Pei Manning thought, it shouldn't be a problem to ask this, right? If it meant asking Han Jingchen to be partial, then that would definitely not work.
"Okay! That's great, Miss Pei. I'll leave this matter to you." Mrs. Xu immediately smiled.
When they got to the department store, Pei Manning used her money and tickets to buy a bunch of things: salt at 1.5 cents per pound, matches at 2 cents, sugar at 7.2 cents, soy sauce at 2 cents per pound, vinegar at 8 cents per pound...
In addition to these, she also bought a lot of daily necessities and used up all the tickets that were going to expire this month.
Mrs. Xu was watching from the side and was amazed. So many tickets? When her son joins the army, she wonders how much he will get.
I don’t know whether they are hiring or not?
Seeing that her son was about to graduate from high school, she couldn't let her son take over his job, otherwise he would have to recalculate his working age, which was not cost-effective. However, if there was no recruitment, recruitment, promotion or illness, her son would have to go to the countryside to join the production team.
Her hair is turning white with worry over this matter.
In the afternoon, Pei Manning found Han Jingchen and told him about the waste station.
The old man guarding the door, smoking a pipe, raised his eyelids and glanced at her. "There's a pile of waste newspapers over there. Go get them yourself, and then come over here to weigh them."
Pei Manning thanked him, walked in and started flipping through the newspapers. There were several piles of things inside, including scrap metal, discarded wood, waste paper, various plastics, a washbasin with holes, a broken thermos...
Pei Manning didn't care whether it was a newspaper or a book, she just started a fire and flipped through it until she came across a torn book. The pages had turned yellow and were brittle, and they fell apart at the slightest touch.
Her fingertips paused, and she gently opened the book. It turned out to be a solitary Tang Dynasty classic with annotations on it. A book like this should be a treasured collection of an aristocratic family.
Although the Pei family is the richest family in Jiangnan, its status and background are completely incomparable to those aristocratic families. Her father spent a lot of money to collect ancient books from all over the place before he collected thousands of books.
Pei Manning flipped through the pile of books again, but unfortunately the book was torn. Apart from a few fragments of pages, most of the rest was nowhere to be found.
In addition, there was a torn painting with most of the seal missing. Although Pei Manning did not know the painter, she could tell that the painter's skills were superb and his artistic conception was profound. It was a rare treasure.
Pei Manning carefully smoothed out the painting and collected the fragments, thinking of taking them back to see if she could piece them together.
She turned her attention to other things. In the pile of discarded wood, there were some precious furniture with carvings on them, but they had been disassembled into individual wooden strips.
It was in the pile of scrap metal that Pei Manning found some rusty copper pieces of different sizes, carved with simple and elegant patterns. She picked up a few similar copper pieces and slowly observed the patterns. There were inscriptions engraved on them, and when put together, the shape looked like a gui, as if it had been deliberately damaged.
While the old man was not paying attention, she put the fragments and orphans into the Sumi Realm.
She had been in the waste station for quite some time and didn't dare to stay any longer, so she took the newspaper and several books she had picked out to pay for them.
She was stupid before, buying books at a scrapyard, which was obviously much cheaper than buying books at Xinhua Bookstore.
"Eight catties and one ounce, so I'll give you eight catties and twenty-four cents." When the grandfather checked the things, he didn't find anything prohibited. Seeing that she was just buying old newspapers honestly, he gave her a second look.
Normally, many people hang out at scrap recycling stations, but they all want to pick up treasures. After all, many wealthy families have been robbed in recent years, and there are many things in them that are very valuable. They pick them up and dig a hole to hide them underground. What if they become valuable again one day?
However, when the house was searched, the things were either taken away or burned, and the remaining things were all spoiled. If there was nothing spoiled, even a washbasin would not end up in the waste station.
After paying the money and picking up her things, Pei Manning left with a heavy heart.
So many meaningful things have ended up here. People in later generations may never know they ever existed.
However, these are not things she can change, no matter how much she thinks.
The most important thing for her now is to find a legitimate job, otherwise it would feel weird to keep spending Han Jingchen's money.
Nowadays, no matter what kind of job you do in the city, it is all about job vacancies. When mothers resign, their children take over. The food supply pressure in the city is very high. Not only has some people been forced to return to their hometowns to farm, but many educated youth have also been sent to work in the countryside.
As she has no urban household registration and no junior high school education, she would not be able to take the job examination even if there was one.
Pei Manning returned home and began to flip through the books she had bought from the junkyard. There were not only textbooks, but also comic books, ideological propaganda pamphlets, biographies of heroes, revolutionary stories...
As she flipped through the pages, she finally came up with an idea.
One of the comic books has illustrations on every page, which not only strictly refer to the background of the story, costumes and architecture, but also tend to be classical and simple in style. From the joys and sorrows of the people, to the carved beams and painted pillars of the palace, to the hardships of the people, everything is painted in great detail and lifelike.
It can be said that people of all ages can be deeply attracted.
Pei Manning went to Xinhua Bookstore again and found all the comic books in the series. So far, 23 volumes of this series have been published, and the remaining stories have not yet been adapted.
She did not dare to rewrite these historical stories, fearing that if she was not careful, she would be accused of using the past to satirize the present and having ideological problems. By then, she would not be able to explain herself even if she had eight mouths.
In a few days, Pei Manning drew several illustrations based on the published original story, strictly following the original work, including character modeling, utensils, battle preparations, scenes...
She thought that the painters above all had profound painting skills and were very skilled in painting. She could not compare with them, but they always needed to do odd jobs or learn to be apprentices, right?
However, she did not rashly send the illustrations out, but put away all the drawing papers.
She planned to ask Han Jingchen first.
If there were any hidden dangers in the illustrations, or anything that could easily be accused of having ideological problems, she would edit them out first.