I wrote novels in the Republic of China

After dinner, Sang Jingyun fetched a basin of hot water and went to Sang Qian's room. He wiped his body and lay down on the bed.

After walking all day, she was exhausted and all she wanted to do was sleep.

The last time she exercised too much, she couldn't sleep at all at night. But this time it was better. Although she didn't sleep well, she slept very long. She was awakened by the noise outside when it was almost dawn.

When Sang Jingyun got up and washed, he saw that Sang Jingying's gown that he had worn yesterday had been washed and dried overnight.

She felt a little warm inside.

In her previous life, she had to wash her own clothes at a very young age. Once, she used her grandmother's laundry detergent and was scolded by her grandmother.

Mrs. Sang Qian is much better than her former grandmother.

Yesterday Sang Jingxiong refused to eat pumpkin porridge, and Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying had to go to the county town to write letters today, so Sang Qian made rice this morning.

She didn't cook much rice, just enough for each child to have a bowl, and then she steamed a lot of pumpkin on the steamer and made a bowl of egg custard.

Because of the steamed pumpkin, the rice in the pot has the color and taste of the pumpkin, but even so, it is still very fragrant.

Sang Qian filled half a bowl of rice, scooped a few spoonfuls of egg custard into it, mixed it well and gave it to the youngest Sang Jingli.

Sang Jingli hadn't eaten meat for some days and ate it with gusto.

When Sang Jingxiong saw this, he hurriedly scooped egg custard into his own bowl, one spoonful after another.

"Jingxiong, save some for your brother and sister." Sang Qian placed the bowl of egg custard in front of Sang Jingyun.

I beat two eggs, added salt and water, and steamed a large bowl of egg custard, most of which is gone now.

Sang Jingyun scooped two spoonfuls into his own bowl and gave the rest to Sang Jingying.

Sang Jingying said: "Sister, I don't like this, you eat it."

Sang Jingyun said: "Even if you don't like it, eat something. You are growing." The original owner of this body was thin enough, and Sang Jingying was even thinner than her.

The growing boy didn't have enough to eat and became as thin as a bamboo pole in the blink of an eye.

"Brother, if you don't like it, give it to me." Sang Jingxiong said.

Sang Jingying was about to give the egg custard to Sang Jingxiong, but Sang Jingyun took it and poured it into his bowl: "Don't be picky."

Sang Jingying knew that his sister loved him, so he ate it anyway.

In the past, he really didn’t like egg custard, but these days he was always extremely hungry… Now he wanted to take a bite of everything he saw, so how could he be picky about egg custard?

Sang Jingyun and the others were eating rice and egg custard, while Lu Ying, Sang Qianshi and Sang Xuewen were eating steamed pumpkin and rice crust.

Sang Jingying was still not full after finishing her bowl of rice, so she took a few pieces of pumpkin to eat.

When Sang Jingyun saw this, he sighed secretly.

I hope everything goes well today. Even if she can only earn ten copper coins a day, she will have three hundred copper coins a month.

Although this could not change her family's situation, combined with other miscellaneous income, it could allow them to make ends meet.

After dinner, Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying went to the county town again.

The exam for the enamel class would be in a few days. During these days, Sang Jingyun planned to ask Sang Jingying to go to the county town with her every day. When the time came, she would help people write letters, and Sang Jingying would ask her classmates about what the exam for the enamel class would be like.

Sang Jingyun still felt pain all over her body today, but she had been to the county town twice and knew that her body could hold up, so she walked much faster than at the beginning.

They arrived at the county town at about 7:30 in the morning.

The morning market in the county town had ended, and various shops had opened one after another, including the Hongxing Paper Shop.

What surprised Sang Jingyun was that there were already two people who wanted to write letters waiting at the door of the shop.

Shopkeeper Hong saw Sang Jingyun and said to the two men, "This is my niece. She will write the letter to you today."

The door of Manager Hong's paper shop was very spacious. On one side was his counter, and on the other side he had cleared out and placed a desk and stool on it to write letters to Sang Jingyun.

Sang Jingyun sat down behind the table and asked the two people who had lined up here early: "Who of you will write first? What do you want to write?"

These two people looked familiar to her, and she must have met them yesterday.

The older one among them stepped forward and asked Sang Jingyun to help him write a letter.

Sang Jingyun took a pen and paper and explained to him: "We will charge two copper coins for writing a full page of letter paper. If you let me help you write the letter, you can write down the important things first, and then write other things when you have time."

Two copper coins were charged for writing a page of letter paper. The paper and pen were provided by Manager Hong, and the writing was done by Sang Jingyun. The two of them split the fee in half.

If a page is fully filled, it would take two or three hundred words, and the writer would need to communicate with the person writing the letter, which was time-consuming and laborious. The money earned by Sang Jingyun was hard-earned.

But no matter how hard she works, it is still easier than carrying goods at the dock or working as a factory worker.

The man who came to Sang Jingyun to write a letter nodded repeatedly, then stuttered out the content of the letter he was going to write.
Not long ago, he asked someone to send ten silver dollars that he had saved through his frugal life to his home. He wanted to know whether his family had received them.

