People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 729: Taking the Female Workers Out for Fun

The sweet-scented osmanthus rain fell on their shoulders. Zhu Youwei suddenly burst into laughter and poked Chen Han's chest with her fingertips: "So you two drank like this in the Imperial Vegetable Garden? Didn't the old man hit you with a hoe?"

"Knocked!" Chen Han proudly lifted the corner of his robe, revealing the mud marks on his boots. "This kick was more powerful than Zheng Qingzhuo's stubborn bullet!" He suddenly lowered his voice, and the smell of alcohol sprayed on Zhu Youwei's ears. "The old man said that new numbers are like new fertilizer, and they must be mixed with old soil..."

The lanterns in the inner courtyard lit up one after another, casting the overlapping shadows of the two people on the pink wall.

Zhu Youwei suddenly felt her waist tighten, and the whole person was enveloped by the smell of alcohol. Chen Han's chin rested on her shoulder, and his stubble rubbed her neck and it itched.

"My wife, what do you know about the most amazing thing?" The husband's voice was unclear due to drunkenness, but he couldn't hide his excitement. "The old man took out a handkerchief from his bosom. The accounts written on it were all written by Empress Ma back then, '〡〢〣'!"

Zhu Youwei froze. She recalled the time when she accompanied her mother to disaster relief work as a child and saw those crooked but accurate counting symbols.

The night wind suddenly changed direction, causing the flame in the lantern to flicker.

"And then?" She heard her voice soften.

Chen Han suddenly stood up and pulled her to the study.

He stumbled and knocked over a stone bench, startling a pool of water lilies. "I'll draw for you!" He grabbed the charcoal pencil on the desk and wrote on the abacus paper. "The old man squatted like this and used the handle of the hoe to draw a '7' on the soil--"

The tip of the pen broke with a "snap", and ink splashed on Zhu Youwei's cuffs.

She was not annoyed, but leaned in to look at her husband's trembling handwriting. The numbers were crooked, but they were full of vitality, like the young seedlings that had just broken through the soil in the imperial vegetable garden.

"Did Father really say that?" She stroked the grooves on the paper with her fingertips, as if she could feel the moisture of the soil. "Don't be stingy when you need to turn the soil, and don't waste your energy when you need to conserve moisture..."

Chen Han suddenly hugged her from behind, his calloused palm covering the back of her hand. "Youwei, feel it." He guided her to rewrite the number on the paper, the smell of alcohol mixed with body temperature enveloping her, "The old man wrote the number '7' with a pause at the beginning and a sharp fold at the corner—"

The tip of the pen suddenly slipped at the turning point, drawing an exaggerated arc. Zhu Youwei giggled, and the wooden hairpin in her hair brushed against Chen Han's chin. "That's not a '7', it's clearly a new crankshaft made by the Physics Institute!"

The laughter startled the maid who was eavesdropping outside the window, and the crisp sound of embroidered shoes breaking dead branches made both of them turn around at the same time.

Chen Han took the opportunity to steal a kiss on his wife's cheek. He did not dodge when Zhu Youwei elbowed him in the ribs, but instead fell into the rattan chair and groaned.

"Drunk cat!" Zhu Youwei shook her numb wrist and suddenly caught a glimpse of the "Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art" spread out on the desk.

The edges of the pages were densely covered with comments, but the latest page had a crooked leek pattern drawn on it - it must have been the handwriting of the prince.

She was about to make fun of him when she suddenly felt a weight on her knees. Chen Han rested his head on her legs, mumbling with his eyes closed: "The old man also said...hiccups...about those girls in the Women's Workshop..."

The unfinished words were replaced by steady snoring.

Zhu Youwei gently plucked the osmanthus flowers from her husband's hair and found that there were still dirt on his eyelashes. The sound of the gong came from afar, but she was reluctant to move, and her fingertips unconsciously combed Chen Han's loose hair.

The moonlight shines through the window lattice, casting fine spots of light on the sleeping face.

