Two days later, it was the eighth day of the tenth month, an auspicious day for all things in the zodiac.

This morning, Yu Gaofeng, a scholar who stayed at his cousin's house in Chang'an, made an appointment with two friends who were rushing to take the exam together, planning to go to Dongshi to buy some better pen, ink, paper and inkstone.

In more than ten days, it will be the day of the autumn exam, so naturally we should prepare early.

Yu Gaofeng and the three of them entered Dongshi, but they saw Li Mengzi, a candidate from Lingbei who he had only met some time ago, walking fast and coming outside. Seeing his hurried appearance, he just lowered his head and hurried away, and he didn't even notice that a few people were in front of him.

Thinking that Li Meng had encountered something urgent, Yu Gaofeng stopped him and asked, "Brother Bo Chu, where do you want to go?" ”

Bochu is the character of Li Meng.

Suddenly hearing someone calling him, Li Meng looked up and saw Yu Gaofeng and the others. Unlike Yu Gaofeng's expectations, Li Meng didn't seem to be anxious, but still happy.

Yu Gaofeng is expensive.

When Li Meng saw Yu Gaofeng and the others, he was overjoyed and said, "Zigui, Shaoyuan, and Shuming also came to buy books?" I just want to go back and get some silver, if there are a few more, can you lend a few taels to Li first, and I will return it immediately when I go back, and I will never be in arrears! ”

Yu Gaofeng and the three of them were stunned and asked, "Buy books?" What books to buy? ”

Seeing this, Li Meng knew that Yu Gaofeng and the three of them didn't know yet, and when he thought of what he had just seen, he couldn't hold back his joy and told him: "A new Wenchang bookstore has opened in Dongshi, and the books in it are not only very well printed, but also very low-priced!" I didn't want to buy too many things when I came here today, so I only had a dozen taels of silver on my body, but I read the books in the bookstore, but there were several books I wanted to buy. ”

If you buy household things on weekdays, a dozen taels of silver is actually a lot, but the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone used for studying are very expensive, and a dozen taels of silver are naturally nothing.

Books are naturally more expensive, and many of them are still unavailable with money.

Therefore, as soon as they heard that it was a book, and it was a book that made Li Meng so excited, everyone naturally didn't want to miss it, and Yu Gaofeng, who was from a better family at the moment, said:

"If it's just a few taels, I should have more here."

"Great! Zigui, Shaoyuan, and Shuming, please follow this side. ”

The same students who entered Beijing to take the exam, everyone attaches great importance to their reputation, and they will never fail to repay their debts because of these few taels of silver.

This is also one of the reasons why Yu Gaofeng readily agreed.

After passing two streets, we arrived at a street where the bookstore in the East Market and the shops selling pen, ink, paper and inkstone were more concentrated, and I saw a spacious shop in front of me in the distance, which was crowded with people.

Seeing this, Li Meng said: "It's the front, I didn't expect that there would be so many people in just a while." I'd better hurry over, lest I'll run out of good books later. ”

Yu Gaofeng remembered something and asked: "Listening to Bo Chu's words, there are a lot of good books in this Wenchang bookstore, I don't know who opened this bookstore, can take out so many books to copy and sell?" And the pricing is still low? ”

Nowadays, it is not like in later generations, students want to study and go to school, and they can buy any book if they have money. Nowadays, printing has not yet appeared, all books are handwritten and copied, and the story of Luoyang paper is a portrayal of copying.

And because of the preciousness of the books, most of them are preserved in the library of the major families or famous families, except for the children of the family who have unique reading conditions, the rest of the poor students often can't find to read if they want to read, let alone copy it.

Therefore, some poor students will choose to copy books for the bookstore, which can improve the embarrassing economic situation and read more books in the bookstore.

