Daquan still answered respectfully: "My Lord, General Bai Lie has gone to the military camp. When General Bai is away, the villa is taken care of by me. If you want anything, just tell me."
So that's how it is. No wonder I don't need to apply for it: "So you are the housekeeper of this villa?"
Daquan shook his head: "My Lord, General Bai hardly ever leaves the villa, so there is no housekeeper in this villa. When guests come to the villa, it is the servants who receive them and then inform the general."
Qian Jiujiu said "Oh" and continued to ask: "Daquan, do many people come to your villa all year round? Are they all here to hunt? What do the military camps in your area usually do?"
Daquan glanced at Qian Jiujiu and continued to answer: "In reply to the master, the soldiers usually run in circles on the mountain and around the hunting grounds to check whether the animals in the hunting grounds are set up and place some other things."
It doesn't sound any different, and it even sounds quite responsible! Qian Jiujiu said, "Day after day, year after year, don't you feel bored? And you haven't mentioned it yet, do you have many guests on weekdays?"
Daquan was a little helpless, perhaps because he had never seen such a talkative master: "The most people come in spring and autumn, and people come to hunt every few days. There are fewer people in summer, and in winter, there are almost no people."
That's true. After all, it's not easy to walk on the road blocked by heavy snow. What's more, it's winter and there are no animals. It's also strange that there are few people coming.
"If they keep hunting, will they pay?"
Before leaving, Bai Lie also specifically told Daquan that if the two had any questions, they must tell him everything they knew. Did he really guess that these two would have so many questions
"My Lord, of course you need to pay for hunting. The hunting site fee is ten taels of silver for one day. If you don't kill any prey, you only need to pay the site fee. If you kill any prey, you need to pay to buy it. The specific amount of silver depends on what you kill."
Qian Jiujiu became more and more curious: "Oh? Then what kind of animals are there in your hunting ground?"
Daquan had given up resistance and still answered respectfully: "My Lord, the types of prey are quite complete, including rabbits, foxes, roe deer, deer, tigers, wild boars, etc."
Tsk! Qian Jiujiu sighed, the variety is indeed quite complete. He looked at Daquan and continued to ask: "How many chefs are there in your villa? Why don't I see any women?"
Daquan continued to answer: "In reply to the master, the nobles who come to hunt will bring their own servants. And our villa is full of men, so there are naturally no women. Even the chefs are men."
There were no women in the entire villa. Daquan paused for a moment and said, "The master and the princess have no one to serve them. This is my fault. I will ask someone to go to the village on the mountainside and ask a few women to come and take care of the master."
Hearing Daquan say this, Qian Jiujiu knew that this person must have known that Qingye had left. Otherwise, he wouldn't have said that there was no one to serve her. Thinking that he would have to stay here for a long time, Qian Jiujiu agreed.
"Okay, send someone down the mountain to find two women and have them come up the mountain to serve us."
Daquan nodded immediately and said, "You two, please wait here for a moment, my servant will go and tell everyone to go down the mountain."
Turning around and walking outside, Daquan went to look for other servants in the villa. Qian Jiujiu looked at Daquan's back and raised an eyebrow: "This guy is quite interesting. He seems to know everything, but he doesn't say much useful things."
Mu Yexiao laughed: "All in all, it's revealed quite a lot. There are usually a lot of people coming here, and this hunting ground should be quite profitable. From what I heard, this place sends offerings from the military camp every year. Maybe everyone here is very rich."
Speaking of which, the money here should all belong to the court. Thinking of this, Qian Jiujiu thought of something to do: "We can check the accounts. In this way, we should be able to reveal some of the truth."
Mu Yexiao frowned: "That may not be a problem."
Qian Jiujiu looked at Mu Yexiao in confusion. What did this mean? Before he could continue, Daquan came back: "Master, the servant is back. Master, do you want to go to other courtyards?"
The place they were living in was already the best courtyard in the villa. After visiting two courtyards, they found that the courtyards were built in the same way, with only differences in size.
"No, by the way, you just said that many people come to hunt all year round, so the income should be quite good, right? Do you keep accounts?"
Daquan nodded: "My Lord, everything has been recorded. If you want to see the account book, you need to go to the accounting office."
Qian Jiujiu hummed: "Okay, let's go to the accounting office. Anyway, the waiting time is boring, so let's go and take a look."
