I wrote novels in the Republic of China

Sang Jingyun had just finished reading a newspaper when he saw Sang Jingying running out of the school.

He was very thin, and the robe he wore was a bit loose. When he ran, the robe fluttered in the wind, just like a piece of clothing hanging on a bamboo pole.

Sang Jingyun stood up and asked with a smile, "Is the matter done?"

Sang Jingying put the backpack that was placed beside Sang Jingyun on her back and said, "It's done. School will start tomorrow."

The two left together, and at the same time, Sang Jingying talked to Sang Jingyun about his school.

The China Vocational Education Society was jointly established by people from the education and business circles and is dedicated to promoting vocational education.

The traditional education in their country is divorced from productive labor. Many educated people do not know how to make a living and are unable to support themselves.

In the view of some knowledgeable people, this needs to change.

As a result, the China Vocational Education Society came into being. It runs classes to teach various skills so that people who cannot find a job can learn a skill to make a living.

"Our school has an internship factory. After we have learned the basic knowledge, we can learn to make enamel signs in the internship factory..." Sang Jingying looked longing.

Sang Jingyun listened very carefully and took the person to the meat stall.

Sang Qian was reluctant to spend money on meat. If she really wanted to buy some, she would only buy a small piece and stir-fry it into shreds.

Sang Jingyun was more generous than her. After asking about the price of the meat, he bought a piece of pork weighing more than three pounds, and spent another copper coin to buy six pork shoulder blades.

Some novels write that pig offal, pig shanks and the like were very cheap in ancient times, and could even be given away for free.

Sang Jingyun didn’t know about other places, but in Shanghai County at that time, although these things were cheaper than meat, they were not much cheaper, and people still rushed to buy them.

Ordinary people rarely buy pig intestines to eat, but restaurants and wealthy families will buy them, after all, some people like them.

When Sang Yuanshan was alive, he loved to eat braised large intestine, so Alan would make it every once in a while.

The price of the restaurant's nine-turn large intestine is even more expensive than the braised pork.

Bones like shanks, which contain marrow, are not cheap. They are the favorite of some gourmets, and restaurants also like to use them to make soup.

The original owner once followed Sang Xuewen to a restaurant to eat pork rib hotpot. It was delicious but not cheap.

The cheapest offal of a pig is the spleen, which no one likes to eat. The cheapest bone is the shoulder blade.

There is no bone marrow in the shoulder blade, and the meat on it has been scraped clean by the butcher. If you ask the butcher for it after buying the meat, he will be willing to give you one for free.

But since Sang Jingyun wanted a lot, he still had to pay for it.

"Sister, why did you buy this bone?" Sang Jingying asked curiously.

Sang Jingyun said: "Use it to make soup."

"Sister, this bone soup has no oil or water." Sang Jingying said.

Sang Jingyun smiled: "At least it tastes like meat, and if you stew the bones for a long time and chew them with vinegar, it will stop your cramps."

Because of calcium deficiency, Sang Jingying often suffers from cramps at night and sometimes knee pain.

And chewing bones dipped in vinegar was a folk remedy for treating cramps in their village in the previous life.

The pig's shoulder blade is not as hard as the shank bone. After being chopped and cooked for a long time, it is still chewable.

There is always some calcium in bones, and vinegar can promote absorption, so eating this way should be able to supplement calcium.

"Why?" Sang Jingying was curious.

Sang Jingyun said: "Your knee pain is caused by a lack of nutrition in your bones. Eating some bones can replenish it."

In her opinion, eating like this may not have any effect, but it will definitely not harm the body.

After buying the pork, the two went to the Hongxing Paper Store again.

Sang Jingyun returned the borrowed newspaper to Shopkeeper Hong, and borrowed the newspaper that Shopkeeper Hong had just finished reading.

"I don't know when I can see the novel you wrote in the newspaper." Manager Hong said with a smile.

"It should be soon." Sang Jingyun said.

According to Hong Yongxiang, the editors at the New Novel Newspaper liked her novel very much.

If that’s the case, it should be published soon?
After talking with Manager Hong, Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying rushed home.

If I hurry home now, I'll be in time for lunch.

For lunch, Sang Jingyun, Sang Jingying and Sang Jingli had steamed soybeans and pickled mustard soup, and each of them had a boiled egg.

While peeling a boiled egg and dipping it in soy sauce to eat with rice, Sang Jingyun was looking forward to the royalties more and more.

