The tax official’s messenger went back to report to Fang Shanding and told him what Ye Xiaoxian said.
The tax official said coldly, “Did she really say that?”
“Yes, she said that it’s alright to charge her nine taels and to stamp the document. She’s not against it.”
Fang Shanding suddenly thumped the table furiously.
Such a headstrong girl. Well, she’d rather be charged nine taels, right? So he would charge her nine taels. Fang Shanding took the stamp and slammed it on the document.
Miss Ye, don’t blame me for being harsh, it’s all because you’re too stubborn. You’d better not come to beg me. If you do, the situation won’t be as easy as today.
…
Ye Xiaoxian received the formal document and although her hands shook in fury, she still suppressed her anger.
Li Hongmei also walked over. When she saw the document in Ye Xiaoxian’s hands, she was angry. “This damn official is pushing us too far. Nine taels a month? Does think we’re running a winery? I don’t think even a winery should pay that amount of money, right?”
Ye Xiaoxian smiled coldly.
“Little Ye, you still smile?” Li Hongmei’s liver ached in rage. “For our little eatery, I’m not even sure that we can make nine taels of silver a month and now they’re asking us to pay that much! How can we maintain the business?”
Ye Xiaoxian tapped Li Hongmei on the shoulder and said, “Ma, I believe there’s retribution in this world. Let’s wait and see!”
Li Hongmei was a bit confused at first but when she looked at Ye Xiaoxian, she suddenly discovered a kind of determination in her face.
Ye Xiaoxian looked very calm which also influenced Li Hongmei, so she also felt somewhat reassured.
“Ye, you must have come up with a plan, have you?” Li Hongmei asked with high hopes.
However, Ye Xiaoxian still smiled. “I don’t, but maybe Baoshan will have one. Let’s wait for Baoshan to come back and then talk about it.”
Li Hongmei did not know what to say. Is Little so infuriated that she’s become stupid? Or, she did not have any solution, so was simply throwing the problem to Xiao Baozhu.
Nevertheless, it was not bad that Little Ye relied on Baoshan, which saved her from acting like a tough farm wife all the time. If she continued like this, maybe she would forget that she had a husband.
…
At the Wong Family.
Xiao Baozhu’s life was still the same. She did family chores everyday and watched Scholar Wong and Qin Qingqing being all lovey-dovey all the time which made her feel so hard done-by.
In the beginning, Xiao Baozhu would secretly sob at night and exclaim about her miserable fate which was inferior than the upper-class Qin Qingqing. But things had now changed.
The last time Ye Xiaoxian came and talked to her, she had get rid of her pathetic appearance. Although she still did the heavy chores and Scholar Wong’s little maid still bullied her, she had stopped sobbing at night and waited for her counter revolution.
When spring almost reached its end, Xiao Baozhu finally waited for her opportunity!
At the end of each spring the Wongs would get their family accounts sorted out. The Wongs had crop fields, shops and also hired workers, so each entry of the incomes and payments needed calculating clearly.
Each year at around this time Lord Wong and the butler would be busy and struggling with a tall stack of accounting books.
They had no other way out, as people who could read were rare in this era and all the workers here were hired to do manual labor and could not even read a single character, so naturally reading accounting books had to be done by them and not their workers.
Scholar Wong, however, knew how to read but he had spent the whole spring together with Qin Qingqing. He did not help with family matters at all. Even though his family were extremely busy now he still only spent time with Qin Qingqing.
How Lord Wong wished that he could count on everyone who knew about accounting.
On that day Xiao Baozhu passed the front hall “by accident” and saw Lord Wong and two butlers using the abacus to do the accounting. Perhaps Lord Wong was overworked, as he was in such a mess. When he had just got something done he would forget something else right away.
What was more, Xiao Baozhu was stilling pestering him, so Lord Wong said impatiently, “What are you doing here? Don’t you see that we’re busy?”
Xiao Baozhu was carrying a basin and a cloth to wipe the furniture. She bowed then asked, “My lord, I actually know how to do accounting.”
“You?” Lord Wong looked at Xiao Baozhu.
Xiao Baozhu hurriedly recommended herself for the position. “Yes, my sister-in-law owns a restaurant and I managed the accounts for her for a while. I can read, use the abacus and know how to calculate from the accounting book.”
Lord Wong looked at Butler Wong beside him who said, “It seems true. She used to stand behind the counter and should know how to calculate.”
Lord Wong said, “Well, I can’t care that much. As you can calculate, do this book for me and let me see if you can get it right.”
Xiao Baozhu immediately put the basin and the wipe cloth down. She took the accounting book and leafed through the pages.
These bookkeepers were not very literate either and their handwriting was rushed and messy. She had to look really carefully to read it. It was no wonder that this had Lord Wong and Butler Wong going mad. If this had happened to Xiao Baozhu in the past, she would have also gone mad. However, she now knew that this was the only chance for her. If she could not take it, her life in the future would remain painful and maybe she would be chased back home.
Xiao Baozhu simply threw all caution to the wind, grabbed the abacus and began to calculate each entry. When she was in the restaurant she could use the abacus well. With the shorthand and classifying skills taught to her by Ye Xiaoxian, she calculated while fiddling with the abacus as if she were more proficient than Butler Wong.
This side of Xiao Baozhu shocked both Lord Wong and Butler Wong and they were stunned.
Xiao Baozhu quickly finished one book. She handed the result to Lord Wong. “My Lord, I’ve done it. Please check it.”
The accounting book Lord Wong asked Xiao Baozhu to do was one he had already finished. He was not so stupid that would ask Xiao Baozhu to do the accounting right away, so he gave Xiao Baozhu one he had already done in order to test if she could get it right and how long it would take her.
He did not expect that Xiao Baozhu would be twice as fast him and that the result she got would be the same as his.
Lord Wong once again looked at Xiao Baozhu and asked her, “You can read and calculate so why should you come to our family? You’re not having a nice life here and didn’t sign a life-long contract, so you can go at anytime but why don’t you go?”
Xiao Baozhu knelt down in front of Lord Wong looking timid. “I was such a fool to do a thing like that. Even if I go back I will be laughed at by the others. I’d rather grow old and finally die in the Wong family.”
“But Yanbo doesn’t like you.”
“It’s alright. I don’t have wild hopes that he might fall for me. I’m satisfied as long as I can see him everyday.” When Xiao Baozhu said this she looked rather determined.
Under the circumstances she actually did not know if she did all this for Scholar Wong or for the insult she had suffered. In short, she did not want to leave because she wanted to become something in the Wong family.
Seeing her like this Lord Wong did not ask much but said to one of his workers, “Go to Yanbo’s courtyard and let them know that this…Xiao girl won’t go back today. She is staying to sort out the accounting books for us.”
Xiao Baozhu’s eyes shone brightly.
