Xiangye

Chapter 10 Don't Monkeys
This box of books alone was enough. Gao Wen had sharp eyes and found that there were three other boxes behind the screen.Counting 100 books in a box, there are at least [-] small Huang Wen in Linlang Bookstore.

Can't help but take a breath, the enthusiasm of the ancients is quite high!It really is a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred birds contending.It is also because there are so many messy words that the book has been handed down to the world, and with a large number of cornerstones, the novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties have become another peak of ancient literature.

"This book..."

Before Gao Wen finished speaking, Boss Yu laughed and said, "Fifty coins a copy."

Fifty Wen is not expensive. If it is converted into the price of rice, it will look like three or forty yuan in later generations.

"Fifty Wen!"

"Actually, you don't need to buy this kind of book. It's enough to read this kind of book once." Seeing Gao Wen's shabby clothes, Boss Yu thought he was a humble scholar, so he said, "You can rent it back, and return it after you finish reading it." Just come back. The rent is three renminbi a day, and you only need to pay a deposit of [-] renminbi, which will be refunded after deducting the rent when you return the book.”

Three pennies, that is, one dollar.Not to mention scholars, even ordinary poor people can afford it, but it's just a matter of missing a steamed bun for breakfast every day.

"It's still available for rent..." Gao Wen felt even more curious: I'm so stupid, isn't this the book rental store for future generations?Unexpectedly, this kind of business model has existed since ancient times. If I could save a few days in bookstores and read a few books of Huang Yi and Wen Ruian, I might have gone to Peking University or Tsinghua University.

"Of course, of course, brother, you choose first, and let me know when you are done." Boss Yu walked to the table, took out a ledger, opened it, and was about to register it for Gao Wen.

Gao Wen stopped reading it, and followed him to chat with him: "Boss Yu, did you print this book yourself or did you buy it from another place?"

"Buy, am I stupid? What do you do with that money?" I have already decided in my heart that Gao Wen is a poor scholar who wants to find excitement from pornographic books that are not suitable for children. , buy a copy, typeset and print it yourself, and have as many as you want.”

It turned out that there was no such thing as copyright in the Ming Dynasty. When a book came out, as long as the merchant felt it was profitable, he immediately asked the workers to arrange the layout and quickly printed hundreds of copies for sale.If it is too late, once Bieshufang takes the lead and seizes the market, all the books you print will be at hand.

Therefore, to put it bluntly, the bookstores in the Ming Dynasty were all in the form of a store in the front and a factory in the back, and they were quasi-miniature publishing houses.

Hearing what Boss Yu said, Gao Wen felt a little disappointed.Yes, the ancients were not aware of copyright, and they were afraid that once their "Journey to the West" came out, only a few copies would be sold, and pirated copies would fly wild, and most of the money would be taken by others.

However, seeing that the scale of Linlang's study is not small, and the boss has some strength in Hancheng's cultural circle, if he cooperates with him, if he operates properly, he may not be unable to make a lot of money.

"Boss Yu, I would like to ask you for advice. If I write a novel, will you accept it or not? How much will I write?"

Boss Yu looked at Gao Wen up and down for a long time, and then said: "It turns out that my brother also writes books on weekdays, so I'm disrespectful and disrespectful. Speaking of which, I also have contacts with scholars in this county, and I have received a few essays from them. Made a collection. But when it comes to writing novels, Mr. Gao is still No.1.” Hearing that Gao Wen can write stories, his name also changed, and he replaced the little brother with Mr. Xiao.

"This embellisher?"

Boss Yu: "I have never confiscated any novels before, but I often go to the bookstores in Xi'an. If your book is really good, you can follow the rules of the provincial capital. A book of [-] characters costs five cents. .Of course, the book must be good-looking."

My grass, only five dollars, less than 400 yuan RMB.Gao Wen cursed inwardly: He really is a profiteer.

Thirty thousand words are less than four hundred, that is to say, the manuscript fee for this book is about ten yuan per thousand words.Even if I am a shooter for someone else, a thousand words is still good at fifty!Isn't this insulting?It's okay to insult my Gao Wen's splendid articles, but you can't insult the four great classics, insult Brother Monkey!

Today, my opening article is less than [-] words, converted into manuscript fees, it is only [-] cents.This amount of money is not enough to set up a table of teeth-beating sacrifices in the restaurant. Even if you cut a few taels of stewed pork head meat at the roast meat stall on the street, you have to keep an eye on the scale in hand of the shopkeeper, for fear of being hacked. Big oil.

