Chapter 38
After returning Li Cha's words, Li Lei felt refreshed.
And then he did it regularly.
Li Cha broke a valuable antique. He ran over to him with a pale face and said, "Brother, I didn't mean to do it on purpose. We are all brothers. You won't let me compensate you, right?"
Li Lei replied: "There is no rule without rules. If you don't compensate, Jinshizhai will not make money this month. If I lose money, I will be scolded by my father. We are all brothers, you won't make it difficult for me, the eldest brother, right?" ?”
And so on, once or twice a day.
Later, Li Lei got a little annoyed and simply blocked it back.
So one day, when Li Lei took half a cup of tea to find what a distinguished guest from the capital wanted in the warehouse, he found that Li Cha was "talking over tea" in front of the guest again.
"Isn't my elder brother back yet?"
"But just now I heard from the clerk that the vase you asked for was found a quarter of an hour ago. Don't be surprised if you are a distinguished guest. My eldest brother is afraid that something has delayed him. He didn't mean to be negligent."
Li Lei directly opened the door and went in, "Which guy said that?"
"You ask him to wait for a moment, and I will confront him later. The things that come in and out of our 'Jinshizhai' are always genuine and genuine. This is not only true for goods, but also for people."
After scaring Li Cha away, Li Lei smiled at the distinguished guest and explained: "I'm sorry, I did choose a vase first, but then I thought this one was better, so I changed it."
"But it didn't take a quarter of an hour, which is half a tea cup of time."
Because he has the "divine eye" given by the immortal, which can see through the authenticity of antiques, Li Lei has developed a habit over time, that is, telling others everything he needs to do, openly and honestly.
What is false is false, never true.
What's more, this distinguished guest was introduced by another familiar guest, so there was no need to hide it.
After explaining, he originally thought that the distinguished guest would smile and be vague, but the other party actually asked curiously: "He is your brother? Is this how he talks to people on weekdays?"
"Yes, he is my second brother."
Li Lei answered calmly without any precautions: "He does talk like this in normal times. I think he started talking when he was eight or nine years old. He always talks about tea. By the way, his name is Li Cha."
The old man asked curiously: "Then what else did he say?"
So Li Lei gave a few examples.
Of course, he cited examples that happened in Jinshizhai. Since many people knew about it, there was nothing he could not say. But he didn't say anything about what happened at home.
But even so, the old man's eyes became sympathetic after listening.
He hesitated for a while and said: "Little brother, my good friend said that you are a rare and magnanimous person, and you are worthy of a friend. What's more, if it weren't for your sharp eyesight, he would have suffered a big loss that time. So I have a few Just listen to what I said. If it's right, go back and think about it more. If it's not right, then just treat it like an old man like me."
Li Lei respected the old man very much. When the immortal pretended to be a beggar, he was willing to treat him to eat steamed buns, so now he thought it would be okay to listen, so he said: "Please tell me."
The old man asked: "Is this Li Cha your brother?"
Li Lei shook his head and nodded: "Same father, different mother."
The old man understood instantly and asked again, "As you get older, does your father look down on you more and more, thinking that you are full of faults, but he is kind to Li Cha?"
Li Lei sat up straight and nodded hurriedly, "Yes, yes, it was indeed like this before."
What he said about the past was the time before he got the 'opportunity'. At that time, his father would often scold him inexplicably for one or two words.
"Old man, do you know my father?"
"I don't know," the old man shook his head, "but the principles in the world are the same."
"Look at the few words he just said. The first sentence is, 'My eldest brother hasn't come back yet?'. If he is a person who sincerely plans for you at this time, his next sentence will definitely be, 'Then he should have something. Things are delayed, please sit down for a while, and I will go and hurry you up.”
"But he doesn't."
The old man chuckled and said: "He said in the second sentence, 'Listen to the man, you have found the vase I want a quarter of an hour ago.' For a shop like yours, the warehouse is definitely not too far away. It’s a huge neglect.”
"If you hadn't met my old friend, I would be dissatisfied by now."
The old man explained his psychological changes, and then looked at Li Lei's thoughtful expression and said, "And in the third sentence, instead of comforting you, he reminded you of 'negligence'."
"Under the premise of the second sentence, the third sentence is negligence."
Li Lei asked, "What if there is no second sentence?"
He thought about it carefully, then asked and answered himself, "There is no second sentence, that is, 'Isn't my eldest brother back yet? Don't be surprised, this distinguished guest, he is afraid that something has delayed him, and he didn't mean to be negligent.'"
This sounds normal!
Li Lei suddenly realized, "No wonder I always find his words strange."
The old man stroked his beard and said with a smile: "You can teach me."
So Li Lei thought about it again, "The day I came back from my hometown, I heard him tell my father that it was my first time to travel far away. It was so fun outside, so it was normal for me to lose some time. I was still young, so I definitely didn't expect it. My grandmother and my father didn’t see me come back on time and were so worried that they couldn’t sleep, fearing that something might happen to me.”
"He also told my dad not to be angry. I definitely didn't mean it."
The old man understood, "Then is your father very angry?"
Li Lei nodded fiercely, "Yes, my father said that when I come back, he will break my legs!"
At the time, he only thought these words were strange, and he was worried that his father would actually break his leg, so he did not hesitate to have the jade taken out to divert his father's attention.
Thinking about it now, Li Cha first said that he was 'playful', and then emphasized that he was 'young and ignorant', 'doesn't know how to be considerate of his grandmother and father who love him', 'changes his itinerary for no reason, making people worried', and finally he was like Today, he stressed that he was not 'neglecting', emphasizing that he 'didn't do it on purpose', which finally made his father furious.
