Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Shao Shuyi didn't sleep very well that night.

Zheng Song's gaze before leaving held a deep meaning that lingered in his mind, making him somewhat uneasy.

Damn it, anyone can threaten him, this life is truly—

However, when he got up and went to the dining hall, his slight dissatisfaction quickly vanished, because today's breakfast was quite lavish.

The cook secretly swallowed her saliva. After Wang Sheng gave her a signal, she smiled and said, "The accountant is at the age where he is growing. The manager instructed me to make some delicious food every day and not repeat the same thing twice. Today I made chicken head powder noodles. I wonder if the accountant will like it."

Zhiku Wu Youcai and martial arts master Zhang Neng had already sat down and were slurping their noodles.

The shopkeeper, Wang Sheng, smiled and said, "Sit down and eat with us. If one bowl isn't enough, there's more in the pot."

He paused slightly at this point, then said, "Don't listen to her nonsense. At my age, I can't avoid wind, cold, and dampness. Eating some chicken head powder in the morning is in line with the principles of health preservation, and it's not just for your sake."

Zhang Neng put down his chopsticks and laughed, "Yesterday someone said that the new accountant is still a young man and should eat some good food to nourish himself. I'm lucky to have benefited from this. I've practiced martial arts for many years and I don't have any of my old problems with my knees, back, or legs. The manager is so generous in nourishing the accountant and me. I will definitely not refuse any orders from now on."

Wang Sheng laughed and said, "Why keep talking about such trivial matters?"

After saying that, he gestured for Shao Shuyi to sit down and said, "Eat quickly, it won't be as fresh when it gets cold. This noodle soup is made with the best lamb leg meat, cardamom, and chickpeas, it's very nourishing."

Upon hearing this, Shao Shuyi bowed and said, "Thank you, shopkeeper."

"Aren't you being too formal, accountant?" Wu Youcai said with a smile. "The manager is an elder, always kind and generous. You should call him 'sir'."

Shao Shuyi remained calm and smiled, "The shopkeeper is a scholar, so you should address him as 'Sir'."

After saying that, he sat down without ceremony and started eating noodles.

The terms "sir" and "husband" are quite different.

The former was originally used to address Taoist priests in this dynasty. Later, its scope gradually expanded. The word "先生" (xiānsheng, meaning "Master") can also be used to address virtuous and learned elders. Finally, it refers to teachers who have taught you, in order to show closeness.

"Xianggong" is a very common form of respect, used by everyone from the prime minister to ordinary officials and even scholars. In short, it lacks any sense of intimacy.

Wang Sheng understood, smiled, and said nothing.

Shao Shuyi glanced out of the corner of his eye but didn't see Zheng Song. He must have left in a hurry before dawn and looked quite busy.

Thinking of this, Shao Shuyi suddenly had a thought: If Zheng Song were still alive, would these people still enjoy breakfast so extravagantly?

This so-called chicken head powder noodle is not easy to make. Shao Shuyi had heard about it from others and knew a little about it.

Chop a whole leg of lamb into pieces, add five cardamom spices and half a liter of glutinous rice beans (crushed and peeled) to make a broth, then filter it and keep the broth. Mix two catties of chicken head powder, one catty of bean powder and one catty of wheat flour, add water to make a dough, roll it into a thin sheet, cut it into wide strips, and then pinch off pieces by hand and put them into the broth to cook.

Finally, stir-fry fresh mutton into thin strips, then mix it with shredded scallions, vinegar, and salt into the cooked noodle soup to balance the flavors.

What may seem like an ordinary bowl of mutton noodles to later generations was, in reality, incredibly difficult to obtain in this day and age. Only Shao Shuyi knew how rare it was to eat such a bowl of noodles.

The management of the Zheng family's Qingqidi shop, hehe, they seem to live quite well.

While overseas trade is certainly profitable, even extremely so, the profits belong to the owner and have little to do with the shop assistants. If Wang Sheng and his group are eating and drinking like this every day, there's definitely something fishy going on. Moreover, their initial words were quite ingratiating; even a fool could sense something was amiss.

Shao Shuyi ate his noodles without making a sound or saying a word.

After finishing one bowl, I looked up, trying to figure out how to get another one.

