The Red Mansions

Chapter 45
On the small table under the eaves, it was steaming hot, and the breakfast was simple, a few bowls of white rice porridge, a bowl of egg custard, a plate of scrambled eggs with leeks, a plate of fried meat with bamboo shoots, two cold dishes, and some steamed buns.

"Let's sit down and eat together." Jia Heng said softly, picked up the chopsticks, and looked up at Qing Wen.

Qingwen didn't move, she just looked at the young man's clear black and white eyes, full of energy.

Jia Heng smiled lightly and asked, "Aren't you hungry?"

Saying that, she got up, stretched out her hand to hold Qingwen's arm and sat down, and said, "I told you yesterday that I didn't have such big rules before."

Qingwen pursed her thin lips, and said softly: "My lord...you have to be decent."

Jia Heng raised his eyes, smiled lightly, and said: "The dignity of a person does not lie in this."

Then, he picked up the chopsticks, picked up the vegetables, and ate without saying anything.

When Qingwen heard this, she raised her head and glanced at the boy, she vaguely understood something, she picked up her chopsticks without saying anything.

Jia Heng pushed the bowl over and said, "Eat this bowl of egg custard while it's still hot. You're still young, just at the age of growth. Make up for it."

Qingwen was stunned, raised a pair of eyes that were as bright as water, and lightly tapped the chopsticks in the bowl, and retorted: "Young master is not two years older than me, so you should eat more tonics."

At this time, Aunt Cai came out with a bowl in her hand and said with a smile: "Brother Heng, why don't you just make an extra portion tomorrow, you see, I forgot about it."

In her eyes, this well-born girl Qingwen will most likely be Brother Heng's concubine in the future, so it is not a disadvantage.

Jia Heng nodded at Aunt Cai, and said: "It's getting late, I'm going to the Imperial College, if there is anything at home, Auntie can ask Uncle Li to go to the Imperial College to call me."

While talking, I went to wash my hands and rinse my mouth, and then went into the east window wing to get the manuscript.

Qingwen also put down her chopsticks at this time, went to the house to get an umbrella, walked to Jia Heng, handed it over, and said: "After autumn, there is a lot of rain, and the sky is drowsy. Don't even think about raining. You are prepared."

Jia Heng reached out to take the umbrella and said with a smile, "Go, I will teach you how to read when I come back at night."

After finishing speaking, under the watchful eyes of Qingwen and Aunt Cai, she passed the Chuihua Yingbi and headed towards the Imperial College.

The whole journey was silent, when Jia Heng came to the Imperial College, it was almost the hour of the morning, and as Qingwen said, there was a light rain in the sky, Jia Heng just put up a bamboo umbrella, pushed aside the rain curtain, and entered Wencui Pavilion.

First, I went to the official hall on the first floor to meet Song Yuan and Song Junya, and after a few words, I changed into the blue shirt and long robe of the prison code in the locker room, and then went straight up the ladder to the third floor, Area A.

Dao came to the seat by the window yesterday and sat down, holding a blue and white porcelain teapot, first filled himself with a cup of tea, began to sit behind the desk, picked up the watch book, and checked the number of books.

Relying on his extraordinary memory, it took about an hour to write down all the details in a thick stack of tables with bibliography, and then he went out of the hall and began to check.

Since he is writing here, he naturally has to do his job well to prevent people from goingssip.

The entire third floor has four districts, A, B, C, and D. In District A, where he is located, there are rows of red lacquered bookcases as tall as a person, and fifteen rows of bookcases are full of books.

Although arranged according to the sub-collections of classics and history, the bibliography of the library collection, quite a few supervisors and students borrowed and returned it, put it randomly in the cabinet, so the bibliography is chaotic and needs to be sorted out manually.

In fact, the supervising students who came to borrow books recently complained that many books could not be found, and then asked for the Dian Shu, but the Dian Shu could not be found either.

Song Yuan said that there is a shortage of manpower, but it is also true.

Jia Heng inspected it and saw that some books were not in the designated bookcase, so he stepped forward, took them out one by one, and put them under the category.

He has a good memory and long endurance, so he doesn't feel tired.

But there were so many books, and they had not been taken care of for a long time, so there was a lot of chaos. It was not until noon that Jia Heng looked at the books on the bookcase and put them in their places. Then he went back to the hall and drank a cup of tea.

Then I went down for lunch, and when I came up again, I took out a volume of "Zhu Zi's Four Books Collected Notes" and began to study.

Outside the window, misty and rainy, the sound of rain on the eaves ticking, ticking.

Jia Heng had the feeling that everything was silent, that there was only one person left in the world.