Daquan was respectful from beginning to end, but he was a little contemptuous in his heart. This person is good at making excuses. Are the superiors so interesting? He just wanted to make money here, but he still said it was fair and square. I was bored and wanted to go and take a look. It's really interesting.
They quickly arrived at the accounting office with Qian Jiujiu and Mu Yexiao. The accountant was also a middle-aged man, and looked very burly. He didn't look like a simple accountant.
"Mr. Fei, these two masters want to come over to look at the account books and the hunting ground's annual income."
Although Mr. Fei looks burly, he seems to be a very good-tempered person! Looking at Qian Jiujiu and Mu Yexiao, he asked, "Which year's income do you want to see? This year or last year?"
Qian Jiujiu raised an eyebrow. It was the beginning of the year, and they were probably the first group of people to come. How could there be any account books? He smiled and replied, "It must be from last year."
Mr. Fei suddenly slapped his forehead and said, "Look at me, I'm confused. This year's account book has just started. I'm going to get last year's account book. It just happened to be sealed not long ago! General Bai has read these account books, so they are sealed now."
Mr. Fei went to the inner room and brought out a huge wooden box. "Please take a look, both masters. Last year's account books are all inside."
He opened the wooden box, and inside were account books of various colors: "Master, look, this is the account book of last year's income. It records how many people came last year, and the income from each time is on it."
"This is the villa's annual expenditure, including labor costs and animal breeding costs. They are all classified in order. The master can check it and see it clearly. If you don't understand, you can ask me. I will watch from the side."
So the preparations are quite complete. Qian Jiujiu picked up a book at random and took a look, and saw the cost of labor for picking it up.
What is recorded here are the monthly salaries given to these people. Upon seeing this, I realized that there are really quite a few people in this villa. There are accountants, cleaners, people responsible for raising animals, and people responsible for animal breeding. There are really quite a lot of people.
After reading it, Qian Jiujiu picked up the income account book and looked at it. He was shocked. It turned out that the number of people coming in spring and autumn was really high. There were people coming almost every day, and the income was quite high.
"It seems like there is a surplus in the annual income. Where is the money kept?"
Mr. Fei immediately answered, "They are all kept in the warehouse. There is a special warehouse with people guarding it, waiting for the court to come and claim it. However, over the years, no one from the court has come to claim it."
The surplus of a year is only a few tens of thousands of taels, and the court probably didn't even know about this amount. But it has been kept and not divided up, which is a bit confusing. Is Bai Lie really so loyal to the court
It seems that I have to give up my previous idea. I glanced at Mu Yexiao and found that Mu Yexiao was really good. Mu Yexiao laughed and said, "Okay, it's getting late and I'm a little hungry. Let's go eat."
Qian Jiujiu put down the account book and said, "Well, Daquan, go and prepare dinner."
Mr. Fei was a little curious: "Do you need to withdraw the silver from your warehouse? I can do the accounting."
Qian Jiujiu waved his hand: "That's not necessary, you guys should take notes. I was just taking a look because I was bored."
Mr. Fei was a little surprised. It turned out that they really didn't want it. Qian Jiujiu and Mu Yexiao had already walked outside. When they returned to the courtyard where they were living now, dinner had already been delivered.
The guards' quarters were naturally arranged. After dinner, a guard came forward to report: "Master, I followed Bai Lie to the military camp. Bai Lie did send the news and portraits to the military camp, and ordered the soldiers in the camp to go out and look for the stranger in the mountains."
Everything is going on in an orderly manner, but in this huge mountain, it would be quite difficult to find a few strangers, or even fewer traces of people.
Qian Jiujiu sighed and waved his hand to let the guard go: "What should I do? Everything here seems too normal. This makes me feel a little abnormal."
Mu Yexiao reached out and touched Qian Jiujiu's head: "Isn't this normal? Everyone in the world is here for profit, and this is a truth that everyone understands. Bai Lie has been here for at least seven or eight years, but he hasn't taken a single thing from here. Have you ever thought that he might have taken something more important, so he doesn't dare to touch these things that are in the open!"
Something more important? What could it be? Qian Jiujiu absolutely didn't believe that he could steal the treasure below. He shook his head and said, "What is it?"
Mu Yexiao raised his eyebrows: "Where do you think those fresh human bones we saw underground came from?"