Zhou Qinghe was going to town again.
This time, however, she wasn’t planning to sell chestnuts.
As autumn deepened, there were fewer and fewer chestnuts left on the mountain. Making money from them was no longer a very practical option.
She wanted to take advantage of the market day to bring some of the dried goods the family had saved up to a grain shop and ask about their prices.
Zhou Shoushan happened to be going to the county town for some odd jobs that day, so he told Qinghe to take Qingzhu along with her.
Just before they left, Zhou Xiaozao wrapped both arms around her eldest sister’s leg.
“Eldest Sister, I want to go too!”
Qinghe looked a little troubled.
“There are so many people in town. You’re still young. What if you get lost?”
Xiaozao patted her chest.
“I won’t run off!”
“Last time, you chased after a sugar figurine seller for half a street.”
Qingzhu immediately called her out.
Xiaozao’s face turned red.
“That was because the sugar figurines were so pretty!”
Zhou Xiaozhou burst out laughing when he heard that.
Xiaozao turned around indignantly.
“What are you laughing at? Last time, you sat on Father’s shoulders and refused to get down!”
The siblings immediately started bickering again.
The noise gave Madam Liu a headache.
In the end, she still agreed to let Qinghe take the two younger children along.
“Qingzhu, keep an eye on your younger brother and sister. Qinghe, you’re responsible for selling the goods.”
She repeated her instructions several times.
“Once you get to town, none of you are allowed to wander off!”
The children answered in unison.
When they arrived at the market, Qinghe first went to a familiar mountain-goods stall to ask about the going prices.
The price the buyer offered was simply too low.
After thinking it over, she decided to try asking at a grain shop instead.
The largest grain shop in town was called Fengnian Grain Shop.
It had a spacious storefront, with neatly stacked sacks of grain piled at the entrance. Quite a few customers came and went.
Just as Qinghe was about to enter, she noticed a shop assistant holding a ledger. He was sweating profusely and looked terribly anxious.
“Shopkeeper, I can’t figure out this account!”
Behind the counter, a woman in her thirties furrowed her brows.
“Let me see.”
The shop assistant handed her the ledger.
The woman looked it over and grew somewhat irritated as well.
“Didn’t you say yesterday that you’d already worked it out?”
“I… I thought I had.”
Qinghe hadn’t intended to get involved in someone else’s business.
But she had been keeping the family’s accounts since she was little. Whenever she heard someone talking about calculations, she couldn’t help taking a closer look.
Zhou Xiaozhou noticed.
“Eldest Sister, why did you stop?”
Qinghe came back to her senses.
“It’s nothing.”
She was just about to lead her younger siblings away when the woman inside spoke first.
“Are you here to buy grain?”
Qinghe quickly explained,
“No, Shopkeeper. Our family has some dried goods, and we’d like to ask whether your shop buys them.”
The woman glanced at their basket.
“We do, but I’ll have to inspect the goods first.”
Qinghe hurriedly took out the dried goods.
The woman examined them and nodded.
“They’re clean and properly prepared. I’ll take them.”
She quoted a price.
Qinghe calculated it in her head and felt that it was fairly reasonable.
Just as the two sides were preparing to weigh the goods, another argument broke out beside the counter.
It turned out that an old man who had come to buy grain thought the amount he had paid was incorrect.
The shop assistant flipped through the ledger, his forehead covered in sweat.
The woman had no choice but to ask Qinghe to wait while she turned to deal with the matter.
Qingzhu quietly whispered beside her,
“Eldest Sister, did that old gentleman pay too much?”
Qinghe glanced over.
“They haven’t finished checking the figures yet.”
Hearing this, Xiaozao immediately came over.
“Second Sister, you know how to calculate accounts too?”
Qingzhu blushed.
“I only know how to do simple calculations.”
Zhou Xiaozhou tilted his head up and listened attentively.
He remembered Teacher Shen saying that literacy and arithmetic were both practical skills people could use in their daily lives.
Now, seeing everyone in the grain shop running around in a panic over their accounts, he was getting a real sense of just how useful those skills could be.
The woman suddenly turned around.
“Young girl, do you know how to calculate accounts?”
Qinghe froze.
Apparently, the woman had overheard the siblings’ conversation.
After hesitating for a moment, Qinghe nodded.
“I know a little.”
The woman looked at her.
“Could you help me check this account?”
Qinghe immediately grew nervous.
This was a grain shop in town, after all.
If she made a mistake, wouldn’t she embarrass herself?
Zhou Xiaozhou reached out and took his sister’s hand.
“Eldest Sister, just take a look first.”
“It’s okay if you can’t do it.”
Qinghe lowered her head and looked at her younger brother.
Xiaozhou gazed up at her with a cheerful smile.
For some reason, she suddenly felt much less afraid.
“Alright.”
She agreed softly.
“I’ll give it a try.”
The woman pushed the ledger toward her.
Qinghe walked over to the counter and began examining it carefully.
Zhou Qingzhu held the hands of her two younger siblings and stood quietly to the side.
After a while, Qinghe frowned.
“Shopkeeper, is this account… short by some money?”
The woman was taken aback.
“How much is missing?”
Qinghe checked the figures again.
Only then did she look up.
“Forty-six wen.”
“Forty-six wen?”
Everyone gathered in front of the Fengnian Grain Shop counter turned to look at Zhou Qinghe.
The first to object was the young shop assistant.
“Miss, are you sure you’ve checked it correctly? I’ve calculated this account twice. How could it be short by forty-six wen?”
His question made Qinghe a little nervous.
But she didn’t rush to argue. Instead, she lowered her head and opened the ledger again.
“Look. This gentleman bought five dou of millet, at thirty-eight wen per dou. That’s one hundred and ninety wen.”
