Xie Yan did not tell them about the stone and jade. He wiped his eyes and said to them,
“At the end of the year before last, when my husband and I had just gotten married, we made our living selling steamed buns. That winter was very cold. Between us, we only had one thick cotton coat. When it got dirty, we couldn’t bear to change it. When we went out, we had no dignity at all. Back then we were still living in the village. Our family didn’t even have a donkey cart. The first time we went to the county town, we walked there through wind and snow. Every day we made a few dozen buns to sell. We got up especially early, sold them, then went home. We counted our money coin by coin, calculated costs coin by coin, and figured out how many buns we had to sell each day just to scrape together my tuition. Now life is better than before, and I can treat my friends to buns.”
The few people eating at the same table all knew why Xie Yan had suspended his studies. Hearing this part of his past, after thinking it over, they could only say one thing:
“Your husband is deeply devoted to you. No wonder you’re always thinking of him.”
Xie Yan wiped his eyes again, took two or three bites to finish the bun in his hand, and urged them to eat while it was hot.
“Meat buns are best eaten hot.”
After the meal, they went to morning class.
At noon, Lu Yang came to deliver food. He had made three dishes and one soup: braised eggplant in sauce, mapo tofu, bamboo shoots braised with pork, and meatball mushroom soup.
Big dishes, a big bowl of soup—few items, but generous portions.
At the very bottom of the food box, there was also a plate of donkey rolls.
After several consecutive days of good food and drink, everyone in the entire prefectural academy knew that Xie Yan had an excellent husband. Whenever they met him, they said how envious they were.
At home, Shun-ge watched for several days and still couldn’t understand why Lu Yang was doing all this.
Lu Yang explained to him, “Opening a bookshop requires a huge investment. Besides silver, it also takes a very long time to prepare. Unless I take over someone else’s bookshop, otherwise from carving printing blocks to actual printing, it takes months of preparation. And if I take over a bookshop, I’d immediately become dirt-poor.
“Selling books works like this: the costs are high, the profits are high, but selling books piecemeal makes it very hard to recover costs quickly. Without one blockbuster book, you have to rely on slow, steady returns. This kind of business is for wealthy people. The silver I have is enough to get started, but not enough to last until I break even.”
He had already discussed things with his godfather, asking them to prepare some printing blocks in the county town. These were essential books for a bookshop: primers, the Four Books and Five Classics, poetry collections, prose collections, travelogues, biographies, and also some popular storybooks.
Preparation would take about half a year. Coincidentally, he needed to send Xie Yan into the examination hall first, and the bookshop itself also needed the right timing.
Opening a bookshop meant spending money on both ends. Once the preparation funds were spent, the shop rent and the silver needed for the engraving and printing workshop would all have to wait. This would completely drain his reserves.
So during this period, it was enough for him to take good care of Xie Yan and steadily expand the dock business.
And connections were very important. The people Xie Yan was befriending now were not scholars who only read books. They thought things through and discussed ideas with an eye toward practice. Making connections with them brought no harm.
After hearing Lu Yang lay it all out so clearly, Shun-ge remembered everything.
It rained during Qingming. Lu Yang looked at the sky and said to him, “When it clears up, I’ll take you to look around some bookshops. See how many books they have and how much each one sells for. Once you have a rough idea, you can roughly calculate the accounts.”
Shun-ge knew about printing blocks and had asked about the prices of paper and ink, so he could calculate a rough account. Add labor and losses, then include shop rent. Roughly calculating monthly and yearly profits, it was very clear that it would take years to recover the investment.
After calculating it this way, Shun-ge felt that opening a bookshop was really not cost-effective.
Lu Yang laughed. “If we only relied on small shops, we would never have made it to the prefectural city.”
The first time he made money selling books, it allowed them to start the mountain mushroom business. The second time, the deposit he received let him spend freely—Xie Yan’s trip to the prefectural city, the silver for his medicine, various social expenses, and improvements to food, clothing, and daily necessities at home all went up by more than a little. When the final payment came in, they bought that ancestral property, and still had extra silver left—enough to come to the prefectural city to make a living.
In the long run, a bookshop made more money than ordinary small businesses.
He just needed the right timing—something like The Imperial Examination Answer Guide—to make a big profit in one go and get through the initial difficulties.
Otherwise, the only option was to patch one hole with another: use one business to support another. Use money to buy property, then let the property generate money, and live frugally for a while.
