Flowers in full bloom

The fat old man was startled. Both her parents had passed away, and her grandparents were gone too. She was left with only her sister and brother to depend on each other. Now, in order to raise her younger brother, she had to come out to find a way out for her own bookstore at such a young age. What a poor little girl. He couldn't help but soften his tone. "I can't reply to you about this now. I have to report to my superiors," he said, cupping his hands upwards.

Hua Lei was shocked. Why did she have to report to her superiors before printing this book? Was there a clear rule that books for imperial examinations could not be printed in a workshop? Hua Lei felt a little regretful. Why did she forget to ask Rong Jin yesterday? The fat old man looked at Hua Lei. She was wearing a light beige dress with plum blossom patterns, which made the already delicate little girl look even more frail. There was no trace of blood on her slightly pale face. At this time, she looked at him with a pair of black almond eyes, which looked weak and innocent.

Gui Jijiu felt a little reluctant. "Well, report it. If it works, it will benefit all the poor students in the world. If it doesn't work, it won't be blamed on you. You don't need to be nervous." Hua Lei breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, nothing happened. "Then if the boss has a result, can you let Hua Lei know?" "Okay, I'll let the waiter bring you a message." "Thank you, boss."

After a short pause, Hualei turned around and took a paper roll from Xiaoxiao's hand, untied the string, and spread the paper roll in front of Gui Jijiu, "Boss, please take a look at this, can it be printed? If I want to carve this plate, can you help me carve it?"

Gui Jijiu looked at the copy paper on the table. It was an ordinary copy paper with a square grid drawn with a red pen. It was not right to say it was a square, because there were four straight lines in the square. "What is this...?" Gui Jijiu was stunned. He had spent most of his life in the Imperial College and his family ran a printing house. He immediately saw the potential of this unique copy paper.

"This is the copying paper with a grid pattern that I drew. My younger brother started practicing calligraphy a while ago. I saw that he had to fold the copying paper into vertical strips before he could copy. I thought it was a bit troublesome. I thought if I could carve a plate like this and print such a grid on the copying paper, would I not have to fold the paper every time after it dries?"

"Miss Hua," Gui Jijiu's tone finally became serious. The steward next to him heard Hua Lei's words, looked at the copying paper on the table, and his face couldn't help but show joy. The young man next to him stared at Hua Lei in a daze.

"Excuse me, Miss Hua, did you come up with this idea yourself?" Hua Lei nodded.

"Miss Hua, do you want to carve a plate like this, and then ask the printing house to print copy paper for you to sell?"

"Yes." These are...?"

“This is osmanthus.”

"Osmanthus, do you have any words to say?" Gui Jijiu looked at the flower buds thoughtfully.

"I drew these osmanthus flowers for two main reasons. First, to make them look good. If the whole copy paper had only a single line, it would be a bit monotonous. After drawing these osmanthus flowers, it would look much better. Second, it is to represent the meaning of winning the first prize in the imperial examination."

Gui Jijiu gently stroked the osmanthus flowers on the paper, and couldn't help complaining in his heart, isn't this girl trying to please the surname Gui? Or is it to fit into his surname Hua? This girl looks weak and tender, but she has bad intentions in her heart. But why is she so happy when she hears that it is osmanthus? He glanced at Hualei, this little girl, her brain is so flexible, she can flatter so quietly, it's rare.

Gui Jijiu's mind was filled with thoughts. He carefully looked at the copy paper with the grid pattern on it. If this was printed, his printing house would be able to move to a higher level. In addition, the small paper mill he opened last year should also be able to be revitalized.

Because the paper mill had just opened, the staff were not experienced enough, and the quality of the paper was not very good. A large amount of paper was piled up in the warehouse, but it was still more than enough for students to practice. If it was printed into grid-like copy paper, it would not only consume the backlog and recover the cost, but also make a lot of money.

This grid-lined copy paper has a huge market. The amount used by the students of the Imperial College is huge every year, not to mention the numerous official schools, private schools, and clan schools in the capital. There are also official schools and private schools outside the capital.

"I don't know how Miss Hua wants to operate it. If this plate is to be carved, it can definitely be carved, and it can definitely be printed. It all depends on Miss Hua..."

"Miss Hua, are you selling the plate? If you are willing, our printing house will buy the ownership of this engraving."

The steward next to him was a little impatient. Hua Lei's mind moved slightly, and she asked slowly, "What does the steward mean by selling the version? I don't think we talked about this when we were chatting before?"

"It's like this. Our printing house paid a sum of money to buy the copyright of this plate at once. Miss Hua is not allowed to sell it to others. In the future, we will sell the copy paper printed by our printing house. Of course, if Miss Hua wants it, we will give you a certain discount."

"Then how much silver would the steward pay if he wanted to buy this plate?"

The chief steward looked at the boss sitting at the top and asked, "Master, what do you think..." The fat old man sitting at the top looked at his steward, then at Hua Lei, "Three hundred taels." Hua Lei was delighted. She didn't expect that such a picture plate was worth three hundred taels. She made a profit.

He frowned without making a sound. Ping An and Xiao Xiao, who were sitting in the back, were screaming in their hearts, "Miss, please agree to it quickly. Three hundred taels, you can buy another small farm of fifty acres." But he didn't dare to show any expression on his face. He just lowered his head and gritted his teeth.

"Miss Hua, are you dissatisfied?" "Not really. I want to know, once the printed copy paper is seen by everyone, it will be easy to be imitated. What will the owner do with it then?"

"It's inevitable to be imitated. This market is so big that it's unlikely that we can dominate it all. What we can do is to grab as much as we can." Hua Lei nodded. "If I sell the engravings to the boss, will the boss be willing to give me the right to sell them in the market outside the official school in Shangjing City? I just need to use the most ordinary paper."

Hualei knew that she could forget about the official school because they were basically fixed suppliers. Otherwise, what would the imperial merchants in the west of the city eat? The fact that the Jijiu family could open a printing house was probably because they were close to the water and got the moon first.

Gui Jijiu looked at Hua Lei and didn't know what to say. This person was not a weak person at all, but a wolf. As soon as she opened her mouth, she took away half of the meat. "Miss Hua looks young, but she has a big appetite." Gui Jijiu straightened up and leaned back in his chair.

"Three years," Hua Lei said again, "Boss, you also said that it is impossible for one company to dominate the market alone. Then, Boss can take over all the official schools like the Imperial College and the needs of the aristocratic families. This piece of meat should not be difficult for Boss." After saying that, she glanced at the official robe of Gui Jijiu as if unintentionally.

Gui Jijiu glared at him, and was so anxious that he forgot to change his official robes. This cunning little fox. "Give me the sales rights of Shangjing City except for the official schools and aristocratic families, so that I can also have a share of the soup with my boss. My boss doesn't know that my sister and I are also struggling. If there is no other way, I won't come out to beg for food."