Chapter 316
Chapter 316
Jiang Yunsui’s textile workshop had Ji Yan’an’s full support. In Mobei, she could practically do as she pleased.
Construction therefore went smoothly. The workshop was built from cement and blue bricks.
Jiang Yunsui had plenty of money and did not wince when investing it.
Of course, she was no fool. If she was putting money into something, she expected quality in return.
Besides the workshop itself, they hired many carpenters to build looms.
Then there was the purchase of wool…
The Ji women involved in the venture were inexperienced at first, but they had all been trained to manage a household and soon found their footing.
Jiang Yunsui found the existing bookkeeping method far too cumbersome. It made the ledgers difficult for everyone to read.
She was not particularly skilled at arithmetic herself.
To learn accounting, she even studied under Song Jin for a while.
Jiang Yunsui was not stupid. In fact, she was extremely clever.
She might not remember everything after a single glance, but she truly could memorize something after reading it two or three times.
She was simply too lazy.
In her previous life as a mushroom in the mountains, she sometimes played with the spirits there and picked up bits of common knowledge about the human world from their conversations.
But she had never studied systematically in the mountains. She had lived free and unfettered.
That was the flattering way to put it.
Less flatteringly, she had been an illiterate mushroom.
Now that she had become human and lived among humans, there were far too many complicated things to learn. Little Mushroom still thought as she always had: she wanted to play, not study anything difficult.
But now, for the sake of the textile workshop, Little Mushroom was going to study on her own initiative!
When she went to Song Jin and asked him to teach her arithmetic and bookkeeping, he thought some strange creature had possessed her.
He picked her up and inspected her for ages, even suspecting someone else was impersonating her beneath a human-skin mask. He pawed at her face for quite a while.
Unable to bear it any longer, Jiang Yunsui left a fierce little bite mark on his hand.
“What? Can’t I decide that I love studying?”
Song Jin laughed. “Well, the sun truly has risen in the west.”
Jiang Yunsui planted her little hands on her hips.
“Never mind that. I’m going to manage a huge workshop now. How can I do that if I can’t read the accounts?”
Song Jin asked, “Then why not go to Ji Yan’an?”
Little Mushroom answered as if it were obvious, “Because Ji Yan’an is already really busy. I can’t add to his workload.”
The smile vanished from Song Jin’s face.
“What, you think my workload isn’t heavy? Do you know I do several times as much work as he does every day?”
“You only know how to worry about the Young Master. Why don’t you worry about me?”
Jiang Yunsui said, “But he just recovered from a serious illness.”
“And he’s still young. You’re so much bigger than him, so of course you should do more work.”
The moment she finished speaking, Song Jin grabbed her by the collar and tossed her out the door.
Then he shut the door in one smooth motion.
Jiang Yunsui: (O∆O)
Outrageous! He had actually thrown out the mighty Mushroom King!
She immediately turned, pressed herself against the door, and pounded on it. “Open up! Open the door! If you’ve got the nerve to shut it, then you’ve got the nerve to open it!”
In the end, thanks to a mushroom’s shameless persistence, Jiang Yunsui stayed and learned bookkeeping and arithmetic from Song Jin.
She could have asked Li Yunniang. Since Li Yunniang managed the commercial side of things, she would certainly have been more familiar with it.
But Li Yunniang was not in Beizhen City. She had gone elsewhere to expand their trade.
Only after teaching her did Song Jin discover that Jiang Yunsui had a remarkably sharp little mind.
“Tsk… were you pretending to be stupid before?”
Jiang Yunsui fiddled with her tiny abacus. “What? Have you gone stupid?”
Song Jin rolled his eyes at her.
That day, with her head full of calculations, Jiang Yunsui strolled home with her hands behind her back and a small abacus hanging at her waist.
“Young Master, why don’t we go back? The Ji Mansion is too heavily guarded. We can’t even set a fire.”
At the words “Ji Mansion” and “set a fire,” Jiang Yunsui stopped.
Then she swaggered toward the voices.
Even when she reached them, the person inside the carriage did not notice her at all.
Jiang Yunsui pulled out a handful of shelled sunflower seeds, squatted nearby, and leisurely ate while listening.
“I don’t care! I suffered such humiliation at Ji Yan’an’s hands. If I don’t get revenge, how can I show my face again?”
“I didn’t see who did it that day, but it must have been Ji Yan’an’s men. How else could the timing be so perfect? Hmph… Ji Yan’an must be plotting rebellion. Why else would he keep so many elite soldiers guarding his mansion? I’ll report this to Princess Huiling and His Majesty. Then Ji Yan’an will suffer!”
“He had me beaten so badly over two horses that I needed more than a month to recover. I can’t swallow this insult!”
“You two, bribe the servants in Ji Yan’an’s household. I refuse to believe the Ji Mansion’s defenses are so airtight that there isn’t a single opening!”
Under Liu Hu’s urging, two miserable-looking petty officials finally climbed out of the carriage.
They planned to circle the Ji Mansion and search for an opening.
Jiang Yunsui already knew who sat inside the carriage.
Hmph. It was that conceited, arrogant idiot who had tried to steal Snow-Treader and Little White!
She was not worried. If they could casually buy off someone in the mansion, then they deserved credit.
And if such a person truly existed, they would only be helping Ji Yan’an remove a disloyal servant.
After returning, Jiang Yunsui found Ji Yan’an and told him what she had heard.
Ji Yan’an said he understood.
“Ji Yi, send two men to watch them.”
“Yes.”
With a cookie between her teeth, Jiang Yunsui asked, “Should we teach that conceited idiot a lesson?”
Ji Yan’an said, “No need. He has stayed here long enough. Once he leaves Mobei, I will teach him one.”
“Oh. Then I’m going back. You should go to bed early too, Ji Yan’an. Bye-bye!”
Naturally, Liu Hu’s scheme failed.
Whether his men tried to set the fire themselves or bribe someone in the Ji Mansion to do it, neither proved easy.
In the end, they could only slink back, where Liu Hu cursed, punched, and kicked them.
“Just wait! Once I return, I’ll complain to the princess and His Majesty. Ji Yan’an will pay!”
With no other choice, he left.
When Ji Yan’an received the news, he also sent a message by eagle.
He naturally would not act personally.
Plenty of people disliked the Liu Family, whose internal affairs were chaotic enough already. Liu Hu was habitually arrogant and committed countless wrongs, so he had no shortage of enemies.
Ji Yan’an only needed to send anonymous word of Liu Hu’s movements to those enemies and give events a small push. When Liu Hu died, no one would be able to trace it back to him.
Setting Liu Hu aside, Ji Yan’an was quite interested in Jiang Yunsui’s progress with her studies.
Recently, he had seen her ask for a blank account book and scribble all over it, though he had no idea what she was doing.
Before he could test her progress, the little girl came running to him excitedly with the ledger herself.
“Look! Isn’t it really clear when the accounts are written this way? They’re especially easy to calculate too.”
What Jiang Yunsui had brought him was naturally double-entry bookkeeping.
Some of the spirits who had given her their Inherited Memories had lived for centuries. They had experienced much in the human world and possessed a wealth of knowledge.
Jiang Yunsui had gained an enormous advantage. Those memories resembled a vast library. Whenever she wanted knowledge about something, she only had to think of it, and the relevant memories would appear.