I wrote novels in the Republic of China

Sang Jingyun only waited for a short while before Mrs. Zhang hurried over.

"Madam Zhang, let's pay the rent." Sang Jingyun said lightly and took out two silver dollars.

Mrs. Zhang had been in fear for several days after being frightened by Sang Jingyun last time. Today, she didn't dare to talk to Sang Jingyun any more. She took the money and said, "I'll take the money. You can go back now."

Sang Jingyun could feel that Mrs. Zhang was eager for him to leave.

She didn't want to stay in the Zhang family for long, so she turned around and left.

When Mrs. Zhang saw Sang Jingyun leave, she breathed a sigh of relief and turned back home.

Zhang Zhuangmao came back from the concession by tram this morning. Since he left at a different time from Sang Jingyun and the others, they did not run into each other.

At this time, he had already eaten lunch and was packing up.

He came back every week, brought home the dirty clothes he had worn that week to have the servants wash them, took away clean clothes, and asked his mother for two silver dollars for living expenses.

He attended an ordinary middle school, not a top middle school where rich people gathered. In this middle school, some students only had two yuan a month for living expenses. He had two silver dollars to spend every week, and his life was very comfortable.

Seeing Mrs. Zhang coming back, Zhang Zhuangmao asked, "Mother, why did you suddenly run out?"

Madam Zhang said, "Someone came to look for me, so I spoke to her for a few words."

Zhang Zhuangmao didn't dwell on it. He smiled and asked for money: "Mom, next week's living expenses..."

Mrs. Zhang handed him the two silver dollars in her hand and asked about things at school.

Mrs. Zhang knew nothing about the school, and Zhang Zhuangmao was well aware of this.

He said something casually, and then asked about the Sang family: "Mom, how is Jingyun doing recently?"

Last week he saw Sang Jingyun walking on the street carrying a pot on his back, and he has been feeling uncomfortable ever since.

Sang Jingyun is a young girl, she can just do some embroidery at home, why would she go out shopping? Even if she went out shopping, she shouldn't carry a pot on her back.
That look was really embarrassing.

Mrs. Zhang's heart skipped a beat: "I have been taking care of her, so she is naturally doing well."

She originally wanted to tell others about the close relationship between Sang Jingyun and Hong Yongxiang, but she was afraid that her son would come to ask about it, so she stopped talking and wanted to wait for Sang Jingyun and Hong Yongxiang to settle the matter first.

Zhang Zhuangmao thought about how Sang Jingyun had bought a lot of things that day, and he also felt that she must be living a good life: "Mom, next time you see her, ask her to make me a couple of clothes. I remember that she is not very good at sewing, so it's a good opportunity for her to practice."

Zhang Zhuangmao said this because he wanted Sang Jingyun to go out less.

After he finished speaking, he was thinking about whether to tell his mother about what he saw Sang Jingyun last week, when he heard his mother say, "I will. But Ah Mao, do you really want to marry her? Her family has no money now, and she will definitely have no dowry in the future, and you will have to support her."

Zhang Zhuangmao was very confident: "Don't worry, mother. I will definitely be able to support my wife and children."

Mrs. Zhang was not optimistic.

Zhang Zhuangmao's monthly expenses now amount to about ten silver dollars.

After graduation, he found a job and was considered good if he could earn twenty silver dollars a month.

Even if his family would give him some land, Zhang Zhuangmao would have to rent a house in the concession and his life would definitely not be easy. If he had children and the children needed to go to school, it would be even more difficult.

This is all because Sang Jingyun doesn’t help his family!

If Sang Jingyun moved the money to her mother's house, what kind of life would her son live?
Mrs. Zhang hopes that her son can marry a wife with a generous dowry.

"I think she is so weak that she can't even do housework well..." Mrs. Zhang muttered about Sang Jingyun.

Zhang Zhuangmao knew that his mother did not like the current Sang Jingyun, so he decided not to tell his mother about his meeting with Sang Jingyun to avoid making her angry.

He changed the conversation to something else.