Zhu Youwei suddenly remembered that on this day last year, she was still worried about the literacy progress of the female workers. Now those girls can not only write and calculate, but have even begun to study the method of extracting the root of the formula in the "Algorithm Tongzong" - just like the seedlings in the imperial vegetable garden that have been nourished by the new fertilizer and have grown into tall and strong trees without anyone noticing.

"Is the son-in-law asleep?" Nanny Liu poked her head out holding a lantern, with a few wisps of silver floating in the halo of light.

Zhu Youwei raised her index finger and placed it against her lips.

The old nanny understood and quietly put down the hangover soup. Suddenly she pulled out an indigo handkerchief from her sleeve. "It's the newly dyed 'pi cloth' from the Physics Institute. She said it's for my son-in-law to wipe his face."

The "π" symbol embroidered on the corner of the handkerchief shone with golden thread in the moonlight. Zhu Youwei was about to thank him when she suddenly felt a lightness on her leg - Chen Han had opened his eyes without knowing when, and was staring at the handkerchief in a trance.

"My wife..." His voice was hoarse, but his eyes were clearer. "How about we go to the Imperial Vegetable Garden tomorrow? Bring the girls from the Women's Workshop with us..." His fingertips stroked the lines on the handkerchief, "Let them see how the old man grows 'numbers'."

The night wind carried the fragrance of osmanthus through the study, causing the ink on the abacus paper to tremble slightly.

Zhu Youwei looked at her husband's shadow on the wall and seemed to see countless young sprouts breaking through the soil.

The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the rippling waves of the Qinhuai River red. Chen Han stood on the bluestone slabs of the dock, looking at the chattering female workers in front of him, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously raised.

Xiao Tao was standing on tiptoe to pin a freshly picked gardenia on Aunt Liu's hair. The old woman's skinny hands were tightly clutching a blue cloth bundle, which contained the "Secrets to Speedy Weaving" that they had written down in Arabic numerals.

"Everyone, be careful!" Zhu Youwei walked over from the gangplank, her skirt lifted, the silver scissors at her waist swaying in tiny spots of light, "If anyone falls into the water, there will be no rose cake tonight!"

The pleasure boat suddenly erupted in laughter. Several young female workers deliberately swayed on the gangplank, startling the old man selling water chestnuts on the shore and shouting "Be careful". Chen Han reached out to support Aunt Liu who was about to fall, and his palm touched a hard object in the old woman's sleeve - it turned out to be a piece of blue brick fragment with charcoal pencils writing all over it. "I have to bring my homework from the Physics Institute..." Aunt Liu smiled shyly, and air leaked from her missing front teeth, "I still have to study the method of carry that Miss Xiaotao taught me the other day..."

The river wind suddenly changed direction, blowing the sound of the pipa from Yanzhi Lane intermittently. When Chen Han turned around, he saw Xiao Tao squatting on the bow, using a shuttle as a pointer to scratch "3.14" on the deck. There were seven or eight female workers wearing headscarves around them, and a girl from northern Xinjiang suddenly slapped her thighs and said, "I understand! These circles are the amount of yarn consumed by the spinning wheel for one rotation!"

As the pleasure boat slowly left the shore, lanterns on both sides lit up one after another. Zhu Youwei had changed into a lilac shirt without knowing when, and the wooden hairpin in her hair had been replaced with a π pattern wrapped in silver thread. She leaned against the carved railing and watched the female workers fight over the sugar figurine that Li Zhen had just bought - the sugar figurine was actually molded into the shape of the Arabic numeral "7".

"Uncle is biased!" Zhu Yunhuan's voice suddenly came from the cabin. He came out holding the corner of his half-wet robe, followed by Zhu Gaochi holding an abacus. "Last time he said he would take us on a lake cruise, but he was intercepted by Zheng Zhushi to check the accounts..."

