Jia Yujing of Red Mansion

Chapter 8
The bookstore is very quiet, with a faint fragrance of ink floating in the air.

There was an old shopkeeper sitting behind the counter at the door, fiddling with the abacus beads while writing and drawing in the account book.

There were seven or eight other boys sorting out books or chatting quietly with customers.

It was just after noon, but there were already many customers in the bookstore. There were about ten people choosing books here and there.

As soon as he entered the door, a young man came up to greet him: "This young man, what book do you want to buy?"

Although Jia Qiong is young, she is calm, well-behaved and well-dressed, so the waiters do not dare to look down on her.

Jia Qiong said casually: "Let me take a look and see what books you have here."

The clerk introduced: "Back to Xiao Langjun, our store is the largest bookstore in Chang'an City. It has branches all over the country. We have basically all the popular books on the market here.

The first floor contains books currently published on the market, while the second floor contains mostly fine books published by previous generations. "

Jia Qiong nodded and walked inside. The first thing he came to was the Shiwen District.

He casually took out the thickest volume from the anthology of current affairs neatly arranged in categories and started to read.

This book is called "Selected Writings of the Hongwu Examination", which is a compilation of outstanding essays from the imperial examination during the Hongwu period.

Jia Qiong read several articles carefully and felt that each article had a rigorous structure, concise writing style and smooth reasoning.

Although he liked ancient prose in his previous life, he had no interest in things like Shiwen Bagu, and naturally he would not study it specifically.

In this life, Jia Qiong has not yet entered school and knows nothing about how to write eight-legged essays. If he wants to take the imperial examination and become an official, he will definitely have to work hard.

He knew that he would not be able to learn anything well by simply studying by himself with model essays. He would have to go to school or find a master to learn the art of eight-legged making.

But it never hurts to take a look first, so I chose another one, "Analysis of the Literature of the Imperial Palace and Hanyuan", and the waiter on the side stepped forward to take it with great discernment.

After that, Jia Qiong came to the legendary story area. There are a variety of books here, including "Journey to the West", "The Romance of the West Chamber", "The Peony Pavilion", "Shishuo Xinyu" and so on.

There are also many books that Jia Qiong has not read, such as "Strange Encounters in Xishu", which tells the story of the love between a man and a fox demon. The plot and artistic conception are very close to "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio".

If Jia Qiong wants to make money as a literary copywriter, of course he wants to write novels, so he must first understand the market conditions.

Jia Qiong asked: "Second brother, are there many people buying these legendary novels?"

The clerk replied enthusiastically: "Back to Xiaolangjun, these books are the best sellers.

Those poems and articles are only loved by scholars, while these scripts are loved by everyone as long as they can read. "

"What are the best-selling books here?" Jia Qiong.

"The copy you have, "Journey to the West" is selling well, and "The Romance of the West Chamber" is also selling well."

Jia Qiong nodded and said, "Thank you very much. I'll just buy these. You can keep them for me. I'll pay the bill later."

I'll read a book and wait here for a while, so you don't have to follow me. "

"Okay, if anything happens, young master, you can call me."

The guy agreed and walked away, but his eyes still glanced over from time to time.

Jia Qiong didn't care, and casually flipped through a few storybooks, walked around the poetry area, and then stepped up to the second floor.

The second floor is as big as the first floor, but only two-thirds of the area is filled with bookshelves, and the remaining space is filled with tables and chairs, serving as an elegant space for entertaining guests.

There were not many guests on the second floor. Only three students wearing green shirts and scholar's square scarves gathered together, holding a book and discussing in a low voice.

Judging from their attire, they should be students from a large academy, or possibly supervisors from the Imperial College.

There are two other people drinking tea and playing chess in the elegant house. One of them is a middle-aged man who looks about 40 years old.

He was wearing a loose black robe, with a slim build, three long beards hanging down his chest, and a rather majestic face.

The other person is an old Taoist, wearing a Ge scarf on his head and a Xuanqing Taoist robe. He has a crane crown and a turtle back, and phoenix eyes and sparse eyebrows. He looks a bit like an immortal Taoist.

