Bookkeeping

  Song Qingfeng was just about to show off his calligraphy on Liu Ziguang's face when he heard a soft cry of "stop" and Second Miss walked into the courtyard with Qiu Xiang. Everyone quickly bowed their heads in greeting, Song Qingfeng's sword flashed in the air with a beautiful flourish before being tucked behind his arm, and the smile on his face became much more sincere. His other hand stretched out in friendship, but Liu Ziguang ignored it in anger and got up by himself.

  Song Qingfeng smiled magnanimously and said to the second young lady, "Second Young Lady, your guard just received dozens of moves from my Wudang swordsmanship. He's indeed formidable, worthy of being a disciple of yours. I, Song, admire him."

  "Second Miss didn't bother with Song Qingfeng, coldly saying: 'There's a specific time and place for practicing martial arts. Everyone who fought earlier will be fined half a month's salary. The caning is temporarily waived. Song Xiaoxia, although you're the Young Master of the Wudang Sect, you voluntarily came to our Liguo Iron Factory as an unpaid swordsmanship instructor, which is beneath your great talent. However, since you've come, please follow the rules here.'"

  Song Qing's radiant smile didn't put Miss Two's cold words in her heart: "Song certain understood."

  The guards around them all had bitter faces, and casually teaching the two thieving slaves would cost half a month's salary. What a bad year it was, this account must be settled with those two guys.

  The second young lady took Liu Ziguang away from the courtyard, and no one noticed that Song Qingfeng's eyes flashed with a fierce glint when he looked at the second young lady's back.

  After coming out of the hospital, Second Miss ordered Qiu Xiang to take out a nanmu box and hand it over to Liu Ziguang, saying: "Hand this thing over to Big Sister in the study, and tell her that I'm taking Qiu Xiang to visit Aunt Yu's illness."

  Liu Ziguang took the box, imitated others and said "En", respectfully seeing off Second Miss before taking a step to leave. Suddenly thought of "Where is the study? Who is Big Miss? What does she look like?" Didn't know so asked, walked for a while, bumped into a middle-aged auntie, and inquired with her.

  As soon as the words "Big Miss" came out, the old lady became excited and began to introduce Big Miss's history to New Ding. Big Miss is two years older than Second Miss, and has been virtuous and gentle since childhood, which is in stark contrast to Second Miss. She started taking care of the factory owner's affairs very early on, first managing the inner house after the lady's death, and later gradually taking over the major and minor affairs of the factory. Now she is the agent of the factory owner, and all big and small matters are decided by her.

  So she's a strong woman, isn't that even more terrifying than Second Miss? Liu Ziguang took a deep breath.

  He soon found the study after asking for directions, and it turned out to be a quiet courtyard. After checking his waist card at the entrance and putting down his waist knife, Liu Ziguang walked into the courtyard of the study.

  A gentle knock on the door, a clear and crisp voice like an oriole's "come in". Liu Ziguang pushed open the door and saw that the elegant study was filled with books and volumes with identical covers, the air was filled with a faint scent of incense. A petite figure was almost buried in the middle by two towering piles of volumes on either side. The girl didn't raise her head, directly asking: "Are you here to deliver something for Second Miss? Just put it on that table over there and go."

  Liu Ziguang said: "I have been entrusted by the second young lady to deliver a wooden box to you, and she also instructed me to inform you that she has taken Qiu Xiang to visit Aunt Yu's illness." After finishing speaking, he placed the wooden box on the desk where the eldest sister was sitting, and turned around to leave. Unexpectedly, there were too many books on the desk, which had already become unstable, and Liu Ziguang accidentally knocked against them, causing dozens of books to fall to the ground with a loud noise. Liu Ziguang stretched out his hand to catch them, but he couldn't stop so many books from falling, and they scattered all over the floor. He hastily apologized and busily picked up the books, and in his haste, he discovered that each book had text, numbers, dates, and other information on it. Unconsciously, he arranged them according to type, number, and date.

  Big sister said, "Let me do it, don't mess it up." Seeing Liu Ziguang seemed to be putting things in some order, she couldn't help but ask, "Do you know characters?" Liu Ziguang thought to himself, I not only know characters, but also a university student of the new era, but his mouth was very respectful, "Subordinate knows characters."

  The big sister suddenly became interested, turned around from behind the table, "You are the Red-clothed General that my little sister mentioned, what did you do before and how many characters do you know?" She looked like she was dizzy from reading too much material and just wanted to find someone to chat with to relax.

  Liu Ziguang replied, "In the past, I was a scholar who didn't know many characters, just enough to get by." He didn't dare exaggerate, now they all use traditional characters, Liu Ziguang can recognize the vast majority, but after all, there are some rare characters he doesn't know, and he can't write traditional characters fluently.

  "Scholar? Are you a man of letters? Then take a look, what is that booklet in your hand? What's it used for?"

