Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 26: The Corporate Drone Snaps

Chapter 26: The Corporate Drone Snaps

“This symbol, ‘9’… represents the character for nine?”

Cang Chuli pointed at the “9” written on Xia Heng’s paper and asked.

“Yes. It’s a type of number, and also part of a calculation method. It makes doing sums easier.”

In an instant, three more little heads popped into Xia Heng’s field of vision.

“Miss, you don’t need an abacus to calculate these numbers?” Mo Qing asked, looking at the page full of her rough work.

“Ah, right. No matter how large the numbers are, they can all be broken down into addition and subtraction within ten. You just set up the equation and do the mental arithmetic.”

“And what are these horizontal and vertical lines?”

“Expenses and income all have specific categories, like rice, millet, brown rice, soybeans, and so on.”

“Those categories don’t really change. What mainly changes are the numbers. This batch might be five thousand dan, the next batch two thousand dan.

“If you write it like this, then add the date and such at the front, it’s easy to read and easy to calculate. You just add whichever items you need.”

The three of them nodded one after another.

Cang Chuli picked up the “table” Xia Heng had drawn and quickly ran through all the places this thing could be used in his mind.

“Who created this writing?”

“Huh?”

“These numbers were invented by foreigners. A lot of people worked them out, so I don’t know exactly who did it.”

Xia Heng chose her words carefully.

“Foreign lands don’t have our writing system, so they use these for counting.”

“And how did you come to know of them?”

“There used to be a book at home. I learned it from there.”

Cang Chuli looked down at her from above. Only when he did not continue questioning the source did the cold sweat on Xia Heng’s scalp finally ease a little.

“Are you willing to teach these to the General’s Mansion?”

“Sure.”

Cang Chuli saw that she did not even think it over.

Intrigued, he crouched down beside her and propped his chin on one hand.

“You’re handing over a secret technique so easily? What conditions do you have? This general can consider them all.”

“This doesn’t really count as a secret technique. I only learned it because I don’t know how to use an abacus. And besides, knowledge belongs to everyone under heaven.”

“As for conditions… I don’t really want anything for now. Ah… but General, um, when is the monthly allowance paid?”

Xia Heng had wanted to ask that for a long time.

The moment she said it, Cang Chuli laughed.

“Knowledge belongs to everyone under heaven.”

If those civil officials at court heard that, they would fight her to the death.

That said, no one had ever asked him for a monthly allowance before.

Qiulin was paid by the imperial court. The Zhao sisters had been sent here, and also received subsidies from the Zhao Mansion.

But this one, after digging out the internal spy, seemed to have cut off all contact with the Xia Mansion.

From the looks of it, she planned to stay here long-term. Of course she would have to ask him for a monthly allowance.

Forget it. His own servants had to be supported by him. It would not cost much anyway.

With a grand wave of his hand, Cang Chuli said, “At the end of the month. Same for all of you.”

That one sentence included Qiulin and the Zhao sisters as well.

After saying that, he sat down beside Xia Heng.

“Any other questions?”

“No.”

Having received a definite answer, Xia Heng felt delighted.

“Then we can begin.”

At those words, Qiulin also accepted her fate and sat down.

Xia Heng looked around and saw four faces hungry for knowledge.

It stirred. Her training DNA stirred.

“This number is called 1…”

…

Sure enough, adults were easy to teach. As expected of highly educated elites from ancient times.

In just four hours, all of them had learned how to write and use the numbers, as well as addition, subtraction, borrowing, and so on.

Even Qiulin, who had never really studied arithmetic, could now complete calculations independently, though she was still not very practiced.

“The numbers themselves are very simple. You just need to be careful when calculating. If you’re not sure, check it again and you’ll find any mistakes.

“With an equation written down, it’s also very obvious which step went wrong.”

Xia Heng had thought that once she had taught her students, she could retire in triumph.

She had not expected Cang Chuli to come over with an entire stack of account books in his arms and have her organize them into tables.

This man had somehow taught himself assembly-line work without a teacher.

Qiulin read the account books aloud while Xia Heng organized the contents into tables.

Mo Qing and Mo Bai were responsible for checking the calculations, and Cang Chuli performed the final review to find and correct omissions.

Not only did this raise their work efficiency, it also let all of them quickly familiarize themselves with addition and subtraction.

Xia Heng silently brought up the Check-in System and glanced at the time.

Heh. Midnight.

A corporate drone was still a corporate drone, no matter where she went.

The five of them were gradually settling into a smooth rhythm of cooperation. When Deputy General Zhang hurried over, he had not expected to see so many people there.
“Fire! General, the rear courtyard is on fire! The blaze is getting a little out of control!”