This person's language expression ability is not very good, and what he is going to write is scattered. Sang Jingyun listened, thought about it, and then started to write for him. She was an online writer in her previous life, sometimes she had to write 10,000 words a day. Now she just writes a letter of 200 to 300 words, which is natural.

It’s just that the traditional Chinese characters at that time are difficult to write and take some time.

Sang Jingyun quickly finished writing the important content, asked the man some questions, and then helped him add his recent situation and greetings to his family.

At that time, there were no modern punctuation marks, only ju (sentence) and du (reading). "Ju" is a period, used at the end of a complete expression of meaning, and "du" is a dot like a semicolon, used at a pause.

Sang Jingyun was not used to using this, so he simply used modern punctuation. Anyway, at that time, some scholars had already begun to use punctuation introduced from abroad, but it was not yet standardized.

If Sang Jingyun were asked to write with a brush, she would not be able to do it well, but it was different with her penmanship.

In her previous life, in order to make her exam papers look good, she practiced hard pen calligraphy. Her handwriting was not very beautiful, but at least it was neat and tidy.

After writing, Sang Jingyun said to the person who asked her to write the letter: "I will read the letter to you again. If there is anything wrong, I will correct it for you."

After saying that, Sang Jingyun read the letter again.

After all, she is a modern person and writes in plain language, so the two people who asked her to write letters for them could understand her.

The older man was delighted after hearing this: "That's it, that's how it should be."

He took out two copper coins from his pocket and placed them on the corner of the table. He carefully took the letter and kept saying, "It's very well written. Very well written."

After that, he asked again: "Is there an envelope?"

Sang Jingyun knew that the store sold envelopes: "Yes, if you buy an envelope, I can help you write the name and address of the recipient."

At that time in Shanghai, there were post offices and postal agencies to help send letters, but the delivery speed was very slow, and it could not be delivered to remote areas, and lost letters were also common.

There are also some private letter delivery services, some of which are more expensive than the post office and some of which are cheaper than the post office.

Finally, he asked his fellow villager to help deliver the letter. Before, this person had asked his fellow villager to send ten silver dollars back. This time he wrote the letter to ask his family whether they had received it.

After hearing what Sang Jingyun said, the older man spent a copper coin to buy an envelope from Shopkeeper Hong, then handed it to Sang Jingyun, took out a piece of paper, and asked Sang Jingyun to write the address for him.

After Sang Jingyun helped him finish writing, he asked the second person what he wanted to write and continued to be busy. At this time, other people who wanted to write letters had already lined up.

Sang Jingyun thought that on the first day of her opening, not many people would ask her to write letters, but she was wrong. Quite a lot of people came.

She was a little surprised. When she went to ask for water from Shopkeeper Hong, she couldn't help but ask, "Why are there so many people? I don't even have a spare moment."

When writing a letter for someone, one needs to ask clearly what needs to be written. At that time, the person's ability to express in dialect was average, so it took her about half an hour to write a letter, and there were always people waiting.

Sang Jingyun finally understood why there were always so many people gathering around the letter-writing stalls at the temple fair.

"You write letters cheaply, they are well written, and you are willing to read them to them, so naturally many people will ask you to write letters for them." Manager Hong said with a smile.

Nowadays, all you have to do is write a letter to a scholar you know and send him a few eggs. But now, an egg costs a copper coin, which is more expensive than writing a letter to Sang Jingyun.

If you don't know the scholar, and go directly to his house to ask him to write a letter, it will cost at least five copper coins to write a letter.

Some educated people who smoke opium would even ask for a very high price.

Not only is Sang Jingyun’s fees cheap, the letters she writes are also easy to understand.

Manager Hong could also hear Sang Jingyun reading the letter to someone. The letter was written in plain language. Although such a letter was not elegant, it was good for illiterate people.

It turned out to be the case.

Sang Jingyun looked at the people in line and felt that he might not be able to finish writing, so he said to Sang Jingying: "Jingying, please help me write."

Her hands were sore from writing so much, and if she continued like this, she wouldn't be able to finish writing until dark.

In that case, let’s find a strong man to help her write it.

Sang Jingying had been watching Sang Jingyun write letters and had been eager to try. Upon hearing this, she moved a stool and sat next to Sang Jingyun, helping him write.

He was young and had only finished primary school. He couldn't write an elegant article, but he could still write a letter in plain language like this.

After a morning, Sang Jingyun wrote eight letters and Sang Jingying wrote four. Together they earned twelve copper coins.

The money was quite little, but Sang Jingyun was already very satisfied.

She took out four copper coins and was about to ask Sang Jingying to buy two bowls of plain noodles for lunch, when Shopkeeper Hong called out to them, "My servants are here to deliver food. I've asked them to prepare your meals. You can eat with me."

Sang Jingyun quickly thanked him: "Thank you, Shopkeeper Hong."

Sitting down at the counter, Sang Jingyun was moved when he saw the food laid out by the servants of the Hong family.

There were fish and meat on the table. It was the most sumptuous meal she had ever had since she traveled through time.

(End of this chapter)