Mrs. Zhang no longer mentioned Sang Jingyun, but she scolded him in her heart.

Her son wanted Sang Jingyun to help him make clothes, but that was definitely not going to work.

I'm afraid she will have to make this dress.

On the other side, Sang Jingyun paid the rent and seeing that it was still early, he took Sang Jingying to a teahouse, intending to have some tea and take a break, then pick up Sang Jingxiong and go home together.

There are two types of teahouses in Shanghai county towns. One type is for wealthy people, where the price of tea is usually five copper coins. They also sell snacks such as pan-fried buns, crab shell yellow, and tea cakes.

There is also another kind for the poor, where the price of tea is one copper coin.

For a copper coin, you can buy a pot of tea in such a teahouse and sit there for a few hours.

For those who are short of money, a few people buy a pot of tea together. The store owner will not chase them away and will even give them free refills.

Sang Jingyun wanted to go to a teahouse that catered to wealthy people. The environment there was good, and there were storytellers telling stories, which was very suitable for entertainment.

But many people in Shanghai County know them, and if they go to a teahouse to spend money, they might be pointed at and criticized.

Their family is already able to rent a house in the county town, but one of the reasons why Sang Jingyun did not move is that he did not want to be watched.

She planned to move directly to the concession when she could afford to live there.

The two eventually went to a small teahouse, ordered a pot of tea, spent a copper coin on a small plate of boiled peanuts, and drank them while sitting at a table at the door of the shop.

The store was full of older men and the smell was really unpleasant.

Although sitting at the door, Sang Jingyun could hear the conversation of those people inside, and the content of the conversation was very magical.

They believed in all kinds of ghosts and gods. For example, one of the old men talked a lot about how there was a fairy from the north over there. He also said that on the first and fifteenth day of every month, they would go to do good deeds for the old fairy in order to pray for happiness and health in the next life.

The way they did good deeds was to bring food and vegetables from their own homes, cook them at the old immortal's house, and then take the prepared meals to the slums of Shanghai and sell them to the poor at the price of one copper coin per serving.

The food is sufficient, and the cost of the food and dishes is less than a penny, so it is indeed a good deed.

But this was just them doing good deeds, and the old immortal not only did nothing, but he also made a profit - all the copper coins earned from the sale of food had to be given to the old immortal.

Sang Jingyun felt that this was just someone playing tricks to cheat people out of some money.

However, those who donate food and vegetables and cook and sell them by themselves can gain peace of mind, people in the slums can buy cheap meals, and the "old immortal" can earn two or three silver dollars. Isn't this also a win-win-win situation?
Sang Jingyun likes listening to these things very much. It helps her understand the world and also provides material for her writing books.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying went to the pastry shop to pick up Sang Jingxiong.

When Sang Jingxiong saw them, he asked, "Did you get your royalties? Did you buy a roast chicken?"

"There is no royalties and no roast chicken." Sang Jingyun said.

Sang Jingxiong asked: "What's in the backpack?"

"Aying is going to school tomorrow, and those are new clothes I bought for him."

Sang Jingxiong immediately said, "I want to buy new clothes too."

"Aying's new clothes were bought with his own money. When you make money, you can also buy new clothes."

Seeing that Sang Jingyun refused to buy it, Sang Jingxiong was very angry: "Other people's sisters are not like you!"

"What are they like? Tell me." Sang Jingying said.

It would take a long time to go home, so she didn’t mind chatting with Sang Jingxiong.

Sang Jingxiong told a story about one of his classmates. The family gave birth to six girls before they had a precious son. So the son became the emperor at home, and the daughters were like little maids serving the emperor.

After the sisters of Sang Jingxiong's classmate got married, they also lived frugally and scraped together money to send their younger brother to school and buy clothes for him.

Sang Jingxiong feels that Sang Jingyun is not as good as other people's sisters.

Sang Jingyun knew that things like this family's had always existed from ancient times to the present.

This will be criticized in later generations, but in the eyes of people of this era, it is normal.

