Fu Wenyu was unaware that a large wave of guests was about to arrive. He sat inside the house with Shopkeeper Zhang, sipping tea and remarking on how quiet it was at the moment.

Perfect for reading.

So, he took out the third and fourth chapters of “The Legend of the Divine Eye.”

“Uncle Zhang, these are the third and fourth chapters of ‘The Legend of the Divine Eye,'” he said.

According to plan, he was supposed to continue his studies on antiques at the Jinshizhai in the afternoon. Therefore, he decided to deliver the third and fourth chapters first to avoid delaying the printing process.

“Oh, so quickly,” Shopkeeper Zhang said as he reached out to take the manuscript and began reading them one by one.

Meanwhile, outside, the enthusiastic voice of Zhang Er could be heard as he greeted customers.

“Esteemed sir, are you here to buy the ‘True and False Young Masters’ storybook?”

“Please, come in, come in!”

…

“Young master, you’re here to buy the ‘True and False Young Masters’ storybook as well, right? Buy early, read early—you’ve come at the perfect time! Ten taels of silver, please. Thank you, thank you.”

“Too expensive?”

“Not at all, not at all! You should know that there are only fifty sets in the entire city of Liuzhou, and forty-three of them have already been sold. Only seven sets remain.”

“If you don’t buy now, they’ll be gone!”

“Want to buy it? Great! I’ll pack it up for you right away!”

…

“Young lady, are you here to buy as well?”

“No, no, I wouldn’t dare look down on you. It’s just that when we took pre-orders earlier, no ladies were interested in this deluxe edition, so I was a bit surprised.”

“Please, come in…”

“What? You want to buy two sets?”

“No, no, of course we wouldn’t refuse to sell. We’re in business; we would never turn down a sale.”

“I’ll pack them up for you right away.”

…

“Esteemed guest…”

…

As he listened, Fu Wenyu suddenly remembered something very important: it seemed, perhaps, that he hadn’t yet kept a deluxe edition for himself!

After all, this was his first book in ancient times, and it held significant commemorative value. Moreover, if he brought it home, his mother and younger sister would likely be delighted to see it. So, he stood up and walked outside, calling out to Zhang Er, who had just seen off a customer: “Brother Zhang, get me a set as well.”

“You too?”

Zhang Er blurted out in surprise, “This is such an expensive item—it costs ten taels of silver per set!” Although he had been urging every customer who came in to buy, he himself couldn’t bear to spend that much.

Yes, the cost was only three taels, but it was being sold for ten taels…

Fu Wenyu actually felt a bit of a sting. When he had seen others buying it earlier, he had only felt joy, but now that he had to spend his own money, he was reluctant.

However, he quickly consoled himself: half of the seven taels profit the bookstore made would go to him.

Hmm, but next time he printed a book, he should discuss with Shopkeeper Zhang about keeping a set of sample books for himself. After all, he was the author. In modern times, publishers would give him twenty sets of sample books for each book he published. If he published many books, those sample books would pile up at home.

As he was thinking this, Shopkeeper Zhang had already finished reading the two chapters and came out. Hearing their conversation, he smiled and said, “No need to buy it, Wenyu. Just take a set home with you.”

“We’ve made quite a bit of money from this printing. Keeping a set for you is no problem.”

Fu Wenyu happily replied, “Then I won’t stand on ceremony. Thank you, Uncle Zhang.” Saving six taels and five hundred wen—not bad, not bad.

Coincidentally, there were still two wooden boxes left on the table. Fu Wenyu didn’t bother to pick and chose one at random. Feeling that he had taken care of everything, he bid farewell to the two men and prepared to head to the Jinshizhai to continue his studies.

As he stepped out of the Kaiyuan Bookstore, he happened to see a carriage pull up, and three or four young men noisily got out, chatting as they made their way toward the bookstore.

“Brother You, you have to let me read it first later.”

“Hey, hey, why should you get to go first?”

“I was the one who mentioned it first!”

“But the carriage is mine. Without my carriage, you wouldn’t have gotten here so quickly.”

“…Fine, fine, you go first. After Brother You finishes reading, it’s your turn.”

“Brother You, hurry! There’s only one set left!”

At these words, the others immediately quickened their pace, crowding around a young man in a blue robe as they passed Fu Wenyu and headed inside. “Coming, coming, we’re coming right now!”

Fu Wenyu chuckled and turned to walk in the direction of Jinshizhai.

…

After spending the afternoon at the Jinshizhai, Fu Wenyu returned home with his head filled with knowledge.

Since his family had started going into the city frequently, Fu Wenyu had made an arrangement with Aunt Liu’s family: they would wait for him in the morning when they went to sell vegetables and in the afternoon when they returned after selling, so they could give him a ride back.

Today was no different.

Sitting leisurely on the ox cart, Fu Wenyu rested his chin on his hand as he admired the setting sun and began pondering the next plot of “The Legend of the Divine Eye.”

“The Legend of the Divine Eye” was a standard power fantasy novel. If it were written in modern times, it could easily span three million words. Unfortunately, he was now in ancient times, and writing something that long wasn’t ideal. Take the storybook “True and False Young Masters,” for example. Although it was only a little over 130,000 characters, with only 3,000 characters printed each time, the serialization period lasted half a year. Later, some unexpected events occurred, but it still took three months to finish printing.

Therefore, Fu Wenyu didn’t plan to make “The Legend of the Divine Eye” too long.

That meant the plot needed to be carefully designed.

Over the next few days, he divided his time between attending lectures by the master craftsmen at Jinshizhai and writing his storybook at home. Meanwhile, as the ten-day deadline arrived, a large number of ordinary editions of “True and False Young Masters” were released into the market. Throughout Liuzhou, anyone who was interested in this storybook could learn about its plot through various channels.

