Chapter 13 She has accomplished something again? ?

So after the court session that day, Emperor Xuanwu came to the Shangshufang again.

He was also lucky, as he arrived just in time to see Master Cui asking Yun Shu to copy as punishment.

According to the information obtained from Dragon Shadow Guard, Yun Shu only copied the "University" once in the past ten days.
But now, in front of Master Cui and Emperor Xuanwu, Yun Shu actually took out a thick stack!

There were exactly twenty copies, not one more, not one less, and the handwriting was all from her, with some traces of feather pen writing that were not very obvious.

Emperor Xuanwu: “?”

Hasn't she been playing with carrots to bits recently?
Where do I find the time to copy such a thick stack!
Could it be that there was another palace maid in her palace who had learned to write with a feather pen at an early age just like her, and even the handwriting they wrote was exactly the same?
But Dragon Shadow Guard didn’t say anything!

And this, this handwriting is so similar!
Emperor Xuanwu quickly flipped through the twenty copies of the manuscripts handed in by Yun Shu, trying to find the mistakes of the "imitator".

But there was none at all.

This was a perfect imitation, every stroke, even down to the precise amount of time Yun Shu made when he made a mistake at the very end and his wrist felt sore, were exactly the same!
……

Ok?
Wait, the mistakes are exactly the same?
Finally realizing where the real problem came from, Emperor Xuanwu came to his senses and flipped to the front again, picking out the first page of each copy for comparison.

Same, so same!

If someone said that this was written by two people, Emperor Xuanwu would be the first to disagree!
But the problem is, he still doesn’t believe it even if I say it was written by the same person!
Who can guarantee that every stroke they write will always be perfectly consistent?
This is simply impossible!

Realizing that this might be the answer he had been waiting for all these days, Emperor Xuanwu's hands holding the copybook trembled slightly.

Even with so many people watching him, he still maintained his dignified demeanor out of habit.
The only thing he couldn't look away from was the pair of eyes that were fixed on Yun Shu:

"How is this going?"

Yun Shu: “.”

Very good, her heart, which had been pounding with fear ever since Emperor Xuanwu pulled out the first page of every copy, finally died.

She never expected that the twenty times of copying she had done, which cost her a huge sum of money—three taels of silver—would not be discovered by Master Cui.
But in the end, she was exposed by her beloved father!

Is this cheap dad still capable of doing this?

She accepted his "bribe" and agreed to temporarily put up with the torture of the daily lectures of Master Cui.

Why didn't he hurry up and deal with Master Cui, and instead had time to come and expose such a harmless little trick of hers?
Back! Stab! Dog!!

Yun Shu felt betrayed and cursed in his heart, but he was still very cowardly on the surface:
"It is . . . about printing . . . "

Her voice was very soft, but Emperor Xuanwu still heard it clearly.
He continued to ask eagerly:
"What printing?"

Yun Shu: “?”

No way, no way? The Great Tiansheng Dynasty didn't have printing technology?

Then... didn't she make another contribution? !

Good guy!
Yun Shu immediately stood up and answered with great confidence:

"It's the printing method that allows me to copy 100 copies of The Great Learning within an hour!"

She read 100 copies of "University" by herself in one hour!
Hiss...what is this concept?
Think about why books are so expensive nowadays!
Because of scarcity.

Why is it scarce? Because up to now, all the books in the world have been copied out by scholars who have good handwriting. And scholars themselves are also a scarce resource.
Excluding the vast majority of children from aristocratic families who do not need to rely on such "hard work" as copying books to make money, the remaining small group of people who make money by copying books, even if they copy without stopping whenever they have free time, how many books can they copy in a year?
In this process, we also need to remove the books that are accidentally damaged or are too old to read every year...

After all this trouble, can ordinary people afford this book?

But now it’s different. His Xiaowu can produce a hundred children’s books in one hour!

Emperor Xuanwu even subconsciously lightened his breathing, as if he was afraid that if his voice got any louder, the printing technology would be scared away:

"What is printing?"

"that is……"

Yun Shu thought for a while and came up with a statement that was easiest to understand:
"Father, what is engraved on your jade seal?"

Emperor Xuanwu: "I was given the mandate by Heaven, and I will live long and prosper forever."

"If you like, can you print these eight words everywhere in a short time?"

Yun Shu stretched out his hand and made a big gesture in front of him:
"Then if there is a seal as big as a piece of paper, and a whole page of the book is engraved on it, can a book be printed with a few clicks?"

"I see……"

Emperor Xuanwu suddenly realized:
“This is printing!”

It’s so simple!
But before this, no one in the court, including the emperor, had thought of this!
Is it difficult?

No, it’s not difficult, it’s just that no one thinks about it!
Emperor Xuanwu was so delighted that he wanted to immediately order the craftsmen to print 100,000 copies of his books as quickly as possible!

But just as he was about to turn around, Emperor Xuanwu suddenly thought of another question -

"But I don't seem to have heard of you having someone carve a seal for the University?"

"Isn't this unbearable?"

Yun Shu lowered her head shyly:
"I finally have some money in my pocket, but the seal is too expensive.
So I asked someone to use radish instead, which doesn’t last long but is cheaper and easier to carve.”

Emperor Xuanwu: “???”

Why does this sentence pattern sound so familiar?
It seems that the last time she told him to give her money, she used a similar tone? ?
Forget it, just give it to me!
How can a princess of a great country be so poor that she even uses a carrot statue as her seal?
Perhaps because Yunshu's intention to ask for money was too obvious, Emperor Xuanwu first convinced himself to give her more money, and then realized that the second half of her words seemed to reveal a new problem -

"What kind of radish can be that big?"

“…It’s not as big as a carrot.”

Yun Shu didn't know whether to laugh or cry:

"I had someone carve each character on the radish separately, and then pieced them together according to the content to be printed."

oh……

Then he knew.

At this moment, all the strange things he had heard from Dragon Shadow Guard in the past ten days had answers -

That day, after leaving his imperial study, Xiaowu and Laoliu gathered together to discuss what they were discussing, and it was indeed about copying as punishment.

(End of this chapter)