Chapter 139: The Comic Books

Zhao Yingong smiled. “This is just a secret pleasure book of the Australians. It’s a rare item even among them. I spent a great deal of money and pulled many strings to obtain a couple of volumes. I’ve kept them hidden on my person for a year or two now, and I haven’t seen anything strange about them. They’re just ordinary picture books.”

The men were finally reassured. Lust is a part of human nature. Once the fear was gone, what remained was temptation. The two magazines were passed around among them, and they found it hard to put them down. Zhang Dai was tempted several times to ask the host to part with them—he could afford the money, but this Master Zhao’s luxurious lifestyle suggested he probably didn’t care about a few coins.

After fondling them for a moment, he reluctantly put the picture books down. Sun Chun kept asking how such a realistic human image could be put on paper. Zhao Yingong smiled.

“That, I do not know. But the Australians once said that the method is in the ‘Introduction to Optics’ that Brother Zongzi bought—though it’s explained very crudely.”

“This is a secret art of the Australians. How could it be written so easily in a book?” Zhang Dai said. He suddenly remembered something. “May I ask, Brother Zhao, do you have a ‘thousand-li mirror’ here?”

“‘Thousand-li mirror’?” Zhao Yingong was taken aback. Telescopes had not yet been developed in Lin’gao—the Planning Office’s warehouse had a large stock of them, of various models and for various purposes. Almost every Yuanen had one, from Chinese-made to Russian, East German, and German… the list went on.

Because of the large stock, the Ministry of Science and Technology had never included self-producing telescopes in its work plan. It wasn’t until the first shipbuilding and outfitting plan was officially launched and the navy requested optical equipment that the Ministry of Science and Technology included the manufacture of simple telescopes in its research plan.

“The Australians don’t sell this item, but I’ve heard that Australian telescopes are also very good. I just haven’t had the chance to see one.”

“I see.” Zhang Dai couldn’t help but sigh. “Brother Mizhi lost a ‘thousand-li mirror’ on West Lake a few days ago. I saw how dejected he was and have been wanting to buy him a new one…”

“Wait—” Zhao Yingong interrupted him. “Is this Brother Mizhi by any chance Master Fang Yizhi?”

“Indeed!” Zhang Dai said. “You know him?”

“Does he have a courtesy name, by any chance, the Fool of Longmian?”

“Indeed.”

Zhao Yingong laughed. “So that’s how it is. How strange.”

He then recounted the story of how he had been boating on West Lake and had seen a dragon boat sailor pull a telescope from the bottom of the lake. After speaking, he ordered a servant to fetch the telescope.

Zhang Dai took it and saw that it was indeed the Dutch ‘thousand-li mirror’ that Fang Yizhi had always treasured—it had been cleaned and was undamaged. He was overjoyed and bowed several times. Zhao Yingong quickly returned the courtesy.

“Truly, the ways of the world are unpredictable,” Zhang Dai said with a laugh. “Brother Zhao, your bookstore is well-named.” He immediately said that he would bring Fang Yizhi here in the future.

“This man is obsessed with writing books and has a strong interest in the study of physics. I see that the curios here, Brother Zhao, are a hundred times better than those of the Western monks. Brother Mizhi will surely love them.”

“Actually, the science of this ‘thousand-li mirror’ is also discussed in the ‘Introduction to Optics.’ If one is interested, one can even make one’s own.”

Sun Chun chimed in, “Is that so? Mizhi will probably be ecstatic when he sees these two things.”

“I have long admired Brother Mizhi’s name. If he comes, I will surely welcome him with open arms.”

This interlude greatly improved their relationship. Zhang Dai then asked if he could see a few more magazines.

“I have very few of such secret picture books, but I do have a few other Australian picture books. Although they are not as lifelike, they are still worth a look.”

“Oh? Then we must impose on you.” The men were all intrigued.

Zhao Yingong smiled slightly. Of course, he couldn’t sell these modern color-printed picture books. Apart from a few H-manga that had been acquired from someone’s luggage and used to open up the market in Guangzhou in the early days, the only other physical picture books in the Grand Library were those salvaged from Lando’s shipwreck. Although picture books were not considered productive forces, the technology in Lin’gao was currently unable to produce such color-printed picture books. They were considered Level 2 controlled materials on the Planning Office’s list, meaning each one used was one less.

Therefore, Zhou Dongtian had long since developed products that could be replaced with the technological capabilities of this era. Zhao Yingong called over his personal servant, Jiying, and gave him some instructions. A short while later, Jiying came back with several book boxes and placed them one by one on the long table in front of the window.

Zhao Yingong smiled. “Gentlemen, please take a look.”

Zhang Dai and the others, unable to contain their curiosity, crowded around. The book boxes were made of fine wood, in their natural color. Simple patterns were painted on the covers, along with the titles: “Flower in Prison,” “Rihotora,” “Girl in Heat,” and “A Treasury of Jokes.”

From the boxes themselves and the strange titles, there was nothing special. With a secret smile, Zhao Yingong opened the book boxes. The books inside opened to the left. The covers were also very simple. Zhang Dai picked one up, flipped through a few pages, and smiled. “A truly wonderful book! So vivid and fragrant!”

