I traveled through time and space and found a mute boy: That’s enough, I feel sorry for him

In the following days, Xu Shu tried his best to keep himself busy. In the morning he went to the back mountain to help move bricks and build walls.

When it's almost noon, I'll go to town and have a meal with Wu Yong.

After dinner, he took the title deeds obtained from Yichunlou and visited each store one by one, checking the accounts.

He checked accounts very quickly, and could check half of the stores in one day. However, he checked so many stores that the process became standardized.

As soon as he entered, Xu Shu took out the land deed with a cold face, and then asked the shopkeeper to get the account books of recent years. When the accounts arrived, he checked the accounts while drinking tea.

He took a red pen and drew on it. Those that didn't match, were far off, or were obviously fake were thrown to the ground by him without any good face.

He was not dressed in the most luxurious way, but in ordinary clothes, neither sloppy nor conspicuous. Although most people who met him for the first time did not dare to look down on him because of his appearance, temperament and behavior, there were also some who looked down on him.

Xu Shu didn't have the energy to explain such things. He fired all those with bad attitudes, and promoted those with good attitudes and those he liked to be shopkeepers.

The main theme is "Those who follow me will prosper, and those who go against me will perish."

But Xu Shu let his gambling house go for the time being, planning to wait until Yichun Building opened, then choose an unlucky guy as a warning to others and take them all down at once.

After working non-stop for two days, Xu Shu finally counted all the shops and land deeds and had a general understanding of the overall situation.

Mrs. Wang was indeed a good businesswoman. In addition to the Yichun Building, which was a big source of income, she also owned several jewelry stores, cloth shops, and even a bookstore and a shop selling the four treasures of the study.

The bookstore gave Xu Shu some surprises.

Although books in this world are not hard to come by, they can be said to be very cheap. In fact, due to the bad times in the world, they are not as expensive as some food. However, no matter how cheap they are, there is still a certain threshold to entry.

Especially after owning a bookstore, Xu Shu learned a lot about the market of this thing.

The papermaking technology in this world is already quite advanced. The cost of straw paper is very low and a thick stack can be bought for just one penny.

The Jing Dynasty has always valued culture over military affairs, and there was an influx of scholars, including many poor people who wanted to enter the officialdom. Therefore, although the printing technology was not yet perfect, there were enough scholars willing to take on the job of copying books.

So Xu Shu bought so many books last time, but he only spent a little over one or two taels of silver, but he followed the path of a child from a poor family.

The books that children of wealthy families read are not so cheap.

First of all, the paper has to be exquisite, such as dragon-patterned rice paper, jade paper, gold paper, etc., each one costs one tael of silver. Secondly, the ink has to be good, such as Huasongtang ink, dragon-patterned ink, or moon-shaped ink, each one costs ten taels of silver.

Finally, there is the person who writes. Generally, they ask famous masters or those who are accomplished in calligraphy to write for them, so most of them are unique copies, priceless and hard to come by at a huge price.

This kind of book cannot be circulated in the world. It is passed down from the ancestral generation, and the content inside is naturally impossible for the lower-class scholars to know.

So although it seems that there is no threshold for studying, in fact it is just that the threshold for recognizing words is low. If children from poor families want to pass the imperial examination and become officials, there is no hope at all.

But the world is not doing well now, and many big families have fallen on hard times, so they have to sell the rare books they have treasured at home.

The bookstore owned by Mrs. Wang had snatched a book, and coincidentally, it was a military book written by General Qiao Jianhong.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of scholars, military books were not as rare as vernacular books. Even if the original contents were copied, few people would buy them. It was only because of Qiao Jianhong's fame that it became the "treasure of the town" of the bookstore.

Now that it belongs to Xu Shu, he is quite interested in it.

He had no intention of taking the imperial examination, but Jing Chao looked down on businessmen, like Wu Yong, who could not use many good things even if his family was rich.

For example, the number of servants serving and the number of followers going out were all clearly stipulated. If there was any mistake, the opponent would sue the person in the government and charge him with disrespect.

Although Xu Shu didn't think Wu Yong respected those officials at all, just looking at his excitement about joining forces with him to trick Xiao Ran, he knew that this man was not a rule-abiding one.

But despite this, these rigid and explicit rules still have to be followed.

So Xu Shu also wanted to become an official. He had no money now and was not ostentatious. But when he became rich in the future, how could he tolerate so many rules with his personality? It would be more appropriate for him to become an official and do the biggest thing for himself.

It's just that the imperial examination is declining now, so he thought about taking the exam to become a martial arts champion. However, after traveling to this world for so long, he has never heard of a martial arts champion in the Jing Dynasty.

He thought again, if not, it would be better to let Xiao Ran write a letter to persuade the emperor.

Anyway, there are wars everywhere and talents are scarce. Selecting a martial arts champion is quite in line with the background of the times and is also a general trend. Unless the emperor is a lunatic, he will most likely agree.

Just because he became a martial arts champion, did he have to go to war? It was fine for him, as there were no firearms in this era, so he would definitely not die. But he was too far away from home, and little Mujin would probably cry every day again...

Damn, Xu Shu couldn’t help but curse again.

Now, whenever Xu Shu thought of Mu Jinghua crying, he felt upset. Once little Mu Jin started crying, it wouldn't stop. How sad would she be without him to comfort her?

Qi Huairen can't speak, and Qu Xiu just knows how to be happy every day. How can this master and disciple possibly please Mu Jinghua?

When Xu Shu thought of this kind of thing, he couldn't help but want to go to the Huimin Hall, but every time he saw the door of the Huimin Hall, he backed off and turned to go to Wu Yong's restaurant to chat.

After so many times, Wu Yong is not as enthusiastic as before.

However, Xu Shu was wrong about this. Mu Jinghua had been following Xu Shu's instructions these past few days at Qi Huairen's place, studying hard and eating well.

He received the rabbit fur shoes from the waiter of the cloth shop. As soon as he touched the texture, he knew that Xu Shu still loved him as much as before.

He also knew that Xu Shu was planning to put the matter of him climbing into Xu Shu's bed aside and never mention it again.

Mu Jinghua was not willing to do this, but now that he couldn't see Xu Shu, he couldn't change the status quo. He could only follow Xu Shu's request and study medicine with Qi Huairen seriously.

I just thought that if I could really learn it, I could stay with Xu Shu in the future, and I wouldn't be so cowardly and inferior, and make people laugh at me.

Mu Jinghua studied very hard and even found time in his busy schedule to copy the sign language book for Qi Huairen. In just two days, he had memorized all of it and paid the full tuition fee to Qi Huairen.

During this period, Xiao Ran came again. Seeing that Xu Shu was not there, he asked Mu Jinghua about his plans, especially about the two men and Wang Po.

Mu Jinghua originally planned to keep those two rotten guys alive so that they could work for Xu Shu.

But Xu Shu was avoiding him now, so Mu Jinghua naturally lost interest in the two men and replied to Xiao Ran: "If there is no room in the prison, just chop off their heads and throw them in the mass grave."

As for Mrs. Wang, Mu Jinghua hated her the most. Xiao Ran happened to come to ask, and he talked to Qi Huairen for a long time, asking Xiao Ran to take him to see Mrs. Wang.