The Three Kingdoms: Home Travel

Inside the accounting room, Jiang Zhe sat casually at the table, looking at his peer with unfriendly eyes. What, testing me?

Jiang Zhe secretly rejoiced. It wasn't that he looked down on the ancients, but rather that nearly two thousand years of culture couldn't be easily surpassed...

"If I lose, I'll just buy a block of tofu and smash my head against it!" Jiang Zhe thought viciously.

"Set a question!"

Chen Deng glanced at Jiang Zhe, feeling a slight displeasure in his heart. He thought to himself that this person was far too rude, and that he should teach him a lesson!

After taking a few steps, Chen Deng suddenly noticed the calligraphy and paintings on the wall and revealed a playful expression. "Well then, Mr. Jiang, listen carefully... My Chen family wishes to purchase several famous calligraphy and paintings, but after checking the market prices, we found that landscape paintings cost two strings of cash and calligraphy scrolls cost three strings of cash. Unfortunately, our family is currently short of funds and can only afford five hundred strings of cash..."

"Five hundred strings of cash and you call that not enough to make ends meet?" Jiang Zhe scoffed, then awkwardly waved for Chen Deng to continue when he saw Chen Deng's unfriendly look.

"...My father loves calligraphy, while I love landscapes. However, as his son, I do not compete with him. My father receives twice as much as I do (help: what was twice as much called in ancient times?). How much did I receive in terms of landscape paintings, how much did my father receive, and how much money did the family spend...?"

Wow! Jiang Zhe's eyes lit up, looking at Chen Deng with some surprise, thinking to himself, "He's gone from an elementary school student to a middle school student all of a sudden? This Chen Deng is amazing..."

Jiang Zhe's gaze really annoyed Chen Deng, who coughed and asked, "Sir, have you reached a conclusion?"

Seeing the smile on Chen Deng's face, Jiang Zhe suddenly felt looked down upon. After a moment's thought, he said in a low voice, "Your father received 124 calligraphy scrolls and paintings, you received 62, and the remaining four strings of cash..." He glanced at Chen Deng, chuckled, and added, "You can give me those four strings as a reward..."

"..." Chen Deng's expression at this moment was extremely interesting. He looked at Jiang Zhe for a long time, then walked to the desk without saying a word, picked up a pen and began to do calculations on the paper.

"Hey!" Jiang Zhe looked at Chen Deng with amusement, reaching for the pastries on the side, only to find nothing. He frowned and said, "Um...hey you? Do you still have any of these?"

"Hey you?!" Chen Deng, his face full of black lines, shouted loudly, "Someone come here!"

Not long after, Jiang Zhe heard hurried footsteps, and then a servant ran in.

"Go and fetch a stack of pastries for Mr. Jiang..." Chen Deng said without looking up.

"Two dishes, two dishes..." Jiang Zhe quickly gestured to the servant.

Chen Deng glanced at Jiang Zhe speechlessly. "Two plates of pastries, hurry up and get them!"

"Yes!" The servant rushed out.

After the servant brought out the pastries and refilled Jiang Zhe's tea, Chen Deng still couldn't figure it out. This guy was actually stumped by the question he himself had posed.

However, Chen Deng, being a genius with an IQ of over 80, calculated the result in the end, and it was exactly the same as what Jiang Zhe had said, even though it took him a long time.

It's obvious at a glance which is superior.

Chen Deng looked at Jiang Zhe with a complex expression, a hint of resentment in his heart. "Now, please give me a question, sir..."

Jiang Zhe glanced at what had just happened and thought to himself that this person seemed to be someone of considerable importance. If he fell out with him, wouldn't he be starving? After thinking for a moment, he hesitated and said, "Well, I ate twenty pastries today, and I'll do the same tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. How many pastries will I have eaten in total this month (30 days)...?"

"Please treat me with sincerity, sir!" Chen Deng knew immediately that Jiang Zhe had gone easy on him, and he felt even more displeased.

"I'm giving you face, and you still don't want it? You insist on being tortured?" Jiang Zhe glared, and without waiting for a reply, said, "Since that's the case, listen carefully!"

Chen Deng's eyes lit up, and his expression became solemn.

"Once upon a time, there was a man who found a copper coin while walking down the road. The next day he found two more, the third day three, and so on. How many copper coins did this man find in a year?"

"If there were such a good thing, I would have gone too," Jiang Zhe glanced at the dumbfounded Chen Deng, and continued drinking his tea, ignoring Chen Deng's cold sweat.

"One coin a day, two coins a day, three coins a day... This... This..."

