his home.
The reason why he did this was to prevent the shopkeepers of other pastry shops from seeing him. If they knew the source of the goods, his "Auspicious Ruyi Cake" might go to other shops next year.
