Jingguo, the stone town of the thirteenth year of Dazhen, in the middle of winter, it is the weather of heavy snowfall, the snowflakes are sprinkled, the crystal ice flowers are hanging on the treetops, and on the mountain road to Xiaolongkan, there is an old and a young man who is struggling to move forward.

The boy pushed a wheelbarrow with several empty baskets on it, and the old woman carried a basket behind her, and there was nothing in it.

They have already walked this mountain road many times in half a month, and it is snowing again today, which is more difficult than usual.

"Da Lang, are you tired? Would you like to rest under the stone bridge? The old woman had gray hair, and she was sitting in Xinghua Village, not far in front of her, and the young man in front of her was her eldest grandson.

The young man was only fifteen or sixteen years old, and it was the time to draw strips, and he had no extra meat on his body, wearing thin clothes, and pushing the cart forward with all his strength, the muscles in his arms bulged, and he had to take time to answer Grandma's question: "Don't be tired." ”

The old woman's eyes were full of distress, how could she not be tired, but she did not say anything more, but brushed the scattered hair with her dry fingers like an old tree, gathered the strands of hair into the turban, bent down, and helped her grandson push the wheelbarrow.

Their destination is Xiaolongkan, and this time they went to Xiaolongkan to buy goods.

The eldest son of the old woman's family had his legs crushed by the first snow of winter, and the daughter-in-law took care of her at home all day long, and she had to make money by weaving, so that the family would not starve to death, or else it would not be the turn of the grandson, who was not yet an adult, to come out and do such a thing.

Although the family will not starve to death by relying on her daughter-in-law to spin alone, coupled with the surplus money she has saved before, the old woman is worried when she sees that her grandson is getting older and the matter of marrying her granddaughter-in-law is imminent.

Later, I heard from somewhere that the kudzu was ground into powder and could be eaten, and it was not toxic, because they didn't know whether the news was true or false, and they didn't take the opportunity to go up the mountain to dig the kudzu, but later they learned that it was true, and the kudzu on the mountain had already been hollowed out.

If you want to dig kudzu again, you have to risk your life and go deep into the mountains.

The old woman didn't want her grandson to take the risk, but the family always had to eat, and then one day, the grandson left home inexplicably, and when he came back, he came back with a wooden cart of strange shape.

He excitedly told his family that he had "bought" the car.

But he's a half-grown teenager, where can he get money to buy a car?

The old woman was afraid that her grandson would take the wrong path in order to have enough food for the family, so she picked up the bamboo sticks and beat them, so she understood the reason from her grandson's mouth.

It turns out that the grandson actually went to Xiaolongkan without permission, and it is said that the method of eating kudzu came from there, and there are rumors that Xiaolongkan is building a private school, and the children in the village will be able to go to school for free next year, and I don't know where they got so much money.

When the grandson heard this, he rashly ran to look for an opportunity, he entered Xiaolongkan, and heard that he wanted to make money and want to eat, but the people in the village not only did not dislike it, but took him to a house.

There were several men in the house who had the same purpose as him, and a young girl.

This person is the person in charge of the village, Gu Lan.

Although the young man wondered why the principal of Xiaolongkan was a young girl, it didn't take long for him to get carried away by the opportunity that smashed him.

The caravans of Xiaolongkan are willing to give those who come here in search of opportunities a chance without them having to pay, they can get a wheelbarrow worth three taels of silver for free, but they need to register their home addresses and have their fingerprints taken.

When they sign something called a "contract", the contract is decided, and they can buy things from Xiaolongkan at a price 30% lower than the market price, and then pick them out to sell.

What kind of price is sold outside, the Xiaolongkan caravan will not ask, it is their own ability to sell more and sell less.

Hold on like this for three months, and the wheelbarrow will be given to them.

The boy and a few others tried the wheelbarrow, it seemed to have only one wheel, and it couldn't move forward at all, but when he pushed it, it was so light, there was a support under the handrail, and when he wanted to stop, he could put down the support, and the wheelbarrow would become a moving shop.

After demonstrating the wheelbarrow, Gu Lan led them to the back shelves to pick up the things to buy.

There are not many things that Xiaolongkan can sell now, and the women in the village weave and sew their own hair flowers, handkerchiefs and handkerchiefs, and there is also a kind of thing called "paper".

It was as thin as a cicada's wing, and it was very expensive, less than a hundred pieces of paper in a stack, and it cost six taels of silver.

Gu Lan showed them that they only needed to use a brush soaked in ink to write words on it.

It turns out that this thing is a bamboo slip!

The boy had never read a book, but he had seen the reader's box, and all the bamboo slips were in it, that is, books.

They are all written and carved on bamboo slips.

But now, Xiaolongkan has a kind of paper that is thin and easy to carry.

The appearance of the paper immediately captured the young man's mind.

The others were reluctant to take the risk when they heard that the paper was so expensive, they just bought some trinkets, some baskets to weave, arrowroot powder, and left.

It was only the boy, and he stared intently at the papers, calculating how much silver he could get from his family.

He pushed the empty car home, and opened his mouth to ask for six taels of silver, which almost emptied his entire family fund.

Everyone in the family thinks he is talking nonsense, how can there be a writing instrument like cicada wings in the world? If so, why is it that no one uses it for the children of the family, but the people of Xiaolongkan can make it?

No matter how the family blamed, the boy insisted on his idea, and finally the old woman breathed a sigh of relief, and she decided to accompany her grandson to Xiaolongkan to have a look.

If it's true, maybe they can really do a business.

When she saw Xiaolongkan's people writing on paper, she was also dumbfounded.

In particular, she saw something else.

The agile girl flipped through the papers in her hand, which were cut to the size of two palms, and there were many words written in them, "This is a book, more than bamboo shorts, if you can sell the paper, I can give you a paper business within a radius of ten miles in the next month." ”

"Trust me, you won't regret your decision today."

The old woman took out six taels of silver, and got a hundred pieces of paper so light, as well as a few pieces of paper for demonstration, and a brush.

That's how they embark on a journey to find a buyer.

In fact, it's not that hard, and no one who doesn't have enough to eat will spend a fortune on these blank sheets.

Therefore, from the very beginning, the teenager targeted the reader.