Even if there are people who criticize, they are criticizing these girls. They think that after these girls get married, they should not take money from their husband's family and give it to their parents' family.

At that time, many women did not have their own homes. They first lived in their father's home, then in their husband's home, and when they were old, they lived in their son's home.

Sang Jingyun looked at Sang Jingxiong: "Sang Jingxiong, if you were a woman, would you be willing to eat bran and vegetables every day and give all the delicious food to your brother? Would you spend all the money you earn on your brother?"

Sang Jingxiong didn't say anything, which meant he definitely didn't want to do it.

Sang Jingyun said: "You don't want to, and neither do I. Some girls have never been to school, don't know what is good for themselves, and don't know how to resist, so they have to be bullied, but I'm not that kind of person."

Sang Jingxiong was silent for a moment, then snorted, "I will make a lot of money in the future, and then I will buy a long gown made of silk."

Sang Jingyun said: "You earn your own money, spend it however you want."
She also saw this kind of fabric, Shuluo, in the fabric shop today.
It is made of silk, the weaving process is very complicated, and it is often used to make high-end clothing for summer wear.

The robe that Sang Jingying bought today only cost four cents. If he asked someone to make a silk robe for him, it would cost at least four yuan.

Sang Jingxiong has very high standards.

Concession, editorial office of New Novel.

The editor-in-chief of the New Novel Newspaper was named Huang Peicheng. He had something to do during the day and was not in the newspaper office until this moment.

When he walked into the newspaper office, he didn't look very happy.

Today when he went out, he met the editor-in-chief of Shanghai Daily again.

When they were young, their relationship was not very good, and after they each started their own newspapers, they became even more hostile to each other.

Huang Peicheng came from an average family, and his main consideration in running a newspaper was making money. The profits of the New Novel Newspaper were indeed not low.

In addition to publishing novels, these newspapers also publish various advertisements.

Because the New Novel Newspaper had good sales, and he and the newspaper editors would carefully write advertisements for advertisers, more businesses came to them to advertise, and they charged higher advertising fees.

The Shanghai Daily is different.

The positioning of Shanghai Daily is similar to that of Shen Bao, which is the most famous newspaper today, but it focuses more on local news in Shanghai.

Many people who bought Shenbao would not buy Shanghai Daily, so the sales of Shanghai Daily were not very good, at least not as good as New Novel Daily, and few people would ask them to advertise.

That would have been fine, but the editor-in-chief of Shanghai Daily was picky and unwilling to publish advertisements such as kidney-tonifying advertisements, which he disliked.

Therefore, the advertising income of Shanghai Daily was not even one-third of that of New Novel Newspaper. Huang Peicheng was very pleased with this and thought that he was better than the editor-in-chief of Shanghai Daily.

Unexpectedly, the editor-in-chief of Shanghai Daily repeatedly said that the newspaper he published was vulgar.

This person also publicly accused him of being a publicity stuntman who only knew how to post stories about fighting and killing or love affairs.

Although he looked down on the other party on the surface, Huang Peicheng knew in his heart that his newspaper was indeed not as good as the Shanghai Daily.

This made him feel very uncomfortable.

Huang Peicheng returned to the newspaper office with a stern face. Seeing that all the editors were in high spirits, he felt a little uncomfortable.

He did not show it, but asked: "You are so happy, but what is the good news?"

Huang Peicheng's cousin also works at the newspaper. He said excitedly, "Cousin, Yunjing has sent us a new manuscript. It's very good."

After reading "The Two-Faced Demon Lord" written by Yun Jing last week, Huang Peicheng has been very interested in this book and even asked someone to inquire about the author's identity.

If they had not had so few manuscripts, he would have started publishing them long ago.

Now that he learned that a new manuscript had been delivered, he immediately asked someone to bring it to him, and asked his cousin if he had found out Yun Jing's identity.

Huang Peicheng's cousin handed the manuscript to Huang Peicheng and said, "Cousin, I asked the people at Nancheng Bookstore and heard that this book was written by a well-known modern writer."

