Yang Wan changed her clothes, tied her hair into a bun, put on a hairpin, and went out with a smooth face.
She went straight to Donggong Street.
The spring examination was approaching, and candidates were rushing to the capital from all over. In Changhe Lane behind Donggong Street, the business of several inns was gradually getting better.
Yang Wan walked out of the side door of Changhe Lane and walked west for a few dozen steps until she arrived at the back alley of Qingbo Pavilion.
The shopkeeper was eating in the shop. When he saw Yang Wan coming, he hurriedly asked the waiters to put down their bowls and chopsticks, and stood up to greet her, "The boss is here."
Some of the new employees saw Yang Wan for the first time. They didn't expect their boss to be such a young and pretty woman. They stared at her unconsciously. The shopkeeper saw this and turned around to knock on their heads, "What the hell? Our boss is the wife of the director of the East Factory."
"East Factory..."
The two guys looked at each other, lowered their heads and knelt on the ground.
"We are offended, we are offended..."
Yang Wan dodged to the side and said, "Don't be like this, you guys eat your meal, I just came here to watch."
The shopkeeper saw that Yang Wan was uncomfortable, so he stepped forward and said, "Why don't you go upstairs and sit for a while. I'll tell them a few words and then I'll come back to answer your questions."
"good."
The front hall faces the street, and the entire Donggong Street can be seen from the windows on the second floor.
Every time Yang Wan came to Qingbo Pavilion, she liked to sit by the window for a while.
The new person she hired as the shopkeeper after she took over is from Fujian. He is not very good at speaking official language, but he is good at business. He is efficient and smart. He asked someone to bring tea to Yang Wan, and he stood beside Yang Wan and talked clearly.
"Sit down and talk."
"Okay."
He sat down and handed the account and the newly printed book to Yang Wan, and said, "This batch of ink comes from Anhui. The quantity is not large. As you said, we have bought it all. The people from Kuanqintang came to us yesterday and gave us a profit of one cent. Shuo wants half of the quantity from us."
Yang Wan took a sip of tea and said, "Tell them that we want 5% interest."
The shopkeeper frowned, "Boss, I'm not saying anything, but 3% profit is already considerable, 5%... I don't think they will agree. We still have a lot of ink in stock, and it's useless to keep it. When spring is over and the weather gets warmer, it will all be wasted. There's no point."
Yang Wan held the tea and lowered her head to walk towards the Kuanqin Hall opposite.
The front hall was crowded with people, and it was very lively. Yang Wan stood up, leaned on the railing and asked, "What are they doing?"
"Hi."
The shopkeeper stood up and said, "The candidate from Chushan Academy... Zhou Muyi wrote a humorous article a few days ago, called "Eating Dogs". Have you read it, boss?"
The so-called "eating a dog" means killing a dog. The language is cunning and obscure. The whole article alludes to Deng Ying and Bai Huan, and uses the name of "dog" to scold Deng Ying to the point of being completely destroyed.
Deng Ying read this article earlier than anyone else. After reading it, she was silent for a long time before asking about Zhou Muyi's background.
The subordinates reported that Zhou Muyi was a relative of Zhou Congshan, who had lived in the south since childhood and was very good at studying.
The factory guards all thought that Deng Ying wanted to put this man in jail, but Deng Ying never mentioned the matter again.
Later, the article was printed by Kuanqintang and circulated wildly in the imperial examination circle. Later, even many students in the official schools read it, some made notes, some made jokes, and the more it was spread, the more popular it became.
"I have seen it."
Seeing that Yang Wan's expression was unchanged, the shopkeeper said, "I was afraid that the boss would be angry if I told him, so I never mentioned it to his family."
Yang Wan leaned against the railing and said, "It's okay. The governor has been here before and even said that the article was well written and the scolding was very enjoyable."
The shopkeeper laughed and said, "That's because the governor is kind, but these people are too ungrateful."
Yang Wan shook her head. "We know that the Taiping desk is not easy to come by, and we don't want to argue too much with the students. By the way, is Zhou Muyi in Kuanqin Hall today?"
"Yes. I sent someone to ask a while ago. Today, the East Factory is going to Bai Ge's house to arrest someone. They are gathered there to discuss this matter. In addition to the students, there are also several Donglin officials."
Yang Wan smiled and said, "That's why I said Kuanqintang won't last long."
"What does the boss mean?"
Yang Wan said, "We and Kuanqintang are both bookshops that run by private companies. We don't have a government-run background. If we get involved in government politics, we won't survive long. Not only will we not make any money, we'll also lose our heads."
The shopkeeper laughed and said, "What you said is really interesting, but how can we do business now? Having so much ink piled up is not a solution after all."
Yang Wan walked towards the direction of Changhe Lane and asked, "How many inns are there in Changhe Lane?"
"Oh, I don't know the exact number yet, but I estimate there are about ten."
Yang Wan nodded and said, "Let's give it a try and do business with these ten or so companies."
"Master, you need to explain it more clearly."
Yang Wan turned around and said, "It's nothing. It's just like the way you set up the market for the autumn examination. Collect all our ink reserves and use them all to print the books for the examination. Don't worry about the binding. Use the lowest cost thread binding and keep the price down."
The shopkeeper was a little puzzled. "When the imperial examination came around, the big bookstores all tried to lower their prices. In the end, no one made much money."
Yang Wan said: "We can earn it."