The cook approached with a beaming smile and said, "Just give me the bowl, I'll get it right away."

Wang Sheng continued eating his noodles slowly and deliberately, while Wu Youcai quietly raised his head and gestured to the cook with his eyes.

The cook understood and quickly went to the kitchen to fill a large bowl with noodles. Judging from the pile of tender mutton on top, it was clear that extra ingredients had been added.

Shao Shuyi thanked him and continued eating.

Only after finishing three large bowls of food did he quietly let out a satisfied burp!

This fifteen-year-old body is at an age where it desperately craves nutrition and feels like it can never get enough to eat. Now, having found a long-term meal ticket at the antique shop—preferably long-term—could be perfect.

This is the power of knowledge. Of course, Shao Shuyi was well aware that this was only one of the reasons, and not even the main one; another reason remained to be explored.

Of the other three people in the dining room, martial arts master Zhang Neng had already left, and Wu Youcai, who had just finished eating, said he wanted to take stock of the newly arrived blue-and-white artifacts one last time, and also got up to leave.

Wang Sheng ate the slowest. Seeing Shao Shuyi get up, he unceremoniously pushed the remaining half-bowl of mutton noodles aside and said, "I've heard the accountant's nickname is Xiao Hu?"

Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "That's right."

Wang Sheng picked up a handkerchief and wiped his mouth, saying, "Since I am older, I will take the liberty of addressing you by your childhood name. The primary task of our shop is to inventory and store all the various blue-and-white artifacts sent by our family in the warehouse, ensuring their proper safekeeping. When foreign merchants arrive by sea, we will sell them all together. However—"

Shao Shuyi looked at Wang Sheng, quietly waiting for what would happen next.

Wang Sheng hesitated for a moment, then sighed, "However, celadon is fragile and difficult to preserve, so we must be careful. Besides, Master Zheng doesn't come here often; he sends his servants instead, or he has the porcelain kiln hire ships to deliver the goods to our door. They are not meticulous people and are careless, so many of the celadon pieces they send are damaged. We must be careful when putting them in the account."

Shao Shuyi neither agreed nor disagreed, but simply bowed and said, "Sir, you are mature and prudent, and I admire you greatly."

Wang Sheng's eyelids twitched, he chuckled, and turned to leave.

Shao Shuyi watched his departing figure silently, lost in thought.

******

After returning to his residence, Shao Shuyi stood in front of a bamboo box.

He had expected a modern bookshelf, but instead found only two bamboo boxes containing thread-bound ledgers and booklets.

Small shops, that's perfectly normal.

After taking the account book out of the bamboo box, Shao Shuyi sat cross-legged at the desk and began to read it.

What a coincidence, this was exactly the kind of account information Shao Shuyi wanted to see. At a glance, it was recorded in a chronological, logistical style, with only rough categorization, such as—

"On the seventh day of the first month of the third year of the Zhizheng era (1343), I spent 18 strings of cash to buy 6 catties of meat for the worship of the gods and for kitchen use."

"In the third year of the Zhizheng era (1343), four jars of wine were given as rewards."

"On the second day of the second lunar month, a jar of wine will be provided for several uses."

"On the seventeenth of the second month, fifteen strings of cash were used to hire people to dig a well."

"On the sixth day of the third month, I spent sixty strings of cash to buy oil for lighting lamps and cooking."

"On the eleventh of March, I spent five coins to buy a needle."

……

All of this was recorded in great detail and care, making it a veritable firsthand account. However, as Shao Shuyi looked at it, he frowned. Although he was not a professional accountant in his later life, he recognized that there were problems with this kind of record.

First, what kind of banknotes are these? Are they the Zhiyuan banknotes or the Zhongtong banknotes? Although he clearly knows it is the latter, it is not specified here, which leaves room for fraud.

Secondly, how many liters is in one jar of wine? He flipped through the previous accounts and found that he had bought one last autumn, and it also didn't specify the volume. As far as he knew, wine jars on the market came in different sizes, and the prices were naturally different. Besides, it didn't even specify what kind of wine it was.

Third, there is no problem with paying people to dig the well, but how many people were hired? How much labor was spent? There are no records, only the expenditure of fifteen strings of cash.

