A new beginning

The way home, the heart of a wanderer.

It is because I sent one away that I miss my family so much.

Madam should be very worried, right?

The new house should be finished, right?

Are Yazhi and Huairou still bickering?

Has Xiaoyue grown a little taller?

In the car, Xia Shang was full of thoughts, and the scenery on the way was all forgotten.

He left in the early morning and arrived in the evening. The road was bumpy and there was no need to describe it in detail.

When he returned home with a dusty body, the new three-door house at home was still in high spirits under the afterglow of the sunset. It was located at the east end of the house, and it watched the sunrise every day and was built upright. On the side of the mansion, the former collapsed thatched house and the messy abandoned house have disappeared without a trace. The sandy land is neatly paved with blue bricks. A right-angle corridor has just been built, connected to the side hall of the east entrance of the mansion. There are also flower seeds and saplings piled on the side, which seems to be a small garden.

The stables, kitchens, and toilets have been renovated and are all brand new. The new furniture that was piled outside the yard has also been moved into the house, and the whole yard looks more magnificent.

Everyone is there, and Xia Shang's return quickly broke the tranquility of the family.

After a short separation, there is no lack of laughter and playfulness. However, the lady only looked at her husband affectionately among the crowd, shouting thousands of words in her eyes that are not convenient to say in public.

Xia Shang knew the lady's thoughts. He comforted the two younger girls and asked Zhong Bo to prepare meals early. After eating, he used the excuse of being tired from the journey to rest early.

Now they live in the new house, Xia Shang and Qin Huairou live in the main room, Xiaoyue and Yazhi sleep in the side hall, separated by a reception hall, and behind the hall is an open hall for people to walk between the two rooms. This makes it convenient for Xia Shang to secretly harass his own girl in the future.

Thinking that when Yazhi grows up, he will accompany Huairou in the first half of the night and Yazhi in the second half of the night, which is very uncomfortable.

In Xia Shang's mind, Yazhi is still a 16-year-old girl, still a child. Although she is stunningly beautiful, he doesn't think badly of her.

But Yazhi doesn't think so. She has lived in this house for so many days, without a name or status, a maid is not a maid, and a concubine is not a concubine. She always feels uncomfortable thinking about it.

In the past, it was inconvenient to separate the two rooms. Now they live under the same roof, the lady can't occupy the young master every night, right? No matter how you count it, it should be my turn, right? Thinking about how obsessed the young master was with her when she first came to the Xia family, maybe he would sneak into her bed tonight.

Thinking of this, the girl who was hiding in the side hall embroidering couldn't help blushing, throwing the needle and thread aside, holding the oil lamp and returning to her dressing table, fiddling with the bronze mirror and rouge box.

In the compartment, Xiaoyue yawned and brought hot water, twisted the handkerchief awkwardly, and then handed it to the young master. After serving the young master and his wife, she returned to the side hall.

As soon as Xiaoyue left, Qin Huairou couldn't help sobbing.

Xia Shang was just about to go to bed, but he didn't expect his wife to do this. He asked anxiously, "Madam, what happened to you?"

"My husband was injured, it's all my fault."

"What does this have to do with you?"

"I should have shot an arrow through his heart that day, but I didn't expect it to be so off. If not, my husband wouldn't have been so seriously injured."

"Oh!" Xia Shang sighed, and hurriedly pulled the self-blaming little cutie to his side, took off his coat, and rubbed the little cutie's belly through a layer of lining, "Madam, it rained hard that day, and there was wind, any archer would lose his aim. Also, don't think about the past, and rest early."

Qin Huairou half-pushed and half-pushed, and went to bed after a lot of tossing and turning.

Today they went to bed early, and the two talked about what happened in the past in bed, and they didn't know when they fell asleep.

He dreamed that he went to Suzhou and found Shangguan Chan, but she was already pregnant, and asked him resentfully why he found her so late.

Since Shangguan Chan entered his heart, Xia Shang always knew what he should do.

Today is the beginning of a new life, and Xia Shang has a lot of things to do.

First, he worshipped his parents. This worship represented that Xia Shang completely accepted everything in this body.

Then he quietly mourned for Liu Xun, trying to find peace of mind.

Finally, he inquired about the situation in Yulin County to see if there were any repercussions for Liu Xun's death.

It took a day to worship the ancestors.

The next morning, Xia Shang packed up his things and prepared to go to Yulin County for a walk.

After another morning of inquiries, it was found that the people in Yulin County didn't know that someone had died. It was calm all around, as if Liu Xun had never appeared in the county.

It's not surprising to think about it. Liu Xun's identity is extraordinary. He should not be publicized if he was killed in a small county. This account should be counted on the Red Flower Society. Xia Shang felt that he would not be in danger in the short term.

There was no news about Liu Xun in the market, but Xia Shang had other discoveries.

Many sly vendors approached people and tried to sell something in a mysterious way.

Xia Shang was curious and found a vendor to ask questions.

It turned out that the things these vendors were secretly selling were his own "Dream of Red Mansions"!

There were only fifteen chapters, and each volume was sold for three to five taels of silver.

Before this month, Xia Shang remembered that the chapters of "Dream of Red Mansions" that were sold in the market were sold for fifty taels of silver. In a blink of an eye, the market price dropped tenfold!

At first, Xia Shang didn't understand it, but when he bought a copy and opened it, he saw it.

Damn it!

The printed version is out!

It is said that ancient people were stupid and didn't know how to do business. Now it seems that it is not always the case!

These printed versions are all printed by the people, and you can clearly feel that the craftsmanship is not skilled, and the handwriting in many places is not clear. But this can't stop the enthusiasm of Yangzhou readers at all.

Xia Shang had no idea that during the days when he was seriously injured, Dream of the Red Chamber had flooded the entire Yangzhou, especially among the young ladies of wealthy families. Dream of the Red Chamber had become the spiritual food of the girls. They could not even think of eating or drinking. They read it over and over again, only regretting that the author was nowhere to be found and had not published subsequent chapters.

In the past, a handwritten copy could be sold at a sky-high price of 100 taels of silver, so some merchants saw the opportunity and several folk printing workshops came into being.

In the past, the price of books was mostly between one and five taels of silver, which could not recover the cost at all. But now, a printed copy of Dream of the Red Chamber can be sold for five taels of silver, which is quite profitable, and the sales volume is so large that it is enough to support the operation of the printing factory.

Although there was no copyright in ancient times, people knew that this was a theft, so it was not convenient to sell it openly, so there were those sneaky book vendors in the market.

From the beginning, Xia Shang had no intention of publishing and printing books to make money by selling them, because in ancient times you couldn't control others from pirating and copying, just like the current situation. Xia Shang had anticipated this situation, but he didn't expect it to spread so quickly.

Now the time is ripe, and it's time to close the net!

With an idea in mind, Xia Shang quickly turned around and headed to Sai Mansion.