PFC Chapter 195 Half an Account Book
Chapter 195 Half an Account Book
In the middle of the night, Qin Miaoxi dragged her tired body and walked into the Marquis' Mansion with heavy steps.
The moonlight was like water, casting a trace of weariness on her slightly pale face. As soon as she crossed the threshold, her eyes were drawn to the familiar figure at the doorway—Lu Qingchen was squatting by the door, the ends of his hair stained with night dew, the damp moisture shimmering in the faint moonlight.
His whereabouts in Beijing this time were secret. In order not to arouse the emperor's suspicion, he could not show up. He had to go back to the Marquis' Mansion to wait for her, but he never expected that he would have to wait until late at night.
"Hey! Why are you sleeping here?" Qin Miaoxi called softly, reaching out and gently shaking his shoulders.
Lu Qingchen slowly opened his eyes, and his sleepy eyes met hers. Qin Miaoxi's heart softened, and his tone softened a bit: "It's cold at night, I'll have someone make you some ginger tea to warm you up."
However, Lu Qingchen suddenly stood up, his brows furrowed, and his tone was hurried and low: "You are finally back, hurry up and follow me."
Before he could finish his words, he had already grabbed her wrist and dragged her towards the study without saying a word.
Qin Miaoxi was confused by his sudden action. Before she could say anything, she was pulled into the study.
The door slammed shut, Lu Qingchen turned around and stared at her, his eyes deep and complicated, but he said nothing.
"..." Qin Miaoxi felt a little uncomfortable being stared at by him, and rolled her eyes at him helplessly, "What are you looking at? Is there something wrong with my face?"
Lu Qingchen ignored her teasing and asked in a deep voice, "Have you caught the murderer?"
Qin Miaoxi was stunned. She didn't expect him to ask about this matter so nervously.
He nodded immediately, but when he was about to say something, he shook his head, his expression complicated and difficult to read.
"Did you catch him, or didn't you?" Lu Qingchen was confused by her. What did it mean by shaking her head and nodding at the same time?
"The murderer committed suicide." Qin Miaoxi answered in a low voice, with a hint of fatigue and helplessness in her voice.
Lu Qingchen was silent for a moment, nodded, and said in a slightly slower tone: "It's good to find the murderer."
"But I always feel that things are not that simple." Qin Miaoxi frowned slightly, and a hint of doubt flashed in her eyes.
Her intuition has always been sharp, and this time, she always felt that there was a deeper conspiracy behind the murderer's suicide.
Although Lu Qingchen believed in her intuition, he couldn't say much without solid evidence.
He sighed softly, then smiled faintly, his tone becoming more relaxed: "You've worked hard during this period. Take some rest, or you'll even make mistakes in the account books."
Qin Miaoxi was stunned when she heard this and looked at him blankly: "Tell me clearly, what account book did I misread?"
Suddenly, alarm bells rang in her heart, and the scene of the past few days flashed through her mind - she had secretly embezzled the money from the Marquis' Mansion to investigate the case. Had he discovered it? She had originally thought that the money from the paper shop would arrive in two days and she would make up for it then, but now she had no way to make up for the shortfall.
Thinking of this, she knew she was in the wrong, so she stood up immediately, bowed solemnly to Lu Qingchen, and said sincerely: "I will give it to you the day after tomorrow..."
Before she could finish her words, Lu Qingchen raised the account book in his hand and looked at her with complicated eyes, hesitant to speak: "Who gave you this problematic account book? The writing is so messy, I'm afraid someone below is using it to fool you. I will teach you how to keep accounts in the future."
[Hey! This guy is great at investigating cases, but he's a complete mess when it comes to money. It's obvious from this account book that those veterans embezzled money. How dare they use it to fool my wife? I'm so scared!]
Qin Miaoxi was stunned, her eyes fell on the account book, and her doubts deepened.
