"Are all the newspeak books ready?" Fu Xuechen asked casually.

"Yes! It's all ready!" Liu She said excitedly: "According to what the young master said, it is divided into four major categories. Each book has five thousand copies printed, and the stock is sufficient, such as "Journey to the West" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms"

We have also prepared the corresponding purchase and sale receipts for long story books, which can ensure that every book sold by our store is well-documented."

That's good! Fu Xuechen went around in a circle and had to admit that Liu She was quite capable. Even as a store manager, he was better than many managers in later generations.

"Okay! Since you said the second day of the lunar month next month is an auspicious day, let's open the business then!" Fu Xuechen also agreed with Liu She's choice of an auspicious day to open the business. She would focus on the big ones and let go the small ones. She would only care about big decisions and not care about trivial matters.

The second day of March, approximately April in the later Gregorian calendar, was a good day, with clear sky and bright sunshine.

Early in the morning, two long strings of firecrackers were discharged in front of the bookstore. As the emcee shouted "the auspicious time has come", the lit firecrackers immediately crackled and the gongs and drums sounded, and the lion dancers who had already prepared

They were dancing and dancing in the smoke, and people watching the excitement gathered around both ends of the street, cheering constantly, and it was very lively.

Shopkeeper Liu She, who had specially put on new clothes, was beaming with joy. He pulled off the red cloth covering the plaque, revealing the four large characters "Panlong Bookstore" written in gold lacquer in running script.

It was still early in the morning, and the gentlemen of the Imperial College were still in class. Not many students dared to skip class. Only a few scholars who were passing by at leisure stepped into the store out of curiosity.

There were fewer customers. After all, it was a business for scholars, and the illiterate general public had no courage to enter the store. Liu She was not in a hurry. He had experience. He only waited for the Imperial Academy to finish school at noon, and more scholars entered the store.

"Shopkeeper Liu, have you changed owners?"

In a blink of an eye, three more scholars who were traveling together came. One of them asked Liu She with a smile. Liu She recognized that these three people were all gentlemen of the Imperial College, and they were regular patrons of the bookstore. He quickly bowed and replied: "It turns out to be Zhang

Sir, Mr. Wang, Mr. Han! Welcome, welcome! Please come in quickly! The owner of the shop has indeed changed, but it has been transferred from the old owner to the young owner. It is still the same family!"

"That's it! Congratulations! You can go about your business! Let's take a look for ourselves." The three gentlemen congratulated smoothly and stepped into the store first.

It is no longer as crowded as it used to be. The bookstore now is surrounded by bookshelves no higher than a person's shoulders. The color is soft and bright. Under the light yellow varnish, there are natural wood textures that make people look at it and feel like they can smell it.

The unique fresh air of logs is mixed with the unique ink fragrance of books, making you feel happy.

"The environment is attentive!" Mr. Zhang nodded with satisfaction.

Mr. Han suddenly touched the arms of his two companions: "Look up quickly!"

Zhang and Wang looked up and were suddenly surprised: "That's... a diorama?"

Along the top of the wall, above the bookshelf, there is a row of long mirrors with wooden frames hanging. Judging from the material, they are neither gold nor copper. They are Western mirrors that are popular in the homes of a few wealthy people.

This kind of mirror comes from the West, and only a small number of it flows into China every year. Because it does not need to be polished and maintained every once in a while, it can illuminate people clearly, so it is very popular and valuable. Unexpectedly, the owner of this shop actually

To be so extravagant, to put so many dioramas in the store as embellishments.

"I'm not afraid of being stolen by thieves!" Mr. Wang couldn't help but mutter.

Mr. Han next to him smiled: "I don't think so! This is a bookstore, and there are only scholars here. It's impossible to do such a thing. Even if you have the intention, it will be difficult to do it with the mirror hanging in such a high place."

"It makes sense!" Mr. Zhang also laughed: "Unless a thief who can scale the rafters is literate and can pretend to be a scholar in broad daylight, he can only sneak in and pick the lock at night. The risk is the same as stealing gold and silver directly.

It's almost the same, but it's more difficult to sell stolen goods. Those who can afford the price generally won't get cheap things from unknown sources."

The three of them chatted for a while, and then their attention was attracted by four large bookshelves placed two back to back in the middle of the store.

Hanging above these bookshelves are four small wooden plaques with white paint and red letters, each with the words "Military Strategy," "Fantasy and Cultivation," "Secret and Supernatural," and "Grudges, Love, and Enmity."

"This is... the classification of the storybook?" The three of them were slightly surprised and figured out the meaning of these words.

The military plots and grievances are quite easy to understand. For example, the struggle between Chu and Han should be classified into the military plot category, while grievances and grievances mostly focus on various plots of entangled love and hate.

"Mysterious and supernatural?" Mr. Han, who usually likes fox fairy stories, quickly understood the category of storybooks represented by these four words, and said happily: "This is really convenient for me! Most of the storybooks I like are in this category."

"What is fantasy cultivation?" Mr. Zhang asked.

The three of them looked at each other. Since no one understood it, they all walked to the bookshelf of this category, stopped, and glanced at the book covers in front of them one by one.

Because they are books for sale, books with the same title and volume are stacked together, making the bookshelf very full. However, in fact, there are not many types of books. At a glance, the largest number are new ones.

The storybook "Journey to the West" has a total of six episodes, and the rest are scattered old books.

Mr. Wang had read these old books and recognized them all at once: "Isn't this a book about immortals and gods?" He also figured something out: "Fantasy cultivation... this new term is interesting!"

He was a loyal fan of this type of storybook. When he saw a new storybook that he had never seen before, he immediately became interested. He copied the first volume of "Journey to the West" and started reading it on the spot.

With his doubts cleared, Mr. Han moved to the bookshelf opposite. This place belonged to the mysterious and supernatural genre, which was his favorite genre. A quick look revealed that there were indeed many new books, and the names looked quite attractive.

What about "Lu Pan", "Painted Skin", "A Chinese Ghost Story", etc. If you look at it again, you can see that these stories are all written by the same author and belong to the "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" series.

Seeing that the two friends had found the novels they were interested in reading, Mr. Zhang also walked towards the military strategy bookshelf, and not surprisingly, he also found the new novel "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that he was interested in here.

When readers these days buy a storybook, they must first read the title, introduction, preface, chapter titles, etc., so that they can have a general impression of the author's writing style, and then decide whether to buy it back and read it in detail.

Look.

The three gentlemen initially planned to read according to their past habits, but to their surprise, this Newspeak volume was out of order! There were no wedges! There was no "poetry"! When you turned to the homepage, you immediately saw the first page.

The title of the reply quickly started the story.

This... In this case, reading the text of the storybook directly in the store seems to be taking advantage of the bookstore? The three gentlemen are gentlemen, and they are a little embarrassed secretly, but if they don't read it, they can't buy it back with confidence.

I'm afraid that when I buy it back, I will find that the storybook is rubbish and I will be deceived.

Then let’s take a look! Don’t read too much, just look at the front, it should be enough to judge the author’s level.
Chapter completed!