How can boiled eggs be as delicious as braised pork?

When Sang Qian saw that Sang Jingyun bought such a big piece of meat, she felt a little sorry for the money.

But since the money was earned by Sang Jingyun, she didn't say anything.

Use a chopping axe to chop the pig's shoulder blade into pieces and throw it into the pot. Then put in the chopped pork skin. After adding water, simmer it over low heat using an old mulberry tree. Sang Qian then asks Sang Xuewen to go to the yard to pick radish seedlings and green vegetables.

The vegetables planted by Sang Qian in the yard have grown into lush green.

These dishes include radishes and green vegetables, which later generations called Shanghai green.

These vegetables were planted with seeds bought by Sang Qian. Due to uneven sowing, they grew densely in some places and sparsely in others.

Whether it is radishes or green vegetables, if they grow too densely, they will not grow big in the future, so someone needs to pull some of them out and remove the weeds at the same time.

These pulled green vegetables and radish sprouts are all edible. In his previous life, Sang Jingyun liked to blanch them in water and then eat them cold with some sesame oil.

If you don’t have sesame oil at home now, you can still cook it in bone soup and it will taste good.

After the bones had been cooked for a long time, Sang Qian put the meat in to cook.

What they ate in the evening was boiled pork, a bowl of green vegetables cooked in bone broth, and a plate of cold-mixed radish sprouts.

Sang Qian saved half of the bone soup for tomorrow, and the same went for the meat, so each person got a lot of meat, but it was already delicious.

Everyone chewed some bones. Sang Jingying chewed the most under the supervision of Sang Jingyun, and a pile of bone residue accumulated next to the rice bowl.

On the second day, Sang Jingyun went to the county town with Sang Jingying, Sang Jingxiong and Sang Qianshi.

She actually had nothing to do, so it was okay for her not to go. The reason for going was, firstly, to see if her novel had been published, and secondly, to exercise.

Her body is young after all. After she came here, she moved around from time to time, and her body has improved a little, but it is still not good enough and she needs to continue exercising.

It was said that it was ten miles from her home to the county town, but it was probably less than that. Sang Jingying counted her steps once when she had nothing to do. She put a small stick in her pocket every hundred steps and found that it was seven thousand steps for a single trip, and fourteen thousand steps for a round trip.

After this walk, she had enough exercise for the day, and she could stay in the yard for the rest of the day.

Walking almost 15,000 steps a day is a lot for modern people, but in this era of inconvenient transportation and everyone is used to walking, it is really nothing.

Every time Sang Jingyun went to the county town, she could see rural people carrying vegetables to sell in the county town, walking faster than her. The children even ran to the county town.

Now she would sweat if she walked slowly to the county town, and she had to rest for a while before walking back. She even had to take a nap when she got home. Her health was really not good.

But she believes that she can train her body well.

Sang Jingyun went to the county town in the morning and conceived the plot on the way there and back. After returning home, he took a nap and then began to write "The Two-Faced Demon Lord". He wrote until dark. His life was regular and healthy.

They have breakfast early, basically as soon as it gets light, so it should be before six o'clock. They also have lunch very early, often finishing before eleven o'clock.

Therefore, Sang Jingyun has more than five hours a day to write, and can write about four to five thousand words.

While Sang Jingyun was writing novels and recuperating, Nancheng Bookstore had already started printing "Journey to the West".

Fei Zhongxu and the editor-in-chief of Nancheng Bookstore spent two days reviewing all the manuscripts of "Journey to the West" written by Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying. They also carefully read the first volume that Hong Yue had already finished drawing.

"This comic book is great, let's produce it as soon as possible." The editor-in-chief of Nancheng Bookstore made the decision.

Fei Zhongxu agreed.

The printing room of Nancheng Bookstore has a lithographic press.

Lithography was a common printing method at this time and was well suited for printing images.

By using oil-based ink to draw images and write words on a special limestone slab, and then going through processes such as brushing water, rolling ink, covering with paper, and applying pressure, the image can be printed out, which is much easier than the original woodblock printing.

At that time, all the advertisements with pictures were printed using a lithographic press. They also planned to use this machine to print the comic strip of "Journey to the West".

"Journey to the West" has a total of seventy-two volumes, which cannot be completed in a short time, but the book does not have to be completed before it can be published. Now that the first volume has been completed, it doesn't matter if it is published first.

