Chapter 52
Chapter 52
When Xu Wensuo saw the Count frown, he mistook it for a sign that his words had struck a chord and fanned the flames even harder.
“In the past, Lady Mulan chose Shen Lang as her husband because he seemed the most incompetent and unambitious. But it appears now that Master Shen Lang is a man brimming with ambition.”
The Count had no desire to hear any more. To anyone with eyes, the purpose of Xu Wensuo’s slander was obvious. Saying Shen Lang was ambitious was no different from saying that Jin Zhuo of the Count of Xuanwu's Estate harbored delusions of becoming emperor. Besides, the Count of Xuanwu knew Shen Lang’s objective better than anyone. The fool’s greatest goal was simply to get revenge on Tian Heng and Xu Qianqian.
“It may be fine while you are alive, my lord, but after you pass, how will your heir keep Shen Lang in check? Of course, Lady Mulan will be there, but as she is a woman, her husband will be the person closest to her. Shen Lang is a deep schemer and a skilled orator. I worry that when the time comes, trouble will arise, and the master of the Count of Xuanwu’s Estate will change.”
Having said that, Xu Wensuo spoke in an utterly sincere voice.
“My lord, every time I think of it, I toss and turn, unable to sleep at night. That is why I have taken a stand against Master Shen Lang. Please know that all of this comes from a heart full of concern for the estate.”
Xu Wensuo was a man blinded by the promise of immediate success and profit. Eager to set a raging fire all at once, he had forgotten that slander was not something that succeeded in a single stroke. Just then, Shen Lang entered.
“Greetings, Father-in-law.”
Normally, Shen Lang’s face was a mask of indolence, steeped in laziness. But at this moment, he wore an expression of solemnity rarely seen on him.
“Shen Lang, apologize to Teacher Xu Wensuo here. You are his student, yet your attitude the other day was unacceptable.”
The Count’s stance was clear. He told Shen Lang to apologize for his previous attitude, not for investigating Xu Wensuo’s ledgers. The Count had a clear sense of right and wrong; he did not think Shen Lang’s investigation was a mistake. However, Xu Wensuo, puffed up with pride, failed to grasp the Count’s true meaning. He pointed a finger at Shen Lang and spoke with anguish.
“Master Shen Lang, what crime have I committed against you? To go so far as to investigate my ledgers… Did you truly think I was skimming from the coffers? Heaven and earth know that I, Xu Wensuo, have a clear conscience.”
Shen Lang said nothing, quietly watching him perform. Xu Wensuo deliberately raised his voice.
“Watching your actions, it seems you are in a great hurry to drive me out. Could it be that you have some unspeakable motive?”
He then turned his head to look at the Lord Count and said, “My lord, the New Policy is being implemented with fierce intensity, and even the ancient noble houses in every region are trembling with fear. At a time like this, we in the Count of Xuanwu's Estate are a greater thorn in the Governor-General’s side than anyone. Now, more than ever, we need resolve. Yet Shen Lang stirs up trouble, unsettles the people, and sows discord. For the sake of precaution, he must be punished.”
Shen Lang looked at him and said calmly, “Xu Wensuo, I thought you might have embezzled some money, but I never imagined it would be this much. In just over twenty years, as a mere head of the accounting office in the Count’s estate, you’ve stolen nearly thirty thousand gold taels… How could you do such a thing unless you were truly mad?!”
Shen Lang’s voice rose to a furious shout.
“Xu Wensuo, where is your conscience? Did you feed it to the dogs?”
Thirty thousand gold taels! Hearing that amount, Xu Wensuo looked as if he might leap out of his skin.
“Lang’er, is what you say true?”
The Lord Count’s eyes widened in disbelief as he shot to his feet. He had suspected that Xu Wensuo was skimming some money, but he had thought it would be no more than two or three thousand gold taels. Yet Shen Lang was claiming Xu Wensuo had stolen thirty thousand.
