The Little Lucky Girl

Lu Tai replied, "Mrs. Xu is willing to sign an exclusive contract and promised to give us twenty taels of silver as a reward."

A full twenty taels! Even our predecessor, Mr. Luo, only received ten taels of silver at most. They are considered to be better than their predecessors.

Unexpectedly, Principal Pei shook his head and said, "This sum of money may seem like a lot, but in the long run, you will lose money."

He looked at the somewhat surprised children, stroked his beard and said, "I suggest you try another way to cooperate."

"Are you talking about profit sharing with the bookstore?" This method is a slow way of making money, but they are now very confident and have the nerve to wait.

"No, no, have you ever thought about printing the books yourself and letting the bookstore help distribute them?"

Several people hesitated for a moment, "Are you saying that we should take the initiative and give money to the bookstore instead?"

In their minds, bookstores have always been the dominant force in authorship. "What if the bookstores are unwilling and unite to boycott us? Besides, publishing a book requires a lot of capital. If it doesn't sell well, won't we lose money?"

Pei Shanchang smiled and said, "You underestimated the influence of the pen name 'Sanjing Sanren', and you also underestimated the preface I wrote for you."

The headmaster was probably praising them. The three of them were a little excited and moved, and immediately looked at Ming Youyou. This was the one who made the decision in their family.

Ming Youyou was calculating in her mind, "The cousin of the nephew of the second uncle of Brother Guo Ren's aunt's wife knows how to carve woodblocks. If we take Guo Ren with us, we should be able to get a discount. But to be on the safe side, we'd better let Madam Xu join us, and give her a larger share of the profits when the time comes."

Principal Pei coughed a few times and said, "If you are worried about the risks, you don't have to cooperate with Madam Xu. You can also consider our academy."

"The academy is willing to pay half of the cost, and I will personally help you with the sales. The academy will only take 30% of the profit. No, 20% will do. Is this condition okay?"

It's not just possible, it's too good to be true, so good that Ming Youyou and the others didn't dare to agree to it easily, for fear that they would fall into a trap by accident.

Seeing that they hadn't responded yet, Principal Pei nodded with satisfaction, "Not bad, you are cautious enough and haven't been blinded by profit. There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world. The more you see something that offers benefits, the more you should be careful of the traps behind it."

Ming Youyou swallowed and asked, "What is your trap?"

"I want you to draw a white deer on the cover, and also include a description of the academy in the content. For example, how about setting the third story in the back mountain?"

Ming Youyou blinked, "That's it?"

"Yes, that's all."

She breathed a sigh of relief and immediately waved her hand, "Deal, deal."

"But Mr. Alderman," she added sheepishly, "we still have to sign the contract."

Pei Shanzhang laughed, "Of course."

After the black and white words were written on the paper, Ming Youyou happily pressed her own little handprint on it, and then she and Pei Shanchang, the old and the young, began to calculate the cost.

The old man was very generous and offered to pay on the spot. Although he did not have that much silver on him, he still had Magistrate Tao as his fatherly official.

The four young men were full of admiration for the headmaster's ability to get money from Mr. Tao. They thought that if they opened a course on this, the students would fill the classroom even if they were intimidated by the headmaster.

But what they couldn't understand was why the academy had to be promoted in the vernacular novels. If it wanted fame, it could just ask the teachers to write more poems and essays. Was there any need to beat around the bush in this way?

Although Zheng Huan and Lu Tai were confused, they did not dare to ask directly; Feng Xu and Ming Youyou asked casually.

Principal Pei did not hide his feelings and said angrily, "It's all because of that guy Old Fang."

A few days ago, Fang Jijiu felt that the local academies had snatched away a lot of students from the Imperial College, so he ordered that the teachers in office were not allowed to write articles praising their respective academies, so as to avoid the suspicion of boasting and misleading students.

The local academies complied and quietly put away the articles they had already written, but they did not expect that the Imperial College would publish a book called "Memoirs of Students" and specially invite the top three candidates in the palace examinations over the years to write it.

It is obvious that many of these top three students have never studied in the Imperial College. They just went there to visit and listen to the lessons for a few days when they came to Beijing for the imperial examination out of admiration for the Imperial College. Old Fang then regards them as his own students. How shameless he is.

President Pei was furious. Didn't they forbid the teachers to write? Then they shouldn't write. He also didn't ask former students who had passed the exam to publicize the news. He, Mr. Pei, was too disdainful to do such a thing as changing the concept, even though their academy was built late and the earliest batch of students had not graduated yet.

He just wanted to recommend a good book to everyone. As for whether everyone would guess that those were descriptions of the academy after reading it, come and have a look out of curiosity, and then enroll their children in the academy, that was none of his business. After all, there was not a single word about Bailu Academy in the book.

After hearing this, the four teenagers suddenly realized what was going on and gave a thumbs up, "You are really great."

"Isn't this considered shooting himself in the foot?"

"No wonder you and Lord Tao are good friends." They are both cunning and petty.

Principal Pei smiled kindly, "So you have to do our academy proud and make good revisions. Be careful when writing, make sure the real and the imaginary complement each other, and the true and the false complement each other. You also have to make people feel that you can express your elegance without writing a single word."

A bunch of requirements came down one after another, and the four of them suddenly felt like they were back in class. The relaxed atmosphere just now disappeared in an instant, and they just wished they could disappear from the spot immediately.

Just as Principal Pei was about to wave his hand and let them go, he suddenly remembered and asked, "Have you started writing the subsequent story?"

Lu Tai said: "In reply to the dean, the students are still thinking about it, but have not started writing yet."

"Then can you tell me the truth about this third case?"

I have to say that these kids wrote really well, and even someone like him who doesn't like storybooks couldn't help but want to explore further.

Ming Youyou's eyes lit up. She loved telling stories the most. But just as she was about to open her mouth, Zheng Huan quietly pulled her back, and she became quiet.

Zheng Huan said: "The headmaster once said that we should not write articles without preparation. Otherwise, we will not only be sorry for the ideas that have finally emerged from our impoverished minds, but also be sorry for the readers who have worked hard to read our articles. We boys remember the headmaster's teachings, so we dare not tell you this incomplete story."

The other three immediately looked at him with sharp eyes, full of admiration.

Feng Xu blinked. This was using the mountain chief's spear to attack the mountain chief's shield.

Lu Tai also blushed with excitement. He could also see that the headmaster was tossing and turning because of their article, and was eager to urge for more updates. It felt that today was the peak of their "student" life.