The ink was ready-made and there was no need to grind it. Li Jianbo helped cut the paper. Li Wei started writing as soon as he picked up the pen. Anyway, the Spring Festival couplets were those ready-made auspicious words, so he could write as many as he wanted.
Li Wei's handwriting is grand yet graceful, and his speed is fast, but he finished it in five minutes.
More and more people were watching. One of the old men shook his head and said, "It looks good this time. I'm afraid I won't be able to do it after decades of practice."
A young man nearby said, "This girl isn't that old, where can she go to practice for decades?"
Everyone laughed, and someone started to ask about the price. Li Jianbo said, "It's fifty cents a pair."
"You want fifty cents? Ready-made ones over there only cost thirty cents."
Before Li Jianbo could say anything, Li Jianping rushed to speak: "Others write and sell it now? Doesn't my sister want the hard-earned money? You all say that her calligraphy is good, isn't it worth the price?"
The old man shook his head again and said: "The writing is really good, and it is worth the money. I will buy four pairs."
Li Jianbo was still hesitating whether the price had been set too high and he would have opened the store unexpectedly. The old man picked out the Spring Festival couplets, and Li Jianping helped to roll them up, tied them with a straw rope, and said with a smile: "Thank you for your patronage, and you're on your way."
But many people still feel that it is too expensive. There are many people watching the excitement, but few actually buying it. Li Wei's eyes hurt and his wrists hurt after writing all morning.
"How many pairs were sold?"
Li Jianbo made a mark for each pair he sold. He glanced at the characters on the slate, nodded and said with a smile, "Ten pairs in total."
Li Jianping said: "It's only ten pairs. Come on, except for the money to buy paper and ink, I didn't earn much." Seeing that the business was too small, he lost much interest. He no longer helps to look after the stalls and is completely left to his younger siblings.
However, the brother and sister's interest remained unabated, and they continued selling until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when there were fewer pedestrians on the street, then they closed the stall and went back.
After working for a long time, I sold a total of 6 yuan and 50 cents.
"Will you continue going tomorrow?" Li Jianbo asked Li Wei.
"Of course you go. There are still a lot of red papers. In addition to selling Spring Festival couplets, we can also write some blessing characters to sell."
Li Jianbo thought it was okay, so he agreed.
Spring couplets cost 40 cents a pair, and blessing words cost 20 cents each.
Li Wei can write both cursive and bird seal scripts, not to mention stele style.
Li Jianbo was dumbfounded again. When did this sister learn seal script? Even he didn't quite recognize the seal characters. Only then did Li Wei realize that the fuss had gone too far. He smiled awkwardly and quickly changed the topic.
After setting up the stall for two consecutive days, they earned a few dollars every day. Although it was not much, it was enough for the brother and sister. So the two decided to set up a stall to sell Spring Festival couplets during the day and go back at night. Li Jianbo helped Li Wei with his homework.
Soon, the day came, the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. The brother and sister went out early in the morning and still set up a stall to sell Spring Festival couplets.
Business was pretty good today. Although he was a little tired, Li Wei felt that it was worth it when he saw that he had made a lot of money.
"Li Wei, so your handwriting is so good?" Someone in the crowd had already recognized her.
Li Wei looked up for a week, and finally his eyes locked on a young man. Isn't that Zhou Bin
"You want to take care of my business. If you leave, I won't sell it to you." Li Wei hated this young man.
Zhou Bin stood there awkwardly and saw Li Wei lowering his head to write, and the words he wrote were so wonderful. He thought of the love letter again, the words on it seemed like chicken claws crawling over it. How could she become so powerful after not seeing each other for just a few days
"Will you still come to study?"
Li Wei didn't answer his words, so Li Jianbo answered for him: "Go, of course I will."
Zhou Bin didn't buy it, so he stood by the stall and stared blankly. After a while, he said, "Li Wei, what happened last time was my fault. Don't take it personally."
Don't take it personally? Don't take it personally if a little girl loses her face in school. If it weren't for him, would that little girl end up in a dead end
Li Wei gritted his teeth and said bitterly: "Get out of here, don't dirty my land and delay my business."
Zhou Bin saw that the anger on Li Wei's face was very different from before. He knew it was not good to provoke Li Wei again, so he ran away in a hurry.
Shortly after Zhou Bin left, Li Wei's former class teacher, Teacher Song, came.
Teacher Song saw with his own eyes that it was written by Li Wei, and he couldn't believe his eyes. He was still very enthusiastic to support the students and bought five Spring Festival couplets with five blessing characters. Before leaving, he said: "Your student status is still retained. If you still want to come back to study, it's not impossible."
After setting up the stall that day, the two of them stopped selling again the next day. They made less than 15 yuan in total these days. Li Wei said they would split it equally, but Li Jianbo gave his sister ten yuan.
"We agreed to share it equally, why did you give me so much?" Li Wei looked at her second brother in surprise.
Li Jianbo said very generously: "You wrote it all, and the rest is for hard work."
"Then you paid the capital."
"It's okay. We've already paid back our money. We'll set up a stall again next year."
As long as it can make money, there is nothing wrong with it, Li Wei readily agreed.
At this time, Li Jianbo took out a piece of white paper and said to his sister: "Write me a picture of spring snow in Qinyuan."
Li Jianbo took out the Chinese language book, turned to the page and pointed.
Li Wei glanced down and praised, "This poem is so majestic and majestic."
"Old Taizu's stuff is certainly grand."
"Which calligraphy do you like, small regular script with hairpin flowers, or cursive script?"
Li Jianbo thought for a while and said, "Just pick what you are best at."
Li Wei thought carefully for a while, and thought that this word was grand, and the small regular script with hairpin flowers smelled of powder was not suitable. After much deliberation, I still think it’s better to go with grass. Later, he began to write slowly by imitating the handwriting of Cao Sheng.
Li Wei was concentrating on writing, while the radio on the table played festive New Year music, breaking the tranquility in the room.
Li Jianbo watched blankly from the side. This sister seemed to be a little different from before.
Many years later, Li Jianbo often recalled today's scene and still felt that this was their best time.
It didn't take much time for Li Wei to write: "Second brother, what do you think? Is it okay?"
Not only did it work, it was simply too good. Li Jianbo looked at it carefully several times as if he had found a treasure, and said with a smile: "I will frame it well and keep it for the rest of my life."
Li Wei felt relieved when her brother liked it.
The Chinese New Year is coming soon. These days, Li Wei follows Li Jianbo outside and doesn't pay much attention to his family. Li Minghua once again left the shopkeeper alone and did nothing. Liu Chunzhi had to clean the house alone, and was also busy making tofu, jelly, fried peanuts, and fried sweet potatoes. Then Li Minghua didn't even help to light the fire, she did it all by herself. Now everything is finally ready and waiting for the New Year.
(End of chapter)