Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examination

Chapter 36

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The shopkeeper Ji lived with thousands of dollars in his hands, and he dared to let go of his hands and feet when he did things, and hired five or six extra laborers to engrave the lettering. Several old craftsmen received overtime pay and bonuses, and they all worked hard to voluntarily work overtime. With their sons and disciples, they worked overtime in the small studio in the backyard of Cui Mansion to engrave, color, and fine print.

In late October, the long-awaited four-fight-one-god-and-devil romance novel was finally printed.

The manuscript was written by four authors, each with its own title, but not the title of the collection. Cui Xie named it "Lianfang Lu" by himself. Four unrelated stories come together.

The book is made into a hardcover edition, the cover is wrapped in white silk, and the corners of the book are covered with red silk. The three characters of "Lianfanglu" on the cover of the book are inscribed by Tang Ning, and the cinnabar from Zhirong Study is printed below the words print. The address of the Zhirong study was engraved on the inside of the seal, and it was also customary to engrave the warning "Cui's product, if it is reproduced, it will be investigated for thousands of miles".

The title authors of the four articles in the book each occupy a page, and each corner of the book on the back is printed with a blooming color-printed boneless flower: the goddess corresponds to peony, the female fairy corresponds to Sulan, the banshee corresponds to white chrysanthemum, and the female ghost corresponds to Epiphyllum. The stamens are facing the center of the picture, and they spit out a black frame with a cloud head wound up and a vertical print. The two cinnabar characters of "Shenpin", "Xianpin", "Yipin" and "Youpin" are printed in the frame.

In each of the four articles, there are two single coloring pictures of the heroine, and two double-page spreads - and finally there is a large coloring page in which the male protagonist appears. The male characters were not particularly satisfactory in the hard drive, so he had no choice but to extend his black hand to the martial arts and fairy tales that he had watched in the early years, and selected four characters that could be called male gods.

At the back of the article is also attached poems and essays written by Tang Ning and other talents, all of which are printed in blue, which is different from the ink color of the text. The novel with a total of more than 30,000 words is packed with thousands of words of commentary and 20 embroidered portraits, and it also appears to be thick and worthy of the hardcover and book box.

There are articles, comments, and colleagues. Each book box also comes with a cross-page color map, and four heroines are randomly selected. But because Wanning's paintings were the earliest and sold the most, he was afraid that readers would not see them fresh enough, so he asked the craftsman to print one-third less as appropriate.

The first batch of books was printed on October 22.

Early the next morning, a tall wooden frame was erected in the most densely populated places on the four streets of Qian'an City, with a hanging scroll of a lady's portrait three feet wide and the height of a real person stretched on it. A pair of white paper lined with plain silk is stretched next to the portrait, on which is written "On October 25th, the four beauties are waiting for merchants from all directions in the Zhirong study in this city to read the "Lianfang Lu" together; On the other side, there is a small print that reads "exquisite box, each box presents a large picture, the price is 329 cents of silver".

On the 24th, the statue was moved to the front and back of the county street, the mansion of the garrison officers, and the west of the city where wealthy families lived.

A lot of drawings of the four figures have been sold, but portraits of this size are extremely rare.

Generally, the scrolls hanging in the hall are rarely this big, and they don't even have the entire figure painted on it, just like a living beauty standing there. The four exhibition stands were surrounded by water, and passers-by, regardless of officials, soldiers, commoners, and idle women, had to stop and watch for a while, and some people threw money on the spot and insisted on buying posters and walking away.

But it was not the ordinary merchants who guarded the shelves, but the servants who came out of the commander Wang's mansion. The commander of Xingzhou Youtunwei was a third-rank military attache, with a high status, and the military surplus used at home was brave, and he finally protected the four exhibition racks safely.

On the twenty-fifth day, before dawn, there were long queues of servants and servants outside the Zhirong study, waiting to buy new books.

The five family members of the palace guarded the wall chart hanging on the carved hangings as if they were facing the enemy; the shopkeeper Ji brought the guy, two new recruits and a tent in the study room nervously waiting for the opening moment; An idle engraver took his son on the second floor of the inventory to prepare to move the goods; Cui Yuan hired a few men and an old lady to stay outside to maintain order.

At the end of the morning and the beginning of the day, the study room got off the board on time, a crowd of people rushed in, and the guy suddenly pushed away, blocking the shop so full that there was no place to stay, and the counter shook slightly, and they all shouted, "I want a copy of "Lianhe". "Fang Lu", call me silver first!"