The editor-in-chief of Nancheng Bookstore called in a lithographer, who first placed peach blossom paper coated with gelatin on the manuscript, dipped a fountain pen in medicinal ink, traced the manuscript, and then turned the paper over and placed it on the stone slab... After a series of operations, it could be printed using a lithographic press.

The painter was not young. He had been educated and learned painting before. Later, his hometown suffered a disaster, so he fled to Shanghai with his family. He had no way to make a living, and by chance, he became a mimeograph artist.

The words Hong Yue wrote on the painting were not very good. While he was tracing them, he also made some slight changes, which actually made the words look better.

Nancheng Bookstore soon began printing the first volume of "Journey to the West", "The Birth of the Monkey King".

At the same time, at the Hong family, Hong Yue was drawing quickly.

After being enlightened by Sang Jingyun, she suddenly felt enlightened and stopped worrying about the details. She would get up early every morning, pick up her brush and ink and start painting directly.

Now, she can draw twenty pictures a day and finish a book in two days without having to lose sleep.

It's just that drawing too much is a bit boring.

But no matter how boring drawing is, it is still more interesting than needlework.

She was unwilling to spend a lot of time and effort to embroider a flower stitch by stitch. She also didn't want to make clothes or shoes.

When she was forced to do it by her mother in the past, she thought, how great it would be if there was a machine that could sew fabric quickly!

Hong Yue was drawing when she suddenly heard the door open.

She knew it was her mother when she heard the voice. Not wanting to listen to her mother's nagging, Hong Yue pretended to be absorbed in painting without raising her head.

In the past, Hong's mother would definitely say something to Hong Yue, but now, looking at the paintings on Hong Yue's desk, Hong's mother kept her mouth shut and did not dare to disturb Hong Yue.

She quietly walked forward and placed a plate of sliced ​​persimmons on the corner of Hong Yue's table, then quietly retreated and closed the door carefully.

After her mother left, Hong Yue picked up a piece of persimmon and ate it.

She suddenly didn't find painting boring anymore.

In the blink of an eye, it's Sunday again.

Sang Jingying has been studying in the enamel class for five days and has adapted well.

Although he was a little thin, he looked good and was kind, so he got along well with his classmates and made a few friends.

In addition, he learned things very quickly and could master what the teacher taught him immediately, which made the teacher very fond of him. Sang Jingying went to school early in the morning every day, went to the pastry shop after school, picked up Sang Jingxiong and went home with Sang Jingxiong. His life was very regular.

On Saturday night, we had pork stewed with potatoes at home.

There was not much meat, only one pound. There were seven people in their family, and each person could not even get 100 grams. But Sang Jingyun spent an extra copper coin to buy some shredded pork skin, so they could eat a few more bites of meat.

Sang Jingyun went to the county town every day for another reason, which was that she wanted to buy some meat every day to improve her food and nourish her body.

Therefore, even though Sang Qian was reluctant to spend money, she still insisted on buying some meat every day and eating it together in the evening.

Sang Jingyun originally wanted to buy a few chickens to raise for laying eggs, but his family did not have the conditions to let the chickens go out to find food on their own, so they had to be fed grain. The price of grain in Shanghai was expensive, so raising chickens was not cost-effective.

She didn't want the house to smell bad, so she gave up.

The pork was cut before cooking, a total of seven pieces. The four larger pieces were given to the children, and the three smaller pieces were eaten by Sang Qian and his family.

Sang Jingyun took a bite of pork and said to Sang Jingying, "Aying, after we finish eating, let's go and fry pumpkin seeds so that we can give them to Mr. Hong tomorrow."

Their family had saved up all the pumpkin seeds that were left over from eating pumpkin and have now dried them.

Sang Jingyun asked Sang Xuewen to pick out the good quality ones, planning to fry them today and send them to Hong Yongxiang tomorrow.

"Okay." Sang Jingying agreed.

They first practiced with pumpkin seeds of inferior quality, and only after they learned how to fry them did they fry those of good quality.

After frying, wrap it up with the Shanghai Daily newspaper given by Manager Hong and put it away.

She will go to the concession again tomorrow. This time, she should be able to get the royalties, right?

The next day, Sang Jingyun received her royalties as expected. The amount she received was much more than she had imagined.

