“This is the Longjing Tea, grown next to the Dragon River, harvested after Qingming Festival and brewed with the spring water from Emerald Peak.”
Zhi Mo was a girl who was no more than 15 years old. She had a pretty face with her hair tied back. Her perfect body was dressed in a student’s robe.
After serving the tea to Zhou Yi and the owner, Zhi Mo left to help a new student pick a suitable book to read.
Zhou Yi scanned the Scholar’s Library, not knowing how to judge the owner of the place for perfecting the business. The bookstore sold anything that a scholar might want to purchase, and it seemed to be a one-of-a-kind place in all of Great Qian.
“Please, have a seat,” the owner invited.
“Thank you.”
Since Zhou Yi had been working with Zhang Cheng every day, the former had been heavily influenced by the latter, and his understanding of tea appreciation had improved over time.
Zhang Cheng’s motto had always been “Alcohol for excitement and courage; tea for cultivation and health.”
Sometimes, the motto would confuse Zhou Yi as to what Zhang Cheng really wanted: excitement or health.
The tea was of a light green shade and Zhou Yi could smell the faint aroma coming from it as he took a sip.
“This is amazing!” Zhou Yi exclaimed as he put the cup down while licking the lingering sweetness on his lips.
“This Longjing Tea is one of the few types of teas that are acknowledged by the emperor. Too bad the leaves that are harvested before the Qingming Festival are almost impossible to get. All of the stocks were purchased by the officials and royalty as soon as it came out,” the owner sighed. Clearly, he was a man who loved calligraphy as he did not forget to appreciate Zhou Yi’s works while enjoying a cup of tea over a conversation.
“Your calligraphy is amazing. It has elegance but still retains the neatness of the Taige style. It’s basically a new style of calligraphy!”
“Thank you for your compliment. But, I’m merely a copycat who mirrors my friend’s style.” Zhou Yi smiled as he continued to enjoy the tea. He felt a sense of Spiritual Qi from the tea itself, but it was nothing compared to what he had sensed from the Drunken Spring.
Since Zhang Cheng was a talented person, it was natural that his writing had a sense of elegance. However, since he needed to transcribe books, he had adopted the neatness of the Taige style into his own writing and created the unique Zhang style.
“Even if you didn’t create this style of writing yourself, your calligraphy is already some of the best I’ve ever seen. It’s almost impossible to merge two different styles into one.” The owner did not change his opinion even after hearing that Zhou Yi merely copied his friend’s style.
After reading through the scripts that Zhou Yi had written, the owner of Scholar’s Library could tell that these were all actual scripts that were created by famous scholars, and not those random scripts by a nobody.
From what he’d seen so far from Zhou Yi, the owner could tell that the man in front of him came from a respectable family.
“The spring water tastes amazing as well. Is it too much to ask where it came from?” Zhou Yi suddenly asked.
“Of course not. It’s not like I own the source of water anyway,” the owner laughed. “The water came from the Emerald Peak just outside the city. All you have to do is locate the Greenwave Pond. Follow the stream, and you’ll find the source.”
“I see, so it came from the source of the Greenwave Pond. That’s why I can sense some Spiritual Qi in it.”
Zhou Yi recalled that an old dragon used to live near the pond. It had eventually died in the dungeon.
The conversation continued over several more cups of tea. Since Zhou Yi had the memories of millions of demons and the owner had read through numerous books, both of them had a lot of things to share.
The conversation continued for more than an hour until the owner reached the 12th script, which was a collection of strange tales. It was none other than the Tale of Executioner.
While Zhou Yi had transcribed all the scripts he could think of, he had also written down the Tale of Executioner that he had once written, but with a few minor edits.
The first draft of the tale told the stories that Zhou Yi had experienced as an executioner and also the tales he’d heard from other executioners. It was written with simpler grammar and vocabulary. The repentance of a few similar experiences warranted some edits from Zhou Yi.
For a tale to be famous and widely spread, it needed to have originality, which was how the second version of the tale came about.
What the bookstore owner was reading was the third version, in which Zhou Yi had added a few exaggerations and changes to the plot. It was more pleasant to read than the original draft.
However, Zhou Yi knew his own limits, and after years of editing, he finally decided to turn all the scripts into a single book.
“This story, it’s kind of similar to The Gorgeous Succubus.” The owner frowned after finishing the first chapter. “However, The Gorgeous Succubus is no more than an adult novel, but this right here is more of a warning to the readers that living with a demon is dangerous. The only similarity here is the characters in the story. Liu Xi the scholar and Zhu Meiniang the succubus…”
Zhou Yi almost spat the tea out when he heard the remarks. What the heck is The Gorgeous Succubus?
“Have you read a similar story?”
“More than one,” the owner smiled. It was a smile that men could instantly recognize.
He made sure that Zhi Mo was busy preparing tea for other scholars before he headed towards the counter and brought out a couple of books.
Among these books were The Gorgeous Succubus, The Bull-head Monk, and Gratitude of the Golden Chick.
After going through a few pages of these books, Zhou Yi had to fight back the urge to send the authors to hell with his sword.