Sun Chun was very curious and also picked one up. He opened it and saw that it was not the same kind of lifelike, brightly colored picture pages as before, but black line drawings on a white background.

The drawings depicted handsome men and beautiful women, all stunningly beautiful. Upon closer inspection, he realized it depicted homosexual love affairs, exquisitely drawn. Even Zhang Hou and Dao Mu would have been ashamed of their own work in comparison.

Homosexuality was common among the late Ming gentry. Although Sun Chun was not inclined that way, he was not offended. He just found the drawings exquisite. The characters’ movements, appearances, and even their sexual acts were all depicted with extreme detail. Even their expressions were very vivid, far superior to the erotic picture books and “fire-prevention pictures” he usually saw.

After flipping through a few pages, he realized that this was not a simple erotic picture book but a complete story, although the characters and setting were completely unfamiliar to him. He couldn’t help but smile. “The Australians’ homosexual love is also outstanding!”

Zhang Dai put down “Flower in Prison.” He considered himself well-versed, but he had never expected that an Australian picture book, drawn entirely by hand in line art, could be so expressive. It almost made his blood boil. Although he couldn’t immediately adapt to some of the expressive techniques and character designs, the level of skill it contained was undeniable. Putting aside the exquisite and vivid character images and movements, the story itself was also very captivating.

He then looked at the next book, “Girl in Heat,” which was a regular heterosexual romance picture book. A quick glance showed that the drawing style was slightly different from “Flower in Prison” and “Rihotora,” but the richness of the plot, the exquisiteness of the drawings, and the variety of the positions were no less impressive than the previous works.

“A truly strange book!” Sun Chun said. Wen Huai, who usually prided himself on his moral uprightness, saw that these were all erotic picture books and picked up “A Treasury of Jokes”—surely “A Treasury of Jokes” couldn’t be erotic.

Although it wasn’t erotic, it was also a picture book of this kind. The characters were drawn in a crude and comical style. This was the first time Wen Huai had seen such a version of “A Treasury of Jokes.” After reading a few pages, he couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “The truly strange book is here!”

The men passed the books around and looked at them for a while longer. All the sets were sold—of course, at a high price. Zhao Yingong’s intention was not simply to sell books, but mainly to win over this group of Confucian scholars. He then had someone bring out exquisitely made pastries and candies transported from Lin’gao. For a time, both hosts and guests were happy, and they parted ways.

After seeing off Zhang Dai, Sun Chun, and their party, Zhao Yingong was still very excited. Not only had he established a connection with Zhang Dai, but he had also roped in Fang Yizhi. The Fu She, a group with great influence in the southern half of Jiangnan, had opened a small door for him. This would be of great benefit to his future work.

Returning to the printing workshop in the back, Zhou Dongtian was teaching his apprentices the key points of lithography. These apprentices had been recently recruited from Nanjing and had some foundation in drawing and block carving, making them easier to teach. Zhou Dongtian was not worried about them leaving after mastering the technical skills—as long as he controlled the coatings and inks used for lithography, knowing the principles and techniques alone was not enough.

The few books Zhao Yingong had just sold were printed by Zhou Dongtian and his team using lithography. As for the source material, apart from “The Dragon Yang Acupoint” and “Flower in Prison,” which were provided by the Taoist priest, the rest came from the Grand Library’s electronic data.

Lithography was a bit more difficult than imagined, mainly in the production of the base coating, ink, and etchant. It took a long time to find suitable formulas and substitutes.

There had been some debate in the Grand Library about the selection of manga for printing. The Grand Library had a large collection of H-manga of various genres, including many with very heavy themes. Because the 17th century was a century without the concept of human rights, most of the manga were ultimately rejected, leaving only those with more pure love and relatively normal H-content as choices.

The selected manga source materials were slightly modified by the Yuanen of the Grand Library to ensure that there was no inappropriate content—the storylines were purely fictional. Modern-style stories were considered Australian stories. Originally, Zhou Dongtian had planned to pirate Cai Zhizhong’s entire series. Later, someone suggested that some manga related to Confucianism should not be printed for the time being—the Analects and the like involved Confucian classics, and some pseudo-moralists might come looking for trouble. Since Yin Gong was away from home, it was better to avoid trouble, so they decided not to sell them.

What Zhou Dongtian was now drawing with his apprentices was another of Cai Zhizhong’s manga, “Zen Sayings”—he knew that once he left, the printing technology would probably decline, so he had to produce as many books as possible for Old Zhao while he was still there. He had also considered whether to make woodblock prints of the manga—after all, the print run of lithographs was very small.

“Are you sure there’s no problem with the ‘Condor Trilogy’ you sold to Zhang Dai?” Zhou Dongtian asked with a smile when he saw him come in.

“Didn’t the Grand Library’s Office of Truth review it? Zhu Yuanzhang becomes Chen Youliang, Chen Youliang becomes Fang Guozhen, and Chang Yuchun becomes Zhang Dingbian. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“There’s still a big problem. The connection between the Ming Cult and the Ming Dynasty, I’m afraid the Ming Dynasty wouldn’t be very happy to see that.”