Chapter 2561 - 2535: Counting Money

A foreman was driving a cart, and Zhou Wulang sat on it, fiddling with the money in his basket. In a pile of vegetable baskets, he found one that looked decent, removed the rotten leaves and placed twenty strings of coins inside.

A fairly large basket, filled to the brim with twenty strings of coins.

He thought for a moment, realizing it was not good to leave it like this in public as it could lead to misunderstandings. So he searched the cart, found a fine bag used for rice and flour, patted it clean, and transferred the copper coins inside.

The three foremen watched silently and couldn’t help but ask, "Brother Zhou Wu, did you make a profit this trip?"

Zhou Wulang replied, "I don’t know yet."

He sighed, "I still have to account for your food and drink expenses."

Oh, right, they had been eating the past six days.

The three foremen glanced at the pile of money in the basket, feeling much more at ease.

Still, they had no idea how much food their three hundred men had consumed in these six days.

Zhou Wulang delivered the money to the quarry, and after both parties settled accounts, he happily drove the ox-cart back home.

Old Zhou and Ms.Qian were not home; they had gone to look at the land.

This year, Manbao had three plots that needed spring plowing, one of which was quite far away. Therefore, originally planning to return to Qili Village after attending Bai Erlang’s wedding, Old Zhou and Ms.Qian decided to stay.

They resolved to return home once the spring planting was finished.

His wife was with Silang’s wife at the workshop, so there was no one at home.

Zhou Wulang asked the gatekeeper to help move a basket of money into his room, then fetched the abacus Zhou Lichong and the others frequently used and paper and pen to meticulously calculate his earnings.

During these days, he recorded every purchase of meat, vegetables, the consumption of grain, and oil and salt expenses meticulously in his book.

The grain was taken from home but must be considered as a cost, which he calculated based on market price.

In these six days, they spent a total of fourteen thousand eight hundred sixty-eight wen.

Zhou Wulang scratched his face, "So how much is left?"

Looking at the money in the basket, he simply calculated fourteen strings of coins and thought about it, then decided to add another string of coins to it.

Afterwards, he felt that it wasn’t right. Lijun had said the worst thing in managing accounts is getting by with ’roughly right’ because a single wen is still money. Today it’s roughly right, and tomorrow too, gradually becoming a big difference over time.

So Zhou Wulang took out that string of coins again, then began calculating how much should be removed.

One thousand minus eight hundred sixty-eight, which means taking out one hundred first, then one hundred minus sixty-eight, leaving thirty-two...

Zhou Wulang counted out one hundred thirty-two wen, strung it together, and placed it in the basket, then he looked at the copper coins in the basket and smiled with satisfaction.

This was the money he earned in these six days.

As for the total amount, he still didn’t know. So, Zhou Liulang decided to count it.

The unbroken strings of copper coins were set aside, with one string being one thousand, while loose strings meant broken ones, and he couldn’t recall how many broken coins were taken out from them.

He could only count them one by one, making up to a thousand and retying the strings, placing them aside.

Zhou Wulang could count quite well, and to avoid mistakes, he specifically counted ten copper coins and placed one aside for every count of one hundred; once all ten were placed, it made one thousand.

So these ten copper coins moved from left to right, then from right to left...

The sun moved further west...

First, Ms.Fang and the others returned to find no one at home and said, "Oh dear, Eldest Sister-in-law isn’t back either. Send someone to the restaurant, tell Silang and Wulang to bring back some food to eat."

Right as the words left her mouth, Old Zhou led the entire family back home.

Ms.Fang and the others were curious, couldn’t help but ask, "Father, how come all of you are back?"

Weren’t they living at the estate in Pu Village?

Old Zhou replied, somewhat sullenly, "No water, looking at it over there only makes one anxious."

Zhou Dalang said, "This place isn’t as good as our Qili Village. Although this land is flat, we have more hills in Qili Village, but we also have plenty of water. If there’s no water at the beginning of spring, we can open the river to irrigate at least. Not going to work here, if it doesn’t rain, even the river is dry."

Old Zhou felt this wasn’t going to work, "If it doesn’t rain, I might as well go home."

Zhou Dalang also feared him being anxious here, resulting in something bad happening would be terrible, "Father, how about I ask Old Master Bai later, see when he’s going back, and you can go back with him and Mom."

Old Zhou nodded.

Zhou Erlang and Zhou Sanlang returned with the caravan after Bai Erlang’s marriage, as they needed to plant the fields back home, just in time to sow the rice seeds.

Old Zhou hadn’t anticipated the drought would be this severe here this Spring and didn’t know how the situation was at home, hoping it wasn’t bad over there.

After saying this, Old Zhou looked around and asked, "Where is Old Five, how come he isn’t back yet? Didn’t Lichong and Lijun say he could finish his work by midday today?"

Zhou Lichong (Datou) replied, "Didn’t the gatekeeper just say Fifth Uncle returned?"

"Back but didn’t cook, and didn’t go to the restaurant to bring food back, is it that he’s used to being the boss, doesn’t even cook?"

Ms.Lu immediately said, "I’ll go check."

She returned to look.

Zhou Wulang was wholeheartedly counting money, totally unaware of the commotion.

Ms.Lu pushed open the door and called out, startling him, scrambling his count. He stared at the copper coins halfway through counting and had no idea where he left off.

He looked at his foot, the six coins already counted lying on the floor, but this interruption meant the six hundred counted before were wasted, he had to start over.

Zhou Wulang sulked, "Why are you yelling, nearly scared me to death; now I’ve forgotten my count, I must start over."

While he did love counting money very much, having to repeat wasn’t enjoyable.

Ms.Lu was astonished, seeing two piles of money on the floor, asking, "Where did you get so much money?"

Zhou Wulang responded, "Earned it!"

Zhou Lijun and Zhou Lichong also came over, listening to why he was sitting on the floor counting money, speechless for a while.

Zhou Lijun picked up the abacus from the floor, asking, "So why did you bring this thing here?"

Zhou Wulang stated, "To calculate vegetable money."

Zhou Lijun took his jumbled numbers and calculations, sat at the table, saying, "Let me do the math for you. Tell me, how much did you give the three foremen?"

His arithmetic may not be top-notch, but he had a great memory.

He remembered every single number clearly, although he could only calculate individual amounts, was unaware of the total amount.

Zhou Lijun operated the abacus rapidly, soon saying, "In total, you spent one hundred twenty-six thousand one hundred twenty-eight, Fifth Uncle, considering your own six-day wages weren’t counted, you earned seventy-three thousand eight hundred seventy-two."