Crowned the New Han Dynasty

Chapter 15 One thought is absurd, will those who wish to take the bait?
"Sir, how much do you charge for writing letters?" When he came to the middle-aged scribe, Chen Zhi asked curiously, seemingly unintentionally.

The scribe did not doubt that he was there. He looked Chen Zhi up and down. When he saw that he was the son of a noble family, he suddenly lost interest. Knowing that he was not here to write for him, he weakly replied: "Your Excellency, you are from a noble family." Son, why do you ask about this copper-smell thing?"

"I'm curious." Chen Zhi's reply was accurate, but he didn't necessarily want to know the result from this person. After all, there are many practitioners in the letter-writing industry. The person in front of him didn't want to disclose it, so he could also get it from other channels. learned.

Due to various constraints, knowledge is almost monopolized by wealthy families, making it difficult for ordinary people to access, and the number of literate people is limited. Even if they have the opportunity to access knowledge, poor people cannot spare the time to study systematically in order to engage in social production and make a living. The proportion of people who can read and write in the total population is very low.

However, the need for letters and reading is unavoidable for ordinary people. Whether it is correspondence to family members or reading government regulations, one needs to be able to read and write. Where there is demand, there will be supply. Letter writing and other industries have emerged as the times require.

Not only do they write letters for themselves, they often also read them for them. Common people who receive letters from their family members and who cannot read themselves need to come to them for advice.

The middle-aged scribe saw Chen Zhiwen's casualness and knew that the market price was not a secret, so he said: "A letter costs five yuan for a letter of less than [-] words, but you have to bring your own paper. If you use my paper, it will cost seven yuan. You can also use it." Paper to pay the bills, three pieces of paper of this size can be worth a letter." He patted the paper on the desk and said this.

Chen Zhi lowered his head and saw a stack of hemp paper placed on the stall. This kind of paper is made of rags and ropes and made with ordinary craftsmanship. The whiteness is about [-]%, which means it doesn't look too bright. It is white, but if the technology improved by Chen Zhi in his previous life is used, the whiteness can exceed [-]%. Hemp paper is currently a more popular and cheaper paper.

However, the quality of the paper in this middle-aged scribe's stall varied.

"It's actually five yuan a letter?" Chen Ting also came over and listened. He was very surprised when the scribe talked about the price. In his opinion, writing a letter didn't cost anything at all, and he could still make money. Five cents.

The middle-aged scribe immediately became dissatisfied: "This little gentleman, you come from a wealthy family and don't understand the truth behind it. Family letters are as valuable as a thousand pieces of gold. Besides, in today's world, a good brick costs seven or eight dollars. I am Why is a handwriting not worth five cents?"

"I was offended." Chen Ting didn't want to get entangled with the other party. After a few perfunctory words, he returned to Shulinzhai with Chen Zhi and asked in confusion, "Brother, why do you ask the person who wrote the letter for you? What’s your intention? Are you trying to recruit this person? With all due respect, he only earns five yuan per letter, so he’s definitely not willing to come and help.”

"The most expensive thing these days is labor. If we can't recruit people, we definitely won't." Chen Zhi didn't care whether Chen Ting could understand the meaning of "labor", and responded with a smile, "You and I can both write, and this person can write letters." Who can’t do things like that, don’t you think?”

"What?" Chen Ting finally understood. "Is it possible, brother, that you are planning to write letters for yourself? If word of this spreads, I don't know what kind of trouble it will cause. Even if my uncle hears it, I'm afraid he will be unhappy. You want to insult the gentle family!"

"You already have to make a living, why do you need any pretense?" Chen Zhi disagreed. Besides, after he came up with the idea of ​​"writing letters for others", he had other ideas, but he had to do it step by step.

Chen Zhi also has his own considerations. His reputation is too bad now, so he must not do anything too outrageous. Even if it is Chen Chi who asked him to run the business, if something goes wrong, Chen Chi will be the first to be held accountable. .

In contrast, although letter writing has a bad reputation, it is not outlandish, and it is absolutely impossible to do without a certain writing skills. More importantly...

"My original intention was to settle down my family, but more important than making money is to improve my reputation. With fame, not only my own situation can be changed, but I can also draw hundreds of lottery tickets by the way. With this trouble-saving tool, there is no reason to deliberately abandon it No need, compared to the people of this era, the lottery is my real trump card, otherwise no matter how knowledgeable I am, I won’t be enough to stand in front of those who have left their names in history!”