Perhaps because of the rain, it was inconvenient to come and go. There were not many supervisors coming and going in Wencui Pavilion, but some supervisors came in by late afternoon.

In fact, Wenhui Pavilion is the same as the libraries of later generations. When did it become crowded?
It's not an annual exam...

"This book is much more tidy than before. Is this a new book?" A fat student in a scholar's uniform asked in surprise.

"There's someone in the side room. They must be newcomers." A 25-year-old prison student wearing a blue square scarf and elegant face was flipping through a copy of "Shishuoxinyu" in his hand.

Fat Jiansheng frowned, and said, "I don't know where the "Selected Works of Xiao Tong" is? I have been here several times, but I can't find it."

"Go and ask the dictionary."

The fat supervisor responded, and entered the hall to inquire, and after a while, he returned and said, "It's in the third row of the Yimao cabinet. I'll go there first."

"It's really strange, it really is here." The fat superintendent found the book, wondering in his heart, thinking of the boy who said where the book was, he secretly wondered.

And Jia Heng is in the room at the moment, thinking about how to save his time.

Although his ministry is leisurely, it still takes up some time.

"Wencui Pavilion has a unified borrowing place, but the people who work there are lazy and slippery, and don't want to run up and down, so they let the books go up and down the stairs to return the books, but the books also want to be lazy and slippery, and then the supervisors often return them by themselves. It’s not a big problem, we set up a book return office on the third floor to guide the inmates who are willing to run, and put it there, after I have lunch at noon, I will work hard and make a list.”

"There is also a reason for the confusion of the bibliography. Some supervisors took it out to look at it, but after passing it, there is no way to distinguish the bibliography. I just check it every morning. As for other people who come to ask for books... need to compile A search method, posted on the wooden sign, let them search by themselves, without having to ask everything.”

Well, it's only the first day of Jia Heng's employment, and he has already started to improve his efficiency and save his time as much as possible.

When it was time for Shenzheng, the sky was gloomy, and it was the day of the next duty. Jia Heng raised his head and looked at the pages written on jute paper—graphic search guides.

This is the time-saving method he came up with.

He is going to find a carpenter to make some notice boards, and place them on both sides of the fifteen bookcases in District A. He will write these with a brief bibliography of each cabinet's collection, and post them for publicity, so that the scholars who enter the cabinet can search them by themselves.

And at the entrance of the hall, there is a notice board, posting the process of searching the bibliography with pictures and texts, and summarizing the categories of books in each cabinet.

"In this way, the workload will be greatly reduced in the future, and more time can be spent studying for exams." Jia Heng thought.

"However, I'm new here, so I shouldn't make my own decisions. It's better to discuss with Song Lushi."

Jia Heng thought for a while, and felt that he was just a newcomer, so he shouldn't make good claims. If Song Yuan thinks it's feasible, and then promote Wencui Pavilion, it will be considered as selling one's favor.

When people communicate with each other, you can't just ask for it without giving back.

With this in mind, I took a stack of jute papers to look for Song Yuan.

It will be a little later, and I will probably go home.

Sure enough, when Jia Heng came to the hall on the first floor, Song Yuan was packing up his things. Seeing Jia Heng coming, he smiled and said, "It's Ziyu, haven't you left yet? You should be knocked out in the next pavilion." It's locked."

Jia Heng said: "There is something I want to ask Mr. Song about."

Seeing Jia Heng's polite words, and holding a thick stack of jute paper manuscripts in his hand, Song Yuan looked surprised, put down the cloth bag in his hand, and said with a smile: "Could it be that you are puzzled by the scriptures?"

Jia Heng shook his head lightly, confessed his thoughts just now, and finally said loudly: "Mr. Song, I think that if we do this, it will save us a lot of trouble."

After Song Yuan heard it, he was speechless for a long time, and cast his eyes on the young man in surprise, shining brightly, and his heart was filled with emotion.

It's really... a young man with a talent for managing affairs.

The method Jia Heng practiced won the hearts of leaders even in the system of later generations, because it can be said that it has the advantages of no fuss, strong operability, and quick results.

Write a few tips, let the carpenter make a few floor-standing signs, can it waste hundreds of pennies?

The problem is that this young man has only been here for less than a day, and he can think of this method, which shows his subtle insight, ability in dealing with things, quick thinking, and first discussing with him, rather than doing things on his own, thinking that he can do it himself.

No wonder that son of Prime Minister Han...

Well, Song Yuan was feeling emotional in his heart, when he suddenly thought of something, his face turned weird, and he smiled lightly: "Zi Yu has... put in so much effort to save time on studying."

(End of this chapter)