The most terrified of all was Xu Wensuo. As the one who had personally written the ledgers, he knew the exact total he had embezzled better than anyone. Indeed, over the past twenty-odd years, the gold he had stolen amounted to around thirty thousand taels. So when Shen Lang uttered that number, his heart nearly stopped, and his legs buckled violently. A ringing even started in his ears.
But he quickly composed himself. It was impossible for Shen Lang to have found anything in a single night; he must have made a wild guess. He wouldn't have had time to even look through a single ledger, let alone conduct a thorough investigation. Not even a god could have managed it. It would take dozens of people over a month to audit the books properly.
Xu Wensuo shouted in a furious voice, “Shen Lang, how utterly shameless and absurd! It seems your true intentions are about to be exposed, so you invent facts out of thin air, claiming I stole thirty thousand gold taels. Do you have any proof that I embezzled money?”
Xu Wensuo threw himself to his knees before the Lord Count and declared loudly, “My Lord Count, I, Xu Wensuo, have served the estate loyally for over twenty years. Even if I have not achieved great merits, I have at least earned credit for my hard work. Now Shen Lang accuses me of stealing thirty thousand gold taels. This is tantamount to pressing me to my death. For a mere live-in son-in-law to be so arrogant—after you pass away, my lord, Shen Lang will surely seize Xuanwu Castle like a cuckoo taking a magpie’s nest, and the century-long legacy of the Jin clan of Xuanwu Castle will crumble in his hands.”
Shen Lang gave a slight smile.
“Xu Wensuo, I thought you would have made your fake ledgers perfect. But to my surprise, they are riddled with holes. Don’t even think about running. You’re a dead man.”
After speaking, Shen Lang laid out the charts he had organized from his investigation on the table, one by one, for the Lord Count to see clearly.
“Xu Wensuo, you made the ledgers incredibly ornate. In several thousand volumes of books, you recorded expenditures and income, with hundreds of different sums listed each day. It was truly imaginative to try and hide the truth in such a convoluted mess of entries. But no matter how elaborate your entries were, it was useless, because all I needed to do was examine the core figures—the estate’s annual income and expenses.
The Count of Xuanwu’s Estate has four main sources of income: grain from the fief, silk, and the iron and salt produced on Lookout Cliff Island. The estate’s expenditures are primarily of six types: salaries for the household staff, taxes paid to the court, military expenses for the two thousand seven hundred soldiers, costs for hosting esteemed guests during various holiday celebrations, expenses for daily necessities, and construction costs for the fief.
Your method of embezzlement was to duplicate entries for staff salaries, fief construction, and the purchase of daily necessities. Of course, that was your initial method of misappropriation. Later on, as your greed grew, I could see that you began to dip your hands into the estate’s military funds and the income from iron and salt.”
Shen Lang’s voice rose in anger.
“For the same army of roughly two thousand seven hundred men, with no major changes to its composition of infantry and cavalry, why did military expenditures rise every year, and by an increasingly larger margin at that?”
Xu Wensuo, his face pale, heard this and cried out, “My Lord Count, no matter how mad I might be, I have no authority over the estate’s army. The notion that I embezzled military funds is ludicrous.”
Shen Lang sneered.
“True. You don’t have the authority to embezzle military funds. But each year, when the army’s warhorses, armor, and weapons were damaged and replaced, where did all the old ones go?”
“Naturally, they went into the furnace to be reforged, did they not?”
Shen Lang laughed loudly and said, “Then why didn’t the iron output from the refinery increase by a corresponding amount? Why did it decrease more and more each year? Salt and iron are one of the largest sources of income for the Count of Xuanwu’s fief. So why has their annual production shown a marked decline?!”
“How should I know?”
“Because every time the salt and iron were received, they passed through your hands. You used various means to record the production of salt and iron as less than the actual amount, then took the rest and sold it for your own profit.”
Xu Wensuo laughed loudly.
“Hahaha. Isn’t that just your own wild speculation, without a shred of proof?”
