CH 53

After returning from his meeting with Guard Commander Wang, Cui Xie contemplated on how he should go about sending a letter to Colonel Xie.

Although Colonel Xie knew that Cui Xie was the owner of the Zhirong Study and Cui Xie knew that he knew, but when Xie Shan had came to Qian’an, the other had specially changed his attire, concealed his true identity and pretended to be a wealthy moneybags visiting in the area. This was obviously because he did not want to let others know of his identity, let alone his Master’s identity. So could Cui Xie really think himself clever, paw his way up to the door and tell the other, “I know that you care about me, since I am afraid you will be worried after the store is donated, I specially came here to let you know ahead of time”?

Not only could he not directly tell the truth, he had no good reason to request a leave of absence to visit Colonel Xie. But to order Cui Yuan or Shopkeeper Ji to go on his behalf, their identity was insufficient. 

Jinyiwei Colonels were only 5th rank officials and were on the same level as Official Cui. But, could Official Cui easily enter the gates of a Jinyiwei’s residence with just a mere invitation card?

Stop dreaming!

Official Cui would not be able to, let alone him, as the son of an official. Otherwise, no matter how much he wanted to give something last year, didn’t he have to get Young Master Wang to carry it over on his behalf in the end? If he really used the people from his family, he conjectured that they wouldn’t even be able to knock on the gates of the Xie Residence.

Besides, he could not be sure whether Colonel Xie purchased his unmarketable books because he had some favorable impressions of him, or he simply wanted to help the poor. If this was the modern era, a student who has received aid could just contact the patron of the assistance program for students; in this era, he could only sit at home and foolishly ponder, even if he wanted to send mail, there was no post office to do so!

Courier shops would only mail urgent Imperial court documents!

But human nature was just like this, the more difficult it was to do something, the more one would think about it. Cui Xie, a poor youth from the countryside, considered over and over again, but he could not directly seek out benefactor Xie who had assisted his studies, so instead, he could only ask Uncle Yuan to get in touch with Xie Residence’s male nanny, Xie Shan, and have him cultivate some friendly feelings with him. As long as Xie Shan knew, then Colonel Xie would naturally know as well and the other didn’t need to keep being concerned about him——of course, this being the case that this wasn’t just Cui Xie showering affection on an uninterested party.

Even if this was simply him being self-indulgent, there was no harm in sending it.

After coming to this conclusion, Cui Xie wrote a letter to Xie Ying using plain paper with the simplest printed borders. In the letter, he told the other that he was planning on opening a new study, but he never mentioned the Zhirong Study, as if there had been only superficial communication between the two and Colonel Xie had never checked on him, and as if he did not know what Xie Shan had done.

After sealing the letter, Cui Xie personally went to the workshop to pack 20 sets of more than 100 books and a comprehensive box of all the Three Kingdoms dress-up cards. Then, he instructed people to prepare some fresh fruits and whole pieces of honeycombs produced in the mountains. In mid-September, Sanlihe street had just started selling large crabs and Cui Xie also asked people to buy a basket of them and using twine, they were tied one by one. A damp sackcloth was covered on top, layer upon layer, and the crabs were then stuffed into the basket.

At this time, the weather in the northern cities near the capital could not be considered to be extremely warm, but crabs were not very durable creatures. He then called for someone to fetch some saltpeter and then taught the young clerks the method of making ice using saltpeter. Once they made enough crushed ice to fill a basin, they sprinkled it into the basket to lower the temperature.

The appearances and presentation of all these foods were to serve as a pretense to give to Xie Shan and Cui Yuan would escort the goods and take a few clerks all the way to the capital along with him. The rest was up to Xie Shan…..and whether or not Colonel Xie would cooperate.

He did not want to think too deeply, so early next morning, he hired a large carriage and sent Cui Yuan and the others out. Then, he headed to Guard Commander Wang’s Residence and started practicing horseback riding and flower spear[1] techniques under the direct guidance of a military instructor.

…..a very good exercise method indeed. After holding the ten or more pound flower spear level with both hands for a long period of time, he couldn’t even feel the pen when writing his characters, his handwriting was particularly light and flew off the page.