Huang Peicheng asked, "Have you found out the identity of that person?"

"I didn't find out, but today, this manuscript was delivered to Nancheng Bookstore by a reporter from Shanghai Daily."

Huang Peicheng was overjoyed when he heard this.

He knew his mortal enemy. That person's mind was occupied with saving the country and the people. The people he recruited for the Shanghai Daily were similar to him.

Since the reporter from Shanghai Daily is willing to help deliver the manuscript, the author of this book should be of the same kind as them and worthy of trust.

The most important thing is that the editor-in-chief of the Shanghai Daily disliked him and his newspaper, but the new-style writers whom the other party admired submitted articles to him!
Huang Peicheng knew that the editor-in-chief of the Shanghai Daily had secretly funded certain writers and was secretly helping them print leaflets.

Huang Peicheng felt very happy when he thought about how the other party took care of the writers, not only writing novels for their "New Novel Newspaper" but also having reporters from "Shanghai Daily" send them to him.

He began to read the novel in front of him and liked it more and more.

Huang Peicheng's cousin was also muttering, "Cousin, the people at Nancheng Bookstore said that this book is full of metaphors, and that this book can appeal to the people not to smoke opium."

Huang Peicheng's cousin told him everything he had heard.

Huang Peicheng didn't think so at first, but after hearing what he said and looking back, he couldn't help but think more about it.

Regardless, this is a good book.

This book is also very readable.

Huang Peicheng read the manuscript over and over for a long time, and suddenly asked: "Can we add the author's punctuation when printing? We don't need those complicated punctuation, just a few simple ones will do... How about this, you arrange for someone to make some lead type with punctuation, and we will try to typeset it."

The New Novel Newspaper has its own printing room and uses letterpress printing.

After they decided on the novel to be published, they asked the typesetters to find the required lead type and arrange it according to the content of the novel.

After the layout is ready, ink is applied on it for rubbing and proofreading.

After proofreading, they will load the typeset plates onto the printing press for printing.

Today's printing presses have been improved and are much easier to use than the earlier ones, but they still need to be manually cranked, so their printing room also hired two workers to be responsible for cranking the printing presses.

In short, since he had his own printing house, if he wanted to add punctuation when publishing, he could do so.

Huang Peicheng was focused on making money and had great foresight. He knew that in the future, the world would be dominated by vernacular Chinese.

As for punctuation, that will be implemented sooner or later.

Nancheng Bookstore wanted to make a comic book with punctuation, so why couldn’t it be the first to use punctuation in newspapers?
It is not easy to make changes to a large newspaper such as Shen Bao, but it is okay to make some changes to a small newspaper such as New Novel News.

He is okay, just adding punctuation to the book "The Two-Faced Demon".

Huang Peicheng had this idea because he was stimulated by the editor-in-chief of Shanghai Daily. He wanted to do something to impress the other party.

After careful consideration, Huang Peicheng decided to use four punctuation marks: comma, period, colon and question mark.
These four punctuation marks are also found in foreign books, so it is not surprising that he used them in his own newspaper.

After making the decision and asking someone to find someone to make the relevant type, Huang Peicheng took the manuscript of "The Two-Faced Demon Lord" and looked at it again.

After a long while, he sighed and said, "This is what future books should be like."

After sighing, Huang Peicheng asked someone to prepare a hundred-yuan note and sent it to Fei Zhongxu.

According to the rules of their newspaper, royalties will only be paid after the novel is published.

But he was afraid that the new-style writer would give the manuscript to other newspapers for publication when he saw that he had not taken any action, so he withdrew 100 silver dollars in advance as a deposit.

When Fei Zhongxu received the 100 silver dollars sent by Huang Peicheng, the editor-in-chief of Nancheng Bookstore also gave him a 100-silver-dollar note and two silver dollars as royalties for the subsequent content of "Journey to the West".

The total amount of money for the two manuscripts was two hundred silver dollars. Even if Fei Zhongxu was not short of money, he rarely had so much money on hand.

For a moment, he even felt a little guilty.

