It is indeed not easy to sell books at a stall.
Xu Zhen waited for a day, and then another young man came, exchanged two clean mustaches for a book, and took it home to study.
Xu Zhen squatted in the corner for a whole day, suffering from sore back and backache, regretting the past, and decided to let everything go by fate in the future.
In the next few days, she took care of the little beggar and tried to chat with the little beggar.
It's a pity that the little beggar Hua cherishes words like gold and never speaks.
Xu Zhen was so bored, she couldn't help teasing the little beggar when feeding her medicine.
"What's your name? How old are you? Eight years old? Six years old?" Xu Zhen raised her hand to make the little beggar sit upright, "Get up and drink the medicine."
The little beggar was wearing an overly spacious shirt with large sleeves, the sleeves were rolled thick and bulging, and the hem was so long that it could almost be used as a bed.
She sat on her knees, put her hands on the bottom of the bowl, put her lips to the rim of the cup, and drank it gurglingly, returning the wooden bowl to Xu Zhen after drinking.
Xu Zhen pinched her face: "Drinking medicine is not polite at all, why ignore me, you book thief." She paused as she spoke, and added, "But being a scholar is not called stealing, are you a scholar? Can you read or not?"
The little beggar turned her head to look at Xu Zhen for a while, but still kept her body upright, her gaze slightly lowered, motionless, like a statue.
It was obviously a small one, but the scars at the end of the eyes added a bit of solemnity with vicissitudes of life.
Xu Zhen has gotten used to it in the past few days, so she doesn't make things difficult for her, and said with a smile: "Okay, this is the last medicine for today, sit for a while after drinking, don't go to sleep directly."
The little beggar looked up at her again.
Xu Zhen also looked at her.
Facing the sunlight, she suddenly discovered that the bottom of the little beggar's eyes seemed to have a bit more dark blue, like patterns brewing in obsidian, very beautiful.
Sure enough, he is of Hu people's blood.
Children in the neighborhood like to make fun of the barbarians, saying that these people are monsters who eat raw meat and drink hot blood, and they should never get close.
As a time traveler, Xu Zhen naturally didn't think so. Now that she saw these eyes, she liked them very much and wanted to see them more deeply.
"Are you a barbarian?" Xu Zhen asked, "Which ethnicity?"
She asked for fun, without much hope.
Unexpectedly, the little beggar opened his mouth, and the sound of saws rubbing was heard, which was hard to hear clearly.
Xu Zhen was a little surprised, she leaned forward and asked, "Where is it?"
The little beggar closed her mouth for a while, then said, "Thank you."
Xu Zhen was very happy to be thanked, and felt that the little beggar was really a polite child.
She continued to chat with the little beggar. After chatting for a while, the little beggar didn't answer much, but just sat upright with a flat expression.
Seeing that she was silent, Xu Zhen knew that she hadn't recovered yet, so she waved her to let her continue to rest.
The wooden door was closed, and there was complete silence inside the door.
Xu Zhen went back to her room on straw sandals and was about to take a nap when she suddenly thought of her expenses for the past few days, so she hurried to the cabinet and counted all her deposits.
After realizing that she only had more than twenty copper coins left, she covered her head in pain.
too poor.
It seems that in addition to doing good deeds, making money is also very important.
Xu Zhen hid the purse back, ran to the kitchen, picked up a piece of meatloaf, wrapped it in oil paper, ate a few bites, and walked out the door quickly.
There is a lot of people outside the door, pedestrians are hurrying, and horseshoes are neighing in the distance, which seems to come from the sky. Looking up, you can see the continuous peaks, green overlapping, smoky, and smudged into a painting.
Occasionally, the cold wind hits, the light shakes and waves, and the skirts of people who blow it dance together.
Xu Zhen was slapped in the face by someone else's belt again, she shook her head in a daze, and continued to eat meatloaf against the wind.
Walking to the market, an old man ran behind her and shouted, "Sir, sir!"