Teacher Li angrily lectured, “The most important thing for candidates is their handwriting. A few years ago, there was a shengyuan[2] in this county that just on the basis of his taiga script[3],with large black characters and radiance emanating from the head, was chosen by the County Magistrate. In this way, handwriting is of paramount importance, just what can be done if you injure your hands?”

Cui Xie did not want to stir up Teacher Lin’s fury, but he was more concerned about that imposing and gigantic 180 cm tall figure that had just previously instructed him, so he could only coax gently: “This student is afraid that since one has to write seven essays a day in the examination room, that my arm strength will not be enough. Hence, I have decided to practice martial arts. It will only be for two months, and after the New Year, I will take a break. I do not dare to cause any mishaps with the examinations so close at hand.”

It was not right to practice right now! Teacher Lin looked at Cui Xie’s slender wrists and imagined the appearance of him lifting a large spear more than 3 meters long and brandishing it around. It felt like he was unable to breathe.

But his student was a stubborn one, otherwise, how could a mengtong[4] student who had never even studied the 《Mao Commentary》[5]become a student who could write essays in just a few months. As long as he made up his mind, there was an 80% chance that whatever his goal was would be reached, others could not control him.

Teacher Lin had intensively studied《Mencius》for many years, and he had also nurtured an expansive, obstinate temperament. Knowing that he could not control Cui Xie, he simply waved his hand: “You must grasp a sense of measure and property, do it in moderation. If you cannot write your homework well these next few days, just recite it to me instead. If you injure your hands, I will not forgive you!”

Looking docile and obedient, but actually secretly unrepentant, Cui Xie said: “Teacher, do not worry, I will not delay practicing calligraphy because of this.” Presently, the reason why his handwriting was flighty and light was because he had not actually practiced enough.

But, on account of his arms trembling rather intensely, he could not write any good characters at the moment, let alone paint any portraits. After returning home, he simply began planning his remodeling process for the library.

After dinner, he shut himself off in the small study and locked the door from the inside. He then closed his eyes and mentally opened the hard disk—Documents—Foreign Language—English—English Libraries. With his staunch and strong willpower, he mentally observed the bookshelf structures inside, how they were arranged and how the tables and chairs were arranged in the reading room.

Cui Xie was unclear how much weight Ming Dynasty’s floors could sustain, therefore, for the sake of safety, instead of choosing to arrange the rows of bookshelves at consistent intervals commonly seen in modern libraries, he decided to place them against the wall, with closely packed bookshelves filling the entire space. Eight long tables would be placed into four rows in the space between the bookshelves. Each table would have two benches and it could accommodate up to twenty people reading or transcribing simultaneously.

The courtyard behind the bookstore was two-layered and the main courtyard consisted of three main rooms and two wing rooms. According to the Four Book classification method[6], Confucian Classics and Historiography should each occupy two rooms and the remaining room could be used as a lounge. The three reverse-facing rooms in the rear courtyard could be fixed up to become transcription chambers, with a bookcase in the corner of the room as well as pen, ink, paper and inkstone for transcriptionists to use. If the borrowed book was defaced or torn, the borrower should buy a copy or make a copy to make up for it.

The shopfront of the bookstore had a small second floor and it was quite dry upstairs. That would be used to store the more expensive, superior books. The main lobby for selling books located downstairs could be converted into a registrar lobby instead, where visitors could register one’s identity and carry out the official procedure for borrowing books. The two inner rooms located on both sides of the lobby could be turned into staff lounges, furnished with sofas, coffee tables and desks. He could also place a few large and small bookshelves along the well and fill it up with some of his printed entertainment books. It would be cozy and quiet, and it could also be used as a drawing room to receive higher-ups who came to make an inspection. 

Cui Xie also designed a small card for the library which was printed with light green pine flowers as well as a small five-petaled white plum blossom. Beneath, in Rosy Cloud font[7], the line “Qian’an County Library Borrowing Certification Card”, which was printed in two colors using overlaid images, in vermillion and green. To set up a card, one needed to put down a deposit of two taels of silver and you were allowed to borrow one book at a time; if one could not put down a deposit, one could help the library transcribe some the book in exchange for the right to borrow. Whichever book you copied, you would be allowed to borrow.

