I wrote novels in the Republic of China

The Sang family's yard was not big, and the apprentice kept silent, so his words were not only heard by Sang Jingyun.

Sang Jingying stood up suddenly, almost knocking over the bench she was sitting on: "Sister, has the manuscript fee arrived?"

"Yes, we're here. Let's go to the county town to get our royalties." Sang Jingyun said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Sang Jingying was about to rush out, but was stopped by Sang Jingyun: "Put on your backpack."

After receiving the royalties, they would definitely buy some things to take home.

In modern times, you can go out shopping empty-handed, but not at this time.

If you buy a piece of meat these days, people will only give you a piece of meat. If you don’t bring a backpack basket, it is difficult to carry the purchase home.

Sang Jingying hurriedly ran back to get the backpack.

Even Sang Jingyun found the cross-body backpack that Sang Jingying used to carry when he was in school and put it on his back.

The two of them packed up quickly, said hello to Lu Ying, and then walked out.

Receiving royalties is a happy thing. Sang Jingyun actually wants to bring Lu Ying and Sang Jingli with him.

But it takes an hour to walk from where they lived to the county town. Lu Ying had bound feet and Sang Jingli was young, so they couldn't walk.

When Sang Jingyun and the other two were halfway there, they met Sang Qianshi who was carrying two baskets.

The basket in Sang Qian's right hand was filled with old clothes and contained needlework for Lu Yingling. In the other basket were the tofu and salted fish she had just bought.

Sang Jingyun looked excited: "Grandma, take the things home and put them away, then come to the county town to find us. We are going to invite Manager Hong to dinner at noon today, and you can eat with us."

Sang Qian thought for a moment and said, "I won't go. You should thank Shopkeeper Hong."

The moment Sang Jingyun saw her expression, he knew that she was worried about her family.

There was really no way to get everyone in the family to go to the county town to have a good meal today, so Sang Jingyun said, "Grandma, let's bring back some delicious food later."

After saying goodbye to Sang Qian, the three of them continued walking towards the county town.

This apprentice of the Hongxing Paper Company was a talkative person, and he told Sang Jingyun a lot of things along the way, but he was not very clear about the matter of royalties. He only knew that Hong Yongxiang had returned from the concession and asked him to find someone.

But this is enough to make Sang Jingyun feel at ease.

Since Hong Yongxiang mentioned the royalties, then regardless of anything else, there must be royalties.

It’s good to have royalties!
The three of them arrived at the Hong Xing Paper Shop and, from a distance, saw Hong Yongxiang moving a table and helping people write letters in front of the store.

Nowadays, there are four letter-writing stalls near the Hongxing Paper Shop, and they are all run by teenagers who write letters in front of their own shops.

There are many people born these days. There are many shopkeepers in the county, and each of them has literate children.

If the children study well, they will definitely let them go to middle school, but many children cannot get into middle school.

Let them go to work, they are too young.

Writing letters for others at their doorstep is indeed a good business.

Because of the appearance of these people, Hongxing Paper Company no longer provides letter writing services. Hong Yongxiang now took paper and pen to help people write letters in order to find something to do and avoid the nagging of Manager Hong.

Seeing Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying coming, Hong Yongxiang quickened the speed of writing the letter and said at the same time: "Wait for me for a moment."

Soon, Hong Yongxiang finished writing the letter. He read it again and handed it to the person who asked him to write the letter. Then he looked at Sang Jingyun, whose face could not hide his anxiety: "Shall we go to the back of the shop to talk?"

Behind the shop there is a small courtyard of only a few square meters, which is used for lighting. Further back are two rooms, which are the storehouses of the shop and where the apprentices usually live.

Sang Jingyun brought Sang Jingying and followed Hong Yongxiang to the back of the house and asked, "Mr. Hong, have you received the royalties? How much is it?"

Hong Yongxiang glanced at Sang Jingying and realized that Sang Jingyun was not going to hide it from Sang Jingying. He immediately took out a banker's note and gave it to Sang Jingying: "The payment for "The Two-Faced Demon King" will be paid after it is published, but the payment for "Journey to the West" has already been received. Now the total is 45,000 words, 90 yuan."

Sang Jingying recognized the banknotes, which were actually the silver notes that were often seen in ancient TV dramas.

In this era, the gap between the rich and the poor is huge. To the rich, ninety yuan is nothing, but to the poor, it is a very large sum of money.

"Mr. Hong, thank you so much." Sang Jingyun looked at Hong Yongxiang seriously. She knew very well that without Hong Yongxiang, she would never have been able to get the royalties in such a short time, and such a large amount of royalties.

At this moment, Sang Jingyun heard crying sounds beside her. She turned her head and saw that the teenager Sang Jingying had already started crying.

Seeing that Sang Jingyun and Hong Yongxiang were both looking at her, Sang Jingying wiped away her tears and said, "I'm just a little happy. You don't have to worry about me."

Staring at Sang Jingying would only make her embarrassed, so Sang Jingyun turned to look at Hong Yongxiang and asked about the submission.

Hong Yongxiang told them one by one, and also told them what Fei Zhongxu had done to get Sang Jingyun's royalties as soon as possible, and then said: "Brother Fei asked me not to talk about this, but I think it's better to tell you. In addition, Nancheng Bookstore is interested in publishing "The Two-Faced Demon Lord", I hope you can give them priority."

"I will." Sang Jingyun said seriously.

