Chapter 87
The popularity of the drama "Collection of Scams" has been steadily increasing.
It is not like the previous martial arts team that became popular overnight and received constant invitations, but it is like a stream that is constantly flowing. After the reputation spread, several scams were not only performed in the theater, but some chapters were also invited to teahouses, birthday parties, the full moon and first birthday parties of someone's daughter/son, etc.
Especially those festive and funny chapters are the most popular among the people.
So after the first month, all participants received a sum of money.
The drama is different from the previous martial arts team. They can be split up and performed in different places, and everyone has different roles. So in the end, there are also two parts of money, which is equivalent to one salary plus one performance. In total, the least is two or three taels, and the most is seven or eight taels.
Fu Qingshi held his purse tightly and did not dare to let go.
He blinked his eyes, took a deep breath and said, "Wenyu, don't worry, I will act well. From now on, I will do whatever you point to. If there is anything good, just think of me."
Fu Wenyu also sighed.
The uncle in front of him had suffered a great loss for being greedy for small gains. Later, he was cheated of money when he went to Chen County. He was decadent for a long time after returning. Now he finally looks like a man.
So he said, "Uncle, you should bring Wenju back."
Fu Qingshi's son Fu Wenju, Fu Wenyu's cousin, was sent to his grandfather's house to learn carpentry a few years ago. He only came back during festivals, busy farming seasons, and winter.
Although the two families lived close, Fu Wenyu rarely saw him.
Fu Qingshi nodded, "I will pick him up tomorrow."
In fact, he had wanted to bring his son back a long time ago, but Liu was reluctant to give up the carpentry craft. But seeing that the village is getting better and better, it is not so important whether there is a skill to make a living.
After sending away the last person who came to collect the money, Fu Wenyu closed the door.
Because Fu Wenshu and Fu Wenhe were now experienced, and there was a person like Fu Qingtong who was very opinionated to help, so after the initial busy stage, Fu Wenyu let them go.
The martial arts team and the drama "Collection of Tricks" also received many invitations in the following winter. They not only performed in the city, but also "went to the countryside". Taking advantage of the free time in winter, they went to various villages for "tours", charging three cents per person for tickets. Every time they went, the whole village was a sensation, and even people from nearby villages ran to watch.
Although they didn't earn as much as in the city, it was still good, better than going to Chen County to smash stones.
In addition to this incident, two major things happened to Fu Wenyu this winter. One was that the tabloids in Beijing invited the Changxi Troupe to Beijing to perform "The Story of Zhen Niang". It was said that they were also very popular in Beijing.
The other was that the script of "The Story of Zhen Niang" began to be sold.
Because of the good publicity before, 70% of the books had been pre-ordered before the official sale. Especially the hardcover version, originally planned to print 50 sets, but this story book was quite popular among the women of some wealthy families, some bought several sets, one set for each daughter in the family, so the hardcover version was finally printed 200 sets.
In order to complete the illustrations, Fu Wenyu went to the school to ask for help.
The rest of the time, Fu Wenyu was reading.
After two months of intensive study at the beginning of the year, and asking Master Chen for advice from time to time in the following months, Fu Wenyu felt that his knowledge had improved greatly.
Of course, in addition to Master Chen, other people also helped him a lot.
Tang Yuanwai's family has a library. As early as when Fu Wenyu asked Fu Wenshu to go to the Tang family to teach Tang Yishan sword moves, he sent the entrance card of the library as a gift. Because there are many books in it, and not only about the imperial examination, but also many other types, Fu Wenyu often goes there to check information.
In addition, there are Liu's father and son.
After receiving their name cards, Fu Wenyu visited them in person and asked some questions.
Unfortunately, the two of them, especially Liu Changyan, who had just passed the exam, had to prepare for the next spring exam, and rarely saw guests. Even Liu Changmiao complained that his mother and sister-in-law wanted to make sure that they could study with peace of mind, so Fu Wenyu did not find another opportunity to ask for advice.
Finally, there were Fu Qingshan's friends.
