Yang Ning was startled, and Gu Qinghan frowned and said, "What did you say? Why can't we see the chief manager?" She had also stayed in the old house for a few days and had an excellent memory. She had some impressions of the little old man who opened the door. But I don't know what its name is.
The little old man said: "The General Manager Qi Hong you are talking about is no longer in the old house, so naturally I can't see him."
Gu Qinghan was so surprised that he lost his voice and said, "Qi Hong is not here? How is it possible? Hasn't he been taking care of the old house?" Before entering, he found that the old house was really weird.
"Stop talking nonsense, open the door and let us in." Yang Ning stretched out his hand to push them away, but the little old man blocked them and said: "I advise you to leave early. If you want to pretend to be the heir, people in the house will know that you want to leave. I can’t leave either.”
Yang Ning was startled and thought to herself, how did this old man know that he was pretending to be the prince
Gu Qinghan was a little angry and said in a cold voice: "Qi Hong is not in the old house, so where is he? Who is in charge of the old house now?" Thinking of something, he took off the hat on his head, his hair spread like a waterfall, and stared at that The little old man said, "Do you know me?"
The little old man looked around, looked surprised, and said in a voiceless voice: "Yes... it's the third lady!"
Gu Qinghan thought to himself that your old man's memory is not bad, but the little old man had already opened the door and knelt on the ground: "Old slave, I'm sorry, please forgive me!"
Yang Ning was still wondering if the little old man had seen through her pretending to be the prince. When she saw the little old man recognized Gu Qinghan, she realized that she had misunderstood. She thought to herself that even Gu Qinghan and the wife didn't see any flaws in her. The little old man was afraid I have never even met the Jinyi Crown Prince, how can I see through him.
"Get up first." Gu Qinghan walked past the old man and entered the yard. Yang Ning followed him in. As soon as he entered the door, he felt a chill in the broad daylight. I don't know if it was because there were too many old houses and not many. It lives alone, so it looks deserted.
The old man stood up, closed the door, and followed from behind. Only then did Yang Ning realize that the old man was limping when he walked. He was actually a lame.
Going all the way in, I saw a deep courtyard with rockery and flat grass. When I reached the hall of the old house, I didn't see any other people. Gu Qinghan's pretty face was solemn. He entered the hall, turned around and wanted to follow the old man behind and asked: "Everyone is there?" Where have you gone? Why has it become so deserted here?”
The old man said hurriedly: "Master Cheng went to the city and said he would be back in the evening. There are still about ten people in the house. I will call them over now."
"Wait a minute." Gu Qinghan frowned and said, "Who is Master Cheng you are talking about? Why haven't I heard of it?" Then he asked, "By the way, you look familiar to me, but I can't remember your name."
The old man said: "Old slave Wei Dong, when the third lady came over, the old slave was in this old house. The third lady has a good memory, and she still remembers the old slave."
"Your memory is not bad, you can recognize me." Gu Qinghan sat down on a chair, and Yang Ning also sat down next to him, looking around.
"The Third Madam doesn't know about Master Cheng?" Wei Tong was a little surprised. "Master Cheng is the son of the chief steward. In the past two years, Master Cheng has been taking care of the old house. This old slave thought that the Third Madam already knew about it."
"The son of the general manager?" Gu Qinghan was even more surprised: "You said he has been taking care of the old house in the past few years, so where did the general manager go? What did you mean when you just said that we can't see the general manager?"
Wei Tong explained: "The chief manager suffered a sudden stroke three years ago and was paralyzed. He could only lie in bed and be cared for by others. At that time, Master Cheng... Not long after Qi Cheng came over, Qi Cheng temporarily took over the affairs of the old house. The manager will handle it.”
Gu Qinghan said in surprise: "Three years ago? You mean, in the past three years, the man named Qi Cheng has been taking care of the old house and the restaurant?"
Wei Tong obviously didn't expect Gu Qinghan to react like this, and asked strangely: "Does the third lady know nothing? Master Cheng comes to Beijing every year, and the third lady has never seen him?"
Yang Ning did not expect such a change in the old house, and frowned: "Sanniang has never heard of Qi Cheng? Does the chief manager have a son? What did Qi Cheng do before?"
Gu Qinghan shook his head and said: "Qi Hong is originally a clan member of the Qi family. I don't know much about him. I remember that his hometown is in Jiangxia. Later he defected to the old marquis and worked in the old house. I didn't know that he was still there. There are other family members.”
Wei Tong said: "I rarely hear the chief executive mention his family, but I also heard that the chief executive has bought some properties in his hometown of Jiangxia, and seems to have several children. This... Qi Cheng has been doing business in Jiangxia, and he suddenly When we came to the old house to see the General Manager, the General Manager was also surprised at the time, but we shouldn’t ask too much about the General Manager.” He lowered his voice and said, “But the General Manager seems to have a bad relationship with Qi Cheng and his son. I heard that they had quarreled several times, and once the chief manager suddenly suffered a stroke and could not get up again."
"The origin of Qi Cheng is quite interesting." Yang Ning chuckled and said, "The chief manager has always been fine. Now when Qi Cheng came to see him, he suddenly suffered a stroke. Sanniang, there must be something fishy here, right?" Look. Xiang Wei Tong asked: "The general manager has suffered a stroke and cannot take care of the old house. Should he send someone to Beijing to report it?"
Wei Tong said: "Qi Cheng sent someone to Beijing that day. The general manager couldn't get up. There was no one in charge of the old house, so Qi Cheng temporarily took over the management of the general manager."
"The Hou Mansion does not know about this." Gu Qinghan's beautiful eyes were full of surprise: "Qi Cheng takes over as the general manager, and the rest of the family has nothing to say? What qualifications does he have to take over the affairs of the family?"