Fei Zhongxu helped her a lot, and she will always remember this.

The two talked for a long time, and Sang Jingyun finally said: "Mr. Hong, Aying and I can get the royalties because of your help. We would like to invite you to Qingfulou for dinner."

"No, I'm in a hurry to get back to the concession," Hong Yongxiang refused. "Besides, my father has already informed our family and asked them to send more food over, including your meals."

Manager Hong is such a nice person.

It was already noon, and Sang Jingyun knew that it was a bit too hasty to invite guests for lunch today. She thought about it and pulled Sang Jingying out: "We will go out for a while and come back soon."

Sang Jingyun took Sang Jingying straight to the money house.

There was a sign hanging at the door of the money shop, which showed today's exchange rate of silver dollars for copper coins. Further in, there was a large counter where a middle-aged man was checking the authenticity of the silver dollars.

He threw the silver dollars one by one onto the counter next to him without stopping his hands, which meant that the silver dollars were all real.

At that time, people working in money shops and banks had the unique skill to distinguish the authenticity of silver dollars in a short time.

Suddenly, he stopped and picked up the silver dollar he had just thrown out: "This silver dollar makes a wrong sound."

Only then did Sang Jingyun realize that he threw the silver dollars one by one onto the other counter in order to listen to the knocking sound and distinguish the real ones from the fake ones.

This time he came here for an important matter. Sang Jingyun took a look and then found the silver dollar exchange place and took out the damaged banknotes.

The person behind the counter carefully checked the ticket, confirmed it was genuine, and asked Sang Jingyun for his request.

Sang Jingyun said: "I want to take out forty silver dollars."

The clerk worked quickly and soon counted out forty silver dollars and gave them to Sang Jingyun along with a note for fifty silver dollars.

Sang Jingyun took it and took Sang Jingying to a delicatessen, where he spent a silver dollar to buy some pickled duck, roast chicken, etc., and took them to the Hongxing Bank.

When they arrived, the Hong family's food had already been delivered.

Sang Jingyun took out the cooked food and said, "Grandpa Hong, I got my royalties today, so I'll give you an extra dish!"

Sang Jingyun bought a lot of cooked food, which they naturally couldn't finish.

Sang Jingyun asked Shopkeeper Hong to take the remaining cooked food back to the Hong family, but Shopkeeper Hong disagreed and shared the remaining cooked food with Sang Jingyun: "We can't eat so much at home, you can take some home too."

Sang Jingyun smiled and said, "Grandpa Hong, I will take this cooked food home. I will buy something later. You can't give me a discount. You are too polite. It will make me embarrassed to come to your house and take advantage of you."

Sang Jingyun had taken a pen and a lot of paper from Shopkeeper Hong before, and she memorized all the prices.

Now, she took some more paper and paid for it according to the price offered by Shopkeeper Hong.

The pens were not cheap, so she asked for three more, and paid a total of eight silver dollars.

Shopkeeper Hong said, "You're giving too much. In the past, when I met big customers like you, I would give you a discount."

Sang Jingyun smiled and said, “Grandpa Hong, you didn’t give me a discount, but you treated me to a meal.”

Shopkeeper Hong finally accepted the money. Sang Jingyun said, "Grandpa Hong, I'm short of a lot of things at home. I'm in a hurry to buy them. I'm leaving now."

"Let's go." Shopkeeper Hong said with a smile.

Sang Jingyun looked at Hong Yongxiang again and said, "Mr. Hong, I am really sorry to bother you during this period. My brother and I will deliver the manuscript to the concession on Sunday."

In the past, Hong Yongxiang might not go home once a month, but in recent days, he comes back from time to time because of her affairs.

This is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also costly.

During the previous meal, Sang Jingyun asked Hong Yongxiang for the addresses of the Shanghai Daily editorial office and Nancheng Bookstore in the concession.

In the future, she and Sang Jingying would deliver the manuscripts to the concession themselves.

After leaving Hongxing Paper Shop, Sang Jingying touched the thirty-one silver dollars in his pocket and said to Sang Jingyun, "Sister, we finally have money!"

"Yes, we finally have money." Sang Jingyun said.

It was noon and not too late, so Sang Jingyun took Sang Jingying to the pork shop and bought a large piece of fatty pork to make lard.

Then, they went to the pastry shop where they had helped to paste the mooncake boxes and bought pear paste candy and peanut candy.

Sang Jingyun was still calculating other things to buy: "Jingying, I want to buy a small pot for cooking, and a piece of soap..."

She mentioned a lot of things, and finally said, "Let's buy these today. We can't carry more."

"Yeah!" Sang Jingying was very happy.

Sang Jingyun asked again: "Aying, you sent Grandma Alan home last time, so you should know where she is. Let's go see her. If she's not doing well, we can take her back."

"Okay." Sang Jingying agreed immediately.

The two of them bought things as they walked towards the house where Alan worked.

Most of the things Sang Jingyun bought were small items, the heaviest of which was a small pot with a handle.

The pots at that time were generally very large. This is called a small pot, but in fact it would be a large household frying pan in later generations.

Sang Jingying's backpack couldn't fit in, and it was too heavy to carry...

The man selling the pot tied up the pot with a straw rope. Sang Jingyun pulled the rope and finally carried the pot on his back.

It felt strange to carry the pot on his back, but Sang Jingyun was in a good mood when he thought about being able to eat fried dishes in the future.

(End of this chapter)