Cang Chuli rubbed the space between his brows.

“Organize the people out front to put it out. Mo Qing, Mo Bai, go take a look… Forget it. I’ll go too.”

“Uncle Zhao has already taken people over, but…”

The group hurried off, leaving Xia Heng and Qiulin staring at each other.

Xia Heng suddenly felt this plotline was a little familiar…

Think. Think carefully!

Hiss…

Wasn’t this the part where Cheng Zhesong’s men came to snatch the account books?!

All the Ministry of Revenue’s account books came as a complete set. If even a few were missing, the entire set of accounts could no longer be sorted out.

In the original novel, Cheng Zhesong had also set a fire, using it as a diversion. Cang Chuli hadn’t realized it in time, and by the time he caught on, the real account books had already been stolen and swapped out for fake ones.

That was what led to Mu Yan’s death later on.

Dongfang Wei and Cang Chuli had been forced to find another way to deal with the Minister of Revenue.

“No!”

Xia Heng immediately called Qiulin over and began gathering up the account books spread across the floor and the desk, putting them back into the chest.

The chests holding the account books were huge and heavy. If all the books were inside, they wouldn’t be lost, because no one could carry such a heavy chest and move freely in and out of the General’s Mansion of Northern Pacification.

But if their goal was only to swap the books out, then that was much easier.

Though Qiulin had no idea why, she still followed Xia Heng’s lead and began loading the account books into the chest.

They soon finished filling one chest. Qiulin picked up the lock beside it and locked it shut.

They were in the middle of packing the second chest when a click came from the rear window of the study.

Qiulin and Xia Heng exchanged a look. Before they could react, a man in black leaned in through the window.

The man in black froze the instant he saw the two of them.

Cang Chuli and those two manservants had all gone to the rear courtyard. Why were there still two people in the study?

Forget it. The account books were what mattered. These two women were powerless enough to be trussed like chickens. He could just kill them.

Qiulin lifted her chin, signaling for Xia Heng to keep packing. Then she drew a flexible sword from her waist, lunged forward, and clashed with the man in black.

“Catch the assassin! There’s an assassin!”

Xia Heng screamed while her hands never stopped moving. She rolled up the account books and tossed them into the chest.

Every now and then, she seized the chance to hurl things like an abacus or a writing brush at the man in black, creating openings for Qiulin.

A few of the account books were placed closer to the man in black. Xia Heng eyed the route, thinking about how to get over there and grab them.

The assassin in black had not expected a mere woman to be this skilled at martial arts, and he was secretly growing anxious.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other woman carrying a stack of gathered account books toward the chest, shouting “Catch the assassin!” at the top of her lungs.

She also kept trying to sneak toward him, clearly intending to collect the pile of account books closer to him.

He couldn’t drag this out any longer! Enduring the pain of being stabbed by Qiulin, the assassin broke through her defense.

With one hand, he reached into his robe and pulled out several account books, throwing them toward the pile that had not yet been packed away.

With the other, he drew a fire striker from his waist, shook it hard twice, and raised his hand to toss it toward the chest that had not yet been closed.

One glance was enough for Xia Heng to tell that the fake account books he had thrown looked identical to the ones sent over by the Ministry of Revenue.

“They can’t get mixed together!”

Xia Heng was furious.

This kind of behavior-how was it any different from spending ages making over a hundred slides in PowerPoint, only for the power to suddenly go out before she had saved it?

How was any working stiff supposed to survive that kind of soul-crushing pain?!

With her inner universe exploding, Xia Heng grabbed Cang Chuli’s abacus and hurled it at the fire striker.

Immediately after, she threw herself forward, both hands spread wide. With a quick opening and closing motion, she caught the fake account books the man in black had thrown.

The two she failed to catch were blocked by her body instead.

Then they were all pinned beneath her.

At the same time, Qiulin caught up to the man in black again, stopping him from charging toward Xia Heng.

The two fought with broad, sweeping strikes. An ordinary person couldn’t get anywhere near them.

Xia Heng didn’t even have time to worry about the chin she’d banged. She picked up the two fake account books under her stomach and, together with the ones in her hands, threw them all out of the fighting area.

No one was mixing anything up!

Then she got up to check the fire striker she had just knocked away.

Her agility was so impressive that even a monkey would have given her a thumbs-up.

The man in black was so angry he nearly coughed blood. If not for an assassin’s basic professionalism, which forbade him from making a sound, he would have started cursing out loud.

Damn it. Why were these two women so hard to deal with?!