The daily routine of the ancient imperial examination

Lu Xiuyuan came out of Ping'an Hall, ready to find a profitable part-time job, but he couldn't find a suitable one after searching for a long time, either the wages were too low, or the contract period he signed was too long.

This time selling ginseng cost a lot of money, but Lu Dafu's body needs to take medicine for a long time to supplement nutrition. Now that the nourishing medicine is so expensive, the money will definitely not last long, and a stable source of income is still needed.

In the end, he still stopped in front of Zhenyuan Bookstore. This is a three-story luxury bookstore with magnificent decoration. There are various kinds of books in it, including encyclopedias and all kinds of books.

It is said that the boss behind it is very powerful, and it is also the place where the original owner used to study and work part-time. He uses his spare time to help others copy books and write letters to earn a little money to supplement his life.

After tidying up his clothes, Lu Xiuyuan walked into the bookshop. The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man, who was dozing off while sitting at the counter basking in the sun.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, the other party raised his head, and was stunned when he saw that it was him: "Lu Xiucai, it's been a long time. Where have you been busy?"

I explained to him that I was sick at home and didn't go out before, and I also explained my reason for coming to see if there is anyone who needs to copy books.

Shopkeeper Lin heard this, and a look of embarrassment flashed across his face, "I'm really sorry, Lu Xiucai, you were not here a while ago, so we had to recruit people again, and the new batch is almost copied now."

Lu Xiuyuan didn't feel too disappointed when he heard it. It's normal for someone to replace him when he's not here. What's more, the world is so big, he has hands and feet, so he can definitely find a suitable way to make money.

He briefly talked about what happened some time ago. He didn't mean it, and he sincerely apologized for the possible delay in copying the book.

Shopkeeper Lin expressed his understanding after hearing this, and did not blame him too much. Instead, he said that when winter is about to come, he can come over to help write couplets. It is possible to write every word and every article well.

Lu Xiuyuan quickly thanked him, the shopkeeper Lin is really warm-hearted.

Just as he was about to leave with his back on his back, a voice from the second floor stopped him.

"Wait, little scholar, come here."

The voice sounded familiar. He turned around and looked up, only to see that the person speaking on the second floor was the boy he met in the Ping An Hall this morning!

At this time, he lost the urgency he had in the pharmacy, but his superior tone and posture made people frown unknowingly.

"What's the matter?" Lu Xiuyuan asked.

"I have two books here that I need someone to help copy. Each book costs [-] Wen. Can I copy it?" The young man shook the two books in his hand and said.

This money was already twice the market price of copying books. Lu Xiuyuan glanced at shopkeeper Lin and wanted to ask about the situation, but found that the shopkeeper had shrunk behind the counter and was pretending to check the books, so he had no choice but to go up to the second floor.

There are a few more screens upstairs than the hall, which divide the space into several different areas. When Lu Xiuyuan went up, the young man was already sitting on the chair, pointing his hands at the table, and looking at him with his legs crossed.

"Here, just these two books, see if you can copy them."

What else can't be copied?Lu Xiuyuan was puzzled in his heart. After he opened the two books and read the contents, he suddenly understood what the boy meant. No wonder he gave such a high price.

These two books are not books, but stories about men and women talking about love, and they are the kind with action descriptions!

This, isn't it a bit exciting, I just crossed, and the first job to make money turned out to be copying color scripts for others?

Glancing at the opposite side from the corner of the eye, the table and chairs shook slightly, and the other side changed their sitting posture unnaturally.

Judging from the young man's appearance, he should be only fifteen or sixteen years old. It is the period of youthful agitation. It is not surprising that he likes to read this kind of book at this time. It's just that he can't buy any books if he has money. How could he think of asking himself to copy for him? ?

After looking through it roughly, the content of the two books is similar. They both tell the story of a poor scholar and an official lady.

Although the written plot is clichéd, but the action description is euphemistic and subtle, and I am used to the modern straightforward narrative, which seems to have a special flavor.

In this day and age, most people think that those who write scripts are not serious people, and there are very few scripts that write this kind of content. If someone finds out that someone wrote this, they will be cast aside by scholars thousands of times.

Of course, no one knows whether these serious people secretly watched.

