Chapter Thirty-One: Brush Pen
"This is a brush?" Qin Yiren stared at the brush in his hand, greatly astonished.
The brush of the Warring States period is quite different from that of modern times, which is just a bamboo tube or wooden tube with some wolf hair or sheep hair tied to the end.
At first glance, it looks like a broom.
This brush in my hand was bought by Qin Yiren for Hubert, made from the finest wolf hair. The wolf hair is open and fluffy, not like the tightly bound brushes of later generations, plus a bamboo tube, which makes Qin Yiren think of a certain private part.
"Sir, what are you going to do? Are you going to write a letter to the King of Qin?" Meng Zhao asked curiously.
"This brush is no good, I want to make a better one." Qin Yiren's response left them all stunned.
"Sir, are you joking? This pen is already the best one, how can there be a better one?" Heibei didn't believe it at all.
The brush has been around for a long time and is gradually replacing the engraving knife. So many people are working hard to improve the brush, it's really hard for anyone to do better, let alone Hei Bo.
They would believe that Qin Yiren could talk his way into making the dead come alive and the living die, they would believe it, but wouldn't believe this matter.
"Look!" Qin Yiren was confident, and he peeled off the wolf hair tied at the end.
"Young master, you still want to be a writer? This is ruining writing." Mo Er teased.
Meng Zhao and others nodded heavily in agreement with this remark, took down the wolf hair, isn't it destroying the pen?
Qin Yiren ignored them and re-tied the wolf hairs into a bundle, tying it tightly.
"What's this?" Heber and they looked at each other in confusion.
What made them even more surprised was yet to come, as Qin Yiren picked up a carving knife and began to carve the end of the bamboo tube, then examined it carefully. Next, he took the bundled wolf hair and inserted it into the tube.
"Th...!" He Bo's eyes suddenly widened.
Qin Yiren's improvement was only one place, the brush suddenly changed greatly, looking at this appearance, it seems to be quite good.
"Ink research!" Qin Yiren gave an order.
"Right!" He Bo and Miao Er responded in unison, busily grinding ink, preparing to test this new and strange brush.
"Is this useful?" Meng Zhao was somewhat uncertain.
Soon, the ink was ground and Qin Yiren picked up his brush, dipped it in the rich ink, and wrote a large Qin character on the bamboo slip. It felt pretty good, with just the right amount of tension and elasticity at the tip of the brush, and the Qin character was written perfectly.
"Isn't the ink dropped?" He Bo, Miao Er, Meng Zhao, Ma Gai and Fan Tong's eyes were wide with unbelief, sizing up the "Qin" character written by Qin Yiren, which was perfectly round and upright.
It is well known that the brush pen of the Warring States period was not popularized and did not replace the laborious and inefficient knife engraving, precisely because it was easy to drop ink. It can be imagined that while writing, a big drop of ink would fall down, rendering all previous efforts useless, who would still use a brush pen?
The brush truly became popular after Meng Tian's improvements, overcoming the drawbacks of dripping ink and leaking ink.
Generally speaking, writing a character usually requires several drops of ink. But Qin Yiren finishes writing a character without any ink dripping at all - who wouldn't be amazed?
"Heh, let me try!" He Bo's curiosity was piqued, and he rubbed his hands together, eager to snatch the brush from Qin Yiren.
Qin Yiren handed the brush to Hei Bo, Hei Bo took the pen in his hand, dipped it in thick ink, and wrote a "gong" character. Still not satisfied, he wrote another "zi" character. The two characters were written without leaking a single drop of ink, which was enough to surprise Hei Bo.
"It's so useful! So useful! Too useful!" Heibo couldn't stop praising, and wanted to write more, but Miao'er couldn't wait any longer, snatched it away, and smeared ink all over Heibo's hand. Heibo laughed and scolded: "You little girl, you're so impatient, how will you ever get married?"
Mo'er gave him a white eye and ignored Hei Bo, picking up her pen to write.
Meng Zhao, Ma Gai and Fan Tong were also impatient, competing with each other to experience it. What's amusing is that Meng Zhao, Ma Gai and Fan Tong weren't writing characters, they wielded their brushes like swords, "fighting" characters.
"With this brush in hand, who dares to contend with me?" Magai even used the lyrics of Qin Jun's military song.
That's right, since Meng Tian improved the brush pen, the brush pen became the main writing tool of our ancestors and became a symbol of Chinese civilization. In the long history of more than 2,000 years, the Chinese civilization was written with it. It wasn't until modern times, more than 2,000 years later, that it was replaced by the steel pen.
"That's right!" everyone chimed in unison.
Until they had enough experience, Qin Yiren made another brush and fixed the wolf hair firmly so that it would not fall off easily. Then, some patterns were carved on the bamboo tube for decoration, which was no different from modern brushes.
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Weifeng Business Firm is located in the south of Handan City, covering a large area with dozens of houses. Although it's wartime and many people from Zhao State have fled, Weifeng Business Firm is still very busy, with many vehicles coming and going.
Qin Yiren brought Meng Zhao to Wei Feng Shang She.
"It's Master! Master, please come in!" The busy servant saw Qin Yiren's face and smiled all over his face, inviting Qin Yiren to enter.
Qin Yiren was slightly stunned, Wei Feng Shang She was his largest creditor, but had never been slow to him. According to the predecessor's memory, every time he came to borrow money, Wei Feng Shang She was always courteous and polite, never saying a word that hurt people, which was indeed rare.
"Tea is served! Good tea!" The attendant called out and respectfully invited Qin Yiren to take a seat.
The maid hurriedly brought a steaming teacup and came forward, making a slight bow to Qin Yi, then quickly put down the cup and floated away without any hint of discourtesy.
"Wei Feng Shang She is actually quite good." Qin Yiren silently praised in his heart.
"What brings you here, young master?" asked the official with a smile all over his face.
"Borrow money." Qin Yiren's answer was only two words.
"Borrow... money..." The executor was stunned for a moment, and his voice trailed off.
"But won't lend?" Meng Zhao's eyebrows rose, and a cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. Merchants are indeed profit-driven, just as expected.
"...How many catties of rice does the young master want to borrow?" However, what surprised Meng Zhao was that the official actually agreed.
Qin Yiren was also a bit surprised, Wei Feng Shang She was his largest creditor, and it would be normal to refuse to lend him money. As the largest creditor, not coming to collect debts was already very good, where is the reason to borrow again?
"One hundred gold." Qin Yiren's eyes widened in surprise.
A sum of one hundred gold is no small amount, and Qin Yiren really dares to want it.
"Ten pieces of gold." The attendant agreed on the price.
Ten taels of gold was a considerable sum for Qin Yi, who had less than forty taels to his name. He was very generous with the matter.
Qin Yi's heart was secretly surprised, but he didn't show any expression, shaking his head and saying: "Just a hundred gold."
"Twenty gold?" The steward added.
"Thirty gold?" Qin Yiren didn't react, so the executive had no choice but to raise the stakes again.
Qin Yiren still didn't react, the servant hesitated for a moment and said: "Young master, to be honest, a hundred taels is not a small amount of money, I'm not authorized to make decisions. If you insist on borrowing, let me report to the manager. Please wait a moment." The servant excused himself and left.
"How?" Qin Yiren's eyes inquired about Meng Zhao.
"Righteous!" Meng Zhao gave a thumbs up.
