Flowers in full bloom

A few days later, Qingzao, a servant of Yun Rongjin from Dingbei Marquis's mansion, came to the Hua family's house and gave Hua Lei and Xiao Yuan riding clothes, saying that they were sent by their young master and could be used on the day off.

Hualei opened the clothes. The top two sets were made of ivory white bamboo-patterned brocade fabric, one for Hualei and one for Xiaoyuan. The bottom two sets were made of silver-gray wavy fabric, one for Hualei and one for Xiaoyuan. The styles were simple and the colors were clean. There was no fancy matching, but the materials were exquisite and the workmanship was excellent. Hualei touched the riding suit and sighed softly. She thanked Qingzao and put Xiaoyuan's riding suit in Xiaoyuan's room.

She put her two sets of riding clothes in her closet. After dinner, she asked Xiaoyuan to try on the two sets of riding clothes. They both fit her perfectly. Seeing Xiaoyuan's upturned mouth, Hualei also smiled.

On the day of the holiday, Xiao Yuan got up early, put on his riding clothes, and had breakfast. There was still more than half an hour before the agreed time, so he began to stare at the gate eagerly. Fortunately, Pei Rongjin came to pick him up half an hour in advance.

Seeing that Hualei was still wearing her casual clothes, she was a little disappointed, but she didn't say anything. She carried Xiaoyuan to the horse's back and jumped on it herself. Hualei looked at the two people on the horse, one big and one small, wearing the same color and style riding clothes, which looked very harmonious. She walked up to Xiaoyuan and gently smoothed his trouser legs, gave Xiaoyuan a few words of advice, and let them go.

She went back to the study room and started working. Since the study room was built, Hualei rarely went to the study room on the second floor, and some commonly used items were moved downstairs. During the day, Xile, Xiaoqun and Xiaoxiao also helped in the front shop.

Now, Hualei was the only one in the study. She spread out a piece of paper that Xiaoyuan usually used for copying. This copying paper was also sold in her own bookstore. It was mainly suitable for students who had just started to learn calligraphy. The quality of the paper was not very good, and the sales in the bookstore were also average. The quantity was okay, but the main reason was that the unit price could not be raised. The copying paper now was not the kind of rice grid or field grid that was used in the previous life. It was just a piece of white paper. When it was time to use it, Hualei often saw Xiaoyuan folding the copying paper into vertical strips of the right size and then flattening it for practice. It was not very convenient.

Hua Lei took the cinnabar that she had bought from the pharmacy, ground it into a fine powder, added a certain proportion of ground white hyacinth, added a little wine, and began to mix it slowly. After trying it several times, she felt that the consistency was about right, so she took a thin brush and a wooden ruler and carefully drew something on the blank copy paper.

Maybe it was difficult to operate alone, so she called Xiaoxiao from the front shop to help. After working for more than an hour, Xiaoxiao finally finished. Looking at the copy paper in front of her, she opened her mouth in surprise. Hualei smiled and closed her mouth, saying, "Just pretend you didn't see it." Then she let Xiaoxiao go back to the shop.

Then he spread the copy paper on the desk and let it dry naturally. He also drew something on the blank paper with a red pen. After the copy paper on the desk dried, Hualei took a fine brush dipped in cinnabar liquid, added a few strokes on the copy paper, stood up, looked at it, and nodded with satisfaction.

She carefully put away the remaining cinnabar liquid, washed her brush, and came back with clean hands. The copy paper on the table was completely dry. Hualei carefully rolled up the copy paper, and then rolled it up a few times with two pieces of slightly harder paper, tied it with a thin thread, and put it on the bookshelf.

I realized that it was past lunch time. After a simple lunch and tidying up the study, Hualei went upstairs to take a nap. I haven't had this habit for a long time.

I was busy reading and repairing books every day. Now the busiest period has passed. The popularity of the bookstore due to the listing of woodblock printed books has begun to slowly decline. In addition, I went to restock the books two days ago, so the bookstore has enough inventory. There is no need to rush to repair books. Hualei can also take a breath. She went upstairs, leaned on the small couch by the window, and slowly fell asleep.

In a trance, she heard Xiaoyuan calling "Sister, sister." Hua Lei came back to her senses and realized that she had slept for more than an hour without realizing it. Xiaoyuan had indeed returned downstairs. She tidied her clothes a little and went downstairs.

Xiao Yuan was standing by the well, and Rong Jin was carefully wiping Xiao Yuan's face and neck with a cloth. He looked calm and composed, and his movements were neither hurried nor slow. Hearing footsteps behind him, Rong Jin turned around, smiled at Hua Lei, and said, "Xiao Yuan is sweating a little, do you want to change his clothes?"

