To be honest, Jiang Si had never been particularly sharp with numbers. When shopping before, she had never paid much attention to the bills. Basically, whatever amount was written on the slip, she paid.
But this time, the total price on the slip differed by several dozen yuan from what Zhaozhao had said.
It wasn't the few dozen yuan she cared about, but her trust in her daughter.
Having a large bill double-checked was not an unusual request at the department store.
Jiang Si believed her request was perfectly reasonable. Moreover, she spoke in a very mild tone, with no hint of accusation or trouble-making.
But the salesclerk acted as if she hadn't heard, turning instead to the person behind Jiang Si in line. "Comrade, what do you need?"
That person, sensing something was off, quickly waved a hand. "It's fine, it's fine. Why don't you help this comrade recalculate first? With so many items, a mistake is quite possible."
Only then did the salesclerk look over.
Jiang Si met her gaze directly. "Comrade, could you please calculate it again?"
This time the salesclerk replied, though her tone was clearly impatient. "Can't do it."
It wasn't that she couldn't, but that she wouldn't.
With so many people in line watching, if the final tally didn't match the amount on the receipt, wouldn't she become a laughingstock among the new batch of salesclerks? Where would she put her face then?
And if it did come out the same, wouldn't she have wasted all that effort for nothing?
So she took the offensive: "Can't you see how busy I am? With so many people waiting, I've already spent over forty minutes just on you."
"Do you want these things or not? If not, don't hold up the comrades behind you!"
As she spoke, she made a move to take back the items, along with the receipt on the counter.
Jiang Si, quick as lightning, pressed down on her wrist.
The salesclerk tried to pull away but couldn't. She looked at Jiang Si in surprise. "What do you mean by this?"
Jiang Si looked back at her, her voice calm. "Did I say I didn't want them?"
"Also, I'd like to ask, when did No. 1 Department Store change its rules? Does a customer no longer have the right to have a bill double-checked?"
The salesclerk was left speechless by her question, her face flushing red then turning pale.
Jiang Si didn't give her time to react, adding, "You can't do it? Fine. Then I'll find someone who can."
"Hey, you... how can you..." The salesclerk, named Wei Xiaoyun, immediately became flustered.
Just then, a man's voice suddenly came from the crowd. "What's going on here? Making such a racket, what's the meaning of this?"
The onlookers automatically parted to make way as a man dressed in a Zhongshan suit, looking like a cadre, walked over.
"Director Ma." Seeing who it was, Wei Xiaoyun's imposing manner instantly deflated.
She was just about to explain when the young man who had argued with her earlier immediately spoke up first. "Director Ma, here's what happened. This female comrade bought quite a lot of items and wanted the salesclerk to double-check the bill. But the salesclerk didn't want to and even tried to take the items back, refusing to sell to this comrade anymore."
In just a few words, he laid out the situation clearly.
Director Ma glanced at Wei Xiaoyun, his gaze authoritative even without anger. "Is that what happened?"
"Director Ma, that's not true at all! Don't listen to their nonsense."
Refusing to double-check a bill for a customer, while not a major offense, could potentially affect her chance of being rated an advanced employee if seriously pursued. Wei Xiaoyun certainly couldn't admit to it.
Not only did she not admit it, she deliberately emphasized two points in her words.
First, she hadn't made a mistake. It was this female comrade who, after listening to her daughter, insisted the bill was wrong.
Second, this female comrade had bought so many items at once that just finding the goods and calculating the bill had taken over forty minutes, already delaying other customers behind her.
Her actions were therefore completely justified.
After a pause, Wei Xiaoyun added, "Director Ma, I've never seen a customer buy so many things all at once like she did."
Zhaozhao was still young and couldn't understand the subtleties of her later remarks, but she grasped one point. "I didn't calculate wrong. You're the one who calculated wrong!"