Seeing Lu Xiuyuan's hesitation, the boy knocked on the table, "Have you finished reading it? Let me know if you can copy it or not."

When he was in the pharmacy just now, Shi Yunchen didn't pay much attention to this scholar, but now he took a closer look and found that although he was dressed in ordinary clothes, his neither humble nor overbearing attitude, his mannerisms, were obviously cultivated by reading a lot of books. , which is rare for ordinary people.

Different scholars have different temperaments, and because of the different books they read, they will have different connotations. From the looks of this scholar, he belongs to the category that is relatively simple and easy to deceive. This kind of person is also the most courageous, and forgive him. This matter spread out.

"If someone finds out that I copied this, then my study career will be ruined..." Lu Xiuyuan said in a low voice, although he didn't care about it, he said it just to negotiate conditions.

"God knows, you know, I know, don't worry, I will definitely not say anything about it." The young man stared at him with sincere eyes.

Lu Xiuyuan purposely paused for a moment, and only opened his mouth slowly when the young man's heart arose.

"Yes, but you need to pay more."

Seeing his promise, the young man's eyebrows widened, "It's okay to add money, but some places may need to be revised. If the changes are done, I'll add it to you!"

Lu Xiuyuan nodded in agreement.

The boy moved closer to him, and a very fresh grassy breath diffused between the two of them.

"My young master has been tired of watching the love between men and women recently, and now I like the protagonist to be my brother, please help me change the identity of the female in it, and remove all the male protagonist's concubines, so I will give you a big reward!"

like bro?Lu Xiuyuan took a look. The young man was tall and straight, with a natural expression, as if he was talking about a very ordinary thing.

He didn't find this request so strange. Modern literary works are flourishing, and there are all kinds of novels. This kind of thing is nothing at all.

The young master just has a unique taste. It happened that the time was limited and no one produced food, so that’s why he was like this. Fortunately, he is rich and can hire himself to customize it for him. Anyway, he only needs to change the font to copy, and he doesn’t worry about being recognized. , so nod in response.

The two have different ideas, but they have reached a consensus, and the next step is to exchange identities.

It turned out that the young man was called Shi Yunchen, and he was the younger brother of the owner of the book shop. The other party didn't explain his identity in detail, and he didn't ask questions. He was definitely not an ordinary person who could afford such a big book shop.

Afterwards, the details were finalized. The other party would provide the paper and ink, and Lu Xiuyuan would be responsible for the rewriting. He would pay a deposit of [-] Wen and come here to deliver the manuscript after a week.

In this way, he has another source of income. Although it is a bit shady and the money is not much, the consumption here is not high. A family only spends about one tael of silver a year. If you save a little, it will definitely be enough for Lu Dafu to support his legs OK

Leaving from the book store, he took out Lu Xiuwu's thick clothes and shook them, spread them on the bottom of the basket as a cushion, put the paper and ink in his arms on them, carefully put them away, and then walked to the place where his elder brother worked go.

At noon, he only drank two bowls of porridge before going out. He was already hungry, and the smell from the food stalls on the roadside kept drilling into his nostrils. He swallowed, and his stomach began to feel weak sang the empty city plan.

At first he could bear it, but when he walked to the steamed bun shop, the steamed buns steamed by the boss had just opened. The steaming big meaty buns had a strong aroma, and the aroma was so high that he couldn't move his feet instantly.

Seeing him stop, the boss greeted him enthusiastically: "Little brother, do you want to eat steamed buns? Big meat buns cost three yuan each, and two yuan for five yuan. The taste is delicious!"

Lu Xiuyuan glanced over, the buns in the drawer were all thin-skinned and stuffed, and they were crowded together, making people's index fingers twitch when looking at them.

He nodded and said, "It's quite delicious, but recently I'm tired of eating meat buns, is there any vegetarian stuffing?"

The boss was stunned for a moment, and quickly realized, "There are also vegetarian ones, two yuan for one, five yuan for three, how many do you want little brother?"

"Help me get six." He took out the ten Wen money given by Mrs. Zhang and handed it over.

"Hey~Okay~" The boss took the money, and the six buns were quickly wrapped in oiled paper and handed over, "Be careful, come back to our house next time you eat buns~"

"Yeah, definitely next time." He took two and ate while walking, and wrapped the rest in oil paper and put it in the basket.