Chapter 342 1.0

The costs of Rain's retinue needs adjusting, and I'm probably going to cut the whole explanation about numbers out, and just leave LuoLuo's reactions, giving me more room to work with. Gonna go walk do and look at it again, but enjoy for now.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1axK5mQ_wenMVJURHfAVAaB-WfJs40fkFgvR4nzjXjYM/edit?usp=sharing

The more Luo-Luo learned about Falling Rain, the more peculiar he seemed.

Having overheard sweet Tali asking her handsome Papa what they should cook for dinner, Luo-Luo learned there were no plans for a welcome party in motion, a most disheartening realization. Heart heavy and spirits low, she cringed at the thought of confronting Falling Rain about the evening festivities, knowing she would be blamed for the expenditures and ‘inconvenience’. Her new husband was a man of violence and bloodshed, quick to anger and even quicker to act. Though he had yet to threaten her with physical violence, Luo-Luo feared her death could come at a moment’s notice should she upset or disappoint her Lord Husband, Falling Rain.

Or worse. Earlier, he told Luo-Luo to eschew her marital duties, but as a woman and a Servant, she was determined to fulfill her purpose, only... what if he were to lose his head in the throes of passion and forget she was but a frail young damsel, unable to withstand rough or violent handling? Though lacking firsthand experience, she had studied all the books there were on the art of lovemaking and knew only too well how frantic and brutal men could be. No matter how many times she studied those diagrams, Luo-Luo couldn’t imagine how a man and a woman were supposed to feel good whilst contorted in such strange positions.

No matter. If things went well, Luo-Luo would find out soon enough, after her Lord Husband was suitably plied with drink and more relaxed in her presence. Though she wanted to bring up the party the moment she discovered one wasn’t being planned, she feared to do so without help from her sister-wives. Unfortunately, Lin-Lin had fallen asleep in her ‘hubby’s’ embrace while Mila and Falling Rain exchanged quiet smiles and soft touches, so comfortable in each others presence it’s as if they were in their own little world with just the three of them and their adorable fluffy bunny. Burning with jealousy, Luo-Luo imagined what it would be like were she to switch positions with Lin-Lin or Mila, but all she could think about was how uncomfortable it’d be considering their stark height differences.

Such is life. This was but a trial placed in her path by the Mother, and like all other trials, Luo-Luo would come out on top.

In a manner of speaking.

Despite her growing anxiety, Luo-Luo couldn’t bear to disturb Lin-Lin’s nap, who looked so darling as she snuggled with both husband and bunny. Instead, she clutched the precious book to her chest and took measure of the Bekhai tribesmen who marched on stage and adjusted her views accordingly. Savage tribesmen though they might be, her Lord Husband’s people were undoubtedly a powerhouse of the North, with his family standing out with prominence. A Lieutenant General for a grandmother and a Major General for a father, Falling Rain was the tribesmen equivalent of a noble prince, though how he came to be adopted by was still a mystery. For two half-beasts to rise so high in rank was no easy task, and one of them a beautiful woman no less, a testament both their ambition and abilities, especially considering the family lacked a powerful civil servant. With a prominent family member in both the Defence Forces and Army, not to mention how he was the youngest Second Grade Warrant Officer in history, Luo-Luo concluded that Falling Rain, despite his uncouth appearance and ill-mannered attitude, was a man of both means and wealth, especially considering he’d only just won twenty-thousand gold a week past.

A tight-fisted, penny-pinching man of means and wealth who seemed overly protective of his cooking pot, but surely even he would understand the need to please his benefactor.

When the opening ceremonies came to an end and the charming half-hare finally woke from her slumber, Luo-Luo immediately drew the sweet girl aside and plied her charms while Falling Rain busied himself collecting his pets. Turning Lin-Lin to her cause was much easier than expected, those fetching brown eyes wide with gleeful anticipation at the thought of hosting a party. As Luo-Luo painted a picture of what was to come, Lin-Lin became so excited she launched herself onto Falling Rain’s back, her arms wrapped around his neck and chest as her feet dangled in the air, joyously going on about the splendid party to come.

