Chapter 59
Money in ancient times was very valuable.
According to Fu Wenyu, a family of four or five living in Liuzhou City would have enough food with two taels of silver per month. They could not afford meat, but it was still enough to fill their stomachs. As for the countryside, the expenses were even less. Except for the necessary oil and salt, everything else was self-sufficient.
So three hundred taels or even more was really a lot of money. If the family was not well-off, they would probably have to sell their fields.
Wait, why does this plot sound so familiar...
Fu Wenyu suddenly realized a problem and asked hurriedly: "Uncle Zhang, does this 'Sun Xiucai' have a son named 'Sun Tianzong'? In addition, does he love beauty? There are several concubines in his family. It seems that he took in a new one at the end of last year."
Shopkeeper Zhang thought for a while, "I don't know whether he has a son named 'Sun Tianzong', but it is well known and there is no doubt that he loves beauty. Every time he takes a concubine, he will send a letter to someone he knows. And he likes to add pictures of beauties to his storybooks. In the past, customers bought his storybooks for the pictures of beauties in them. But this time, no matter how many pictures of beauties there are, it doesn't work. One hundred sets of hardcover editions still haven't sold many."
"Why, do you know his son?"
The same surname Sun, the same love of beauty, and the same economic problems some time ago, so many factors overlap, so the two 'Sun Xiucai' are most likely the same person. When he saw that the author of "Eastern Chamber" was "Sun Xiucai", he had wondered if the other party had the title of a scholar, but he didn't expect that he was really a scholar.
Fu Wenyu suddenly had a feeling of "what a coincidence".
"It's like this, Uncle Zhang, I met Liu Changmiao, the youngest son of Mr. Liu, in the school today. He was arguing with a young man named Sun Tianzong..."
He briefly described the quarrel between the two, and then sighed, "There are so many coincidences. It seems that Sun Tianzong's father is the Sun Xiucai who wrote the storybook. I heard from other classmates that their family sold a house, which shows that the family was indeed not well-off some time ago."
"Is there such a thing?"
Shopkeeper Zhang thought carefully, "It seems that they have indeed lost a lot."
"My An old friend told me that Mr. Sun had promised that all the books would be sold out, and he even paid a part of the money. Otherwise, Rongsheng Bookstore would not agree. Their shopkeeper is very smart, known as "Xu Renjing". "
After saying this, Shopkeeper Zhang turned to look at Fu Wenyu and said earnestly: "With Mr. Sun's incident, do you still insist on printing 100 sets?"
If it weren't for Mr. Sun's incident, he would have agreed to Fu Wenyu's proposal to print 100 sets of hardcover editions, because more and more people like the story of "Rebirth Treasure Map". Some people even asked if there was really a "jianghu", "Yunxiao Sword Jue", "Yunxiao Sword", and "San Gong San".
All these gave Shopkeeper Zhang hope.
But the news he heard from his friends made him hesitate.
He didn't want to put himself and Fu Wenyu in a passive situation because of the 100 sets of hardcover editions. Even if he lost so much money, he would not be able to keep his position as shopkeeper.
Fu Wenyu understood Zhang's concerns, but he still insisted.
"Uncle Zhang, I've thought about it carefully. Just like we discussed before, one hundred sets can't be sold out in Liuzhou. So I plan to sell thirty sets in Liuzhou, fifteen sets each in Anzhou and Jiangzhou, and thirty sets of the remaining forty sets will be sold in Beijing, so that there will only be ten sets left."
"Those merchants from other prefectures may also be interested?"
Zhang thought, "Sell them elsewhere..."
Fu Wenyu nodded, "Yes, that is, sell them in several places."
Since he dared to set a doubling goal of one hundred sets, he was certainly not unprepared, so he continued: "And this time I plan to ask Mr. Murong to draw a book of 'Yunxiao Sword Art', draw all the 'Yunxiao Thirteen Styles', and then ask the carpenter to make a 'Chongyun Sword' and put it in the hardcover version."
Peripherals can promote sales!
The peripherals of the ‘Yunxiao Sword Art’ and the ‘Chongyun Sword’, with such a two-pronged approach, he didn’t believe that those middle school youths and teenagers could resist such temptation!
Shopkeeper Zhang stood up excitedly, "Do you have the ‘Yunxiao Sword Art’?"
Fu Wenyu murmured and answered honestly, "No, but I can think of it."
After all, the martial arts interest class in the previous life was not in vain, and so many martial arts TV dramas were not watched in vain. The moves don’t need to be very powerful, as long as they look good. And if the response is good, the ‘Yunxiao Sword Art’ can also be printed on paper or booklets separately and sold as additional peripherals, or only the first few moves can be added to the regular version.
But forget about the ‘Chongyun Sword’, that is a special treatment for VVIPs, but without the ‘Chongyun Sword’, you can still make the ‘Yunxiao Sword’ and the ‘Benlei Sword’, or the XX knife XX fan that will appear later. As long as these things are not stupid enough to be made of iron, copper and other metals, the government will not care.
Manager Zhang didn't think as much as Fu Wenyu did. He asked again, "Wenyu, can you really come up with a martial arts secret book like the 'Yunxiao Sword Art' in the storybook?"
The word 'martial arts secret book' was written by Fu Wenyu in the storybook.