Now that Yu Gaofeng heard that there were many good books in the newly opened Wenchang Bookstore, he couldn't help but wonder if it was a bookstore opened by a family with a rich collection of books. Even if it is not opened by a famous nobleman, it is usually supported by a family or a celebrity who likes to collect books.

Such people are worth befriending.

Therefore, Yu Gaofeng has this question.

But Li Meng didn't think as much as Yu Gaofeng, and he didn't know, so he shook his head to say that he didn't know.

Yu Gaofeng was not obsessed with this matter, and squeezed into the bookstore, but saw that on the shelves of pear blossom wood, it was not an ordinary box for books, but a stack of books with novel bindings.

Seeing this situation, Yu Gaofeng and the others were stunned at first, and then learned from the scholar next to him, picked up a book and opened it to read.

If it is a book that is usually copied, no matter how careful the copyist is, it is inevitable that there will be clerical errors, because you can see some miswritten words in the book, but if you print it, you can dig up the wrong words and re-engrave them with other wood, and it looks much neater.

Moreover, the Wenchang Bookstore wrote the manuscript for engraving, or a person who is proficient in calligraphy, and the block letters are very beautiful.

Also, although paper has been around for a long time at this time, it has not really become popular, and the output is not high, so it is relatively expensive. However, even if the best paper on the market is available, the fiber of the paper is not very uniform.

Because the craftsmen of papermaking nowadays do not know how to use the juice of plants such as star fruit vine and yellow hollyhock as paper medicine to make the pulp uniform, but use starch, so the paper produced is not smooth enough.

However, the bamboo paper used in Wenchang Bookstore is not only low in price, but also looks like uniform fiber, smoother than most of the existing paper on the market, and the ink color is also very bright and brilliant.

As soon as Yu Gaofeng saw this novel and convenient binding method, and the paper was also of first-class quality, very sophisticated, the ink was also neat and clear, there was no trace of modification of typos, and the font was elegant and the line was sparse, so he knew that this was really a rare good book.

Looking at the content of the book again, because Yu Gaofeng had seen others copy it before, he deliberately compared it at this time, and even found that there were suspected errors in the book he had read before.

Such a good book, Yu Gaofeng was reluctant to put it down as soon as he picked it up, and went to look at other books.

At this glance, I took several copies in my hand, and I was reluctant to throw them away.

I just hate that I can't buy all the books in the bookstore back.

But now, not to mention this book, which is very well-made in terms of content, paper and ink, writing and even binding, even a few books in ordinary bookstores cost 500 yuan.

Yu Gaofeng knew that such a good book, even if the family was included in the Book Pavilion, it would not disgrace his status as a famous family and county.

Therefore, it is not expensive for such a book to sell for more than a dozen taels or even more.

No wonder Li Meng wants to borrow money to buy books.

Now Yu Gaofeng regretted agreeing to lend Li Meng money, not that he was reluctant to give up these few taels of silver, but he was worried that if he saw some good books later, but he was just short of so many taels of silver, but how could he be good?

Yu Gaofeng thought of Li Meng saying that the price of this book was not expensive, and he only thought that the price of these books could be less than ten taels, so how could he buy a favorite book.

Just as he was about to go over to ask the owner of the bookstore about the price, Yu Gaofeng saw Wan Shi Wan Shaoyuan, who came over, had already taken several books and walked over.

I don't know how much money the owner of the bookstore said, but when he saw Wan Shi's eyes widen all of a sudden, he forgot to be polite and polite, and said loudly: "What did you say?!" How much does this book cost?! ”

But seeing that the owner of the bookstore said it again with a calm smile, Wan Shaoyuan's eyes turned red and he shouted loudly

Yu Gaofeng felt a little bad: Is this book so expensive?

Even if he understood that such a price was still worth the money, Yu Gaofeng still felt a little distressed.

After thinking about it, Yu Gaofeng still gritted his teeth, took a book that he had wanted to find before but never found it, and asked the shopkeeper of the bookstore: "How much is this book?" (To be continued.) )