The plots of these books were simple. Instead of warning normal citizens of the dangers that demons could bring, the authors created a scenario where people made out with these demons instead.
Most of the authors only credited themselves through their pen names. Some even decided to remain anonymous.
“To be honest, I’m the one who wrote the Tale of Executioner,” Zhou Yi sighed and explained. “Since I’ve seen a lot of people dying in the hands of these monsters, I’ve decided to write the book to serve as a warning for people…”
“I see…” The owner nodded and believed Zhou Yi’s claim to be the author.
Zhou Yi had included a simple explanation at the end of each chapter in his third version of the book. The paragraph would explain why it was dangerous to live under the same roof with the demon that was mentioned in the chapter. He even included a simple way to restrain some of the weaker demons. There were also simple explanations of the Law of Great Qian scattered throughout the book.
For a knowledgeable person like the owner of the bookstore, the Law of Great Qian was something he was familiar with. However, normal citizens of Great Qian would have little to no understanding of the law, and some would never even know that they had broken the law.
The more the owner read, the more he liked the Tale of Executioner. The grammar and vocabulary used in all 108 chapters were simple to understand and could leave a long-lasting impression.
He was determined that the book would become famous.
Unlike other scholars, the owner of the Scholar’s Library had harsh requirements when judging the quality of a book. He would also take into account the profitability of the books.
The owner did not look down on the use of simpler grammar and vocabulary in the book either, as most of the bookstores sold books like that to survive.
“Are you interested in mass-producing your work? The Scholar’s Library is willing to pay you five hundred for it!”
Zhou Yi shook his head, prompting the owner to think that the price he had offered was too low.
“What I’m offering is already as high as I can go. Even the best works nowadays will not get more than a thousand,” the owner explained. “The problem with mass-producing is that I have to bear a certain risk. Even if it’s a hit, I can only profit from the first batch. Once the other stores realize how good the book is, they’ll try to make a copy and sell their own version.”
“You’re mistaken. I’m okay with mass-producing my book, and I’m not going to charge you now.” Zhou Yi held up three fingers. “But, I want 30% of the profit,” he said.
“I’ve never heard of something like this…” the owner gasped and quickly calculated in his head.
If he were to sell every book at 20 cents, he would be able to make a profit of 15 cents per book. After factoring in all the labor costs, he would be able to fetch a net profit of 10 cents per book, which meant that he had to sell at least 5000 copies to earn 500 from it.
Only some of the best works were able to sell 5000 copies at the Scholar’s Library, which was why the owner said that paying 500 for the rights to publish the book was already a hefty amount.
If he were to give 30% of the profit to Zhou Yi, he would have to sell at least 15,000 copies for Zhou Yi to even get 500 coins.
The owner realized that Zhou Yi’s proposal was more beneficial to him and agreed to it.
“Deal! Should we sign a contract now?”
Since printing more than a hundred different books per year was a norm for the Scholar’s Library, the owner already had a contract ready on his counter. All he had to do was make a few minor changes.
Zhou Yi scanned through the contract and didn’t find anything suspicious.
Unlike the contracts in his past life, which consisted of hundreds of pages, the contract in Great Qian only had a single page, and anything suspicious was easily noticeable.
The only problem was that contracts would never work on thieves, but it was something that Zhou Yi wasn’t worried about.
If the owner of the Scholar’s Library had the guts to try and scam him, he would’ve charged out of the shop the moment he noticed it.
At the end of the contract was the owner’s name, He Yongyan.
“Everything seems alright, but I want to add another clause,” Zhou Yi nodded. “I want to separate all 108 chapters into three different volumes and sell them separately.”
He Yongyan’s eyes widened when he heard the suggestion. Not only could they profit more by separating the book into three different volumes, but they could also prevent others from stealing their work. Once the first volume became a hit, people would frequent the Scholar’s Library more in anticipation of the next volumes.
“That’s a brilliant idea! May I know your name? So that I can put your name as the author.”
“Just call me… Liuquan Jushi.”
He Yongyan nodded, understanding why Zhou Yi decided to use a pen name instead of his real one. Most authors would do the same thing as books detailing strange tales were not mainstream, and people would also look down on authors who used simple grammar and vocabulary.
“Noted. I hope your books will be a hit!” The owner smiled. “I’ll have the scripts proofread tomorrow. We will be removing some sensitive words if you don’t mind.”
“Of course.”
Zhou Yi had already removed all the sensitive words he could find when he finished the book.
He even removed stories that exposed some of the government officials’ dirty works.
The Tale of Executioner wasn’t aiming to be historical or famous, and neither was it meant to express Zhou Yi’s feelings.
The man had met a lot of different demons and ghosts in the dungeon and had seen a lot of people killed by them. The purpose of the book was to prevent the same tragedy from happening again.
Dreams, values, purposes, these were things that the people of the lowest class would not be bothered with. Instead of writing books that spread those, Zhou Yi believed that books that would help with their lives were better.
The opening sentence of the Tale of Executioner was as followed: If this book had served as a warning and could prevent a tragedy from happening, then I did not waste my time writing this…