Xu Zhen felt that the voice was familiar, and when she looked back, she realized that the person calling her was the person who bought a popular science book on flowers, birds and fish from her a few days ago.
She has always been patient with customers, stopping to say hello to the old man.
The old man cut to the chase and said, "Sir, do you still have the book?"
Xu Zhen was stunned for a moment: "Book? What about popular science books?"
The old man said: "Yes, yes, yes!"
In order to sell books, Xu Zhen brought a book with her, and immediately took it out of her pocket after speaking: "Of course, I have more than ten books at home. How many do you want?"
The old man took it, looked it over a few times, and said, "No, no!"
Xu Zhen asked: "What's wrong? It's the same copy as the one I sold you earlier."
The old man hurriedly said: "I have finished reading this book, but my neighbors—their grass and trees are withered, but those few things are not in the picture book."
Xu Zhen understood, but could do nothing.
There are so many flowers and plants in the world, it is impossible for her to write them all down, it would take too much effort, and she does not remember all of them.
"It's gone." Xu Zhen said.
The old man suddenly looked disappointed. In order to support the author's career, he still bought the book for three dollars.
The old man walked slowly and returned home with a book.
A neighbor is outside watering a broad-leaved, striped grass.
This is a seedling he bought from a merchant in the Western Regions. He spent a lot of money. It is said that when it matures, it will grow expensive and delicious fruits.
Seeing this, the old man blurted out: "You can only water once in half a month. You watered it yesterday, and if you water it again, the roots will rot."
The neighbor's expression turned pale, and he turned his head and scolded: "What's wrong with you these days, have you become obsessed with reading this book? How can there be flowers and grass that don't drink water."
The old man said: "Believe it or not, this book is a really good book. All the trees I planted have come back to life."
The neighbor said: "That's because the tree is fine, what has it to do with the book!"
Seeing that he couldn't say it, the old man waved his hand and was about to leave.
The neighbor said: "You are really possessed, so let's make a bet."
The old man asked, "What bet?"
The neighbor said: "It depends on whether my grass will be rotten like you said! - For gambling, just bet thirty coppers!"
Thirty coppers are enough for ordinary people to eat for several days.
The old man suddenly felt a little reluctant, thinking that the book seller seemed really unreliable, what if they were all deceived
He was hesitating, but the neighbor deliberately provoked him because he had been angry before, so that the old man would not dare to throw the book away.
The old man was a little angry for no reason, and felt that his good intentions were not rewarded. He said loudly: "Bet, bet! Three days, just three days, your grass roots will definitely rot!"
After hearing this, the neighbor sat on the stone steps, folded his arms and laughed.
The results came out quickly.
Before the third watch, the stripes of this broad-leaved grass were beginning to turn yellow. The neighbor was a little nervous, thinking that it would be better to bask in the sun the next day, but when he got up the next day, he put the broad-leaf grass in the sun for a short time, and the tips of the leaves that were originally facing the sky became worse, and they all curled up and withered.
When the old man saw it, he was overjoyed and ran over to dig out one of them.
I saw that the roots were all rotten.
Now, the neighbor was not calm anymore, stared at the old man and said: "Old man, that book... show me!"
Xu Zhen doesn't know that her book has caused a gamble, and the bet is ten times that of her book sale.
She still works hard every day to find a job.
All the recruiters at the market declined her, for no reason, simply because the original owner of Xu Zhen's body was very unlikable.
After walking through the busiest market, Xu Zhen still couldn't find a job.
She was tired from walking, so she found a wall and leaned against it to rest.
I don't know if it was luck, but when I turned around, I saw a job advertisement for Qinglongshan Academy posted on the wall.
It says: "The rooster that loses the morning crows when it wants to make up. ... This is the time when it is urgent to seek talents."
It probably means that the academy held some literati gathering, and there was not enough manpower, so I hired a few literate day laborers to help with the work. If they performed well, they could stay in the academy as a permanent labor force.
The salary is settled daily, ten dollars a day.
Although it is not too much, Xu Zhen is still very happy to make money just by serving tea and water.
