Chapter 345: Chapter 179: Two Accounting Offices_2
Lian Manman, dressed in her thick cotton jacket and pants, sank her little legs into the snow again, making her look shorter than usual. From a distance, she almost resembled a cotton ball slowly wriggling on the white snow.
Of course, Lian Manman would never admit to being a cotton ball. She was simply wearing more layers; her figure was still pretty good—though whether a ten-year-old girl could have a figure was a matter of debate.
Because of the snowing, she hadn’t gone to the shop with the others this morning and only set out after the snow had stopped.
After a "long and arduous journey," leaving a trail of chubby and short snow holes behind her, Lian Manman finally arrived at Lian’s Breakfast Shop. The official road was different from the village—cart ruts, horse hoof prints, and footprints were all mixed together, creating a path in the snow.
Where there were travelers, there was business. Lian Manman felt reassured.
The Chinese hour was getting late, and the shop only had a few customers scattered about. Lian Shouxin and Wu Lang had already started cleaning up the place.
After greeting them, Lian Manman headed straight into the kitchen.
A rush of warm steam hit her face, and she blinked as droplets fell from her eyelashes. It was her own breath, which had condensed to ice on her lashes and was now melting from the heat.
"Manman is here!" Lady Zhao, seated beneath the stove stoking the fire, smiled and called out when she saw Lian Manman. Lady Zhao had been working in the shop for some days now and did not mind the hard work at all. In recent days, Lian Manman had noticed that Lady Zhao’s cheeks were rosier, she was smiling more, and her entire demeanor seemed brighter than before.
"Third Aunt." Lian Manman greeted her with a smile.
"My, why are you here, Manman? Has the snow stopped outside? Look, your feet are covered in snow." Lady Zhang, busy arranging the steaming baskets, heard the voice, glanced over, and began instructing, "Quick, go sit on the kang in the inner room. Take off your shoes and have them brought out here to dry."
Lian Manman smiled and headed towards the inner room, just as Xiao Qi came running out from it.
"Let your second sister on the kang, and help her bring her shoes out," Lady Zhang said.
When Lian Manman entered the inner room and sat on the kang, Xiao Qi took off her shoes for her. Like any ordinary country child, Lian Manman wore cotton shoes made at home with hand-crafted multi-layered soles and purple-red silk velvet surfaces, embroidered by Lady Zhang with big fat cats playing with a ball of yarn.
Such shoes would keep one’s feet warm if they fitted well. However, they had a downside—they were not waterproof. Now that the shoes were covered in snow, if they weren’t dried promptly, the snow would soak through the sole and the fabric, rendering them cold. Wearing such shoes easily led to frostbite.
Xiao Qi took Lian Manman’s shoes out to Lady Zhao and ran back in.
"Xiao Qi, how was business today?" Sitting cross-legged next to the kang table, Lian Manman opened the money box, counted the money inside, and asked Xiao Qi.
The money of the Lian family, including the income from this shop, was managed by Lian Manman. Bluntly put, Lian Manman was the financial manager of the household. She was dedicated to her work, not missing a day at the shop—even if it continued to snow, she felt compelled to be there. No matter what, the money box needed close oversight, Lian Manman silently clenched her fist.
"There were a lot of people buying soup." Xiao Qi spoke of their business, which hardly suffered even on snowy days as long as the work up in the mountains didn’t stop—in fact, it tended to do better.
"Why is there a piece of silver?" Lian Manman asked as she picked up a small piece of silver from the money box.
"That’s from Old Huang." Xiao Qi climbed up onto the kang and sat next to Lian Manman, dangling his legs over the edge. "It’s for the steamed bun order."
People are already willing to pay for steamed buns in advance with silver, which is good.
"Second sister, Mother asked if we should steam more buns for sale. We’re running out of buns again," Xiao Qi said.
"Yes, Manman," Lady Zhang, hearing their conversation from the kitchen, poked her head in, "I think we should prepare more. These past few days, people from the town have been coming to eat buns, and they also want to take some home."
The number of buns they prepared had been increasing, from fifty to forty, and then back to fifty, sixty, eighty. It wasn’t just the workers on the mountain who came to eat, but people from the town also grew fond of their buns.
"Then, how about we steam two baskets of buns each day from now on?" Lian Manman suggested. Two baskets meant a hundred buns.
"All right, let’s start from tomorrow," Lady Zhang said with a smile as she withdrew her head.
Lian Shouxin and Lian Wulang came in from outside, both dressed in everyday clothes with chef hats on their heads and large aprons tied around them. After entering, they pulled copper coins from the large pockets on their aprons and put them into the money box.
"Bone soup twenty-five bowls, rice porridge ten bowls, plain buns twenty."
"Bone soup thirty bowls, rice porridge ten bowls, plain buns nineteen."
Xiao Qi slid off the kang bed and carried a large wooden board back from the kitchen. Then, holding a charcoal stick, he scribbled on the board for a while before handing it to Lian Manman to check.
On the large wooden board, there was a simple chart.
The header of the chart was divided into five sections: the first section had a large bowl, the second still had a large bowl but with a bone added, the third showed plain buns, the fourth steamed buns, and the fifth section was empty.
These five sections represented rice porridge, bone soup, plain buns, steamed buns, and a total count, respectively.
Each section had three empty spaces below it, filled with Chinese characters for "proper." The first two spaces had many of these characters, while the last space had significantly fewer.
These represented the accomplishments of Lian Shouxin, Wulang, and Xiao Qi, respectively.
This was a counting method devised by Lian Manman. Whenever someone served a bowl of soup or a bun, they added a stroke beneath the respective symbol on their grid. Completing one "proper" character took precisely five strokes.
This made it easier to check the totals at the end, and it also helped everyone remember how much money to collect. Naturally, it showed how much work each person had done. With this board, Xiao Qi, who only earned three wen money, compared to Lian Shouxin and Wulang, who both earned five wen money, not only accepted this willingly but also felt a slight shame and thus worked even harder.
"Xiao Qi, calculate how much each item comes to, and then the total," Lian Manman said.
Xiao Qi acknowledged and then carefully took out an old red lacquer abacus from a bag leaning against the head of the kang bed.
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The second watch, asking for pink (To be continued. If you like this work, please feel free to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for it, subscribe, and your support is my biggest motivation.)