  The young lady seemed to have some doubts about Liu Ziguang's words, the bloody and victorious general in the arena couldn't be associated with the elegant word "scholar". Scholar, probably at most a small friend who had opened a private school in the countryside but hadn't entered the imperial academy yet. (Small friend refers to scholars who haven't passed the imperial examination) The young lady smiled.

  Liu Ziguang carefully looked at the blue cloth-covered booklet in his hand, on which was written "Raw Iron - Bingyin Year, April, Jia". He opened the booklet and inside were the words and numbers: "Old pipe: 15,030,400 catties. April 1st new collection: 30,200 catties. Opening deduction: 1,318,000 catties. Total silver: 3,220 taels. Actual: 14,036,600 catties."

  "This is the first ledger of pig iron sales inventory for April this year," said Liu Ziguang, who studied accounting in college and had also interned at his father's factory for a few months, where he was forced to learn a lot of accounting knowledge by those enthusiastic accounting aunts. Now, seeing this original industrial accounting detailed account, he felt a little excited. The big sister was slightly surprised, but after thinking about it, she thought that it wasn't too difficult for a well-read friend like him to understand that this was an account book.

  "The accounts are kept very clearly, but the accounting method is too primitive and outdated. Each person does their own thing, unrelated to others, making it easy to falsify and difficult to audit." Liu Ziguang continued. It seems that this young friend is not as simple as he appears, perhaps having worked in a merchant's accounting house before? No, even an old accountant wouldn't dare to criticize the accounting method so boldly. The young lady's eyebrows furrowed, "That's interesting, then what do you think should be done? Sit down and talk about it." The young lady gestured for Liu Ziguang to sit down, and she herself sat in a nearby chair, listening with great interest as this black-clad guard spoke about the accountant's affairs.

  "Yes," Liu Ziguo replied, taking a deep breath and trying his best to recall the things he had learned in school. Assets equal liabilities plus equity, for every debit there is a credit, debits and credits must be equal... These concepts were completely different from what he saw in the account books, which recorded various transactions of minerals, coal, coke, limestone, pig iron, steel, weapons, armor, farming tools, machinery, etc. There were also by-products, such as blast furnace gas, coking coal gas, consumption and sales of slaves and warriors, as well as reports from branches in other locations, accounts with large merchants, and outstanding balances. All these things were recorded separately, without any other account books to refer to for parallel calculation and supervision. Ah, isn't the function of modern accounting precisely calculation and supervision? If multiple account books record the same thing, then they can be supervised. But how? Different account books, different subjects... Ah, double-entry bookkeeping can do this!

  "Miss, I used to learn an accounting method that divides a business transaction into two or more ledgers. For example, when selling pig iron, one ledger records: Debit: Cash 1000 taels Credit: Sales revenue 1000 taels Another ledger records: Debit: Sales revenue 1000 taels Credit: Inventory of pig iron 1000 taels"

  "Silver income has a special ledger, sales revenue has an account book, and the inventory of pig iron also has an entry and exit account, recording the pig iron transferred from the workshop and issued through sales. Each month, accounts are settled once, listing income, expenses, various costs, profits, inventory of pig iron, coal, and weapons in a report form. All clear at a glance."

  "Go on," the young lady's eyebrows unfolded, and her eyes began to shine. "Winter fragrance, serve tea." A maid brought up two cups of fragrant tea. Liu Ziguang drank a mouthful without hesitation and continued speaking.

  "What is referred to as borrowing and lending refers to the inflow and outflow of silver and goods, with each transaction having a corresponding account entry, recorded in different ledgers. Money, accounts, and goods are each managed by a dedicated person and cannot be controlled by one person alone. When checking accounts, money, accounts, and goods must match; if they do not match, it is either an error or someone has tampered with the records."

  The intelligent and clever young lady immediately understood the superiority of this accounting system, took a white paper and her own wooden pen, placed them on the tea table between the two, and said: "Please write down the items mentioned earlier, as well as the specific calculation methods, and the corresponding relationship between each account. I will slowly comprehend."

  Liu Ziguang didn't notice that the young lady's way of addressing him had already changed to "Mr.", picked up a fragrant wooden pen, and began writing on white paper. As he wrote, he also drew pictures and explained them one by one. The young lady would occasionally exclaim in admiration and ask various questions, which Liu Ziguang answered one by one. Before they knew it, they had already filled up over a dozen sheets of white paper.

  More than half of the time had passed, and Liu's stomach was growling with hunger. The eldest sister smiled apologetically and called out to the maid: "Dongxiang, serve lunch, I'll have it with Mr. Liu."

  Dong Xiang was shocked, a small inner guard, unexpectedly being kept by the eldest miss for so long, and now also being asked to stay for lunch together. This is truly a great honor. You know, the famous Wudang Song Shaoxia, that is the best among young talents, because of his admiration for the eldest miss, gave up the opportunity to travel the world, gain fame and fortune, and voluntarily became a swordsmanship teacher in the iron factory's inner mansion. Yet until now, he has not had the chance to be alone with the eldest miss, let alone have lunch together, even conversations have not exceeded one moment.

