Transmigration Of Mian [Reluctantly] Becomes His Man [Wife] (穿越之勉为其男)

Chapter 187- 188

Chapter 187- Exchange of Views Between the Two Countries (2)

Great Xia had also prepared.

Zhangsun He stood up and said, "Just a few days ago, a friend of this gongzi encountered a problem. This gongzi wants to ask the respected envoys for a piece of advice. My friend is a manager. He wants to hire a worker to work for seven days. His boss gave him a gold bar and told him to give the worker a gold bar at the end of the worker's daily work, but he was only allowed to break the bar twice. Sheng-daren, how to solve this problem?"

Ye Yunwen and the others' faces were covered with a layer of dignified. This was a tricky problem. A gold bar was the seven days' wage and the wage were required to be paid daily. The simplest way was to divide the gold bar into seven sections and pay one section every day. But this problem required that the gold bar could only be broken twice, which meant, it could only be divided into three sections – this was the difficulty.

Chen Mufeng deliberately said: "Your Majesty, for the sake of fairness, should this question be time-limited?"

Emperor Xiaohui said with a smile, "It's only right and proper – the time is limited to a stick of incense burnt out. If you spend less time than our country, you win."

Emperor Xiaohui kindly asked his attendants to send writing materials to the people of Tuluo.

Sheng Xuhao was so angry as he calculated on the paper with a wooden face but couldn't figure out the solution.

Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin took out small pencils and notebooks from their pockets, then wrote and drew. The two brothers put down their pencils almost at the same time.

Lei Ruilin came to Qin Mian's ear and whispered a few words.

Qin Mian nodded approvingly.

Princess Yanqing saw it clearly. Although she didn't know what they were whispering about, Qin Mian seemed to know the answer. She told herself to calm down. The last question was the most difficult one.

""

The time for a stick of incense to burn out was quite fast – it soon burnt out.

Sheng Xuhao said with a wooden face, "This foreign official has no capability."

Zhangsun He saw that Ye Yunwen had finished written a moment ago and thought he had solved the problem. He cupped his hands to Ye Yunwen and said sincerely, "Venture to ask: perhaps Ye-daren has a solution to help my friend?"

Ye Yunwen noticed that they intended to give Tuluo some face, so he said with a smile, "You can divide the gold bar into seven parts with a carpenter's ink marker. For the first time, can cut one-part; for the second time, can cut two-part. The whole bar becomes a 'one-part', a 'two-part', and a 'four-part'. On the first day, pay one-part to the worker; on the second day, pay two-part to the worker and get one-part back; on the third day, pay one-part to the worker; on the fourth day, pay four-part to the worker and get one-part and two-part back; on the fifth day, pay one-part to the worker; on the sixth day, pay two-part to the worker and get one-part back; on the seventh day, pay one-part to the worker."

Zhangsun He applauded as he said, "Wonderful! Many thanks for Ye-daren's teaching."

All the ministers, without exception, applauded and praised.

Emperor Xiaohui laughed, "What's your third question?" The second question went without saying – of course, Great Xia won.

As before, Ye Yunwen spoke on Tuluo's behalf. He slowly said, "The third question is what this foreign official saw in an ancient book and couldn't find the answer after much contemplation. Hope that the great talents of Great Xia can solve this foreign official's doubts."