"My family's silver is hinged, and the whole is four taels. If there is more, I will reward you. Sell me first!"

"My son wants ten sets. This is four ingots of silver. Can you give me a set of Cui Meiren's paper?"

"I'm here to buy Cui Meiren's paper, I don't want the book, let me go in first!"

The study was crowded with customers inside and out, and many idlers who didn't buy books were looking at pictures of beautiful women by the roadside. The villagers and lizheng of this street came uninvited and stared nervously by the roadside, for fear that so many people would crowd out the matter.

Cui Yuan had rehearsed this situation many times at home, and hurriedly greeted Mihan and the old woman to come forward to separate the customers, and told them to line up in order, so that no one would deliberately take advantage by being rubbed against them, and also to prevent thieves from stealing things. Ping Yan stared at the family members who were sent by powerful people to order, and when they came, they asked to go to the restaurant next to him and asked Fang Fang to entertain them, so as to prevent these people from driving away the ordinary customers in the store by virtue of their identity as the owner.

Everyone inside and outside the study was so busy that they wished they could grow three heads and six arms, but Cui Xie, who planned such a big battle behind his back, didn't care much about this sale.

It was rare for Wang Xiangzhen to get up early, and he wanted to go to the study to check the sales, but he heard that he was still at his own horse farm, so he went to see him first.

Seeing his unconcerned look and focused on riding horses, Young Master Wang couldn't help worrying about him, stopped him and said, "It's true that the emperor is not in a hurry for the eunuch, brother, I can't sleep today, I woke up early and wanted to take care of him. You stare at the shop, why are you riding your horse so unhurriedly?"

Cui Xie rolled over, jumped off the horse neatly, stroked the pony's neck and smiled, "It is because of my brother Wang's worries that I can ride a horse here leisurely. Thank you brother for letting me watch over the past two days. Hang the paintings, otherwise people will buy them forcibly, and I won't be able to draw new ones for a while."

Wang Xiangzhen raised his chin: "It's not for nothing, but you will sell these four pictures to my brother."

Cui Xie said: "This is natural. If it is hung outside where it is dirty and damaged, I will draw you a few more pictures."

The prince smiled and said, "I'm looking forward to getting dirty when I say that. I've made a mistake. If I didn't tell them to protect them so strictly, I would earn you two new pictures."

He laughed for a while, then pulled Cui Xie into the room, and reminded in a low voice, "Go back and inscribe a few words on your picture, add an inscription and a seal. My father wants to give these pictures of beauties to you. Shangguan’s, I think you have your own style of painting, but I don’t think the people above won’t appreciate it. If you are lucky enough to win the eyes of fellow acquaintances, it is impossible to say that your painting name will be passed on to the capital.”

... Wang Gongzi said, what is "not seen" and "tianxing", he has no confidence in his paintings, why did he ask his father to dedicate it to his boss? Do you think your boss will use this picture as a life-size pillow or a doll

Wang Xiangzhen also thinks that his paintings are only better than the bright and realistic face, the background and clothing are slightly less detailed, and the artistic conception is not clear enough, and it is difficult for the eyes of the elders of the dynasty. It's just that the words hurt people, so he stopped talking about it, and instead asked: "Qian'er, you gave me a hundred sets of books, why only one big picture is attached to each set? Yes, I took apart several boxes to come up with a neat set of four beautiful pictures, and if I bought a little less, I couldn't make it all together!"

Boy, you have found Huadian.

Cui Xie smiled without saying a word, drank a few sips of tea, and comforted: "I'll give you the big picture later, what do you care about the small picture. If your brothers still want it, just exchange the surplus, otherwise you won't be able to. Replaced the set?"

Wang Gongzi, a third-rank commander, does not take books that cost four taels of silver in his eyes. I put together a set of four beautiful pictures by myself, so I stopped thinking about it, waved my hand and said, "Forget it, the rest are given away anyway, so they can change the pictures themselves. I don't care about your shop. Now, you are not in a hurry for me."

Cui Xie drank a cup of tea at his house and ate two shortbread cookies with fruit filling, then got up to leave, and went home with fifty books to go to school.

Mr. Lin looked at the exquisitely packaged box, and when he remembered the price, he was embarrassed to charge so much. Cui Xie pushed the book over and said sincerely, "Without your help, how could I have such a good book to print. This set of books can be cost-effective, thanks to the help of my husband. Besides, this book is not all given to the husband alone. And the sample books that the four authors in Jingli deserve."