Endearing as it was, Luo-Luo’s heart stilled as Lin-Lin’s spontaneity ruined all her carefully laid plans, the half-hare’s over-eager approach too much for Falling Rain to accept. Shutting down Lin-Lin’s enthusiasm with a single uttered ‘stop’, he proceeded to tear Luo-Luo’s suggestions apart without mercy. No dress, no jewels, no handmaidens, he even thought six restaurants too many whereas she thought it too few. Did he care nothing for face? How was he to hold his head high as the ‘number one talent in the Empire’ and properly thank his benefactor with a shabbily dressed concubine in a one-restaurant banquet? And what was this nonsense about not knowing enough people? Did he not see the opportunity to connect with nobles, politicians, and soldiers from across the Empire? If anything, he should be worried about having too many people to invite rather than too few and making enemies of snubbed guests or worse.

When his scolding finally came to an end, Luo-Luo curtsied and apologized, accepting her undue criticism with grace and dignity, but Falling Rain surprised her with his response. Instead of dismissing her opinions, he asked her to work with him and find a middle ground they could agree on. Emboldened by his willingness to compromise, she followed him into his hut only to belatedly realized this was her first time inside a man’s private quarters, her Lord Husband’s no less. If everything went according to plan, though Luo-Luo had little reason to believe they would, in a few hours, this was where she would surrender her maidenhood to Falling Rain.

Inside a musky, poorly-lit hut situated in the middle of an open field, without having so much as bathed beforehand. Not exactly the venue she’d have chosen for her first time, but the choice was never hers to begin with.

To her immense surprise, Falling Rain gestured for them both to sit as he personally boiled water and set about fixing snacks. While Luo-Luo made idly conversation with Lin-Lin, Falling Rain fed the pets and washed his hands, using a fragrant bar of soap and a bowl of water to scrub his skin and nails clean like a man possessed. Once finished scraping his hands raw, he wiped them dry with a clean washcloth hanging on the water bowl. Still holding the washcloth, he used it to open a hatch in the hut’s floor to reveal a small, underground larder, his actions quick as he removed a side of meat and a cloth sack. Snapping the hatch closed, he was just in time to stop one speedy wildcat from diving into the larder, an opportunistic hunter who’d been lying in wait to steal a bite from the trove of edible treasures.

His actions revealed a new side of her Lord Husband, his movements deft and well-practised. While Lin-Lin brought her to wash their own hands, Luo-Luo watched Falling Rain with growing interest, wondering why a man with his talents would have to prepare his own food and tea. Fending off the bears and wildcats with gentle nudges of his hips and knees, he placed the meat onto a platter and cut it into thin slices, generously trimming the fat and tossing it to his pets. His warm smile was so genuine and unrestrained, his mouth moving in silent praise as he made sure each animal got their fair share. Sensing food to be had, a plump, rotund bird fluttered down to land on Falling Rain’s shoulder, squawking out an almost human laugh of delight. Unperturbed by the intrusion, Falling Rain greeted the bird cordially while tossing it a chunk of meat. “Good afternoon Roc. You have a bad day? No shinies today? Well, that’s okay. Better luck tomorrow.”

Luo-Luo half-expected the bird to answering, but Roc fell silent as it gobbled down his treat. Finishing his preparations just as the water boiled, Falling Rain brought over the meat platter and placed it in front of Luo-Luo, alongside a second plate stacked with round flatbread and a dish of chopped herbs. While he busied himself preparing the tea, Lin-Lin took a disc of flatbread, sprinkled on dash of chopped herbs, wrapped it around a piece of meat, and nibbled away in a dainty, lovable fashion. “Help yourself, Luo-Luo,” Lin-Lin said with mischievous grin. “Hubby makes the best snacks. He calls this a beef wrap.”

Her preconceived notions of Falling Rain shattered beyond repair, Luo-Luo fashioned her own wrap and bit in, eager to taste what her Lord Husband prepared. As the burn of hot pepper and horseradish flooded her nose and mouth, she learned why Lin-Lin ate with dainty nibbles, the too spicy treat setting her lips ablaze and eyes to watering. Suppressing the urge to regurgitate the fiery mouthful of piquant beef, Luo-Luo chewed and swallowed as quickly as manners allowed, praying it wouldn’t burn her throat as it went down. “Delicious,” she uttered, though the lie was evident.

“Oh sorry, I should’ve warned you.” Handing her a cup of lukewarm tea, Falling Rain admonished the giggling Lin-Lin with a small shake of his head. “Be liberal with the spices, you only need a little to feel the heat.” Fashioning a second wrap, he exchanged it for Luo-Luo’s half-eaten one with a smile and urged her to give it a try. “Just a small dash for flavour is good enough.”