She asked the people around her for directions, walked slowly to Qinglong Mountain Academy, found the house of the head of the mountain, knocked on the door and said loudly: "Is the head of the mountain here? I'm here as a part-time worker."
…
After half an hour.
She put on the light green clothes of servants, and stood outside the red silk with several other helpers, serving tea and wine to the guests.
At the front of the Gathering venue, a young man in white is sitting on the ground covered with red silk, with a guqin on his knees, and his ten fingers trembling to pluck the strings. Someone around him accompanies him with drums and zithers, forming a natural joy.
On both sides of the red silk, there are more than a hundred desks and cushions, on which are placed pens, inks, papers and inkstones and other supplies, which seem to be all high-quality goods.
Qinglong Mountain Academy held an elegant fair today, all the masters and outstanding students from all the schools in Jiangling came here, they said they were discussing knowledge, but in fact they were comparing each other.
Xu Zhen stood aside.
After playing a piece of music, she went to the front to give a drink.
She thought it was over.
Unexpectedly, when delivering wine for the third time, I met a drunkard in a red robe and insisted on talking to her about Confucianism.
Xu Zhen listened in bewilderment.
The man finished talking about Confucius and Mencius, and began to recite the text: "The reason why people are human..." He didn't go on talking halfway through.
Xu Zhen answered for her: "Fei Te is hairless because of his two legs."
The man said loudly: "Wrong!"
Xu Zhen asked, "Then what should I pick up?"
The man raised his wine glass to the sky and replied: "One step is a ghost!"
Xu Zhen was silent, thinking to herself: This teacher's student is probably going to score zero in the college entrance examination.
The man drank another glass of wine and asked Xu Zhen, "Which family do you belong to?"
Xu Zhen was too lazy to talk to her.
The man unsteadily took out a coin from his skirt: "Confucianism... or Taoism?"
Xu Zhen hurriedly said: "It's all there!" She said, reaching out to get money.
The man snorted and stuffed the coin back into his lapel.
Xu Zhen almost raised her wine glass and knocked the man awake.
Fortunately, the head of the mountain came.
When the head of the mountain saw that this man was drunk, his complexion suddenly became complicated, and he shouted to the literati and servants around: "Hurry up! Send the son of the country to sacrifice wine back to the house!"
Then scolded Xu Zhen: "What are you doing here? Can you understand the words of offering wine? Go, go."
Xu Zhen didn't have time to explain, the people around hurriedly rushed over: "Is the Guozi Jijiu here?"
"What's wrong with her? Drunk?"
"This guy is amazing when he's drunk, hurry up, take him back to the house!"
There was a flurry of noise, Xu Zhen also contributed, and incidentally took out the coin from the drunkard's lapel and stuffed it into her purse.
The gathering is not over yet.
Since the important guests at Xu Zhen's table had returned to the room, the head of the mountain asked Xu Zhen to stand behind him with a tray to support the scene.
After all the academies had finished flattering each other, it was time to answer on the spot.
The topic was undecided, an old gentleman went to the front and picked a piece of paper, on which two words "Confucianism" were written.
So everyone picked up a pen to write their views on Confucianism today.
Xu Zhen glanced at what Shan Chang wrote. She couldn't understand it, but she could understand the general meaning. It said that the beauty of the mountains and rivers cannot be separated from the old master Confucius.
Another zither sounded.
Everyone put the rice paper for answering into the tray.
Xu Zhen and several day laborers collected the dishes one by one and put them in the front.
Several short-term workers held up the rice paper one after another and recited the Fu written by the literati.
It's Xu Zhen's turn.
Xu Zhen is still not familiar with traditional Chinese characters, so she stuttered and made a few mistakes.
After finally finishing reading, he sneered for a while.
Everyone whispered: "Qinglong Mountain is really in decline, even maidservants only have this virtue."
"Just now I saw her talking to Jijiu. It seems that Qinglongshan is trying to climb higher."
"Wait for the sacrificial wine to sober up, if you remember, I'm afraid you will be cast aside, hahaha."
