246: What the teacher taught is still useful

With the abacus in hand, the skill upgrade was also complete.

Ye Su sat in Bowen Antique Shop for another half hour. While chatting, he also picked Wan Yuanliang's brain to see if there was anything he needed to be aware of when running a shop.

Seeing that his milk tea was almost finished, Ye Su finally got up and left Bowen Antique Shop with the abacus.

After returning to his rented apartment, Ye Su placed the abacus on the coffee table and couldn't wait to call up the System.

[ [ Abacus — Hidden Attribute ] is activating, please wait, Host... ]

[ Activation successful! ]

[ Congratulations to the Host for obtaining the Mysterious Surprise Item: Ruyi Abacus! ]

[ Ruyi Abacus skill: Open Source and Reduce Expenditure! ]

[ Open Source and Reduce Expenditure level: Level 1! ]

[ Skill introduction: To support the Host's business, the [ Open Source and Reduce Expenditure ] skill can provide the Host with a monthly startup reimbursement quota of 200,000 yuan ]

[ Note 1: Only expenses related to the Host's business development, such as employee salaries, merchandise procurement, office supply procurement, and business travel, can be covered by the [ Open Source and Reduce Expenditure ] reimbursement quota. Reimbursements will be issued together on the last day of the month. Specific reimbursable items have all been listed in [ Skill Details ], which the Host can open and confirm for themselves ]

[ Note 2: The monthly reimbursement quota will be cleared on the last day of the current month and reset the following month. Please manage the reimbursement quota yourself, Host ]

[ Note 3: The reimbursement quota will increase as the [ Open Source and Reduce Expenditure ] level increases ]

With the successful activation of the skill, the upper and lower rows of beads on the [ Ruyi Abacus ] automatically separated and cleared.

Then, from left to right, the five beads below the sixth column of beads moved up by two, without any external force.

Ye Su knew that the columns of beads on the abacus represented [ ones ], [ tens ], [ hundreds ], and other units from right to left, progressing in order.

Each column of beads was divided into [ upper two beads ] and [ lower five beads ].

[ lower five beads ] each represented adding one. Once five were moved, it would automatically clear to zero, and at the same time, the [ upper two beads ] would carry one, representing a total of five.

Once the [ upper two beads ] were full, they would automatically clear, and at the same time, the [ lower five beads ] of the column to the left would add one, representing a carry of ten, which was used for counting and addition/subtraction.

Now, the [ lower five beads ] of the sixth column, the [ hundred-thousand place ], had automatically moved up by two.

Ye Su estimated that this was used to record the 200,000 reimbursement quota of [ Open Source and Reduce Expenditure ].

To verify his guess, Ye Su tentatively moved one of the [ lower five beads ] in the [ ten-thousand place ] column upward.

As a result, the bead seemed to be spring-loaded; after Ye Su let go, it automatically sprang back to its original position.

This strange situation also proved that Ye Su's guess was correct.

"I can have a reimbursement quota of 200,000 yuan every month, which can be used for salaries and stocking up on goods. Doesn't this mean I can start a business with zero capital!"

After reading the skill introduction for [ Open Source and Reduce Expenditure ], Ye Su cheered excitedly in the room:

"Although it's only 200,000 yuan a month for now, the bulk of the expenses are the various costs for [ Echo Antiques ], so it should be enough."

"Besides, [ Open Source and Reduce Expenditure ] can also be upgraded. When the business grows bigger later and there are more places where money is needed, the skill should upgrade too, right?"

Ye Su estimated that the upgrade method for [ Open Source and Reduce Expenditure ] was the same as today's [ Item Appraisal ]; he would have to wait for the [ hidden easter egg ] to refresh.

"Damn, I lost out!"

Ye Su remembered that the deposit and rent he paid to the landlord this afternoon totaled nearly 20,000 yuan.

The 188,000 for the shop transfer was not among the reimbursable items.

But this 20,000 yuan rent was clearly written in black and white as reimbursable.

If he had chosen to go to Bowen Antique Shop first today to get the [ Ruyi Abacus ], and then went to find Feng Zhiquan and the landlord to sign the sublease contract, wouldn't he have been able to save these 20,000 yuan right away!

[ The Host can use receipts to get reimbursed for expenses already incurred this month at the end of the month ]

Da da da—

Accompanied by the prompt sound, the beads on the [ Ruyi Abacus ] began to clatter and move, finally stopping at the number [ 165768 ].

Judging by this number, it seems that even the expenses for applying for the studio over the past few days were included.

"I can get reimbursed with receipts." Seeing this prompt, a smile finally appeared on Ye Su's face: "Brother System really knows how to do things right."

According to the System, besides the rent paid today.

There was also the total of 14,000 in fees given to Yu Haoyang and the other two a few days ago for applying for the ICP license, which could also be reimbursed tomorrow.

"Wait, tomorrow!"

Ye Su suddenly realized that compared to reimbursing these 30,000-plus yuan, there was an even more serious problem.

That was that today was already the 30th, and tomorrow, the Dragon Boat Festival, was the 31st, which was also the last day of the month!

And he still had 160,000 left of this month's quota that hadn't been spent!

Once tomorrow night passed, this quota would be directly voided!

Fortunately, in the next moment, Ye Su remembered what his advanced mathematics teacher had chatted about in class back when he was taking the course.

The teacher said he had a friend who was doing extremely well; whenever he applied for project funding, it would be millions, and then every day he would just think about how to spend the money.

Sometimes by the end of the year, if the annual funding wasn't spent, he would be afraid that the funding would be reduced next year because of this reason.

That friend of his would replace the computers he had just changed last year with a new batch this year, striving to spend all the funding.

He was now running a shop and also opening a game studio.

Just like that friend of his advanced math teacher, buying some computers and counting them as office supply expenses—wasn't that reasonable!

[ The Host can equip a number of computers equal to the current number of employees; the computer purchase cost for each employee can only be reimbursed once per year ]

"Fine, can only be reimbursed once..."

Ye Su had originally thought that in the future, any quota not used up each month could be used to buy hard currency items like computers in the name of purchasing office supplies, and then dispose of them at [ Echo Antiques ], striving to squeeze out every last cent of the quota.

Now that the System had imposed such a restriction, his plan to fleece the wool had completely fallen through.

"It's okay, I don't believe I can't think of other ways to fleece this wool clean!"

[ Host's current number of permanent employees: 4 ]

Ye Su clicked on the employee list and found that the permanent employees calculated by the System were just himself and Yu Haoyang's trio.

"Four is four, then. Tomorrow I'll go and pick up four of the most expensive laptops and knock out 100,000 of it first!"

"And get myself a set of keyboard and mouse, so it's convenient to take home to play... No, that's to take back to work!"

Ye Su had already started planning how to make the greatest effort tomorrow to spend all 165,000 of the quota, firmly determined not to waste a single cent.

"Sigh, I never thought that one day I would have to worry about how to spend money!"

After complaining about this happy problem, Ye Su took out his phone and ordered tonight's takeout.

After choosing the takeout, it was exactly six o'clock.

When locking the [ Ruyi Abacus ] in the safe, Ye Su also conveniently pocketed the 37,800 yuan accumulated by the [ Working Cat ] over the past three days.

"What a pity, the next three days are the Dragon Boat Festival holiday; this good life of sitting and collecting money every day will have to pause again!"

Ye Su regretfully locked the safe, and only then did he drive home.