Traveling back to 1952, starting a comeback from a relief station

"Wang Anping, your math skills are amazing!"

"Yeah, yeah, so many numbers, and you spotted the mistake at a glance? Do you have some kind of superpower?"

Hearing the exclamations of surprise from those around him, Wang Anping finally realized what was happening.

At this time, the country had only been established for a little over two years. Years of war had crippled education, and the national illiteracy rate was close to 90%. Even in the capital city of Beijing, the illiteracy rate was over 80%.

Illiteracy means being completely illiterate; even being able to write a few words doesn't count.

People with a junior high school education or above are extremely rare, accounting for only about 4% at most, and those with a high school education are even less than 1%.

Well……

Wang Anping discovered another difference in this era.

Facing the astonished gazes of the crowd, Wang Anping waved his hand and explained with a smile:

"It's not some kind of special ability, it's just that I'm a little good at math."

"Sister Liu, look at the cornmeal on this receipt. It's 85 cents a pound. We bought 320 pounds, which should come to 27.2 yuan. But the receipt probably says 85 cents a pound, so it's 1.6 yuan short."

"And this millet noodle dish, the price per kilogram doesn't match the total price, it's been undercharged by 73 cents..."

In his past life, Wang Anping was very good at mental arithmetic when he was a child. He was good at writing when bidding and also had to calculate costs and numbers. He dealt with numbers every day and never gave up mental arithmetic.

Three-digit multiplication can be solved with a little thought, and addition and subtraction of four- or five-digit numbers are even easier.

There were only about ten items on the list.

It's obvious at a glance.

However, in Liu Yuzhi's eyes, it had a somewhat unfathomable quality.

Liu Yuzhi was still unsure. She placed the shopping list on the cutting board, took out a pen from her canvas bag, and began to write and draw on the paper.

After a long while, she straightened up, her eyes filled with surprise as she looked at Wang Anping:

"You're absolutely right!"

"The price of this cornbread was indeed understated by one dollar and sixty cents."

"Anping, I never expected you to be so good at math at such a young age! You're even better than that old accountant in the district!"

Wang Anping was stunned.

He saw that Liu Yuzhi had been working hard on the calculations for a long time and thought she had checked the entire bill, but he didn't expect that she had only calculated the cost of cornmeal.

No wonder.

These days, without calculators, we rely entirely on abacuses for accounting.

However, most of them are illiterate, let alone use an abacus, they struggle with even simple addition and subtraction. Mathematics is indeed a huge problem for them.

Normally, accounting is handled by a specialist.

After confirming the accounts, Liu Yuzhi trusted Wang Anping and simply took out several crumpled pieces of paper from her canvas bag, asking Wang Anping to check them for her.

These are all lists of recently purchased supplies.

These women just work and don't have anyone specifically keeping accounts. They have to ask the district's accountant to help them summarize and register the data every month.

Over time, some messy errors appeared in the accounts.

Over time, some accounts became even more confusing.

It's completely incomprehensible.

Wang Anping took the forms, quickly glanced at them, and soon pointed out several errors and omissions.

Looking at his fluid and graceful movements, Liu Yuzhi couldn't help but sigh:

"Your skill is truly remarkable; you can do accounting without even using an abacus!"

"With this skill, finding a job will be a piece of cake. Any factory would be scrambling to hire you for an accounting position!"

She paused, then changed the subject.

As if suddenly remembering something, he asked again:

"By the way, where are you from? How did you end up at the shelter?"

When the topic of work came up, Liu Yuzhi paused noticeably, then swallowed her words, clearly indicating some concern.

Wang Anping didn't think much of it.

He explained his situation in detail:

"I've come to stay with my uncle."

As he spoke, Wang Anping pretended to reach into his pocket, but in fact he took out a letter of introduction from the village, a letter from the old man, and his own household registration book from the system space and handed them over.

According to regulations, matters involving seeking refuge with relatives fall under the jurisdiction of the street-level work group.

However, Wang Anping was unsure whether the area where his uncle lived belonged to the jurisdiction of Liu Yuzhi's work group.

Unexpectedly, Liu Yuzhi's face showed surprise after hearing this:

"Is Wang Ligen your grandpa?"

"He lived in our Yu'er Hutong district, right in Nanluoguxiang! He passed away recently when his old wounds flared up while he was on duty at the factory. He was a veteran who had fought in many battles; he was a martyr!"

"When he fell ill before, we went to visit him and he mentioned that he had a nephew."

"I never imagined that the nephew he was talking about was you!"

She reviewed the materials carefully again and added:

"However, his files are all kept at the factory. I'll arrange for someone to take you to his former residence later."

"You'll have to go to the factory to find the files yourself."

"From now on, if you need any help in this area, feel free to come to us."

Wang Anping hadn't expected things to turn out so coincidentally.

The name Nanluoguxiang that Liu Yuzhi mentioned sounded very familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place where he had heard it before.

Now that things are looking up, Wang Anping breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then.

It's time to stew the radishes.

Wang Anping deftly carried several baskets of washed radishes to the stove.

The fire in the stove was burning brightly, the flames licking the bottom of the pot and making the large iron pot very hot.

Although this is food from a shelter, there's no need to be too picky.

But it shouldn't be too bland or watery either.

After the pot was heated, Wang Anping scooped in several large spoonfuls of lard, which sizzled and melted quickly.

He grabbed a handful of scallion segments, a few slices of ginger, and threw them in, along with a few pieces of star anise.

A fragrant aroma wafted out instantly.

Immediately afterwards, he poured basket after basket of chopped radish pieces into the pot, swinging the iron shovel with great force, turning the pot full of radishes up and down, without spilling a single bit.

This job looks simple, but it's actually physically demanding and requires skill.

Fortunately, Wang Anping's body had been modified by the system, making him incredibly strong. In addition, he had a solid foundation in cooking, so he handled the situation with ease.

After stir-frying for a while, Wang Anping scooped two spoonfuls of soy sauce into the pot.

"Sizzle—"

The scalding hot lard met the soy sauce, and a cloud of salty, fragrant steam rose up, instantly filling the entire shelter with an irresistible aroma.

Wang Anping then brought over a bucket of water and poured it into the pot, covering it with a heavy wooden lid, leaving only a crack for steam to escape.

The rest is up to time to simmer slowly.

Between stewing, you have to lift the lid from time to time and stir it with an iron spatula to ensure that the radishes in the pot are heated evenly, so that some are not overcooked while others are still hard.

The people around them all had their own things to do.

But she still couldn't help but glance at Wang Anping every now and then, her eyes full of surprise.

Sun Hui noticed that Liu Yuzhi was also frequently glancing towards the stove, and recalling Liu Yuzhi's hesitant expression earlier, she leaned closer and asked in a low voice:

"Sister Liu, do you want Wang Anping to work here?"

Liu Yuzhi nodded, her tone full of regret:

"That's definitely the idea."

"This kid's math skills are amazing. If he really comes, it will save us so much trouble when it comes to bookkeeping and accounting."

"But we can't make this decision ourselves; we have to report it to the district and wait for approval from above. So I can't bring it up with Xiao Wang right now, lest he get his hopes up for nothing and the district doesn't approve it, which would only hurt his feelings."

"We'll talk to Xiao Wang again once the district confirms."

[Ding dong, cooking proficiency +1!]

[Ding-dong, cooking skill proficiency +1...]