Zhu Xiu was happy as soon as he heard this, "Uncle Zhou was joking, what can I do to you? Besides, the two chunks of money that Taocun was making that day have not been seen yet!"

Zhu Xiu leaned against the door frame with his hands in his chest, his expression a little playful.

Zhou Jincai raised his cuffs and wiped the sweat on his forehead. After hesitating for a moment, his two beards trembled in pain and said, "I'll do it! As long as Zhu Xiaolang is willing to help today, Zhou will pay the two chunks of money out of his own pocket! Another... add another 500 more to reward!"

Zhu Xiu glanced at him in surprise. This guy has always been stingy. This time he was willing to give him some blood and beg for help. It seems that he has encountered a difficult situation.

Zhu Xiu didn't agree at all, stood up straight and smiled, "Uncle Zhou, let's talk about what's going on!"

Zhou Jincai's mouth was dry, pulled his neck, glanced at the yard, and said dryly, "Have you gone out? Let me enter the yard to drink water. As soon as I arrived from Shuikou Village, my throat was almost smoking!"

Zhu Xiu smiled and turned around and entered the yard, "Come in!"

Zhou Jincai must have been wandering outside for a long time, and only dared to come and knock on the door after Fang Cuilan went out.

He scooped a bowl of water from the water tank for him. Zhou Jincai finished drinking it in one breath, and then wiped his chest and breathed in a breath.

"Since the Tao family parted that day, Zhou found out that Xiaolangjun had learned a lot, and it would be no problem to inherit Zhu Juren's legacy in the future..."

Zhu Xiu listened to him with a smile on his face. This is the style of such a philanthropist. When he has something to ask for, no matter whether it is useful or not, he will come up first and praise him.

Zhou Jincai was carrying his waist a little, and laughed a little as if he was a little flattering. "Zhou also knew that the little husband had learned it, so he wanted to ask the little husband to come to the small workshop to help... settle the account book!"

"Please help me settle the accounts?" Zhu Xiu's eyes rolled, "Did Uncle Zhou not ask for a accountant?"

Zhou Jincai smiled bitterly and said, "Just this small workshop, I can't kill more than twenty people when I'm busy, and I usually only have eleven or two hired workers. How can I afford to hire a account? I can't handle the accounting and reconciliation of accounts myself. But this time, I can't match the money and goods, and I have to consider the entry and exit items within half a year. I'm really too busy to do it alone, so I came to ask the little husband to help me!"

"Oh...so that's it!" Zhu Xiu nodded, "Uncle Zhou, don't blame me for talking too much. Tao Chang and Tao Sheng are all learned people, and they are Uncle Zhou's nephew, why don't you ask them for help?"

Zhou Jincai's face became more and more sad. He hesitated for a while before he hesitating: "Please ask them both... may not help. Besides, the deficit money... Alas... In short, please keep this matter confidential, don't let the Tao family know. Zhou thanks me here!"

Zhou Jincai said this and bowed deeply. Zhu Xiu hurriedly helped him up. Knowing that he had a hidden secret, he stopped asking questions and said with a smile: "Uncle Zhou is polite. It's not that Zhu Xiu boasted that other knowledge dare not compare with the Tao brothers, but this is considered learning... Hehe, Tao Chang and Tao Sheng add one piece may not be as good as me. Uncle Zhou, let's go, I'll help you with this!"

Zhou Jincai was immediately overjoyed, thanked him repeatedly, and repeatedly promised that when the matter was done, he would definitely pay a lot of money for the reward he had agreed to.

Zhu Xiu left a note and posted it on the pillars of the main hall. He closed the courtyard gate and was about to get on his dilapidated donkey cart with Zhou Jincai. Not far away, a crisp shout came from the ridge of the field, "Zhu Xiu! Where are you going?"

Turning his head and seeing it was the little black girl Wang Zhu. Zhu Xiu smiled and waved: "Sister Wang Zhu, why are you here?"

Wang Zhu ran all the way, his slightly black face turned red, and he glanced at Zhou Jincai in disgust, and did not get close to him, saying a crisp voice: "Today I eat meat, my father asked me to call you!"

