Chapter 18
After coming out of Kaiyuan Bookshop, Fu Wenyu decided to take a stroll around.
When he returned to Liuzhou City last time, he came with his mother and sister. At that time, the three of them had clear goals. First they went to the bookstore, then to the embroidery village, and then to the market in the west. After finishing the work, they went back.
Therefore, Fu Wenyu's impression of Liuzhou City still remains in the memory of the original owner.
Now that he had finished writing his first storybook and had a lot of free time, he decided to wander around. Not only can you enhance your understanding of Liuzhou City, but you can also draw materials to see if they can inspire some inspiration for the next story.
Liuzhou City is not big, with three main streets.
One is Zhuangyuan Street where Fu Wenyu just came out. This is the main road in the county. Many time-honored brands that have been operating for many years are located on this street. For example, Kaiyuan Bookstore, or Fugui Restaurant, which had signature dishes such as 'Steamed Mutton' and 'Sheep's Hoof Bamboo Shoots' were published in the tabloid issue that Fu Wenyu read.
The second street leads to the pier.
Liuzhou City is located in the middle of a large river, connected to the capital city on the upper side and other state capitals on the lower side. Its commerce and trade is quite developed. So there are many shops on the road leading to the dock.
As for the third street, Fu Wenyu stopped far away.
Because this street gathers all kinds of religions, some houses have red silk and red lanterns hanging at the door, which are the signs of brothels. Others were gambling houses, and there were gamblers and goons from the gambling houses quarreling with each other at the door, as if they owed money and hadn't paid it back. Fu Wenyu wouldn't go to these two places to give money, so he took a quick look and turned around.
He finally returned to Zhuangyuan Street and stopped in front of a teahouse.
A tea house is different from a tea stall. It is not only a place to drink tea, but also a place to listen to music, watch operas, and even chat with family and friends, similar to Wase.
When Fu Wenyu came in, the storyteller was talking about something wonderful.
"...the woodcutter fell hard."
"He knows that he is in danger this time!"
"What's that on the other side? That's a mountain ghost, that's a spirit, that's an old monster that has lived for who knows how many years. To put it bluntly, that old monster has probably eaten more people than he has ever seen. ”
"Then how can I compete with him?"
"My life is in danger!"
Is this "The Woodcutter" by Mr. Sanliu?
Fu Wenyu sat down with interest.
He also liked the storybook "The Woodcutter" very much, and even felt that the translation into vernacular would be no worse than the modern fantasy novels written by great writers. Even some words and descriptions are stronger. The only bad thing is probably that it is too short, with less than 50,000 words.
And in this moment, the storyteller downstairs had already talked about the Chaochao part.
"At that time, the woodcutter was really distressed, his liver and lungs hurt, and he almost fainted. He regretted extremely that he should not have listened to the ancients and chose a foggy day to go into the mountains."
"This is great, we met a spirit!"
"He regretted it so much." The storyteller put on a sad face. "Just when he was desperate and had no way to ask for help, suddenly he saw an axe!"
"It turned out to be such a coincidence. The spirit just threw him to the place where the ax fell. Gentlemen, do you think it's a coincidence? It's really a coincidence!" The storyteller suddenly slapped the ruler and spoke impassionedly. , "Sooner than later, the woodcutter was so heartbroken that he picked up his ax and planned to fight with the monster!"
"Okay, let's fight!" As soon as he finished speaking, echoes came from upstairs and downstairs.
"Well said!"
"Fight it!"
The guests in the tea house were excited by the atmosphere and cheered one after another. Some even opened the money bags around their waists, took out broken silver or copper plates and threw them to the center of the stage, causing the storyteller to bow and thank him repeatedly.
This man spoke well.
While Fu Wenyu was listening to the book, he secretly admired it in his heart. I feel that his level is comparable to some modern professional storytellers, but of course he is still worse than crosstalk actors.
If his words could have been spoken like this, they would probably have spread more widely. However, this is something that needs to be considered later. For now, Fu Wenyu can only admire it quietly.
As he listened, Fu Wenyu couldn't help but sigh.
Mr. Sanliu’s writing is so good. I’ll have to pay him a visit when I have the chance.
Just as he was thinking about it, the storyteller had finished talking about today's part. He bowed his hands and bowed around, and then said: "Thank you all for your support. This is the end of Mr. Sanliu's "The Woodcutter" for today."
"I'll come back tomorrow."
Wait, no more?
Fu Wenyu, like many guests present, made a sound of regret.
He was listening intently. Although he had already read the content, watching and listening were two different things. In particular, this storyteller did not just read the story "The Woodcutter" step by step, but made some adaptations. Moreover, the whole storytelling process is also rhythmic and has several different voices, so it is more fascinating than simple reading.
Why is there no more?
It's also a pity that there are other tea drinkers.
