A Time-Traveling Mishap: I Became an Ancient Nobleman

Chapter 101 We're Closing Down

Seeing that everyone had drunk, Jiang Xinyi felt a surge of warmth in her heart. She raised another glass to Mo Xuan and said, "This glass is to thank Dean Mo Xuan for taking such good care of us. If you hadn't been here today, we don't know how panicked we would have been."

After saying that, he downed another glass of wine.

Mo Xuan was quite accommodating, though it was unclear whether it was because of Jiang Xinyi or because the wine at Zuixianlou was indeed excellent.

Seeing that Jiang Xinyi was about to pour more wine, Mo Xuan stopped her, saying, "You girls should drink less wine when you're out."

Jiang Xinyi paused in her pouring of wine at his words, quickly put down the wine glass, and then took the wine pot to Mo Xuan's side. "Dean Mo Xuan is right. Then I will pour wine for the dean."

Just as she was about to fill Mo Xuan's cup, Mo Xuan said again, "Put the wine pot down. Whoever wants to drink can do it themselves. We should all help ourselves to eat and drink."

Jiang Xinyi was startled again, and instinctively looked at Zhou Hanzhang. Seeing Zhou Hanzhang nod, she put the wine pot down for Mo Xuan and sat back down.

This meal took nearly two hours to prepare. Apart from Mo Xuan and a few oddballs who ate with great relish, everyone else had their own thoughts.

However, only Mo Xuan and Gu Qingfeng were truly eating seriously.

As he was leaving, Ye Gui looked at Jiang Mingyun and said, "Junior Sister Jiang, I told you the other day that I found a great bookstore with all sorts of books. Would you like to go check it out with me?"

The same routine as in her past life, but the bookstore was indeed a good bookstore, though she would never go there alone with him again.

In her past life, she considered him a close friend, but who knew that he would turn around and sell her to the eldest prince? In this life, they can only be enemies.

Jiang Mingyun looked at Zhou Hanzhang and asked, "Brother Hanzhang, are you coming with us? The bookstore owner is said to have a huge collection of all sorts of good books, covering every category."

Chen Moran was right beside her. She didn't want to go straight home, and considering the role Jiang Mingyun had played in her past life, she nodded and said, "Alright, I don't have anything to do this afternoon anyway."

She looked around at the people, wondering who could take Mo Xuanxian back.

However, when everyone heard about this bookstore, they became interested.

Of course, except for Gu Qingfeng.

"Then I'll go with you and take a look. Maybe we can find some books on divination."

Chen Moran was originally going to follow Zhou Hanzhang, but when he heard about this bookstore, which sounded pretty good, he also wanted to check it out.

Shen Moli nodded, "I've taken out all the medicinal herbs to dry, but it's not time to harvest them yet. I don't have anything to do this afternoon, so I'll go take a look and see if I can find any medical books I haven't seen before."

"Since everyone's going, I'll go and see too," Jiang Mingyun suggested. Even though Jiang Yichen wasn't interested, it wouldn't be good for his sister to be with such a group of men.

Jiang Xinyi looked at them and said, "Bowen and I won't go. Such a big thing happened today, we need to go home and tell our parents first."

Mo Xuan nodded in agreement, "We should tell them."

Gu Qingfeng hated reading more than anything in his life, so he quickly refused, saying, "I won't go, I have things to do..."

Chen Moran glanced at him. "Is there anything else?"

"Hey, no, can't I have some personal matters?" Gu Qingfeng was genuinely fine, but he didn't want Chen Moran to see through him, so he retorted directly.

“But I can’t see what you’re going to do next,” Chen Moran added.

"No, where did you see that? That's really strange. I'll have to find Master Xuan to teach me divination and fortune telling. But won't using your skills so casually lead to a short life?"

"Such a trivial matter is not worth mentioning."

Gu Qingfeng was so angry he gritted his teeth. "Fine, I just don't like reading. Anyway, I'm out here, and I'll go home for a bit. Is that alright?"

That's you, Dean..." After all, you're a teacher in name only, it wouldn't be right to let him go back on his own, would it?

"It's alright, you can go if you want, I'll go back to the academy myself."

Mo Xuan could tell at a glance what Zhou Hanzhang was thinking; this little girl was probably afraid that no one would take her home.

He was quite easy to talk to. "Xuan Lingzi should be back by now. I have an appointment to play chess with him. You may go ahead."

After that, everyone dispersed.

Ye Gui led the group to the bookstore, which had a rather unusual name: Youjia Bookstore.

Zhou Hanzhang stared at the bookstore for a moment, realizing that it had the same name as many bookstores she had encountered in her modern life.

The shop owner is quite forward-thinking.

The group went inside and found that the bookstore didn't look like a bookstore at all, but rather like a library.

To Zhou Hanzhang's surprise, the layout of this bookstore was remarkably similar to that of some modern libraries.

The bookstore, though not large, has all kinds of books, and they are neatly categorized and organized.

The bookshelves extend all the way to the ceiling, requiring a ladder to reach the top shelves. There is ample space between each row of bookshelves for people to walk through, and the soft carpet on the floor makes the whole space feel quiet and cozy.

Zhou Hanzhang's gaze lingered on the bookshelves. She discovered that the collection not only covered traditional fields such as literature, history, science, and art, but also some more obscure and rare topics, such as ancient star charts, folk tales, and even some manuscripts and rare books.

In the center of the bookstore is a huge wooden table, on which are displayed some recommended books and the latest serialized novels.

Zhou Hanzhang noticed that each book had a small card attached to the outside, with a brief introduction and reasons for recommendation.

The room was crowded, yet unusually quiet; apart from the sound of turning pages, there was no other noise.

Zhou Hanzhang looked around and saw a person reading peacefully on a stool in a corner.

For some reason, she had a gut feeling that this was the shop owner.

She walked up to the man, and just as she was about to speak, the man seemed to sense her presence, looked up at her, and gestured for her to be quiet.

Having no other choice, she found a book, sat down next to the man, and began to read it silently.

Apart from Ye Gui, everyone else was seeing a bookstore decorated like this for the first time. Moreover, the variety of books here was truly abundant. As soon as they arrived, each of them went to the area that interested them and began to browse.

Ye Gui had been keeping an eye on Jiang Mingyun and had originally planned to recommend a book to her, but Jiang Mingyun ignored him, shushed him, and then went off to read a book on her own.

By sunset, most of the people in the bookstore had left. The few remaining customers had found the books they wanted to buy and were even thinking of paying the shopkeeper.

Ye Gui finally found his value: "The shops here don't accept payments directly."

He pointed to a small box placed by the door, "The prices are marked on the books. If you want to buy books, just put the same amount of silver into the box."

Everyone started taking out their money.

Zhou Hanzhang, however, remained by that person's side.

It wasn't until the man stood up and said to Zhou Hanzhang, "Young master, we're closing up shop, wouldn't you like to?"

It's obvious the shop owner is trying to clear out the customers.