The husband had to laugh and ask him on the face of the new book: "Are you going to go to the store to watch today? If you only ask for one day off, I will reluctantly agree to it, but the homework that should be handed in tomorrow still has to be handed in. Come up."

However, Cui Xie calmly refused: "Sir, you are joking. The disciple is a teenager, what's the use of going to the store? Those business affairs are not something that scholars of my generation should handle personally, the only thing in the mind of the disciple is to study the imperial examinations. ."

Hearing this, Mr. Lin immediately ironed all over his body. A few days ago, when I saw a portrait of a beautiful woman on the street, I was worried that he would be mistaken by money and might not be doing a proper job, and the idea of indulging in merchants, painting and other trails also melted away.

His heart widened, and the corners of his mouth hidden in his beard were slightly raised, and he waved his hand and said, "Go down and review the "Lu Song", and I will test whether you are familiar with your scriptures later."

Choi Xie returned to class, still reciting and writing step by step as usual. After Mr. Ting taught the "Biography of Poetry" alone, he took the three topics of "I don't know what to do", "Yi Kuang Tianxia", and "Reproach the king for his respect". The previous "before the question" part has been done in turn.

Today is the release day of his family's "Lianfanglu", and the students in the school who love to read books and want to buy books can't sit still. He, the author of the book, sits firmly, memorizes the book without any mistakes, and the articles he writes are stable, and there are some remarkable things...

This is the real reader, and when entering the examination room, he will surely give full play to what he has learned.

Mr. Lin looked at the homework over and over again, smiled contentedly, held down the manuscript paper on Cui Xie's desk, and dipped his fingertips on it a few times: "I'll let you relax for a night tonight, and I'll talk to you tomorrow. I learn to do correct sentences."

He has a weak academic background, and if he can teach a student from the first class, he will not be in vain.

Mr. Lin left with relief, but Cui Xie was full of doubts by his "parallel sentence" - isn't the opposite sentence a lesson to be learned? The three primary school students who came to Kaimeng were the right ones every day. He has already memorized a copy of "Time and Ancient Contradictions", which is almost enough. Does the husband want him to memorize those tome books as well

He wanted to find someone to ask what the reason was, but today is different from the past. After school, the classmates ran home like a dog behind them. Finally, Zhao Yinglin didn't plan to run by himself, but dragged him to run home. As he ran, he asked, "What's going on here, the seniors don't talk about the manners of a scholar?"

Zhao Yinglin glanced at him strangely: "Today is your family's book sale, everyone pooled money to find someone to buy the book, don't they all run home to see, why don't you seem to know?"

The question left Cui Xie speechless.

He knew too well how well this book was written, and the illustrations in it were drawn by him, so he had no interest in the book itself. He never thought that his classmates would still love it like that.

However, Zhao Yinglin was full of four beauties. He didn't care what the neighbors and classmates thought. When passing by his house, he quickly shouted to his family, "I'm going to study at Brother Cui Shixiong's house", and dragged him into Cui's house.

After entering the door, Zhao Yinglin said in a hurry, "there must be a new book in your house, give me a copy! I have endured not asking you for it for several days, and finally waited for it to go on sale. ." He hurriedly took out four taels of silver from his waist, stuffed it into Cui Xie's hands, and whispered, "Do you have a cover for the Four Books and Five Classics or something? When I go back, give me a set, don't call me. Mom and Dad can see the flaw!"

Since ancient times, elementary school students have used this hand to read idle books!

Cui Xie was laughing secretly, and hurried out of the door with the inkstone in his hand, his little face was tensed as if he was about to cry, whether it was happiness or sadness, he jumped in front of him sweating profusely and said, "Brother, we sell books. No, I prepared the goods for this day, and they sold out just after the afternoon! The shopkeeper Ji and the others are waiting for you in the house!"

Cui Xie heard his heart beating "thumping", and the peace of the whole day was backlashed at this moment, setting off a storm in his mind. He didn't even know whether he was laughing or crying, and it was difficult for everything from the outside world to enter his brain. He could only hear his own voice, as if he was still calm and said, "Bring Zhao Shixiong to my study and find a set of "Lianhe" "Fang Lu" to him, help me entertain first, and I will go over after talking with the shopkeeper Ji."