CH 54

Chapter 54 – Battle of wits

Man Bao clicked. Firstly, she typed white paper, and many different types of products were recommended. There were a few types of paper, and large sheets of white paper which looked similar to the ones available in her world.

There was paper bound into books, very beautiful looking books and there was paper packed in strange looking boxes with the words “Printing Paper” emblazoned.

What surprised Man Bao the most was a colourful profile picture which said 8D printing paper, which can print anything. This was also the most expensive amongst the different types of paper recommended.

Man Bao looked at the 8D printing paper carefully, and she wanted to buy it so that she can have a good look at it. But just as she was about to order it, Keke couldn’t help flashing the medicine in her shopping cart.

Man Bao’s little hand retracted.

Although Keke wants Man Bao to spend more money, he didn’t want her to waste her money. He said, “This is printing paper, you can’t print anything without a printer.”

Only then did Man Bao regretfully retracted her little finger, but she asked curiously, “Is it really like what you said? Cars and clothes are made of paper?”

“It’s printing paper.” Keke went on to educate her, “This is possible in the future. Even raw materials can be printed on printing paper. In fact, the performance of the printed items and raw materials are the same, but strangely enough, in recent years, humans disdained this method. Instead, they esteem things made by hand and raw materials.”

The main system does not prevent the subsystems from sharing the future world with their respective hosts. In fact, this is one of the ways for the subsystems to motivate their hosts.

However, Man Bao treated all these as stories. Keke shared these not as a way to motivate her but he narrated these stories just because Man Bao likes to listen to them.  

Man Bao listened with great interest and concluded, “People in the future really don’t know how to enjoy themselves. Why would they do things which robots can do?”

Keke agreed, but the issues were so complex that he didn’t think Man Bao’s little brain was capable of thinking about such profound things, so he didn’t continue the discussion with her.

He noted she kept looking back and forth at those beautiful looking books, and reminded her, “Host, there are some differences, and these books are not what the current bookshops can make, so I suggest that you buy sheets of white paper and cut them out yourself.”

That said, Man Bao still couldn’t resist and bought sheets of white paper and stored them in the system. Then, she went to look at the incredibly beautiful looking little notebooks, and found that she could buy one, and get one free. On top of this, it only cost two points.

Without waiting for Keke to speak, she quickly bought a small notebook with a pink rabbit cover and ordered another notebook with abundant flowers cover as a gift.

The system watched silently, and when these items arrived, Man Bao took them out, hid under the blanket to touch them before storing them in the system contentedly.

She told the system earnestly, “Keke, we don’t have to cut the paper ourselves. This way, I’ll keep my own little account without taking the notebooks out.”

Keke replied with an “um” which meant he agreed with her.

Since her good friend had no objection, Man Bao was happy, and went on to inspect the stack of white paper bought.

The white paper in the mall was cheaper than sweets. Two points got her 1,000 sheets, and a gift of 200 sheets of a different type of paper.

Man Bao took the paper out, looked at it, and found that it was thicker and bigger than the ones given to her by Mr Zhuang and Shan Bao.

She scratched her head and felt it was unrealistic to take such a large sheet of paper to school, so she struggled to spread the paper out on the bed and folded it up.

She folded it into several layers and put it in her treasure box. She decided to ask her second brother to make her a bamboo basket to carry her books, just like her schoolmates, so that she could put all her things in it.

When she thought about it, Man Bao ran out to look for her mother. She gave her the 132 wen she had counted for the public fund, saying this was 60% of the money that her fifth brother earned today.

Mrs Zhou frowned and asked, “Who was responsible for this account?”

Man Bao raised her head proudly, “Me!”

Mrs Zhou, “How did you arrive at this amount? How much money did they make in total?”

Man Bao scratched her head and didn’t understand what was wrong. She was just about to do the calculations with her fingers and report to her mother when Er Lang laughed and said, “Youngest sister, why, you can also miscalculate!

“They took 30 bamboo baskets to the county this morning. Even if they sold them all, it would only be 150 wen. How can 60% of 150 wen be 132 wen?”

Mrs Zhou secretly glared at her silly second son and blamed him for talking too much.

Er Lang didn’t know how he had annoyed his mother, so he glanced at his eldest brother in confusion.

Da Lang was even more naïve than his younger brother and was totally clueless.

Man Bao was a clever girl. She took the money back from her mother, and sullenly said, “Mother, I made a mistake. I’ll go and recalculate.”

She took the money, turned around and ran into Si Lang’s room.

Even Si Lang, Wu Lang and the kids felt a chill down their spines and didn’t dare to budge from their positions outside the door and windows.

Mrs Zhou looked at the little girl who was stomping away and withdrew her gaze.

She glanced at the three eldest sons who looked confused, then looked at the wing of the house where there were indistinct sounds of chattering and discussions, and suddenly shook her head and smiled.

Forget it. They are a bunch of fools, why bother with them?

The three men were unaware that they had been categorised as fools by their own mother. They were bowing their heads and working hard on weaving the small bamboo baskets. Since Wu Lang and the flower baskets made a lot of money, the men focused exclusively on weaving baskets every evening.

When Man Bao entered the room, she took her writing brush and started writing on a piece of paper. The kids didn’t understand Man Bao’s scribbles, but they knew the accounts need to be reworked. They can’t include the sales proceeds from the sweets as they were hiding that from the adults.

Man Bao did the math on paper while mentally consulting Keke, and soon, a system and a child worked out a more reasonable distribution principle.

First of all, they have to hand in three wen for every flower baskets sold for five wen. All of them will share the remaining two wen.

This group of people included her three older brothers who helped them weave the bamboo baskets. With this, everyone’s share reduced substantially.

But it doesn’t matter as they still have income from selling sweets.

Wu Lang and the others were particularly generous in offering their three older brothers a bigger share, so Man Bao planned to give the men half a wen for every basket sold.

Although half a wen sounds like a minuscule amount, the total amount given was actually quite substantial.

Since a new policy has been drafted, Wu Lang and Liu Lang reminded Da Tou and the rest of their nephews and nieces that they must be tight-lipped about this. If their respective parents discover this, all their money would definitely be confiscated, just like the previous time.

Da Tou and the gang nodded without even thinking about it. They were particularly generous in handing over more money to Man Bao for safekeeping, with very good reason, “Little aunt, my parents will search our clothes and beds, but your parents won’t.”

Even Wu Lang hesitated for only a moment before handing his money over to Man Bao, “Man Bao, father won’t search your bed, but he will definitely search mine, old four and old sixth’s beds. Keep this money for me too, remember to keep accounts.”

Man Bao waved her hand in response, but instead of taking the money straight away, she told them to put their respective money in a bag. She would write their names on the bags so that everything would be clear cut.

Anyway, she doesn’t keep her money in her treasure box hidden under the bed, but in Keke’s place. Her father couldn’t even find her money even if he wanted to.