I wrote novels in the Republic of China

"Grandpa Hong, let Axu move a chair and sit next to Jingying. Let him see how Jingying helps people write letters." Sang Jingyun gave advice to Shopkeeper Hong.

Manager Hong mainly wanted his grandson to see the outside world and broaden his horizons, so he didn't need them to teach him anything. It would be enough for the child to listen to what those who wanted to write letters had to say and understand the joys and sorrows of the lower-class people.

"That's what I planned. I'll prepare an extra table for you. Let him learn today, and tomorrow, you can let him write as well. The money he makes will be yours."

"Manager Hong, the money he earns is his own pocket money, how can he give it to us?" Sang Jingyun was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

Shopkeeper Hong smiled and said, "When he finishes writing a letter, one copper coin will be his pocket money, and the other will be considered as his apprenticeship fee for learning letter writing from you."

"Why do you need to learn how to write letters? You don't even need to pay a tuition fee."

"Yes, everyone wants to write in vernacular Chinese now, right? I see you write in vernacular Chinese very well, so it's a good opportunity for him to learn from you." Shopkeeper Hong waved his hand, "Go and do your work, I have already made up my mind, and I will not change my mind for you."

Manager Hong did this to prevent his own children from taking away Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying's business.

His children don't need these few coins, but the current situation of the Sang family is really difficult.

Of course, he didn't lose anything by doing this.

His child helps him write letters, which not only helps him practice Chinese, but also helps him learn about the outside world. Why not? It's better than letting the child go play with his classmates every day.

The grandson of Manager Hong is called Hong Xu. He was born after his eldest son gave birth to two daughters. The child is smart and sensible, and his family members spoil him a little, so that he is not physically active, does not know the difference between grains, and has no concept of money.

Shopkeeper Hong didn't take it seriously at first, but after meeting Sang Jingyun and his sister, he thought of Sang Xuewen.

So, he asked about Hong Xu's situation. Through this concern, he learned that Hong Xu had been playing with a classmate frequently recently.

This is nothing, but Hong Xu's classmate's father smokes opium.

Shopkeeper Hong was worried that his grandson might develop bad habits, so he simply called Hong Xu to the shop and kept a close eye on him.

When he returns home, he will use Sang Xuewen's experience to teach Hong Xu and make sure that the child stays away from opium.

Shopkeeper Hong asked the apprentices in the shop to move a long table from the back and let Sang Jingying and Hong Xu sit together.

He also found a stack of straw paper, wrapped it with cloth to make a cushion, and helped Hong Xu raise his chair. He also gave Hong Xu paper and pen and asked him to learn to write.

So the little fat boy sat on the high chair, swinging his little feet in the air.

For the sake of his health, Sang Jingyun would stand up when reading letters to avoid back pain from sitting for too long.

The stools in this shop are not the ergonomic chairs she sat on in her previous life. After sitting on this chair for a long time, she felt really uncomfortable all over.

Every time this happened, she would look at what was happening next door.

Sang Jingying concentrated on writing letters to make money, but Hong Xu was different.

Sometimes he lay on the table, leaning his head to watch Sang Jingying write, sometimes he took the newspaper from Manager Hong to read, and from time to time he wrote and drew on the paper in front of him.

The little fat boy doesn’t talk much and is a bit introverted, but he makes a lot of small movements and seems very agile.

In the afternoon, when someone came again, Sang Jingyun would politely refuse them and ask them to come again tomorrow.

She needed to get home before dark and couldn't write much.

At around four o'clock in the afternoon, Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying finished work together.

After packing up his things, Sang Jingyun asked Shopkeeper Hong: "Grandpa Hong, can you lend me two newspapers to take home? I want to take a look."

At this time, Shanghai's newspaper industry had already developed, and many people who could read would subscribe to newspapers to read.

There were also some old writers who were good at writing stories and made a living by serializing novels in newspapers and magazines.

In this era with very few entertainment activities, people love the stories published in newspapers and magazines. Shopkeeper Hong likes to read them on weekdays.

"Of course you can." Shopkeeper Hong handed the two newspapers he got today to Sang Jingyun: "I'll lend you these newspapers, but you have to return them. I have sorted these newspapers and stored them in different categories."

"Don't worry, Grandpa Hong. I will return the newspaper to you tomorrow." Sang Jingyun said.

Shopkeeper Hong smiled and waved, asking Sang Jingyun to go back early.

At the end of the day, Sang Jingyun wrote twenty-three letters and Sang Jingying wrote twenty letters. The two of them earned a total of forty-three copper coins.

Sang Jingying is more familiar with traditional Chinese characters. As he has been studying all the time, he has muscle memory for writing. Unlike Sang Jingyun, although he knows some characters, he cannot write them when he needs to.

Sang Jingying writes faster than Sang Jingyun. He wrote fewer letters because he went to Lanxin Clothing Shop to take on some handicraft work for Lu Ying.