"The Two-Faced Demon Lord" had not yet been published, and she thought she could only get the royalties from "Journey to the West". Unexpectedly, "New Novel Newspaper" also gave her a hundred silver dollars in royalties!
Looking at the two banknotes in his hand, Sang Jingyun felt hot in his heart.

Hong Yongxiang said, "These newspapers that publish novels have regular contributors, and the pages are arranged in advance. It seems that the New Novel Newspaper has no space for you at the moment, so they didn't publish your novel, but they value you very much, so you can continue to write."

"I know." Sang Jingyun smiled and said, "As long as there is payment, it doesn't matter if it is published later."

As he spoke, Sang Jingyun became more and more grateful to Hong Yongxiang.

Just as Hong Yongxiang said, these newspapers have a fixed number of contributors, and the fact that she, a newcomer, was able to break in and receive such high royalties was all thanks to Hong Yongxiang.

Thinking of this, Sang Jingyun took out a newspaper package from Sang Jingying's backpack and said, "Mr. Hong, this is the manuscript of "The Two-Faced Demon Lord" written last week, a total of 24,000 words."

"You still wrote a lot." Hong Yongxiang reached out to take it.

Sang Jingyun then took out another paper package and said, "Mr. Hong, this is the manuscript of Journey to the West drawn by Hong Yue. There are 120 pages in total. She drew three volumes."

"Ayue has also drawn a lot this time." Hong Yongxiang was very happy. Hongyue only drew one book last week and received four yuan for the manuscript. This time, she drew three books in total and received twelve yuan for the manuscript.

Sang Jingyun smiled and took out the third newspaper package.

"What is this?" Hong Yongxiang asked curiously.

Sang Jingyun said, "Mr. Hong, these are the pumpkin seeds that Ah Ying fried. They're for you as a snack."

Hong Yongxiang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He was already old, why would he need snacks?

But pumpkin seeds were worthless, so he accepted them.

Sang Jingyun added: "Mr. Hong, I got a large sum of money for my writing this time, and I want to treat you to a meal."

Hong Yongxiang said, "Alright, then go take a walk around first and come back to see me at noon. I want to eat at a rich restaurant today."

Sang Jingyun has proposed to treat him to a meal several times. He disagreed before because he didn't want Sang Jingyun to spend money. Now that Sang Jingyun is no longer short of money, it is okay to let Sang Jingyun treat him to a meal.

Sang Jingyun agreed with a smile.

Hong Yongxiang went back to work. Sang Jingyun thought for a moment and said to Sang Jingying, "Aying, shall we go to the Nancheng Bookstore?"

After knowing that Fei Zhongxu deliberately misled the people at Nancheng Bookstore, Sang Jingyun decided not to submit the manuscript himself.

But she was curious about Nancheng Bookstore and wanted to go and take a look.

The two places are not far from each other.

Sang Jingying naturally agreed, and the two went to Nancheng Bookstore together.

There is a shop in front of Nancheng Bookstore that sells various books. There are also books that are not printed by Nancheng Bookstore, and the prices of all of them are clearly marked.

Sang Jingyun took a look and found that many of the books here were written in classical Chinese, and therefore the books were very thin. Books like "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Classic" were extremely cheap, costing only a few copper coins each.

But translated foreign novels are extremely expensive, a thin book costs only four or five cents.
Sang Jingyun was interested in many of the books, but he didn't want to buy the cheap ones, and the expensive ones were too expensive.

In the end, she only bought a copy of The Lady of the Camellias.

She had read this book in modern times, but the translation at that time was very interesting and she wanted to read it again.

And this book can also be shown to Sang Jingying.

If she could preserve this book, maybe it could become a collection in the future.

When Sang Jingying saw Sang Jingyun buying a book, she whispered, "Sister, this book is too expensive."

Such a thin book costs the same as a piece of clothing.

He felt there was no need to buy and could just stand here and watch it all.

Nowadays, there are many people standing in bookstores to read books for free.

"It's okay to buy half of it occasionally." Sang Jingyun smiled and paid for the book.

At this time, a man in his twenties came out with a box of books.

Sang Jingyun took a curious look at it and was surprised to find that the book was actually "Journey to the West: The Birth of the Monkey King".

Isn’t this the book she and Sang Jingying wrote?

Are bookstores so efficient nowadays? The drawings for this book were submitted just last week, and it was published this week?
Sang Jingyun thought about his previous life, when it took a very long time to publish a book even after he signed a publishing agreement with a publishing house. He was amazed at the current publishing speed.

