Song Mu walked into Yingxue Fang. Shopkeeper Zhang was settling accounts at the counter. When he saw Song Mu arriving, he handed over the work to the clerk silently, and then the two of them went to the private room next to it.
Entering the private room, Song Mu got straight to the point.
"Shopkeeper Zhang, I want to know what's going on with "The Talk of One Hundred Demons" now?"
Shopkeeper Zhang came in and motioned Song Mu to sit down with a smile on his face. After hearing Song Mu's answer, his face became even more happy, and he said excitedly.
"It's very good. It only took three to five days after our first volume came out and it sold well."
"It's just that now I'm only somewhat famous in Jizhou Prefecture. I've already submitted the booklet. At the end of this month, it will be sold in Yingxuefang across Jiangnan West Road. It's this Jizhou Prefecture. These days, I've also been looking for
These storytellers go to various wine shops and teahouses to tell stories for free, and if they make noise in front of our door, they can sell twenty or thirty copies a day."
Song Mu was a little stunned when he heard this sentence. Logically speaking, he only wrote something more than half a month ago, but he didn't expect that the other party had already sold it for a few days.
Shopkeeper Zhang saw Song Mu's surprised expression and immediately went out. When he came back, he brought Song Mu a book.
There were four big characters printed on it, "Miscellaneous Talks of Hundred Demons", and beside the big characters there was a white drawing, which showed a scholar holding a pen and scroll, slaying demons. It looked quite sharp and eye-catching.
Song Mu took the book and quickly flipped through it. He carefully checked several stories in it, only to find that except for some sentences that had been changed to make them more colloquial, the ending of the story was still the same as what he had written.
This immediately made Song Mu confused. He raised his head and looked at Shopkeeper Zhang in front of him, his eyes full of doubts.
Shopkeeper Zhang had obviously realized what Song Mu wanted to say, and explained with a somewhat apologetic look on his face.
"Young master, I would like to ask why the content in the book is different from the story told by Mr. Pingshu?"
Song Mu nodded, and Shopkeeper Zhang continued.
"Actually, we never thought about changing it. In the first two days of storytelling, because the story was novel, some people came to listen to it, but guess what?"
Shopkeeper Zhang had a dumbfounded expression on his face at this time.
"The listener was cheering and applauding a while ago, but not long after, he heard that even the scholar was dead, and he immediately shouted that it was not possible. Sometimes he was so cruel that he even came up to lift the table."
"Well, as you know, we are just making a living, so we can't just say it and get beaten once. Besides, after hearing this, the person will feel that it is too heartless and will not come again the next time."
"So we discussed it privately and made some slight changes."
Shopkeeper Zhang said this, with an apologetic smile on his face, and then he raised his hands towards Song Mu and said.
"At that time, we also wanted to talk to you and talk to you, but we heard that you had returned to your hometown. We had no choice, so... we killed you first and then reported it."
After hearing this, Song Mu's face suddenly relaxed a bit, and the anger in his heart just now dissipated a lot.
Shopkeeper Zhang said these things sincerely, and he did not make any changes to his content in the book. The things in the commentary may really be a helpless move.
Shopkeeper Zhang was relieved when he saw the anger on Song Mu's face subsided, but he quickly added.
"It seems that the content of the storytelling is only deleted and edited by ourselves. There may be some discrepancies in some places. Can you please write another edition, and then we will use it exclusively for storytelling?"
Song Mu waved his hand after hearing this. This kind of thing was too complicated and did not conform to his own arrangements. Moreover, these storytellers made a living by doing this. They always have many unique views on storytelling. Today I heard that the change
The story is quite attractive, so I don’t need to add too much to it.
Shopkeeper Zhang nodded when he saw Song Mu's actions, and then asked Song Mu about other things.
"Then the young master came today just for this matter?"
"This month's pen refinishing money hasn't come out yet, but if Master wants to withdraw money, Zhang will go and do it immediately."
"That's not necessary, let's talk about it later." Song Mu took a sip of tea at this moment, and then continued.
"Song will send the next volume of stories to the shopkeeper in a few days. If you want to change it again, everything will be subject to the shopkeeper's wishes. Just tell me."
Song Mu said this, and shopkeeper Zhang obviously had a little more smile on his face, and he immediately agreed.
At this time, Song Mu also got up and walked outside. He suddenly thought that there were more things to learn when entering school, and there would be exams in two months. At that moment, he stopped and asked shopkeeper Zhang a few questions.
"Shopkeeper, I wonder if you could recommend some problem-solving books for me to read. There is a lot of content to be learned in government studies now, and I don't have a clue at the moment."
Shopkeeper Zhang came forward again after hearing these words. He thought about it for a while, but his eyes lit up and he said.
"I'm ashamed to say that Zhang is just a book seller, but I also have a lot of intellectuals from the government here. They have records of the books they buy and borrow every day. Why don't you let the young master take care of them?"
Song Mu's eyes lit up when he heard this answer, and he nodded immediately, and shopkeeper Zhang quickly took Song Mu to the counter, then took out a booklet, flipped it a few times, and shopkeeper Zhang immediately pushed it to Song Mu.
In front of Mu.
"How is this Hong Xiucai? He was the head of the case in the 24th year of Chongwen. Although he has gone to the frontier army now, he also borrowed many books from me before."
Song Mu hurriedly looked down and saw that there were densely packed borrowed books on it, most of which were classics and policy solutions, and the time span was extremely wide and the number was extremely large. It seemed that Chief Hong was also a powerful person.
"Then let's just follow the above, but I don't know if the shopkeeper still has these books here?"
Shopkeeper Zhang looked at it immediately and patted his head.
"Most of them are available, but some are just temporary collections of policy theory and classic meanings. Maybe other bookstores and government schools have them. I will have someone copy the title of the book to the young master."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Song Mu nodded and immediately searched the book store according to the book titles above. Soon he had seven or eight books in hand, and he went to the counter to check out.
"Chenghui is four taels and seven cents of silver." The accounting clerk said so, but Song Mu, who was digging into his pocket, was stunned for a moment.
Now I only have a dozen or so taels of silver in my pocket, and today's dinner at the teahouse only costs five taels of silver. As a result, each of these books costs five taels of silver.
Song Mu was also a little embarrassed at the moment, and suddenly shopkeeper Zhang came up, pushed the waiter away, and helped Song Mu select the seven or eight books again.
"Young Master actually only needs to buy two copies, "Hanlin Inscriptions" and "Dongju Jianyan". These official books are priced no less than ancient books, so the other young masters can buy handwritten copies or simply borrow them for only two or three coins.
"
Song Mu immediately breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that. He nodded sheepishly and thanked him, and paid the money, but shopkeeper Zhang only took two taels of silver.
Song Muzheng was a little surprised, but shopkeeper Zhang continued: "You can be regarded as our benefactor of Yingxuefang. There is no cost to borrow books, you just need to return them on time."
Shopkeeper Zhang said with a smile. At this moment, Song Mu admired silently in his heart. He secretly thought that this might be his welfare as a folk book author. He nodded and went out with his things.
At the door of the bookstore, there were a few more people gathered around now. The storyteller seemed to be more energetic. His voice was thunderous and even ups and downs from time to time, which attracted a group of people to applaud and cheer.
Song Mu turned around and left. At this moment, he was thinking about how all this would change in the future.