In fact, this kind of manual work is not available every day, but the owner of the clothing store has done business with Sang Yuanshan for a long time, and the two have a good relationship. The owner has some sympathy for the Sang family, so he will find ways to arrange some work for them.

Nowadays, Lu Ying can earn ten copper coins by doing needlework every day.

After traveling through time, Sang Jingyun insisted on going to the county town to find a job. He also took the initiative to approach those families who had connections with the Sang family. He had selfish motives, hoping to get some help.

Although there were some people who were afraid of being entangled by them and tried to avoid them, the help of Manager Hong, the owner of the snack shop, and the owner of the clothing store made their life much better.

All the things were put into a bamboo basket, which was carried by Sang Jingying.

When Sang Jingyun put on his hat and left, he saw a picture of Sun Wukong on the white paper in front of Hong Xu.

The Sun Wukong was different from the image she was familiar with in her previous life, but her identity could be recognized at a glance.

This little fat boy has a pretty good skill in drawing.

On the way back, Sang Jingyun went to the seafood store again. After bargaining, he spent five copper coins to buy a large piece of red toad fish.

This is salted fish shipped from Japan. The raw material is salmon, commonly known as trout.

At this time, salmon resources were relatively abundant, and fishermen who had improved their fishing techniques were able to catch large numbers of salmon, so the price of salmon was very low.

Pickled salmon is cheap and delicious, and is very popular among ordinary people.

When they got home, dinner was ready.

This morning, Sang Qian followed Sang Jingyun's suggestion and went to a nearby store to buy tofu worth a copper coin.

Tofu in the countryside is cheaper and comes in two bowls.

She made a bowl of sweet potato leaves and tofu, boiled a pot of kelp and tofu soup, cooked some dry rice, and steamed some pumpkin.

There was no MSG at home, the only seasonings were salt and soy sauce. And that soy sauce was not the light soy sauce that has its own umami flavor in later generations. So the taste of the dishes was naturally very ordinary.

The tofu had a light sour taste.

But Sang Jingyun was very hungry and ate a lot. Sang Jingli scooped some kelp and tofu soup into her bowl and kept eating.

It was already dark after dinner. Sang Qian lit an oil lamp and placed it on the eight-immortals table, and boiled some hot water for the family to wash.

Sang Xuewen had an attack before dinner and was locked up. The main room was very quiet, so Sang Jingyun took out the newspaper and sat at the table to read.

Manager Hong is just an ordinary businessman. The newspapers he reads are not very profound. One is the Shanghai Daily, which mainly publishes current affairs news, and the other is the New Novel News, which mainly publishes novels.

In 1902, a certain important figure published an article in the inaugural issue of "New Novel", proposing that "a new country's people must start with new novels". He felt that novels could infect readers and have a greater influence on the people than genres such as poetry. It was this article that brought the creation of novels in the late Qing Dynasty to its peak.

The New Novel Newspaper was born to catch up with this trend. This newspaper was published weekly and mostly contained secular novels that catered to the interests of ordinary people and were used for leisure and entertainment. It was despised by some literati, but was highly praised by the general public.

In Sang Jingyun's view, this is the Republic of China version of "online literature", which is also a "professional" match for her as an online literature author.

Sang Jingyun took a quick look and found that there were many types of novels at that time. She saw detective novels, martial arts novels, and Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School romance novels in the newspaper.

These novels include short stories as well as long serials. They are typeset vertically, with very few punctuation marks, and the writing style and word choice are very different from modern online literature.

All in all, it's difficult to read.

Sang Jingyun read very quickly. She first glanced at the newspaper and then read it carefully word by word.

Seeing this, Sang Jingying and Sang Jingxiong also took the newspaper and read it carefully.

Sang Jingying reads everything, but the younger Sang Jingxiong is not interested in the longer stories and only reads the shorter ones.

As the three were watching, Sang Qian released Sang Xuewen.

Sang Qian had experience and knew how long each attack of Sang Xuewen would last. When she saw that the time was almost up, she would release Sang Xuewen.

The room was pitch black, and Sang Xuewen couldn't stay in there all the time.

Sang Xuewen came out of the house with some straw leaves on his head.

Every time he had an attack, he would roll on the ground in agony.

Sang Qian felt sorry for her son, so she put some straw in his room and asked him to roll around on the straw whenever he felt uncomfortable. This way, he would inevitably get covered with straw leaves.

Sang Xuewen was a clean person, so he went outside first, fetched some well water to wash himself briefly, and then went back to the house to eat.

The rice had been finished, leaving only the rice crust and steamed pumpkin, which he didn't mind and gobbled up.

During this time, he would occasionally glance at his children who were sitting around an octagonal table, and when he met their gazes, he would lower his head and look away.

