When the shopkeeper saw Gu Yaoniang walk in again, his smile stretched from ear to ear.
Gu Yaoniang was somewhat bewildered by his bright smile, while the old shopkeeper was about to greet Lu Zhaoan, but was quickly pulled away by the clever Afu.
Upon arriving at the private room, Lu Zhaoan took out the commercial draft he had just received.
Gu Yaoniang took it and looked at it in her hand, but asked first, "Hey Boss Lu, what's this? You're giving me money again?"
Lu Zhaoan smiled without saying a word: "Take a good look at this commercial draft. Is there anything different about it?"
Gu Yaoniang glanced at him, twisted her body and leaned towards the window before carefully examining the commercial draft in her hand.
The paper was still the same pearl Xuan paper used before, and the ink was still the Huizhou ink, a specialty of the Gu family, which was fireproof. The content of the writing was also no different from before.
However, where the seal should have been placed, it was not; instead, there were some small characters.
The characters are delicate, written with an unknown material for the nib, the strokes are extremely fine. If you don't look closely, you might not even notice that it's a line of text, and just think of it as a few accidental ink smudges.
Gu Yaoniang couldn't help but hold it closer to her eyes. It was still quite difficult to see, but she could make out that it was written with a line of numbers, which seemed to be "Sixty-two and one" mixed with runes that she couldn't understand.
What does this mean?
She recognized the characters, though they were just numbers. She didn't understand the runes, but she could roughly tell they were runes.
But putting them together, I really don't understand what they mean.
Even Lu Zhaoan, who was usually reserved, couldn't help but show a hint of pride. He took the commercial note from Yao Niang's hand and placed it on the table. Looking into Yao Niang's bright eyes, he asked, "What day is it today?"
Gu Yaoniang thought for a moment: "March 28th?"
Lu Zhaoan then asked, "What year is it this year?"
"The twenty-second year of Zhenlong."
Gu Yaoniang answered easily, but she was even more puzzled. What was the connection? These numbers were completely different from those on the commercial draft…
Besides, these dates were written on the commercial bills themselves.
She really couldn't figure out the connection between them.
"Last time the commercial draft was stolen, we couldn't figure out which one it was, right? Luckily, only a few of those commercial drafts were issued that day, and there weren't any others."
Moreover, currently only you and I are using commercial drafts. Once others learn of the benefits, they will inevitably use them as well. When they are mixed together, it will be even more difficult to distinguish them, and if someone wants to forge them, it will be even more difficult to detect.
That's when I came up with this idea.
Lu Zhaoan pointed to the tiny characters and said, "Look, this sixty-two is today's date. We take the twenty-two of the twenty-second year of Zhenlong as the base number and the three of the third month as the multiple, which gives us sixty-six."
This is one hundred taels of silver. Subtract sixty-six from one hundred taels of silver, and you get thirty-four.
Today is March 28th. We've taken 28, plus 34, which equals 62.
Gu Yaoniang was stunned. She paused, blinked, and twitched her right knuckles as if she were doing some mental calculation. After a moment, she finally sighed and said, "Boss Lu, you must have been quite good at math when you were in school, right?"
Lu Zhaoan was quite satisfied with her reaction and nodded modestly, saying, "I am not very talented, but I often received praise from my teacher when I was studying mathematics at the clan school."
Gu Yaoniang glanced at him with a half-smile, her lips slightly pursed, and let out a soft laugh.
She pointed her jade-like finger at the commercial draft and asked, "Then what is this 'one'?"
"This is the first commercial draft of the day."
Gu Yaoniang nodded slightly: "Very good, very good. Boss Lu is truly a genius. If we hadn't met by chance at Zuiyue Tower today, to whom would you have given this commercial note?"
Lu Zhaoan stood tall, exuding righteousness: "I will personally go to Jinyulou and present this to Boss Gu for his review. If it is acceptable, then we will use this commercial draft to conduct business with Boss Gu from now on."
Gu Yaoniang stared straight at him, her beautiful face blooming like a flower, and said with a half-smile, "I don't believe it."
After a moment's thought, she frowned slightly and sighed, "Your method is ingenious, but I find it quite cumbersome. Just thinking about it gives me a headache. If it's used frequently in the future, the calculations will only become more troublesome. When commercial drafts are used, how can they all pass through your hands every time? The people below don't have your abilities; they can't calculate the amount immediately and can't distinguish between genuine and counterfeit drafts. Even if you put in a lot of effort, wouldn't it still be useless?"
Lu Zhaoan, brimming with confidence and beaming with excitement, said, "Of course, that's not all. Aren't you curious why this character can be written so small?"
After this reminder, Gu Yaoniang suddenly remembered: "I was just wondering what it was that wrote such delicate and exquisite characters."
"This is a pen that I had specially made. It's different from the pens we usually use. The nib is small and stiff, so it won't easily deform when writing. That's why it can write such small characters."
Lu Zhaoan was clearly very pleased with himself.
"Then what are these?" Gu Yaoniang asked in a puzzled tone, gesturing with her hand to the symbols on the commercial bill that looked like celestial script. "What are these things that look like scribbled characters?"
Lu Zhaoan couldn't help but laugh out loud, his chest heaving with each laugh. Gu Yaoniang was completely bewildered, utterly confused. A little annoyed by the laughter, she retorted, "If you don't want to tell me, then forget it!"
Lu Zhaoan quickly stopped laughing and said in a low voice, "No, it's not that. I just don't know what it is, I just drew it randomly. I made a few strokes and carved a seal, and from now on, all the commercial drafts between you and me will be made using this."
Even if other families start using commercial drafts later, I will only use this stamp on commercial drafts with you.
Lu Zhaoan spoke with great intimacy, yet it caused Gu Yaoniang's heart to tremble and shudder.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
