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    Lady, escort the emperor! 29

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    Chapter 29: Indistinguishable!

    Chang’an County Courthouse.

    Li Nuo finished all the cases before the official closing time. Judging cases was his old profession. As his familiarity with the *Da Xia Law* grew, his speed increased, allowing him to complete his tasks ahead of schedule.

    Today’s harvest was good. Although they were still minor, trivial cases of family squabbles, the Treasured Tome actually added two days to his life expectancy. He woke up with twenty-four days left, and after finishing the last case in the afternoon, it became twenty-six.

    A net gain of one day.

    Leaving the courtroom, Li Nuo said to the Chang’an County Magistrate, “Tomorrow’s cases, I’ll trouble Magistrate Pei.”

    Pei Zhe looked troubled, hesitating to speak.

    Li Nuo sensed he had something to say and asked, “What’s wrong?”

    The Chang’an County Magistrate explained, “Young Master, you don’t know, tomorrow is a rest day. The courthouse, whether it’s the constables, the officers, or the clerks, are all resting and bathing at home…”

    Then he added, “Whether or not we rest doesn’t matter much to me, I’m just afraid my subordinates will have objections. After all, they’ve worked hard for ten days, and they must be quite tired…”

    Li Nuo had gone through the *Da Xia Law* in the past few days, which included regulations on official holidays. Da Xia civil servants worked ten days and rested one.

    It might seem harder than the later generations’ five-day work week and two-day weekend. However, Da Xia officials had it much easier. They had holidays on the Spring Equinox, Autumn Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Winter Solstice, and major festivals like Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Double Ninth Festival received three days off, without any adjustments.

    Da Xia valued filial piety. If an official’s parents had birthdays or death anniversaries, they could request leave from their superiors, and it would always be granted.

    If a superior refused, a single impeachment memorial would be enough to drown him in the saliva of the censor officials.

    Could someone who wasn’t filial to their parents be expected to be loyal to the country?

    In this way, out of more than three hundred days a year, they could take around one hundred and fifty days off or more.

    Li Nuo glanced at the surrounding officers; they indeed seemed rather listless. After enduring ten days of work, they were finally looking forward to one day off. Asking them to work overtime would be no different from those idiotic bosses in the future.

    But if he didn’t do anything, wouldn’t his own day be wasted?

    Li Nuo thought for a moment and said, “Let’s do this. Magistrate Pei, please select ten people who are willing to work tomorrow…”

    Before he finished speaking, many officers subtly moved back a step.

    They had finally waited for their day off and had already planned their leisure activities. Who would want to stay at the courthouse to work?

    Li Nuo continued, “I will give these ten people a month’s salary as compensation.”

    A group of officers looked up in surprise.

    What?

    One day’s work tomorrow, and they would get a month’s salary?

    Forget the rest day!

    Fearing they would be left out, the quickest ones rushed forward and said to the Chang’an County Magistrate, “Sir, I’m not tired; I’m willing to stay at the courthouse tomorrow!”

    “Me, me, me! I’m not tired either!”

    “And me!”

    “I’ll stay too!”

    In an instant, the number of volunteers exceeded ten. Those who hadn’t spoken up yet, seeing the situation, immediately said, “Sir, pick me! I only need half a month’s salary!”

    Others silently cursed the guy in their hearts, but they couldn’t help but lower their price, one after another.

    “We only need half a month…”

    “Ten days; ten days’ salary is enough.”

    Pei Zhe perfectly understood these eager fellows. One day’s work for a month’s salary? If it were him, he would also agree. His wife managed his salary. If he could save some private money, he could help those unfortunate women at Fengqi Building next time…

    His gambling father, his sick mother, his unmarried younger brother, and his poor wife… As a local official, if he didn’t help them, who would?

    Thinking of this, he looked at Li Nuo and said with a smile, “Young Master doesn’t have an official position and is judging cases alone at the courthouse. This might attract gossip. Let my wife go back to her parents’ home tomorrow, and I’ll stay here with the Young Master…”

    Li Nuo said apologetically, “That’s not good, how can I trouble Magistrate Pei with his family matters?”

    Pei Zhe waved his hand and said, “The people’s affairs are the most important. I’m a local official and have much to learn from the Young Master…”

    Soon, Li Nuo left the Chang’an County Courthouse.

    Constables and officers seemed impressive, but their salaries were not high, only two taels of silver per month; ten people only amounted to twenty taels. Li Nuo didn’t know exactly how much money his family had, but he assumed twenty taels was manageable.

    Returning to the Li Mansion, Song Mu Er was already waiting for him in his courtyard.