At the beginning of the year, Zhou gave all their name cards to Fu Wenyu, and after Fu Wenyu went to the city to study, he also took time to visit them one by one. Some people were not friendly to him, the "son of an old friend", but some were also very concerned. He burned the name cards of those with bad attitudes when he came back, and he kept the good ones in mind one by one, and he would visit them a little bit at ordinary times, and sometimes he would ask those with good talents for advice when he encountered difficult problems.
So when he went to see Master Chen recently, the other party tested him with a few questions, and then stroked his beard and said that if he had not had to observe mourning for another year, he could have taken the exam next spring.
There is no way to avoid mourning.
Fu Wenyu could only comfort himself that if he studied hard for another year, he would definitely get better grades.
Time came to the end of the year while Fu Wenyu was studying.
In ancient times, just like in modern times, the end of the year was the day for various year-end summaries.
For example, Mr. Xiao from Liuzhou Tabloid specially took out his own yard to host a banquet for everyone.
Among the guests who came were Tang Yuanwai, Liu Juren, and Xie Juren, who were shareholders of the Liuzhou tabloid and were also prominent figures in Liuzhou city. There are also people like Shopkeeper Zhang and Shopkeeper Xu who control the resources of the bookshop, as well as storytellers such as Fu Wenyu and Sun Xiucai, authors of poems and articles, and some relatively famous scholars, etc.
This is Fu Wenyu’s first time attending a gathering of scholars’ circles.
The main reason is that he has no fame now, and he is young and has filial piety, so he cannot go to many gatherings among literati on many occasions. Even if there were invitations, they were all turned down.
This time, although all three accounts received the post, he came as the larger account.
Currently, only shopkeeper Zhang knows the details of the trumpet account "Yin Yang Scholar". As for "Mr. Gongyang", he did not disguise himself when he first went to the Liuzhou tabloid, so when they met again, Mr. Xiao also recognized it.
But Mr. Xiao is not a garrulous person, so apart from him and Liu Changmiao, Fu Wenyu has not found anyone else who knows that he is 'Mr. Gongyang'.
As soon as Fu Wenyu arrived, someone greeted him.
"Are you the Fu Wenyu who wrote "The True and False Young Master" and "The Treasure Map of Rebirth"?"
"What a terrifying life."
An old gentleman who used to write storybooks but has stopped writing in recent years said kindly and politely. Fu Wenyu heard shopkeeper Zhang introduce his surname as Zhou, so he called him "Mr. Zhou".
"Mr. Zhou is so complimentary."
Mr. Zhou chuckled, "I liked reading storybooks when I was young, and later I even wrote my own. Among those people in Liuzhou who write storybooks, you, San Liu, and Sun Xiucai are all good writers."
"Young people, you should write more while you are young."
Fu Wenyu responded quickly.
Then I met a few more people.
There is Min Xiucai, who is good at poetry and is 18 years old this year and has just given birth to a daughter; Qiong Xiucai, who likes to travel and is away from Liuzhou for half a year; ; Mr. Haruta, who has similar interests as Sun Xiucai and makes a living by writing erotic novels...
Except for Mr. Haruta, everyone else has a good attitude.
Min Xiucai was probably too excited to be a father for the first time, so he took Fu Wenyu and talked for a long time about daughters.
Of course, not everyone is as kind as Mr. Zhou and Min Xiucai. A man in his thirties with a mustache snorted coldly when he saw Fu Wenyu, and turned his head to pose. She didn't bother to talk to him.
Fu Wenyu felt baffled.
Min Xiucai knew the other party and whispered: "That's Sun Xiucai."
Fu Wenyu asked in surprise: "Is it Sun Xiucai who wrote the script?"
Min Xiucai laughed twice, winked at Fu Wenyu and said, "Yes, it's Sun Xiucai who wrote "The Story of the Green Hairpin", the one who scolded you in an article before."
Fu Wenyu suddenly realized.
It turns out that the one who couldn't smear him was the 'Sun Xiucai' who got very angry because he switched back and forth among the three accounts. The other party's name was well known to him, but this was his first real meeting.
So Fu Wenyu subconsciously took a second look.
But this was a bad thing, because Sun Xiucai suddenly looked over at the reminder of the people around him, and their eyes collided. Then, without waiting for Fu Wenyu's reaction, Sun Xiucai pointed at Fu Wenyu and cursed.