"How do I earn it?"
Yang Wan raised her hand and pointed towards Changhe Lane, "We'll move some of the books and scriptures to the inn and set up a stall."
"What?"
Yang Wan continued, "We don't need too much. If we bring too much, it will take up space in the inn. Just the right amount is fine. We can then allocate some of the money to the inn. When we set up a stall, they can no longer allow books from other bookstores to enter. When the Spring Examination is over, we can put the latest books and picture albums there. But that's a story for later. Let's make money from the Spring Examination first."
The shopkeeper listened in a trance.
Yang Wan lowered her hands and said, "You start working on it first. If it works well, everyone will get money."
The shopkeeper came back to his senses and looked at Yang Wan's expression and couldn't help saying, "You are really thoughtful about doing business."
Yang Wan sat down by the window again and said, "I wonder if I can buy Kuanqintang next year."
When the shopkeeper heard him say that, he couldn't help but call him, "Boss."
"Um?"
"May I ask you a question?"
"you say."
The shopkeeper raised his head and said, "You are the governor's man. You don't have anything you want. Why bother with all this?"
Yang Wan lowered her head and smiled, "No matter what others think of the East Factory, the East Factory will not do anything to seize it. But doing business should be done slowly. I have never done business before, but I have some ideas. The rest depends on you. I don't want to do other businesses. I just want to do the bookstore business, do it for a long time, accumulate some money, and then I can live out my life when I am old."
The shopkeeper stood up and said, "Boss, I understand. Please pass on your instructions."
"Thank you very much."
Yang Wan bowed to the shopkeeper, turned around and went downstairs again.
There was a lot of noise, with Deng Ying's official name and Bai Huan's honorific name being mentioned in between. In a place near Shuntian Prefecture, young people gathered and started a hearty denunciation. Under the verbal and written criticism, Deng Ying was stripped of everything.
Yang Wan thought of the person lying next to her with his lower body naked last night, and suddenly her whole body trembled.
She didn't know when it started, but she didn't want to persuade Deng Ying to leave anymore.
No matter what Deng Ying wanted to do, Yang Wan decided not to question whether it was worth it.
On the contrary, she herself could not open her mouth. It was not impossible for her to have a battle of pens. Yang Wan in modern society was also a lone fighter in the academic circle. So what if she went back six hundred years ago? She was still Yang Wan, the Yang Wan who wrote "The Biography of Deng Ying". Compared with the academic circle of that year, this bustling capital city was more lively and complicated. Deng Ying could not speak, so could he let the mouthpiece of the Ming Dynasty speak for him
Yang Wan closed her eyes, the wind from upstairs blew on her cheeks, the rain had stopped, and the voices of the crowd were clear and unified.
Yang Wan took off her hairpin and threw it at Zhou Muyi who was standing in front of the hall and talking loudly. The man was hit on the shoulder and stopped talking and shouted, "Who!"
Yang Wan stood by the window and said loudly, "Me."
As she spoke, she tucked her hair around her ears and said, "Mr. Zhou, people's words should be feared, but words should be respected. You are not afraid of the former, and you do not respect the latter. This is really a shame for scholars."
Zhou Muyi walked out of the crowd, "Who are you?"
Yang Wan lowered her head and looked at him, "The woman who served the eunuch you mentioned."
The crowd was in an uproar. Someone looked up and shouted, "Only prostitutes are willing to serve eunuchs. You are shameless. You show up in front of us and speak nonsense. You even dare to hurt people who have achieved honors. We will report you to the authorities and put you in shackles and put you in public."
"Go ahead."
Yang Wanping uttered two words.
The man who had just spoken was stunned.
Yang Wan tilted her head and said, "Anyone can say anything, but do you dare to take responsibility for what you said? Do you dare to fulfill it? Even if I am a prostitute, so what? Don't you think it is elegant to visit prostitutes for fun? How can you be more noble than eunuchs?"
"you… "
The man was almost pissed off.
Yang Wan interrupted him and said, "I know that what I said now has no meaning in your eyes, but I still want to say it again."
As she spoke, she stared at Zhou Muyi and said, "Mr. Zhou, people's words are scary, but words should be respected. When you open your mouth and write, please think twice about your identity. Not everyone who wears a robe is a Confucian scholar. Some people are wearing the skin of scholars, but because they eat too much dog meat, they have become a dog's head."
After she finished speaking, she laughed to herself and turned to walk behind the window.
The people downstairs started to discuss, "Who is this woman?"
"Isn't this clear? That Yang Wan was previously betrothed to Zhang Luo, the son of the Zhang family, and later became the wife of the supervisor of the East Factory."
When this happened, there was sighing everywhere.
Then someone shouted, "Shameless! Really shameless! The Zhang family should take her back and lock her up!"
The crowd agreed.
Yang Wan leaned against the wall, listening to the sounds outside the building. She lowered her head, smiled, and talked to herself with her arms folded.
"Deng Xiaoying, you are really patient."
Deng Ying was standing in front of the door of Bai's house at this time. He suddenly felt a stabbing pain on the top of his head, and he had to raise his hand to press it.
Seeing his pale face, Qin Wende hurriedly said, "We don't have to wait any longer. The Bai Mansion has no intention of opening the door!"
"Don't panic."
Qin Wende looked back at Deng Ying's ankle and said, "Master, you couldn't stand just now. We have waited for so long, and we have done our best."