Chapter 255 Opening (1) - Wei's Bookstore
Both shops were about to open. Following the ointment workshop, the printing workshop also brought dozens of carts of books to the county town in the next two days. Except for the novels for the leisure and entertainment of the rich, they printed almost all the books on the market. As the categories involved were too many and too diverse, there were only a maximum of one thousand copies of each book. According to their estimation, it was barely enough for the initial sales. Zhou Changqing was already preparing to expand the scale of the workshop.

"Pa bang bang..."

Three days later, at 3:45 am, deafening firecrackers suddenly rang out in front of a shop at the end of East Street. Many passers-by gathered around out of curiosity. A stage three meters long, one meter wide, and only half a meter high was built in front of the originally empty shop. At this time, a lion dance team was jumping up and down, with gongs and drums beating loudly, and it was very lively.

"What's this for? A new store opening? It's quite strange."

"Yes, look, the walls outside these two shops are actually made of colored glaze. How much did it cost?"

"Wei's Bookstore? Wanyan Pavilion? The one in the front is obviously a bookstore, what does the Wanyan Pavilion in the back sell?"

"Those cabinet doors in Wanyan Pavilion are also made of colored glaze?"

"What? Oh my god, it's really Liuli. Who is the boss? Isn't his generosity too big?"

The two stores were opened at the same time, with the stage set up in the middle of the stores. As the excitement grew, more and more people gathered. At first, everyone was just there to watch the fun, until someone discovered that not only did they use colored glaze to make the walls, but the cabinet doors against the wall in the wide-open shop of Wanyan Pavilion were also large pieces of colored glaze. The crowd became restless, and everyone wanted to get a close look at the true face of the colored glaze, but there was no other way, as that thing was too rare, and it was difficult for ordinary people to even take a look at it, let alone buy it. Such an opportunity was once in a lifetime.

For this reason alone, Wei's Bookstore and Wanyan Pavilion aroused everyone's curiosity.

"Everyone, please be quiet."

Everyone's attention was on the colored glaze, and no one noticed that the lion dance performance had ended at some point. Cheng Yusheng brought a few people onto the stage, and at his call, the crowd quieted down a little. Many people wanted to know how powerful a shop that used colored glaze to make its walls was.

"Thank you very much, thank you fellow villagers for your cooperation."

Seeing this, Cheng Yusheng clasped his fists and thanked them. After finishing the business, he said with a smile on his face: "Today is the grand opening day of our small shop Wei's Bookstore and Wanyan Pavilion. Thank you all for coming to support us. I am Cheng Yusheng, the owner of Wei's Bookstore. Let me briefly introduce the bookstore. The books we sell are different from those of other bookstores. Others sell handwritten copies, which are expensive and inevitably have more or less defects. But we sell printed copies, which are not only neatly arranged, with clear handwriting and neat pages, but most importantly, the price is very cheap."

At this point, Cheng Yusheng paused to take a breath, and at the same time took a copy of the Three Character Classic from the clerk's hand and opened it to face the crowd: "Take this Three Character Classic for example, the lowest price outside is one tael of silver, but we only sell it for fifteen coins."

"what?!"

"Fifteen cents? How can it be so cheap?"

"You must be kidding, right? I remember when my son was getting his education, he bought the Three Character Classic at Wanyuan Bookstore for a full tael of silver."

"That's right, how could it be only fifteen cents?"

"Could it be that the Three Character Classic is only 15 wen? They just want to trick us into buying books."

"Yes, yes, this gentleman is right..." As soon as Cheng Yusheng finished speaking, the crowd burst into chatter. Few people believed that books could be so cheap. Seeing this situation, Cheng Yusheng was not panicked. At his signal, a dozen waiters took different books to the crowd, opened the pages and let them see them with their own eyes. Many people couldn't wait to come forward, and when they saw the clean and tidy pages and the clear and neat fonts, they all couldn't help but exclaimed in admiration.

"Wanwan, where did you find this Manager Cheng? He seems quite capable."

In a carriage parked on the roadside not far away, Yue Ruyan looked at Cheng Yusheng on the stage and exclaimed with sincere admiration.

"He is my husband's subordinate who is responsible for business affairs. He is only the owner of the bookstore temporarily."

The emergence of the printed version is enough to subvert an era. Without certain capabilities, it is impossible to control the situation. Shen Xiangwan is still very pleased that Cheng Yusheng can be in charge personally. However, after the sensation caused by the printed version is over, he should select someone specifically to be responsible for this area.

"Speaking of which, selling it so cheaply, you really won't lose money?"

Nodding, Yue Ruyan asked again in confusion, she knew they had their own papermaking workshop, but the price of ink was not cheap, right? Not to mention other costs.

"hehe···"

Hearing this, Shen Xiangwan smiled slightly: "Let me be honest with you, the cost of the Three Character Classic is only about ten cents, and the fifteen cents is because of the added costs of transportation and renting a store. Besides, we don't sell books to make money, as long as we can maintain normal operations."

Shen Xiangwan didn't explain it very clearly, she believed Yue Ruyan should understand.

"Ah."

After looking at her deeply, Yue Ruyan retracted her gaze, lowered her eyes and fell into deep thought. Others might not know, but she knew that the recent tremors in the capital and even in the entire Chenzhou were all related to the Wei family. She also roughly guessed that Wanwan and the others might have already grasped the lifeline of Chenzhou. But it was not until now that she realized that their ambitions might be even greater than she had imagined.

"Everyone, I believe you have seen how good our books are. You didn't hear me wrong before, and I didn't say it wrong. The Three Character Classic really only costs fifteen coins per copy. In addition, enlightenment books such as Thousand Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames, Thousand Family Poems, etc. basically cost more than ten or twenty coins per copy. As for other books, I can only say that they don't exceed fifty coins at most."

The voice mixed with a little inner strength sounded again, and the noisy crowd gradually quieted down. Cheng Yusheng stopped to take a breath and continued: "To be honest, our Dong family basically does not make any money at this price. If you simply buy a blank white book, the price will be more than this. However, the Dong family is kind-hearted and was born into a wealthy family. Their only hope is that all the people in the world can read and all the poor children can afford books. Here, on behalf of the Dong family, I wish all the hard-working students a bright future and live up to their youth!"

"Clap clap clap!"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was thunderous applause, and many people had naked excitement on their faces. They originally thought that only the Three Character Classic was sold so cheaply, but they didn't expect that all books were cheap. If the quality of other books is the same as what they showed, then Wei's Bookstore is really working hard to benefit the people.

【End of this chapter】

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