Chapter 709: 709 pens and ink are very expensive.
Su Qingyue planned to buy forty jin of pork, five live chickens and ducks each. She would stir-fry four jin of pork at noon every day and occasionally slaughter a chicken or duck. She would also catch some fresh fish from the creek or cook dried fish, so the food wouldn’t be monotonous. As for vegetables, she only needed to visit the town two or three times more.
The three sons of the Xiao Family were all hardworking and eager to learn. Although it had been less than ten days, they could already write simple characters like ‘one, two, three, four, five…top, middle, bottom… big, small…’
However, everyone has different talents, and the third brother and the fourth brother were clearly learning faster than the second brother.
Although practicing calligraphy on a sand table was cost-effective, paper and pen were necessary for learning.
Su Qingyue walked into a bookstore.
The bookshelf in the bookstore was filled with a variety of books, although the variety was far from being as diverse as modern times.
The shop owner saw Su Qingyue dressed in lake green embroidered clothes, the material of which was of good quality. He figured she must be someone who could afford books and greeted her warmly, “Miss, what would you like to buy?”
“An inkstone, ink, three brushes, three stacks of Xuan paper.” She said, “One copy each of the ‘Thousand Character Classic’, ‘Three-Character Classic’, and ‘The Analects’.”
The Thousand Character Classic is a text composed of a thousand different common characters, each with annotations.
She planned to teach according to the Thousand Character Classic. By the time she finished teaching it, the three sons should have learned most of the common characters. She would then teach the Three-Character Classic and The Analects.
By then, her job as a teacher would almost be done. If they were still interested in learning more, they could go to school.
The shop owner listened with a beaming smile, “You certainly need a lot.” He pointed at the counter where several finely crafted brushes hung on the pen stand, and several ordinary-looking brushes were inserted into bamboo tubes, “There are stone-made inkstones, and better ones are made of jade. We have two types of ink, the expensive one costs three times more than the ordinary one, and the paper also comes in different qualities…”
Listening to the introduction, Su Qingyue said, “Just give me the cheapest ones, there’s no need to buy the expensive ones.” Or rather, she didn’t have the money to buy the expensive ones for now.
“A brush costs fifty cents each, ink is two hundred cents, a stack of Xuan paper is one hundred cents, and the inkstone is three hundred cents.” The shop owner quickly moved the abacus beads, “‘Thousand Character Classic’ and ‘Three-Character Classic’, six hundred cents each, ‘The Analects’ seven hundred cents.”
Listening to the prices, Su Qingyue was taken aback, “That’s so expensive…”
“That’s the standard price.” The shop owner said, “The cost price is also high, if you don’t believe me you can check with other stores, maybe they even charge a few cents more than me.”
“How many sheets are there in a stack of Xuan paper?” She asked.
“One hundred sheets.”
Last time when she saw Liang Lizheng cherish his pen and ink so much, she thought it was a scholar’s frugality. But now she realized it was because they were so expensive, not every scholar could afford to not value them. After inquiring, she knew that the prices of stationery were indeed high.
She thought for a while, “I won’t take the ‘Three-Character Classic’, please give me two more stacks of Xuan paper instead.”
The shop owner moved the beads on the abacus again, “The total will be two thousand two hundred and fifty cents, which is about two and a half taels.”
She haggled, “I’m buying so many all at once, can you write off the fifty cents of the change?”
“It’s impossible to write off that much, I can give you a discount of twenty cents. I’ve not charge you any extra.”
“Alright.” She looked at the bookshelf, “Can I have a look at the books here? I want to see if there’s anything else I need to buy.”
“Of course.” The shop owner instructed, “Be careful when you flip the pages. If you damage anything, you’ll have to pay for it.”
“No problem.” Su Qingyue walked to the bookshelf, pulled out a copy of the ‘Three-Character Classic’, and quickly flipped through the pages. She had memorized this book and checked the layout. She planned to write a copy on her own and bind it with a thread.