Even then someone said loudly: "Mr. Feng, please say another paragraph!"
"That's right, say another paragraph!" The other people who were also not happy to hear it saw someone taking the lead, and immediately expressed their opinions, "Tell me another paragraph, we are here just for storytelling."
"One more section!"
Mr. Feng hesitated, "This..."
Faced with the customers' enthusiastic requests to stay, the middle-aged man was in a dilemma and subconsciously looked to the side and back, that is, the direction of the teahouse owner. Storytellers like them are hired by the teahouse to tell stories. Although what they say is not fixed, the time is fixed, half an hour or an hour a day, and the rest is singing, performing acrobatics, etc.
In other words, if he delays for a long time, it will affect others.
The teahouse owner also understood Mr. Feng's concerns. He winked at him, then smiled and bowed to the customers around him, saying: "Don't embarrass Mr. Feng."
"Then let Mr. Feng say a little more. After all, Mr. Feng is tired after talking for so long today, and you will have Ru Niang's piano music to listen to next. The rest will come tomorrow, tomorrow."
The implication is that the focus must be put on tomorrow.
Mr. Feng understood immediately.
So he sat back, coughed twice and said, "In that case, I will say another paragraph."
The tea drinkers present were not all unreasonable. They were just joining in the fun. Now that the shopkeeper and Mr. Feng had spoken, they sat back one after another and listened quietly.
The same was true for Fu Wenyu.
Then he heard Mr. Feng speak, "I am talking about a new book this time. I have just practiced it for a short time. If there is anything wrong, please forgive me."
After apologizing, he said, "It is said that there is a place called 'Ping'an County'."
"There is a great good man in the county, his surname is Wang, and the people call him 'Wang Yuanwai'. Wang Yuanwai has been doing good deeds for half his life, helping the elderly and raising children. He is a great good man."
Fu Wenyu: ... sounds so familiar.
Then he heard Mr. Feng say, "One day, Mr. Wang went out to work on his business, leaving only his old mother, his pregnant wife, and a few servants at home."
"That night..."
Hearing this, Fu Wenyu was sure that Mr. Feng was talking about his first storybook, "The Dove Occupies the Magpie's Nest: It's Hard to Distinguish Between the Real and Fake Young Masters".
I didn't expect that a storyteller would adapt it.
I wonder if he paid the copyright fee.
Fu Wenyu was distracted while listening to the familiar plot.
The storybook "The Real and Fake Young Master" was printed once every five days, with only about 3,000 words each time, so only the first 20,000 words have been serialized so far. That is when Zhang Gousheng, under the advice of the Zhang family, used his wisdom to solve one problem after another and won the favor of the village school teacher.
As Mr. Feng spoke, Fu Wenyu listened to the discussion of the tea drinkers around him.
"Hey, this part sounds so familiar."
"I know, I know!" A guest who had read it said in a low voice: "This is a new story in Liuzhou tabloid. It tells the story of a nanny who swapped her grandson with the young master of the host family."
"Hiss, there is such a person!"
"Yes!"
"What happened later?"
"Hey, it's not finished yet."
In the first 20,000 words of "The True and False Young Master", except for the bloody part of the child swap at the beginning, the following 10,000 words are Zhang Gousheng's growth experience. Because there is not much conflict except for the family affairs, Fu Wenyu added some funny details when writing to facilitate readers to read.
The Mr. Feng in front of him is worthy of being a storyteller hired by the teahouse. He has extraordinary skills. In the following time, he told Fu Wenyu's story in a funny way through his unique pauses and tone. Some interesting parts made the guests laugh.
Fu Wenyu saw that it was getting late, so he left before he finished speaking.
Of course, before leaving, he packed up the special snacks in the teahouse, as well as the fragrant tea eggs, which he had just shown off three in a row, and prepared to take them back to share with his mother and sister.
After leaving the teahouse, he turned to the blacksmith shop and the market.
He went to the blacksmith shop because when he was busy writing the storybook, Zhou and Fu Rong had finished the embroidery work they had taken from the embroidery shop before, and were now using the remaining silk threads to make chrysanthemum velvet flowers of various colors and sizes. Fu Wenyu decided to customize some tools for them, such as needle-nosed pliers, tweezers, etc.
If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools.
Because iron products are easy to rust, Fu Wenyu specially asked the blacksmith to make them with copper. At the same time, he also ordered some thin copper wire for making velvet flowers and agreed to pick them up tomorrow.
As for the market, Fu Wenyu felt that his family would have to eat vegetarian food for a long time in the future, which was not good for the body, so he wanted to buy some things to replenish the body. So when he finally returned to Fujia Village, in addition to the snacks and tea eggs he packed in the teahouse, he also led a sheep.
Because of that sheep, Fu Wenyu attracted a lot of attention along the way.