"It must be true, who would dare lie in the official newspaper!"
"Li, Iâm off." With that, the young man, clutching the newspaper, ran outside.
His family runs a small tea shop.
Buying the newspaper was also for the purpose of discussing the book "Seeking Medical Advice" with the tea-drinking guests, after all, he loved listening to it, and others surely wouldnât refuse.
In fact, his method indeed attracted quite a few customers.
"Good news, everyone, look, the newspaper says the prescriptions in the book âSeeking Medical Adviceâ are all from the Imperial Hospital, many imperial physicians have verified them; it absolutely wonât be fake. Those who can afford it should go and buy a copy of the book."
"Xiao Lu, is what youâre saying true? The prescriptions given by the imperial physicians?"
"Yes, itâs written right here, it canât be fake, why would I lie to you?"
"Let us have a look, Xiao Lu."
The people drinking tea were just passing by to take a rest and have some hot tea, as the weather was getting colder; walking outside with the cold wind biting their faces was unpleasant, and soon enough people would become numb with cold.
"Take a look, but be careful, I canât afford to damage my newspaper. I canât buy the book, but I can keep the newspaper and read it slowly; the official newspaper has a lot of content."
The young man said protectively.
This made the guests in the tea shop burst into laughter.
"You kid, knowing how to read gives you the upper hand. We hardly understand it and always have to ask others. Yet, those scholars, whereâs their patience to let us ask?" A middle-aged man shook his head saying.
The young man immediately responded without thinking, "Then learn phonetics and recognize the characters! Ever since phonetics have been promoted, all contents in the official newspaper come with phonetic annotations. Learn slowly, and youâll grasp it quickly. There are quite a few characters I didnât know how to read; it was seeing the phonetics that helped me."
"No, no, Iâm too old for that, busy working every day, whereâs the time to learn?" The middle-aged man, almost fifty, indeed felt quite old and viewed learning as out of reach, simply refusing with no consideration.
This is typical; as people grow older, they donât have the time to learn to read, plus they assume learning would cost a lot of silver, so they never bear to try learning again.
"So teach the children at home to read! It doesnât cost much silver. Iâve heard that Yonghe Bookstore reopened today with a reorganization; theyâre selling some kind of dictionary. Thereâs even a section in the official newspaper dedicated to teaching characters; any character you donât know can be looked up in a dictionary."
"And I hear at Yonghe Bookstore, there will be a Master teaching how to read each letter for free. Once you buy the book, you can audit the lessons."
"But the crowd buying books is huge; probably hard to get in. It might be better to follow those kids selling newspapers and learn by singing the alphabet song; thatâll more or less teach you how each letter is pronounced."
"As for writing, if you canât afford ink and a brush, just use a stick to write in the dirt; the handwriting might be ugly, but at least youâll recognize them, and you wonât suffer any loss later on."
When the young man mentioned this, he spoke eloquently, clearly a fan of phonetics, actively promoting it.
"Hey, Xiao Lu is right. For us old folks, learning to read is too late, but itâs not too late for the children. If they miss this chance, itâs a real loss." These men mostly ran small businesses, with a bit of spare money at home, but not much, still not quite comparable to the young manâs family tea shop.
After all, having a small shop in the capital is a rare family asset.
"Yeah, start learning. The official newspaper isnât expensive; buying ten copies costs just dozens of wen, allowing plenty of time to learn reading."