When the middle-aged man in black robe heard someone coming upstairs, he just turned his head and glanced at Jia Qiong before continuing to immerse himself in the chess game.

The old Taoist smiled and nodded to Jia Qiong in a friendly manner, and Jia Qiong also bowed his hand in greeting.There were also a few guys on the second floor, and one of them immediately stepped forward to greet Jia Qiong.

"Xiao Langjun, what book do you want to buy?"

"I want to see an anthology of poetry."

"This way, please."

Jia Qiong was led by his assistant to a row of bookshelves and began to read carefully.

In his memory, the famous literary giants before the Northern Song Dynasty, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, and Su Shi, basically had their representative works in this time and space.

However, there are some authors who were not very famous in their previous lives, but who wrote top-notch poems, but their original lives have no impression of them.

Especially after the Southern Song Dynasty, the original authors of many poems had no memory, even if they knew the authors of these poems had appeared in history.

For example, "Spring River Flowers and Moonlight Night" is said to be the only single chapter covering the entire Tang Dynasty, Song Jidao's "Linjiang Immortal", Xin Qiji's "Blue Jade Case·Yuan Xi" and so on.

I don’t know if these poems really didn’t exist in the history of this time and space, or if the original person appeared but I don’t know about it.

Logically speaking, no. If a poem and article of this level were ever published, it would definitely be widely circulated.

He just walked around downstairs and found that he had basically all the more common poetry collections on the market at home.

His mother was a talented woman, and her family had many poetry books.

There are common books like "Selected Tang Poems", "Appreciation of Song Poems", "Collected Works of Li Taibai", "Selected Collection of Five Character Rhymed Poems", etc.

Therefore, he wanted to find some rare and rare books that were rarely handed down from generation to generation and have a look at them, so as to avoid having his reputation ruined if he copied the works of his predecessors and had others point them out.

However, he searched around and found that the books here were only different in age and quality from those on the first floor.

Most of the books here are from the Tang and Song Dynasties, but the contents are basically the same as those on the first floor.

Obviously, the current booksellers compared the contents of the previous books and re-printed them and sold them, but the price was much cheaper than those of the Tang and Song Dynasties.

That's not what Jia Qiong wants to see. He wants to find those rare versions on the market so that he can find out the flaws.

Jia Qiong asked the waiter beside him: "Brother, I have read all these books. Is there any other poetry collections and anthologies?"

The guy looked at him with a half-smile and thought, just brag.

There are hundreds of books here, and although many of the poems are repetitive, there are thousands of poems at least, and you can still read them all.

However, the waiter still politely replied: "Xiao Langjun, the books we have here are the most comprehensive in Shenjing, and we have everything on the market.

You can take your time and pick, there must be something you haven't read. "

Jia Qiong ignored his little thoughts and continued to ask: "I have memorized these poems. I would like to see rare and unique copies that are not common on the market. Is there any one in the store?"

This time, before the guy could reply, the middle-aged man playing chess on the side spoke first.

"You are such a young kid but you have a strong tone. How can you memorize all the poetry collections in my store?

Don't you hear that it is better to say too much than to say too little? It is only true and don't be cunning. "

After saying that, he picked up the tea cup at hand and took a sip. He was obviously a good teacher.

Jia Qiong didn't expect that he could be educated by visiting a bookstore. The middle-aged man was mocking him for talking big and bragging.

He felt a little unhappy, but he didn't retort immediately, which would have been too uncharacteristic.

It happened that he found that the old man who was playing chess with the middle-aged man was at a disadvantage and was about to lose. He was frowning and thinking.

Jia Qiong was a master of Go in his previous life, and his level of Go hundreds of years later is not comparable to that of the ancients. He just glanced at it and found a way to break the game.

He Shi Shiran walked up to Lao Tao, and under the surprised gazes of the two people, he picked up a white piece from Lao Tao's chess box and dropped it on the chessboard without hesitation.

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(End of this chapter)