Chapter 41 Mo Xiang Ge
Mo Xiang Ge, as its name suggests, is quiet and elegant, with a hint of ink.
The door of the store is made of a long string of wooden beads. Looking in from the outside, you can see the shadowy scenes inside through the gaps in the beaded curtain.
As soon as Jiang Ning and Liu Mingan stepped into the store, the beaded curtain made a "pa pa" sound, and a man walked out from the counter next to the door. He was about 40 years old, neatly dressed, with a beard and a perfect smile on his face.
The man said to the two of them, "Welcome to our shop. What would you like to buy?"
Liu Ming'an glanced around the shop. There were no pens, inkstones, paper, or inkstones on this floor. It was filled with all kinds of books, including classics, history, biographies, poetry, medical books, and Buddhist texts. They were organized and arranged on their own shelves for people to browse and choose. At this time, there were two or three people in the shop choosing books.
Opposite the door of the shop was a staircase with a sign next to it that read: Four Treasures of the Study. Please go up to the second floor.
"Don't bother the boss to entertain us. We'll just take a look around first." Liu Ming'an said politely.
"Hahaha... I'm not the boss," the man stroked his beard and smiled, then bowed to the two of them and said, "My surname is Yuan, and I'm the shopkeeper of Moxiang Pavilion."
"Shopkeeper Yuan." Liu Ming'an also bowed in return.
"Then please go ahead, both of you. If you need anything, just call me anytime." Shopkeeper Yuan extended his hand and made a "please" gesture, then he returned to the counter.
Jiang Ning's mind was already on the piles of books when she entered the Moxiang Pavilion. Everything was good after being reborn in this era, except that there were too few entertainment facilities, no mobile phones, no computers, no TVs, no movies, and Liu Mingan's family was penniless. In her spare time, she could only flip through the books he used for the imperial examinations. But Liu Mingan's books were boring, and only one book, "Book of Rites", was barely readable.
Seeing so many different books now, Jiang Ning suddenly felt that there was hope for the future.
After Liu Mingan and Shopkeeper Yuan finished chatting, Jiang Ning couldn't wait to walk to the bookshelf.
"The Story of the Dream Girl", "The Legend of the Fox Demon in Red Clothes", "The Seven Ghosts", "The Ten Major Cases of Liang State"...
Jiang Ning took anything that sounded like a storybook without blinking. When Liu Ming'an came over, Jiang Ning already had a thick stack of books in her arms, no less than twenty.
Liu Ming'an reached out to take the books and took them himself. Seeing that Jiang Ning was still thinking about taking more books, he quickly persuaded her: "Jiang Ning, there are too many, it's not easy to take them, come next time."
Jiang Ning thought about it and thought that this pile was enough to kill time.
Manager Yuan was originally concentrating on checking the accounts, but his eyes went dark and the light was mostly blocked by someone. He looked up and saw that the young couple who had just left and returned were standing in front of the counter with a stack of books in front of them.
"You two have finished your selection so quickly?" Shopkeeper Yuan was very surprised. It was less than half a cup of tea.
Liu Mingan smiled and said, "Now that we have selected, we still need to go to the second floor to take a look. Put these books here first and settle the bill together later."
"Oh, okay, okay, this way, this way!" Shopkeeper Yuan saw that these two people were the gods of wealth today, and he did not dare to neglect them at all. He walked out from behind the counter and stood by the stairs with a smile on his face, inviting them to go up.
Liu Mingan nodded slightly to Shopkeeper Yuan, and then followed Jiang Ning to the second floor.
"It's really hard to carry so many books," Jiang Ning suddenly said, frowning slightly, as if thinking seriously: "There's no rice at home, so I need to buy some. There's not much oil left, and I want to buy some flour..."
Not long ago, she had a murderous look on her face and said that the thugs in Jinyufang were all waste. Now, with her eyebrows slightly frowned, she was worrying about the daily necessities of life. Such a big contrast did not make people feel contradictory when it appeared on Jiang Ning. Liu Mingan looked at her and even thought that Jiang Ning was a little cute.
Liu Mingan coughed lightly to stop the smile on his face: "Don't worry, you bought so many books, give a few more copper coins later, and the store will send someone to deliver them to your home. And we can go to Chen's Rice Shop to buy rice and flour, or we can have the goods delivered directly to your home."
"Okay, let's do it." Jiang Ning made the final decision. In fact, she could put everything back in her space without any effort, but if so, Liu Ming'an would have a hard time explaining it.
A waiter was standing at the entrance of the second floor. When he saw the two of them coming upstairs, he immediately greeted them respectfully: "Welcome, distinguished guests. What do you need?"
Jiang Ning scanned the floor and found that the layout of the second floor was similar to that of the first floor, except that it was divided into four areas, each selling pens, ink, paper, and inkstones. At the moment, four or five customers were choosing paper, and one of them was in his thirties, explaining something.
Seeing that Jiang Ning and Liu Ming'an were both looking over there, the waiter explained, "The one in white is our boss Yang Ruoqing. Look, he is greeting several customers who want to buy paper for painting."
Liu Ming'an turned to Jiang Ning and said, "I promised two friends to help paint a birthday picture. Let's go and take a look."
Jiang Ning raised her eyebrows, which was quite unexpected. She and Liu Ming'an were inseparable. Today, they were separated for a while. These two friends she met could get Liu Ming'an to give her paintings and help paint birthday pictures. Moreover, when Liu Ming'an talked about the two people, there was always a faint smile in his eyes. It seemed that he should be very happy to know them.
When Jiang Ning and Liu Ming'an walked to the paper selling area, they heard Boss Yang say excitedly: "...This paper is the finest Xuanzhou cooked rice paper, and the scroll head is the finest Dalbergia odorifera. You can't buy it anywhere else except in my Moxiang Pavilion!"
Boss Yang handed the scroll to the four people. However, an older man held out his hand to stop it and declined, saying: "We are used to using raw rice paper. No matter how good your cooked rice paper is, we can't use it. It's a waste to buy it. Boss Yang, please show us the raw rice paper."
Boss Yang sighed a little disappointedly, rolled up the scroll, put it on the highest shelf, then led the customers to another place and began to introduce the new scroll.
Liu Mingan walked over, took the rolled scroll down from the shelf, and carefully examined it through the window. After a moment, he said to Jiang Ning, "It is indeed the best cooked rice paper, and the Dalbergia odorifera is also real."
Jiang Ning: "..."
She didn't understand.
"How can there be raw and cooked paper? Has it been boiled?" Jiang Ning was puzzled. Jiang
Ning was confused just now. Although she practiced calligraphy in modern times, she bought it casually on the Internet and didn't know anything about these.
"Puff!" Liu Ming'an couldn't help laughing. The next moment, Jiang Ning looked over at him dimly. Liu Ming'an quickly said seriously, "According to the processing method, rice paper is divided into raw rice paper, cooked rice paper and semi-cooked rice paper. Raw rice paper is rice paper that has not been treated with alum. It is thicker, has strong water absorption and permeability, and is easy to produce rich changes in ink rhyme. It is mostly used for freehand landscape painting. Cooked rice paper is raw rice paper that has been treated with alum. The paper is harder, has weak water absorption, and the ink is not easy to spread. Painting on it is more precise in details, and the paintings are more delicate and natural. Semi-cooked rice paper, as the name suggests, is between the two, and has both advantages and disadvantages. It is suitable for beginners to practice."
This explanation was concise and clear. Jiang Ning nodded and said, "You know a lot."
Liu Mingan smiled modestly: "I learned all this from books."