Turning the tide in the Red Chamber

Chapter 38 [038]
Jia Chen left the house and walked along Rongning Street.

As the evening approached, Shenjing City was still bustling with people coming and going.

Several brothels in the bustling area have started business. Upstairs, the red sleeves are fluttering, and Yingying is swallowing. In front of the downstairs, there are several women and mistresses who are soliciting customers.

Six or seven kiln sisters with heavy makeup stood on the railing, and when they saw Jia Chen, their eyes lit up.

"This kid is really handsome, it's the first time I've seen such a handsome young man."

"It's a pity that he is still a half-grown child. Otherwise, I would pay money and want to spend the Spring Festival with him."

"Then just hold on for a few more years, and when this young man grows up, you little rascal will be able to get what he wants."

"Look at this kid's plain clothes, he doesn't look like a son of a high-ranking official. Maybe he really needs to pay for it."

Hearing the teasing and discussion of these flower girls, the corners of Jia Chen's lips twitched slightly, he hadn't had time to buy some decent clothes, and now he was still wearing the white coarse cloth straight jacket from before.

Following the tide of people, Jia Chen strolled to the door of a library.

On the door of the library is a plaque with gold characters on a black background, with four large characters written on it - Shiji Study Room.

The clerk at the door glanced at Jia Chen, and found that he was wearing simple clothes, a look of disdain flashed in his eyes, and he didn't even say hello.

In this era, the rate of cultural penetration is not high, and productivity is low, resulting in high prices for books, which are not affordable for everyone.

Jia Chen was dressed in shabby clothes, he didn't look rich at first glance, he probably just came to the library for a look, he might not be able to afford it, so the clerk didn't bother to talk to him.

It's the same in any era, some people treat you badly, just because you have no social status and use value.

Jia Chen didn't bother to look at this guy, he was just a servant who looked down on others, he just needed to be treated as a watchdog, and he didn't have to get angry over such a guy.

Stepping into the study, I saw a middle-aged shopkeeper with a mustache standing behind the counter.

He raised his head, glanced at Jia Chen, his eyes stayed on Jia Chen's clothes for a while, then looked away, and continued to make plans.

"Is this being ignored?"

Jia Chen turned around and left.

"Little brother, what book do you want to buy?" Suddenly, the shopkeeper with the mustache greeted lazily from behind.

Jia Chen stopped, looked back at Mustache, and said lightly:

"I'm not here to buy books. I wrote a book. I want to ask how much your library is willing to pay for it?"

Mustache was slightly taken aback. He originally thought that Jia Chen couldn't even afford a book, but he didn't expect that he didn't come to buy books at all, but an author.

The word "author" comes from the "Book of Rites · Book of Music" compiled by Dai Sheng, a scholar of rites in the Western Han Dynasty:
"The author is called the saint, and the narrator is called the bright."

It means: the person who writes and expounds the words is really holy and brilliant.

In this era, unlike the era when Internet literature was flooded in later generations, there are still very few people who can write books, and authors are a very respected profession.

In the later generations where Internet literature is prosperous and introversion is serious, some Internet literature authors are ridiculed by readers as eunuchs, pit gods, and chief executives
But in the Great Zhou Dynasty, the author was at most jokingly called a "poor literati".

Now, in the eyes of the mustache shopkeeper, Jia Chen is just a poor literati.

Although he is poorly dressed, he is a literati after all. In this era, literati are still relatively respected.

Mustache put on a smiling face and asked:

"Little brother, what book did you write? Can you let me read it?"

Jia Chen took out "The Four Lessons of Liao Fan" from his briefcase. Since there were more than [-] characters, Jia Chen wrote a total of more than [-] sheets of paper, but he only showed the first page to the mustache. Prevent the other party from plagiarizing the full text.

The little beard took it, and glanced at the lines of text, the light in his eyes became brighter and brighter, and he was excited at the moment, and unconsciously began to recite:

"People are not unintentional. They are eventually governed by yin and yang. There are countless things. But only ordinary people have numbers. Extremely good people. The number is fixed. The number is indeterminate. The extremely evil person is also indeterminate. You have been counted by him for twenty years. , didn't turn an inch. Isn't it an ordinary person?"

This passage means:

If people can't reach the state of Wuxin, they will inevitably be controlled by Yin and Yang Qi. How can there be no definite number?

But only ordinary people have definite numbers, and the definite numbers of extremely good people can't restrain him, and the definite numbers of extremely evil people can't restrain him either.

Everything about you in the past twenty years has been calculated clearly, and nothing has changed in the slightest. Aren't you an ordinary person?

When the mustache read this, he had already read the last word on the first page.

He asked incredulously:

"What's written on the back? Can you let me see it?"

Jia Chen laughed and said:

"The first page I'm showing you is to let you try to read the quality of the content, so as to discuss the remuneration. The rest needs to be kept secret, and I can't show it to you yet."

Mustache smiled slyly and said:

"I understand the rules, but I only read the first page, so I can't judge the quality of the manuscript. Please also ask the little brother to read all the manuscripts for me to facilitate pricing."

Jia Chen snatched the first page of the manuscript from Mustache's hand, and said with a sneer:

"It seems that my manuscript has not caught the attention of the shopkeeper. Since the shopkeeper is not sincere, I can only ask another one."

With that said, he lifted his foot and walked out the door.

Unexpectedly, Mustache suddenly roared:
"Come on, stop him!"

As soon as the voice fell, the guy outside the door rushed in.

At the same time, the curtain behind the counter was lifted, and six big and round men rushed out from inside, each holding a whistle stick in their hand, blocking Jia Chen's way aggressively.

Jia Chen stood high-spirited, looked at these fierce-looking strong men, and said coldly:
"What's the matter? Are you trying to rob?"

The mustache smiled strangely and said:
"We don't need money, we don't need to rob money, you just need to obediently leave all the manuscripts, and I can let you go."

Jia Chen was very angry and laughed back:
"I've never seen such a shameless person like you. You robbed my manuscripts, didn't you just want to engrave them and sell them to make money? You even kept saying that you don't want to rob money. It's shameless, and you are talking nonsense!"

The little beard became angry from embarrassment, blowing his beard and staring:

"Sharp-toothed boy, since you don't want to submit honestly, then don't blame me for being rude, come and take his manuscript!"

A burly man grinned grinningly and stretched out his big palm, grabbing the manuscript in Jia Chen's hand.

Jia Chen reached out his left hand like lightning, grabbed the four fingers of the strong man, and twisted them in the direction of the anti-joint.

"Crack!"

"Ouch!"

Accompanied by the crisp sound of a joint fracture, the strong man let out a miserable howl.

The mustache immediately became impatient, gritted his teeth and said sharply:

"Go! Give me a hard beat!"

However, just as he finished speaking, a childish female voice suddenly came from outside the door: "Who do you want to beat? I want to watch the fight!"

Jia Chen looked around and saw a chubby girl about ten years old running in with short legs, snorting.

(End of this chapter)