Mrs. Xu had already prepared the meal, and the family sat at the stone table in the yard, waiting for Xu Changqian to come back. After Xu Changqian entered the house, he looked normal, even more amiable than usual, and smiled and asked his son and daughter to eat more. Xu Mingye and Mingyu looked at each other with sympathy, and even felt that their father's "gentleness" was very wrong.
Madam Xu saw this, but she remained calm. She had wanted to talk to Xu Changqian about what happened today, but she could only put it aside for the time being. After dinner, the two returned to the room. Madam Xu sat down next to Xu Changqian and asked, "What's wrong with you? Did someone in the government office get angry with you?"
Xu Changqian was silent for a long time. Mrs. Xu had been married to him for nearly twenty years and knew his temper, so she remained silent and waited for him to speak.
"Before I entered the store today, my second brother pulled me aside and admitted that there was something wrong with the store's accounts." Xu Changqian said with difficulty, "It was my second brother's wife and the accountant who did it. He asked me not to report it to the police for the sake of the Xu family's reputation."
Mrs. Xu rarely jumped up and started scolding like she usually did. Instead, she gently held Xu Changqian's hand and asked, "So what do you say?"
Xu Changqian glanced at Madam Xu, full of apology, and shook his head, "What can I say? You can't bully your brothers to this extent. I said that you are in charge of family affairs. If I have anything to say, I'll come to you to talk."
Madam Xu laughed, leaned on Xu Changqian's broad shoulders, and said, "That's it, just let it go. No matter what, you, me, Mingye, and Mingyu are a family."
"I, I just feel that I owe you and Mingyu. The good parts of the family property were divided among my second and third brothers, and I only got a shop with a lot of bad debts." Xu Changqian was a little sad and sighed. Mingye was smart and good at studying since he was a child. He was not worried about his son's future. Moreover, a man should earn a fortune by himself instead of squandering the family property. He just felt that he had lived a clean life, and his wife and daughter were wronged. When Mingyu got married, he was unable to prepare a decent dowry, which became a thorn in his heart.
Madam Xu smiled and said, "Why think so much? Now that we have split up, we didn't expect to get anything in the first place. Those two shops are just a pile of mess in their hands, but in my hands, there is nothing wrong with them. I originally planned to rent two shops to do business, and now it happens that the shops are ours, and we can even save on rent."
When the lights were on, someone knocked on the gate of Mingyu's courtyard. Mother Liu went to open the door and came back to report, "Madam, it's the second wife."
Mrs. Xu naturally guessed why Mrs. Hu came so late. Xu Changqian avoided it and went to the inner room, leaving Mingyu alone to sit with her in the room waiting for Mrs. Hu.
When Mrs. Hu came in, her face was full of smiles, as if the person sitting in front of her was her best friend who was like a sister to her, rather than the enemy who had beaten her up yesterday.
"Sister-in-law, have you eaten yet? No need to skip a word." Mrs. Hu asked affectionately.
Madam Xu smiled and looked at Mrs. Hu's face, which was still a little red and swollen. "It's so late, what's wrong with my second brother's wife?"
Mrs. Hu was furious at the look in Mrs. Xu's eyes, but she could only keep it to herself and said with a smile, "I don't know if my elder brother told you, that is..."
"What?" Madam Xu was also good at playing dumb. "Changqian came back and didn't say anything?"
Mrs. Hu was so suffocated that she almost vomited blood. No one would believe that Xu Changqian would not say a word about such a big thing. Madam Xu and Mingyu were not good people. They pretended to be ignorant and watched her like a monkey doing tricks. She was really angry. Mrs. Hu wanted to jump up and fight with Madam Xu for hundreds of rounds, but she could only endure it. She smiled kindly and said with a guilty tone: "It was all because of my greed. Seeing that my cousin's family was struggling to make ends meet, I felt sympathy for him and let him manage the store's accounts. Who knew that he would do such a thing? I... I am too ashamed to see you!"
Having said that, in order to show her repentance, Mrs. Hu gritted her teeth and slapped herself in the face. Her red and swollen face was burning with pain.
"Oh my!" Mingyu cried out, blinking her eyes. "That accountant Li is so mean!"
Mrs. Hu said with a bitter face: "That's right, my cousin has really hurt me terribly! But if this matter gets out, where will our Xu family put their face?"
"Then what is my second brother's wife going to do?" Mrs. Xu spoke.
Mrs. Hu said quickly, "I was wrong about this matter. If the eldest sister-in-law wants to beat or scold me, I will not say a word. I will double the money my cousin embezzled to pay the eldest brother and his wife. How about that? Just don't let the restless third brother's wife know about it."
Theoretically, the losses of the shop and the profits that were not reported should be the public property of the Xu family. If Li knew that there was such money, she would be like a dog smelling meat and would bite it like crazy. Besides, Li, the accountant, had embezzled dozens of taels of silver, and double that was only about a hundred taels of silver. Compared with the torn pages of accounts, this was only a small amount, and she could afford it.
