Grandma Jiu was silent. Is this the fate that stonemasons cannot escape from generation to generation? Her father was like this, so would it be the turn of this old man in her family to be like this too?
When they were young, the ninth grandfather and the ninth grandmother were brothers and sisters. The ninth grandmother's father was a well-known stonemason when he was young, and he took the ninth grandfather as his apprentice. At that time, they still lived in the countryside of Shangjing. The whole village made a living by doing stone carving for the big families.
The Ninth Grandfather and the Ninth Grandmother grew up together as childhood sweethearts, and later naturally became a family. When the Ninth Grandfather was young, he was a handsome young man in the area and he was also very smart.
He learned the relief carving skills from his master, and even showed signs of surpassing his master.
This should have been a happy ending, but they were born at the wrong time and happened to meet an emperor like the Last Emperor who ignored the suffering of the people and was extravagant and cruel.
As soon as the last emperor of the previous dynasty came to power, he began to recruit a large number of craftsmen to build tombs and palaces.
Every few years, a group of young people from the village would go to perform labor service and never come back.
The villagers were numb and used to it. No one dared to ask where they had gone, and the elders kept silent.
At that time, Grandma Jiu also thought that her father and brother would be like this in the future, but when that day really came, she found that she was unwilling to accept her fate.
The group of people including the Ninth Master and my father-in-law had been working day and night for almost a year and were mentally prepared to sacrifice their lives for the crime.
The whole country was in chaos, and the Northern Rong invaded the capital. During this period of chaos, the management of the imperial mausoleum was naturally not as strict as before. They then began to think about surviving. However, no matter how chaotic the situation was, it was extremely difficult to escape.
In the end, out of more than 300 people, less than ten came out alive. They took advantage of the siege of Shangjing by the Northern Rong to flee north with their clansmen, and finally settled down near Leiwo Village.
From then on, he kept his name secret, lived in poverty, and never showed his craftsmanship in front of others. Unexpectedly, when he was old, he still couldn't hide it.
Is this really an inevitable fate?
Jiu Taiye's worries did not last long and disappeared.
When he opened the door early in the morning, he saw the old lady of the Qiao family standing outside his house.
The old couple quickly welcomed the person in and poured a glass of water for Qiao Xin using the only rough porcelain bowl in the house that had no cracks on it.
Qiao Xin signaled them to stop and sit down. She also decided to come over and have a good talk with the old man.
Butler Cao actually saw some clues during his two encounters with Master Jiu, and promptly gave feedback to Qiao Xin, which led to his visit today.
"I came here uninvited this time, I hope you won't mind. I really have something I want to ask you in person!"
The Ninth Master hurriedly said, "Please don't say that, my dear. I can't take the responsibility. Just tell me what you want to do!"
"The old man's seal carving skills are superb and amazing. But can you carve in positive and reverse characters? To be honest, I have been looking for a craftsman like you and want to do something. Unfortunately, I have been unlucky and have never met one. I am very happy to see the old gentleman's skills."
"I have been playing with this for many years. Now I am too old to do it. I can only make a few strokes on the wood."
Faced with the old man's refusal, Qiao Xin did not get angry, but patiently explained.
"Sir, are you worried that my Qiao family will ask you to repair the mausoleum and carve the stele? There is no need to worry. My Qiao family has a clan rule that we will not do anything that will hurt our virtue. We asked you for help for another important matter."
Qiao Xin took out the wood chip, carving knife, paper and pen that she had prepared long ago from her bag. She first wrote a simple font on the paper, then covered it on the wood chip, and then asked Jiu Taiye to carve the word into positive text.
Although Master Jiu didn't understand what Qiao Xin was going to do, he still carved out the words in a few strokes. Qiao Xin brushed the positive text with ink, then covered it with a piece of white paper and pressed it repeatedly.
Several words of the same size were clearly printed on the white paper.
Master Jiu had a vague idea that something important had happened, but he always felt that there was a layer of fog in his mind. He just needed someone to clear it away so that he could see the truth.
Qiao Xin still didn't say anything, but took out another book and placed it in front of Master Jiu, and then put the printed paper together for comparison.
"Old man, this is what I want to do. I want to turn all the characters in this book into positive characters and then print them into books. In this way, children from poor families like us will no longer have to afford books."
Jiu Taiye's cane fell to the ground with a clang. Was he dazzled or had tinnitus? Could children from poor families also afford books?
This is like a mouse being the bridesmaid for a cat, something I dare not even think about!
Jiu Taiyuan reached out and touched his face, then quickly ran to close the door, and turned back to Qiao Xin and said, "Oh, noble lady, please don't say this again. There are so many nobles in this world who wish that we ordinary people would be deaf and blind all our lives, and work hard without knowing how to read. How dare they let us learn to read?
If you do this, you will be cutting off their roots. How can they let you do it? "
Qiao Xin smiled with relief. Her intuition was right. The old man in front of her was a wise man who appeared foolish.
"Some things always have to be done by someone first. To be honest, I am not doing this just for everyone. I am doing this so that my grandchildren who are studying can spend less money on selling these pens and ink. The Qiao family was a poor family like everyone else a year ago.
Old man, I wonder if you are willing to do me a favor. If you are not willing, the Qiao family will not force you. Not many people know that I came here today. This matter is between you and me. Once we leave this door, you can just pretend that I have never been here. "
Qiao Xin waited for a long time but the old man didn't say anything. She felt a little disappointed but didn't intend to force it.
There is a long way to go, she has plenty of time!
But Grandma Jiu, who was sitting next to them, couldn't sit still anymore. She stood up and pushed her husband.
"You old man, the nobleman came to your house in person to discuss things in a friendly manner. This is a great honor for you, but why are you still so angry? If it were a bad-hearted person, they would have directly captured you and signed a contract to sell you, and you would have had to admit it even if you didn't want to."
"What are you talking about? I didn't say I wouldn't do it. Don't you think about how you can help?"
Qiao Xin was delighted: "So, you agreed?"
"We won't make things difficult for you. After you carve the words at home, I'll send someone to collect them. We need to re-sign the sales contract. If things are not kept secret, they will be leaked. Please keep your mouth shut and don't tell anyone for the time being."
"Don't worry about this. I am not someone who doesn't know the importance of things. Why don't we find a few more people to help? There are people in our village who have this skill. They are all elderly. We can still find eight or ten people who can do it."
"Then please ask them to carve the characters on bamboo. It costs five cents for each positive character. For now, please help me carve a thousand characters, ten for each character."
"That's fine!"
After Qiao Xin finished dealing with the matters with Master Jiu, she did not stay for long and rushed back to the capital with the Wang family's fleet that day.
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