"Shameless boy!"
Fu Wenyu: "...??"
He thought carefully and found that the article he had written in the large size did not criticize Sun Xiucai. All the cursing words were written in the small size, so he asked questions confidently.
"I have no enmity with you, why are you swearing?"
Sun Xiucai's resentful eyes scanned Fu Wenyu's body, and then rested on the crystal clear jade pendant on his waist, which was worth a lot at first glance, and Fu Rong's newly made sachet.
His mind immediately recalled what shopkeeper Xu of Rongsheng Bookstore had mentioned to him before. The other party said that Fu Wenyu used to be just a poor country boy whose father was a scholar. He is where he is today entirely because he can write storybooks. If the storybooks written by Fu Wenyu cannot be sold, or if he cannot write storybooks, then he is useless.
Then an inexplicable anger surged into his heart.
"Fu Wenyu, do you dare to compete with me?"
After saying this, Sun Xiucai raised his chin arrogantly and said, "We each write a storybook and see whose storybook sells the most. The loser will stop writing storybooks from now on!"
"how?"
Mr. Springfield next to him immediately applauded, "Brother Sun, you have a good idea."
"But it's too biased to just look at who sells more. How about you all write the same script. I think 'Only envy mandarin ducks but not immortals' is good and very suitable."
Then one after another others echoed.
Fu Wenyu felt something was wrong.
But before he could refuse, Xie Juren, Liu Juren, Tang Yuanwai, Mr. Xiao and others were attracted by the excitement here.
The oldest Xie Juren also smiled and said: "You want to bet, how about I add some luck? I have an original copy of the previous dynasty. If any of you wins, I will give him the original copy."
Member Tang looked at Fu Wenyu with concern, "Wenyu, are you okay?"
Fu Wenyu shook his head at Mr. Tang, indicating that he was fine.
He felt that he might have been set up today, and the evidence was what Sun Xiucai said, "I will never write another story again." Otherwise, most people would bet on money, property, or drinking, and would not bet on doing anything from now on.
But he is really not afraid of writing storybooks!
So Fu Wenyu also laughed, "Thank you very much, Juren."
"Just now, Mr. Sun did want to make a bet with his students, saying that whoever loses will no longer write a storybook. But this is just Mr. Sun's idea. I think if we really want to bet, why not add some prizes?"
"How about the loser giving the winner another 100 taels?"
Mr. Sun sold his house last year because he was short of money. This year, apart from the opera "The Story of the Green Hairpin", he did not write any new stories. If he loses another 100 taels, he will definitely feel very distressed, right?
Sure enough, after hearing the 100 taels, Mr. Sun's face twisted.
But then he calmed down again, looked at Fu Wenyu with a hint of joy and said, "Okay, it's a deal."
At this time, Mr. Liu also spoke up, "Since Brother Xie has given a prize, I can't be an exception. Let's do this, I will also give the winner 100 taels, nephew Xiao, you will follow me to get the silver bill later."
Mr. Xiao replied respectfully, "Yes, Uncle Liu."
Seeing this, Mr. Tang also added 100 taels.
Therefore, the winner of this bet, in addition to what Sun Xiucai just said, "the other party stopped writing", can also get a copy of Mr. Xie's unique book and three hundred taels of silver.
Suddenly, everyone in the venue, whether they had written a storybook or not, breathed quickly.
Because the prize has increased, and Mr. Xie and Mr. Liu, who are currently the most famous people in Liuzhou City, have participated, so after discussion, Mr. Xie and Mr. Liu each came up with a question, and then Fu Wenyu and Mr. Sun drew a question and wrote a storybook according to the topic they drew.
The storybooks were serialized in Liuzhou tabloids at the same time, and then they started selling at the same time. As for the number of words, it was controlled within 50,000 words, because if the number of words was too many, it would take too long to decide the winner.
In the end, the person who sold the most won.
After discussion, the two began to draw lots, and Fu Wenyu drew "I only envy the mandarin ducks, not the immortals" written by Mr. Xie, and Mr. Sun drew "Revenge" written by Mr. Liu.
It is obvious that both of them got the subject matter that the other party is good at.