Everyone else had gone to the city, Mrs. Zhou and Fu Rong were heading to the Li Embroidery shop to teach how to make the velvet flowers, while Fu Wenyu and Fu Dashi awent to the yamen to transfer the land deed to Fu Wenyu’s name, so they left early. After completing the land deed transfer, the two went outside the city to a place selling bricks and tiles, where they ordered enough blue bricks and tiles according to the drawings provided by the master craftsman.

For the next month, Fu Wenyu was busy with building the house.

In ancient times, building a house was not easy.

Even though the Fu family had over twenty strong young men helping and had hired experienced master craftsmen to oversee the project, it still took a full month to build nearly ten rooms and the outermost wall. Of course, this was partly due to Fu Wenyu’s high standards; if his requirements had been simpler, it could have been completed ten days earlier.

But Fu Wenyu had no regrets.

Because what now stood before him was a typical Suzhou-style courtyard house. White walls, black tiles, and blue brick floors exuded an ancient and elegant charm.

Of course, this month also saw him spending money like water.

The initial budget was fifty taels of silver, but in the end, eighty-two taels were spent. Adding to that the furniture, bookshelves, tables, chairs, fruit trees, and flowers needed after the house was built, not only were the family savings exhausted, but most of the silver ingots given by the Tang family were also used. A rough estimate showed that a total of one hundred and forty taels were spent.

Mrs. Zhou looked at the account book, her heart aching.

“Wenyu…”

“We must be more frugal in the future. Now, we have less than twenty taels of silver left at home. Fortunately, our family is small, and we are in mourning, so we don’t need to be too extravagant.”

Because they couldn’t host large banquets during the mourning period, they didn’t even hold a housewarming feast. After moving in today, they just cut a little meat and prepared four kinds of pastries and fruits, sending a portion to relatives, friends, and those who had helped.

Hearing this, Fu Wenyu felt a bit embarrassed.

Actually, he hadn’t planned to spend so much initially, but as the house took shape day by day, increasingly resembling the exquisite Suzhou-style courtyard houses he had seen in modern times, he found it hard to restrain his inner impulses. Being a modern person without parental constraints, he indeed had little restraint when it came to spending money.

Fortunately, he could spend, but he could also earn!

So Fu Wenyu immediately said, “Mother, don’t worry. When Zhang Er and Steward Tang came to deliver the housewarming gifts today, they told me that my storybook has been printed and will soon be on sale.”

“Zhang Er will bring a sample book tomorrow.”

“Once those thousand sets are sold, I’ll have money again.”

“And those lands given by Mr. Tang, didn’t you go to see them, Mother? By the end of the year, the tenant farmers will pay the rent for the second half of the year, and when we sell the grain, that will be another sum of money.”

Hearing this, Mrs. Zhou’s brow relaxed, “That’s true, but we can’t sell all the grain. Building the house has nearly depleted our family’s grain reserves, so we need to keep more, just in case.”

Fu Wenyu indicated that he understood.

“And the money from selling the velvet flowers,” Fu Rong added, “Sister Xin said we’ve made a lot of velvet flowers this time, and people have been placing orders one after another. Someone even plans to sell them in the capital.”

“I’ve also heard Madam Li mention this,” Mrs. Zhou thought for a moment, “It seems that there are many wealthy people in the capital willing to spend money, so that person is thinking of going there.”

“But I noticed that Mrs. Li doesn’t seem too willing.”

Fu Rong was puzzled, “Why isn’t she willing?”

Mrs. Zhou shook her head, “I don’t know either.”

Fu Wenyu didn’t join their conversation but looked at the new house with satisfaction.

That night, he lay on his old bed, looking at the clean bedroom that was twice as large as before, complete with a wardrobe, and slept soundly until the next morning.

Early the next morning, Zhang Er arrived.

He came to deliver the sample book.

“Wenyu, your family’s milk tea is really delicious!”

“Then take some back when you leave,” Fu Wenyu replied while flipping through the sample book Zhang Er had brought.

They were now in the study of the Fu family’s newly built front courtyard.

Of the three main rooms in the front courtyard, one was set up as a reception hall, another was Fu Wenyu’s study, and the remaining one was not wasted either, furnished with a set of tables and chairs where guests could be entertained for meals if they came.

In the study, Fu Wenyu had already organized the books left by his grandfather, Fu Qingshan, and the original owner, neatly arranging them on the bookshelves. The empty spaces on the walls were adorned with a few paintings.

These paintings were not by famous artists but were selected from the works of his grandfather and Fu Qingshan, featuring landscapes and figures. Although they held little artistic value, hanging them added a scholarly atmosphere to the room, making it more pleasant to look at.

The area with the best light was occupied by a long table.

On the long table were books, an inkstone, brushes, ink, and paper. Fu Wenyu now sat upright at the table, flipping through the sample book page by page, his brow unconsciously furrowing.

“Is this the sample book?”

“Yes,” Zhang Er put down his empty cup and leaned over, “The printing house just delivered it this morning. You know your story has over 130,000 characters, and it took the printing house over a month to print it. They even had to cast new typefaces temporarily. If it weren’t for the boss’s order, it wouldn’t have been this fast.”

