After finishing the description of Li Lei’s younger brother, Li Cha, whose presence was as fragrant as tea, Fu Wenyu nodded in satisfaction.

Someone like Li Cha, who naturally carried the ‘green tea’ persona, was a perfect tool for stirring up conflicts and driving the plot forward. With the addition of this character, the subsequent events would naturally be filled with turmoil and drama.

At this point, Li Lei, whether he was dissatisfied with Li Cha’s false accusations and rushed in to confront him, only to be outmaneuvered by the more experienced Li Cha; or whether he silently endured it, not explaining the misunderstanding to Old Master Li and simply walked away; or whether he did nothing at all and instead brought in the half-human-sized jade stone to dazzle everyone’s eyes…

Any of these choices would work.

In this way, the contradictions were set, the conflicts were established, and the climax of the first stage was also in place.

However, it was quite late now, and tomorrow was the day when the deluxe edition of the book “The True and False Young Masters” would go on sale. So, Fu Wenyu put down his pen, blew out the candle, and went to bed.

Early the next morning, after having breakfast, Fu Wenyu took a stack of papers and headed to Kaiyuan Bookstore.

Shopkeeper Zhang and Zhang Er had already arrived.

Perhaps because it was the first time they were publicly selling such an expensive storybook, Shopkeeper Zhang looked a bit nervous, but he relaxed upon seeing Fu Wenyu.

“Wenyu, you’re here.”

“Uncle Zhang, Brother Zhang Er,” Fu Wenyu greeted them, then his gaze fell on the most prominent spot in the bookstore, where a pile of boxes, very familiar to him, was placed. He instinctively started counting them.

‘One, two, three…’

Fu Wenyu let out a surprised sound and curiously asked, “Uncle Zhang, didn’t you say before that seventeen sets had been pre-ordered, leaving only three sets? I see nearly thirty sets here. Could it be that the ones ordered by the customers haven’t been delivered yet?”

That shouldn’t be the case.

He had left home after breakfast, and by this time, the Liuzhou Tabloid would have already been delivered to various places. According to Shopkeeper Zhang’s way of doing things, the time he delivered the deluxe editions to the customers couldn’t be too far off from the delivery time of the Liuzhou Tabloid.

“Oh, that matter.”

Shopkeeper Zhang laughed, “Wenyu, this is another piece of good news.”

“Earlier, we prepared twenty sets, and on the morning the pre-order time was announced in the Liuzhou Tabloid, twelve sets were ordered, plus the five sets that had been ordered before, leaving only three sets. But that wasn’t the end of it. Later in the afternoon, and in the following days, more people came to place orders.”

“One generous customer even ordered ten sets at once!”

“Saying they were for gifting.”

“Hahaha,” he said proudly, “So, the deluxe edition priced at ten taels per set has now been pre-ordered to a total of thirty-five sets, plus the eight sets the owner wanted, making it forty-three sets in total.”

“I thought it would be better to round it up, so I prepared fifty sets.”

“If they sell well, we can print more.”

Fu Wenyu gasped in astonishment.

At ten taels per set, fifty sets would amount to five hundred taels! Even without counting the seven sets that hadn’t been sold yet, that would still be four hundred and thirty taels. After deducting the cost of three taels per set, the profit would be three hundred and one taels. What did three hundred and one taels mean? If used sparingly, it could last a lifetime!

Even if, according to the agreement, he could only take half of it, that would still be one hundred and fifty taels.

Thinking of this, he hurriedly said, “Uncle Zhang, we can’t print any more!”

Worried that Shopkeeper Zhang, seeing so much money, might go on a printing spree, leading to overstock or price reductions, which would affect the experience of those esteemed customers, Fu Wenyu seized the moment to persuade him.

“Although they are very profitable, selling one copy is equivalent to a hundred ordinary copies. But there are only so many people who have money and are willing to spend it. Printing too many would mean they wouldn’t sell.”

“And since it’s something meticulously crafted, how could everyone have it?”

Seeing Shopkeeper Zhang showing a thoughtful expression, Fu Wenyu continued, “If we print too many this time, making the customers feel that they can buy it anytime as long as they have money, then they won’t want to buy it in the future. After all, something that everyone has, how could it reflect their nobility? But if we only print fifty sets, no matter who comes, once they’re sold out, they’re sold out. Then, when we print other storybooks in the future, they won’t need any urging to rush and buy them.”

“At that time, what they’re buying is face, something that others don’t have!”

Shopkeeper Zhang’s eyes lit up, “What you said is very similar to what the owner once said.”

“Indeed, that makes sense.”

The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was right, and he couldn’t help but sigh, “Before you came, I was thinking that if these remaining seven copies also sell out, then I would print ten more, and if those sell out, I would print another ten.”

“As long as we only print ten at a time, we wouldn’t lose much. After all, books, if kept well, wouldn’t spoil even in ten or eight years.”

“But now, we won’t print anymore.”

Shopkeeper Zhang patted the stack of boxes beside him, “Fifty copies are just right, once they’re sold out, they’re sold out.” After all, the bookstore is in it for the long run, and it’s better to have fewer but profitable items than to ruin the reputation by printing too many.

Fu Wenyu breathed a sigh of relief.