Shen Lang sneered and said, “Proof? Did you really think I would say all this without proof? If the production of salt and iron declined, the purchase of sacks and large baskets should have declined as well, but it did not. In fact, it increased. Why? Because you needed those sacks and baskets to hold the iron and salt you stole. That is the proof, and that is your flaw. You were too greedy.”
Shen Lang then pointed to each of the figures on the chart, showing them to the Count.
“Father-in-law, if you look at the figures for each item written here, it is clear. You will understand it all at a glance.”
The Lord Count’s hands trembled slightly as he took Shen Lang’s chart. He might have a soft personality, but he was not an incompetent man. He could see at a glance that Shen Lang had a complete plan, while Xu Wensuo was merely putting on a strong front to hide his weakness. Thus, even before looking at the chart, the Count had already concluded that Xu Wensuo had embezzled the money. Nevertheless, he did not ignore the evidence Shen Lang presented and began to read it. And as he looked at the chart, he could not help but tremble.
Shen Lang had analyzed the figures in the ledgers with extreme thoroughness, organizing the various incomes and expenditures in a way that was easy to understand. Even a layman like the Count could grasp the flow of money at a glance. That alone was remarkable, but what made Shen Lang even more brilliant was that he had not been distracted by the fake entries and detailed records Xu Wensuo had created.
No matter how ornately Xu Wensuo had filled the accounting entries, Shen Lang had focused his analysis on the two fundamental figures—the estate’s annual income and expenses—and in doing so, had caught countless flaws in the accounting entries Xu Wensuo had fabricated. Everything was analyzed based on solid evidence; it couldn't be any clearer than the ledger Shen Lang himself had created.
For example, during the Spring Festival celebration last year, the Count’s estate purchased a thousand more bottles of wine than in previous years. But after the celebration ended, not all of it was consumed. A thousand bottles were returned, yet only 70% of the money was refunded. In this way, the Count’s estate lost several dozen gold taels.
The Lord Count’s entire body shook as he continued to read the chart Shen Lang had given him. While he was furious with Xu Wensuo, he was also surprised and delighted by Shen Lang. He had never imagined his son-in-law could conduct such a perfect investigation.
To thoroughly audit the accounting ledgers in just one night… How on earth did he do it? The Lord Count was not well-versed in arithmetic, so he couldn't even begin to imagine the method Shen Lang had used.
“Bring me Master Lin.”
The Lord Count ordered a servant. A short while later, Old Master Lin entered the main hall.
“Take a look at this. It’s an analysis of the ledgers that Shen Lang prepared last night.”
After receiving it, Old Master Lin was completely dumbfounded. He had expected Xu Wensuo to have embezzled some amount, but he was shocked by how large the sum was. Then, he felt joy that all of this was finally coming to light and he would no longer have to watch this parasite, Xu Wensuo, gnaw away at the Count of Xuanwu’s Estate. Finally, as he looked at the entries in the ledger Shen Lang had prepared, he was so astonished that he raised his head to look at Shen Lang once before lowering his head to read the chart again.
This was a level of mastery beyond what an ordinary person could achieve. A layman in accounting would not understand the greatness of this chart, but Old Master Lin was an expert. No words could express the tremor he felt in his heart.
“Well?”
The Lord Count asked. Old Master Lin bowed his waist and replied.
“He is a genius. A heaven-sent genius. My lord, congratulations. Heaven has bestowed a great talent upon our Count of Xuanwu’s Estate. The young master possesses a divine gift for arithmetic. This old servant has never seen, nor even heard of, such a method of calculating ledgers.”
The Lord Count smiled slightly, looked at Shen Lang, and said, “Don’t let it go to your head, you hear?”
“I understand.”
Then, the Lord Count turned to Xu Wensuo and said in a cold voice, “For the past twenty-odd years, how much have I trusted you? I knew you had sticky fingers, but I thought that if the water is too clear, no fish can live, so I deliberately looked the other way. But to think you would act so rampantly!”
It was extremely rare to see the Lord Count angry, but at this moment, he was enraged. The Lord Count roared at him in a furious voice.
“Now that things have come to this, Xu Wensuo, do you have anything left to say?”