For the sake of preventing piracy, he had no choice but to bring out the gonghua printing[8] technique that he was always reluctant to take out and called for people to put it into practice.

The pigments used for the plum blossom petals were mixed with white mica powder and when it was printed, it brought out a glossy sheen that resembled the luster of gems. The stamens, the outside borders of the petals and the boundaries of the font were formed using two concave-convex woodblocks sandwiched together to print the three-dimensional and raised shapes. The bookmark sized cards were then encased in a translucent white oil paper, appearing incomparably exquisite, as if it was paper that could be used at any moment to write on. 

It was guaranteed that ordinary people could not imitate it or forge a copy at home, and those who could produce an imitation were most likely not so miserly that they would not take out the money for that little deposit.

County Magistrate Qi especially admired his anti-theft technology, holding the library card, he said, “None of your paper in the past has been printed so delicately. If such a plum blossom paper was published earlier, I am afraid that even those from the Imperial Palace would have come over to your bookstore to buy it.

In any case, it was not too good to have those taijian[9] come to his door to buy his paper. There were too few workers in his store, and if he really made a special supply just for the Palace, he wouldn’t be able to produce much else to sell outside. This was exactly the tempo of a store accelerating towards bankruptcy.

With his eyes lowered, Cui Xie listened and after County Magistrate Qi finished, he reminded the other of the stipulations regarding loaning books: For instance, the name, age and general appearance of the cardholder should be written on the back of each library card; A small slip of paper was to be affixed to the inside cover of the book and one would use a seal to stamp the date of when the book was borrowed as well as the expected return date; compensation would be mandatory for damaged or lost books…..

County Magistrate Qi had also researched ways and systems one could use to manage the borrowing of books and even thought to use the library card system to reorganize the Yellow Pages (directories), to discover some parts of the concealed populations. However, these were not matters that could be rushed through in a mere few months. If he was re-elected, he could try to handle this matter the year after next; if he did not have the opportunity, he would only get this library up and running, leaving the rest to the next person elected.

After some contemplation, he sighed, “You have thought through things quite well. The name of this library is not bad, and it is true that it can not be considered to be really a building. First print out 100 library cards and have the county’s shengyuan and tongsheng register for one each. Then this Magistrate will immediately gather together all the craftsmen and take turns to paint the library’s exterior with a fresh layer. Once the books donated by each family has arrived, they can begin to borrow books.”

When Cui Xie returned home, he arranged for the artisans to print the cards immediately.

Because the blind embossing technique had been finally released, he simply asked the artisans to use this technique on the new Three Kingdom’s character dress-up cards. The outline of the military general’s armor, the civilian court official’s and beauties’ robes were all printed using a concave-convex effect. Even Xu Chu’s sets had been printed using the sandwich printing technique, creating the feeling of slightly bulging muscles.

But the chests of the beauties were definitely not printed!

He was this type of virtuous person!

Here, Cui Xie followed the prescribed order in renovating the library, preparing for the new bookstore and as such, his days bustled along busily. But, because of his bookstore, it had set off a large uproar—— 

Zhirong Study had closed down!

The Zhirong Study, famous for its beauty paper and beauty novels, had closed its doors!

It had opened its doors so vigorously and it had collapsed so wordlessly and taciturnly. It wasn’t until the bookstore really closed that the booksellers in the Shuntian Prefecture and Tongzhou hurriedly spread the news to the capital, and those customers who had been looking forward to the release of the 《The Six Talents and their Commentaries on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms》were also informed of the news. For a time, many powerful and rich book fans hated that they could not charge into Qian’an, tie up the Cui Beauty and force her to reopen.

——Just open the bookstore in the capital! Qian’an is too far and remote, and there are too many mountain roads in between, making it inconvenient to buy books.

Fortunately, those bookstores had also stocked up from the remaining inventory sold by the Zhirong Study before the store had closed. Although the prices had risen by quite a bit, there were still books to read and there were even two new volumes of the 《Three Kingdoms》, which had slightly calmed down the anxious hearts of the readers. Later, there were rumors that the color printing technology and all the carved printing blocks for the Three Kingdoms and its collection of pictures had been bought by another bookstore. The 《Three Kingdoms》was to be published as scheduled and as such, the mentality of the average customer stabilized.