If those people knew that the author of the book was not a modern writer but a teenage girl, I don't know whether they would cause trouble for him.

But it’s really not his fault, they misunderstood it!
Sang Jingyun didn't know what Huang Peicheng had done.

She planned to go to the county town every day in the following days.

On the one hand, it is to exercise my body, and on the other hand, it is to see when my novel will be published.

For her, writing Journey to the West was just a way to earn extra money, but The Two-Faced Demon King was the beginning of her career.

Sang Jingyun hopes that his book will be loved by readers.

The second day is September 10th, October 2nd in the Gregorian calendar.

In modern times it is the National Day holiday, but at this time, it is still just an ordinary day.

That day, Sang Jingyun, Sang Jingying and Sang Jingxiong went to the county town together.

Today is the first day of school for Sang Jingying, so he put on new clothes but still wore his old cloth shoes.

Sang Jingyun saw this and asked him in confusion: "Aying, why aren't you wearing leather shoes?"

Sang Jingying said, "Sister, I will wait until we get to the county town before changing my leather shoes to avoid getting them dirty."

"Okay." Sang Jingyun couldn't help but smile.

In her previous life, Sang Jingyun lived in a world with overcapacity and abundant supplies. Even though she was not keen on shopping, she bought a lot of clothes and shoes.

At that time, she would throw away a few pairs of shoes every year, and those shoes looked like new.

But in this era, people cherish things very much, and everything will be used to the fullest extent.

On the streets, you won’t even see any garbage other than kitchen waste. After all, even a piece of cloth will be used to make shoe soles.

Sang Jingying walked to the county town wearing cloth socks and cloth shoes. Only after she stepped onto the cobblestone road did she change into foreign socks and new leather shoes.

After changing into the new uniform, he held his head high and looked much more confident.

Sang Jingyun couldn't help laughing, while Sang Jingxiong was extremely envious.

Sang Jingyun first sent Sang Jingxiong to the pastry shop, and then followed Sang Jingying to report to the enamel class.

Students in the enamel class can live on campus, but after careful consideration, Sang Jingying decided not to.

Sang Jingyun also agreed with this.

It is indeed a long way to walk back and forth to school, but it can exercise the body.

The most important thing is that Sang Jingying is only thirteen years old, which would be the first grade of junior high school in modern times.

After he lives in the school dormitory, he is with his classmates every day. If he learns any bad habits, his life will be ruined.

Today is the day for registration, and school has not officially started yet, so Sang Jingying can leave after registering her information.

Sang Jingyun knew this, so he said to Sang Jingying: "Aying, go and sign up. I'll wait for you outside."

Everyone else registered on their own, so there was no need for her to follow Sang Jingying in.

Sang Jingying said: "Sister, I will definitely come out soon."

After Sang Jingying finished speaking, she ran inside.

He was a little hesitant, but when he thought of his sister outside, his heart calmed down.

"Hello, do you remember me?" Someone saw Sang Jingying and greeted her with a smile.

When Sang Jingying looked over, he realized that the person was the one he had met during the previous exam, and the other person was sitting next to him at the time.

"Hello." Sang Jingying also greeted the other party.

The two chatted, and the man asked curiously: "I saw you came with a young woman, is that your sister?"

Sang Jingying didn't look like a married woman at her age, and Sang Jingyun looked somewhat like Sang Jingying, so this person thought that Sang Jingyun was Sang Jingying's sister.

Sang Jingying said: "That's my sister."

"So it's your sister. Your sister is very kind to you and even came here with you."

Sang Jingying nodded seriously: "Yes, my sister is very good to me."

When Sang Jingyun saw Sang Jingying enter the school gate, he found a place to sit nearby, took out the "New Novel Newspaper" that he had borrowed from Shopkeeper Hong yesterday, and read it slowly.

The novels in the newspaper were not easy to read, unlike online articles where one could read ten lines at a glance, so she read very slowly, and at the same time she was looking forward to the day when her novel would appear in the newspaper.

(End of this chapter)