100 Chilies from a Foreign Land

She could gauge Liang Chengcai’s knowledge.

“Very good, you got the basics down. Then we can learn the vertical form today.”

Then, Lin Xiaoyue taught the vertical method of addition and subtraction to Liang Chengcai.

Liang Chengcai was very surprised. He didn’t expect that he could calculate the addition or subtraction of two big numbers so quickly without using an abacus.

“Well, now that you’ve learned addition and subtraction, let’s learn compound addition and subtraction using brackets.”

Lin Xiaoyue wrote down an equation and began to talk about the calculation method and the use of brackets.

Liang Chengcai was pleasantly surprised again.

“The emergence of compound addition and subtraction allows us to use simple methods to find the sum or the difference.” Lin Xiaoyue said.

“For example, for this question, 123 minus 99, it would be more complicated to write it down vertically. We can turn 99 into 100 minus 1 inside a bracket. Then, it becomes 123 minus 100 plus 1. You don’t need to write it down vertically to quickly get the answer, which is 24.”

Liang Chengcai’s eyes lit up.

“It’s so elegant!” He sighed.

Lin Xiaoyue was proud. She thought to herself, “this is just the beginning.”

“Another example is 38 plus 54 plus 22. Since 8 and 2 make 10, you can put 22 in front and add 38 to get 60, then use 60 plus 54 to get 114.”

“Yes!” Liang Chengcai looked at Lin Xiaoyue’s formula, and his heart was full of admiration.

Lin Xiaoyue saw that Liang Chengcai had more or less mastered it, so she took out the practice questions she had prepared in advance.

“I’m afraid you won’t be able to absorb it if I say too much in a day, so that’s all for today. This is today’s homework. Take it and copy it down. I’ll come to class tomorrow to check.”

“Yes!” Liang Chengcai quickly saluted Lin Xiaoyue, almost treating her as a teacher of the academy.

“Also, I’ll leave you another question.”

“Yes.” Liang Chengcai was still bowing.

“Calculate what’s the sum of adding every number from 1 to 100.” She would teach him multiplication tomorrow. She would tell him the solution after he learnt some simple multiplication.

Liang Chengcai paused.

“Okay.”

“Also, starting tomorrow, I will come to teach you after half past noon. Each class will last for two hours at most.”

From tomorrow onwards, Li Xiao would be going to the west of the city to transport bricks, and she could take the ox-cart back with him.

The weather in the afternoon was too hot, and it was not good to be out on the road.

“Yes.” Liang Chengcai agreed again.

Only then did Lin Xiaoyue bid farewell to Liang Chengcai and drove the ox-cart out of Ruyi Restaurant.

Then, she left the town and returned to Daishi Village.

When she got home, she saw that her family was moving the things to the shed.

Not only were Li Xiao and Liu Shi working, but Aunt Wang and Wang Erya were also helping.

Lin Xiaoyue rode the ox-cart to the big tree and quickly went to help.

After a while, all the things in the house were moved to the straw shed.

Li Xiao went to unload the ox-cart, and Lin Xiaoyue, Liu Shi, and the others sat in the shade outside the straw shed and chatted.

“What kind of seasoning did you put in the dishes you gave me yesterday? Shuanzi and his father almost couldn’t stop eating!” Aunt Wang asked Lin Xiaoyue.

Lin Xiaoyue glanced at her mother. When their eyes met, she knew that her mother did not tell her about the chili.

She then smiled at Aunt Wang, “it’s called chili, it’s a type of spice.”