Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 72

For the past two days, everyone in the General’s Mansion had been avoiding Xia Heng, regardless of gender or position.

There was no helping it. Ever since she began teaching Mathematics, the girl had become exceptionally irritable. If she passed a dog in the road, she looked ready to go over and kick it.

According to reports from her neighbors, bloodcurdling wails often emerged from her room at night.

She seemed completely possessed, alternating between contradictory cries of “Kill me! Do it now!” and “What a blessing it is to have you people!”

This madness reached its peak when the class progressed to equations using Arabic Numerals.

Cang Chuli held several sheets of paper and gazed down at Xia Heng, who knelt at his feet in a sobbing mess. He now truly understood the meaning of helplessness.

“Seven and a half people, General! He calculated that a squad in the Zhenbei Army has seven and a half people, then asked me why the half person doesn’t count as a person!”

Mo Bai pressed his lips together with all his might. Cang Chuli gently rubbed his temple with one forefinger.

“And look at this! Xiaoming’s grandmother is twenty-one this year, but his father is thirty-seven!”

Chuqing could not hold back a laugh from the side. To her horror, Xia Heng pulled out her homework next.

“You have the nerve to laugh? Look at Chuqing’s answer! A grandmother walks fourteen hundred li—about 435 miles—in half an hour while picking up her grandson!”

Chuqing lowered her flushed face, not daring to meet the eerie stares of the people before her.

Over the past few days, Xia Heng felt as if her sanity had taken a vicious beating.

At her young age, she had already experienced the misery of a parent helping a primary school student with homework.

Other parents, however, only had one child to tutor—or two or three at most.

She had more than a dozen!

Worse still, most of them were older than she was. She could neither scold them nor dare to hit them.

She had to constantly worry that a careless harsh word might make one of the uncles or aunties collapse from anger.

“General, I truly can’t teach Mathematics any longer! Please spare my life! Boohoohoo…”

She had not even cried this hard after returning from the training ground.

Cang Chuli contemplated the “homework” in his hands for a moment.

“I’ll double your monthly wages.”

“This isn’t about the money, General…”

“Three times your current wages.”

Xia Heng’s sobs quieted a little, but she still said aggrievedly, “Even then, I can’t manage so many people by myself…”

“Mo Qing, Mo Bai, and Qiulin will take turns as your teaching assistants, two per day. Once your students have learned enough to graduate, they can become teaching assistants as well.”

“But… I can’t afford to pay the assistants.”

“…Each of them will receive one extra tael for now. Make sure they learn everything too.

“Once this group graduates, have them teach their own subordinates.”

Only then did Xia Heng wipe away her tears and rise to her feet.

“Then it’s settled. All three of them will be my teaching assistants. Zhao Die and that Teacher Yi from your army are doing fairly well too. Once they’ve consolidated everything in another couple of days, they can also assist me.”

She sniffed, then glanced at him.

“And my monthly wages.”

“Yes. Granted.”

Seeing that a hint of a smile had finally returned to her face, Cang Chuli asked, “Satisfied?”

“Yes! No wonder people say you should go to your boss whenever you have a problem. If you can’t solve something yourself, asking the boss really does work!”

Three times her wages! Strength surged through every inch of Xia Heng’s body. She felt capable again!

If the students could not learn, how could that be their fault? The problem had to be the way she was teaching!

Unable to look at this exasperating woman any longer, Cang Chuli waved her away.

* * *

The next day, in the Imperial Study—

“That shipment of grain from the south has arrived, and the men I sent to investigate have returned,” Dongfang Wei said.

“There truly was a plague?” Cang Chuli asked.

“Yes. The outbreak has already ended, and I have ordered the grain shipment detained.

“That old fox Cheng Zhesong is indeed ruthless. I have not touched the Bin County magistrate for now. If I move against him, I fear he will become a second Wang Jian…”

Dongfang Wei looked puzzled.

“The matter was highly secret. Even my people had to investigate for some time. I wonder where that maid of yours obtained the information.”

“She does appear to have another source of intelligence, though I do not know precisely what it is,” Cang Chuli replied. “If one employs someone, one should trust them. Wherever her information came from, the incident was real.

“This time, we will follow the trail and uncover something we can use against Cheng Zhesong.”

Dongfang Wei nodded, then continued, “Yaqing donated the alcohol formula to the court. The Xiao Family’s factory in the north is complete as well. Barring any mishaps, you will be able to use it on your next campaign.”

“I have examined its effects. They are indeed impressive. We tested it on several people, and none of the different types of wounds festered.

“The trials have been limited to minor injuries, however. We do not yet know how effective it will be on serious wounds.”

Cang Chuli clearly approved of it too.

“Even so, it will give many soldiers of Huaxia a better chance of surviving.”

“The Winter Hunt begins in a few days. Huyan Lie actually requested permission to participate.

“He lost three of the four contests and still wants to attend the hunt. He is clearly unwilling to accept defeat and must be plotting something. Be careful.”

“Tsk… Why are these people so impossible to stamp out?”

* * *

After several days of Mathematics lessons, the “numerical reform” in the General’s Mansion had more or less gotten on track.

The various managers had begun, with some difficulty, to use numerals for bookkeeping and calculations.

Because they were all beginners, however, they constantly feared making mistakes.

Uncle Zhao made a ledger based on the table Xia Heng had drawn earlier and frequently asked her to check whether his calculations for the mansion’s purchases were correct.

“Uncle Zhao… Am I really allowed to look at this?”

“Why wouldn’t you be? It’s nothing but trivialities like buying tools and charcoal! Everyone knows what has been added to the mansion. What is there to hide?

“Don’t worry! This old man hasn’t gone muddleheaded yet. I certainly wouldn’t bring you anything you weren’t allowed to see!

“We’ve been using charcoal quickly lately. Help me work out whether these quantities are right. No matter how I calculate it, something feels off.”

Thank you for your candor, Uncle Zhao…

Xia Heng helped him reconcile the charcoal coming in and going out. Later, she still had to help Aunt Chen check the clothing inventory.

That afternoon, Chef Xiang came to ask her about food costs and consumption.

Lying beneath her quilt that night, Xia Heng could not understand why the course of her life seemed to be veering farther and farther off track.

She had spent four years studying English, only to transmigrate into a novel and render all that study useless!

Had she known, why had she not majored in accounting instead?

Apparently, essential skills remained essential everywhere.

She sighed. Life still had to go on.

Xia Heng opened the store, found odorless crop growth fertilizer, and placed an order.

Her lack of experience was to blame. Crops needed fertilizer.

According to *The Cultivation of Cash Crops*, the potatoes would benefit from a side dressing around this time.

But she had planted all of them in front of and behind her own room!

She truly did not want to spend every day surrounded by the smell of manure.

Her only option was to secretly buy odorless growth fertilizer from the system store and scatter some over the plants at night when no one was around.

Whatever parallel world this fertilizer came from, it was surprisingly convenient.

It looked just like soil. Once mixed with the earth in the courtyard, it was almost impossible to spot.

That saved her the trouble of explaining it to anyone.