Traveling through the starry sky just for you, I was a koi in ancient times

The steward's face was filled with anger. His face was already fierce, and now it looked a bit violent.

"We gave you food because you're a scholar. What? You still look down on us? If you look down on us, get out! Screw you..."

Chen Sanlang raised his voice and interrupted him directly:

"Manager, it's not that I dislike you. If I did, I wouldn't take the initiative to come and ask for a job.

Since I stayed in the gambling house to watch the street lights, I didn’t feel disgusted. ”

Chen Sanlang took out the book from his arms.

“This is the book I rented. I have to return it tomorrow. I can’t afford more rent, so I have to memorize it all tonight and can’t waste time eating.

Besides, I don’t dare to eat too much, I’m afraid I’ll feel sleepy once I’m full…”

Seeing that Chen Sanlang was speaking sincerely, the steward ignored him, refilled the oil lamp, and left.

Chen Sanlang sat back in his previous position and placed the book flat on his lap again.

Put the two dumplings in a small basket beside you, wrap the pickles in leaves and put them underneath.

He wiped his hands with the corner of his clothes and continued to recite.

In the night, everything was silent and Chen Sanlang was extremely focused...

When the first rays of morning light appeared on the horizon, Chen Sanlang stood up, stretched his stiff limbs, and casually did the radio gymnastics movements he still remembered. This was the coolest time of the day and also the time when people were most likely to feel sleepy.

He turned off the street corner lamp and carried the oil bottle back to the gambling house.

In the backyard of the gambling house, there was a mixture of shouting and cursing.

The sturdy thugs were going in and out with fierce looks on their faces. One of them pointed at Chen Sanlang and asked,

"Where did this handsome young man come from?"

The person next to him pulled him and said, "Let's go, let's go, who cares."

Another person also chimed in:

"Let's go and have some fun."

When several people were about to leave, the thug walked back to Chen Sanlang. Chen Sanlang raised the oil bottle a little higher and waved it in front of everyone.

"I just came to add oil to the butler's lamp."

When they heard that it was the chief steward, they stopped and

"What a damn bummer. Let's go to Chun Man Lou. Why are we wasting our time here?"

Several sturdy thugs pulled each other and exchanged verbal attacks as they walked out of the side door of the gambling house.

Chen Sanlang turned around and entered the blocked room, put the oil bottle on the counter, looked around, and saw that no one was caring about the oil bottle, so he took it from the counter and put it in a corner. Fearing that someone would knock it over, he blocked it with a flower pot. Then he wanted to find someone to tell them, but there was no one to say hello.

After thinking for a while, he found the manager of the front hall and was about to speak. He saw several people beating someone. The person being beaten was already bleeding from the nose and mouth, but the manager of the front hall was still saying viciously:

"Beat him, if he dies, it's my fault..."

Chen Sanlang paused for a moment, then spoke again:

"I came to look at the street corner light yesterday. It's daybreak now and I'm leaving get off work."

After saying that, he left, and the shouting and cursing behind him became quieter and quieter.

Returning to the street corner and covering the cold lamp bowl with a lampshade, Chen Sanlang carried the basket across Gambling Street and headed towards Book House Road.

There were almost no pedestrians on the road.

When we arrived at Wenmofang, it would take at least an hour before the shop assistant opened the door.

Chen Sanlang put down the basket, sat on the wooden board in front of the door, took out the midnight snack from the gambling house, two steamed buns and a piece of pickled vegetable, and slowly started to eat them. Gradually, his head lowered, his breathing became steady, and he could even hear a slight snoring sound.

When the sky was bright, the door panels of Wenmofang were taken down piece by piece from the inside. The clerk was startled and lay down directly into the shop along with the door panels.

Chen Sanlang woke up with a start and quickly stood up. While brushing the dust off his body, he bent down to pick up the nest and pickles that had fallen on the ground, blew on them, then wrapped them in leaves and put them in the basket.

The young man looked at Chen Sanlang and bowed slightly with some apology.

Chen Sanlang smiled.

"It's okay. I registered yesterday and am here to copy books. I want to start early so I can check out and go home early."

Then I started to help the boy remove the door panels and prepare to open the store.

The boy, who looked to be no more than ten years old, was busy removing the door panels and said,

"You came too early. The pen and ink are in the shopkeeper's hands. I can't take them out. You have to wait for the shopkeeper to arrive and listen to his instructions. You can only start copying the book he tells you to copy."

Chen Sanlang came so early not just to copy books, but also to read more books while there was still time. His family had no money to buy books, and there was no place to store them if he bought them. There was not even a decent table at home.

I was secretly attending classes in a private school at that time. The teacher, Mr. Xu, always took care of me secretly and intended to allow me to learn more.

Even when he consulted Mr. Xu about applying for the examination to become a student, Mr. Xu paid for his application. The private school where he taught didn't make much money, but he still wanted to support him.

Now he was not able to repay Mr. Xu, let alone give him a gift. He passed the Tongsheng exam, and Mr. Xu was so happy that his beard was shaking. What did he brag about? Chen Sanlang thought...

Oh! The old scholar gave himself a scholar's salute and shouted loudly:

"Chen Tongsheng, from now on, you are a real scholar!..."

Every day when he went to the private school to deliver firewood, Xu Xiucai would thank him with a scholar's gift.

Now, apart from delivering firewood to the private school as scheduled, Chen Sanlang has no extra ability to repay Mr. Xu.

Now I have to make money and study at the same time, so I can only try to copy books while reading them. This is the best way.

"I'm waiting for the shopkeeper here."

Then he took out the book he rented yesterday from his arms, smoothed it out, sat on the bench by the door of the bookstore, and began to recite it silently.

The waiter came over and tapped Chen Sanlang on the shoulder.

"Sir, I have poured you some tea on the tea table. Please have some."

Chen Sanlang smiled.

"Thank you, brother."

Generally, there is no tea on the desk of a scholar. If you want to drink tea, you can only drink it on the tea table. The used tea bowl is left on the tea table to avoid getting the book wet.

The guy smiled and shook his head, then went back to work, constantly moving back and forth between the bookshelves, dusting each one with the feather duster in both hands. Afterwards, he walked out the door and sprinkled clean water in front of the door to prevent dust.

Chen Sanlang watched the guys busying themselves and went out to help.

The young man was chatting with Chen Sanlang and, seeing the copyist dressed so shabbily, he kindly gave him a reminder.

"In our bookstore right now, copying picture books is the most profitable business. It makes more money than your copying of the Analects."

Chen Sanlang knew that he meant well, but he was studying for free just to save money, and he could also use your pen, ink and paper to practice calligraphy for free.

After I used it up, they paid me extra money. Isn't this a rare and good job?

Seeing that he didn't seem to understand, the young man said,

"It only costs three cents to copy a copy of the Analects. If you copy a copy of Journey to the West, it costs 25 cents. A copy of that book is not thick, and if you write fast, you can copy more than one copy a day."