Draining the tea in a single gulp, Luo-Luo silently whimpered as she stared at the wrap, reluctant to subject her mouth to further torment. Chuckling at her hesitation, Falling Rain filled half her teacup with hot, fresh-brewed tea before topping it off with a second pot of cold, spring water. A considerate and sweet gesture, though to be fair, it was his fault Luo-Luo was suffering to begin with. Steeling her nerves, she took a deep, cooling breath, drained her tea cup once more, and bit into the wrap made by her Lord Husband.

In a word: Delicious.

“Yummy right?” Lin-Lin asked. “Told you, hubby makes the best snacks.” Holding her teacup out, she beamed with pride as if she’d hunted and cooked the food herself while Lord Husband poured her tea. “Wait until you try his rice crackers, he makes them so deliciously crispy and...”

While Lin-Lin extolled the virtues of Falling Rain’s cooking, Luo-Luo made another wrap and reconsidered her opinion of this odd, affluent Lord Husband. Unlike most men of his status, Falling Rain had no attendants to clean his hut, no maids to launder his clothes, and no slaves waiting to help him change. There was no sign whatsoever of any help waiting nearby, with Falling Rain living alone in his hut and taking care of his own needs. No, not just his own, whether it be pouring tea for his sweet wifey or eating with one hand while stroking his rotund bird’s belly with the other, Falling Rain was a man who enjoyed caring for others.

Hardly the attitude expected from the number one talent of the Empire. Even the lowest of merchants could afford a maid or two, and Falling Rain was far richer than a common shopkeeper. As much as she wanted to commend his humble nature and frugal lifestyle, he took things too far. How could he be so miserly, sitting on so much coin and refusing to spend it on even the most basic necessities? He dressed in plain clothes which had been mended and patched, slept on a wooden bed resting on four stones, cooked his own meals, made his own tea, and likely even emptied his own chamber pot. Was his avaricious nature truly so domineering that he couldn’t bear to spend enough for even a single domestic slave?

As Lin-Lin and Falling Rain finished off the last of their wraps, a soldier arrived with a bundle of documents for them to peruse. Clearing the table, Falling Rain placed the dirty dishes aside and wiped down the surface before settling down to business, seeming ready to negotiate and quibble over every last copper spent. Pulling out a blank sheet of paper, he ground his ink and prepared to write, only instead of a proper brush, he held a think metal stick with a pointed tip which he dipped in the ink. Unable to contain her curiosity, Luo-Luo leaned over to study the implement, finding nothing out of the ordinary about it, merely a tool he used in place of a brush to write with. Maddeningly oblivious to her interest, Falling Rain looked through the documents and scrawled down a series of symbols, the likes of which Luo-Luo had never seen. Minutes passed in silence aside from the scratching of his stick, his calligraphy uninspired and lacking, like random scratches made by by a blind man. The only saving grace was how tiny the symbols were, though what they entailed was still a mystery.

“Okay,” he said, circling four symbols at the bottom of the paper. “I’ll run the numbers again to double check, but I can afford to spare around two-thousand four hundred gold. Assuming she’s willing, we could borrow another thousand gold from Li Song, and maybe more from Grand-Mentor and Marshal Yuzhen, but I’d rather we didn’t have to.”

“Luo-Luo is grateful for Falling Rain’s understanding.” Three-thousand four-hundred gold would have to do, but her curiosity demanded she ask, “How did Falling Rain arrive at this number?” Was he trying to trick her?

“Stop using my name like a title, it makes me uncomfortable. Drop the formalities and speak like a normal person please.” There was no smile for Luo-Luo, but he answered her question regardless, pointing out documents and writing out the numbers in Common next to his illegible symbols. “As of this morning I have twenty-eight thousand, seven hundred and sixteen gold left in my war chest. This would have lasted me almost half a year, but now I have to factor in another three hundred and sixty soldiers. Deduct wages, food costs, other estimated expenses, and a reserve fund for emergencies, we’re left with two-thousand four hundred and thirty five gold, the absolute most I can spare. Keep in mind, this is is. There’s no more money coming in afterwards, aside from my wages as a Second Grade Warrant Officer, a piddling thousand gold per month which won’t even cover what I pay my retinue.”

Blinking in confusion, Luo-Luo sifted through the documents in search of the final number. “But... how did you arrive at this value without an abacus?”