Hearing this, Wei Xiaoyun was practically amused with anger. "Little comrade, if you're going to boast, you should at least have a draft ready, okay? With so many things, you don't even know the prices. How could you possibly calculate?"
Let alone a little girl like her, even those who had worked at the department store for years only remembered the approximate prices of items in their counters. Who could guarantee not a single cent of error?
Hearing this, the crowd also thought she had a point and began murmuring among themselves.
"That child looks only three or four, doesn't she?"
"A kid that small, being able to count clearly would be an achievement. How could she possibly figure out such a complicated bill?"
"Exactly. I think she probably heard the adults say the money wasn't right and just started parroting it."
"Yeah, a child's words, you just listen to them. You can't take them seriously..."
Finally, Jiang Si's words cut through the murmurs. "Whether my daughter can calculate or not is a separate matter from the salesclerk double-checking the price."
After a pause, she also raised an eyebrow and looked at Wei Xiaoyun. "How do you know she doesn't know the prices? You quoted the price of each item when you were recording them just now."
Wei Xiaoyun had indeed quoted the prices; there was no disputing that, as so many people present had heard it.
But the problem was, she had only said them once!
How could a child that tiny possibly remember, let alone calculate the total?
Thinking this, Wei Xiaoyun snorted coldly. "Talking about this now is useless. You want a double-check? Fine! I'll double-check it for you right now. But let me be clear upfront: if the final calculated price matches this slip down to the last cent, what then?"
As she said this, she was brimming with confidence.
Working here, proficiency with the abacus was one of the mandatory skills.
Not to mention, their counter was one of the most popular in the entire building.
They served no less than eight hundred, if not a thousand, customers every day. She had worked here for five or six years and had never once made a single accounting error!
But she forgot one thing: not everyone had the means to buy so many things at once.
Jiang Si raised an eyebrow and looked back at her, countering with a question instead of an answer. "And what if you calculated wrong?"
Wei Xiaoyun, currently furious, blurted out without thinking, "If I calculated wrong, I'll make up the difference for you, down to the last cent!"
Jiang Si didn't care about the money, but since the other party brought it up, she didn't refuse.
"Alright." She nodded, adding, "Besides making up the difference, you'll also have to apologize."
"Fine, apology it is then." Wei Xiaoyun agreed immediately.
Director Ma had originally wanted to smooth things over, but hadn't expected her to agree so quickly. After a moment's thought, he said, "Then why don't you both come with me to the office? Let's not delay everyone else..."
"It's fine, it's fine, Director Ma, we don't mind waiting!"
"Right, do the check right here. We've already waited this long, a little longer won't hurt."
It must be said, the Chinese fondness for watching a scene seems etched into the bones.
Sure enough, in just this short while, people from other counters had also curiously gathered around.
For those who weren't aware of the situation, it didn't matter; the people at the front were enthusiastic, passing the details along one by one until everyone knew.
The crowd, never one to shy away from drama, chimed in, "Yes, yes, check it right here! We're all waiting to see the result!"
With things having reached this point, Director Ma could only nod in agreement.
To ensure fairness, he had two people summoned from the finance department. Together with Wei Xiaoyun from earlier, the three of them began a recalculation right in front of everyone.
For a while, the only sound at the counter was the rapid clatter of abacus beads.
After about ten minutes, the two comrades from the finance department stopped, one after the other.
Since Wei Xiaoyun was standing between them and was still buried in her calculations, they didn't speak up, thinking they would all announce their results together in a moment.
But Wei Xiaoyun, for some reason today, kept resetting her abacus to zero halfway through her calculations, repeating this several times.
Director Ma clearly had no more patience to wait. "What did you two calculate?"
"1,132 yuan and 6 mao."
"1,132 yuan and 6 mao."
They spoke almost in unison, reporting the same figure.
"Impossible!" Wei Xiaoyun jerked her head up, still unable to believe what she was hearing. "You must have missed something! It's clearly 1,167 yuan and 5 mao!"
