Chapter 61: Reaching an Agreement with Li Xiaogong (Special thanks to the Qidian reader for the reward of 1,500 book coins)

Manager Lu laughed awkwardly when he heard this, his eyes suddenly lighting up—was there something even better? Li Xiaogong’s eyes widened further as he looked at Du Chengfeng, teasing, “Little Brother Chengfeng, with Wangjiang Tower soon to become your property, you needn’t hide so much, don’t you think?”

“It all has to be done step by step. Seeing how anxious Manager Lu is, so eager and impatient, I thought I’d first teach some basics, leaving the more detailed methods for later,” Du Chengfeng replied, smiling as he avoided Li Xiaogong’s gaze.

“Very well, then. Please, Little Brother Chengfeng,” Manager Lu said respectfully, quickly handing over paper and brush, bowing and standing aside, ready to listen attentively.

Li Xiaogong’s interest was piqued even further by Du Chengfeng’s words. Though such calculations were hardly tasks a prince should personally undertake, he was deeply intrigued by Du Chengfeng’s accounting methods. He needed to understand them thoroughly to report to the Emperor.

“Your Highness, please look,” Du Chengfeng said as he drew out a sample of the old ledger pages used for bookkeeping. On these pages, the left side listed dates, while the right included columns for income, expenses, and balance. To the right of the income column, Du Chengfeng added a voucher column.

Since he had become a shareholder in Wangjiang Tower, it was now his own business. To prevent any falsification of accounts, Du Chengfeng planned to design a set of consecutively numbered work slips, making bookkeeping and registration more convenient. These simple slips would serve as receipts—whenever a customer needed something, the accountant would promptly record it on the slip, which would then be kept as a unified voucher for future audits.

Moreover, Du Chengfeng made small adjustments to the original ledger format: every seven days, he left a column for weekly summary, and every month, a column for monthly summary. This made the accounts more intuitive, simplifying calculations and saving time and effort.

Du Chengfeng explained these methods with clear examples, making them easy to grasp.

Li Xiaogong and Manager Lu listened intently, though they didn’t fully comprehend everything, they recognized the revolutionary potential of these accounting methods once they were introduced.

Li Xiaogong looked at Du Chengfeng with even greater enthusiasm, feeling increasingly fortunate for his partnership with him. He believed that if Wangjiang Tower were managed entirely according to Du Chengfeng’s methods, it would reach unprecedented heights.

“Well then, Your Highness, Manager Lu, that’s all for today. These methods will be useful in days to come,” Du Chengfeng concluded.

Du Chengfeng had been explaining for nearly an hour and was feeling parched. Manager Lu, hearing that Du Chengfeng would say no more, was faintly disappointed. Still, there would be plenty of opportunities to seek his guidance in the future.

Li Xiaogong, however, was straightforward. He understood that Du Chengfeng had already shared plenty today, and it would be difficult to digest all at once. The most important thing now was to finalize the contract with Du Chengfeng.

As Du Chengfeng rose, Li Xiaogong seized the opportunity to gather up all the sheets of paper Du Chengfeng had written. Du Chengfeng said nothing; since he had revealed these advanced methods, he intended for them to be disseminated—the wider their spread, the more advantageous for him.

Carefully stowing away the paper, Li Xiaogong said to Du Chengfeng, “Little Brother Chengfeng, you’ve worked hard today. Shall we sign the contract now?” His tone was sincere.

“Of course,” Du Chengfeng replied with a slight smile.

With the contract signed, Du Chengfeng officially became the second largest shareholder behind Wangjiang Tower. With Li Xiaogong’s special instruction, all management and operations of Wangjiang Tower were entrusted to Du Chengfeng, even Li Xiaogong himself was not to interfere.

“Thank you for your trust, Your Highness.” Du Chengfeng neither declined nor showed overt excitement. In his eyes, Wangjiang Tower was merely a channel for acquiring funds. The minerals extracted from the system base could only be used for construction, not as real-world money.

There would be many places needing funds in the future, such as the cloned soldiers who, like ordinary people, would need normal lives. Du Chengfeng couldn’t have them living forever in the cave base beneath Du Family Village.

So these cloned soldiers would also receive military pay for their daily lives in the future. Calculating it out, it would become a substantial expenditure.

After signing the contract with Li Xiaogong, Du Chengfeng left with Manager Lu. Li Xiaogong had handed over all management of Wangjiang Tower to him—at least for the next few months, Du Chengfeng would be quite busy.

Manager Lu needed to return to Wangjiang Tower to settle some matters, and Du Chengfeng had to prepare at his own residence. The renovation of Wangjiang Tower would have to wait until Li Xiaogong acquired all the surrounding lands.

Furthermore, Du Chengfeng’s plan was to abandon wooden structures for all major buildings, replacing them with cement and red brick. He already possessed the necessary cement and steel smelting technology, but lacked the technique for manufacturing glass.

Though Du Chengfeng had a basic formula for glass in his mind, he hadn’t tried it and didn’t know if it would work. It seemed he should check whether the system store had a ready-made technology. Thinking about it, Du Chengfeng realized he hadn’t paid much attention to the system store lately.

The system base beneath Du Family Village’s cave had been tirelessly producing cloned soldiers, preparing for the major battle against the southern advance of the Turks. Even his reputation points hadn’t been checked for days—who knew how much they’d increased.

With this in mind, Du Chengfeng focused his thoughts inward and opened the reputation system: Good heavens, his reputation had unknowingly risen by hundreds of thousands! Clearly, making a splash among celebrities in the Tang dynasty was very effective.

He opened the system store and found the glass manufacturing technology was still absent. Was he really going to have to research the formula himself?

“System, why are so many useful civilian technologies missing from the system store?” Du Chengfeng complained impatiently.

“Host may refresh the store for 1,000 reputation points each time,” the system replied coldly.

“What! Why didn’t you say so before?” Du Chengfeng roared, feeling utterly baffled.

“You had not asked previously. It is recommended that the host cultivate the habit of asking questions without shame,” the system replied.

Was it really possible to do this? Du Chengfeng felt as if the system was belittling him, as if he was being schooled by it.

Well, he admitted he’d been a bit slow before, never considering this possibility.

Du Chengfeng inwardly berated himself, just about to spend 1,000 points to refresh the store, when he suddenly thought of something and quickly asked in his mind, “System, if I refresh, will previous items disappear?”

“Rest assured, host. They will not. Furthermore, any item you are interested in but cannot or do not wish to purchase can be added to your favorites and bought later,” the system explained.