North and South groceries

"Sell ink... ink...a penny and a half liter..."

"Hemp paper... goose feather..."

On this day, another peddler came to Xipo Village to sell such things as ink and goose feathers.

The accent at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty was much softer than that of the 21st century when the pronunciation was straight and round. The peddler's cries also had a bit of ancient rhyme in Luo Yong's ears.

The Si Niang Wu Lang and the others in the yard didn't care about what was going on. Listening to the hawking business, a few children led the big dog and the donkey, hula la, and ran to the place where the hawking sound came from.

Under the shade of a tree in front of Xu's guest house, the ink vendor was already surrounded by people.

Not all those who come to Luo to learn arithmetic here are gentry gentlemen, and many of them are from ordinary families and their economic conditions are not very affluent, just like some officials in their Lishi County before. In other words, it seems wasteful to use the good ink stick to grind the ink that can be stored in the ink bottle and used for the goose feather pen.

These ink vendors usually buy some broken or leftover ink sticks from some scholars in the county, grind them into ink at home, put them in clay pots, and pick them out with a load for sale. There are also a lot of profits.

There are many people using goose feather bamboo pens in Xipo Village, and the ink is consumed relatively quickly, so these hawkers can always sell some ink every time they come here.

Si Niang held a pottery pot, squeezed past several gentlemen who were picking goose feathers, approached the stall, and asked, "Is it cheaper to buy more?"

"Luo Si, why do you buy so much ink, but use it as tea?" Those cheap-talking Chang'an youths joked.

Si Niang ignored them, just looked up at the ink vendor, the vendor thought for a while, and replied, "If you can buy five Wen, I will give you three liters."

"Okay." Si Niang grinned, and happily handed him the clay pot she was holding in her hand.

"Si Niang, why did you buy so much ink?" an older person present also asked her.

"I'm useful." Si Niang took out five cents from her dusty little purse, and stood aside, watching the vendor fill her clay pot with ink.

"Buy so much, just be careful when you don't run out." Some people from poor families feel sorry for her money at this time. Five Wen is almost enough to buy a bucket of corn.

"I can't do it." Siniang smiled at them and didn't say much.

After buying the ink, the children of the Luo family didn't stay here any longer, and went back home with the donkey, donkey and dog.

"What is Luo Si doing these past few days, why don't you see her running outside?" Those Chang'an teenagers were a little curious.

"Arithmetic sometimes doesn't come."

"Some time ago, I saw her studying very hard, but now I can't say that I won't come. Alas, I'm still a child after all."

"I think she is probably doing something at home, but she doesn't even go to the sheep house much."

"That's true."

Who doesn't know that the fourth wife of the Luo family is a business fanatic. She used to be in charge of looking after the store at home. Later, Luo Sanlang closed the grocery store at home, and handed over the few businesses he had in hand to his disciples. , So Naluo Siniang spent the whole day at the sheep house watching other people do business.

It's interesting just looking at her, what an addiction that must be, it's really strange to say that she suddenly stopped going these few days.

Well, it’s not surprising to say that it’s really strange. A business fan like Siniang spends all day watching other people do business and collect money. How can she stand it? have to.

A few days ago, she told Luo Yong to set up a shop for her at the other side of the sheep house, and she would also sell goods there.

Luo Yong said, okay, no problem, what do you want to sell?

This question really stumped Si Niang. The business of my family has been transferred to the disciples of my elder brother at this moment, and now they are coming out of the whole shop over there, no matter how I think about it Not suitable.

In the end, Luo Yong gave her an idea, asking her to carve the Book of Songs on a flat wooden board again, this time instead of making a soap mold, brush it with ink and print it on the paper.

When the entire book is engraved, you can print as many as you want, and you can print a sheet of paper with one stroke of ink. How fast is that.

"There are so many prints, but someone will buy them?" Si Niang and Wu Lang were a little excited when they heard Luo Yong's words, but they were still a little worried. The cost of paper and ink is not too small. What if it can't be sold.

"Look at the goose feather bamboo pens now available, and the ink on hemp paper is not expensive. There must be more people who want to read characters than before. As long as the booklets you make don't sell too expensively, people will definitely buy them." Luo Yong said. The two of them said.

Then the two of them were only busy with this during this period of time. Together, they planned to carve out the part of "Guofeng·Southern Zhou Dynasty", print out some booklets, and sell them in the shop next to the sheep house. look.

Luo Yong was not idle either, and when he was free, he would take a wooden board and carve along with him. What he carved were not characters, but patterns of flowers and plants. Because of his previous skills in making peony cushions, these flowers and plants were carved this time. It was relatively smooth.

Si Niang Wu Lang and the others have just engraved a few pieces. Luo Yong carved out three patterns here. Brush it once or twice on the stereotype, then take a piece of paper of appropriate size to cover it, and gently wipe the back of the paper with your hands. After peeling it off, there are some beautiful light-colored flower patterns on the paper.

Si Niang Wu Lang and the others just put their heads down to engraving, and Luo Yong took the two little ones at home to help them cut the paper and print the patterns in advance.

Today a peddler selling ink came to the village, and Siniang and the others ran out to buy some ink, planning to print some book pages with the engraving blocks they had carved recently to see the effect.

