Chapter 57 This is too expensive!
The dessert shop's business is doing fairly well, as expected.
The raw materials, sugar, honey, and milk powder, require no additional cost. Even the rice for the sweet porridge can be bought by Guo Baiwen using the things he gets from signing in.
It just so happened that the academy had a one-day break every ten days, so he took this opportunity to wander around the twenty acres of land and then bring back the large pile of things he had taken out by oxcart.
He always kept the two taels of silver that Grandma Guo gave him for shopping.
If you only take two taels of silver, you can't buy these good things.
As for what's left in the store, things like red beans, mung beans, red dates, raisins, and pears aren't too expensive. If all else fails, there's also dried pear, which can be bought at rice shops and dried goods stores in the county town.
Before long, the business of desserts at noon was better than that of spicy hot pot at night.
However, this is also because the weather is getting hotter.
As the Dragon Boat Festival approached, Guo Baiwen carefully hung the pre-ordered candy shop hanging cloth under the signboard above his shop.
We've already told our regular customers that the mala tang restaurant will reopen after the Double Ninth Festival.
The candy shop was only open for half a day, from noon until sunset.
This way, they can prepare more things in advance in the backyard and kitchen in the morning.
Seeing that Grandma Guo and Guo Xiaohua were becoming more and more skilled at making sweets and no longer needed guidance or help, Guo Baiwen was able to let go more.
He also taught Grandma and Little Flower how to write Arabic numbers from zero to nine.
The shop's accounting is now done by Grandma herself, who uses an eyebrow pencil to write down the prices on the printing paper. She records the price every time a piece of paper is sold. Half a day's worth of shop transactions are recorded, and the densely packed records can fill more than half a page.
Fortunately, Yang Qiaomai helped pack everything with oil paper, so it wasn't too chaotic.
They had memorized the numbers and were waiting for Guo Baiwen to finish school in the evening so the three of them could come back and add or subtract them together.
Compared to Xu Xiaoge, Grandma Guo's calculation ability is significantly stronger.
However, after being guided by Guo Baiwen to calculate for about ten days, without even needing an abacus, Grandma is now able to add and subtract numbers up to three digits on her own.
Xiaohua still needs to count on her fingers, which takes her quite a while.
The contrast was so stark that Guo Baiwen couldn't help but say, "Grandma is still as sharp as ever."
I've been at the academy for almost a month now. Of the twelve short-term students who were originally in one classroom, some left because their studies were coming to an end, while others applied to the teacher to change to only coming for half a day each day due to family reasons. In the past few days, two new students have also enrolled.
People came and went in the classroom, and in the end, there were seven people left.
Guo Baiwen was quite familiar with the students at the two tables next to him. One of them was the son of the steward of the wealthy Zhao family in the south of the city. After completing the three-month short-term course, he planned to work as a steward at a farm in the county town.
Another person's situation was similar to Guo Baiwen's. His family ran a barbershop in the county town, but because his skills were not yet up to par, the shop did not need his help.
Thinking that the shop was short of someone who could do business and make calculations, his father pondered at home whether it was more cost-effective to hire an accountant or send a family member to learn accounting. In the end, he decisively kicked him over to school.
Anyway, all you can do in the shop is watch and not cook, and you get to eat those two meals for free.
It doesn't matter how many characters you can recognize, as long as you can understand receipts. But you absolutely must learn how to use an abacus.
He also studied for three months, but on the first day of school, instead of the three hundred thousand, his parents who brought him here had already bought him an abacus and put it in his schoolbag.
Master Guo knew what his family wanted to learn, so after he had them learn to recognize the characters in the Three Character Classic, he replaced their daily calligraphy practice with arithmetic.
However, he is very bad at arithmetic. These days he has been learning to use beads, albeit with some difficulty, and he can now barely do addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers.
As for accuracy, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Guo Baiwen had considered telling him about the addition and subtraction equations he learned in his previous life, which he could calculate without an abacus and using only drafts. However, he was abruptly stopped as soon as he picked up his pen and paper and started talking to him.
"No, no, no, Brother Guo, I know you mean well," he said, scratching the back of his head somewhat embarrassedly. Afraid that Guo Baiwen would be unhappy, he could only explain himself, his face red and his neck thick, "But I'm not very smart. It was already difficult enough for me to learn the method that the Master taught. If I switch to your method, I'll be even more unable to keep up."
...Well, since he's already said that...
Guo Baiwen himself only had a vague understanding of the abacus and didn't know how to explain it.
We can only hope he continues to work hard.
Fortunately, his parents didn't have high expectations for him; they just wanted him to be able to do addition and subtraction of four-digit numbers on an abacus.
According to the study plan set by his teacher, it will probably be about two months later—
I think I should be able to learn it.
Although Guo Baiwen was somewhat skeptical, he still patted the barber Xu on the shoulder encouragingly, saying, "Keep up the good work, I'm going to start practicing calligraphy too."
Among the short-term students are adults older than Guo Baiwen and children younger than Guo Xiaohua.
Everyone learns at a different pace.
Adults tend to focus on literacy, bookkeeping, and letter writing, and knowing three to five hundred characters is enough. Children only need to learn basic elementary texts, depending on their individual talents. If they don't plan to continue their studies at a formal school, they don't need to practice advanced calligraphy.
Guo Baiwen practices calligraphy extensively every day, partly because he believes his handwriting reflects his personality, and partly because he has a pent-up frustration inside.