Brother, I came here to contribute today, and I am not a peddler in the market.

At that moment, Gao Wen couldn't help but wanted to walk away, and even pointed at Boss Yu's face and scolded him for being blind and ignorant of me, a future literary giant.

But after thinking about it, this Hancheng is bigger than this study.If you think about it, even if you go to other places, the price offered by others is probably even lower.Going to Xi'an to sell papers, there is nowhere to raise the travel expenses.Is it true that a penny is a hero, but he has fallen into the predicament of Qin Qiong selling horses.

In order to support my son who is not up to expectations and has no ability to take care of himself at home, my old mother who has blinded her eyes, brother, I endured it today.

Having poked his finger out, Gao Wen had a thought, abruptly took it back, pulled out the manuscript from his sleeve and handed it over, and said with an apologetic smile: "Mr., aside from the price, you can first see if the manuscript is available."

For this book, Gao Wen has such strong confidence.The reason why a masterpiece becomes a masterpiece is not self-proclaimed, but it has been tested by countless readers for hundreds of years.The big waves wash away, and the rest is real gold.

This poor old man hasn't read the manuscript, so he naturally fights back to lower my manuscript fee, which is also understandable, no business, no adultery!
But as long as he reads a few pages, I don't believe he won't be conquered by Mr. Wu Chengen's amazing talent and the magnificent world in the book.

At that time, let's talk about the price and see what this little old man has to say.

Seeing the manuscript and the beautiful calligraphy handed over by Gao Wen, Boss Yu's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help saying: "Good handwriting, I'm afraid that the word "Xiao Xianggong" has been worked on for many years, and I don't know who it is. This novel is really a violation."

Violation is the local dialect, which means white blind.

In this era, people who can write well are probably not low in knowledge. One is that their writing is like a person.Furthermore, if you want to practice good calligraphy, the most important thing is to practice calligraphy.In ancient times, famous copybooks were not accessible to ordinary people.To be honest, the calligraphy written by many scholars in this era is actually at the level of high school students in later generations, with crooked strokes and no charm.No way, limited by material conditions.

How can it compare to the modern society with advanced information technology, as long as you want to learn calligraphy, as long as you are willing to pay the tuition fee, there are calligraphy interest special classes everywhere.If you want to make a copy, search on the computer, there are as many copybooks by famous masters as you want, Yan Feihuan thin, big breasts and fat buttocks... Uh, Su Huang Mi Cai, Wang Lu Yang Luo, Yan Ou Liu Zhang, you can be dazzled.

Seeing the beautiful writing on the manuscript, Boss Yu praised it a few words, invited Gao Wen to sit down, poured another cup of tea and handed it over.Then he stroked his beard and began to read.

I'm not afraid that you offer a low price, but I'm afraid that you won't read it.Gao Wen slowly sipped the tea, pretending to be calm and looking at the street scene outside, but the corner of his eyes never left Boss Yu for a moment.

Looking at it this way, it doesn't feel right.Boss Yu read very casually, so he quickly read the first few pages, and then closed the manuscript.

After thinking about it in my heart, I understood: Haha, the masterpiece is indeed a masterpiece, and there is no need to finish reading it. One or two thousand words are enough, which is enough to touch people's hearts and highlight its value.

"The old man finished reading?"

Boss Yu stroked his beard again, and said, "So it's about the Monkey King protecting Xuanzang on his journey to the west to learn Buddhist scriptures. There are quite a few people who know about this story." In other words, the audience is very wide.

In fact, before Journey to the West was written, the story of Master Xuanzang, the monkey king who protected him, traveled to the west to learn Buddhist scriptures had already taken shape.There was "Da Tang Western Regions" at the earliest, and there were many folk legends later.In the Song Dynasty, there was "Da Tang San Zang Qu Jing Shi Hua", and in the middle of the Yuan Dynasty, it was adapted into Yuan Zaju, which can be regarded as a classic repertoire.When Wu Chengen wrote "Journey to the West", he also made a second creation on the basis of these books and folklore.

"How about it, old gentleman, how much is my book worth?" Gao Wen glanced at him triumphantly.

"The story of the monkey... Sorry, no monkeys." Boss Yu said firmly, he put the manuscript on the table, and gently pushed it back in front of Gao Wen.

(End of this chapter)