That’s it, that’s it!
Li Lei felt that the world suddenly became brighter and his heart became clear!
After writing this plot, Fu Wenyu also felt passionate in his heart.
Thinking about it, if there really is someone similar to 'Li Cha' around that 'Brother You', he will be alert after reading this paragraph and find a way to deal with it, right?
Whether it's like Li Lei in the storybook, he 'returns his words', he pretends not to understand, or he hits the ball straight and overturns the table, either way is better than being ignorant. Judging from the situation that day, 'Brother You' is not a confused person, so as long as he realizes that those 'tea words' are not good for him, he will definitely think of a solution.
Think of it as a small gift for VIPs.
Of course, it's not just 'Li Cha' who has problems in the storybook, the 'stepmother' who hides behind her also has big problems, but the space is limited, so Fu Wenyu didn't write much about her.
At this point, there are already 100,000 words written.
Next is the ending of the plot, Fu Wenyu decided to take a day off.
A day later, he resumed writing. This time, it only took him three days to write out all the more than 30,000 words of "Legend of the Divine Eye". The writing was full of ideas and he finished it in one go.
After finishing writing, he copied a copy and sent it to Kaiyuan Bookstore.
In addition to delivering the manuscript this time, he also wanted to discuss the issue of printing books with shopkeeper Zhang.
"It was written again so quickly."
Shopkeeper Zhang happily took the paper and looked down.
"Uncle Zhang, I came today to discuss printing a book with you." Fu Wenyu said: "When we printed the storybook of "The True and False Young Master" last time, you said that Mr. Murong was not available at that time. I wonder if he Do you have time now?"
Shopkeeper Zhang looked up from the paper and asked, "Do you want to ask Mr. Murong to help you draw a picture?"
Fu Wenyu nodded: "Yes."
He liked Murong Bai's painting style very much, especially after he got a hardcover version of "The True and False Young Master" painted by the printer's scholar, and "The Woodcutter" painted by Murong Bai. The contrast was really obvious.
There are better ones, why choose the worse one?
And this time is different from that of "The True and False Young Master". The current storybook of "The Legend of the Divine Eye" has just been published not long ago, and the word count is only more than 30,000 words, so it is still far from being completed.
In this case, he had plenty of time to participate in the creation of the hardcover edition.
So his plan this time was not to interfere with the regular edition. After determining the content of the illustrations, he would let the scholars from the printing room do the drawings. But for the illustrations of the hardcover edition, he wanted to ask Mr. Murong to draw them.
After all, the hardcover version costs ten taels of silver per set, so we must strive for excellence.
Fu Wenyu explained his reasons. After listening to this, shopkeeper Zhang thought thoughtfully and said, "Well, it would be of great benefit to make the hardcover version better and sell more."
"Then I will take it to Mr. Murong in two days to see if he is free."
"By the way Wen Yu, you don't know yet, right?"
Shopkeeper Zhang suddenly smiled and said: "Since other bookstores knew that your hardcover edition sold for so much money, they also started to learn from it. Some even made it better and more expensive than us. It's a pity that only a few people bought it. Shopkeeper Xu from Rongsheng Bookstore met me a few days ago, and his face was really ugly, hahaha.”
Is there such a thing?
Fu Wenyu was curious, "How many copies did they print?"
Shopkeeper Zhang thought for a while, "They said there are a hundred copies, and each copy costs two taels of silver. They plan to sell one copy for five taels, which is more expensive than the three copies we sold before for ten taels. And they don't know what they think. , firstly, there was no serialization, and secondly, there was no reservation, so I just chose an auspicious day and launched it three days earlier than the regular version.”
"Fewer than ten copies were sold."
"Hahaha……"
Only ten copies were sold. Although it was an era when not many people were literate and most people were not willing to spend money to buy storybooks, Fu Wenyu was still surprised that only ten copies were sold.
This also made him lucky. Fortunately, he had proposed the concept of "predetermination" at the very beginning. Otherwise, he would be like the "Rongsheng Bookstore", printing too many books at once and losing all his money.
By then, he will sell himself to work for Kaiyuan Bookstore.
Next, the two discussed the number of printing sets for the regular edition, and unanimously decided to be on the safe side and print 1,500 sets first. And reservations are open from now on to facilitate timely adjustment of quantities later. As for the hardcover version, we will determine how many sets to print based on the pre-ordered quantity. Anyway, as long as there are more than ten sets, you can make money.
After discussing the matter, Fu Wenyu was ready to say goodbye and leave.
Unexpectedly, shopkeeper Zhang stopped him.
"Wen Yu, wait a minute."
Fu Wenyu turned around: "What's wrong?"
Shopkeeper Zhang took out a purse from the cabinet and said, "This is the money for the second printing of the storybook of "The True and False Master". There are seven hundred sets in total. You can take it back."
Fu Wenyu asked in confusion, "A second printing?"
"Yes," said Zhang, "Didn't the case of Mr. Tang's family go to the capital? Those who sold the books to the capital spread the news, and the people in the capital were very curious. So after they sold out the previous books, they sent people to order some more. In addition, there were orders from other places."
"So they printed another 700 sets."
So that's how it was.
Since it was legitimate income, Fu Wenyu accepted it frankly.
When he returned home and told his mother and sister, before Zhou opened her mouth, Fu Rong became excited and said with a flushed face, "We made money too, brother, we made money too."
"A lot of money!"