Lin Yuan’s eyebrows raised slightly. Having silver really made a difference—it meant financial power!
However, when she saw the list that Meng Liangdong made, she was still a bit surprised. Pointing to one of the items, she asked, "Mr. Meng, why is the cost of this textbook so high?"
Chen Zhu lived next door to her, and he had many books. Previously unaware, it was only after seeing the list Meng Liangdong made that she realized how expensive books actually were!
Meng Liangdong sighed, "Yes, on one hand, it’s because paper is very expensive. On the other hand, it’s the book itself. The printing and binding process is very labor-intensive."
At this, Meng Liangdong felt a pang of regret. Had he known that one day he would become a teacher, he would never have foolishly thrown all his Sage Books into the river.
Expensive paper was an unavoidable issue, but she hadn’t expected printing to be costly as well.
"How do we print now, do you know?" she inquired.
Meng Liangdong nodded, "Although I haven’t seen it myself, I have heard about it. At first, people were hired specifically to copy books. Later, woodblocks were carved, and then used for printing."
He wasn’t very clear about the process of printing books, so he could only give a rough explanation. However, someone around Lin Yuan certainly knew more.
That evening, after Xia Zheng returned from the neighboring town, Lin Yuan asked him thoroughly about the book printing process. It turned out that at that time, the book molds were all made of a single block before being printed.
For example, the "The Learning" that Ma Junying copied was actually carved entirely out of a large piece of wood, then divided into smaller sections for printing, and finally bound into volumes.
This was also the case when printing other texts. This method was not only time-consuming but also wasteful. If a single character on the woodblock was carved incorrectly, the whole block would be useless, and one would have to start carving from scratch.
Lin Yuan was silent. It seemed this was the ancient and traditional method, and they had not yet invented movable type printing. If she revealed the method of movable type printing, it could mean yet another large sum of silver!
Looking at Lin Yuan’s triumphant expression, Xia Zheng, with his canine-like sharp nose, seemed to have sniffed out his favorite scent, "What, have you thought of another good way to make money? Spill it out, let’s hear it! Quick, quick!"
Her head spinning from being shaken by someone’s "devil’s claw," Lin Yuan pushed away Xia Zheng’s hand and rolled her eyes at him, "Silver, silver, is that all you think about! Didn’t you just say it yourself? The printing molds are all controlled by the Imperial Court. How are you going to make money off this? The silver would belong to the Imperial Court!"
But Xia Zheng’s thoughts were clearly not focused on this aspect. His eyes lit up, and he grabbed her arms, "By your tone, do you mean you truly have a way to improve the printing process?"
Lin Yuan nodded and briefly explained the method of movable type printing to Xia Zheng. Of course, to avoid arousing suspicion, she deliberately mentioned a few flaws. However, with Xia Zheng’s cleverness, these minor issues weren’t enough to hinder the progression of movable type printing.
After listening to Lin Yuan, Xia Zheng pondered for a moment, then his face lit up with excitement as he clapped his hands, kissing Lin Yuan on the cheek, and exclaimed, "Yuanyuan, you really are a Lucky Star!"
The surprise caught Lin Yuan off guard, and she was startled, remaining silent for a while, wondering if there was something wrong with her method as Xia Zheng hadn’t spoken.
After giving her another fierce kiss on the forehead, Xia Zheng realized he might have scared her with his excitement. He tried to calm himself down, but his upturned lips still betrayed his thoughts, "With your movable type printing, book printing will be much easier. Oh, if only I had known about this method before, I would have taken over the job from the old man! What a pity, what a pity, it won’t do—I must claim some rewards for this first, I can’t just hand over such a great idea so easily!"