Chapter 53: Connecting the Dots

Chapter 53: Connecting the Dots

Due to Old Man Li Sanshun's impoverished imagination, he was unable to accurately visualize the shape of the grid in his mind. Meanwhile, Chen Jianfang had already taken her seat at the head of the room with her cloth bag.

The sound of Chen Jianfang placing the inkstone was like the ringing of a school bell.

Xianjin, who had self-appointed herself as class monitor, could only suppress her excitement and spend the second class half-heartedly, her mind filled with thoughts of making money.

Chen Jianfang, seated at the front, read out in a gentle voice, "Cold comes, heat goes; autumn harvests, winter stores."

Xianjin followed along, shaking her head slightly, "Money comes, money goes; hiding east, hiding west."

The young girl's crisp voice was hidden among the group, but Chen Jianfang caught it immediately.

What hiding east, hiding west...

Chen Jianfang used her book to cover her smile.

Nonsense, completely incoherent.

At the end of the second class, Chen Jianfang tested their progress from the previous day through dictation. After reviewing everyone's work, she solemnly informed them that she decided to change her teaching method. "We can't learn too much at once. We'll start with eight characters a day, and we'll see how it goes from there."

Xianjin took the dictation paper and looked at it.

In school, geography was her worst subject. How bad was it? During the college entrance exam, if she had gotten just one of the twelve multiple-choice geography questions right, just one! She would have been able to attend a better university!

Among a few papers, there were some even worse than her geography test—every single one of the sixteen characters was wrong, and they were wrong in a spectacular way. The character for "heaven" was written as "yao," which was clearly a mistake. There was no need to look further; it had to be Zhou Ergou's handiwork.

Yao.

Yao your sister.

Xianjin was almost driven to an early grave by Zhou Ergou and those few leg-hangers.

The physical education students' academic performance was truly infuriating!

Among them, the best performer was unexpectedly Xiaolocke's paper—the eavesdropping student got fifteen out of sixteen characters correct. Apart from adding an extra stroke to the character "ying," all other characters were neatly written, well-structured, and aligned, though lacking in brushwork flair.

This was a talent worth nurturing!

Thanks to Xiaolocke's presence, the team didn't appear so disgraceful in front of the Star of Hope.

Xianjin excitedly patted Xiaolocke's head and then placed his paper in front of Zhou Ergou, lamenting, "...it's not about not knowing quality, but about comparing qualities."

Zhou Ergou had a face thicker than a city wall. "Comparing people can drive you mad, comparing fates can make you sick."

Xianjin showed no emotion. "People live for their reputation, trees live for their bark."

Zhou Ergou lay down and let himself be ridiculed, instead advising Xianjin, "A big tree has deep roots, excessive anger harms the body, oh."

Xianjin: "..."

Why weren't you this quick during study time!

When it came to battling idioms with the boss, you're suddenly number one!

...

Although the physical education students were academically poor, they excelled in their specialized fields. Listening to Xianjin's description and watching her draw several grids on the paper with a reed pen, they nodded in understanding, indicating that they got it.

Zhou Ergou transformed into a product manager, summarizing the client's requirements. "It's for beginners learning to write characters—proper scholars who have passed the scholar or higher exams don't need this. They have a built-in ruler in their hands, every character's size and spacing is precise. Their casual writing is more regular than what you'd get by carefully measuring with a ruler."

Xianjin thought about it and remembered the few characters Chen Jianfang had casually written on the white paper.

Indeed.

Every line was perfectly horizontal and vertical.

He didn't need the help of the grid lines to structure the characters.

Xianjin nodded.

After Li Sanshun understood, he pondered and said, "Then we can use four-foot Xuan paper, processed with alum, preferably Jialian Xuan. It's hard and crisp, doesn't bleed ink... Since it's just for tracing and practicing writing, we don't need high-quality paper for showing the nuances of ink. We can bind dozens of sheets into a book, which can be opened and written on without worrying about the ink bleeding onto the next page."

Old Man Li Sanshun directly imagined the grid practice paper as a bound workbook!

Xianjin nodded in agreement!

Yes, yes!

That made sense!

"Our Southern Zhili region is renowned for its scholarly pursuits, with countless children starting their education each year! Writing practice is a big deal! If we can popularize these practice papers, it could become a long-term business for Chen's!"

Xianjin was quite elated.

How many scholars were there in Southern Zhili each year? That number was beyond their grasp. But just from Qingcheng Mountain Courtyard, they could tell that the number must be enormous. A small mountain courtyard in Jing County had three or four hundred students. What about the entire Xuanzhou Prefecture? The entire Huai'an Prefecture? The whole Zhili?

Let's take the lean and dignified scholar from the Chen family's main branch as an example. If he taught sixteen characters a day and required fifty repetitions for each character, that would be...

Hundreds of characters!

If a four-foot sheet of paper was used for large characters, it could only hold sixty to seventy characters. If six hundred characters were assigned as homework, ten sheets of practice paper would be needed per day!

Those who devoted themselves to studying and hoped to pass the imperial examinations would need even more!

This paper could sell!

With the steam rising from the workshop, Li Sanshun also felt his heart and palms grow warm.

Action speaks louder than words!

The prerequisite for selling paper is being able to produce it.

