Author: Potato Sweet Potato Pie

Xia Yuan stopped and was half-actively and half-passively pulled back by the shopkeeper, and sat down on the chair again.

"If you are not satisfied with the price, you can continue to negotiate. Why bother to get up and leave? In this way, I will listen to you if you tell me a price."

"Don't tell me, don't tell me."

Xia Yuan shook his head and continued to kick the ball back, "Let the shopkeeper tell you, I'll listen."

"That"

The shopkeeper pondered for a moment and said: "How about twelve taels, this is enough"

Before he could finish his words, Xia Yuan suddenly stood up and said, "Goodbye, I'll go ask elsewhere."

"Hey, young master, please stay here."

The shopkeeper hurriedly pulled Xia Yuan back and sat down, "Fifteen taels, how about fifteen taels?"

"Farewell."

"Eighteen Liang"

"Farewell."

"Twenty taels!"

"Farewell!"

"."

The shopkeeper's forehead has begun to sweat. He knows that although the writing method of this book is strange, strangeness means novelty, and novel manuscripts can always arouse people's interest, and interest predicts sales.

What's more, the content is completely different from all current books and novels, and the plots and descriptions of martial arts are really captivating.

The shopkeeper is quite optimistic about the prospects of this book, but this person is a horse-riding person, so you will say this, right?

Twenty taels is not enough, what else do you want?

If you’re not satisfied, then you’re not satisfied. Then you can just negotiate a price. What if it’s done?

The atmosphere became somewhat deadlocked, and the shopkeeper shouted to the front hall, "Xiaoqi, go make a pot of tea. I want good tea!"

After giving the order, the shopkeeper wiped his forehead with his cuff, smiled and helped Xia Yuan to the chair: "Sir, come on, sit down, don't worry, this is just a bookstore, but there is also good tea.

, the best Mingqian tea, wait for the tea to come, the young master will taste it first."

The so-called Mingqian tea refers to the tea leaves picked before Qingming. Due to the low temperature before Qingming, the number of tea seeds that can germinate is extremely limited, so the yield is very small.

When the tea was served, Xia Yuan took a sip with great anticipation and smacked his lips. His evaluation was that it was not as good as iced black tea.

Putting the tea cup down, he then asked: "The price of my book."

"There's no hurry, no hurry, sir, let's have some tea first, let's have some tea first. It's a waste if this tea is cold."

The shopkeeper waved his hands with a smile, holding the tea cup and sipping it in small sips, closing his eyes and shaking his head from time to time, as if he was intoxicated.

"Fine."

What else could Xia Yuan say, he had no choice but to drink together. He had never awakened the talent of tea tasting in his two lifetimes. He felt that all teas had the same taste.

After finally finishing half a pot of tea, the shopkeeper finally started talking about the price of the manuscript again, "Sir, to be honest, your manuscript is indeed good, but twenty taels is an extremely fair price. Please note that this bookstore of mine

The highest price ever offered was thirty taels of silver.

Let's do this. I'll give you thirty taels at the highest price. No matter how high it is... if it's higher, I really have more than I can afford. After all, I'm just a shopkeeper, not a boss."

When he finished speaking, he saw Xia Yuan getting up again, as if he was planning to say goodbye again, so he hurriedly added: "If it doesn't work, I will take over for my boss, and I will give you five more taels.

Thirty-five taels in total, just treat it as a good connection, what do you think, Master?"

Thirty-five taels?

Xia Yuan put his buttocks that had been raised a few centimeters back on the chair, thought for a while, and then suggested: "Shopkeeper, let's do this. The price is fifty taels."

"When the time comes, I will also cooperate with your bookstore for the second volume, the third volume, the fourth volume, and the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth volumes."

When he heard that there were five, six, seven, eight or ninety volumes to come, the shopkeeper was immediately troubled. The first volume had about eighty or ninety thousand words, which meant that the book would be very long.

It’s grown well, but the price, fifty taels, is too much, not to mention there’s only one roll.