Among them were longtime readers who had followed the story in the Liuzhou Tabloid, as well as new readers who hadn’t read it before but were curious to know what kind of storybook could help Mr. Tang find his son, prompting them to buy a copy to see for themselves.

Every day when Fu Wenyu went into the city, he could hear people discussing it.

Some discussed the plot.

“Who would have thought the Zhang family could be so cunning?”

“Indeed, the events in the storybook are even more terrifying than what happened in Mr. Tang’s family,” said an elderly reader who also had children at home, feeling a sense of dread. “Their scheme was seamless. If it hadn’t been for Magistrate Bao’s keen insight in the end, Mr. Wang would have ended up recognizing a thief as his son!”

“When I was reading it the other day, I was on the edge of my seat, sweating for Mr. Wang. Such a storybook—no wonder those Huang family members were thrown into disarray back then.”

“Absolutely, absolutely.”

…

Others discussed the characters.

“My favorite character is Zhang Gousheng—no, Wang Yishan. When everyone else was convinced, he was the only one who thought about the evidence. No wonder he became a high-ranking official later.”

“I like Magistrate Bao the most. He’s such a good official!”

“Mr. Wang is the best. His love for his son is so genuine. In the end, to prevent people from saying Wang Yishan didn’t resemble him, he actually worked hard to lose weight and look younger.”

“Losing weight can make you look younger?”

“…Well, it should, right?”

…

Of course, not all the feedback was positive.

On one occasion, when Fu Wenyu went to a teahouse to buy tea eggs and other pastries to take home, he overheard someone expressing a different opinion.

“What kind of ‘True and False Young Masters’ is this? It’s utter nonsense, completely meaningless!”

“How can a storybook be so sloppy?!”

“There’s no poetry, no scholarly writing, no romantic subplots. Zhang Gousheng is an insult to scholars. As a man, he willingly degrades himself by doing laundry and cooking—utterly ridiculous.”

“That old woman Zhang is completely devoid of a woman’s virtues.”

“This storybook isn’t worth reading!”

Apart from these criticisms, there were also complaints about the storybook being too expensive or regrets about not being able to get a deluxe edition. After all, by now, nearly every wealthy young master in the city had a copy. If you didn’t have one, you’d feel embarrassed to even talk to them.

Fu Wenyu, of course, simply laughed it off.

Even money has its detractors, so it was only natural that some people would dislike his storybook.

Nothing could dampen his good mood now.

Because it was time to split the profits!

After all the deluxe editions had been sold and most of the ordinary editions had also been sold, Shopkeeper Zhang sat down with Fu Wenyu to discuss the division of profits.

According to their initial agreement, for every 1,000 sets of the ordinary edition printed, Fu Wenyu would receive 30 taels. Since a total of 2,500 sets had been printed, the Kaiyuan Bookstore owed him an additional 30 plus 15, totaling 45 taels.

As for the deluxe edition, since the idea had come from Fu Wenyu and he had contributed significantly throughout the process—without him, it wouldn’t have been possible to produce or sell so many—they had agreed to split the profits 50-50 after deducting the costs.

The cost per set was 3 taels, and the selling price was 10 taels, resulting in a profit of 7 taels per set. For 50 sets, the total profit was 350 taels. When calculating this, Shopkeeper Zhang didn’t include the set he had given to Fu Wenyu, so in the end, Fu Wenyu received 175 taels. Since Shopkeeper Zhang didn’t bring it up, Fu Wenyu graciously accepted his kindness.

In the end, Fu Wenyu took home a total of 220 taels.

He had struck it rich!

On the way back, Fu Wenyu was in high spirits.

He thought about how, when he had first awakened in this world, he had spent some time drinking bitter medicine and then gone hungry while making plans. After several months, his family now not only had a beautiful new house but also this much money.

It seemed his path hadn’t been wrong. Things would only get better from here.

When he reached his doorstep, Fu Wenyu ran into his second uncle, Fu Qingshi, who had just finished dinner and was out for a stroll.

His uncle seemed to have lost a lot of weight, perhaps from overworking during the autumn harvest. Not only had he lost weight, but he also looked several years older, lacking the vigor he had had when the family had divided their property.

When Fu Qingshi saw him, his expression was complicated.

“Wen… Wenyu…”

“Did you buy something again?”

“Yes, the pastries from this shop are delicious. I bought some for my mother to try,” Fu Wenyu replied casually. He didn’t want to engage in small talk with Fu Qingshi, so he pushed the door open.

“Uncle, I haven’t eaten yet. I’ll head in first.”

Fu Qingshi stared blankly as Fu Wenyu closed the door. After a moment, he suddenly gritted his teeth and turned to go back home.

When he returned home, Fu Qingshi didn’t go inside the house but instead went to the kitchen, where his wife, Liu, was washing dishes.

“I just saw Wenyu. He brought back two packages of pastries again,” he said.

“The first branch is getting richer and richer. Not only do they have a new house, but they also have fifty-three acres of land. But we’re getting poorer and poorer. The grain we sold this year is less than last year’s.”

“We can’t go on like this!”

Liu’s bowl clattered into the water as she exclaimed in surprise, “He brought back two packages of pastries again?”

She was indignant. “He already bought his mother a silver hairpin, and now he says that when he has more money, he’ll buy her gold hairpins and gold bracelets. And now he’s bringing back eggs and pastries every day?”

“Husband, we can’t live like this anymore!”

Fu Qingshi pondered, “We need to come up with a plan. We need to make a lot of money too, and buy more land than the first branch.”

But what plan could they come up with? The couple looked at each other, at a loss.