The Wildly Popular "Dream of the Red Chamber" (6)

Although several hundred scholars had poured into Liusheng Bookshop, only around a hundred actually paid two taels of silver to buy the novel Dream of the Red Chamber.

Yan Liusheng, Boss Yan, felt neither discouraged nor surprised. It was all exactly as he had expected. Although Dream of the Red Chamber was an extremely well-written novel, it had only appeared two days ago, after all, and needed time to ferment. Even good wine fears a deep alley!

Those scholars who had spent two taels of silver on a volume containing ten chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber immediately began reading it.

They had no idea until they read it, and once they did, they were astonished. The more they read, the more engrossed they became and the more they liked it. When one of them reached an excellent passage, he involuntarily cried, "Good... good... good..."

This gave the friends beside him quite a fright, and they asked why he was behaving so extravagantly.

The scholar reading Dream of the Red Chamber gave them a look of disdain and said, "I came to an incomparably brilliant passage in Dream of the Red Chamber, and the word 'good' just slipped out."

"Those of you who haven't read Dream of the Red Chamber, go play somewhere else. Don't disturb me while I carefully peruse this epic masterpiece, Dream of the Red Chamber, which shakes the heavens and makes ghosts weep."

The scholar's words piqued the curiosity of the friends around him, and they all asked whether Dream of the Red Chamber was really that good.

"Why don't you buy a copy and see for yourselves? It's just a trifling two taels of silver, isn't it? You spend more than that on a single trip to a brothel, don't you?"

"Shoo, shoo, shoo... stop bothering this young master. I'm going straight home to carefully peruse Dream of the Red Chamber. I'm not talking to you frogs at the bottom of a well anymore. Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand."

Scenes like this played out in many places throughout Stone County.

After the scholars who had bought Dream of the Red Chamber returned home and carefully read it, every one of them was deeply shaken.

"Damn... Dream of the Red Chamber is so incredibly well written. The plot, the characters—oh my heavens! Holy mother of all immortals!!!"

"It really is just as Yan Liusheng, Boss Yan of Liusheng Bookshop, said. Dream of the Red Chamber truly is the best novel in the world, bar none."

Thus, the scholars who had bought the ten-chapter volume of Dream of the Red Chamber were all captivated by it. The more they read, the more they liked it, the more engrossed they became, and the more deeply it shook them.

Some read it over and over and pondered it all night. But this one volume of ten chapters really wasn't enough to satisfy them. They truly wanted to read what came next!

Then all these scholars began cursing Yan Liusheng, Boss Yan of Liusheng Bookshop, in their hearts. That bastard actually didn't give me the rest of Dream of the Red Chamber all at once.

No, tomorrow I'm going to Liusheng Bookshop to curse out Boss Yan Liusheng. He's not the least bit decent, daring to hold something back.

So early the next morning, the scholars who had bought the ten-chapter volume of Dream of the Red Chamber all came to Liusheng Bookshop to find Boss Yan Liusheng, without having arranged it beforehand. They demanded that Boss Yan hand over the rest of Dream of the Red Chamber for them to buy. They wanted to read everything that came after it.

Boss Yan Liusheng smiled and replied, "My friends, I'm terribly sorry! Our Liusheng Bookshop only received this ten-chapter volume of Dream of the Red Chamber the day before yesterday."

"Young Master Zhou, who wrote Dream of the Red Chamber, has only written this one volume of ten chapters. Young Master Zhou is still composing and writing the rest."

"Young Master Zhou said he would come back to our Liusheng Bookshop in fifteen days and deliver another ten-chapter volume of Dream of the Red Chamber. So, scholar friends, please come back to buy it in fifteen days. It will still be two taels of silver for a volume of ten chapters."

"I'm truly sorry to disappoint everyone today. I'm terribly sorry!"

When Boss Yan Liusheng finished speaking, he clasped his hands and shook them in apology to all the scholars present. But at that very moment, Boss Yan Liusheng was overjoyed inside, his feet were almost laughing into chrysanthemums. This was all real, shining silver!

Dream of the Red Chamber truly had remained silent until it could amaze the world with a single cry!

Although Boss Yan Liusheng had known that Dream of the Red Chamber would become wildly popular, he had never expected so many people to come asking for the rest after just one night. Their impatience was truly beyond words.