The Farm Girl's Charismatic Fortune-Chapter 71 - 69 The bitterness ends and the sweetness
Chapter 71: Chapter 69 The bitterness ends and the sweetness begins
Chapter 71 -69 The bitterness ends and the sweetness begins
“It’s not that many! But since you have a Magic Artifact, you should be able to complete it, right? From now on, our bookstore will pay sixty wen per book for the copies you make, and there are some scholars who want to buy books with your annotations, saying the price is negotiable. What do you think?”
“Forget about the annotated books. I am but a novice in learning; I wouldn’t want to lead the youngsters astray,” Ruo Shui waved a hand, declining to sell books with her annotations.
The Shopkeeper looked disappointed, “Then what about the other books? Some scholars have specified titles they want, and of course, they’ve also indicated that if you don’t have the ones they’re looking for, to reserve a copy of another book for them.”
Xuanbao glanced at the list, which had about a hundred or more names. She pondered about the speed of copying for a moment before saying, “Dad, let’s take five different books back home to copy today and deliver them in three days. We’ll copy a hundred of each book to start, how about that?”
Upon hearing this, the Shopkeeper’s eyes lit up, and he became even more curious about the “Magic Artifact”. Three days to copy five hundred books was incredibly efficient!
Such remarkable skill from this master!
He must firmly tie him to the Academy!
The Shopkeeper seized the opportunity to ask, “Mr. Ruo, can you deliver five hundred books to our bookstore every three days from now on? Any book will do, and we can raise the price to sixty wen a piece. Naturally, thicker books will net a higher price.”
Boxue Bookstore wasn’t only in the county town; they had branches throughout Xuanyuan Country, so the Shopkeeper was not worried about selling the books.
Three days could net thirty taels of silver; ten taels a day. How could Ruo Shui refuse? “I can!”
Ruo Shui felt her daughter had thought things through carefully. Printing five hundred books in three days left plenty of time to spare, which could be used for other tasks.
If her brother negotiated successfully with the Academy, they would also have time to print books for the Academy.
The Shopkeeper smiled, “Then it’s settled! Shall we sign a contract?”
Ruo Shui, knowing Xuanbao’s plan, only signed a contract with the bookstore to deliver five hundred books every three days and did not agree to any other terms.
The Shopkeeper suddenly felt a pang of regret at not having signed for a few hundred more, sensing the loss of several thousand taels!
After the contract was signed, the Shopkeeper picked out five books that many scholars had specifically requested and let them take them back to copy, not even asking for a deposit.
Then he settled the payment for the two hundred books they delivered this time, giving them twelve taels of silver.
Ruo Shui smiled and said, “Shopkeeper, you have no objections to me buying all these papers this time, do you?”
They still hadn’t used up the paper from last time, but it made sense to buy extra for future use.
The Shopkeeper laughed, “No, Mr. Ruo, feel free to take them! No need for silver, I’ve already collected a fair amount of deposits from the scholars. Consider this paper as your deposit, just make sure to deliver the books on time in three days.”
Ruo Shui didn’t stand on ceremony and loaded the paper onto the cart.
Then he and Xuanbao went to the Cloth Store to pick up the ten jin of cotton they had ordered a few days before, bought some candied figures for the children, and returned home cheerfully.
Arriving home, the whole family crowded around, “How did it go? Were all the books sold?”
With so many books, the family was actually worried that the bookstore wouldn’t be able to take them all.
Xuanbao happily hopped off the cart and passed the money pouch to Granny Lei, “Sold! And the bookstore owner raised the price—sixty wen per book!”
The crowd was startled, silently calculating the amount of silver two hundred books at sixty wen each would bring in.
Ruo Shui joyfully said, “Not only did we sell them, but we’ve also made an arrangement with the bookstore. From now on, we will deliver five hundred books to the bookstore every three days. That means we can make ten taels of silver each day!”
“Really?” Ruo Jiang couldn’t believe it.