Chen Deng gripped the pen, staring intently at the blank paper before him, finding it difficult to begin writing. How could he possibly calculate this?

Pshaw! You want to be tortured... then I'll torture you!

After finishing one stack of pastries, Jiang Zhe looked at the other stack and suddenly thought of Xiu'er at home. Feeling a pang of guilt, he glanced at Chen Deng and said, "Take your time calculating, I'll go out for a bit..."

"Please go, sir..." Chen Deng was no longer concerned with Jiang Zhe. He felt that this topic had a special meaning, and there seemed to be a relationship between them, but he still couldn't figure out what that relationship was...

Jiang Zhe chuckled, picked up the plate of pastries, and walked out. "You can take your time calculating..."

When Jiang Zhe arrived at his home, Xiu'er was doing needlework. Suddenly, he remembered what Xiu'er had said a few days ago, as if she wanted to make a new dress for Jiang Zhe herself.

Jiang Zhe tiptoed over...

"Husband, weren't you working at the Chen residence? Why are you back now?" Xiu'er asked without even looking at Jiang Zhe.

"Huh?" Jiang Zhe was immediately somewhat defeated. He placed the plate of pastries on the table and said disappointedly, "I came to check on things when I had some free time..."

"How can this be?" Xiu'er narrowed her eyes, put down her work, and turned to look at Jiang Zhe.

"It's nothing, it's nothing," Jiang Zhe said nonchalantly. "I've finished what I needed to do today, and it's boring to be alone anyway, so I might as well come back and visit." Looking at Xiu'er's expression, Jiang Zhe said awkwardly, "Or I could go back later..."

"That's only right!" Xiu'er nodded. "Wait, this..."

"This is for you," Jiang Zhe said. "You haven't had lunch yet, eat quickly, it's not good for your health to be hungry."

"Xiuer is quite curious, where exactly does her husband come from..." Xiuer smiled and shook her head, "Lunch...hehe..." Then she pointed to the pastries and asked suspiciously, "Where did you get them?"

Jiang Zhe understood what Xiu'er meant and quickly explained, "These are in the accounting office. I just said I was hungry, and the man who was competing with me in mental arithmetic called over a servant to prepare some pastries for me. I thought of you, so I took the opportunity to slip out..."

Hearing Jiang Zhe say he missed her, Xiu'er blushed instantly, glanced at Jiang Zhe shyly, and felt a surge of happiness in her heart.

"Eat up, it's still hot, just out of the steamer..."

Seeing Jiang Zhe's eager eyes, Xiu'er wiped her hands, picked up a piece with her right hand, glanced at Jiang Zhe, and took a bite of the pastry while covering her mouth with her left hand.

Jiang Zhe looked left and right, but he couldn't see Xiu'er eating, so he had to crane his neck and peer inside.

"If that's how my husband is, then Xiu'er won't eat..."

"...You eat, you eat, I won't bother you..." Jiang Zhe was immediately disappointed, muttering softly, "Fine, I won't watch, what's the big deal..."

Xiuer chuckled softly, clearly having overheard Jiang Zhe's mutterings.

"Oh, right!" Jiang Zhe suddenly remembered something and quickly said to Xiu'er, "Xiu'er, has the price of rice gone up recently?"

"This..." Xiu'er frowned, put down the half-eaten pastry on the plate, and said softly, "Xiu'er doesn't know about this. Because there's still some grain left by Mr. Sun at home, Xiu'er didn't go out to buy any... Husband, could something have happened?"

"War may be brewing..."

"War?" Xiu'er seemed to have heard something terrifying, gripping Jiang Zhe's sleeve tightly. "Then... what should we do..."

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid!" Jiang Zhe moved his stool and hugged Xiu'er. "Don't worry, we're living in Xuzhou now, everything's alright, don't be afraid..."

Xiuer gradually relaxed. "As long as my husband is here, I'm not afraid..."

Just as Xiu'er was wondering why Jiang Zhe wasn't saying anything, she looked up and saw Jiang Zhe staring blankly at something. Upon closer inspection, her face turned bright red. This person was actually staring blankly at the pastry she had just bitten.

Embarrassed, Xiu'er got up and took the pastry, pouting as she said, "Husband..."

The young woman was slightly angry.

"Ah! I suddenly remembered something, I have to go now..." Jiang Zhe looked at Xiu'er's embarrassed and angry expression, feeling a little scared, and quickly left. As he left, he secretly shook his head, thinking what a pity...

Jiang Zhe's mind was now filled with that half-eaten pastry... and the fine teeth marks on it...