The person in charge of buying books in the bookstore was very surprised: "Editor Fei, this book has been published?"

When Sang Jingyun heard the three words "Editor Fei", his heart moved. Could the person who moved the books out be Fei Zhongxu?

This person was indeed Fei Zhongxu. Seeing the bookseller's curiosity, he said, "The stone tablet can be painted eight pictures on one side, so it can be printed very quickly."

They just debugged the stone slab yesterday and printed some papers yesterday afternoon.

Just now, they cut the paper, bound the books, and made the first batch of one hundred books.

He was anxious to get the book outside to see if the customer liked it.

"Can I take a look at this book?" Sang Jingyun asked.

"Of course." Seeing that the person asking the question was a pretty girl, Fei Zhongxu handed a book to Sang Jingyun attentively.

Sang Jingyun flipped through the pages.

Although the printing technology at that time was average, the words were printed clearly, and the pictures drawn by Hong Yue appeared in the book exactly as shown.

Those lines are thicker than those drawn by Hong Yue, which should be due to the poor printing technology.

Today is Sunday and schools are closed, so there are quite a few customers in the store.

Sang Jingyun looked at the customers in the store and held the book with a surprised look on his face: "This book is really good, the pictures are interesting, and the story is also easy to read! Second brother, I think my third brother and fourth sister will definitely like this book, let's buy it back and let them read it!"

It was rare to see girls coming to the bookstore, and Sang Jingyun was speaking loudly at the moment, so all the customers in the store looked over.

Sang Jingyun added, "Second brother, this book is suitable for children and people who are not very literate. I think we can give some to relatives and friends... How about we buy five copies?"

Sang Jingying didn't know why Sang Jingyun suddenly said that.

But he also wrote this book!
It was reasonable to buy five copies. He wanted to keep one for collection, read one, and give a few copies as gifts...

Sang Jingying said: "Okay!"

Is there anyone who plans to buy five copies of the same book at once?

The customers in the store not only looked over, but even gathered around. Fei Zhongxu was also surprised: "Miss, you want to buy five books at a time?"

"Yes, I really like this book." Sang Jingying smiled at Fei Zhongxu.

Fei Zhongxu is of medium height, with small eyes and a slightly flat nose. His appearance is not outstanding, but not ugly either.

He was wearing the long silk robe that Sang Jingxiong had always dreamed of, and had his hair parted in the middle, a look that was common among scholars at that time.

"Miss, you have good taste!" Fei Zhongxu felt that the girl in front of him had really good taste.

At this time, other people in the store also came over and took books from the box in front of Fei Zhongxu to read.

One of them, a middle-aged man wearing glasses and a black iron wire yarn jacket, opened the book and said in surprise: "This comic strip actually uses punctuation. Not bad! It's really good!"

Sang Jingyun said, "Sir, I also think the punctuation is very good and easy to read. The stories are written in vernacular, which is also easy to understand. I read Journey to the West before, but I couldn't get into it. But I liked this book at first sight."

Naturally, we should work hard to promote our own books.

Sang Jingyun took advantage of the fact that no one knew he was the scriptwriter, so he started to brag about himself.

"Yes, this book is very appealing. I will buy two copies as well." The man started, and then asked Fei Zhongxu: "This book seems to be a set? When will the sequel be published?"

Fei Zhongxu said quickly, "Sir, we are already working overtime on the subsequent books, and they should be finished soon."

Upon hearing this, the man suddenly said, "I want to order twenty copies of this book."

"So many?" Fei Zhongxu was more and more surprised.

The middle-aged man said, "I came to the bookstore this time to buy some books and donate them to several primary schools. This book is very suitable."

Fei Zhongxu immediately took the middle-aged man to register, and seeing this, others also took out money to buy books.

This book is very thin and one copy only costs six copper coins, which is not expensive.

Even if they don't have children of their own, their relatives and friends do have children. After buying books, they can not only read them themselves but also give them as gifts.

Sang Jingyun used thirty copper coins to buy five books, then held the books in his hands and kept praising them, saying, "This is the first book with punctuation that I have ever seen. It is also a great book to collect."

Encouraged by her, people who came to the bookstore later also spent money to buy books.

Fei Zhongxu looked at Sang Jingyun in surprise.

If he didn't know this girl, he would have thought she was a hired helper.

(End of this chapter)