Although a few merchants regretted that they were slow on the uptake and had not gotten their hands on the bookstore’s technology, the situation was similar to their very beginning when it was just the workers of the Zhirong Study that possessed the color printing technology. In any case, the craftsman would have to slowly figure it out and they could probably reproduce it somewhat after a bit of studying. What really made people feel unwilling and regretful was the loss of Cui Beauty’s painting skills.

The painting craftsmen could not be snatched back to their residences and locked up, but so long as the paintings remained, they could still make quite a bit of money.

The ones who were truly anxious and angry at the closure of the Zhirong Study without having even bought a book from there, was actually Official Cui’s Residence.

When the steward of the Cui Residence’s outer courtyard discovered that the bookstore had  closed down, he rushed to the inner courtyard to tell Xu furen’s confidant mama about the matter. After hearing it, her brows and eyes blossomed with joy, and she thought that after hearing Cui Xie’s business had fallen through and was down and out of luck, the stuffiness in furen’s heart could be somewhat relieved.

Unexpectedly, Xu furen’s stuffiness and poor mood grew even worse.

If the news had come a few months earlier, when the Zhirong Study had not been so popular and the Cui Residence was not short of money that it needed the small profits made from that tiny shop in Qian’an, she would have been overjoyed that Cui Xie had fallen into dire straits, but it could not happen right now!

Now was the wrong time! The current Zhirong Study was no longer that obscure bookstore in a small county town!

After the autumn examinations, Cui Que had mentioned that for next year’s national audit held by the Ministry of Appointments, his inspection comments would most likely amount to a “mediocre” and he would most likely be unable to obtain a “competent”. If he were to stay in the capital, there was most likely no chance of promotion. Although the Cui family had worked the land and also undertook academic studies, passing these traits on through the generations, maintaining a family was expensive. If he were to tarry on as a fifth-rank official, there was no chance for him to become a 3rd-rank official in this lifetime.

And to be promoted, based on Cui Que’s official achievements, it was lacking, which meant that he had to go on the path of Grand Secretary Wan or Minister Zhang. But both these paths required sufficient property for incentives and bribes——Adding up all the business transactions in the capital and the fields located in the countryside, this only amounted to about a thousand taels per year. Over the years, he had to manage relationships with the higher-ups using inducements as well as raise a family full of old and young. As such the savings in the residence were no more than a thousand taels of silver and it was not enough to help him obtain a prefectural magistrate post in a good location.

If Cui Xie’s bookstore was still open, he could have gifted it to Grand Secretary Wan or have some silver sent to the capital. Either would have guaranteed him a good post, but it just so happened that it had all been taken away!

At this moment, Xu furen hated Cui Xie’s incompetence, but this youngster just had to be incomptent at handling external affairs and while she had extreme capability in handling the others in the family, even if she wanted to meddle and control Cui Xie, she could not. When Cui Que returned in the evening, she headed straight to the outer study, brought up this matter and asked, “Your very capable son has just lost the bookstore, what should be done?!”

Cui Que’s complexion was extremely unsightly and with a sullen face, he snapped back, “What should I do? Then should I file a lawsuit just for that shop, and take it back? Just where would I put my face as a fifth-rank official?”

Xu furen seethed, “Does face matter more or does the future matter more? Others can exchange their face for an Imperial Censor title, but you cannot? If you are willing to part with that stinky face of yours, saying nothing about first-ranked officials, once you obtain the support of Grand Secretary Wan in the future, that 2nd-rank and 3rd-rank title is yours for the taking! Others have wrestled away our bookstores, isn’t it just for this? Will Laoye just look on helplessly as someone else uses our family’s thing to tread over your head?”

Official Cui’s complexion paled and in a severe tone, he said, “What a woman’s expression[10]! What do you know! Stop mentioning this matter, I can still seek an appointment outside the capital, and after spending a few years in a prefectural seat and releasing some analytical books on the Classics, and once everyone is old enough, I will naturally be able to return to the Imperial court!”