Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 25: Solving Equations

Chapter 25: Solving Equations

The charcoal brazier in the study had only just been lit, and the room was still a little cold.

Mo Qing drained in one gulp the drink Mo Bai had poured for him.

“Why does today’s ginger soup taste so strange?”

Mo Qing hurriedly grabbed a flatbread, trying to press down the spicy burn in his mouth.

“As long as it keeps the cold away. Chef Xiang is busy at this hour, and even the little stoves are in use. Who has time to specially simmer ginger soup?”

“True enough. But it really does work. I feel like all my internal organs have been ironed smooth. It’s just a bit spicy in my mouth.”

As Mo Qing chewed on the flatbread, he reached out with his chopsticks for the side dishes.

Mo Bai, quick with both hands and feet, poured a bowl for Cang Chuli as well and respectfully placed it on the table. Then he came back, took over from Mo Qing, and began flicking the abacus.

This was the one flaw of the General’s Mansion. Their master was a military officer, and most of the people in the residence were old hands from the Zhenbei Army. Aside from the general himself, the only ones who had studied were the two of them, who had followed him since childhood as study attendants.

There simply weren’t many people capable of handling work that involved writing and calculations.

Uncle Zhao did manage the mansion’s accounts, but he had his own way of keeping ledgers and could not make sense of other people’s accounts.

This was an important case, too, so they could not feel at ease inviting some outside accountant to interfere.

Which meant these two huge chests of account books could only be checked, from beginning to end, by the two of them and their master.

All afternoon, Mo Qing and Mo Bai had flicked the beads of their abacuses so hard they were practically about to spark.

When Chuqing and Qiulin came to deliver dinner that evening, they were startled half to death.

The moment they entered the study, they saw two pale-faced men sitting on the floor before a low table, desperately working their abacuses. They looked as though all their vitality had been sucked dry, the light already gone from their eyes.

Cang Chuli’s expression was a little haggard as well. No one could look good after facing such enormous numbers and such a tangled mess of accounts.

The calculations alone would take no small amount of time.

When Mo Qing and Mo Bai saw the two people bringing dinner, they nearly burst into tears.

Too hard! This was far too hard! Although they had studied with their master since childhood and learned arithmetic, making them sit here and do accounts for an entire afternoon was practically taking their lives.

Heavens above, this was far harder than killing enemies on the battlefield! They would rather kill a hundred Tujue soldiers than sit here calculating until their heads spun, their vision blurred, and their hands cramped!

And if they were not careful, they would make a mistake, which meant they had to start working the abacus all over again.

After the three of them had busied themselves for the entire afternoon, they looked back at the contents of the chests.

There were two chests. One was still full, and the other still had three-quarters left.

And that was with a great many books spread across their table that still had not been dealt with.

They could not finish. There was simply no way they could finish!

If they were to sort through all of these, even without resting for a single day, it would take at least ten days to half a month. Dali Temple would never wait that long.

At that thought, the two attendants’ hearts sank. They wished they could split one hour into eight pieces and use every last bit.

Cang Chuli, however, merely glanced at the account books on the table and the floor.

“Eat first.”

Qiulin had just stepped forward to clear the table when Mo Bai cried out, “Ah! Don’t, don’t, don’t touch them!”

He was so anxious his tongue nearly tied itself in knots.

“We’ll need to compare all of these again later. Just put the food on the floor. On the floor is fine. We’ll do it ourselves.”

Cang Chuli also followed Mo Qing and Mo Bai in finding an empty patch of floor, and the three of them sat down there.

When they had been in the army, master and servants had often eaten together like this. They did not have so many fussy rules.

Chuqing hurried forward and took all the food out of the meal box.

As Mo Bai ate, he sighed.

“Ah, after calculating all afternoon, I can barely recognize characters anymore. My brain can’t keep up with the abacus.”

Mo Qing picked up a steamed bun while thinking about who else in the mansion could read and do accounts.

“If it’s reading, Ah Heng can read.”

Only when Chuqing answered did Mo Qing realize he had actually muttered his thoughts aloud.

Mo Bai also froze.

“She really can read? Ah, but reading alone won’t do. She has to know arithmetic.”

“Ah Heng should know it, right? Last time I went out with her to buy things, I saw that she calculated faster than the vendor.

“The cloth shop owner didn’t believe she could calculate that quickly, so he used his abacus for ages to check it himself. In the end, what he got was exactly the same as Ah Heng’s answer!”

The more Chuqing spoke, the more excited she became.

Cang Chuli also lifted his head and looked over.

Seeing her current employer looking at her, Qiulin fell silent for a moment before squeezing out one sentence.

“Mm. She reads every day, and she reads to those two sisters from the Zhao Family too.”

“Oh? What does she read?”

Cang Chuli raised an eyebrow, interested.

“How to Grow Good Chili Peppers…”

Qiulin saw all three faces in front of her go a little blank.

“The seeds they bought last time.”

She jerked her chin toward Chuqing.

Chuqing did not notice anything amiss and even nodded when she heard this.

Mo Qing and Mo Bai, one holding food between his chopsticks and the other raising a steamed bun, both turned to look at Cang Chuli at the same time.

“Call her over later.”

