The Little Lucky Girl

Unlike the way she crushed Ming Youyou and the others, Madam Xu was much more respectful when facing Headmaster Pei.

She first presented several good articles she had just received, exchanged her thoughts with the dean on several best-selling books, and talked about many interesting things in the literary world. Then Dear Pei laughed and asked the supervisor and Madam Xu to sign the contract.

Ming Youyou and the others were very surprised. How could the deal be concluded without even a word about the book? If they hadn't been watching, they would have almost thought that the headmaster was bewitched by beauty.

After finally seeing Madam Xu off, they all looked to the school supervisor for answers.

The school supervisor sighed, "This Miss Xu is a smart person. She knows that Principal Pei is impatient with worldly affairs, so she did not discuss the issue of money. Today's meeting is just to express an attitude."

He handed the contract to a few people and said, "Take a good look at it. The contents were all proposed by Madam Xu. The academy has not changed them."

Ming Youyou calculated and frowned, "It says that Madam Xu is responsible for providing sales channels in several major cities, but she doesn't ask for exclusive agency, and the commission is less than 10%... But the manpower, material resources and travel expenses, I'm afraid I might have to pay for it myself, what is she trying to do?"

The school supervisor stroked his beard and said, "If a businessman is not pursuing profit, then he is after something worse. Madam Xu is not a simple person."

Lu Tai thought of some gossip, "I heard that the new store opened by Madam Xu in the capital was jointly excluded by local bookstores, and the business was very bleak, so she wanted to take advantage of the academy and take the opportunity to open up the situation."

Zheng Huan said: "Not only that, if we can maintain cooperation with the academy, it will be much easier for Madam Xu to get articles from the dean and the teachers in the future, and the benefits will not be less after they are printed into a book."

The dean listened to their analysis with a smile and decided to tell them more news. "In fact, the dean and I have had some ideas these days. We plan to open a shop in the name of the academy. I guess Madam Xu has heard about it."

"I understand," Lu Tai responded the fastest. "If the academy joins the game, the first to be affected will be Yuqing County, which is the closest to it. Madam Xu is compromising with the academy in disguise."

Zheng Huan frowned, "The question is how did Madam Xu get wind of this? Is the confidentiality of our academy so bad?"

He looked at the supervisor's face and said, "I'm afraid you leaked it on purpose."

The school supervisor coughed lightly and looked up at the sky. "Today's sunset is so beautiful."

Ming Youyou opened her mouth slightly, very shocked, "So business can be done this way."

There is no need to bargain back and forth or argue until you are red in the face; the real contest has been completed before the two sides meet.

No, she had to write a letter to her father and talk to him about this matter, asking him to stop counting money at home and spend more time with smart people in the capital.

Lu Tai thought of his grandfather's teachings. "He said that the most powerful businessmen in the world are often not in the market, but hidden in the court. It's just that what they do is not the business of money, but the invisible interests between countries. I didn't understand this before, but today, seeing how the masters act, I seem to understand it a little bit."

Feng Xu was very anxious and winked at several people. That was enough. Didn't you see that the supervisor's eyes were getting warmer and warmer? He was afraid that the supervisor would clap his hands and say, "Well said. You might as well write an article about what happened today and hand it in. I will give you guidance personally."

Fortunately, the school supervisor did not think the same as Feng Xu. He looked at the sky and said, "It's getting late. You should go home. Be careful that it will be difficult to go down the mountain after dark."

Ming Youyou saw him waving to the driver in the distance, rolled his eyes and said, "Are you going home today too?"

"Yes, I need to go into the city."

Ming Youyou's eyes lit up, "Can we take your car down?"

Only the masters were qualified to ride in a carriage up and down the mountain, and they had been envious of it for a long time.

"One word from you is worth ten years of study. We want to hear more of your teachings. Don't worry, we are small and don't take up much space."

The dean's eyes passed over Zheng Huan and the other two, who were almost as tall as him, and he said expressionlessly, "The academy stipulates that students cannot--"

"Then I'll bring you lotus leaf chicken tomorrow." After the emotional card failed, Ming Youyou decided to do something practical.

The school supervisor seemed not to have heard and turned away.

Ming Youyou quickly added, "Two."

The proctor was still walking, but his pace had slowed down.

Ming Youyou looked at her two outstretched little fingers, and was about to raise another one with great pain, but Zheng Huan held her down and said, "Master Guan asked us to order one, requiring the belly of the chicken to be filled with fresh wine lees, the body of the chicken to be coated with thick honey, and the firewood must be lychee wood..."

The school supervisor finally stopped, his throat moved, and he whispered, "Old Guan is really a good eater. I want this, but you have to send it to me tomorrow."

The four of them cheered and ran quickly towards the carriage.

They climbed in hastily, filling the carriage so full that the school supervisor who came on later could hardly fit in.

He unceremoniously pushed Feng Xu, who was at the edge, out, and then sat down and said, "Since the printing house you are familiar with has to wait for new paper to be delivered and cannot start work in the next few days, why not ask them to carve more woodblocks as a backup? After they have decided on other printing shops, maybe they can make money by selling the woodblocks."

One of the main reasons why books are so expensive these days is that the cost is too high.

It is a bit sad to say that many carvers are illiterate. They carve characters as if they were paintings, which makes it easy for them to make mistakes. Once there are too many mistakes, the entire board will be scrapped.

Even if you finally carve it, after printing hundreds of copies, the wood board will be worn out and the writing will become blurred, so the template will have to be discarded and a new one will have to be carved.

Ming Youyou vaguely remembered that she seemed to have watched a video about woodblock printing, but before she could remember, she heard Lu Tai happily say to the school supervisor: "From what you said, we can print quite a few copies of this book."

The school supervisor smiled and nodded, "Today, many people came to ask for books, so we decided to issue 800 more copies for the first time."

Ming Youyou exclaimed, "We are so powerful now." Excluding the book that was operated by the imperial court, the total number of their previous books might not exceed 800.

The school supervisor patted her head and said, "This first release of the book is not your credit. Most people decided to buy it because of your reputation."

The script was brought out at the banquet, and everyone was chatting and drinking, so how could they have time to finish reading it? At most, they only read the preface.

"But I believe in the strength of your book. Once it has been circulated and has a good reputation, the subsequent explosion of power will be even greater. That will really be your ability."