Pointing at the entries in the ledger, she continued,
“He also bought two dou of yellow millet, at forty-five wen per dou. That’s ninety wen.”
“Together, that should be two hundred and eighty wen.”
The shop assistant hurried over.
The ledger clearly showed two hundred and thirty-four wen.
He froze.
“This…”
Qinghe said softly,
“Two hundred and eighty wen minus two hundred and thirty-four wen leaves exactly forty-six wen.”
The woman took the ledger and calculated the figures herself.
Sure enough, Qinghe was right.
She looked up at the shop assistant.
“How did you calculate this yesterday?”
The young man’s face flushed red.
“I wrote it down wrong. I only entered forty-four wen for the yellow millet.”
The woman’s brows drew together.
“A mistake is a mistake. Just be more careful from now on.”
She turned to the old man who had bought the grain.
“Uncle, my shop assistant made a mistake with the calculations. You’ve actually only paid two hundred and thirty-four wen. There’s still forty-six wen outstanding.”
The old man understood now.
He hadn’t actually thought he’d paid too much. After returning home, he’d counted the copper coins in his household accounts and noticed that the expenses didn’t match the shop’s figures. That’s why he’d come back to ask about it.
Now that everything had been cleared up, the old man readily accepted the explanation.
“So that’s what happened.”
He took out his money pouch and counted out forty-six wen.
“Then I’ll pay the difference.”
The woman thanked him with a smile.
After the old man left, she turned her attention to Zhou Qinghe again.
“Young girl, what’s your name?”
“Zhou Qinghe.”
“How old are you?”
“Fifteen.”
The woman looked surprised.
“You’re only fifteen, yet you can calculate accounts so accurately?”
Qinghe’s face turned slightly red.
“My family often asks me to keep track of our income and expenses. I’ve gotten more familiar with the calculations from doing them so often.”
The woman nodded.
“You certainly are a careful girl.”
Zhou Xiaozhou, who was standing nearby, immediately brightened up.
“My Eldest Sister is really amazing!”
He tilted his little face up.
“When she sells chestnuts, she never gets even a single wen wrong!”
Qinghe felt embarrassed by his praise.
“Xiaozhou, stop that.”
But the woman laughed.
“Is this your younger brother?”
“Yes.”
“You children are quite adorable.”
She crouched down and glanced at Zhou Xiaozhou.
“Little fellow, can you do arithmetic too?”
Zhou Xiaozhou thought for a moment.
“A little bit!”
“If you have one hundred wen and buy sugar cakes that cost ten wen each, how many can you buy?”
“Ten!”
Xiaozhou answered without hesitation.
The woman laughed.
“You certainly know how to calculate when it comes to sugar cakes.”
The moment Zhou Xiaozao heard the words sugar cakes, her eyes lit up.
“Then I want to eat two!”
Zhou Qingzhu quickly pulled her back.
“Xiaozao, don’t make a fuss.”
The woman laughed heartily at the children.
The irritation she’d felt over the accounting mistake had mostly disappeared.
She weighed all the dried goods Qinghe had brought.
Then she carefully inspected them once more.
“Your goods are good. I’ll take everything.”
Qinghe accepted the copper coins and counted them carefully.
Watching her, the woman suddenly spoke.
“Qinghe, do you have any other work during your usual days?”
Qinghe was taken aback.
“No.”
“My family still has farmland to tend. I only come to town occasionally to sell things.”
The woman thought for a moment.
“Then would you be willing to come work for me here?”
Qinghe froze completely.
“Work here?”
“That’s right.”
The woman pointed toward the counter.
“My grain shop gets a lot of customers, and the accounts are complicated. The gentleman who used to manage the books was getting on in years, so he returned to his hometown to retire some time ago. Now, I only have a few shop assistants taking turns keeping the accounts.”
She sighed.
“They know how to sell grain, but whenever it comes to calculating the accounts properly, something always goes wrong.”
Qinghe’s heart began pounding.
She had never imagined that a village girl like herself could actually catch the eye of a grain shopkeeper in town.
“Shopkeeper, I…”
“Don’t rush to give me an answer.”
The woman smiled.
“There’s a lot of work here, and when things get busy, I won’t have time to look after you. Besides, you’re still young. You should ask your parents first.”
She paused.
“If your family agrees, you can come and try working here for a few days. After that, I’ll see whether the work suits you.”
Qinghe’s fingers tightened slightly around the copper coins.
“Then… how much would the wages be?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt a little embarrassed.
The woman, however, answered quite readily.
“During the trial period, I’ll pay you twenty wen for half a day. If you do well, we can discuss your regular wages afterward.”
Qinghe’s eyes widened in surprise.
Twenty wen for half a day.
If she could work ten or so days a month, she’d earn more than two hundred wen!
That was far more reliable than painstakingly gathering chestnuts on the mountain and bringing them to town to sell one jin at a time.
But this was too important a matter.
She couldn’t make the decision on her own.
“Shopkeeper, could I go home and ask my parents first?”
“Of course.”
The woman nodded.
“My surname is Song. You can call me Shopkeeper Song.”
She looked at Qinghe and spoke warmly.
“I’m willing to give you an opportunity here. But whether you want to take it is something you must think through for yourself.”
Qinghe hurriedly thanked her.
Before they left, Shopkeeper Song even gave each of the children a small piece of rice cake.
Zhou Xiaozao was overjoyed.
“Thank you, Auntie Song!”
Shopkeeper Song smiled until her eyes curved into crescents.
“What a sweet little mouth!”
After leaving the grain shop, Qinghe was still somewhat dazed.
Zhou Qingzhu tugged at her sleeve.
“Eldest Sister, does Shopkeeper Song really want you to work for her?”
“Mm.”