If the later ones are all counted as fifty taels, and those with more than ten or twenty volumes, then they are not allowed to go out for more than a thousand taels?

"Thirty-six taels at most." After weighing for a long time, the shopkeeper gritted his teeth and gave his quotation, and then explained: "I don't shirk the blame with the young master. Others' words are only sold after they are written. Most of them are long.

It's more than 100,000 words, and our bookstores often only give a price of more than ten or twenty taels. For someone like the Young Master, who pays 36 taels for 80,000 to 90,000 words, it's definitely a sky-high price.

What's more, if the second volume, third volume, and even the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth volumes after Young Master have fewer words, each volume only has 50,000 or 60,000 words, or the content may not be as good as the first volume."

"Don't worry, the content that follows will only be more exciting." Xia Yuan suddenly interrupted and told his plan before coming, "But the number of words is really difficult to control if there are too many or too few. How about we calculate the money based on the number of words?

?”

“Pay by word count?”

The shopkeeper was startled. For a moment, he felt as if he had opened the door to a new world. Is there really such a shameless scholar in the world?

Where is the scholar’s ​​integrity, his backbone, and his face?

"Yes, for example, one tael of silver for one thousand words. This is the fairest. It's yours and mine, so great." Xia Yuan had wanted to do this for a long time, but he didn't find the opportunity.

"One tael of silver for one thousand words?!"

When he heard the price, the shopkeeper was shocked and couldn't help shouting, "Are you crazy about being poor?"

"Shopkeeper, don't get excited. I'm just making a metaphor. I don't really want you to get one thousand words or one tael of silver. We can discuss the details later."

After hearing this, the shopkeeper felt relieved and began to think about the feasibility of this method. After thinking about it again and again, it seemed.

Is it really possible?

Admittedly, doing this is a bit frugal and petty, but this guy doesn't have the dignity to be a scholar. He is only a businessman at best, so what does he have to be afraid of?

What's more, this method is indeed fair, absolutely fair.

After thinking clearly, the shopkeeper began to think about how much he should pay for a thousand words. The original price was thirty-six taels for eighty or ninety thousand words.

After doing some mental calculations, the shopkeeper said, "How about a thousand words for four cents of silver?"

For four coins, this first roll is only about thirty-three taels, so I can still save a few taels.

Xia Yuan shook his head and said, "Four qian sounds ugly. Damn it, let's go to 6 qian. Six or six yuan will be auspicious."

"Only four cents." The shopkeeper's attitude was extremely firm this time, and his words were categorical.

"Otherwise, you and I will each take a step back, five cents of silver, or five cents of silver for a thousand words."

"."

The shopkeeper lowered his head and began to do mental calculations again. After a careful calculation, he found that he had lost money.

But he didn't refuse anymore. He hesitated and sighed, "That's all. Just follow the master's wishes, five cents."

“The shopkeeper is so open and bright.”

"."

The old shopkeeper said nothing, took out a small abacus from his pocket, and started counting against the manuscript.

Xia Yuan was not idle either. He saw the deputy desk next to him and the Four Treasures of the Study on it. He walked over and picked up the brush and a piece of paper and started doing calculations.

The brush he used when writing novels was the thinnest small regular script. Each character he wrote was about the same size, as many horizontally and as many vertically. He listed the equations, multiplied them up and down, and then subtracted blank lines.

There were dozens of pages of paper, but it only took about ten minutes to finish. When Xia Yuan wrote the calculated figures next to him, he looked up and saw that the shopkeeper was still calculating.

He was not in a hurry and waited nearby. After another ten minutes or so, the shopkeeper finally put aside his abacus, stroked his beard and said, "The total is 82,567 words."

Xia Yuan lowered his eyes and glanced at his result, "Well, it's the same as my calculation, eighty-two thousand five hundred and sixty-seven, a total of forty-one taels and five cents."

The shopkeeper's hand holding the beard tightened, "Why is it forty-one taels and five cents? Could it be that the more than five hundred words count."

"Yes, it's rounded up."

"."
Chapter completed!