In the past, Shopkeeper Zhang didn’t know there was such a thing, but after the publication of “Rebirth of the Treasure Map”, many people came to ask about it, so he could already say this word very skillfully.
Thinking that there really was a ‘martial arts secret book’, Shopkeeper Zhang’s breathing became rapid. He stood up and paced back and forth for a few steps, then stopped and looked at Fu Wenyu.
“Wenyu, can you really think of it?”
Fu Wenyu nodded affirmatively, “Yes!” It’s just a few moves, not difficult.
Shopkeeper Zhang pondered for a while, then made a decision: “Wenyu, if you can really make a ‘martial arts secret book’, then do as you say!”
“As for the cost of printing 50 more sets, you don’t have to pay for it.”
He laughed, “Thanks to you, our Kaiyuan Bookstore has made some money in the past six months. But for the sake of safety, it’s better to wait until you finish this ‘martial arts secret book’ before starting to make arrangements.”
This is no problem.
After all, the storybook has not been finished yet. Fu Wenyu proposed it at this time because he thought that it would take a lot of effort to make the "Chongyun Sword". Mr. Murong's illustrations would not be finished in a short time, so he needed to prepare in advance.
And confirming in advance would also make it easier for him to add some fighting scenes that can use the "Yunxiao Sword Art" in the later plots, as well as some things suitable for making peripherals.
For example, he has already conceived the knife, fan, and sword tassel, etc.
After returning home, Fu Wenyu took out paper and pen and began to conceive the sword moves in the "Yunxiao Sword Art", which is the family heirloom of the protagonist Zhao Yunfei - "Yunxiao Thirteen Styles".
"Yunxiao Sword Art" is divided into two parts, one is the internal strength mental method that Zhao Yunfei had memorized when he knelt in the ancestral hall before, and the other part is the sword moves that Zhao Ya used to teach his son and fight against the black-clothed man. There are thirteen sword moves in total.
Fu Wenyu had already compiled the mental formula when he was writing the storybook, so there is no need to worry about it now. His current plan is to draw the "Thirteen Yunxiao Styles", so that a book of "Yunxiao Sword Art" will be completed.
And then... he couldn't draw it.
"Drawing is too difficult."
Looking at the black stick figure on the white paper, Fu Wenyu threw down the pen in frustration.
He still had a clear understanding of his own painting skills, so he never thought about drawing it himself. Moreover, he sent the previous chapters to Mr. Murong before the printing of the story "Rebirth Treasure Map", and the other party also agreed to help draw illustrations.
But sword moves are different from the scenes described in words, so he planned to draw the general moves himself first, and then give it to Mr. Murong for polishing.
Who knew that the pictures in his mind were full, and they turned into stick figures when they were on paper.
Fu Wenyu sighed, and later simply stopped drawing. He decided to find two people to pretend to be the characters in the story, and then he would "teach" them some common sword moves. In this way, they only need to be dragged to Mr. Murong to perform once, and the other party can also draw the ‘Thirteen Styles of Yunxiao’.
He did it as soon as he thought of it. Because there was no carpenter in the village, he found an uncle who could make bamboo chairs and asked him to help make three bamboo swords, and then began to look for people in the village.
The first candidates he thought of were Fu Wenshu and Fu Wenhe.
These two are trustworthy brothers in the clan. When he was setting up a stall in the city before, they helped protect him for a while. After those days of getting along, Fu Wenyu also confirmed that both of them were down-to-earth and hard-working people who could keep secrets. At least they never told the people in the village how much money they earned.
It happened that the two of them had a steady personality, and the other was more lively, which perfectly matched the brothers ‘Zhao Yunlei’ and ‘Zhao Yunfei’ in the storybook.
Fu Wenshu and Fu Wenhe were surprised after hearing what he said.
Fu Wenshu, who was calm and composed, could still sit still, but his breathing was a little faster, but Fu Wenhe jumped up and said excitedly: "Wenyu, you want to teach me the 'Cloud Sword Technique'?!"
This sentence instantly exposed that he was Fu Wenyu's reader.
Fu Wenyu asked curiously: "Have you all read my storybooks?"
In the past few months, he was busy writing storybooks and then reading books from morning till night. Except for occasionally going to the teahouse to listen to readers' feedback, he really didn't pay much attention to the things around him. Apart from his family, he didn't have much interaction with the people in the village, whether they were older, the same age, or younger than him.
Fu Wenhe nodded excitedly, "More than I have read it!"
He said incessantly: "Wenyu, you don't know, your storybook is very popular now, many people are rushing to read it. Especially in our village, some people even go to the city to buy that Liuzhou tabloid."
Fu Wenshu also nodded, "Wenhe bought it."
"Uh..."
Fu Wenhe's expression froze, but he quickly recovered and said excitedly: "Brother Wenshu, let's not talk about this. Wenyu, do you really know the sword trick?"
"For example, the move 'Catch the tiger into the sea', how do you do it? Is it really like what is written in the storybook, 'like a silver light suddenly appears, faintly like it has attracted wind and thunder, and there is a whistling sound?'"
"This is amazing, Wenyu, I want to learn 'Catch the tiger into the sea'!"
Fu Wenyu: "..."
Young man, you think too much.