Chapter Ten: The Silver Issue

  It wasn't long after the heavy rain that the ground was already soaked, so Qin Yu had no choice but to shrink into the house and chat idly with Cheng Huaiyang.

  The ground in the Tang Dynasty was all muddy, after the rain, one foot stepped on it and it was all mud. Qin Yu was naturally not used to it, so he didn't go out either. Besides, there was nothing good to see outside anyway.

  When I first arrived in Datang, Qin Yu still quite liked the scenery here, with a strong natural atmosphere that was sometimes breathtaking. However, after looking at it for a long time, one would inevitably experience aesthetic fatigue, which was unavoidable.

  Cheng Huailiang, who was secretly blaming himself, was chatting with Qin Yu about his glorious deeds in Chang'an. Qin Yu felt that this guy had a boastful component, saying something about beating up Long Sun Chong, bullying Fang Er, and flirting with the princess, but he didn't say which princess it was, and Qin Yu didn't dare to ask further.

  Qin Yu listened to Cheng Huailiang's nagging, and naturally felt that his nostalgia for Chang'an was also unfulfilling here. There was nothing to play with, and it was already good if he could stay.

  Cheng Huailiang's nagging reminded Qin Yu of something, this guy had married the Princess Qinghe, seemingly in the seventh year of the Zhenguan era, when the Princess Qinghe was only ten years old. Upon thinking of this, Qin Yu's mouth twitched slightly.

  "I said Second Uncle, you wouldn't be teasing Qinghe Princess, would you?" Qin Yu asked with a strange tone, glancing at Cheng Huailiang who was deep in thought.

  The title of "Second Uncle" was deeply loved by Cheng Huai Liang, to be precise, it was a nickname that Cheng Huai Liang forced Qin Yu to call him with his strength, and Qin Yu had no choice but to accept it. Anyway, the marriage was unavoidable, and calling him "Second Uncle" didn't matter.

  Cheng Huailiang heard Qin Yu's words and suddenly felt a chill, this matter only he and Qinghe Princess knew, but at this moment, it came out of Qin Yu's mouth, immediately turned around in shock and looked at Qin Yu, somewhat flustered asked, "You, how did you know, aren't you just entering the world?"

  As soon as he finished speaking, Cheng Huailiang suddenly slapped himself, what's this, isn't it self-inflicted?

  Qin Yu slapped his forehead and thought to himself, "Right, it's really like that. Maybe it was because of this that Li Shimin married Princess Qinghe off to this guy. Although it was to win over Cheng Yaojin, among so many princesses, why did he specifically choose Princess Qinghe to marry Cheng Huailiang? There must be something fishy going on here."

  "I've said it all, I know the heavens and the earth, what don't I know? I'm saying, Second Uncle, Qinghe Princess is only eight years old now, did you really take action?" Qin Yu asked with some entanglement.

  "What's wrong with you, it's all Clear River who came to me on his own initiative, how can I be blamed? Besides, besides," Cheng Huailiang said, his face suddenly turned red, "You stinky boy, what are you asking so many questions for? You'd better think about how to treat my sister well. If you dare to treat her badly, look at this, do you know what it is?"

  Cheng Huailiang finished speaking and raised his arm to make a muscle, shaking his strong fist.

  "Wait for me." Qin Yu muttered a silent curse in his heart, then opened his mouth to say, "Need you remind me? My wife, how could I possibly not treat her well?"

  Qin Yu had made up his mind to train his body, who let Cheng Huai Liang use force to deal with Qin Yu at every turn. Although he had crossed over and his body was mysteriously modified, feeling full of strength throughout his body, Qin Yu felt that he didn't even have half the strength of Cheng Huai Liang.

  Fists are the best way to get through to him, Qin Yu had deeply experienced this, with this guy you have to speak with your fists.

  "That's for the best." Cheng Huai Liang saw Qin Yu being soft and secretly let out a breath of relief, but in his heart he was thinking "Finally changed the subject".

  After talking for a while, Cheng Huailiang suddenly lost interest and ended the conversation, returning to his room to think about things. Qin Yu guessed that he was thinking of Qinghe Princess, but whether or not this was true, only Cheng Hua himself knew.

  The heavy rain didn't stop until the next day, and the villagers of Zhangjiacun all had smiles on their faces. The ground was still wet, so Qin Yu taught in the courtyard again, worried that the children would get sick from staying in the damp for too long, and decided to give them another day off.

  The meaning of San Zi Jing and Qian Zi Wen, the children already know, mainly because Qin Yu's explanation is vivid and interesting, the children are also willing to listen, but at this moment, they need new reading materials to continue learning.

  Qin Yu thought of using this spare time to write out the Analects, Xiaojing and other works to teach children to continue learning. However, books from modern times and the Tang Dynasty must have some differences, and Qin Yu didn't want to directly use a modern revised version either.