She was immediately shocked when she took the account book, and immediately stepped forward and asked, "You said there is something wrong with this account book?"
Qin Miaoxi was truly weak at reading the account books, a blind spot, even. She'd never quite figured out the small business of the paper-making shop, always accepting whatever money was offered, leading to losses most of the time. It wasn't until she married into the Marquis's mansion, when Lu Qingchen gave her a generous sum of money, that she finally experienced the thrill of being a "small wealthy woman."
However, the account book in front of her made her feel troubled. She had clearly asked several experienced accountants and bookkeepers to check it carefully, and they all said that there was no problem with the account. Why did Lu Qingchen find a problem?
Lu Qingchen nodded seriously, his tone firm: "Yes, this account book should only be half, where is the other half?"
"Half a book?" Qin Miaoxi's eyes widened in disbelief, her tone tinged with doubt. "Can you really understand it?"
Lu Qingchen raised his head, with a bit of pride on his face, and said in a relaxed tone: "Is this difficult?"
He was secretly pleased with himself, "Although I may be cynical on a daily basis, I still have the gene of the Jiang family's royal merchant family. Isn't it a piece of cake to look at this account book?"
Seeing him so confident, Qin Miaoxi became even more suspicious and asked hurriedly, "You just said half a book was missing, what's going on?"
Lu Qingchen flipped open the account book, pointed at the records, and explained, "Look, this account book only has entries for odd-days, but no entries for even-days. It's obvious that the other half is missing."
Qin Miaoxi couldn't help showing a hint of disappointment on her face when she heard this.
She sighed, her tone somewhat helpless. "We've already noticed this problem. The head bookkeeper and the accountant both said that some private account books are recorded every two days, or even every five days, which is not uncommon. Furthermore, the transaction quantities and total amounts all match, so they concluded that there is no problem with the account books."
Lu Qingchen frowned and shook his head, saying, "It's not unusual to record every two days, but the records for odd and even days in this account book are clearly separated on purpose, and look here—"
He pointed to a detail in the account book. "These items are re-reported, and the amounts are identical, all on the 3rd. And then there's the purchase receipts. No matter what business it is, they wouldn't purchase official salt so frequently. Besides, even though our mansion has quite a few people, we don't need that much. And then there's this: there are several large receipts on the 20th of every month, but these past few months, the receipts have been delayed by seven or eight days. It's likely they were used for loan sharking. This is illegal and needs to be investigated thoroughly."
Lu Qingchen paused and continued, "Also, the expenditure and income on the previous day were completely disproportionate. It's obvious that someone has tampered with the accounts. If they were only recorded every two days, there wouldn't be such a huge deviation in the accounts."
Qin Miaoxi was stunned when she heard this, and couldn't help but look at Lu Qingchen with admiration.
She originally thought that he was just an uneducated playboy, but she didn't expect that he had such keen insight into the accounts.
"I didn't expect you to be so amazing!"
"Of course. Who gave you this account book? I'll go and settle the accounts with them myself."
He has a lot of properties under his name, and it is difficult to match them up with the account books for the time being. But as soon as he saw this crappy account book, he wanted to get angry. If they dared to bully his wife, he would pluck them out first.
Seeing him like this, Qin Miaoxi hurriedly explained, "No, this is not the account book of the Marquis' Mansion. It belongs to one of the deceased in this case."
Lu Qingchen's words stopped abruptly, "Ah? The dead!"
He smiled awkwardly, then changed the subject and urged, "That's fine, go get some rest! I should be back as well, I'll be back once I've dealt with things."
[It's over! How could such a great opportunity to show off have turned into such a huge mess? She won't laugh at me, will she? No, let's go now. A joke that can't be heard is not a joke.]
Before she could ask him to stay, Lu Qingchen ran away without looking back.
Qin Miaoxi: "..."
She suppressed the smile on her face and thought: This little marquis is quite cute.
Looking down at the account book in his hand, this was indeed a new discovery.