Exile with Storage Space: Family Fortunes in the Barren Lands-Chapter 484 - 0458: The Genius Youngster Helps (2)
But unfortunately, he couldn’t get the stove going, instead filling the entire room with smoke.
The few customers who came to buy cakes were coughing incessantly, and two elderly people started cursing him.
"Brother Li, where did you find this foolish child, who can’t even handle a stove properly? Are you trying to choke us to death?"
"Oh my, stuffing so much wood into the stove, it’s a wonder if the fire would even start. Whose foolish child is this, making the stove like that?"
Li Xingsheng waved his sleeves to fan the smoke, covering his mouth as he coughed, pushing him outside, "Stand over there!"
When the Li Family first came to Zhen An Prefecture, Li Yuzhu was the only one in the family who knew how to start a stove. Later, under Li Yuzhu’s guidance, the whole family learned to do it.
Especially Li Xingsheng, his stove-lighting skills were exceptional.
He accompanied the Second Princess every day to sell cakes, and to prevent the Second Princess’s hands from getting dirty, he took on the dirty task of lighting the stove.
For the eight months the Second Princess sold cakes, Li Xingsheng lit the stove for eight months.
As for getting the stove’s fire strong and smokeless, Li Xingsheng’s skills were highly practiced.
Seeing the chubby young man getting only smoke from the stove, Li Xingsheng was quite annoyed.
Enduring the smoke irritation, Li Xingsheng removed most of the firewood from the stove, leaving only a small portion. He used the fire tongs to clear the ash, and the fire gradually burned, reducing the smoke.
The chubby young man watched him ignite the stove with great admiration.
"You said you wanted to help, but can’t even handle the stove. How are you going to help?" Li Xingsheng shot him an annoyed glance.
The chubby young man felt ashamed, "I... I can do other things."
"What can you do?" Li Xingsheng was impatient, where did this troublemaking child come from?
"I can do arithmetic." The chubby young man pointed to the Second Princess, "I can calculate."
Li Xingsheng had a dark expression, "Thank you very much, but if you calculate wrong, our siblings would have worked in vain today, we can’t afford the loss."
"You can watch me, if I make a calculation mistake, you can remind me. If I do it wrong, you can refuse to pay me." The chubby young man suggested.
Li Xingsheng sneered, "If you undercount, we’ll suffer a big loss, not only won’t I pay you, I’ll also make you compensate."
To his surprise, the chubby young man wasn’t scared, "Okay, if I make a mistake, I’ll compensate you."
Li Xingsheng grew curious, "Do you have money to compensate?"
Coming here voluntarily to help, having compensation money would be odd.
"I don’t have money to compensate, but I won’t calculate wrong." The chubby young man said with great confidence.
Li Xingsheng was intrigued, "Good kid, such big talk, won’t calculate wrong? Are you a transformed abacus?"
The chubby young man said, "My greatest skill is calculation, I’m the best calculator where I come from."
Li Xingsheng stroked his chin, "Where you come from? From where?" The young man’s accent was slightly different from the local one, with some official tone, like someone who lived in the city for a long time, but unlike the county town’s accent, as it sounded different from Li Lixing’s.
The chubby young man realized he spoke too quickly, paused, and stayed silent.
"Why, are you afraid to say where, afraid I’ll find out you’re bragging?" Li Xingsheng laughed, "Bragging young man."
The chubby young man said, "If you don’t believe me, you can test me now."
"I’m busy, test you? I’m not idle!" Li Xingsheng went back to lighting the stove, waving the chubby young man off, signaling he could leave.
The chubby young man didn’t leave, but went over to the Second Princess, watching her sell cakes.
The Second Princess was dealing with five or six customers by herself, rushing about.
Her arithmetic skills were average, and with many buyers, mistakes were common. Li Yuzhu had given her a suggestion to only sell quantities easy to calculate, like buy five get one free, buy ten get three free.
Numbers like five and ten are easier to calculate when multiplied with other numbers.
The cakes cost three coins each, four coins each, five coins each.
When customers bought fewer quantities, like five or ten, the Second Princess could easily calculate.
Three times five is fifteen, or four times five is twenty, or five times five is twenty-five, much easier to calculate than other numbers, buying ten is even easier.
But encountering demanding customers, like buying fifteen, twenty-five cakes at three coins each, or buying twenty-five at four coins each, twenty at three coins, fifteen at five coins each, the Second Princess would be at a loss.
When many customers came, she could miscalculate and accept less money, she did this kind of mistake every few days.
One day, miscalculating the most, she lost sixty coins, and returning home, the Second Princess cried all the way from the market.
Everyone tried in vain to console her; even Princess Consort Luling coaxed her by giving her sixty coins, which she accepted, but then cried again later.
She said that although she wasn’t at a loss, Princess Consort Luling was.