To improve his reputation, it is inevitable to have contact with people and then spread the word of mouth. In Chen Zhi's view, writing letters may be a new way for him to bypass his original bad reputation and build a new situation.

"Although bad reputation can also be used to draw lots, the golden liquid of reputation tends to be turbid, with greater side effects and half the result with twice the effort."

Next to him, the second brother Chen Ting was also lost in thought. He was thinking about the various businesses he knew. There were not many industries that involved little investment, did not show much publicity, and did not damage his identity. Maybe there were, but it was not easy for their brothers to get involved. Yes, the stance has softened, but there are other concerns.

"According to what the man said just now, you can only earn five yuan per letter by writing a letter for him. And with him being an experienced businessman, I'm afraid we can't compare."

"It's good that you can think of competition in the industry," Chen Zhi nodded and praised, "If you get into competition with that person, you might end up lowering prices with each other, making it cheaper and cheaper, and there will be no profit at all..." He Before Chen Ting could ask worriedly, he changed the topic: "So, we have to find the difference in price, a letter... fifty dollars!" Pfft!
Before Chen Ting could say anything, Chen Jue, who was sorting out the clutter, subconsciously sprayed it. After Brother Chen Zhi looked over, he quickly confessed without saying much, but he somewhat doubted his own judgment. Come.

"Is it possible that this Chen Zhi has not changed at all? Is he still the same ridiculous young master? Writing letters this time is not what a rich man like him should do, let alone paying fifty yuan for a letter. Fifty yuan or something? Concept? One acre of bad farmland outside the city costs [-] yuan. Writing four letters is worth one acre of bad farmland. Isn’t this fantastic! No matter how good your handwriting is, can it be worth so much? It’s ridiculous! "

Chen Jue felt that the reason why Chen Zhi dared to ask for such a price was because Chen Chi praised his calligraphy, but in Chen Jue's mind, no matter how good the calligraphy was, could it be better than real money?Which person with an abnormal mind would spend such unjust money just to write a letter?To take a step back, if someone can afford this price, why should he hire someone to write letters for him?

Here, while he was still thinking, Chen Zhi added: "The fifty coins are worth no more than a hundred words, and you must bring your own paper, otherwise there will be no writing."

In this way, no matter what happens, the reputation will definitely be achieved. With such weird rules and amazing prices, it is difficult to become famous.

Chen Ting also realized that something was wrong.

"Brother, are your rules too much? That person's letter costs five times, and your letter costs ten times as much. You have to bring your own paper. These rules put together, how can ordinary people get it? "

"So," Chen Zhi said matter-of-factly, "this letter of mine is not written to ordinary people at all. Otherwise, wouldn't it be deceiving poor people? Those who make the money are those who are not short of money. Once the money is earned, naturally Don’t worry about food and clothing, don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

Chen Ting opened his mouth, but hesitated. Seeing Chen Zhi's expression, he knew he couldn't persuade him, so he didn't say anything more. After all, the investment in writing letters was not much, and his brother would definitely change his mind when he couldn't make any money. .

Chen Jue, who was standing next to him, shook his head secretly. He was very disappointed with Chen Zhi. He thought that he had made a wrong bet, but fortunately it was not too deep. When he went back this time, he would never help Chen Zhi again.

"It's a pity that my dressing table is a waste of favor."

Regardless of what the two of them thought, Chen Zhi had already figured out a specific plan in his heart.

The Chen family is no longer very busy with daily affairs, so he gradually has more time.

The next day, Chen Zhi made a vertical gesture with the cloth, concentrated on writing a few words on it, propped it up with a bamboo pole, and placed it at the door of Shulinzhai.

Chen Zhi knew very well that whether this almost absurd plan could succeed would depend on his brand name.

"This is fishing bait. Those who wish will take the bait."

By chance, the middle-aged scribe who wrote the letter came to sit down again after dinner. He saw the new sign at a glance, and his eyes suddenly widened, with a look of surprise on his face, and then he became angry.

"It's unreasonable! It's unreasonable!"

　Thanks to "I don't want nicknames", "zhongxj128", "I advise you not to say anything" and "Drink your lips to make purple blood" for the rewards!

　　The second one is at night.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)