Chen Han smiled and took out a cowhide bag and poured out a few special copper coins. The female workers exclaimed and gathered around. The copper coins glowed golden red in the sunset, and each one was engraved with a different Arabic numeral.

"Go!" He suddenly raised his hand, and the copper coin flew in an arc towards the center of the river. Xiao Tao jumped onto the bow of the boat, and the shuttle accurately caught the coin engraved with "9", causing the tea drinkers on both sides to cheer.

Amid the sound of oars and lights, the pleasure boat passed Wuding Bridge. Suddenly, a silver bell-like laughter came from the stern of the boat - several young women workers were folding small boats with vouchers. As the paper boats drifted away downstream, a girl with double buns suddenly pointed at the water and said, "Look!"

A lotus lantern floated in the waves, and a small piece of paper was stuck next to the wick, with "7×8=56" written crookedly on it. Zhu Youwei's silver scissors snapped shut: "It must have been those girls from the Physics Department!" She turned around and took out a rose cake from the food box, "Whoever can use a new algorithm to calculate the angle of this lantern will get an extra reward."

Madam Liu suddenly grabbed the charcoal pencil and wrote a vertical equation on the side of the boat. Her fingers, like old bark, trembled, but she wrote trigonometric functions more delicately than embroidery. When the boat swayed, an indigo handkerchief fell from her waist. The corner of the handkerchief was embroidered with gold thread, "Third place in the monthly exam of the Women's Workshop".

Suddenly, cheers came from the pleasure boat on the other side. A few young men dressed as scholars were holding up their wine cups, and one of them shouted, "Girls on that boat, do you dare to compete in speed calculation?" On the page of the account book in his hand, there was a three-digit multiplication and division problem.

Before the women workers could react, Xiao Tao had already swung out the shuttle and nailed it to the other side's board. Her blue headscarf fluttered in the evening breeze: "Bring the questions!" She dipped her fingertips in the river water and drew a grid algorithm diagram on the table, "Let's bet on the new square method we learned today!"

A crowd of onlookers gradually gathered on both sides of the river. The old man selling candy figures took the opportunity to shout, "Take a look! If you can get the '7' figure right, I'll give it to you for free!" The peddler beside him quickly displayed a nine-ring chain with numbers engraved on it. The sound of the copper rings hitting each other mixed with the sound of the pipa strings sounded like a strange math song.

Zhu Yunhuan suddenly squeezed to the bow, holding the lacquered wooden box he had just won in his arms: "Uncle, look!" The moment the lid of the box was opened, the female workers all exclaimed "Wow" - there were ten glass dice neatly stacked inside, each side was engraved with Arabic numerals, shining brightly under the lanterns.

"The new teaching aids from the School of Physics..." Zhu Gaochi leaned over to whisper, but Xiaotao interrupted him: "This is not a teaching aid!" She grabbed the dice and threw them into the tea tray. The "6" and "9" that rolled out just happened to form a simple drawing of a spinning wheel gear. "This is our amusement chips!"

Suddenly, a firework exploded in the middle of the river. When the female workers looked up, Chen Han saw countless dots of light forming the pattern of "3.14", reflected in their sparkling pupils. Madam Liu's skinny hands were unconsciously stroking the formula on the side of the boat. Those distorted numbers were reflected in the water, swaying gently with the ripples, just like the golden thread jumping on a loom.

"Did my husband see that?" Zhu Youwei had stood behind him at some point, holding a piece of pine soot ink on the tip of her silver scissors. "Xiaotao and the others have turned the lake cruise into a mobile school." She pointed to the other side of the river - a few little kids with pigtails were lying on the railing, copying the math formulas written by the female workers with tree branches.

Farther away, the flower girl's basket was filled with paper-cuts in the shape of numbers. A "100" was blown into the air by the wind and landed on the brim of the hat of a river patrol officer, but the man was unaware of it and was absorbed in reading the "Simplified Logarithmic Table".