Lu Yang said, “You need to temper your patience. I’m having you learn to read and write not to waste your time. We’re not taking the imperial examinations, but we still need to open our minds and understand principles. The bigger the business, the more you deal with smart people. If you rush in recklessly, in their eyes you’ll just be a foolish little bird.”
Shun-ge asked, “Why not a foolish pig?”
Lu Yang looked him up and down. “Too skinny. Not just anyone can be a foolish pig.”
Shun-ge pumped himself up and said, “What about being a fat lamb?”
Lu Yang really needed to teach him properly.
“‘Foolish bird’ refers to a fledgling that doesn’t understand anything yet. A fat lamb is one that gets slaughtered. A foolish pig has another saying—playing the pig to eat the tiger. Train yourself well. In the future, you can be a ‘foolish pig’ in other people’s eyes. The more they look down on you, the harder they’ll fall.”
Shun-ge liked that. “Then I want to be a ‘foolish pig’!”
Lu Yang pressed his forehead, put down what he was doing, and pulled him aside to explain carefully.
This child was too straightforward. Once Li Feng arrived, if he heard Shun-ge constantly saying he wanted to be a foolish pig, there’d be no need to maintain that kinship at all!
They talked themselves hoarse during the day. In the afternoon, a light rain drifted down and didn’t stop until evening. Lu Yang told Shun-ge to think it over carefully, then took an umbrella and went out to pick up Xie Yan.
Outside the prefectural academy, several people were standing at the gate with Xie Yan, waiting.
When Xie Yan saw Lu Yang, his face immediately lit up with a smile. He didn’t even wait for Lu Yang to come closer. He raised a hand over his head, ran into the rain, and squeezed under Lu Yang’s umbrella.
Lu Yang had originally planned for one umbrella each. Seeing this, and then looking at the scholars standing at the gate, he asked them, “I have another umbrella here. Do any of you need it?”
Xie Yan blurted out, “They don’t need it! They’re here to laugh at me. They said you wouldn’t come. Don’t bother with them.”
Lu Yang: “…”
This group was really bored. Couldn’t they focus on studying?
Ji Mingzhu said with a grin, “I want the umbrella. Lu Furen, give it to me.”
Xie Yan refused. He pressed down on Lu Yang’s hand and led him toward home.
Without even turning back, he shouted into the curtain of rain ahead, “No buns tomorrow! Go home!”
Lu Yang added, “Tomorrow we’re eating steamed bread!”
Laughter rang out behind them, along with scattered words drifting through the misty rain to their ears.
They said, “You’d better stop making them already—your husband is going to be heartbroken!”
Lu Yang squeezed along with Xie Yan as they walked. “If you don’t study properly at the academy and keep talking about me every day, what am I? Confucius or the God of Literature? Can I open your mind, be your inspiration, be your spring of ideas?”
Xie Yan jostled back and forth with him and said, “I am studying properly. You’re not Confucius and not the God of Literature. You’re my mind’s opening, my spring, and also my Jingzhi.”
That sweetness really got to him.
Lu Yang smiled the whole way.
During Qingming Festival, the prefectural academy had a break. Some scholars lived too far away and didn’t have enough time to go back and forth, so they stayed.
Xie Yan also didn’t have time to return to the county town, but he wanted to rest for a day.
Lu Yang told him to rest. He had been sent to school as soon as they arrived in the prefectural city—it was time to take a break.
Since there was no class the next day, Xie Yan could steal some leisure time at night.
The two of them sat by the window listening to the sound of rain, brewing a pot of osmanthus tea, enjoying a moment of peace.
Xie Yan brought over paper and ink and painted Lu Yang as he brewed tea.
He found painting more interesting than writing essays. His pictures were always lively, with a bit of exaggerated embellishment that made the figures look vibrant and cute.
Part realistic, part whimsical: a tiny Lu Yang, an enormous teacup, Lu Yang peeking out from behind the cup, with an osmanthus flower hat perched on his head.
Lu Yang looked at the painting several times and asked him, “When you write essays, can you think like this? Be bolder. It might turn out interesting.”
Xie Yan didn’t want to talk about essays. “I’m thinking about you. Why think about essays?”
So Lu Yang put the painting down and poured him a cup of tea.
The osmanthus was dried at home last autumn, and there wasn’t much left. It was just right for this rainy night.
Xie Yan took a sip of tea and glanced sideways out through the window lattice. The raindrops fell softly and steadily. His heart felt so calm.
For the sake of this moment of tranquility, all the rushing and running ahead would be worth it.
The two of them rarely spoke so little, simply keeping each other company as they sat together for a long time.
