Chapter Twenty: The Artisan

  Xu Yuansuo was still estimating the combat strength of this person after his death, and Niu Dalai had already jumped up.

  "Enemy of lao jiu! This is the accountant Mr. that Niu Dali invited!" Niu Dali was furious, and all his brothers stood up beside him.

  Xu Yuansuo looked at the whole table of people and found himself sitting alone, quite eye-catching, so he had to stand up.

  He turned around, almost frightened, that old nine was at least one zhang tall, really a tiger head and ape back, bee waist frog legs, no matter which game it was placed in, it would be the BOSS guarding the pass!

  Niudali compared with him, instantly restored to a child.

  Although Niu Dalì is a rough man, he won't be reckless. He dares to confront such a powerful giant spirit with hands like lotus leaves, naturally there must be something backing him up.

  Chou Laojiu was clearly wary of Niu Dali's reliance on him, but it wasn't enough to make him fearful.

  "Huh, we people who make a living by our skills can't even exchange a couple of jokes?" Qiu Laojiu leaned in close to Niu Dali, as if he might suddenly steal a kiss on his face.

  Niu Dalì's face turned slightly red, clearly not from shyness, but from annoyance.

  Xu Yuansuo only heard Ou Laojiu say so, and knew that Niu Dal was mostly relying on his connections to get ahead, so he was young and high-ranking, which made the old hooligan feel resentful.

  This confrontation was probably not the first time, Niu Dal must have been like this every time, being teased by others and having to swallow his anger.

  Xu Yuansuo analyzed so much, seeing Chou Laojiu swaying to return to his seat to eat, suddenly spoke out: "Those who make a living by their skills are the real men."

  "Are you messing with me?" Ou Laojiu stopped in his tracks and said viciously.

  Xu Yuansuo pretended not to hear and called out towards the kitchen: "Are there a few more dishes?"

  "Almost done! There's still one more braised lamb to go! What's the rush?"

  Xu Yuansuo turned his head to Niu Dal and said: "Brother Dal, since we have nothing to do, I'll settle the accounts first."

  "That's a lot..." Niu Dal said subconsciously, and only then did he react: Xu Diaozi was helping him save face!

  Don't lose face and also lose everything!

  Niu Dalì was somewhat worried and turned around to let someone bring out the account book.

  Xu Yuansuo sat down calmly and peacefully under the gaze of everyone.

  Before long, the person holding the account book arrived first, and surprisingly, it was a mixture of various small notebooks and papers.

  This is not an account book, it's a voucher!

  Xu Yuansuo's understanding of "checking accounts" is that there are account books. With his innate mathematical intuition, he can easily find the problem and complete the task by flipping through the account book, earning admiration. But now they actually brought out the original vouchers... Just glancing at the flying characters on these papers, his head almost exploded.

  Look at your sister's account! This is obviously asking me to do the accounting!

  Niu Dalì also looked at Xú Yuánzuǒ with concern.

  Only Qiulaojiu and his brother had a smile on their faces.

  "Is it enough? There's still some inside." The little brother who was carrying this pile of original accounts asked.

  The ox was so angry it nearly kicked him!

  "Bring it out! Bring everything out!" Qi Laojiu and the others jeered: "Otherwise, how can we see the skills of this accountant?"

  Xu Yuansuo took a piece of paper, on which was scribbled in hasty handwriting: "On a certain year and month and day, so-and-so still owes a debt of gambling, followed by handprint signature." He placed this paper to his left side, thinking to himself: "Lose the person but not the battle! Even if I have to skip lunch, I cannot lose face here!"

  He pushed away his bowl and chopsticks, and with a flourish of his hand, ordered: "Is there anyone who can read? Sort these out, put the receipts in one pile, the IOUs in another, and the records of expenses in another."

  Among the crowd, only Niu Dalì was still recognizable; he pulled out a thin little man who should be the scribe of this underworld.

  The two were quite capable in this regard and quickly sorted out the scattered papers according to Xu Yuanshuo's instructions.

  By the time, Xu Yuansuo had already taken out a few small notebooks and flipped through them. They were indeed messy diary accounts. At this point, he could only remember everything in his head. After he finished reading the revised diary account, Niu Dali and Xiao Wenshu also took out a stack of paper.

  Xu Yuansuo took a stack and arranged them in chronological order while browsing. When he finished, another stack of paper was already sorted out.

