River Prefecture, Gusu City.
Not long after the Bookish Teahouse opened its doors, wave after wave of scholars poured in, and before long, every seat was taken.
Some scholars without seats stood by the windows, others beside the tables, all of them talking grandly and heatedly.
Every person here held at least two books in their hands.
One copy of Red Bean Collection, and one copy of River Guard Journey.
Some even hugged entire stacks.
"Old Niu, if you're buying books, then buy books. What's with carrying such a pile? Planning to resell them?"
Everyone burst into laughter.
The scholar surnamed Niu pressed his stack of books onto the table and chuckled. "First editions of Red Bean Collection and River Guard Journey will multiply tenfold in price within twenty years. No, within ten! Back then, Chief Minister Zhao's Plowing Ox Collection went utterly unnoticed, but later, a single copy sold for ten thousand taels. How astonishing was that?"
"You fool, that was because people back then failed to recognize its worth, and it was only sold in one place, with just a few hundred copies in total. But the Myriad Harmony Commerce Guild has spent a fortune promoting Red Bean Collection and River Guard Journey. Who knows how many million sets they've printed? Just those advertising slogans make me shake my head."
"Exactly. Those slogans were truly shameless. 'The deepest love in the world,' 'the foremost prodigal of romance,' 'none under heaven is more dashing than I'—vulgar to the bone. If I hadn't been stunned by that elegant Red Bean Poem at the beginning, I wouldn't even have looked at it."
"That's why the Myriad Harmony Commerce Guild is so formidable. They only hype up Red Bean Collection and never mention River Guard Journey, yet they bundle the two together