Fourth, how much oil did you buy with sixty strings of cash? Was it rapeseed oil, sesame oil, or some other kind of oil?

There are too many problems; there is room for cheating in almost every aspect.

After putting the ledger that recorded the shop's daily miscellaneous expenses back, Shao Shuyi picked up the second one, and then his spirits lifted—

"On the first day of the fourth month, provide one shi of japonica rice, five dou of fragrant glutinous rice, three liang of good salt, half a jin of sandy salt, two jars of pickled vegetables, and sixty guan of paper money as monthly allowance for the shopkeeper, Wang Sheng."

After reading it once, and then a second time, Shao Shuyi finally learned that Wang Sheng's salary was basically three times his.

There are others below—

"On the first day of the fourth month, six dou of japonica rice, two dou of fragrant glutinous rice, one liang of good salt, half a jin of sandy salt, two jars of pickled vegetables, and forty guan of paper money will be provided as monthly allowance for the martial arts instructor Zhang Neng."

Well, Zhang Neng's income is almost twice that of him.

"On the first day of the fourth month, five dou of rice, half a jin of salt, a jar of pickled vegetables, and thirty guan of paper money were distributed to Wu Youcai, the official treasury official, as his monthly allowance."

Old Wu's salary is also higher than his, so he's a long-term employee.

However, they probably don't live off this fixed salary, do they? Shao Shuyi wondered to himself.

There were more than a dozen people behind them, most of whom only had records of receiving grain, salt, and pickles, but no money. Moreover, some received money in certain months, while others did not. Only a handful of people received paper money, with most fluctuating between ten and fifteen strings of cash.

After a quick analysis, Shao Shuyi realized that besides grain and vegetables, the only people who could get money were the employees, while those who only received grain expenses were mostly the slaves or servants of the Zheng family.

In this way, the personnel structure of this ware shop becomes very clear.

After gently placing the ledger back, Shao Shuyi took out the third one.

This is an account book concerning payments to brokers, taxes, and even bribes to government officials. In just four months this year, it involves dozens of officials and clerks from Kunshan Prefecture and the Maritime Trade Office, as well as patrol officers and naval officers. The accounts are quite remarkable!

The fourth book in the bamboo box contains detailed records of trade data with foreign merchants.

The fifth book is about the inventory and losses of celadon ware and other arts and crafts items...

After a cursory reading, Shao Shuyi had only three thoughts.

First, these ledgers have significant problems.

Later, by chance, he visited a bank museum, which featured exhibits on ancient accounting practices. In short, this system was greatly perfected and reached its peak during the Qing Dynasty, consisting of three main parts: internal accounting, external accounting, and money handling.

The internal accounting department is mainly responsible for registering accounts, preparing monthly statements, calculating interest on outstanding loans, finalizing annual profits and losses, and reviewing year-end profits and losses. The external accounting department is mainly responsible for money transfers and registering receipts. The cashier's office is the cashier system.

With a clear division of labor and separation of income and expenditure, it is already quite professional.

But things were different at that time. Accounting was very rudimentary, and the roles of accountant and cashier were not separated, both being handled by one person, which posed a great risk and left a huge room for improvement.

Secondly, Shao Shuyi felt that doing business these days was really not easy.

First, you need strong connections with higher-ups; second, you need to win over all sorts of shady characters; and finally, you need to form a community of shared interests with brokers, porcelain kilns, and others to make money together.

In this process, the Zheng family was actually quite easy to replace. To put it bluntly, they were just "agents" of the Chuzhou Longquan kiln, with no production capacity of their own; they were purely middlemen.

If relations with higher-ups go wrong, the Qingqi Shop is very likely to go downhill.

Thirdly, Shao Shuyi increasingly felt that the rule of the Mongol Yuan dynasty was likely doomed, with levies being imposed everywhere and directly used for military supplies, seemingly to suppress some kind of rebellion.

The rain is coming from the wind!

The Yuan Dynasty, like a dilapidated house, is already teetering on the brink of collapse. Riots break out here today and uprisings break out there tomorrow, one after another. Perhaps it can be suppressed at first, but the Yuan Dynasty's strength is being rapidly depleted, and eventually, a turning point will arrive.

Shao Shuyi let out a long sigh, put away the account book, and prepared to go to the front to take a look.