Chapter 579 An Ordinary Story
When she was a child, Sister-in-law Cheng was illiterate. After she married into the Cheng family, she learned to recognize some characters by reading and writing every day, thanks to Cheng Zhao’s daily exposure to the language.
However, she only knows some common simple characters and cannot write, let alone do arithmetic. Reading account books is out of the question.
She wanted to refuse immediately, but the thought of managing the accounts meant controlling the money, and she couldn't trust a newly married daughter-in-law to manage her son's finances.
What if there is any conflict in the future and the daughter-in-law takes away Zhao'er's money?
Thinking of this, Sister-in-law Cheng immediately said, "Although I don't know these things, I can learn them. I'm sure I can learn them."
Situ Man was secretly delighted. "After the reading room closes, I'll have Shopkeeper Yu teach me for half an hour every day. Half an hour every day, I think I'll have learned it in two or three months. Then my husband will come to test me. As long as he agrees, I'll be in charge of all our family's account books from now on."
That's settled then.
The group continued to attend to various miscellaneous tasks in the reading room.
The entire Cheng family is here today, except for Brother Cheng... not because his injury hasn't healed, but because the old lady is afraid he'll embarrass himself by coming out, so she won't allow him to step into the reading room.
The two children from the second and third branches of the Cheng family, one named Cheng Xiang and the other Cheng Rui, were both around ten years old and were working as helpers organizing books.
Grandma Cheng and Sister-in-law Cheng wiped tables, swept floors, and did chores, while Grandpa Cheng was in charge of guarding the door to prevent anyone from smuggling books out...
Situ Man was counting the money at the counter with the shopkeeper Yu. Today's entry was free, but from now on you need to pay to enter. You can pay by the number of times, or you can get a membership card. After getting the card, there is no limit on the number of times you can enter, but if you want to borrow books, you have to pay a deposit and the fee is calculated by the number of days you borrow.
"As of now, a total of 457 people have signed up for membership cards, all of which are monthly cards, totaling 13 taels and 700 copper coins," Manager Yu said, tapping on his abacus. "Today, a total of 1,238 books were lent out, with a deposit of one tael of silver per book, totaling 1,238 taels of silver. In addition, there was tea, with plain water costing one copper coin, ordinary tea costing three copper coins, and slightly better tea costing ten or twenty copper coins. This part of the revenue totaled 4 taels and 300 copper coins, for a total of 1,256 taels and 100 copper coins."
Situ Man was overjoyed: "The profits from this one day have already covered the rent for this courtyard for a year. My husband finally doesn't have to put money in here himself anymore."
Manager Yu soberly stated, "Most of these profits are book deposits, which need to be returned."
Situ Man copied the account and said, "I'll go tell Second Aunt the good news."
She rushed off to Cheng Wanwan's place.
Although Cheng Wanwan never leaves the house, everyone else in her family can go out and have already told her about the grand occasion at the Reading Pavilion.
Although this reading pavilion was opened for poor students, it also attracted many children from prominent families because many wealthy families donated books that were not available on the market. Many young ladies also made appointments to join in the fun. It can be said that the reading pavilion became famous on the first day of its opening. As long as it is managed well in the future, it will surely gain a foothold in the capital.
Cheng Wanwan took a closer look at the account and said, "I didn't expect so many people to borrow books. Most of them must be scholars with some financial resources."
The deposit for borrowing books is one tael of silver per book, and twenty coins for a day's borrowing. This price is intended to curb the lending of books. If too many people borrow books, the reading room will be empty, and those who have membership cards will suffer.
Situ Man said, "Many people borrow more than ten books at a time. For example, the top scholar from the Fu family borrowed fifteen books, all of which were rare ancient books. How long would it take him to read more than ten books? At twenty cents a day for each book, that's a lot of money."
“The reading room still has too few books,” Cheng Wanwan said, pointing to the accounts. “These few ancient books were borrowed out in less than a quarter of an hour after the opening.”
You should know that she specially commissioned someone to make copies of rare ancient books, at least ten copies of each book, but they were all borrowed by wealthy people.
The poor students who came here because of its reputation probably didn't even see what these books looked like.
Fortunately, the original was kept in the reading room, so we just need to find someone to make a copy and put it on display.
"Have Manager Yu keep an eye on which books are being borrowed frequently and find someone to replenish them promptly." Cheng Wanwan closed the ledger. "Add another register, for example, who wants to read what type of book, but the reading room doesn't have it. Write it all down, and we'll slowly figure out how to get those books."
Situ Man nodded and wrote down all the details.
For several days in a row, the popularity of the reading room has been increasing.
Cheng Wanwan originally expected to have 300 members, but in the past few days, the number of members has exceeded 1,000.
The courtyard of the reading room can only accommodate three or four hundred people reading at the same time, so they had to stop issuing membership cards. Fortunately, they only issued monthly cards. If the space is tight this month, they can control the number of members next month. Making money is secondary. The main thing is to make every member feel convenient and comfortable when reading here.
"Second Aunt, it's only been three days, and the registration book is already full." Situ Man took the book from the reading room and said, "The reading room has a lot of books for men to read, and the variety is extremely rich. Men don't have many opinions, and most of the comments come from women. Some young ladies from aristocratic families like to read biographies, especially biographies of female figures, but there are only a few biographies in the women's library, either about Empress Xiaojia or Princess Taiping... There are also some ordinary women who like to read story books, but currently there are only strange stories and the language is too complicated. Ordinary women can't understand them. I hope there will be some ordinary story books..."
Cheng Wanwan rested her chin on her hand.
In this era, the only people who are qualified to have their biographies written are naturally members of the royal family and some talented people in the society. The content needs to be verified, and the process is too complicated... Even if she wanted to do something, she could only be willing but unable to do so.
But storybooks are worth a try.
This fully illustrates that women in this era had a relatively impoverished and empty spiritual world. They wanted to read, but 98 percent of the books on the market were prepared for men, and most of these books were for the imperial examinations, which resulted in women having no books to read.
Cheng Wanwan thought of the ancient times in her original world, where a miscellaneous play called "The Romance of the Western Chamber" was created.
It tells the story of a scholar and a young lady from a prime minister's family who break through feudal ethics and finally become a couple. Because of its ingenious plot, dramatic conflicts and wonderful writing, this zaju play became the most famous play at that time and was sought after by countless people.
However, since she lived in a feudal era, she decided not to write stories that broke through feudal ethics. If she was not careful, she could easily be impeached, and she did not want to be at odds with the entire era.
But true love prevails in the end, a fate every woman dreams of. Using this as a starting point, and considering the customs and background of the Great Yu Dynasty, a new story could be written...
That evening, Cheng Wanwan summoned all the maids and palace maids in the courtyard.
Everyone lined up in a row. This was the first time that the people of Sui'an had seriously asked them all to come over and give them a lecture. For a moment, they couldn't figure out what the people of Sui'an wanted to do.
"Why are you all so nervous?" Cheng Wanwan said, resting her chin on her hand. "I've been going crazy lately. I even had a dream last night. It was a really interesting dream. Find a place to sit down and let me tell you about it."
Everyone: "..."
The people of Sui'an are really going crazy from holding back their dreams; they actually want to tell them about their dreams from the night before.
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