When the pleasure boat passed Wende Bridge, the moon had already climbed up the willow branches. Zhu Yunhuan suddenly took out a pottery jar from the cabin: "My uncle hid the good wine!" The moment the mud seal was opened, the mellow fragrance startled the night heron perched on the sail rope. The female workers took turns holding the pottery bowl, and one of them was so brave that she wrote the word "Jinguo" on the deck with the wine.

"Wait!" Aunt Liu suddenly snatched the wine bowl and added a crooked "7" next to the word "guo". The old woman raised her head and drank it all, swallowing all the unfinished words in her throat. When the wine bowl was put back on the table, it collided with the deck and made a clear sound, just like the shuttle of a loom returning to its position.

The aroma of cooking wafted over the river, mixed with the scent of osmanthus oil in the women workers' hair. Chen Han looked at their red faces illuminated by the lanterns, and suddenly remembered the scene he saw in the Physics Institute yesterday - when these girls used charcoal pencils to check calculations on the blue brick floor, the traces left by their skirts were just like the rippling water in front of him.

……

As night fell, the lights along the Qinhuai River lit up one after another, dyeing the water surface into a golden hue. The river breeze, wrapped in the scent of cosmetics and wine, penetrated into the carved wooden windows on the second floor of the "Zuixianlou", causing the hanging gauze curtains to sway gently.

"Another pot of Lihuabai!" Zhu Yunhuan stepped on the stool, the celadon cup in his hand had already been emptied. His cheeks were flushed, and there were still traces of ink on his forehead from the calculations in the afternoon, just like a cat that had drunk wine secretly.

A light laugh came from the window. Zhu Youwei leaned against the railing, tapping the gilded wine pot with her fingertips. The sound of stringed instruments from the pleasure boats on the river mixed with the shouts of the vendors downstairs, which in her ears was more interesting than the music played by the palace musicians. On the round table behind her, Xiaotao was dipping chopsticks in wine and drawing a crooked "7" on the table.

"Wrong, wrong!" Aunt Liu suddenly grabbed a handful of melon seeds from the fruit plate, "It should be like this--" The brown melon seed shells spelled out neat Arabic numerals on the mahogany table, attracting the surrounding female workers to come over and learn. A little girl with double buns was so engrossed in watching that she almost hit the face of the student next to her with the osmanthus cake in her hand.

Suddenly, a firework exploded on the other side of the river. Under the indigo sky, the golden red sparks formed a huge "3", followed by "1" and "4". The students of the School of Physics were immediately in an uproar. Seven or eight heads crowded in front of the window. Some people didn't even bother to wipe the wine spilled on their clothes.

"It must be the Ministry of Industry testing a new gunpowder ratio!" The student in the indigo gown had just finished speaking when his companion poked him in the waist with his elbow. "Idiot, this is clearly the fireworks formula that the Physics Department worked on last month!"

Zhu Youwei squinted her eyes and looked at the reflection on the river. In those floating spots of light, she could vaguely see the dark patterns woven by the women workers on the new loom. She suddenly remembered something and turned around and took out a copper coin-sized glass piece from her sleeve. When she looked at the fireworks through it, she saw three overlapping digital shadows in the sky.

"Mr. Chen's new trick?" Zhu Yunxun came over without knowing when, and his nose almost poked the glass. He gestured drunkenly, "Last time I used this to look at the voucher, the anti-counterfeiting patterns looked like a centipede that could move..."

There was a sudden commotion downstairs. Several scholars wearing square scarves craned their necks to look up at the second floor, the ink on the rice paper in their hands not yet dry. The leader shouted at the top of his voice: "Physics School! Do you dare to compete in speed calculation?"

Amid the laughter of the whole room, Xiao Tao slammed her chopsticks on the table. She was wearing an apricot-red bodice today, and the pearl hairpins in her hair flickered with tiny lights as she moved. "Mammy, bring the sand table!" Before she finished speaking, a female worker had already swiftly cleared half of the table and sprinkled a thin layer of white sand on it.

……

(End of this chapter)