    Only she and a Song Family maid were in the small courtyard. Song Jia Ren wasn’t there. Li Nuo worried she would want him to play shuttlecock with her or do her hair again. The portraits of the assassin and the concubine of Magistrate Zheng had dimmed; now, he was only good-looking, with no other skills.

    Li Nuo’s worries were unfounded. Song Mu Er came over with a small booklet, saying sweetly, “Li Nuo gege (older brother), I have a question I don’t understand. Can you explain it to me?”

    Hearing that it was just a question, Li Nuo breathed a sigh of relief.

    Back then, he had scored a perfect score on the college entrance exam mathematics, how could he be stumped by elementary school mathematics?

    He took the booklet Song Mu Er handed him and glanced at it, slightly stunned.

    It wasn’t that he didn’t know the answer. Li Nuo had been reading in his spare time these days, mostly skimming, aiming for the quickest understanding of this world.

    He had a general idea of Da Xia’s level of mathematics. Modern mathematics hadn’t sprouted here yet; Da Xia’s mathematics was all about solving practical problems such as measuring areas and volumes, calculating grain prices, and taxes…

    Song Mu Er’s problem was about calculating grain prices.

    “There are nine dou of hemp, seven dou of wheat, three dou of soybeans, two dou of adzuki beans, and five dou of millet, totaling one hundred and forty cash; seven dou of hemp, six dou of wheat, four dou of soybeans, five dou of adzuki beans, and three dou of millet, totaling one hundred and twenty-eight cash…; one dou of hemp, three dou of wheat, two dou of soybeans, eight dou of adzuki beans, and five dou of millet, totaling ninety-five cash. What is the price of one dou of each?”

    In terms of type, this problem is similar to the classic “chicken and rabbit in the same cage” problem.

    However, the “chicken and rabbit” problem only has two unknowns, while this one has five.

    For Li Nuo, a system of five linear equations was not difficult to solve; he could use the elimination method or matrix method.

    The difficulty lay in explaining it to Song Mu Er.

    She was only six years old, and even in the future, this was high school math content, and even then, high school math usually wouldn’t test something this difficult.

    Song Mu Er didn’t even understand the concept of a system of equations. It wouldn’t be easy for Li Nuo to explain it to her.

    He first found a piece of scratch paper, wrote out the matrix of the problem, used linear algebra to quickly calculate the answer, and then converted the problem into Da Xia’s mathematical notation on another piece of paper.

    Da Xia’s numbers also had a simplified way of writing them, and addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division also had corresponding symbols.

    Song Mu Er could understand individual calculations.

    But she didn’t understand why two calculations could be added together.

    Li Nuo had to start from the very basics, explaining it step by step. Fortunately, Song Mu Er was smart, and after Li Nuo gave a few examples, she gradually began to understand the operations between equations.

    The rest was simple.

    Solving a system of five linear equations was merely a process of elimination through addition and subtraction. Li Nuo had already calculated the answer. He only needed to tell Song Mu Er how to do it, letting her calculate it step by step. Although it took a long time, she eventually calculated the answer herself.

    Li Nuo looked at her and asked, “Do you understand?”

    Song Mu Er surprisingly found that the problem she had just thought was so difficult had been solved by herself.

    She pursed her lips and muttered, “I told you, you explain better than my teacher. If my teacher hears this, he’ll be unhappy…”

    She looked relaxed, but Li Nuo wasn’t.

    In order for her to understand, he started with simple examples, step by step, gradually breaking down all the knowledge points and feeding them to her bit by bit. If she still didn’t understand after this, Li Nuo would be helpless.

    Thankfully, Mu’er didn’t disappoint him. Li Nuo patted her head and said, “You can’t say that about your teacher…”

    “Li Nuo gege!”

    Before Li Nuo could finish, a familiar voice came from a distance.

    He turned to see Song Ning’er and Song Jia Ren walking in together.

    Song Ning’er ran over and greeted him with a smile.

    Li Nuo was surprised. When did he become so familiar with Song Ning’er?

    Song Mu’er stopped halfway, her eyes fixed on Li Nuo’s side.

    Song Ning’er glanced at her, proudly raising her chin.

    A moment later.

    Li Nuo looked at Song Mu Er, who had turned around, pouting and ignoring him, and then at the smug Song Ning’er. He helplessly covered his face.

    Who would have thought that Song Ning’er would pretend to be Song Mu Er to ask him questions?

    The two sisters looked exactly alike; their clothes, hairstyles, and jewelry were the same, even the scent of their sachets was identical. He really couldn’t tell them apart!
    (End of Chapter)

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