Chapter 88 This guy's newspapers sell so well, could it be that he overheard something under the bed...?
"Newspapers for sale! The little fish who wrote the story of the plum blossom has a new story! A person from twenty years in the future has traveled back five hundred years and become a little girl in the countryside!"
The newsboy enthusiastically promoted the newspaper in her hand. Some regular customers recognized her face and asked her curiously why she no longer sold cigarettes.
"Of course I'm selling! My brother just woke up today feeling weak in his legs, so I swapped with him. He sells cigarettes and I sell newspapers. It's only for today. Go check the street corner again tomorrow, and I'll be selling cigarettes again. Do you want a newspaper? They have a new story about a little fish today, it's really interesting."
The newsboy wasn't intimidated by the regular customer's question and explained the matter thoroughly in a few words. He even casually promoted the daily newspaper he was holding. The regular customer hadn't bought a newspaper that day, and after thinking for a moment, he actually took out two copper coins.
Xiaoyu was already famous, and her absence for a period of time during the Chinese New Year did not affect the newspaper's sales; in fact, it boosted people's purchases. Xiaoyu always published two new issues a week without interruption, even when switching to a different newspaper. So when Yao Xiaoyu broke her previous habit and prepared to take a break before starting a new article, people who flipped through the newspaper and did not see Xiaoyu's article felt like the sky had fallen!
The first week after the story of Plum Blossom ended was relatively peaceful. After two weeks, people started sending letters and coming to the editorial office to look for people. By the third week, anonymous articles criticizing Lao Deng had been published in the newspaper: every article by Xiao Yu was accompanied by a bloody storm, with the voice of the corrupt scholar being the loudest.
By the fourth week, rumors of Xiaoyu's retirement from writing were everywhere. Letters were flying into the Huaben Daily like snowflakes, and the verbal battles in the newspaper never stopped. More and more people were getting involved, and their ranks were getting higher and higher. Although the focus had shifted from a small fish to the clash between old and new ideas, on the surface, it was just these big shots arguing over a small fish.
Pi Kangxiu was quite happy at first, but then he broke out in a cold sweat—what good could come of such a trigger!
If Yao Xiaoyu hadn't suddenly decided to visit the editorial department again because she remembered the publication of Plum Blossom, Pi Kangxiu would have gone to Yao's house to confront her.
Fortunately, Yao Xiaoyu was aware of the seriousness of the matter and cooperated fully from beginning to end. With Yao Xiaoyu's permission, Novel Daily published the statement that she would continue writing a new book after the New Year, thus extricating herself from the situation. As for the small fish that left an impression on many people who had never heard of it before because of this incident...
The newsboy, who hadn't been shouting for long, handed the last newspaper to the man, shook his heavy money bag, and ran towards the masthead without stopping, firmly engraving the name of a small fish in his heart.
This man's newspapers sell well!
The newsboy ran back and forth several times, taking more and more newspapers each time, until the daily novel was no longer on the masthead. Then she took other newspapers to sell, shouting until sunset before meeting up with the boy who had taken her tobacco box.
"Keep up."
The boy returned the box to her and took her back to her home in the tenement. The newsboy pretended not to notice the boy's parents' wary expressions, gave the boy a copper coin, and then lay down contentedly on the straw in the corner. It wasn't a comfortable place to sleep, but it was much better and safer than crammed into a dilapidated house with a bunch of people for warmth.
After some time, once she's sure this place won't touch her things, she can rent here long-term—a newsboy, or rather, a tobacco boy, she didn't do this before. She was a homeless child who was mistaken for a boy, doing everything a homeless child would do, until not long ago in the spring, a kind lady gave her a silver coin and suggested she become a tobacco boy.
She was very hungry and lingered in front of the pancake shop many times. The owner looked at her warily. Finally, she decided to buy a piece of cloth and a box to sell cigarettes.
Buying on credit wasn't easy, and not everyone was willing to buy from the cigarette box. You had to avoid the smelly-footed patrolmen, guard against thugs who would rob you, and even the children in the group would ostracize you... In the beginning, the money from selling cigarettes was less than what she could get from begging, but she still gritted her teeth and persevered. Later, besides her own food, she was even able to save a little money.
But she soon had new troubles—now that she could earn money, the other homeless children were still doing the same old thing, and they began to harbor some kind of malice towards her. That feeling of not being able to stand seeing someone climb out of the mud pit was not so easy to get rid of, so her life began to become difficult.
When people banded together for warmth, she was always the one blocking the wind; the clothes she carefully kept to earn money would be deliberately smeared with black handprints; even the money she saved was always taken by people who wanted to take it, and as for how to use it, those people would not say, but would just glare at her and shout things like they were not friends.
She didn't want to leave the homeless children, but they were forcing her to go, so she had no choice but to leave. However, it was difficult for children who left the group to find a safe place to spend the night. Fortunately, she had done the boy who brought her back some favor today, and she could rent a corner of the room for one night by paying one copper coin a day.
Tomorrow I'll buy a small earthenware pot, and spend a copper coin on a pound of flour. With a little firewood, I can make dough balls. The money she gave me is only for lodging, not for food.
Yan Tong lay in the room where he couldn't see the stars, sleeping more soundly than before. When he woke up, he subconsciously squeezed his purse, and then felt relieved.
It's still there.
She rushed out to earn money, and just as she left, she overheard the boy's parents talking to a neighbor.
"...A distant relative's child...They haven't said what to do with them...Let's keep them for now and see what happens..."
"...I only know her nickname, I don't know if she's changed it now, I'll ask her when I get back..."
Yan Tong walked along the road carrying her box, and for once, she began to think about a question she had never considered before—should she give herself a name?