He couldn't stand the ugly calligraphy himself, so he practiced diligently in front of the "True and Cursive Thousand Character Classic". It has to be said that with the teacher's guidance, he has indeed made much progress compared to when he tried to learn on his own.
Although the finished products from this period are still not very attractive, they are at least presentable.
Guo Baiwen was quite satisfied with this.
He didn't spend too long with the Thousand Character Classic. Before the last ten-day holiday, Master Guo tested his knowledge of the Thousand Character Classic and nodded, confirming that he had mastered about three thousand commonly used characters.
Then I recommended two more books to him: "Zeng Guang Xian Wen" and "Di Zi Gui". Together with the "Sheng Lü Qi Meng" that I gave him at the beginning of the school year, I planned to help him transition to the next stage of ethics, etiquette and basic reading and writing.
Although arithmetic is taught, it is not currently a mainstream area of study.
Besides stating beforehand that he intended to become an accountant after completing his studies, Master Guo only taught everyone excerpts from "The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art," allowing them to understand what addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are and how to calculate the results, and that was it.
So, the only people still struggling with the abacus in the classroom right now, besides Guo Baiwen's deskmate Xu Xiaoge, are the middle-aged man sitting diagonally behind him.
Master Guo taught in great detail, and although the students in this classroom were all short-term students, he did not slack off because of this.
Although a gift had already been given on the first day of school.
But Guo Baiwen felt that in addition to the "three festivals and two birthdays", he should also send something to Master Guo.
Putting everything else aside, the last time he practiced calligraphy, although he used the bamboo pen given to him by the system, it was much better than the previous feather pen.
But because he practiced for a long time, even with the utmost care, his fur started to fall out a while ago.
At that time, most calligraphy brushes were made of sheep hair or wolf hair, but he was using a nylon brush.
Even if you wanted to get it repaired, there was no way to fix it.
Just when he was having a headache, Master Guo lent him his used calligraphy brush temporarily.
Although Guo Baiwen was somewhat surprised, he immediately became cautious, "Master Guo, what is this—"
A good calligraphy brush isn't cheap these days. Although he couldn't tell what kind of brush Master Guo was using, how could he take Master Guo's things?
Master Guo waved his hand, "This is a purple brush. I see you practice small regular script a lot, so this brush is perfect for you to practice calligraphy."
Seeing that Guo Baiwen did not reach out to take it, he handed it directly to him and stuffed it into his hand before saying nonchalantly, "I also looked at the 'Annotations on the Thousand Character Classic' that I borrowed from you last time. You are quite particular; you even helped me smooth out all the edges and corners when I was looking at it."
"School hasn't let out yet, and even if you rush to the bookstore to buy a calligraphy brush later, it will take up time. Anyway, it's only half a day, so you can borrow it and use it properly!"
Since things had come to this point, Guo Baiwen naturally expressed his gratitude and then used the pen.
The purple-tipped brush was indeed more flexible than the bamboo brush he used before, and the characters he practiced in the afternoon were more than two points better than those he wrote in the morning.
Even Master Guo praised him when he returned the pen.
It turns out it's not just about the hands—the paper, brush, and ink used for practicing calligraphy are also very important!
In his previous life, Guo Baiwen had watched too many videos showing off various skills, such as writing with chicken feet or toothpicks... After watching so many, he thought it was just because of his own hands.
Suddenly enlightened, he went straight to the bookstore after school.
It was only after talking to the bookstore clerk that he learned that the purple brush was actually made of rabbit hair. Although it wasn't cheap, it wasn't as expensive as he had expected.
It's even cheaper than the 'Rock Sugar Lily Bulb' dessert.
He thought for a moment, then bought two for a total of one hundred coins. He kept one as a backup, in case the same thing happened again.
At that time, I wondered if there were still people like Master Guo who would be willing to lend me their pens.
The shop assistant, who had brought out the printing paper early when he saw him coming, thought for a moment after seeing that he had bought two purple-haired brushes, and then turned around and brought out bamboo paper instead. "A good brush deserves good paper. Young man, what do you think of this paper? Although it's a bit expensive, it's much better for writing!"
Bamboo paper is made from bamboo. Although it is not as expensive as Xuan paper, it still costs three coins per sheet.
Guo Baiwen hesitated for a moment, but still bought one hundred sheets of bamboo paper.
This trip alone cost four hundred coins for paper and pens.
Not to mention that after lingering in the bookstore for a while, he gritted his teeth and bought an ink stick for soot ink and a better She inkstone, which cost him more than one tael of silver.
He himself used an ordinary inkstone that cost thirty coins a piece. Because it was made of clay, it didn't have much decoration or carving, which was more suitable for a beginner like him.
The price of She inkstones ranges from three hundred to five hundred. The bookstore clerk said that there are even better Duan inkstones. The She inkstone he picked up was four hundred coins, and it was already very beautiful.
So she politely declined the waiter's recommendation and only asked him to carefully wrap it up for her.
He bought this to give to Master Guo along with the Dragon Boat Festival gifts.
Although his monthly income is not small, he still has 116 taels of silver ingots and 125 cash.
Even if he comes over every month to buy paper and pens, he probably won't feel too bad about it.
...Yeah, right.
As he watched the shop assistant pack his things quickly and efficiently, he couldn't help but miss the pencils and cheap notebooks from his previous life; a hundred yuan could buy a dozen boxes of them on Pinduoduo.
No wonder that at this time, people would not send their children to study at the academy unless they had some spare money and a stable income.
That's way too expensive.
We can only cherish them and hope they can last a long time.
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