"Just take good care of yourself! If you have any problems, send someone to the Night Shadow Division to tell your brother!" Shen Yi looked at Shen Li and instructed.
"Got it, brother! I'm old enough. If there's something I can't handle, I'll definitely ask you to back me up."
"You!"
When they reached the main gate of the Shen Mansion, the carriage stopped. Shen Li got off and entered the mansion.
After Shen Junming's family returned, there was another commotion. This time, Lady Shen was beaten with the cane. The doctor had instructed that she must rest for at least half a month.
After Shen Li came back, she picked up the account books again. Seeing her so busy, Jiaoyue and the others felt heart - ache.
"Miss, is there something wrong with these account books? Why do you look at them every day?" Jiaoyue looked at the yellowed account books and asked in confusion.
"These are just old accounts. I'm just re - organizing them to confirm some things!"
"Miss, I don't understand. Since they are old account books and all in the past, why are you still looking at them? Anyway, it's you who is in charge of the mansion now. It's better to manage the current accounts!"
Shen Li smiled. After all, she had lived one more life than Jiaoyue. She understood many things and thought deeper about problems. Since Jiaoyue didn't understand now, she explained, "I'm looking at these account books to see how much the mansion has spent in the past few years."
"But I didn't expect to find many loopholes!"
Mingyue immediately asked, "Miss, is the amount of silver in the accounts not right?"
"Humph! It's precisely because it's too right that I'm suspicious!"
Mingyue and Jiaoyue glanced at each other, not understanding what she meant.
"Miss, is there something suspicious even if the accounts match?" Jiaoyue scratched her head and asked.
Shen Li knew that she would have a lot of things to do in the future and wouldn't have much time for the affairs of the mansion. So she intended to teach the three of them.
"Come, look!" Shen Li took out the account book at the bottom, opened a page and pointed, "This is the account when my mother was in charge of the mansion ten years ago. By the Moon - worship Festival in August, there were still more than 40,000 taels of silver in the public account of the mansion."
Seeing the three of them nodding, Shen Li took out another account book, opened it and pointed to a page, "Now look at this one. On the same Moon - worship Festival nine years ago, there was less than 20,000 taels left in the account."
Jiaoyue said in shock, "Spending 20,000 taels of silver in one year is too much!"
Then, she paused slightly and said, "My monthly allowance is two taels. I won't be able to earn 20,000 taels in my whole life!"
Mingyue also gasped, "Our Shen Mansion isn't that big. How could it cost 20,000 taels in a year?"
Shen Li sneered, "Our mansion really can't spend so much money. It's just that someone took it."
"Miss, do you mean Lady Shen?"
Jiaoyue guessed along Shen Li's train of thought, "If that's the case, how much money has the East Courtyard embezzled over the years? That money is from the public account of the mansion, and most of it belongs to our eldest branch! She embezzled it all!"
"I checked the accounts when my mother was in charge. The maximum annual expenditure of the mansion was only 11,000 taels. But the annual income from the shops and manors of the mansion was 20,000 taels. So when my mother was in charge, there was still a surplus of 10,000 taels in the public account every year."
"But I didn't expect that in recent years, not only has the income from the shops and manors of our mansion decreased, but some of the manors and shops have also been sold! Even so, there is only more than 2,000 taels of silver in our mansion's account now! And we still owe more than 10,000 taels of silver!"
"Miss, the difference is too big! No, the second branch is too much! Miss, let's go and confront Lady Shen and ask her where all the money has gone. If she can't explain, we'll make this public! Let her return the money!" Jiaoyue stared angrily in the direction of the East Courtyard.
"Of course we'll make them spit out the money! But not in this way!" Shen Li stared at the account book in front of her and fell into deep thought.
Even if she went to Lady Shen with the account books now, Lady Shen wouldn't admit it. Although the expenditure in the accounts was huge, every expense was recorded in detail, and Lady Shen could explain where the money had gone.
Lady Shen's accounts were clean, but ridiculous.
The accounts recorded that Shen Li herself spent more than 5,000 taels every year on clothes and jewelry. As for whether this money was really spent on Shen Li, perhaps only Shen Li and Lady Shen knew.
Moreover, the accounts showed that some of the shops under the public account of the Shen Mansion had been in deficit for years until they were sold. Some manors also had reduced yields year after year, with more expenditure than income, and some of them were also sold.
The Shen family had been in the capital for a hundred years and was a noble family with many ancestral properties distributed all over the capital. Of course, many of them were rewards from the emperor after Shen Li's father, Shen Junhong, was favored by the emperor.
Anyway, these were all the assets in the public account. Before the Shen Mansion was divided, they belonged to everyone. And even if it was divided, with Shen Junming's status as a concubine - born son in the second branch, according to the ancestral system, he could only get one - tenth or two - tenths. The rest would all belong to her father.
Over the years, Lady Shen had taken advantage of her position as the one in charge of the mansion to take most of the mansion's assets, leaving her parents with a debt of 10,000 taels to the court.
Lady Shen really had a good plan!
However, what belonged to her parents, no one else could take away!
Even what Lady Shen had already swallowed, she would make them spit it all out.
"Jiaoyue, go and check how much silver is in my account!"
"Hanyue, go to the Night Shadow Division now! Find out what shops and manors are currently under the names of Lady Shen, Shen Junming and Shen Miao. Specifically, where are they located and what are they operating? You go and check later. I need to know all these!"
Just then, Jiaoyue came back with a delicate and small red sandalwood box in her arms. She opened the small copper lock on it, counted and said, "Miss, you only have 5,532 taels now!"
Looking at the few silver notes lying in the box, Jiaoyue was a bit dissatisfied. She used to be happy that she had helped the miss keep so much silver. But now she realized that it was not even a fraction of what the second branch had!
Shen Li was silent for a while, then said, "It's still a bit too little. Hanyue, go to the Night Shadow Division later to borrow 10,000 taels of silver from my brother. If he asks you anything, answer him truthfully!"
Hanyue took the order and left.
Shen Li flipped through the silver notes in the box, took out the five 1,000 - tael silver notes, closed the box and said to Jiaoyue, "Put the rest away! Keep them for emergencies!"
Hearing this, Jiaoyue carefully put the red sandalwood box back in its original place.