Hua Lei walked forward and touched Xiao Yuan's back, which felt a little hot and sticky. Then she looked at Xiao Yuan's face, which was still steaming from his forehead and red in the face. Xiao Yuan was rubbing his hands with soap.

"Sister, sister, Brother Pei took me to the suburbs to ride horses, and to the horse farm. There were so many horses there, and I fed grass to the horses. By the way, the horses licked my hand. It was so fun. Brother Pei said he would take me there next time." As soon as Xiaoyuan saw Hualei, he chattered non-stop, and his sincere joy and excitement infected Hualei.

Hualei smiled gently, leaned down slightly and said, "I see. When I saw your clothes were so dirty, I knew you were having a lot of fun. But, are your hands about to peel off? Wash them quickly and change your clothes. They are all sweaty."

"Okay." Xiaoyuan quickly washed the soap on his hands and went upstairs to change clothes. Hualei looked at Rong Jin who was wiping his hands, "I'm sorry to bother Mr. Pei today. Is Xiaoyuan very naughty?"

"No, Xiaoyuan is very well behaved, much more obedient than my brothers." Hualei looked around and didn't see Rong Jin's brothers, but she saw Rong Jin's two servants Qingzao and Qingsheng standing by the yard. When she was about to ask, Rong Jin seemed to see Hualei's confusion and explained, "I asked Rong Yu to take them back first."

Hua Lei nodded, "Mr. Pei, would you like to sit for a while and have a cup of tea?

"Okay." Hualei called Xiaoxiao to serve tea, and invited Qingzao and Qingsheng to the bun shop as well.

Rong Jin followed Hua Lei to the study room, looked around the room and asked, "Miss Hua, it seems that there are more books here." "Well, I went to the printing house to buy another batch of books a few days ago. It should be enough for the next few months."

She looked at Rong Jin, as if she remembered something, and asked hesitantly, "I have something I want to ask Master Pei, is it convenient for Master Pei?" "Miss Hua, there is no need to be so polite, just tell me if you have anything to say."

Hua Lei took a stack of papers from the shelf, spread them out in front of Rong Jin, and said softly, "Look, these are the imperial examination questionnaires I bought from the printing house a few days ago. These are single copies of the papers, and there are not many of them. I originally thought that Xiao Yuan could use them, so I brought them back. Now it seems that Xiao Yuan may not be able to use them all at once, so I want to sell them in the bookstore. What I want to ask is whether these papers can be sold in the bookstore, and whether the government agencies have any regulations on this. I am afraid that I am not clear about it. If I break the government regulations, it will be very troublesome."

Rong Jin leaned in and took a closer look. "They are questionnaires for the provincial and academy examinations over the years, as well as the county examinations. There are even papers for the imperial examinations? Did Miss Hua go to the printing house of Gui Jijiu of the Imperial College?"

"Jijiu family? I'm not sure. I went there twice and never met their boss. I heard that it was the printing house of the Imperial College's book."

"It should be the Jijiu family. Only Jijiu Gui can get the examination papers. Dianbo's family also has a printing house. I heard that it is in the same alley as Jijiu's family, but the scale is much smaller than Jijiu's. And he can't get the examination papers."

Rong Jin flipped through the test papers carefully and asked, "Miss Hua, do you want to sell them in a bookstore? It's okay to sell them. After all, they are used test papers. We also have many test papers from previous years in the Imperial College. Before every major exam, the teacher will take them out for us to practice with, so this is not a secret. However, this is rarely seen in bookstores outside. If Miss Hua sells them in a bookstore, will it be...? After all, you have so little?"

"That's exactly what I've been thinking about recently. I wonder if this kind of scroll can be printed again."

"It should be impossible. As far as I know, no matter which subject's test paper engraving is printed, it will be sealed. For example, the test paper engravings for the imperial examinations will be sealed in the Hanlin Academy. The engravings for the prefectural examinations will also be sealed in the corresponding departments, so it is unlikely that they will be taken out for printing again."

Hualei frowned, "If we sell it in a bookstore, the quantity is too small, so it's meaningless. If we hand-copy it and sell it, the speed will be too slow. It seems that it's not very convenient to ask others to copy it..." Hualei walked around the room, "What did you say the surname of Jijiu was?" "Gui, the Gui of osmanthus." Hualei was startled. Is it such a coincidence? "What's wrong?" "This surname Gui is quite special, it seems that there are not many." "Yes, there are indeed not many."