Since she and Princess Consort Luling belonged to the same family, after all the calculations, the family was still short of sixty coins overall.
Everyone talked to her and tried reasoning, and several days later, the Second Princess finally felt a bit better and reminded herself not to make another mistake.
But within a few days, she made another error.
So, once again, she cried.
Li Xingsheng had no choice but to buy an abacus and place it in the shop, but when customers piled in, the Second Princess often forgot to use it.
And so, the days of miscalculating money continued.
Luckily, the Second Princess’s business was getting better, and her earnings increased more and more, reaching twenty, thirty taels of silver each month, so losing a few hundred coins wasn’t much; Princess Consort Luling comforted her by saying that the miscalculation could be seen as doing a charitable deed.
Only then did the Second Princess stop fretting over those few hundred missing coins each month.
Today, the customers were particularly numerous, and in her confusion, the Second Princess under-calculated by twenty coins.
The middle-aged man who bought quite a few cakes saw the opportunity and started buying more.
The Second Princess, flustered and busy, her pink face blushed bright red, her pearly lotus face transformed into a fiery red lotus face.
That middle-aged man intentionally hurried the Second Princess to calculate quickly, and the more she rushed, the more mistakes she made; this time, she under-calculated by sixty coins.
"Two bags of cakes, totaling three hundred and forty coins, sir," the Second Princess said, handing over the cakes and the calculated money.
The middle-aged man happily took the cakes and pulled out his purse.
But at this moment, a plump young man spoke, "Miss, you calculated wrong, shorted him twice on the cakes, a total of eighty coins."
The middle-aged man, flustered and angered, retorted, "You brat, how dare you question Miss Li? Miss Li’s accounting skills are the best on this street! I’ve bought cakes from her for months, never a single calculation wrong."
The plump young man replied, "You say that because you gained from underpaying; if she overcharged you, would you say the same?"
The middle-aged man was momentarily speechless.
"Miss, you miscalculated: the first time was five cakes at five coins each, totaling twenty-five coins, fifteen cakes at three coins each, totaling forty-five coins, fifteen cakes at four coins each, totaling sixty coins, which sums up to one hundred and thirty coins. Miss, you said fifteen at three coins should be forty-five coins, but you calculated it as twenty-five coins, under by twenty coins."
"..."
"The second time was even more off: thirty-five cakes at three coins each, totaling one hundred and five coins, twenty-five cakes at five coins each, totaling one hundred and twenty-five coins, and fifteen cakes at four coins each, totaling sixty coins, adding up to two hundred and ninety coins. But Miss calculated thirty-five at three coins as ninety coins, under by ten coins, and twenty-five at five coins as seventy coins, under by fifty coins, so both calculations are short by sixty coins, adding to the previous twenty coins short, Miss you undercharged by eighty coins."
"Eight... eighty coins?" The Second Princess’s pearly white face went from fiery red to purple pig liver color in fright.
She was about to cry; how had she miscalculated again?
Today’s mistakes were the most yet.
"You’re talking nonsense; when did Miss Li ever make a mistake? Where did you come from, scaring Miss Li like this?" The middle-aged man quickly paid, took the cakes, and turned to leave.
The plump young man blocked him, "If I’m wrong, why not let her recalculate it? Why run away?"
The middle-aged man didn’t want to argue, and tried to pull his arm away to flee, but mysteriously, the plump young man’s strength was too great, and he couldn’t budge.
With others speaking up for justice, telling him to lay down the cakes for a recount, escape became impossible.
"If there’s an error, recalculate it, right? Why run away? It’s not easy for Miss Li to do business; she works from dawn to dusk, and she’s still young. Running off isn’t fair," an old man passing by couldn’t stand it anymore and spoke to the middle-aged man.
Others also chastised him, saying it’s wrong to bully a young girl.
Li Xingsheng put down his ash-removal tongs and came over to assess the situation.
He placed the cakes the man held onto the counter, counted them one by one, and indeed found miscalculations.
Onlookers said, "It was a miscalculation, wasn’t it? He shorted eighty coins, hurry up and repay."
The middle-aged man, unable to move due to the plump young man’s grip, and surrounded by cake buyers at the shop, found the street bustling with onlookers.
Some even said he never miscalculated; it was the man who stole the cakes and that the shopkeeper was just covering for him by claiming to miscalculate.
Everyone agreed the middle-aged man was at fault.
The middle-aged man had no choice but to repay the eighty coins and slipped away with the cakes.
The Second Princess let out a sigh and gave the plump young man a slight smile, "Thank you for alerting me; otherwise, today would have been wasted."
The plump young man chuckled, "You’re quite busy here; how about I help out? Even the best minds make mistakes when busy. I’ll attract customers, package cakes, and compute, while you check and double-calculate for payment. With two people checking, errors will be minimized; what do you think?"
