Chapter 273 Water-based Pen Refills and Draft Paper

Xiao Yingchun explained with a smile: "This medicine, you and your aunt, take one pill each during the four solar terms of the year, including the gold foil on the outside...it can help maintain your health."

"Children should not take it, young people should not take it. Just you and your aunt-in-law take it, four pills each per year, this medicine is enough for more than two years..."

Xiao Qigui realized belatedly: "Isn't this medicine expensive?"

Xiao Yingchun waved her hand and said, "It's made by Uncle Ye's Qing Yu Tang. He gave it to me at a very low price. You can just take it and eat it."

Xiao Yingchun is never stingy when it comes to people who truly treat her well.

Xiao Qigui wondered how expensive a pill could be. Without thinking too much, he took the whole bag back and placed it on the dining table.

When daughter-in-law Sun Lihua saw a bag of things, she looked through them curiously. But when she saw what they were, she was shocked!

"Dad, where did you buy so many Angong Niuhuang Pills? Or from Qing Yu Tang?"

Xiao Qigui was at a loss: "Yingchun gave it to me, what's wrong with that?"

"Give? Give so much?! Oh my God..."

Sun Lihua couldn't believe it. She took them out one by one and arranged them neatly into a 4*5 rectangle on the table.

"Do you know how hard it is to buy this medicine now?"

"My uncle wants to buy this medicine, but he hasn't bought it yet! I saw him asking in the family group who can buy it."

"Yingchun has really made a fortune?! Giving away twenty at once?!"

Xiao Qigui heard this and said, "He wants it? How about you send two boxes to him?"

Sun Lihua looked at her father-in-law like a fool: "Dad, do you know what you are talking about?"

"This medicine is so expensive! One pill costs a thousand dollars! You're just giving it away?!"

Xiao Qigui was so frightened that he snorted and his eyes widened: "What? Master Duo?"

Sun Lihua picked up a box and said, "This box only has one!"

“This one is only one thousand dollars!”

“You can’t buy it yet!”

Xiao Qigui: !!!

He really didn't expect that one pill would cost a thousand yuan?!
Is this selling gold?!
Looking at the twenty pills neatly arranged into a rectangle by his daughter-in-law, Xiao Qigui swallowed several times before saying, "No, these pills must be sent back!"

Sun Lihua was stunned: "Why?"

"Such an expensive thing, and she just gave it to me directly..." Xiao Qigui felt that he shouldn't take it.

Twenty thousand dollars!
Just then, my aunt heard the noise and came out. After listening to Xiao Qigui's account of what happened, she also felt that it was wrong to take the things.

"You just gave someone a can of Laba porridge, and they gave you 20,000 yuan worth of medicine, and you have the nerve to take it back?"

"Send it back quickly!"

"I didn't know it was so expensive..." Xiao Qigui quickly put the Angong Niuhuang Pills back into the bag and prepared to send it back the next day.

He chattered on and on about what Xiao Yingchun said when he asked her about her plans for the New Year today.

"It wasn't easy for this child... How could we afford to take such an expensive thing from her..."

Sun Lihua quickly grabbed her father-in-law and said, "Dad, wait a minute..."

Xiao Qigui looked at his daughter-in-law with disapproval in his eyes: "What? You want it?"

Sun Lihua waved her hands quickly: "Dad, what are you talking about? This is what I think..."

Sun Lihua explained.

If Xiao Yingchun is being "kept" now, she must be well-off and would not take this gift seriously.

"If you give it back to her now, she may not cherish it. She might give it to someone else. You might as well keep it for her."

"If she needs it in the future, you can return it to her and it can be used as an emergency aid."

When something happens to Xiao Yingchun or when times are tough, these things become valuable.

"You don't know, this Angong Niuhuang Pill becomes more valuable the longer it is stored!"

"Someone was selling Angong Niuhuang Pills made in 1993 for over 10,000 yuan per pill!"

Xiao Qigui's eyes widened: This is too scary! He has never heard of it!

After listening to her daughter-in-law's words, the aunt-in-law nodded slowly.

"If you ask me, what Lihua said makes sense. Even though she pays us so much, we should still consider her..."

"It would be best if we keep it for her so that she doesn't need to use it in her lifetime."

"If there's a day when we can be of use to her, we'll give it back to her in exchange for money to spend. That way, we can repay her care and her parents..."

The family agreed, and Xiao Qigui carefully wrapped the Angong Niuhuang Pills in several layers of plastic bags and put them in the bottom corner of the cabinet...

Xiao Yingchun knew nothing about this and was following Fu Chenan to stock the stationery shop next to Yingchun Academy.

The Four Treasures of the Study are things that scholars cannot live without.

With the successful opening of Yingchun Academy, more and more people came to study and learn skills there, and the sales of the four treasures of the study also increased.

Since most of them are children of ordinary people, the expenses of their pens, ink, paper and inkstone are a heavy burden.

The cheapest set of four treasures of the study costs several taels of silver, and many ordinary people cannot afford it.

After listening to Fu Chenan's talk, Xiao Yingchun thought of water-based pens and draft paper.

These two items are super cheap on Pinxixi.

One hundred refills are only nine dollars, and if you order more, they can be even cheaper.

Two thousand pages of draft paper only cost a little over eleven dollars.

It would be perfect for students sent from ordinary families!

For ordinary people who come here to learn a craft, the cultural course is just a literacy class, and they can only write a few words every day.

A ten-cent refill is enough for them to use for several days.

The same goes for draft paper. They used it sparingly. A hundred-page draft book cost fifty cents, which was enough for them to use for a year.

The pen and ink shop was right next to Yingchun Academy. When this novel thing was launched, everyone was stunned!

Are there any pens that dispense ink automatically?

Why are the strokes written with this pen so thin?
A character can be written very small, and it doesn’t waste so much paper.

What? The refill is too thin to hold?
Can't you just put a small bamboo tube on the outside?

As thick as you want!

In addition to common people, many rich young men and young ladies from noble families also bought them for novelty.

You don’t know until you use it. Once you use it, everyone says it’s good.

When using this kind of pen, they no longer have to worry about uneven and untidy strokes due to poor control of strength. Whatever they write can be straight and level.

At the home of Minister of Revenue Cui Chaoyong, several young masters who had just returned from school at Yingchun Academy showed their newly bought pen refills and draft paper to their father like presenting treasures.

"Father, look at this pen, this paper... look at the words written here..."

"It's only ten cents a piece!"

"This thick book only costs fifty cents!"

As the children rushed to show off, Cui Chaoyong and his adult sons were stunned.

This was also the first time they saw this thing.

The eldest son Cui Ziyao asked the children to leave first, then he looked at his father inquiringly.

"Father, will our court promote this kind of pen and paper in the future?"

Cui Chaoyong didn't think it was that simple: "... not necessarily."

The incident of the old couple trying to commit suicide in front of the Chunshan Tea House was widely spread by people with ulterior motives, who said that the imperial court was competing with the people for profit.

The business of pens, ink, paper and inkstones does not just make a little profit, it makes huge profits, and is all controlled by big families.

If the imperial court used this kind of refill to replace brushes, ink and inkstones, it would have a great impact on the people along the entire production and sales line.

By then, there will be more people who will accuse the court of "competing with the people for profit"...

(End of this chapter)