Chapter 238 Make progress every day
At the opening ceremony, Bai Youcai, the owner of Baijiabao Zizai Bookstore, stood at the door of the bookstore and said: "Zizai Bookstore was established to make reading no longer a burden on the family."

"We at Zizai Bookstore hope that everyone can buy books, read books and write books at ease..."

On the wall of Zizai Bookstore there is a line of words that are familiar to modern people: Study hard and make progress every day.

Zizai Bookstore sells a large amount of paper, including slightly cheaper felt paper, grayish-white, slightly thicker, and more resilient cotton paper, and wide-curtain white paper made mainly from mulberry bark, also called Jilin paper.

There are bamboo-made four-piece paper, square paper, mounting paper, cotton paper... and there is also white paper that is as smooth and white as snow and is jokingly called snow jade paper.

These papers of different sizes are sold in units of one hundred sheets per knife. The cheapest ones can cost one hundred wen per knife, while the most expensive ones can cost three taels of silver per knife.

Not only does Zizai Bookstore have a wider variety of paper, but the price is also more than half lower than before, and the key is that the amount of paper is half more, which immediately reduces the pressure on readers to spend a lot of paper.

Only three days after opening, a force whose source of income had been cut off sent people to burn down the shop in anger. However, the Taohua Village had a high level of military strength and they easily fought back and killed the enemy.

Zizai Bookstore not only sells a large amount of paper, but is also said to have printing and photocopying machines, making copying books extremely convenient.

The cheapness of paper and the availability of convenient copying machines suddenly reduced the price of books from an expensive one or two taels of silver per book to three or four hundred coins per book.

The paper of the book is clean and the words are clear and neat, as if they were carved with a knife.

As a result, the cost of studying suddenly dropped sharply, and all the scholars were delighted and praised it.

The reason why Tao Jiaren knew all this was because she heard it from the waiter at the inn.

So when some people were causing trouble in other shops in Baijiabao, people were still queuing up in an orderly manner in front of Zizai Bookstore to buy books and paper.

No one dares to say a bad word about Zizai Bookstore. After all, it has done great things and is highly protected by readers.

What scholars or families with scholars fear most is that Zizai Bookstore will be bullied. If Zizai Bookstore closes, they will have to go back to buy expensive and difficult-to-use paper and books.

With the support of readers, Zizai Bookstore's business is no worse than that of Tianmi Dessert House.

Because of the low price, many readers always feel that they will be at a disadvantage if they don’t buy more now, compared with the money they spent before.

Of course, it is not only scholars who contribute to sales, but also business vendors.

Merchants would purchase some paper and books and transport them to other towns to sell. They could earn three to five hundred taels of silver for each trip. Those who went farther away could earn even more, so Zizai Bookstore's business was surprisingly good.

Bai Xiaocao finished writing quickly. She proofread it carefully three times and felt relieved when she found no typos.

I thought to myself, fortunately, I study hard and learn to write every day, otherwise it would be too embarrassing when I come across words that I can’t write.

"Auntie, I have finished writing it, please take a look."

"Good~"

Seeing this, Tao Jiaren subconsciously looked away to avoid suspicion, although she also listened and knew it was nothing serious.

But she accidentally glanced at some words and then turned her head back in surprise.

"Well..." From what she knew, it seemed that everyone in Taohua Village, young and old, could read and write.

However, if the words she had just glanced at were correct, she actually didn't recognize them.

Don't know anyone.

It looks like a word, but why are it so square and the strokes are a bit strange?

Could it be the characters used exclusively by the tribe in Taohua Village?

Bai Tao took a look and soon realized why Tao Jiaren was surprised, and replied casually: "This... well, it's the words I usually use." Tao Jiaren nodded and thought to herself, she was not an illiterate person, but she couldn't recognize a single word.

Although Bai Tao said that it was her usual character, Tao Jiaren believed that it was used by the ancestors of Taohua Village and passed down to this day. Otherwise, how could the people in Taohua Village know it?

Just as Bai Tao thought, the villagers put the letter in a brocade box on the table in the warehouse, and after a cup of tea someone went in to check.

When he found that the letter was missing, he was immediately delighted, thinking that his aunt must have seen the letter.

Next, the person in charge of receiving the letters looked at his watch from time to time. After waiting for half an hour, which seemed like an eternity, he went back into the warehouse.

When he opened the brocade box, he was surprised to find a reply letter inside.

Holding the letter, Bai Qiao happily ran out of the warehouse and said to the villagers who were waiting for news: "I've replied, I've replied, my aunt has replied--"

"real?!"

"Great!"

The villagers who did not go out of the village were feeling very nervous while waiting, but when they heard Bai Tao's reply, their hearts were instantly relieved.

They immediately started to ask, "What did the aunt say?"

"Did my aunt mention me?"

Bai Dashan glanced at the villagers who were excited and expectant, and said unhappily: "I am so busy, I don't have time to mention you."

"How is the sales of the shop you manage these past two days?"

"I'm telling you guys, even though I'm away on a long trip, you can't slack off..."

"If the store you are in charge of has poor sales, don't blame us for being ruthless."

Bai Qiao also quickly browsed through it at this time, and shook her head at the villagers who were still waiting hesitantly: "No."

"My aunt mentioned Hu Niu."

Hearing this, Huniu's family was overjoyed.

"Tiger girl, little tiger girl, did you hear me? I am talking about you."

"Tiger Girl, everything you eat and drink is given by your aunt. You must know how hard it is for your aunt. When you grow up, you must be filial to your aunt..."

At this time, Hu Niu, who was only half a year old, with a round face, chubby hands and feet like lotus roots, and was drinking milk from the bottle, put down the bottle, grinned, revealing two small tender teeth that had just emerged, and smiled happily.

Amid the villagers' chatter, Bai Dashan took the letter from Bai Qiao, cleared his throat, and prepared to read it aloud to his fellow villagers.

"I have received your letter, aunt."

"I'm fine. I just had honey barbecue for lunch and now I'm drinking honey water."

"Have you heard Huniu calling for help? That's good. Are all the other children in the village doing well?"

"I'll be back in a few days, so don't worry too much. Just do what you need to do. If there's anything you want to eat, just leave me a note."

"I'm in good health..." Bai Tao said this with a sense of helplessness in her heart. She had only been out for a short while and was eating happily, so how could she be in any condition?

Bai Tao didn't know at this time that her reply to the letter was like the villagers discovering a new world. From the next day onwards, they would write her two letters a day.

Yeah, there will be more later~~~