Starting Today, I’ll Work as a City Lord

Chapter 165: Movable Type Printing’s Testing Site

Was Anri rich? Compared to commoners, she was rich. With nearly four silver coins in assets, she could buy a 120-square-meter apartment.

“Anri, you have so much money!” Tess exclaimed.

“It’s all rewards from Young Master,” Anri said, smiling lightly and putting the money ticket back into her notebook. Anri handled government affairs, and whenever she dealt with them in a way that quite pleased Liu Feng, she would receive rewards, mostly in coins. Accumulating them, Anri had become quite well-off. This was how she was able to get so much money to buy lollipops.

Weya nodded, handed the silver coins to Lan Er, and said, “Please help me exchange this for copper coins.”

“Okay!” Lan Er took the silver coin, placed it on a balance scale to check its weight, and then placed it in a cup of water and watched the water level reach a certain mark on the cup. After finishing that, Lan Er nodded slightly. This was a counterfeit detection technique that Liu Feng had taught in order to prevent people from giving them counterfeit silver coins.

Lan Er opened another large drawer that contained many paper boxes. Each box contained 999 copper coins, with 1 copper coin less for exchange fees.

Anyone who exchanged a silver coin would have to pay an exchange fee. The exchange fee was 0.1% for a silver coin, which came out to 1 copper coin. Anyone who could exchange a silver coin wouldn’t complain about it. The money depository didn’t exchange money for free, and besides, doing it without asking anything in return would make people feel uneasy.

“Teacher Weya, here are your copper coins. One copper coin has been deducted as an exchange fee,” Lan Er said, pushing the coins through the window.

“Okay. Thank you,” Weya said, taking the coins. She intended to bring them back to the tribe to show the tribe members so that they would believe what she said.

“And mine. Please take out 30 copper coins for me, and put the rest in a money ticket like Anri’s,” Tess said, handing over her silver coin.

“Huh?” Lan Er froze for a moment, then smiled and took the silver coin. “Okay. You’re the second person to deposit money with us.”

“Second? Too bad I’m not the first,” Tess said regretfully.

“Heh! I’ll always be the first!” Anri felt prideful. She remembered that the number 0000000000001 was printed on the back of her money. Liu Feng had told her that 30 years later, even if there was no money in it, people would fight to buy it with money.

“Please fill out this form,” Lan Er handed over a piece of paper and a quill.

“Okay!” Tess filled out the form as requested.

“Please wait a moment.” Lan Er took the filled-out form and placed it in a drawer, then took out a ticket and used a specially made stamp to print 970 copper coins on the ticket.

In the astonished eyes of Tess and Weya, Lan Er opened another drawer filled with numerous stamps, each bearing a single character. She found the stamps for the characters that made up “Tess”, and imprinted Tess’s name on the note. This was movable type printing.

The money depository was almost a testing site for movable type printing. Liu Feng was planning to extensively use movable type printing later, as he wanted to control the charm of language.

“Okay, here are your coins and money ticket, Lady Tess,” Lan Er said, handing them over.

“Okay!”

Tess took the note, looked at it closely with her purple eyes, and exclaimed, “It’s so beautiful!”

“Right? I think so too,” Anri agreed.

The money ticket featured a beautiful plum blossom image and a simplified landscape of the Forbidden Mountain Range. Liu Feng had made the image and found someone on Earth to make the template. In other words, it was impossible for anyone to counterfeit it using the technology in this world. Because the words and images were imprinted with movable types, the ink on the money ticket had a sense of depth. This was also one of the anti-counterfeiting methods.

Weya was a little envious. She leaned over to look at the money ticket, which caused her to have the urge to get one herself. It’s so beautiful. Unfortunately, I can’t get one because I have to take my coins back to my tribe.

“Alright, let’s go,” Anri said, walking out with the copper coins.

“Yeah! It’s almost four o’clock; the buns are about to be sold out,” Weya said anxiously.

“Then let’s hurry up and run.” Hearing them, Tess also became anxious, picking up the short-legged Anri and ran outside.

“Hey hey! Big Cow, let me… down… I almost… can’t breathe,” Anri’s said angrily.

“No, you run too slowly,” Tess responded.

“You… damn it!”

…

Elisa stared blankly at the three beastkins who had run off, and now, only she was left.

“Miss, are you here to exchange for steel coins?” Lan Er greeted. “You can come over here.”

“Okay!” Elisa, who had heard some things, pretended to be calm, sat in front of the window, and whispered, “I want to exchange a silver coin for copper coins.”

“Ah?” Lan Er glanced at Elisa’s attire, then smiled politely. “Certainly.” Lan Er didn’t expect a girl dressed almost like a refugee to possess silver coins. This was quite surprising and taught her that she couldn’t judge people by their appearances.

“By the way, can the money ticket they got only be used in West Sun City?” Elisa asked while holding a silver coin. She had managed to sneak a few looks at the money ticket, and she was tempted upon seeing how beautiful it was.

“For now, yes. This money depository is currently the only money depository.” Lan Er hadn’t expected someone to ask this question. She tilted her head and pondered for a moment, then said, “However, Lord City Lord has said that he will open money depositories in other cities in the future. When that happens, people won’t need to carry around heavy copper coins. They can just take their money tickets to cities with money depositories to take out coins.”

“Wow…” Elisa’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. This idea startled her. If this revolutionary idea can be realized, then I won’t have to carry around heavy coins and will be able to travel around the world with just a money ticket.

In fact, if this idea succeeded, then the next step would be to transition the money ticket into passbooks and paper money.

“Please give me thirty copper coins and put the rest into the money ticket.” Elisa was willing to try something new. After all, the money ticket was extremely beautiful, and she had gotten the silver coins from the bounty hunters. Even if she got tricked, her heart would only ache for a little while.

“Okay. You’re the third customer to deposit money with us. Please fill out this form.”

…

“Wow! It really is so beautiful!”