Zhenfubao waved his hand and the warehouse was full of grain, and the whole family regretted it

Chapter 506 Movable Type Printing

Bai Wanwan has found something she likes. She studies music, chess, calligraphy and painting in the morning, comes here to talk about books in the afternoon, and has to go back to practice calligraphy, kung fu, and read medical books in the evening.

My schedule is packed every day. When I walked into the bookstore today, the shopkeeper said with a happy face:

"Miss, our storybooks are selling like hotcakes, 800 coins per copy.

I didn’t expect so many people would rush to buy it. We sold 50 copies in just this morning.”

Bai Wanwan narrowed her eyes and said, "Not bad, not bad. I'll split up the rest of Journey to the West and sell them separately. One ounce of silver per copy."

"Ah? Isn't this one or two taels of silver too expensive?" asked the shopkeeper.

"Why is it so expensive? Those who can afford to read storybooks won't care about this money." Bai Wanwan said.

She plans to open a martial arts track because martial arts novels are also very popular.

In one afternoon, she edited a new book, and the shopkeeper took it directly to be engraved.

The next morning, Shopkeeper Liang rushed into Bai Wanwan's courtyard, breathless, his clothes still stained with mud:

"Young Master! This is incredible! The twenty copies of Journey to the West that we carved overnight were sold out at daybreak!

The shop is now full of people waiting to buy books, and the threshold is almost broken down by people stepping on it!"

Bai Wanwan put down her tea bowl, her brows furrowed in a knot. "So fast? Didn't they hire ten craftsmen to carve the plates?"

Shopkeeper Liang shook his head with a bitter face:

"Oh, my young master, you don't know! If you make a mistake in carving a single word on a board, you have to start over.

After carving, we still have to apply ink, lay out paper, and press. Even if we work as fast as we can, we can’t keep up with the speed of sales!"

"How exactly do you carve the blocks now? Tell me in detail." Bai Wanwan leaned forward.

Shopkeeper Liang gestured to explain, "It means carving all the words and pictures of the entire book in reverse on a whole piece of wood, and then printing them page by page. If the book has illustrations, it will take even more time to carve..."

Hearing this, Bai Wanwan's eyes suddenly lit up: "Why not use movable type printing? Carve the characters into small squares one by one, and print whatever book you want. It's much faster than woodblock printing!"

Shopkeeper Liang's eyes widened, as if he had seen a ghost. "Movable type... What? The characters can be separated and used?"

Bai Wanwan nodded and said:

"You see, each character is carved into a small piece, and when it is time to print, they are arranged in order, and then ink is applied and it can be printed.

After printing, you can tear it apart and use it to put together other books! If a character is broken, you can just replace it individually. Isn't that better than having to scrap the entire board? "

Shopkeeper Liang finally managed to utter, "Oh my God! If this method works, won't our bookstore make a lot of money?"

Bai Wanwan nodded and said, "Yes, go try it today!"

Manager Liang took his people and ran away. It’s true that this method is really good. It is much better than the one that is carved out bit by bit.

In addition, there were many scholars who were poor. It cost 50 cents to copy a storybook, and many scholars worked late every day and could copy two or three books a day.

There were more and more books in the bookstore, and Bai Wanwan counted the money every day until her hands cramped.

"I made more than 200 taels of silver today. I finally see hope." The shopkeeper wanted to wipe away his tears. This bookstore had been losing money from the beginning, but now it is finally profitable.

The two books are extremely popular now and the demand can hardly keep up with the supply.

Bai Wanwan still felt a little proud in her heart. It turned out that modern people had more and more ways to make money in ancient times.

The bookstore across the street was in trouble. It only sold two books in the entire day. The owner was so angry that he started cursing:

"Is this Siwan Bookstore deliberately trying to go against us?

We write storybooks, and they write storybooks too. Who wrote the storybooks that actually took away our business?

The clerk shook his head and said, "I'm not sure about that. Boss, what should we do now?"

The shopkeeper sneered and said, "Since Siwan Bookstore won't give us a way out, then they can forget about continuing to operate."

The clerk's eyes lit up and he said, "Boss, what do you want to do?"

"I'm going to burn down Siwan Bookstore. Take a few people with you and do it secretly." The female shopkeeper said with narrowed eyes.

Bai Wanwan was sleeping when she was woken up by Naitang. Naitian translated, "The bookstore across the street wants to burn ours down..."

Bai Wanwan frowned and said, "Why? Isn't it because we've made money? Quickly find a few people to keep an eye on us..."

Soon, more than a dozen people hurried to Siwan Bookstore. As soon as they arrived there, they saw several people hiding their waists and secretly holding tinder, and someone was carrying a bucket of tung oil.

In the alley, five men gathered together and whispered.

The thinnest one rubbed his hands together, his voice trembling, "Brother, do you really want to burn down Siwan Bookstore? What if we get caught by the authorities?"

The leader with a face full of flesh spat:

"What are you afraid of? It's pitch dark, who would know it was us who did it?

Be quick and disperse as soon as you finish burning it, and we will definitely not be found."

"That's what you say..." Another man scratched the back of his head. "But I heard that Siwan Bookstore has someone backing it up. Let's not hit a wall, okay?"

As they were arguing, Master Bai stroked his beard and asked, "I'm curious, who's behind Siwan Bookstore?"

The leader waved his hand impatiently:

"Who cares who's behind it! As long as this bookstore burns down, there will be no rivals in the market.

Their Journey to the West is selling so well, if we copy it and print it, we're guaranteed to make a fortune!

After saying that, he waved his hand, and the five of them crouched down, carrying the oil drums and moved towards the bookstore.

Several people were trying to light a fire, but the tinderbox didn't work after several attempts. Master Bai said, "Oh! I'm getting so anxious. Can you guys hurry up? Or I can help you."

Those people were startled and looked up at Master Bai and asked, "You... who are you? Why are you here?"

Master Bai snorted coldly and said, "Gather your people and arrest them all."

Soon the bookstore across the street could no longer operate and the owner was arrested.

Lin Dasheng and Lin Zaozao excitedly brought a book and wanted to sell it for 100 taels of silver, but they didn't know that the bookstore was empty.

"It was open fine yesterday, how come it closed down today?" Lin Dasheng was dumbfounded.

Someone said, "Don't you know? The shopkeeper has been arrested. Tsk tsk tsk... I heard he was beaten 80 times with a stick and was beaten to death."

"Did this offend some powerful person?"

"I heard that they were trying to burn down the bookstore across the street at night, but they got caught."

Lin Dasheng looked at Lin Zaozao and said, "Then what should we do with this storybook?"

Lin Zao Zao thought about it and said:

"Why don't we just go to the other side!

I see the bookstore across the street also sells storybooks. Our storybooks are of very good quality and will definitely fetch a very good price."