During this period, Sang Jingyun would talk to Sang Xuewen whenever he had the chance, trying to find ways to arouse Sang Xuewen's guilt and make him behave himself.

But at this moment, her two younger brothers were reading the newspaper quietly, and she was also busy reading the newspaper, so she didn't talk to Sang Xuewen.

After the four of them watched for a while, Sang Jingyun began to yawn continuously. She was afraid that her body could not bear it, so she went back to her room to sleep first.

She slept well this time, and when she woke up the next day, she felt that the aches and pains in her body had improved a lot.

Because she was in good physical condition, she walked very fast and arrived at the entrance of Hongxing Paper Store at around seven o'clock.

Shopkeeper Hong hadn't arrived yet, but the apprentice in the shop had already opened the door, and people who wanted to write letters to her were already lining up.

Sang Jingyun wiped the sweat from his head, drank some water, and began to write a letter. Just as he finished one, he saw Manager Hong and Hong Xu coming.

There were many people in the morning, and Sang Jingyun looked at Hong Xu with a smile: "A Xu, do you want to try to help people write letters?"

There were no electronic products back then, and there were few things children could do. Helping others write letters was at least an interesting thing, and Hong Xu was willing to do it.

But he was a little worried: "What if I make a mistake?"

Sang Jingyun said: "If there is a mistake, just rewrite it. It will only waste some ink and paper."

After hearing what Sang Jingyun said, Hong Xu felt relieved and imitated Sang Jingying to ask a person in the queue: "What do you want to write?"

Hong Xu is only 1.3 meters tall and looks childish, but he is very respectful to those who come to write letters to them: "Young man, please write a letter for me and tell them that I am doing well here and don't worry about them."

Hong Xu took a look at the man and saw that he was in tattered clothes, hunched over, and had small wounds on his body from hard work. He didn't look like he was living a good life at all.

But since everyone said so, Hong Xu lay down on the table and started writing.

He wrote and read at the same time, writing very slowly. After he finished, he asked Sang Jingyun to help him look at it.

Sang Jingyun read it and found that because the letter was written while listening, it had some repetitiveness, but the meaning was easy to understand and there was no major problem.

Sang Jingyun affirmed: "Hong Xu, you write very well!"

The joy in Hong Xu's eyes seemed to be about to overflow.

During the Republic of China period, there was a large rural population around Shanghai and a serious shortage of land, resulting in a large number of landless people.

The lower class people even had no land to bury their deceased relatives and could only leave the coffins in the open air.

Many of these people came to Shanghai to work, and the person who is looking for Hong Xu to write a letter is one of them.

They usually work together as a group, and after earning money, they arrange for someone to go back to deliver letters and money. Several of those who came to write letters today were his fellow villagers.

When Hong Xu finished writing, the man thanked him repeatedly: "Thank you, young sir."

Hong Xu was very proud of being called "little sir" and started shaking his legs again.

After a whole morning, Hong Xu had written four letters and helped Sang Jingyun earn four copper coins.

Sang Jingyun was very grateful to the child. During the meal, he praised him again and again. Thinking of the painting he had seen yesterday, he asked, "A Xu, do you like painting? The Monkey King you painted yesterday was very good."

Hong Xu's chubby face turned red: "I was just drawing casually. My second sister's drawing of Sun Wukong is more beautiful than mine."

"Do you like watching Journey to the West?" Sang Jingyun asked.

Hong Xu scratched his head and said, "My sister likes to read it. She has read the book several times, but I don't like to read it."

There were few books to read at that time, and "Journey to the West" was very popular. However, Hong Xu was only ten years old, which would be in the third or fourth grade of elementary school in modern times. It was normal that he did not like to read the large-scale "Journey to the West".

Sang Jingyun thought of something and said with a smile: "A Xu, how about I write you a story from Journey to the West? You can also add your own pictures to it and make it into a book."

She was very grateful to Manager Hong and Hong Xu who helped her write the letter, and wanted to do something to express her gratitude.

Manager Hong's family is not short of money, and she can't give much money in her situation. In comparison, it is more meaningful to let the children do something that gives them a sense of accomplishment.

Sang Jingyun remembered that her father, who had little education in her previous life, loved reading picture books, and there were still a few of them at home when she was a child.

Hong Xu should like it too.

There aren't many words in the picture book, so she can finish writing it in some time. Then Hong Xu can add some pictures and make a book.

There were no picture books in those days, and children's reading materials were extremely scarce. If Hong Xu had a picture book, he would become the most handsome kid among the group of children.

She can also practice her writing skills, and then it will be natural for her to start writing a book.

Although the original owner of this body could read, she had never written a book before.

If she suddenly started writing a long novel, it would easily arouse suspicion.

The more she understood this era, the more clearly Sang Jingyun realized how difficult it was for a single woman to live in this era.

She needs her family and the help of her relatives and friends, so she can't let them doubt her.

(End of this chapter)