Zhu Xiu smiled and said, "Thank you, Sister Wang Zhu goes back and tells Uncle Wang, "I won't go today, and there is still something to do. I will come to my house to thank Uncle Wang next day."

Zhu Xiu shook his hand at her, "Go back! Bye~" and got on the donkey cart. Zhou Jincai shouted and whipped the whip. The old donkey shouted and pulled the cart toward the entrance of the west village.

Wang Zhu was stunned, Xiao Hei's round face was a little confused, and subconsciously shook his hand and muttered: "By bye... are you saying goodbye to me?"

Looking at the donkey cart that was leaving, Wang Zhu stomped his feet and said in anger: "Why is this nerd mingling with the Tao family? Humph~ I don't even want to eat meat, so I won't starve you to death!"

After complaining for a while, the little girl went home with a depressed kicking stones all the way.

~~

Halfway through the road, Zhu Xiu felt that his butt was hurt and numb. The thin mat could not resist the bumps of the broken donkey cart at all. From the axle to the wheels to the cart, it made a "crunching" noise. The thin cart board, violently shaking, revealed a gap of wide fingers. Zhu Xiu was afraid that he would fall apart halfway.

"Zhu Xiaolang is burdened! He is burdened!" Seeing Zhu Xiu's face turned pale and his face looked terrified, Zhou Jincai bowed apologetically.

"I said Uncle Zhou, you are the number one merchant in the village at least. Why don't you clean up this car? Look at the carriage that Mr. Ge is sitting in is spacious and sturdy, and so grand!"

Zhou Jincai sighed with a bitter face: "Young man, don't make fun of Zhou. How dare Zhou compare with Mr. Ge? Mr. Ge only earns more money for raising horses in a month than mine!"

"I don't know what business Uncle Zhou is doing?"

Zhou Jincai said: "Small business, collect the hemp skin produced in Shuikou Township and several neighboring townships, soak and beat them, make it into hemp yarn, and then sell it to vendors. Sometimes the big weaving households in this prefecture will purchase them together, and sometimes there will be weaving households in Jianghuai, Henan, and Jianghuai District to purchase them."

Zhu Xiu nodded when he heard this. It turned out that he was in the hemp textile industry, but this business was relatively low-end, and was at the uppermost level of the entire hemp textile industry and rough processing stage.

Fangzhou is a big marijuana production state, and the annual tax adjustment is mainly made of hemp and cloth. Zhou Jincai is good to do rough processing of hemp spinning according to local conditions.

As the center and market location of the township, Shuikou Village is much more lively than Taozhu Village. Six villages in Shuikou Township are concentrated here to go to the market.

This is the first time Zhu Xiu has come to Shuikou Village in this life. He stretched his head and looked around, his eyes full of novelty. There are villagers setting up stalls along the streets, selling things that he doesn't need for. Coins and cloth are common currencies, and many directly bargaining.

If Zhou Jincai hadn't been urged to hurry, Zhu Xiu would have really wanted to get out of the car and stroll around the countryside.

The small workshop is located south of Shuikou Village, close to the Huo River, which is convenient for water withdrawal. A large earth courtyard with a spacious area and two earth and stone houses are indeed extremely simple in Zhu Xiu's eyes. However, with this condition, it is now an important source of income for the Tao family after Tian Rent, and it is also a good business and a big industry that everyone envies of Tao Zhu Village.

It is not yet time for large-scale hemp harvesting. There are less than ten employees in the workshop who have not yet been able to deal with the bundles last year. They have moved out the old hemp rods in the cellar and used a large, flat and shallow iron pot, add water and wood ash to boil them. When the squid is peeled off the hemp rod, then take it out and tap it gently with a wooden hammer, you can get a more dispersed hemp yarn.

Zhu Xiu looked around the workshop, carefully watched the craftsmanship of several hired workers, and then ran to a wooden rack where he dries hemp yarn, picked up the rough stripped-out fibers, and looked at it for a while. It seemed that a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind!

"Zhu Xiaolang? Zhu Xiaolang?"