“What’s wrong, is there something amiss?”

Fu Wenyu didn’t specify what was wrong but pointed to the illustrations, “Are these illustrations done by the scholar from the printing house that Uncle Zhang mentioned?”

“Yes, he drew them.”

At this point, Zhang Er slapped his forehead, “Oh, I remember my uncle mentioned that you wanted to ask Mr. Murong Bai to help with the illustrations, right? Unfortunately, after we sent the book over, although he was interested, he said he was too busy in the coming months to take on the task and suggested we find someone else.”

“My uncle thought that waiting for Mr. Murong might take until after the New Year, so he had the scholar from the printing house do it. What, do you think the illustrations aren’t good?”

Fu Wenyu put down the book, somewhat troubled.

“It’s not that they’re bad, they’re just not good enough.”

To be fair, the scholar hired by the printing house wasn’t bad; some details showed he was quite meticulous. But having seen better, Fu Wenyu found them just average.

Zhang Er understood.

He scratched his head in distress, “But Mr. Murong is unavailable…”

Fu Wenyu was also troubled, “Yes…”

If the other party didn’t like the novel or was unwilling to take the job, he wouldn’t be so disappointed. But it was precisely because they were willing but unavailable that made it so frustrating.

To wait was unbearable.

Not to wait was also unsatisfactory.

Just as he hesitated, Zhang Er said, “Wenyu, let it go.”

He lowered his voice slightly, whispering, “Do you know? The incident about Mr. Tang’s son being switched by the wet nurse has spread throughout Liuzhou in the past month. Not only is it known in the twelve counties of Liuzhou, but even neighboring Jiangzhou and Anzhou have heard about it. Everyone is shocked.”

“And I heard the truth is quite similar to your story, and the Liuzhou tabloid has also become popular!”

Zhang Er extended three fingers, “Now its print run has tripled.”

“Even merchants from Jiangzhou are coming to buy it.”

“That many?” Fu Wenyu was surprised.

As far as he knew, the Liuzhou tabloid wasn’t printed in small quantities because it was cheap. If the print run has tripled, it means nearly half of the scholars in Liuzhou have read it.

And that number shouldn’t be underestimated, as there are surely people who don’t buy it but borrow it to read. In other words, all the scholars in Liuzhou know about his story.

“Exactly!”

Zhang Er wore a proud expression, “You’ve been busy building the house at home recently, so you probably don’t know yet.”

“My uncle said that out of the originally agreed thousand sets, some have already been pre-ordered. Most are from other counties below and merchants from Jiangzhou, Anzhou, and other places. The incident with Mr. Tang’s family is old news here, but it’s just starting to spread like wildfire over there.”

“That’s Mr. Tang we’re talking about!”

“He has shops everywhere, and many have heard of his family, so they’re very curious about what happened. Your storybook, once they take it back, won’t have any trouble selling.”

Zhang Er patted Fu Wenyu’s shoulder and added, “My uncle also said that if the first print of a thousand sets sells out, he’ll have the printing house print another two thousand sets. Not only will they sell in Jiangzhou and Anzhou, but they can also sell in the capital. The yamen has already reported the case to the Dali Temple in the capital.”

“So changing the illustrations now might be too late.”

Fu Wenyu understood Zhang Er’s point. The incident with Mr. Tang’s family, being bizarre and twisty, had spread over time and might even reach the capital. If his storybook could ride this wave, its sales could reach a new level, certainly more than a thousand sets.

Then changing the illustrations would be meaningless. Because the printing house had almost finished printing the text, and once the illustrations were printed, they could be bound into books immediately.

So Fu Wenyu quickly decided, “Then let’s print it as is.”

“After printing a thousand sets, we can print a portion as deluxe editions. This one, this one, this one, and this one,” he flipped through the pages, pointing to a few well-drawn illustrations, “These can be extracted, colored, and added to the deluxe editions. Additionally, they can be enlarged and painted into large scrolls.”

“And here…”

Fu Wenyu explained his ideas to Zhang Er one by one, striving to make the deluxe editions more beautiful, luxurious, and noble-looking. After all, he only made twenty taels from the ordinary thousand sets, but a deluxe set could earn him seven taels. Whether he could make big money depended on how many deluxe editions he could sell.

If he could sell a thousand deluxe sets, that would be seven thousand taels!

He could easily make over a thousand taels.

Of course, he knew this was impossible. Unless one day his story spread throughout the world, then he might be able to sell deluxe editions in quantity.

Fu Wenyu took the deluxe editions very seriously. Finally, seeing that Zhang Er didn’t quite understand some parts, to prevent miscommunication, he got up and went to the city to communicate directly with Manager Zhang and the printing house.

After three days, they bound five hundred ordinary sets and twenty deluxe sets.

But before they could start selling, Manager Zhang wiped his sweat and told him some bad news, “Wen, Wenyu, something terrible has happened. The Liuzhou tabloid has printed the ending of your story!”

Fu Wenyu: “…What?

He was concentrating on signing his name in cursive on the deluxe editions when he suddenly stopped.