After Chuqing voiced her assent, Qiulin saw that Cang Chuli was still looking at her,
Qiulin pressed her lips together.

“This subordinate knows nothing of calculations, but I can recognize some characters.”

“You stay too.”

With that one sentence, Cang Chuli decided Qiulin’s work for the next several days.

In the future, Qiulin would regret her answer on this day with every fiber of her being. But right now, she still had no idea that the terrifying subject known as “mathematics” was about to barge into their world in the most tyrannical way possible.

Chuqing lifted her innocent little doll-like face and went skipping off to fetch Xia Heng.

She did not notice that the final look Qiulin gave her held an emotion Xia Heng would have described as “utterly screwed.”

When Xia Heng arrived at the study and saw the floor covered in “books” and “people,” she still had no idea what she was about to face.

Chuqing had said, “The general is looking for you,” and she had rushed over at once.

She would never dare keep this particular lord waiting.

Who could have guessed that the first words this “lord” said upon seeing her would be:

“A slow walker covers fifty paces, while a fast walker covers seventy. The slow walker sets out first, and the fast walker sets out later. After traveling eighty-seven li and one hundred fifty paces, the fast walker catches up. How many li ahead did the slow walker start?”

Xia Heng had never, in a million years, expected Cang Chuli to summon her here to solve equations.

Qiulin immediately presented her with paper and was just about to hand her a brush when Xia Heng held the paper and quickly ran the numbers in her head.

“Twenty-five li.”

The three people on the floor all looked up at her in unison.

“Someone stole a horse and rode off, having already traveled thirty-seven li before the horse’s owner noticed. The owner pursued for one hundred forty-five li, failed to catch up by twenty-three li, and turned back. If he had not turned back and continued chasing, after how many li would he catch up?”

Cang Chuli continued questioning her.

Xia Heng thought through the problem once, accepted the paper, and sat down on the cushion beside Qiulin.

Instead of using the brush, she took out the charcoal pencil she had made two days ago and began checking the calculation.

In less than five minutes, she answered, “Two hundred thirty-eight li and three fourteenths of a li.”

After Xia Heng finished answering, she saw Mo Qing and Mo Bai staring at her as if they had seen a ghost.

Even Qiulin’s eyes had gone wide.

Xia Heng’s heart skipped a beat.

Oh no. Did I just expose something? The suppression effect of math was too terrifying. The moment she heard the problem, she had started calculating on instinct…

Before Xia Heng could finish panicking, Cang Chuli tossed her a book.

“Take a look. Can you understand it?”

Xia Heng opened it, only to discover that what they had been reading were not books at all, but account ledgers. The ledgers were written vertically, packed densely with traditional characters, and even the numbers were written in traditional forms.

After flipping through a few pages, she nodded to Cang Chuli.

“Check the ledger in your hands. See whether the amounts and items match up.”

Only now did Xia Heng understand why these books had been spread all over the table, why everyone had a stack of blank paper, and why these people all looked so green around the gills…

One look was enough to confirm it: this was the fear of mathematics from a bunch of academic underachievers.

Xia Heng first spent some time browsing through the ledger in her hands and discovered that there were not many categories, just a few fixed ones.

She glanced at Mo Qing and Mo Bai, whose abacuses were clacking so fast they were practically throwing sparks.

Qiulin thought she wanted an abacus too, so she picked one up from the side and handed it to her.

Xia Heng accepted it, set it aside, grabbed her charcoal pencil, and began writing on the blank sheet she was using for verification.

The spacing between her characters was wide, and she wrote everything neatly in square blocks. Once she finished writing, she began drawing lines. Since she did not have a ruler, she used the abacus she had just received to draw against…

Then she started filling the boxes with symbols Qiulin could not understand.

There was no helping it… She had already passed the big boss’s “exam” just now.

It was too late to say she could not do it. She did not know how to use an abacus, and calculating with traditional characters was absolutely beyond her!

Thank you! Arabic Numerals!

She had never expected that even after going back to ancient times, she would still be able to relive the terror of the years when she had doubled as a cashier!

Xia Heng copied the numbers from the ledger into her own table. She had to copy, check, and turn the pages herself.

Before long, her eyes landed on Qiulin, who was organizing the order of the ledgers off to the side because she was not very good with calculations.

Once the ledgers were sorted, Xia Heng handed the one she was responsible for to Qiulin and had Qiulin read the numbers aloud while she copied them down. Her efficiency immediately shot up.

Xia Heng found the old rhythm she had had when making spreadsheets at the hotel.

Completely immersed in the calculations, she did not notice that Mo Qing and Mo Bai, who were at the same table as her, had both stopped moving their abacuses.

Cang Chuli had also silently walked up behind her, observing the strange symbols and horizontal lines she had drawn.

Numbers were difficult to copy in traditional characters, but much faster to read aloud.

Qiulin read out all the figures in a precise, methodical manner, and Xia Heng finished filling in the table in her hands.

She pulled out a blank sheet from underneath and began checking the calculations. Each time she finished calculating an item, she filled the number into the table.

In less than half an hour, she had finished calculating the entire ledger and had even transcribed the final number into traditional characters.

Having completed the calculations, Xia Heng was just about to hand in her “homework” when she finally realized that the biggest boss of the General’s Mansion had been standing behind her for who knew how long.