  The three books stored in Muramasa, although the cover is not recognizable, Qin Yu can confirm that these three are Shi Jing, Li Ji and Yi Jing. Which version Qin Yu cannot confirm, it's a handwritten copy, but there are only contents, no annotations at all.

  There were already three ready-made books, but they weren't suitable for the kids to read. After some thought, Qin Yu still managed to get a book on moral education, the content of which was copied from the Analects and the Classic of Filial Piety, without chapters, just scattered sentences here and there. However, Qin Yu did add annotations.

  The content is beneficial and healthy, but it does not depart from Confucianism. As for the corrupt Confucianism, Qin Yu will absolutely not write about it. Corrupt Confucianism harms people and the country, and is not beneficial to the nation or its citizens.

  Qin Yu didn't want his students to end up as a group of pedantic scholars, for example, when dealing with foreign invasions, they would still argue about etiquette and moral education, in Qin Yu's view, that was nonsense, how could a nation without vitality be established.

  Of course, loyalty to the monarch and love for the country are things that Qin Yu dare not forget, otherwise being worn down by Li Shimin would be unbearable, even with a chaotic demon king as his father-in-law, he couldn't withstand Li Er's boundless rage.

  Another busy day has passed, and the moral character has finally been revealed. Qin Yu's annotations are written in vernacular Chinese, which is very vivid and includes many small stories mixed in, making it easy for literate people to understand the meaning above.

  This is also Qin Yu's plan to slack off. The children will read according to the textbook, and at most, Qin Yu will personally explain the unclear parts.

  However, if this moral character is seen by others, it will probably be ridiculed. Isn't this obviously a combination of the Analects and filial piety with something missing?

  Ideological morality and Three Character Classic, Thousand Character Classic also use punctuation marks, because the children are young, when Qin Yu first taught them, the punctuation marks were understood and accepted by them at the first time.

  Children are like a blank sheet of paper, whether they are taught well or badly depends on Qin Yu. This shows that education is very important. Fortunately, Qin Yu is not so irresponsible as to teach children randomly.

  As for Muramasa's three treasured books, Qin Yu also plans to print them. The reason is simple: Qin Yu has no silver coins left, and he wants to get married in Chang'an; how can he do it without any silver coins?

  Getting married requires a lot of money, after setting up a household, even salt and vinegar need to be bought with silver, and servants are needed too, who have to be paid wages. Even in the Tang Dynasty when there were many slaves that could be bought with money without needing to pay salaries, it would still cost silver to support them, you can't rely on the Cheng family for everything.

  So, Qin Yu has set his sights on making money, and in order to prepare for a better life in the future, he is thinking of ways to earn more income. Selling printed books is one such way, and it's an easy one at that, so naturally, Qin Yu won't let it slip away.

  It should be known that books have always been controlled by the scholar class, and ordinary families cannot own them. In this era, only woodblock printing is used, so it is difficult to print books, and it is not easy to publish a book. Paper is also extremely expensive, making it impossible for books to circulate widely.

  Those who know how to read want to read books, but there are no books. What to do? Qin Yu isn't preparing to print them, is he? Anyway, the villagers have been busy for a while now, and it's just right that everyone has money to earn.

  As for the white paper, it was purely accidental. If it weren't for the coincidence of two fools competing in price, the white paper wouldn't have been sold at such a high price either. In Qin Yu's opinion, the price of white paper should be around five or six cents per sheet, and it couldn't be higher than that.

  Since they were all prepared to sell books, in order for the books to be sold well, Qin Yu specially marked the three rare books of Cun Zheng with punctuation marks, and also added a page of usage and meaning of punctuation marks to each book. No way, kids know, but others don't.

  It's said that punctuation marks are still useful, and Cheng Huailiang, who used to get headaches from reading books, was delighted after learning how to use them. He devoured "Thoughts on Morals" with great relish. In fact, he mainly read vernacular Chinese texts, thanks to Qin Yu's numerous stories scattered throughout the book.

  Qin Yu suddenly became a busy person, the font was ready-made, but the layout had to be done by Qin Yu. Qin Yu could only spend half a day teaching math to the children and then use another half day to do the layout. It took three days in a row to finish laying out the moral education materials.

  It wasn't until then that Qin Yu secretly scolded himself for being muddled, hadn't he taught a bunch of little guys who had already learned to read and write, calling them to help with typesetting would naturally speed things up a lot.

  Qin Yu was worried that the children would have some resistance in their hearts, but who would have thought that one by one, they would rush to finish the task. In just three days, the three volumes of books from Village Zheng's house were already typeset and ready for printing.

  The villagers finished their farm work and immediately started the booming papermaking and printing industry. It wasn't until then that Qin Huailiang knew that Zhangjiacun could produce paper, and it was even the best in the Tang Dynasty. He was shocked and shamelessly asked for nearly a thousand sheets of white paper, which he then ordered his servants to send back to Chang'an.

  But two days later, Qin Huailiang only knew that the white paper was made too easily, and he regretted it instantly. At that time, he shouldn't have been so humble.