Wei Tong was also surprised and said: "This... This is what the Hou Mansion meant. Xiao Cui, who was sent to the capital, also brought back a letter from the capital, telling the old house that Qi Cheng would take over all the affairs of the general manager in the future. The old house Everyone must obey Qi Cheng’s orders.”
"Sanniang, it seems that there are more things we don't know than we thought." Yang Ning sighed: "The old house has changed its manager, and even you don't know about it."
Gu Qinghan calmed down, thought for a moment, and then asked, "You mean Qi Cheng will be back in the evening?"
"He went out yesterday and said he went to Jingzhou City to visit the old manager." Wei Tong said: "After the old manager suffered a stroke, Qi Cheng sent him to Jingzhou City for recuperation. The old slave has not seen the old manager for a long time, nor has he He knows what the situation is now. Before he left, he only said that he would be back tonight at the latest."
Gu Qinghan sneered and said: "That's very good. I want to see who this Qi Cheng is." He then asked: "Do you know about the tax payment? The tax payment here in Jiangling is already more than a month late. Why wasn't it sent over?"
Wei Tong said blankly: "The old slave is just guarding the gate and... doesn't know about these things." He added: "Yes, Mr. Zhao is in the house. He is the accountant of the old house, and all the incoming and outgoing accounts are in his hands. Go and ask him to come over, he should be very clear about the tax and silver matters." Just as he was about to call Mr. Zhao, Gu Qinghan called out: "Wait a minute, Wei Tong, is there a steward named Luo in the old house?"
"Manager Luo?" Wei Tong was stunned and shook his head: "There are only sixteen people in the house. In addition to the accounting room, kitchen and warehouse stable, there are only a few young men hired by Qi Cheng. These They all followed Qi Cheng to the city once. The old slave remembered that there was no one named Luo here, and apart from the general manager, Mr. Zhao, who was the accountant in the house, was a scholar and there was no manager. There were only a dozen people, some The general manager is enough, no more than the Marquis Mansion in the capital, there is no need for a manager."
Although Gu Qinghan was very smart, he only felt a little confused at this time. Even Yang Ning also felt that everything in the old house was weird.
"You go and invite Mr. Zhao first." Gu Qinghan raised his hand to signal Wei Tong to go and fetch someone first, and Wei Tong bowed and stepped back.
Gu Qinghan rested his elbows on the chair, holding his cheeks with his delicate hands, his pretty face solemn and thoughtful. Yang Ning knew that Gu Qinghan must be full of doubts at this moment, so he came closer and asked softly: "Sanniang, how many taxes have been paid in the past few years?" , is there nothing missing?”
"Except for this time, although there were occasional delays in the previous tax payment, there was no shortage." Gu Qinghan raised his head slightly and frowned: "Wei Tong said that after the general manager had a stroke, he sent someone to the capital to report the news, but I didn't know anything. As far as I know, if the tax money hadn’t been delivered this time, we wouldn’t have come back to our old house. I was kept in the dark about everything that happened here.” She said angrily, “My wife has left all the housework to me. Take care of it, but I... Hey, I'm really useless."
"The sky is high and the emperor is far away. In addition, there was no delay in tax payment. How could Sanniang think that something unexpected happened at the old house." Yang Ning said softly: "But one thing is certain now. If there is an accident at the old house, I sent people to the Hou Mansion to report everything here, but Sanniang didn’t know anything about it, that is, someone deliberately sealed the news so that Sanniang wouldn’t know about it.”
"Then it can only be Manager Qiu." Gu Qinghan said: "If someone from the old house comes to Beijing, the Hou Mansion will never turn them away. Not to mention the old house, even if someone comes from Jiangling, the Hou Mansion will receive them . However, General Manager Qiu has always been the one to receive foreign guests. General Manager Qiu naturally knows about the past people in the old house. But why did General Manager Qiu hide it when the General Manager had a stroke? Didn’t he know that paper can’t contain fire? I will know about things one day, how will he explain it to me then?"
The more Gu Qinghan thought about things, the weirder they became, and he frowned.
At this moment, he heard footsteps coming from outside, and a person hurriedly came in. Before Yang Ning could see the person's face clearly, the person had already knelt down and said respectfully: "Little man Zhao Yuan, pay your respects to the crown prince and the third son." lady!"
Yang Ning saw this man wearing a long gown and a green cloth hat. He looked like a scholar.
"Are you Mr. Zhao? Get up and talk first." Gu Qinghan has been handling family affairs all year round, and he was born in a noble family and has an outstanding temperament. He is calm and calm at this time.
The accountant Zhao Yuan stood up. He was thin, with a mustache and a green tuft under his chin. He was in his early forties and looked quite elegant, with a hint of shrewdness in his elegance. At this time, his face With a smile and full of respect, he said: "I really didn't know that the Crown Prince and the Third Lady would come back suddenly. We didn't make any preparations here. I ask the Crown Prince and the Third Lady to forgive me."
"Accountant Zhao, let me ask you, why hasn't the tax money from Jiangling been sent to the capital for so long?" Gu Qinghan said with a cold face: "What happened?"
"Tax money?" Zhao Yuan's face showed a look of astonishment, "Third madam, when are you talking about the tax money?"
"Of course it's this year's autumn money." Gu Qinghan frowned and said, "Can I still ask you for next year's tax money?"
From the old house, tax money is sent to the capital twice a year, once in the spring and summer, and again in the autumn and winter.
Zhao Yuan immediately said: "The third lady is joking. Qiu Yin left as early as the end of September to send it there. Last year Qiu Yin was delayed for several days, so this year he sent it there early to avoid worries on the other side of the Hou family. Logically speaking, it will be sent there in early October." It should be sent to the Marquis Mansion without delay."