Their rapeseed oil had a dedicated partner in Zhangjiawan to receive the goods; after unloading from the boat, it was sent straight to the latter’s warehouse. William Young and the sailors acted as porters, each with a carrying pole, hauling the oil barrels to the warehouse in Zhangjiawan city. Of course, they could have just hired porters, but for a small business, every penny saved counts.

However, William Young didn’t know how to use a carrying pole.

Who even knows how to use this thing? It’s not as simple as carrying loads on both ends—if you can’t keep your balance, you can’t even walk. So, amid everyone’s astonishment, he simply grabbed an oil barrel in each hand and carried them.

The shopkeeper collecting the oil wordlessly handed him a handcart.

And then he didn’t know how to use that, either.

This kind of handcart wasn’t a pallet jack.

First, it had wooden wheels, and the axle had worn thin from years of use, so instead of rolling smoothly, it wobbled all over the place. Second, it was split into left and right sides, so pushing it required not just forward strength but also constant effort to keep it balanced. In theory, the two barrels on each side should weigh the same, but in reality, there were always discrepancies—especially since the oil inside the barrels was still sloshing around. In other words, with a constantly twisting pivot point, you had to maintain the balance of two ever-shifting centers of gravity, all while pushing forward.

A handcart?

You need skill to use a handcart too!

This body of William Young’s must have known how, but the problem was, he didn’t!

“Get me one of those!”

William Young said angrily.

He was referring to a two-wheeled cart pulled by hand.

“Uncle He?”

Helen Howard looked at the oil shop’s manager beside them.

The latter smiled, waved to the back, and one of his workers immediately ran to a nearby familiar shop and soon returned, pulling one of those two-wheeled carts. William Young tried it out and was quite satisfied. This one had two wheels and didn’t require balancing left and right; as long as you pulled the harness with your shoulders and held the handles, you could control the front-to-back balance. Unless you were going up or down a slope, there was no problem—though on slopes, especially downhill, it was a disaster, as it was easy to get lifted off the ground.

“Load it up!”

He held the handles to keep the cart steady as he spoke.

Helen Howard picked up the oil barrels and loaded them on. Soon, the bottom layer was filled with eight barrels.

“Add another layer!”

William Young said.

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

Helen Howard said, exasperated.

Beside them, Charles Howard laughed and continued stacking barrels for William Young. Soon, another layer of six was added, making the total weight over 700 jin.

“Can we stack any more on top?”

William Young asked.

“Sure, stack more—let’s make it a full thousand jin for him!”

Harris the Shopkeeper said.

The worker and Charles Howard together lifted on four more barrels, and finally added two more on the very top, forming a pyramid-like structure that drew gasps from the crowd. Charles Howard quickly tied it all down securely with rope.

“A thousand jin—if you pull it into the city, I’ll treat you to meat!”

Harris the Shopkeeper said.

William Young grinned good-naturedly, then strode forward. Amid the exclamations from both sides, he walked confidently down the stone-paved street, the four-layered pyramid behind him moving forward with his steps...

“We’re not making much off this, are we!”

Sitting on the low wall in the garden of Harris the Shopkeeper’s house, William Young held a leg of lamb he’d won in a bet in one hand and a stick in the other, calculating their earnings from this trip on the ground.

“What kind of chicken scratch is that?”

Helen Howard asked in confusion.

Arabic numerals had entered China during the Yuan dynasty, but hardly anyone used them. The Chinese were more accustomed to counting rods and Chinese characters. As for the ten accounting numerals, legend had it that Sister Wu Zetian invented them, and Zhu Yuanzhang promoted them to prevent officials from falsifying accounts. Look at the wisdom of the founding emperor of Ming—even though he was an illiterate beggar, he still came up with tricks that stump modern accountants. But at least for now, Arabic numerals were rarely seen among the Ming common folk. Maybe some scholars understood them, but expecting Helen Howard to know them was impossible.

What’s more, William Young was doing vertical calculations.

“123456789, this is zero. One plus zero is ten, add two zeros for a hundred, three for a thousand, four for ten thousand. Each place you move up, you add a zero. Add the first nine digits and you get the teens. These are the symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. If you don’t have an abacus, you can use this to calculate. If you wash my clothes for me in the future, I’ll teach you step by step!”

William Young said slyly.

“Pah, wash them yourself!”

Helen Howard replied.

“But we really didn’t make much on this trip. In the end, it’s not even as good as when Miss Fang threw that pouch at me!”

William Young said, looking at the result.

Miss Fang was rich and generous—or maybe just muddleheaded with money. When she threw her money pouch at him, besides a few Spanish pillar dollars, there was even a one-hundred-tael silver note, making William Young instantly wealthy. You have to admit, young ladies from rich families are different—even when throwing things at people, they use silver notes. Next time, he definitely had to pay her a visit and see if she’d throw another pouch at him.