Zhou Jincai didn't expect that Zhu Xiu would be interested in making yarn. He called out a few times and smiled, "These are all peeling off aged yarn. The texture is rough, the yield is low, the price is the worst, and it can only be weaved into coarse cloth. Xiaolangjun, let's sit in the house, those books... and a few thick books~~"

Zhu Xiu came back to his senses, strongly moved his heart, took a few deep breaths, looked around the simple shisha workshop, and said to Zhou Jincai with a passionate look on his face: "Uncle Zhou, let's settle the accounts first, wait until the account book is settled clearly, I want to talk to you about business matters!"

Zhou Jincai laughed in surprise. What does Zhu Xiaolang keep in mind? How can he know about business?

However, seeing Zhu Xiu's serious expression, Zhou Jincai nodded vaguely and said, "Well... let's ask Zhu Xiaolang to help settle the score first! Please~"

Zhou Jincai opened a small house with a door lock, which was a bit choking. There were a few large wooden boxes in the corner, and a narrow bed. The table was filled with previous years' account books. This was the place where Zhou Jincai usually checked and managed accounts. When he was busy or had a lot of money and silk storage, he had to sleep here to guard his belongings.

The account book that needs to be counted has been sorted out by Zhou Jincai. When Zhu Xiu opened it, he suddenly felt a black black in front of him. After a moment of looking at it, he felt dizzy.

Zhu Xiu is still used to traditional Chinese numbers, but the rough and low-level accounting level is mixed and disorderly, and the money and goods are in and out, and the key is that the words are extremely ugly.

Zhou Jincai was embarrassed by Zhu Xiu's disdain and contemptuous eyes, and whispered in awkwardly: "Please also ask Zhu Xiaolang to be affected, check and see when the deficit is here!"

Zhu Xiu glanced at the small equipment that Zhou Jincai offered with both hands, a small equipment similar to an abacus, snorted lightly, and said quietly: "No need for this thing! I have my own algorithm!"

Zhou Jincai blinked and muttered to such a large number in his heart, how could he calculate clearly without having to calculate the bead plate?

However, seeing Zhu Xiu's conviction, Zhou Jincai didn't dare to ask too much, and honestly grind and handed the paper.

He didn't know that it was not that Zhu Xiu didn't want to use tools, but that the abacus in the past is very different from that in later generations, and the calculation methods are also very different. Most of the abacus usage rules learned in Zhu Xiu's previous life were given to the teacher, and it was not even used on this ancient equipment.

Zhu Xiu dipped his pen and ink, first wrote down several accounts on paper, and then counted them in categories.

"Zhu Xiaolang is very good at writing!" Zhou Jincai's eyes lit up and he praised sincerely.

Zhu Xiu's lips curled up and said nothing. This was the little running script of Huang Tingjian that he had practiced hard for several years. With the Liu style regular script, he had regarded it as a scholar in this life.

Zhu Xiu was not busy with calculations, so he first used Arabic numerals to count, and then calculated in different items after a book is counted.

Zhou Jincai stared at the side with wide eyes, becoming more and more confused as he looked, and he couldn't understand the strange symbols at all.

The more confused he was, the more anxious he became. Zhou Jincai scratched his ears and wanted to ask for advice, but he saw Zhu Xiu's expression was devoted but he dared not disturb him.

It took two hours to complete Zhu Xiucai sorted out the stack of accounts, and all the scrapped papers were thick.

Rubbing his eyes and drinking a sip of water, Zhu Xiu glanced at Zhou Jincai, who was looking at him, and cleared his throat and said, "I found out that there were four payments in total. The first payment was in October last year. The Chen-name Ma Shang in Fangling County paid 56 guan. The book was recorded in this number, but the monthly balance was 25 guan. The second payment was in the twelfth month. The businessman in Yongqing County paid 48 guan. The month balance was 20 guan. The third and fourth payments were in the first month and the beginning of this month respectively. The book was recorded in total forty-two guan less than the actual collection. A total of 87 guan!”

Zhu Xiu was secretly shocked. This money was a huge sum of money for the people in the countryside, and it was quite a lot for rural landlords like the Tao family. In just half a year, this small workshop lost so much!

However, it also proves from the side that this small workshop is indeed prosperous under the management of Zhou Jincai.
Chapter completed!