Chapter 33: Being Bi Sheng

In the morning, Ouyang Ye was handling the affairs of the academy in his study when he heard someone knocking on the door.

"Come in."

Zhu Lan walked in carrying a black wooden tray. Ouyang Ye looked up, somewhat puzzled.

"Master Dean, I heard that the academy has received a task from the court to print books?"

Ouyang Ye put down his pen, nodded and looked at her.

Zhu Lan gently placed the tray in his hand on Ouyang Ye's desk and bowed:

"This is the movable type printing model we made last night. It can greatly improve the efficiency of printing books. Please take a look, Your Excellency the Supervisor."

As he spoke, he lifted the cloth covering the tray, revealing a number of small square wooden blocks inside, with a wooden frame next to them.

"What is this...?" Ouyang Ye raised his eyebrows, a little curious.

“The way we print now is to carve the entire content of a page of a book on a wooden board, but this method has two major drawbacks.

First, if there is a mistake in carving a single character on the entire carved block, the entire block must be scrapped and re-carved.

Second, once a block is carved, it can only be used to print the content of that page, which is too inefficient. "

As Zhu Lan spoke, he picked up the small wooden blocks from the tray one by one and placed them in the wooden frame next to him to demonstrate to Ouyang Ye.

"This wooden frame is called a 'character plate', and the carved wooden blocks are arranged according to the content of the characters and placed inside.

After the entire type plate is arranged, the back is fixed with melted wax and printing can begin.

After printing, you just need to melt the wax and the blocks can be removed and used next time."

Ouyang Ye let out a slight "hiss" sound, his eyes fixed on the dial, thinking carefully.

He picked up a few more blocks of characters and looked at them, but the words engraved on them were crooked and almost unrecognizable, and he frowned again.

"Well, students are not good at seal carving, this, this is just a demonstration for you..."

Zhu Lan touched his nose, feeling a little embarrassed.

Handicrafts are hard, right?

They spent half the night carving just these twenty or so small blocks of characters, with each person only carving two characters on average!

My hands are almost broken!

Ouyang Ye nodded to show his understanding, and then asked her how she came up with the idea.

Zhu Lan said seriously: "It's just a sudden thought."

It doesn’t matter, this is an imaginary era anyway.

If there is no Bi Sheng, then I will be the Bi Sheng.

Zhu Lan thought shamelessly.

"Well, this method is great!" Ouyang Ye nodded affirmatively, his eyes bright.

"I will report this to the court. In the future, promoting this method will definitely be a good thing that benefits the country and the people!

You guys have made great contributions by offering suggestions, and the court will definitely reward you when the time comes."

"Thank you, Master Supervisor." Zhu Lan bowed and said:

"Sir, there are still many things that require extra attention during the production and printing process of movable type printing.

This is an idea that students and classmates came up with together. This time, the academy prints the book, and we ask the dean to allow ten of us to participate."

Ouyang Ye pondered for a long time and nodded:

"This shouldn't be difficult. The printing of the books will be done in Wulei Pavilion. I will submit a report in the next few days and let the ten of you participate in the guidance."

Zhu Lan was overjoyed: "Thank you, Master Supervisor!"

Before the end of the day's classes, Zhu Lan told the good news to all the classmates at noon.

Qiao Youyou was so excited that he was ready to fight:

“Hey, look at this book I got called ‘Five Years of County Examinations, Three Years of Simulations’.

It's just a small county exam, why don't you just win it! "

…

The task of printing books for academies was assigned by the imperial court to various prefectures, and then distributed by the prefectures to major academies.

Ouyang Ye presented the calligraphy blocks and plates brought by Zhu Lan to the government office, and the prefect Bi Cong was very happy.

It was decided on the spot that not only more funds would be allocated to Longchang Academy, but also additional staff would be sent to help!

Ouyang Ye proposed at the right time that several students who invented movable type printing should participate in the printing work.

Bi Cong readily agreed.

At this moment, someone suddenly came and reported something to the government.

"Sir, the county government reported that a suspected case of poisoning a husband occurred in the city, and the relatives of the deceased requested to open the coffin for an autopsy."

The dead are the most important. The county government has no right to handle such important matters as opening the coffin for an autopsy, and it must be reported to the prefectural government.

"Since the prefect has government affairs to take care of, I will take my leave first." Ouyang Ye stood up and said goodbye tactfully.

Soon, the case of "poisoning one's husband" spread throughout Jiangzhou City, and naturally reached the ears of students at Longchang Academy.

After school, students gathered in groups to discuss the matter.

At night, Xu Shiming and other boys returned to Linfengyuan.

After the last class exam, the original study rooms also had to be reallocated.

But Ouyang Ye thought of their concerted efforts, mutual help, and joint improvement in their performance.

As an exception, they were allowed to continue living with their original roommates.

Xu Shiming, Zhou Da, Zhao Sicheng and Chang Yunxiao still live in the same room.

Zhou Da looked out the window and sighed: "Oh, I really want to go eat skewers."

Xu Shiming also lay on the table with a dull look in his eyes.

“Alas, in ancient times there were no bars, so they could not experience the joy of nightlife at all.

So boring, Zhou Da, how about I tell you your fortune?"

"Can you tell fortunes?"

Xu Shiming took out a few copper coins from somewhere, "My father is a fortune teller, he taught me a few tricks, come and tell me your marriage fate..."

Chang Yunxiao sat quietly in the corner, reading an unknown book, as if he had completely blocked out the sounds around him.

The door of the study was pushed open and Zhao Sicheng walked in.

"Zhou Da, Shi Ming, have you heard about what happened in the city today?"

Chang Yunxiao is a loner, has almost no sense of existence, and doesn't like to talk to people.

Zhao Sicheng automatically ignored him.

Xu Shiming and Zhou Da shook their heads and asked him curiously what happened.

Zhao Sicheng looked disgusted:

"You don't even know about such a big thing, what's your internet speed?

A few days ago, a man died. It was said that he was drunk and walking at night, and fell into the river and drowned.

The man had already been buried, but now his parents insisted that his wife had committed adultery with someone else and poisoned him to death.

The government has approved it, and the coffin will be opened for an autopsy tomorrow!"

Chang Yunxiao suddenly looked up.

"Open the coffin for an autopsy? When?"

He had been silent for a long time, and when he suddenly spoke, he startled the three of them.

This guy seems to be very detached on a daily basis. Even if we stay together every day, I have no idea what he is thinking.

It's as if he is not in the same dimension as others, completely immersed in his own world, and acts in his own way.

In short, he is not sociable.

For the first time, he showed an expression other than indifference, and his eyes were shining.

It was like it suddenly turned on.

Zhao Sicheng scratched his head, "Uh, it seems to be... tomorrow noon."

Chang Yunxiao asked him where he was again.

Zhao Sicheng said he didn't know, but he would go to the gate of the county government office and squat there in the morning to see where the detectives went and he would know.

Xu Shiming asked: "Brother, you don't want to watch the corpse being dug up, do you?"

Zhou Da: "No way, the engraving will start tomorrow, and we have to report to Wulei Pavilion early in the morning."

Chang Yunxiao didn't say anything. He pursed his lips to the three of them and lowered his head to continue reading.

It's turned off again.