Printing is actually quite technical. If there is too much ink, it will become blurred, and if there is too little ink, it will be too thin. Siniang and the others have tried several times before they finally figured out the way.

After practicing a few times with some residual paper, I officially used the good paper that Luo Yong had previously printed patterns on. This paper was also specially bought by Luo Yong from the county town. I don’t know what was added to it. It is much finer and softer than ordinary hemp paper. It is said that it comes from Guannei Road on the other side of the Yellow River. Within the acceptable range of the family, there are many people who buy it.

When the first page of the book was printed, Siniang and the others were amazed by the fruits of their own labor. The delicate off-white paper surface, the looming light green patterns, and the rich and moist ink color letters are really beautiful to look at!

In the days that followed, the two of them, Siniang and Wulang, were even more motivated, thinking about making the first batch of brochures as soon as possible, and selling them for money as soon as possible.

When Luo Yong is not busy, he helps them with printing at home, and the two little ones in the family can also help pass paper and sweep up sawdust.

Si Niang has also learned to be good now, and she doesn't criticize anymore, just like Liu Lang Qiniang works, here and there, she still praises her hard, and the two children run back and forth to help her.

Liulang and Qiniang are six years old this year, and they can run. It is said that they are the age that causes the most headaches for parents.But Luo Yong thinks that children of this age are pretty good, they can understand people's language, and they are very easy to coax, and Si Niang probably thinks the same way.

As for Goro, Goro feels that his brothers and sisters are not kind people.

After working for a while, Siniang and the others finally finished their first batch of booklets of the Book of Songs.

The book cover is a piece of light blue paper, with the words "Book of Songs" and "Guofeng Southern Zhou" printed on the front, a string of small plain flowers printed on the back, and two lines of small characters at the bottom:

North and South Miscellaneous Publishing.

July of the tenth year of Zhenguan.

As for the place where books are sold, Luo Yong never asked Siniang and the others to go to the sheep house. It was far away from the entrance of the village and there were a lot of people there. A small shop, let the children in the family watch the shop and sell books when they are free.

Siniang and the others were somewhat dissatisfied with this point, but recently the sheep house has become very lively and there are many people there. Many peddlers will not come to the village after buying what they need in the sheep house.

As a result, as soon as their booklet was launched in this store here, it achieved a sensational effect. It was sold out on the same day, and there was not a single copy left.

The most important customer group is those scholars who live in Xu's guest house. They all buy them back and give them to their family members. Some words are also good.

Moreover, Luo Siniang and the others made this booklet. Although the material is not the best, the workmanship is exquisite, and the price is not high. Buy a few copies and share them with the girls at home. It is also good to put it in the boudoir as a decoration.

The first batch of booklets were sold out, so naturally they had to reprint them as soon as possible, but Si Niang and Wu Lang wanted to carve out the next booklet as soon as possible, and they were so busy all day long that they could not wait to have three heads and six arms.

"Luo Si, it turns out that you can recite the Book of Songs." On this day, Bai Yimao and the others managed to finish their after-school homework for the day. They had nothing to do, so they went to the small shop next door to see Siniang and the others. printed book.

"A little bit at the beginning." Si Niang didn't really want to talk to these people, she just knew how to shake around when she was free all day.

"I can't tell." These guys had nothing to say.

"Hmph..." This clearly means that she looks like an uneducated person.

"But your handwriting is really not very good." The Chang'an youths said again.

"..." Si Niang fell silent, she was busy, these guys were going to make trouble here again.

"That's the wooden board you used to carve?" These people really knew each other very well.

"Wait for me to carve one for you to see." The boy Bai Yimao said, he took a piece of wood and started to carve it.

"I'll engrave one too, where are you engraving?"

"After Zhou Nan is engraved, naturally it should be Zhao Nan."

"Is there still a carving knife?"

"Okay, let's take it ourselves."

Si Niang originally wanted to tell them not to mess around, but her mind turned and somehow turned to Liu Lang Qiniang.

So she kept silent, still just busy with her own work, and when they finished engraving, she smiled at a few people for the first time, nodded her head and praised: "I have been practicing calligraphy since I was a child, and the engraved characters are really more beautiful." some."

"Naturally, it's more beautiful than your engravings." The two-year-old boys were very proud. Isn't this Luo Siniang very powerful? How about it, let's give in this time.

"Well, it is indeed better than mine." Siniang followed suit.

"Don't be discouraged, as long as you practice hard, your handwriting will soon look better." This feeling of pride is beyond words.

"Are you still coming tomorrow?" Si Niang asked them.

"Come over when you are free." He said as if they would not be free one day.

On the second day, without any suspense, these people came again, on the third day, they came again, on the fourth day, they came again...

Second Uncle Bai felt a little strange, what are these boys doing in the next door shop all day?There is an old saying that men and women have different seats at the age of seven, between men and women, there should be taboos or taboos, don't ruin the reputation of other young ladies.

As a result, he ran to the next shop to see that his nephew, who was almost as tall as himself when he stood up, was being coaxed by a ten-year-old hairy girl to sweat profusely and engraving letters there. . .

"Wow, you can carve so fast!"

"What is this, I can go faster!"

"This edition is better engraved than yesterday's."

"I didn't play well yesterday."

"..."