Madam Jiang was also extremely surprised; this wasn’t just printing books—it was like printing silver!
Even in the days before the Ruo Family’s decline, they had never earned ten taels of silver in a single day.
The Ruo Family’s hardships were finally paying off.
Ruo Shui took out the contract to show everyone, “Of course it’s real! I signed a contract with the bookstore.”
The family took it, carefully examining it from beginning to end.
Granny Lei finished reading and laughed, “Alright, enough talking, go and print money! Oh, I mean print books!”
The whole family laughed.
Ruo Shui said to Ruo Hai, “Third Brother, we might not have enough character molds.”
Ruo Hai immediately replied, “I’ll make some more right away!”
The great thing about movable type printing with clay is that you can make any missing character on the fly.
The family quickly got busy, as even the children had to help with typesetting, considering there were five books and many pages.
In the evening, Ruo Chuan returned with some good news: two academies had ordered their books, one of which was the academy where Madam Liu’s elderly father worked; he had helped them secure the order.
Both academies had ordered the Four Books and Five Classics, with one academy ordering two hundred sets and the other three hundred sets, both at a price of sixty wen per book.
Usually, when academies purchase books from bookstores, they pay eighty wen per book, so a twenty wen discount made the academies quite happy.
At dinner, the whole family was beaming with joy, smiling broadly as they ate.
Upon learning that Ruo Shui had also signed a deal with the bookstore for five hundred books every three days, Ruo Chuan laughed, “It looks like it won’t be long before our family opens our own bookstore!”
Xuanbao then said, “Yeah, not long at all, but let’s buy some land and build houses first! We’re running out of space at home! I want a room that gets the morning sun and where the moonlight can pour in at night.”
This way, her cultivation would be convenient.
It wasn’t the first time the granddaughter had mentioned wanting her own room, and Granny Lei thought about how indeed their current house was too small, with three sons soon to marry and the grandsons growing up; it was inevitable that they would need to build more eventually.
“Alright then, let’s do as Xuanbao says, buy land to build a house.” They had made over fifty taels from selling the Geng Grass, and later the demand from the restaurant increased, adding to their income, along with the money from selling mountain goods like wild pigs and from copying scripts. Now they had almost a hundred taels in the house, enough to expand without using the granddaughter’s money.
With the money left over, plus the current pace of book printing, the cost of the grandsons’ education would not be a problem either.
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“Behind our house, there’s an acre of homestead land that belongs to the village chief, and next to it, some wasteland. Buying two acres for building should be enough.” They were the last house at the end of the village, so there was space for expansion.
Xuanbao thought of the estate of Divine Lord Xuanyuan, which had many fruit trees planted.
She could plant fruit trees too! And she also knew how to grow medicinal herbs.
Planting fruit trees and herbs could also earn silver.
“Granny, let’s buy some barren hills and wasteland to plant fruit trees and medicinal herbs.”
Since Xuanbao could even hasten the ripening of persimmons, Granny Lei had no doubts about Xuanbao’s ability to grow fruit trees and medicinal herbs.
Granny Lei thought that Xuanbao’s two hundred-tael silver note was just lying around, and it would be better to buy land to grow fruit trees and herbs, making the silver multiply.
This way, Xuanbao’s dowry would continue to grow.
“Good!” Granny Lei agreed without hesitation.
…
The next day, each member of the family was busy with their own tasks.
Ruo Shui and Ruo Jiang continued printing books at home.
Ruo Hai was making the character molds.
Ruo Chuan continued to go into town to liaise with the academies.
Madam Liu and Madam Jiang managed the vegetable garden, replanted the vegetables, prepared meals at home, and continued to make clothes for the children. Having purchased new cotton in town yesterday, they could finally stuff it into the clothes and finish the new garments for the kids.
Ruo Hai was at home teaching a few of the children martial arts.
Xuanbao and Granny Lei went to see the village chief to buy land for building and, incidentally, to look at the wasteland and barren hills.