  Dong Xiang felt indignant on Song Qingfeng's behalf, and when serving the dishes, she couldn't help but glare at Liu Ziguang with a fierce gaze. However, Liu Ziguang didn't notice, his attention completely captured by the eldest miss.

  Although the elder sister has a similar face to the second sister, she feels like two completely different people. The elder sister speaks softly and gently, with a pair of big, shining eyes that sparkle when she encounters questions, almost making him stare blankly. With her proximity, the fragrance on the girl's body is even more intoxicating, and Liu Ziguang, who hasn't been this close to a girl in a long time, can't help but feel his heart fluttering.

  Several exquisite home-cooked dishes: fragrant mushroom vegetable, stir-fried bamboo shoots, spicy stir-fried chicken and eggplant, boiled carp, and red date purple rice porridge. All were served in fine ceramic small plates and bowls. Since crossing over, Liu Ziguang had never seen such delicate dishes. Last time at Xu Zhou Fu Han's place, it was just large chunks of meat and big bowls of wine. He made an effort to maintain his image while eating, not wanting to appear too rustic. The eldest miss smiled as she watched Liu Ziguang eat, her ivory chopsticks only moving a few times before she drank half a bowl of purple rice porridge, leaving the rest for Liu Ziguang to finish.

  After dinner, Dongxiang, who had been waiting on the side, cleared the bowls and chopsticks, and couldn't help but glare at Liu Ziguang a few more times, muttering to herself: "A starving ghost reincarnated." The young mistress instructed Dongxiang that except for a few high-ranking officials, everyone else was not allowed to see her, and in the afternoon she would study the new accounting method with Mr. Liu.

  The two of them continued to explore.

  "Hmm, with this accounting method, not only is it convenient to check, but it can also prevent someone from faking it, which is great. By the way, in the production stage, is there a good way to calculate the cost of raw materials and labor?" The young lady asked, as they continued to discuss and delve deeper into the production process.

  Liu Ziguang pondered for a moment, rummaging through his knowledge of modern production technology and financial expertise. After a while, he continued to say: "I'm not familiar with the production process, so I shouldn't comment on it casually. However, when producing the same batch of pig iron, there should be a standard for measuring the time, labor, coke, and limestone used. Exceeding this standard is waste, reducing it is savings, and that's innovation, which can be promoted. The raw material warehouse cannot be taken at will, and someone must be in charge. When taking out materials, the person must write down the quantity, time, and when storing finished products in the warehouse, they must also record clearly. The warehouse management system should be under the overall financial management system, achieving data sharing." As he spoke, Liu Ziguang picked up his pen and drew a three-column detailed account chart, with date, summary, and quantity on the front, and amount, income, issuance, and inventory on the back, all clear at a glance.

  The big sister slightly nodded her head: "This account page design is very good, as for the method you mentioned, the factory indeed doesn't have"

  There are regulations for the use of raw materials, but they have always been piled up in the yard and taken at will. Outsiders may not be able to steal them, but it has created a wasteful atmosphere. Mr. Liu's good talent is only used as a guard, while his sister's good talent is truly versatile. How about this: tomorrow I'll inform my sister and transfer you to the accounting room? Use your method to bring a few apprentices and help me sort out the accounts together. Alas, this messy account should be thoroughly cleaned up.

  Liu Ziguang was secretly delighted, suddenly transforming from a guard to an accountant, definitely a promotion, and more importantly, he could gain the appreciation of the young mistress, and his backbone would be stronger in the future. Alas, looking at the young mistress's appearance, she was only 17 or 18 years old, yet she had to bear the heavy responsibility of being the general manager of an iron factory with tens of thousands of people, it was truly exhausting. Realizing that he had actually developed a sense of pity and admiration for her, he secretly scolded himself, what kind of identity do you have? A slave-born guard is just a dog, even in the 21st century, there is a huge gap between him and such a noble young lady, don't think about that unattainable swan meat.

  The sky was getting late, and Liu Ziguang, who had poured out his own inventory, had already emptied his own stock. Some modern accounting things, he couldn't fully grasp, but the overall framework had been built in the mind of the eldest sister, now what was needed was continuous improvement, gradually replacing the old system.

  Seeing that the young lady looked a bit tired, Liu Ziguang stood up and bid farewell, saying he needed to go back and recall what he had learned, as it had been years since he last used it and many things had already been forgotten. He would wait for the next day to receive further instructions from the young lady. The young lady nodded in agreement.

  As soon as he came out, Song Qingfeng was sitting in the gatehouse, chatting with Dongxiang. Seeing that it was Liu Ziguo who had come out, Song Shaoye was taken aback. This afternoon, the thieving slave laborer who had been at his mercy under his sword was now chatting with the young mistress for an entire afternoon, and even had dinner together. Poor him, sitting in the gatehouse for an entire afternoon. Dongxiang refused to make any announcements, and it turned out that it was because of this guy. Song Qingfeng's eyes narrowed as he furrowed his brow in thought.