“Uh... Math?” Unwilling to explain, Falling Rain glanced at Lin-Lin for help.

“Mm, don’t worry Luo-Luo, hubby has the right number.”

Understanding dawned on Luo-Luo as she studied Falling Rain’s writing, finding a pattern in the his illegible scrawls and the Common Script he’d added beside them for her benefit. “These symbols represent numbers?” she asked, pointing at the page. “This vertical line represents ‘one’? Why change the number one? It’s already written as a horizontal line...”

“Wah, Luo-Luo is so smart!” Lin-Lin’s praise was without derision, nodding as she explained, “This symbol is two, and this one is three, and-”

“Lin,” Falling Rain interrupted. “Maybe we should leave the numbers lesson for another time and stay on point.”

Desperate to understand, Luo-Luo pointed at the four circled symbols and asked, “Then how does this represent two thousand four hundred and thirty five?” To write the same out in Common Script would take seven characters, and while she recognized the new symbols for two and three and assumed the others were four and five, she was at a loss on how to decipher it to arrive at the above total.

Rolling his eyes, Falling Rain sighed and explained, “Writing out the whole number and all the numerals is too clunky, so I use a different system. Like Common Script, we only have symbols for one through nine, but instead of writing the number ‘two’ and the character ‘thousand’ to denote two thousand, I just write the number two. Do the same for the rest, and we’re left with two, four, three, and five. Starting from the left, each position represents an increase by a magnitude of ten. So the first number, five, is just that, five ones. The second number, three, isn’t just three, but in fact three tens, because it sits in the tens column. Four sits in the hundreds column, and so on and so forth. We put a mark between every three numbers to make it easier to keep track of, and that’s it. Understand? Can we get back to discussing this party I’m supposed to host?”

A positional numeral system, thereby eliminating the need to write out the qualifying values. A simple solution to a minor, almost negligible issue, though still useful nonetheless. Only... “Why did you need to make up new symbols for each number? Why not simply use the numerals of the Common Script?”

Lin giggled. “Because Rainy didn’t know how to write numbers in Common, so he had to make up new ones.”

“No... Well, yea, but that’s not the only reason. You also don’t have to lift your brush... to write the nwe number. You know. More convenient.”

He didn’t know how to write numbers, so came up with numbers of his own? Then he happened to arrange them in a well-thought out system which would remain logical all the way to infinity? Eager to brag, Lin-Lin continued explaining the merits of her hubby’s system and how the arrangement helped the reader with mental arithmetic. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and even division was made easy so long as one had access to ink and paper, solving complex equations using logic and a few strokes of the brush.

Mother in Heaven...

“See, isn’t Hubby smart?” Lin-Lin asked, her eyes barely visible through her smile. “Everyone should write numbers like this, it’s makes so much more sense.”

Indeed it did. Her thirst for knowledge overpowering caution, Luo-Luo asked, “Why wasn’t this in the book? Your book of inventions?”

Taken aback by her tone, her Lord Husband didn’t take offence or scold her, taking it in stride as he sipped his tea and shrugged. “I thought about it, but I didn’t want the book to get out of control. Besides, it’s just a different way to count, it’s not that big a deal.”

Not that big a deal? Was Luo-Luo’s Lord Husband an idiot or a genius?

Forestalling her next question, Falling Rain asked, “Look, about this er... wedding party. Like I said, we have two thousand gold to spend, but I’d really rather not spend it feeding people I barely like considering I don’t really have an income. Stuff is a lot more expensive than I realized, and we’d be in so much trouble if I hadn’t won twenty thousand gambling in the arena.”

“So Fal- ... you do not wish to host a party?” Again with this. Why was her Lord Husband so petty? Couldn’t he just let her have this one night?

“Not really. See, the point of the party is to show you off and tout my new title right? Well, instead of a big party, how about we...”

Like so much about her Lord Husband, his plan was unconventional, but effective, leaving Luo Luo no choice but to agree. It wasn’t the banquet she’d envisioned, but at least it was something. It didn’t matter too much regardless, she only cared about the banquet when she thought she was marrying an uneducated brute and deceiver, but now she was truly convinced. The Heavens had not forsaken Luo-Luo. Her Lord Husband Falling Rain, for all his quirks and shortcomings, was a brilliant man destined for greatness.

Luo-Luo would bear his child with pride.