Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

Wang Guangjin stopped.

"Sir, if you have anything to tell me, just tell me."

"Please sit down first." Shen Zheng called.

Wang Guangjin nodded and sat down. Shen Zheng asked, "Is the bookstore next to Quanyang Academy doing any business with the Fang family?"

Book shop?

With just one sentence, Wang Guangjin understood Shen Zheng's meaning.

He quickly stood up and apologized: "Sir, it was my negligence. I was so focused on my own business that I forgot about the most important thing."

"Don't blame you, sit down first."

Shen Zheng waved her hand and continued:

"The county school has just opened not long ago, and there has never been a bookstore business in the county before. I don't blame you for forgetting. But now that the county school has opened, the enlightenment class will also start soon. It won't work if there is no bookstore next to the county school."

"That's what my lord said."

Wang Guangjin recalled the shop next to the county school.

There is no business of his Wang family, but there are vacant shops, and he can take them over in the name of Tongan Chamber of Commerce.

"Sir, I will contact Mr. Fang immediately about this matter. After the negotiation is completed, I will take over the shop next to the county school, renovate it, and open it in a few days."

Opening a bookstore in Tongan County today is actually a thankless task. It’s not that you don’t make money, but the profit is very little, and the investment is not proportional to the return.

Because there are few students in the county school, their purchasing power is also low.

It’s not that he looks down on his own county school, but that’s the fact.

To open a bookstore, you need a shop floor and literate shopkeeper and clerks.

Moreover, a book costs several taels of silver. If not preserved properly, it will easily become infested with insects and mold. Writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone are even more expensive.

Even if those merchants have money, they will probably feel sad for a while if they spend it here.

It is actually not the right time to open a bookstore in Tongan County.

Only when the county school becomes stronger and more students study in the future, will there be profit. This is why the Tongan Chamber of Commerce and he did not think of this.

But since Lord Shen said so, Wang Guangjin felt that it was his own problem.

What's wrong with losing money to gain publicity? They are all students from my county, what's wrong with taking care of them?

It will only take a few years. If other people really don't want to do it, then Wang Guangjin will do it alone!

Wang Guangjin now manages the family business and runs around for the Tongan Chamber of Commerce, and has unconsciously become an impatient person.

He made up his mind to lose money, stood up and said goodbye and wanted to leave.

Shen Zheng called out to him.

"Wait a minute, I haven't finished talking yet, why are you in such a hurry to leave? Things will be better if you take your time, don't rush into things."

Wang Guangjin was scolded by her. He laughed dryly, touched his nose and sat down.

"I was impulsive, and you should teach me a lesson."

He was afraid that if he hesitated, the adults would think he was not caring about the county school. If that happened, the adults would be alienated from him and he would have nowhere to go even if he wanted to cry.

Wang Guangjin smoothed his robe and sat down again.

Shen Zheng pushed the teacup to him and said, "We have to open this bookstore. We must be prepared to not make a profit at the beginning. You know, the students in our county are not willing to spend money. And the Japanese government just gave them a set of pens, ink, paper and inkstone two days ago."

"But our bookstore doesn't sell books."

“Not selling books?”

Wang Guangjin was stunned.

If a bookstore doesn't sell books, what does it sell? Just pens, inkstones, paper, and inkstones?

He asked doubtfully, "Please enlighten me, sir."

Shen Zheng took a sip of tea, picked up two books from the side, and asked him:

"How much do these common books cost in ordinary bookstores?"

Wang Guangjin took the book, looked at the cover and answered, "These two books are widely circulated in the world and widely copied by students, so they are generally not too expensive, one to two taels of silver per book."

He thought about the situation of the county middle school students again, and said, "Uh!" and changed his words:

"It is actually quite expensive... But if this kind of book is written by a famous author, or if the person who copied it has good calligraphy and brushstrokes, and it is similar to the original book, then the price will go up, double it, and for better books, it will be several times higher."

After he finished speaking, he roughly flipped through the two books in front of him.

This is the book that the Fang family gave her before. Shen Zheng would occasionally take two copies from the county school to read.

After reading them, Wang Guangjin said, "I estimate that the two books in your hand would cost six or seven taels of silver each."

Even though Shen Zheng knew it, she was still secretly shocked when she heard it again.

Wang Guangjin thinks that these two books are indeed a bit expensive from the perspective of an ordinary student.

They may read books all their lives and never collect a single one.

He smiled bitterly and said, "This is how the world works. When I said it was not expensive, it actually meant something like, why not eat meat?"

“Books are expensive.”

Shen Zheng tapped the table lightly with her fingers.

This is the limitation of the times.

The books of this era were not like those in her previous life. They were printed in batches and any font one wanted was available. Knowledge was no longer precious.

But the current Da Zhou is different.

Both books and knowledge are in the hands of a few people, and they do not want these things to be known to the public because the class gap is too huge.

That is their capital for survival.

If books can be obtained at will and knowledge can be learned at will, then how do we distinguish between the upper class and the lower class?

It is because of this kind of class consciousness that books and knowledge are elevated to a height that they do not deserve.

They should have entered thousands of households and benefited millions of people.

But they are held in the hands of a few people, and even those who get them by luck or hard work will hide them and not make them public.

For example, the books in the bookstore.

Yes, it’s the books from the bookstore.

Shen Zheng asked, "You studied at Quanyang Academy before. I want to ask you, if those students have some money at home, or save money to buy books, what will they do? Will they share them with their classmates?"

"Circulate?"

Wang Guangjin was stunned again by her question.

He felt that cracks had appeared in the cognition that had been sealed in his heart for a long time.

He read again: "Circulate..."

He suddenly opened his mouth wide and said excitedly:

"Circulate! It's very rare to circulate books in the academy! Unless the book was bought by several students with their own money, or the students have a very good relationship with each other."

"Circulate..." Wang Guangjin's eyes were a little bloodshot, and he repeated blankly.

Shen Zheng said, "It is for circulation."

She knew that her words broke Wang Guangjin's inherent cognition.

When knowledge is precious, students, as competitors, naturally do not want the treasure they have worked so hard to obtain to be easily obtained by others.

But this is human nature.

Just like when Zhang Yuanwei generously lent books to Li Leyou before, there were actually two reasons behind it.

Firstly, his books were not valuable, and secondly, Li Leyou was a woman and was not among the competitors.

But Zhang Yuanwei was willing to lend it out, and later he "offended" Li Leyou, so he could be called a gentleman.

Wang Guangjin's hand holding the teacup was shaking slightly.

He stared at the water ring he had shaken out of the tea and asked Shen Zheng blankly:

"Your Excellency asked me to open a bookstore because you wanted to..."

"Yes."

Shen Zheng said directly: "Although Principal Li has collected a lot of books before, they are only enough for the time being. You have read books and you know that learning never ends."