Some people mocked in a low voice, while others said it directly.
A woman in blue raised her voice and said: "Qinglong Mountain is a place of cultural influence, but this maid can't even read the articles smoothly."
The head of the mountain helped to hold the respect: "This is a new servant, he is naturally nervous."
The woman in blue said with a smile: "I think such a person is easy to influence the children, so it is not suitable to stay in the academy."
The head of the mountain was speechless.
The woman in blue didn't think it was enough, so she asked Xu Zhen, "Do you know what the Fu you read just now means?"
Xu Zhen glanced at the head of the mountain, and the head of the mountain winked at her, not knowing what the secret signal was.
As soon as she speculated, she thought to herself: Could it be that she didn't get paid because of her poor performance? Wouldn't it be a waste of work? How can this work!
Xu Zhen thought for a moment, and decided to deal with it, at least to protect the face of the boss.
She said, "I know."
The woman in blue didn't ask her to explain, but said: "This article praises Confucianism throughout, but do you know that in the pre-Qin Jixia Academy, Huang Lao's learning overwhelmed hundreds of schools, he is a well-deserved master."
The learning of Huang Lao is the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu, that is, Taoism.
Xu Zhen didn't expect that this superficial dynasty hadn't formed a scene that only promoted Confucianism like the later generations, and hundreds of schools still had a say.
She sighed for a moment, and then got down to business: "I know."
The woman in blue thought she was trying to save face, and said disdainfully: "That's good, since you also know that Huang-Lao's theory is capable of overpowering hundreds of schools, why don't you want to admit that Huang-Lao's theory is better?"
Xu Zhen said: "Mr. Huang advocates following nature, and calls for 'absolutely discarding profits' and 'not expensive and hard-to-find goods'. How can it be so simple to make people have no desires or desires?"
The woman in blue sat up straight when she heard Lao Zhuang's remarks casually, and became serious.
After she frowned and thought about it, she said, "Why can't it be so simple? All the animals in the mountains have no desires and desires, and there are no laws and regulations, so they are happy. Why not do nothing and let the people transform themselves?"
Xu Zhen asked: "Can you be like the animals in the mountains, and be content with food and clothing?"
The woman in blue said: "Of course."
Xu Zhen said: "Then why do you still want to compete with me on Confucianism and Taoism? You are obviously not satisfied."
The woman in blue was speechless for a moment.
There was no sound during the gathering, no one would have imagined that the female teacher of Baihong Academy and the wine delivery girl would get the upper hand when they refuted.
She is still a handmaid who mispronounces words, stutters, and doesn't look very clever!
And the female teacher is now the most prestigious teacher of Baihong Academy! Last year, it was Bai Hong who gave birth to a female Tanhua, which made Jiang Ling follow her for a while.
What is the level of Mr. Li, let alone.
What is the origin of this maid
Everyone didn't know, so they asked one after another, and found that no one knew the maid.
Xu Zhen took advantage of everyone's dazzled effort to read the rice paper in a hurry. After reading all the papers, she walked down quickly and walked behind the head of the mountain.
Seeing that few of the guests were looking at her, she asked in a low voice, "Master Shan, did I perform well just now?"
The head of the mountain ignored her.
Xu Zhen asked again: "By the way, what did you twitch your eyes just now to express?"
The head of the mountain became angry when he heard this, and turned around angrily: "What do you say I want to express?"
Xu Zhen asked: "Let me show her some color?"
The head of the mountain said angrily: "I told you not to provoke that person!"
Xu Zhen was startled: "Ah? Why?"
Shan Chang said: "Do you know who her grandfather is?"
Xu Zhen shook her head.
Shan Chang hated that iron could not be made into steel, and said sadly: "It's the Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry of the third rank, and I can't afford to offend, I can't afford to offend."
Xu Zhen was stunned for a while, and after getting closer, she tentatively asked, "What about my salary today?..."
The head of the mountain took out a dozen copper coins, threw them to Xu Zhen, and cursed: "Hurry up, hurry up."