This wasn't necessary before. Street children would either call each other "Hey" or use nicknames. When someone asked her to buy cigarettes, they would just call her "kid" or something like that. But now that she has "relatives," she can't just call them whatever she wants—she used to be called something like "Di," but she didn't really like it.
Let's start with a new one.
***
Xinghua Girls' Middle School.
Li Shouzhen handed the food box she got from the school gate to her deskmate, took the silver coins, calculated them in her notebook, finally breathed a sigh of relief, and took out the sweet potato that had long since gone cold to start eating.
"Didn't your family prepare lunch for you again?"
Her deskmate frowned and looked over. Li Shouzhen's family was not short of money, but they only paid her tuition and didn't care about any other expenses, so Shouzhen had to run errands to make up for the tuition and other fees.
"They probably forgot."
Li Shouzhen naturally pushed away the food box that was handed to her, swallowed the sweet potato in a few bites, and then flipped through the newspaper that her deskmate had casually handed her.
The teacher often said that they shouldn't just study books, but should also read newspapers to understand what's happening outside. But Li Shouzhen didn't have any money, so she could only borrow from her deskmate. The advantage was that it didn't cost her anything, but the disadvantage was that the newspapers were like opening a blind box every day. Like today, her deskmate brought the Novel Daily.
She continued reading word by word, slowly turning to "Back to the Ming Dynasty".
"Bang!"
The cup on the corner of the table fell to the ground, startling the student sitting next to her. Just as he was about to ask Li Shouzhen what happened, he was horrified by her expression.
Li Shouzhen was trembling all over, her face contorted with a mixture of crying and laughter.
"...Shouzhen, do you want to see a doctor?"
The classmate asked cautiously. Li Shouzhen looked up as if she had been startled awake, then slowly shook her head from side to side, her voice as light as a cloud and as ethereal as mist.
"It's nothing, I'm just a little tired."
As Li Shouzhen spoke, she slumped onto the table. She wasn't unaware of her deskmate's worried gaze, but her mind was in turmoil. Her thoughts were filled with returning to the Zhang family in Daming. If she didn't know that she didn't recognize Xiaoyu, she would have thought it was a case of mistaken identity—the people here were so similar to her family, even their personalities were almost identical.
She doesn't have a cousin who is valued, but she does have a younger uncle who is cherished by her grandparents.
Li Shouzhen initially thought her grandparents' favoritism towards her eldest uncle, third aunt, and youngest uncle was biased, but after Zhang Erya's analysis, she actually came to believe it was just a choice made under the weight of interests. Li Shouzhen felt like she was going crazy, but all afternoon, a few sentences kept swirling in her mind—
She values her eldest son because she will rely on him for old age.
The reason she favored her eldest grandson was because she feared she would live too long and thus have double the retirement security.
I love my daughters because they marry into good families and bring honor to them.
I like my youngest son; I like his sweet talk and thoughtfulness, and he provides emotional support.
So how should she demonstrate her value in order to gain recognition?
...
Li Shouzhen returned home and ran into her younger brother-in-law begging for money in a coquettish manner. The silver dollar was so shiny that Li Shouzhen, who originally intended to go back to her room, impulsively blurted out:
"Grandma, Teacher Luna said I owe a lot of tuition and fees and asked me to sign a poverty certificate, otherwise she would make me drop out of school."
Li Shouzhen didn't want to cry, but when she thought about how she ate sweet potatoes and potatoes every day at school, tears welled up in her eyes.
"Why is your blond-haired teacher so troublesome? I'm going to find her."
Grandma Li was all bark and no bite, but she hadn't actually moved an inch. Before, when she wanted her granddaughter to drop out of school, that foreigner named Luna came straight to the Li residence. If she hadn't spoken up quickly, the Li family would have almost lost all face.
"What is this 'poverty' thing?"
Grandma Li didn't understand.
"It's just a piece of paper proving that our family is poor. Once you sign it, you don't have to pay tuition and fees."
The poverty certificate was fabricated by Li Shouzhen, but it doesn't matter. Teacher Luna likes her and will cover for her. Before, she was stubborn and thought that family scandals should not be aired in public, so she struggled to raise the money herself.
"Isn't that..." a good thing?
Before Grandma Li could finish speaking, Li Shouzhen added:
"This is to be read aloud at the school through a loudspeaker. The daughter of the Wei family, the niece of the Ju family, the cousin of the Zan family... everyone is listening. After it's read, everyone will know that the Li family is so poor that they can't even afford the tuition and fees."
Grandma Li gasped.
"Absolutely do not sign. I'll give you the tuition and fees later."
That little bit of money is nothing compared to the Li family's reputation!
Li Shouzhen quoted a figure that was slightly higher than the tuition and miscellaneous fees she had scraped together, intending to say it was interest owed if her grandmother asked again. However, her grandmother just said with heartache that she was losing money and wasting money, while counting out the silver dollars.
It actually works?!
"Grandma, my deskmate, the granddaughter of the Che family, has asked me several times why I bring sweet potatoes to school. I said my family is busy and we value thrift, but she said I was lying, saying the Li family is too poor to afford food—"
When Li Shouzhen returned to her room with the silver dollars and the promise of future meals, she was still somewhat dazed. But she quickly jumped up, opened the daily newspaper in her bag, and began copying down word for word the methods Zhang Erya used to return to the Ming Dynasty.
These are all set of standards!
I need to send a letter to my parents later to see their reaction before making any further plans.
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Author's Note: Zhang Erya's methods - When Zhang Erya first fell ill, she used the Zhang family's reputation as a threat to feign weakness and get to eat eggs that provided her with nutritional supplements.
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