Before Madam Xu could say anything, Mingyu spoke first, "How can this be? It was clearly Accountant Li who did the bad things, how can we let Second Aunt pay? No, no! We can't let good people be taken advantage of! Right, mother?"
Madam Xu held back her laughter, hugged Mingyu, and nodded solemnly, "Of course, whoever coveted the money paid the money. Second sister-in-law, I appreciate your kindness, but our Xu family cannot tolerate evil. Your cousin got away with it this time, and you helped him pay the money, but next time he asks for money elsewhere, can you still go to his employer's house to pay compensation? You are the second wife of our Xu family, do you still want to save the face of the Xu family? Don't you think this is the truth?"
Mrs. Hu was so blocked that she couldn't say a word. After a while, she blushed and said, "Isn't this okay? I'll pay three times the money!"
Mrs. Xu was in a dilemma. She looked at Mrs. Hu sincerely and said, "Sister-in-law, I understand your feelings, but this is not something that can be solved with money..."
"Four times! Four times the money!" Hu panted, clenched her teeth, stretched out her hand and made a four sign in front of Madam Xu. No more! Thinking of the money that was about to slip through her fingers, Hu's heart felt like it was cut by a knife. When she first gave the shop to the eldest wife, she thought she was throwing away a hot potato, but she didn't expect that it would burn her own hand.
Madam Xu and Mingyu looked at each other, and Mingyu became more certain of her guess that there must be more than four times the amount of silver on the missing pages of the account, otherwise Mrs. Hu would not have agreed so readily.
"No, Second Aunt." Mingyu sighed, "It's not easy for you to save money. Sister Mingrui is about to get married and needs money everywhere! I think we should ask accountant Li for the money. My mother and I will report to the police tomorrow. I'm not afraid that he will spit out the money he took."
Seeing that Madam Xu and her daughter were unmoved, Mrs. Hu's patience ran out. She snorted and said, "I advise you not to bother with this. There are a few pages missing from the account book, so what? Even a god cannot figure out what the situation is with these missing pages. Just based on your suspicion, you cannot convict my cousin. Sister-in-law, I am not biased towards my cousin. The money lost is from the Xu family's public account. What you got is real money!"
“Why can’t you tell?” Mingyu smiled. “If you beat him with dozens of boards and leave him with a breath, he will confess everything!”
Mrs. Hu was furious. This little girl was too cruel. She shouted, "Who do you think you are? You have no evidence. Why do you want the official to beat my cousin with a stick?"
Mingyu's beautiful eyes turned into fox eyes when she smiled. She held the name card that Lu Hao gave her in the afternoon between two fingers of her right hand and waved it in front of Hu's eyes, "Lord Lu's name card is the proof!"
Mrs. Hu almost vomited blood. She was afraid that Mingyu would do this. After handing Lu Hao's name card to Jingzhao Yin, Jingzhao Yin was still very nervous and tried the case. He beat Li Cousin with dozens of sticks without saying anything. Half of his life was gone. What else would he not want to confess? In the end, those who should be sentenced to exile would probably be sentenced to immediate execution.
She was sure that cousin Li must have his own account book. When the time came, it would be exposed that she had colluded with outsiders to falsify accounts and steal money from her own shop. When this matter spread, she would have to pay back the money she had taken. The third wife and husband would not let her go, and the old lady would be angry with her for being a traitor. She could only end her life with a rope.
"Lord Lu is a noble..." Mrs. Hu said with difficulty, "How could you use Lord Lu's business card to do such a thing? If it gets out, wouldn't Lord Lu have something against our Xu family?" Mrs. Hu was terrified. There was probably nothing that Mingyu would not dare to do.
Mrs. Hu thought Mingyu would insist on suing the officials, but she didn't expect Mingyu to take the cardboard name card back and nodded, "Second Aunt is very knowledgeable and you are right. Lord Lu's name card cannot be used so easily. It must be kept for the critical moment in the future. I wonder what Second Aunt would think if I don't use Lord Lu's name card?"
Mrs. Hu glared at Mingyu, and Mingyu looked at her with a smile, not giving in.
The little girl's big black eyes reflected the bright light under the candlelight, and she was beautiful and bright. The arm holding the business card revealed a piece of white wrist, as white as jade. However, such a gentle-looking girl had a cunning smile on her face that was extremely inconsistent with her appearance. She couldn't help but want to applaud. This girl was really smart. Every step she took, she used what she could to the extreme, and acted only after careful planning. Even if Lord Lu had not come to visit today, she might have suppressed the matter temporarily, and waited for the right opportunity to strangle herself.
Mrs. Hu suddenly realized that it was just a pipe dream for her naive and reckless daughter to defeat this girl.
"Let's do what my sister-in-law says." Hu said dejectedly. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to subscribe and give rewards on Qidian Mobile Network (). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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