Four-foot Jialian Shuxuan paper is easy to talk about; the order was given to Xiaocao Village, with Zhou Ergou personally overseeing the process. After three days of work, using the raw paper in the warehouse, they brushed it with a wool brush with a mixture of two parts alum, three parts gelatin, and five parts Baji, then naturally air-dried it into cooked paper.

With the crisp, thick, and ink-resistant cooked paper in hand, Master Li Sanshun personally sought out a printing workshop.

This printing workshop originally engaged in less-than-reputable business – those passionate, intimate romance novels were produced here.

Nowadays, the Sage in the palace increasingly favored the self-disciplined Confucian path, and naturally, these heretical and seductive "erotic books" were to be eradicated.

The printing workshop had no business for four to five months. When Master Li Sanshun approached them with the cooked paper, the shopkeeper nodded tearfully without even hearing clearly what Li Sanshun said. "We do, we do. We do everything except murder, arson, highway robbery, blackmail, honey traps, arson for insurance fraud, and seduction schemes..."

Xianjin: ...

It was clear that this boss was truly struggling.

During his impoverished times without business, he must have considered all the most lucrative trades...

The current woodblock and movable type printing techniques had developed to a very advanced level. Xianjin succinctly explained her concept and presented a four-foot Xuan paper sample with a grid drawn in red ink, requesting a prototype.

The boss studied the sample for a moment, took out several wooden blocks and carving knives, and swiftly transformed the wooden blocks into raised pattern plates. He then arranged them according to the sample, applied red dye, placed a four-foot Xuan paper on the wooden device, and pressed down on the handle.

The boss retrieved the four-foot Xuan paper and handed it to Xianjin for inspection. "Is this what you wanted?"

Wow.

The wisdom of ancient Chinese people was boundless.

With just a few words from Xianjin and the sample draft, they could replicate it one-to-one.

Xianjin’s admiring expression amused the printing workshop owner.

The boss proudly declared, "...this isn't difficult at all! At our busiest, we carved three volumes of novels in one night!"

Three books printed in one night, highly... productive like sows!

The boss whispered boastfully, "I won’t exaggerate, but which young lady or madam in Jing County doesn’t have one of our printed novels under their bed? 'Through the Crowd, I Choose You,' 'The Concubine’s Temptation,' 'That Scholar Is Truly Handsome'... all our masterpieces."

Xianjin wiped her forehead.

Her respect, her respect. She didn’t realize this was the largest cultural and entertainment hub in Jing County.

The boss did any kind of business, which from another perspective, proved his strong capabilities.

However, under Xianjin's repeated requests, the boss swore that when printing Chen's calligraphy practice books, even if the cultural and entertainment trend faded and the situation eased, he would never print romance novels on one machine and calligraphy practice books on another – how split-personality would that be!

If parents of students learning to write found out that next to their son's calligraphy practice book was once "The Concubine’s Temptation" series, Xianjin feared the mothers might be so angry they couldn’t catch their breath. If the main wife passed away in reality, wouldn’t "The Concubine’s Temptation" play out genuinely?

This risk must be avoided.

The printing workshop worked quickly, printing and binding around twenty four-foot grid calligraphy practice books in one night.

With the goods ready, how to sell them?

Everyone at Chen's offered their opinions, conducting a brainstorming session in the backyard.

Xianjin was mainly responsible for the ideas, while others contributed the storm –

Li Sanshun was conservative. "...we should slowly sell them in the store. With people coming and going, we rely on word-of-mouth. If the product is good, it will eventually succeed."

Steward Dong prioritized profit. "...that's not suitable. We invested nearly a hundred taels of silver in this venture. If we take it slow, when will we recoup our costs? Remember, Xiaocao Village requires monthly cash settlements."

Then, the two engaged in a heated argument.

Zhou Ergou kept his head down, silent.

Xianjin walked over and saw that he was still copying homework.

Mother Zhang held a bowl, mumbling, "...whether we sell paper or not, we need to eat." Her hand reached from Xianjin’s armpit to her mouth. "Ah—this tangerine is sweet."

Xianjin ate the tangerine expressionlessly.

She had to eat.

Otherwise, she feared Mother Zhang would pry open her mouth in public.

Xianjin crossed her arms, chewing the tangerine as she gazed at the stack of calligraphy practice books reaching halfway up to her height. Her mind raced, as if grasping something elusive.

"Let's go directly to the academy."

Chen Jianfang carried his usual off-white cloth bag.

Night was approaching.

He waited for someone at the corner of the wall for a long time but didn’t see them. Coming to Chen's, he noticed the lights in the shop and the backyard were brightly lit, indicating that everyone was staying late again.

Upon entering, as expected, everyone sat with worried expressions.

The little girl had her arms crossed, looking at the calligraphy practice books as if they were an unexploded gold mine.

Chen Jianfang cleared his throat. "Since scholars need it, why not go directly to the academy to sell? Scholars need to buy, and Chen's needs to sell; it’s a perfect match, convenient for both sides."

Xianjin moved her lips.

Not going straight to the school wasn’t because they disliked it...

Last time, when they set up a stall outside Qingcheng Mountain Courtyard to sell "mystery bags," weren’t they criticized for "setting up a scheme to swindle students’ money"?

Later, there was the incident with Sun Shun. Though they had done nothing wrong, they didn't dare to risk drawing unwanted attention again.

Chen Jianfang spoke in a calm tone, "If you need an introduction, the head of the Qingcheng Mountain Courtyard is my mentor. Tomorrow, I can arrange a meeting between Shopkeeper He and the head."