  Niu Dalì was tidying up while feeling anxious, not knowing whether Xu Dài was just flipping through or actually taking notes. Was he really checking the accounts or just passing the time? His heart suddenly skipped a beat and he almost slapped his thigh in alarm: Oh no! He had told Xu Dài that he came to "check the accounts", what if Xu Dài really was just looking, and wouldn't do anything at all?

  Xu Yuansuo, however, entered a strange state, and his sensitivity to numbers seemed to have increased. He originally memorized words by rote, but now he thought of the "Four-Corner Number Lookup Method" he had learned in middle school.

  That was originally a method of looking up dictionaries, using numbers 0 to 9 to represent the ten strokes of a Chinese character's four corners, sometimes with an additional check digit at the end.

  At this moment, Xu Yuansuo recompiled the corresponding numbers of strokes in his mind, and remembering Chinese characters became remembering 4 or 5-digit numbers.

  In this way, all receipts and daily accounts are just numbers for Xu Yuanshuo.

  Like a fish in water.

  He looked faster and faster, even exceeding the speed of Niu Dali and Shou Wenshu's classification, and amazingly, one person was able to categorize all the receipts by date.

  "Mutton is coming!" The chef announced loudly after finishing the last dish.

  "I'm done too." Xu Yuansuo put down the last piece of paper, stacked the three stacks of documents horizontally and vertically, and announced that the work was completed.

  Qiu Laojie said with a strange tone, "This craftsmanship isn't bad."

  Niu Dalì also felt a bit embarrassed and didn't say anything, feeling depressed.

  "I don't know about your assets either." Xu Yuansuo said leisurely, "So with just these things, we can only come up with a rough account book." He glanced at the steaming hot dishes on the table: "In order not to delay everyone's meal, I'll give you a total first." After that, Xu Yuansuo called for someone to bring pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and wrote down the total expenditure and total income calculated, and separately wrote down the amount of accounts receivable.

  Niu Dalì took the three numbers, also with a hint of doubt. He hastily flipped through all the receipts and said he had calculated it himself, but without seeing any notes or abacus, was this really reliable?

  There were many people who didn't believe him more than Niu Dal, and Qiulaojiu burst out laughing: "You think you can fool your grandfather Qiulao with just a few random numbers?"

  "Let's eat first, after eating I'll slowly list the accounts for you, and it will be clear at a glance." Xu Yuansuo hinted to Niu Dal that it was time to pick up his chopsticks, now nothing was more important than eating.

  "Don't be in a hurry!" Old Qiujin's face suddenly flashed with a sly smile: "I'll find an accountant to calculate it right away, if there's any mistake, you can wipe your butt and wait for me."

  Xu Yuansuo suppressed his anger and forced a smile: "If it's true, how can you say that?"

  "If that's correct, then be my guest!" Old Qi didn't believe anyone in the world could actually do mental math. Looking at the stack of receipts on the table again, he even suspected Xu Yuanshuo had simply tidied them up without even looking at them.

  Since the two had made a bet, Xu Yuanshuo was no longer in a hurry to eat, so he simply turned his back on the dinner table to avoid temptation... but ended up feeling even more miserable.

  Not turning around is looking at a table of dishes that can't be eaten, but turning around is looking at four tables of dishes that can't be eaten.

  Qiu Laojiao also arrived quickly, soon dragging in a thin old man. The old man had an unlucky look on his face, with wrinkles all over his face like the inscriptions on a tortoise shell. Judging from the abacus tucked under his arm, he must be the accountant of some merchant's household.

  Behind the accountant, a young man also followed, with a look of fear on his face, seemingly like the old accountant's nephew or apprentice.

  "Give me a clear account, if there's even half a mistake, you'll be in trouble!" Qiu Laojiu threatened.

  The old accountant swallowed his saliva: "Master Jiǔ, there are so many, I'm afraid we'll have to calculate until tonight."

  "Whatever!" Old Nine didn't care about all that.

  Lao Zhanfang's face was bitter, he found a place to sit down, cleared the abacus, and let the young man start counting. Xu Yuansuo didn't say much, just reminded him not to mess up the dates, and showed him his own total, he naturally understood how Lao Jiuxiao wanted him to calculate.

  Among the crowd, only Niu Dal and Chou Laojiu were really concerned about this matter, as well as their brothers. The others did not want to take a clear stand, why bother making enemies for no reason? This neutral stance made them feel depressed that they couldn't eat, and could only watch dryly.

  Finally someone used their brain and secretly went to invite the row leader over.

  Noun explanation; Lao Lu is Wu language, which means provocation, pretending to be forced, hard-mouthed, and sarcastic. The phrase "Chou Lao Jiu" is generally a declaration of war between two people before they start fighting.