Chapter 34 Gift of Books
Because Master Qingfeng's birthday is coming soon, he will start a new serialized storybook at that time. Qixing Bookstore has been busy with this matter these days.
In addition to placing the words "Young Master Qingfeng" in a conspicuous place at the entrance of the study, the study also gave an invitation to every guest who came in, inviting them to visit the Seven Stars Study that day.
The guests were very pleased with this novel approach and immediately expressed that they would definitely be on time for the appointment.
After a busy period, Manager Zhao of Qixing Study finally paid some attention to Moxiangzhai across the street, but found that the shop was closed in the afternoon.
He extended his hand to call the servant over, "What's going on with Moxiangzhai these days?"
The servant boy peeked out and saw the closed door of Moxiangzhai. He said nonchalantly, "Maybe there wasn't much business so they closed up early. I haven't seen Shopkeeper Qi much these past few days."
The shopkeeper agreed with the boy's statement. After all, the strength of their Qixing Bookstore was there. It was unfortunate that Moxiang Bookstore opened across from them, so it was inevitable that it had no business now.
The shopkeeper felt very proud when he thought of this. Their Qixing Study was the property of the Qinghe City North Family. Years ago, his uncle met Young Master Qingfeng by chance, and the two hit it off immediately. The uncle took the opportunity to propose cooperation with Young Master Qingfeng, and Young Master Qingfeng readily agreed to it.
In order to make this business a success, the Bei family invested a lot of financial resources. In half a year, the Seven Stars Study had been expanded to all the towns under Qinghe City. According to the master's plan, their Seven Stars Study will move to the capital next year.
Qi Moxuan, who was visiting a friend's house, had no idea that the owner of Qixing Study was still thinking about him. His whole attention was on Mr. Zhang sitting opposite him.
Qi Moxuan's father and Zhang Juren were good friends, and Qi Moxuan began his education at Zhang Juren's private school. Technically, he was somewhat intimidated by the stern master, but because of this relationship, Qi Moxuan would visit Zhang Juren every holiday.
When Qi Moxuan said he wanted to give the printed Qingtianji to a few friends first, the first person he thought of was Zhang Juren.
It stands to reason that as a juren in Dongping County, Zhang could teach at Dongping Academy, but this juren insisted on his own educational philosophy which was at odds with the academy. He would only mislead students if he went there, so he only stayed in his private school and taught a few students.
It is said that even the county magistrate personally came to invite him out of retirement but failed.
Qi Moxuan had some admiration for this old teacher. You know, teaching in an academy is something many people would beg for, but this man just refused.
But no matter what, Qi Moxuan also had a deep understanding of this teacher's strange temper.
He had prepared himself mentally for a long time before coming here, fearing that he would be scolded by the master for not doing his job properly and then kicked out. After all, Master Zhang had done such things before.
But now seeing that the teacher seemed to be quite interested in Qing Tian Ji, after all, he had been reading the book for a quarter of an hour, Qi Moxuan's heart was quietly relieved.
Qi Moxuan sat idly in Master Zhang's house for half an hour, waiting for Master Zhang to put down the book and looking at him expectantly.
"You haven't made any progress in all these years. Do you have a nail under your butt?"
Just look and he will know, Qi Moxuan muttered in his heart.
Qi Moxuan smiled awkwardly: "Master, what do you think of this book?"
Master Zhang stroked his goatee and glanced at Qi Moxuan. "Not bad."
Qi Moxuan was overjoyed. He did not think this evaluation was low. Those who knew Master Zhang knew that it was extremely rare to receive such an evaluation from him.
"Who is this Mr. Nancheng?" Master Zhang asked, pointing to the seal on the page signed by Mr. Nancheng?
Qi Moxuan smiled and waved his hand. He was not afraid of offending Master Zhang. "Master, I promised to keep Mr. Nancheng's identity a secret. Don't you always say that a gentleman's word is as good as his bond? You can't let me, your student, break my promise and gain wealth."
Master Zhang stood up and took the Blue Sky Note in his hand: "I still have to go to teach, you should go back quickly."
Seeing the teacher take the Qingtian Ji away among other books, Qi Moxuan was overjoyed.
Although Master Zhang never taught at Dongping Academy, his status among the literati here was extraordinary. With Master Zhang's help, it would not take long for Qingtian Ji to spread among the literati.
Qi Moxuan then gave away several more copies of Qingtianji, all of whom were people who had a good relationship with him in Dongping County.
After returning to Moxiangzhai, Qi Moxuan rekindled his fighting spirit when he saw the hustle and bustle of people at the Qixing Study opposite. He knew something about the details of the Qixing Study and did not dare to hope to reach the heights of the Qixing Study, but he hoped not to be eliminated by the market.
What he needs to do now is to make Qingtianji a little famous, and wait for people who like this kind of stories to know that only his Moxiangzhai has Mr. Nancheng's books, then his Moxiangzhai will sooner or later return to its former bustle.
Qi Moxuan told himself that he must not be anxious.
County Government Office
Ji Yunzhi sat in the yamen, looking forward to it with great anticipation.
The yamen runners coming and going were not surprised by this and just did what they had to do. After all, County Magistrate Ji had been like this since the county magistrate left. Apart from handling daily official business on his behalf, he was so idle that he was almost going moldy.
Ji Yunzhi looked up at the sky for a while, then squatted on the ground to count the ants passing by, while cursing the damn Zhou Yanxiu in his heart. He would rather take that nagging master with him when going out than take his good brother with him.
Zheng Zhubu was passing by with a pile of documents. Seeing Ji Yunzhi's bored look, he casually pulled out a book from the bottom of the documents and handed it to him: "Ji County Magistrate, I have a new storybook here. Would you like to read it?"
Ji Yunzhi looked up lazily and glanced at the particularly lively Zheng Zhubu. He really couldn't understand how this man could be so energetic at such an old age.
"No, those are books for young ladies."
In Ji Yunzhi's impression, those storybooks were nothing more than stories about a down-and-out scholar who happened to meet a rich girl in a dilapidated temple and fell in love at first sight; or stories about a talented man and a beautiful woman who finally got married after going through hardships; these stories were ok to read but they could not stand up to scrutiny and would easily make people feel dull after reading them for a long time.
Zheng Zhubu raised his eyebrows and said, "How do you know it's the young lady's book when you haven't even read it yet?"
He was still busy and didn't have much time to chat with this person, so he threw the book into Ji Yunzhi's arms and said, "If you don't like reading, then come and help me organize the documents."
Compared to organizing documents, Ji Yunzhi felt that reading the storybooks was not a bad idea.
"Qingtianji, what's the name?"
Ji Yunzhi casually opened the book with the intention of taking a look, and then he read for several hours. The people in the county government office didn't hear Ji Xiancheng's voice saying that it was boring all afternoon. Although it was quiet, they still felt a little uncomfortable.
It was the first time that Ji Yunzhi knew that there was such a type of storybook. After closing the book, he felt a little unsatisfied. Seeing that this was only the first volume, there must be a second and a third volume.
He stood up and decided to go to Zheng Zhubu to borrow the remaining two books.
When I looked up, I realized that it was already dark outside. "It's already so late. It seems I can only wait until tomorrow."
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