bookrebus Chapter 44 Checking the Account Books
Chapter 44 Checking the Account Books
Madam Xing gently touched her son's face and said softly,
"I don't want you to marry her either. There are plenty of families with better backgrounds and more power than hers. Her family, a fallen noble family, should be grateful to have married into our family. And yet she's causing all this trouble. Bah! What a bunch of scoundrels."
He sighed again.
“But her maternal grandparents’ family is respectable, and the Bai family is closer to our Xiao family. The two families still need to keep in touch, and this marriage was arranged by our ancestors, so it’s not so easy to back out. Son, she’s just a woman anyway. If you don’t like her after you marry her, then leave her alone. I’ll discipline her for you, and it won’t bother you. You can bring in whoever you like later, it won’t delay anything.”
Xiao Chengyan frowned deeply, and said somewhat irritably,
"If I refuse to marry, what can you do to me?"
Madam Xing suddenly became serious and said,
"The old woman has already said that if you don't marry Qiao Qingshu, you can forget about the title of Duke's mansion. It will definitely go to the other branches of the family. Without the help of the Bai family, your father may not be able to compete with the second, third, and fourth branches. At that time, our eldest branch will be left to starve."
This is the key to marrying Qiao Qingshu!
Xiao Chengyan immediately became alert, abandoning his previous spoiled attitude, and nodded.
“Mother, I understand. I will personally write an invitation and send it over in a few days.”
Madam Xing nodded in satisfaction.
Qiao Qingshu sat at her desk and sneezed softly.
Immediately before winter, a cup of ginger and jujube tea was served.
"Young lady, it's quite chilly in the morning. Your hands and feet must be freezing from getting up so early to look at the accounts. Quickly drink this cup of tea to warm your stomach."
Qiao Qingshu picked up the teacup and drank it all in one gulp.
"As winter approaches, tell Steward Lai to come over after he's had breakfast."
Qiao Qingshu had just finished breakfast when Lai Da was already waiting under the eaves for her summons.
Qiao Qingshu sat in the armchair, threw the account book on the ground, and said sternly,
"Steward Lai, when you were handling my mother's dowry, I thought you were a shrewd and capable assistant. How come the accounts in the Qiao family's inner courtyard are so muddled now? Could it be that you've been fishing in troubled waters right under the master's nose all these years?!"
Her words were spoken very seriously, which startled Lai Da so much that he knelt down in front of Qiao Qingshu with a thud, looking embarrassed as if he had something he couldn't say.
Qiao Qingshu was actually deliberately trying to scare Lai Da. She needed to see Lai Da's attitude clearly and figure out who Lai Da truly believed was his master.
The Qiao family's accounts have been managed by Old Madam Qiao for many years. If there were any tricks or intricacies in them, how could someone as shrewd as Old Madam Qiao have overlooked them?
Unless it was Mrs. Qiao herself who kept the accounts, deliberately making the ledgers confusing and difficult to check, for her own convenience.
Seeing Lai Da remain silent in a difficult position, Qiao Qingshu sternly rebuked him.
"Has the Qiao family ever mistreated you in the slightest? The old master even freed your descendants from slavery. Is this how you repay their kindness? You're lining your own pockets, aren't you afraid of ruining your life? If you don't tell the truth, I'll take you to the authorities right now. Your son has a promising future, are you willing to ruin it like this?"
Lai Da was so frightened that he crawled on his stomach and kowtowed three times, looking as if he were ready to die.
“Young lady, this matter has nothing to do with my son. I only beg you not to implicate him. The old lady has reviewed all the Qiao family’s account books. I only handled about a third of them. The rest were done by the old lady herself. If you really think there are any mistakes, you should raise them with the old lady and find out who did the accounting. That way, I can die knowing the truth.”
This was almost exactly as Qiao Qingshu had guessed: the old lady Qiao had made false accounts, but Lai Da had stamped them.
If something really goes wrong, just push Lai Da out to take the blame. Anyway, he's a loyal follower, so who else would we bully if not him?
Even if Lai Da tries to argue, it's no use; after all, it was him who stamped the document.
Whoever stamps the document is responsible for the accounting; whoever does the accounting is the one who lined the pockets!
Lai Da knew that the old woman had tricked him, but what could he do? His life was in that old woman's hands, and she could do whatever she wanted with him. What did it matter if he took the blame for her?
If no one investigates, it will just pass by like this.
Lai Da never expected that Miss Qiao would have such sharp eyes, actually discovering the loopholes in the ledger.
He desperately wanted to vent all the pent-up frustrations he had accumulated over the years, but Qiao Qingshu was, after all, surnamed Qiao, and might just turn around and tell his words to Old Lady Qiao.
They were family, grandfather and grandson. What was he, an outsider and housekeeper, anyway? In the end, he didn't even know how he died.
Therefore, Lai Da only told half of what he said, and did not dare to reveal the whole truth, nor did he dare to push the responsibility directly onto Old Lady Qiao.
He left it half-said, hoping that a smart person would understand. Lai Da prayed that Qiao Qingshu was perceptive and could understand his unspeakable suffering.
Qiao Qingshu was naturally clear-headed and understood the situation.
Hearing Lai Da say this, they understood Lai Da's attitude and knew that Lai Da did not do it intentionally, but was being used as a pawn by Old Lady Qiao against his will.
That makes things much easier.
Qiao Qingshu paused for a moment, then slowly began to lay bare the sordid details of the account book.
"The annual expenditure on the maintenance of the flowers and plants in the courtyard is nearly eight hundred taels, and this has been going on for seventeen or eighteen years. However, other families outside the Marquis's mansion who are similar to us spend at most three hundred taels a year on courtyard maintenance. Where does the extra money go?"
Lai Da stared wide-eyed at Qiao Qingshu, about to speak, but was interrupted by her.
"The ledger says that Liu Yong, a flower and plant merchant in the west of the city, contracted the repairs of our house. But I've already sent someone to inquire. Liu Yong has been crippled and paralyzed at home for more than ten years and needs to be taken care of. Now his shop has long been contracted by Master Miao. In other words, all of our money ended up in the pocket of Uncle Miao."
Qiao Qingshu turned to another page and continued,
"At the end of the year, the amount of grain, vegetables and fruits that the family harvested from the estates was about the same for the other estates. However, the three estates in the south of the city have been claiming poor harvests for many years. The revenue sent to the manor each year is less than one-third of that from the other estates. I sent someone to investigate, and it turns out that the head of these three estates is none other than the son of our fourth aunt Miao Qing."
With a soft chuckle, Qiao Qingshu turned to another page, her voice suddenly rising.
"Our Qiao family owns a total of sixteen shops, but the account books only record fourteen. How did the other two disappear from the books? Steward Lai, do you know the answer?"
Lai Da looked at Qiao Qingshu with admiration, thinking to himself, "Goodness gracious, my dear girl, you've managed to find this out! I, Lai Da, only discovered this trick two years after I took over the accounts!"
Qiao Qingshu didn't wait for Lai Da's reply and continued on her own.
"I wondered who it was given to, but it turns out it was given to my heartless aunt, Xu Biyun. No wonder this mother and daughter live so comfortably and respectably without receiving the Marquis's monthly allowance. Originally, I thought it was just my grandmother and father subsidizing them, but now it seems..."