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"Young Master Ma is truly jesting. If you passed the imperial examinations, that would be the result of your many years of hard work, not something that could be decided by just a word or two from me. If that were the case, wouldn’t I be more powerful than Guanyin Bodhisattva?

Instead of toiling and bustling about, I should just set up a small stall by the roadside and say nice things to scholars heading to the capital for their exams—wouldn’t that make more money? Haha."

Lin Yuan laughed, and the conversation turned back to the topic of book printing.

As she flipped through the books, although there were still some printing marks around each character, for the current technology, it was already quite remarkable.

More importantly, Lin Yuan had read this article from beginning to end and did not find a single typo—there was just no punctuation, spaces were used to separate the sentences.

Noticing her meticulous examination, Ma Junying thought she was curious about the book printing process and started to share with her some of the experiences they had during printing.

Lin Yuan didn’t say much but listened quietly.

To avoid trouble, when Xia Zheng had initially proposed to make her idea of movable type printing public, Lin Yuan had not agreed.

After all, as a simple peasant girl, it was already shocking enough that she could cook; if word spread that she could also print and had even solved many problems that learned people had failed to resolve for years, wouldn’t she be inviting trouble for herself?

Taking advantage of Ma Junying’s pause, Lin Yuan voiced the questions she had been harboring for the past few days, "Young Master Ma, does our Imperial Court have something that specifically records characters? Like collecting all the characters together?"

"Oh, you’re talking about a character repository," Ma Junying, being one of the top students in the school, was very clear about these things and introduced them to Lin Yuan with ease.

In the Imperial Court, the place dedicated to recording characters was called the scriptorium, where all characters were documented, much like a dictionary today. However, whether the classification was based on phonetics or radicals, she wasn’t sure.

In any case, as long as something recorded characters, their printing of templates would be much easier—just take out the characters from the scriptorium.

Moreover, as Ma Junying revealed, among the several scholars that Xia Zheng had sent to him, one had been an official in charge of the scriptorium, which made things even more convenient.

After introducing these matters to Lin Yuan, Ma Junying’s brow creased imperceptibly.

Although the Dayong dynasty had been established through military power, it did not value martial affairs over literary ones, so even though that scriptorium official was aged, he wasn’t someone ordinary people could invite.

Xia Zheng might be wealthy, but not all things could be bought with money.

Ma Junying once again found himself consumed with a strong curiosity about Xia Zheng’s identity.

"That, Young Master Xia, he..."

"Hmm? What about him?" Lin Yuan had just finished rearranging new books for children and didn’t catch what Ma Junying had said, looking up at him with a puzzled glance.

"Oh, it’s nothing. I mean, Young Master Xia is very clever." Ma Junying chuckled self-deprecatingly. What did Xia Zheng’s profound background have to do with him? Would he give up his affection for Lin Yuan just because of Xia Zheng’s background?

Upon hearing his praise of Xia Zheng, Lin Yuan smiled proudly, "Oh right, how has Miss Ma been doing recently? Does Master Ma still forbid her from going out?"

Speaking of his sister, Ma Junying’s spirits lifted significantly, "Still disagreeing, but he can’t withstand my sister’s persistent pestering. Isn’t it the Lantern Festival tomorrow? She begged our father for several days, and he finally agreed to let her go out tomorrow."

After all, Ma Xiaonan had been cooped up at home for nearly a month now, and if they did not let her out soon, the poor girl might develop depression.

"Going out tomorrow? That’s great!" The thought of that little foodie instantly warmed Lin Yuan’s heart, "We’ll have an event at Fuman Building tomorrow, and there’s also a new product launch. I bet Miss Ma will love it."

A new product launch? What’s that? Sounds intriguing! But since Lin Yuan personally invited her, Ma Junying certainly wouldn’t refuse.

"With Boss Lin’s personal invitation, I humbly accept the honor."

Lin Yuan’s eyes bulged in surprise—she had invited Ma Xiaonan, hadn’t she? She didn’t say she was inviting him, right?

Lin Yi leaned against the doorway, his eyes rolling higher than the sky. He had discovered another of Ma Junying’s traits—he was even thicker-skinned than his second brother!