He had been worried that Shopkeeper Zhang wouldn’t listen to his advice.

After all, selling one set could earn seven taels, and the profit was still very substantial. Recently, after getting familiar with Zhang Er, he had heard a few words from him, that a bookstore like Kaiyuan, located in the city center, actually didn’t make much money. In good months, it might earn a hundred or so taels, and in bad months, even less.

It couldn’t compare to the other shops of the Tang family.

So he was very worried that Shopkeeper Zhang couldn’t resist the temptation.

The deluxe edition storybooks, he was treating them as luxury goods. If they were printed indiscriminately, it would ruin the market, which would be very detrimental to the sales of other storybooks in the future.

Now that the two had reached an agreement, it was for the best.

In the following time, Shopkeeper Zhang asked Fu Wenyu to sign the newly printed deluxe editions, and then had the clerks deliver them to the customers one by one, leaving only the seven unsold copies on the table.

During the signing breaks, Fu Wenyu also learned that not only had the pre-orders for the deluxe edition exceeded their expectations, but the ordinary edition had also sold more than expected. The final tally showed that, including those sold in Liuzhou city and those to be delivered to branch stores in other prefectures in the coming days, a total of one thousand nine hundred sets of the ordinary edition had been sold!

The printing house worked day and night, and by now, they had barely managed to produce two thousand sets.

Shopkeeper Zhang made a quick decision to add another six hundred sets.

This time, Fu Wenyu didn’t stop him, because six hundred sets distributed to various places would mean only a few dozen sets per store. Even if they didn’t sell out immediately, they could still be sold over a longer period.

And if they didn’t sell out, it didn’t matter, as long as they were printed, he would get his share of the money.

So, Fu Wenyu was very happy that day.

…And so were a small portion of his readers.

Liu Changmiao was one of them.

Although the Liu family wasn’t considered a wealthy household in Liuzhou, because Scholar Liu had passed the imperial examination at the provincial level, and the eldest son of the Liu family had passed the imperial examination at the county level at a very young age, the family had quite a reputation in Liuzhou. Not to mention that their family had been scholars for generations, regarded as a ‘scholarly family’ in the eyes of the world, so they weren’t short of money.

Now, with Scholar Liu and the eldest son of the Liu family studying in the capital, the only child left at home was Liu Changmiao, so he could have whatever he wanted.

Recently, he had only been frustrated by the storybooks.

That day, after rushing out of the teahouse, he had wanted to go straight to Kaiyuan Bookstore to question Fu Wenyu, but halfway there, he suddenly calmed down and turned back home.

But he had been keeping it in his heart.

Was Wang Fugui really the biological son of Mr. Wang?

If he was, he decided that he would never read Fu Wenyu’s storybooks again. If he wasn’t, he was very curious about what the truth was. That ‘Magistrate Bao’ had said that if they were father and son, their blood would definitely mix.

Could it be that the Zhang family had used some trick?

In his anxiety, a servant came running in with a copy of the Tabloid and an exquisite wooden box.

“Young master, young master—”

The servant excitedly shouted, “It’s here, it’s here, the storybook you ordered has arrived!”

Liu Changmiao stood up abruptly, “Give it to me!”

He was going to see what the truth was!

The Liuzhou Tabloid and the wooden box were placed on the table at the same time. Normally, Liu Changmiao would have picked up the Liuzhou Tabloid first to catch up on the latest installment of the storybook, but today he didn’t even glance at the Tabloid, finding it in the way, and swept it aside.

“Open it quickly!”

The servant deftly opened the wooden box, and then they saw inside the box a book, several small scrolls of paintings, exquisitely made bookmarks, etc. Among these bookmarks were flower-shaped, human-shaped, and animal-shaped ones. There were a few bookmark designs that even Liu Changmiao, with his family’s extensive collection of books, had never seen before, and they were quite novel.

But he couldn’t care less about these.

As soon as he saw the book, he immediately picked it up and started flipping through it.

“Blood recognition, blood recognition…”

“Here it is!”

Upon seeing the familiar text, he immediately stopped and eagerly stared at it. As he read, his expression became less and less pleased, “Twins? Impossible, it was clearly written before that Nanny Zhang had switched the babies, how could it be twins?”

But then he thought that twins were still better than a concubine’s son, so Liu Changmiao relaxed and continued reading. Then he saw Mrs. Wang kneeling before Nanny Zhang, pleading sorrowfully, just to confirm who her real son was.

Liu Changmiao stared at those lines, his lips pressed tightly together.

Then he saw Nanny Zhang mentioning the ‘red mole on the sole,’ saying that Mrs. Wang’s real son had a red mole on his sole when he was born. Immediately after, Mrs. Wang was overjoyed, saying, ‘Yes, yes, there was a red mole, I saw it with my own eyes at the time, as red as blood.’

At this point, he still hadn’t realized the seriousness of the situation, but subconsciously felt that something was wrong. Because during the time when the Liuzhou Tabloid wasn’t being sold, he had repeatedly read it. The mention of the red mole on the sole had indeed been made, but only once at the very beginning, and it wasn’t mentioned again later.

He wanted to go back and check, but he was too eager to know what happened next, so he decided to read on and then go back later.