Volume 3, Chapter 428 – These Accounts Are Not Right!

“Ah, so this day has already arrived.”

Manager Fang let out a sigh.

“Time really does fly. It feels like the last account check was just yesterday.”

As he said this, Manager Fang paused for a moment, and as if realizing something belatedly, he gave his own head a light pat and added.

“Ah! There I go running my mouth again! Young boss, I did not mean to say anything bad about you! I was merely lamenting how full these past days have been.”

Creak.

The wooden table of the wine shop let out a sound of protest.

Chi Xiyan heard the sound and let her gaze sweep, without a trace, over Chi Muxue’s small hand resting against the edge of the table.

She saw that the edge of the wooden table had been gripped so tightly that a crack had opened along it.

Manager Fang took two steps back, his face full of alarm. “Young boss, you are not angry with this humble one, are you?”

“Angry? Why would I be angry.” Chi Muxue smiled sweetly. “Manager Fang, you misunderstand. I am not someone so petty.”

Chi Xiyan glanced back and forth between the two of them and roughly understood the situation.

Manager Fang was probably referring to the last time the Chi family came to check the accounts.

Muxue had made a mess of the wine shop back then.

Recalling the records in the account books from before, Chi Xiyan could roughly guess what expression must have appeared on the face of the manager who had come to check the accounts that time.

That would certainly have left an impression.

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“Young boss, you are truly as beautiful as you are kind hearted.” Manager Fang’s smile grew even wider. “The two of you, please excuse me while I go sort out the account books.”

“Go ahead.” Chi Xiyan waved a hand. “I have already sorted the account books and left them on the table, you just need to bring them out.”

“Yes, boss.”

Manager Fang answered and walked into the inner hall.

Chi Muxue furrowed her fine brows and leaned in close to Chi Xiyan.

“Why is he not nervous at all? Is he not worried that someone will notice his tricks?”

Chi Xiyan glanced at the wooden door of the inner hall and said quietly, “He really is not afraid. He has been a manager for over a decade after all, it would not be so easy to frighten him.”

“Besides…” Chi Xiyan paused for a moment. “He has already prepared for this. Even if the account books are found to have problems, the blame will fall entirely on the two of us.”

Hearing this, Chi Muxue said with indignation, “What a terrible person! Bullying us like this!”

“I must catch him and send him straight to the Chi family’s Punishment Hall!”

***

Before long, Manager Fang came back out carrying a thick stack of account books.

“Boss, I have brought out all the account books.” Manager Fang set the account books down on the table and said with a beaming smile, “Would you like to check them once more?”

“If the accountant from the Chi family arrives shortly and truly finds some problem in the accounts, it would be difficult to explain.”

Chi Xiyan’s gaze grew faintly sharp.

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This Manager Fang was actually provoking her.

Beside her, Chi Muxue immediately grew displeased. “Manager Fang, what do you mean by that? Are you saying there must be something wrong with the accounts my sister Xiyan prepared?!”

Manager Fang hastily said, “Young boss! I did not mean that at all!”

“What I meant… students at the academy always check their work for mistakes after finishing their exams.”

“Not to mention something like the accounts, where even the smallest error can be blown completely out of proportion. Young boss, I am only saying this for your own good.”

“After all, once this account book is handed over to the Chi family’s accountant, there will be no chance to take it back.”

“You…” Chi Muxue clenched her teeth in anger, and she wanted to say more, but Chi Xiyan raised a hand and cut her off.

Chi Xiyan’s expression remained unchanged. “Thank you for the guidance, Manager Fang, I will keep it in mind.”

“Eh, as long as the boss understands.” Manager Fang said, the contempt in his eyes growing a little more obvious.

Just then, a worker came running in.

“Manager! Boss! The accountant from the Chi family’s Internal Affairs Hall is here to check the accounts.”

***

For every business under the Chi family’s control, having the accountant from the Chi family’s Internal Affairs Hall come check the accounts was official business that had to take place every month.

In reality, Chi Xiyan, as the eldest daughter of the Chi family, had personally gone to check the accounts of the Chi family’s businesses before.

Accounts were a curious thing. On the surface, they looked like nothing more than simple numbers and transaction entries.

But hidden within those tedious and monotonous numbers and entries, many things could be uncovered.

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Falsifying accounts sounded like it should be a simple thing to do. But making a falsified account flawless, making it something no one could detect, was actually an extremely difficult task.

Back when Chi Xiyan was still the eldest daughter of the Chi family, she had uncovered many parasites who thought they had covered their tracks perfectly, simply by checking the accounts.

For Manager Fang to be so confident and unafraid, he must be certain that the account check would never trace back to him.

The group made their way to the entrance of the wine shop, just in time to see a lean man in his forties stepping down from a carriage.

Manager Fang’s eyes lit up, and he hurried forward to greet him. “So it is Manager Liu! I did not expect that you would come personally to check the accounts this time!”

Liu Fu glanced at him. “Manager Fang, do not try to get friendly with me. I am here today on official business.”

Manager Fang did not seem offended by this, and only stepped aside with a smile, revealing the two people standing behind him.

“Manager Liu, these two are the young bosses of our wine shop. The fact that our shop has come back from the brink of ruin this time is entirely thanks to the two young bosses!”

“Oh?” Liu Fu finally looked over with some interest.

When he saw that standing beside Manager Fang were only two girls who looked to be about ten years old, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

“It seems the two young bosses truly are young and capable!” Liu Fu remarked. “However, the two young bosses must understand that the accounts that need checking still need checking. That is the responsibility of the Chi family’s Internal Affairs Hall.”

“We will not loosen the review simply because you are young.”

“Do the two of you understand?”

Chi Xiyan smiled and nodded upon hearing this. “Of course. Without these rules, the Chi family could never have reached where it is today.”

Liu Fu nodded in satisfaction.

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Manager Fang welcomed him into the wine shop.

Chi Muxue tugged at Chi Xiyan’s hand again. “Xiyan, that Manager Liu, what did he mean by that…”

Chi Xiyan’s expression grew slightly tense. “He means that if something truly does go wrong, we will be the ones held responsible.”

“Xiyan…” Chi Muxue said nervously. “Could it be that this Manager Liu is actually working together with Manager Fang?”

Chi Xiyan pondered for a moment. “Hard to say…”

Without solid evidence, Chi Xiyan could not be one hundred percent certain either way.

But the exchange between Manager Fang and Manager Liu just now had made one thing clear, in every word spoken.

The operation of the wine shop was entirely their responsibility. If something went wrong with the accounts, they would be the ones who had to bear the consequences.

“Everything Manager Fang said just now sounded like flattery on the surface, but he has actually been pushing us right toward the fire the whole time.”

Chi Muxue and Chi Xiyan made their way together into the inner hall of the wine shop.

Manager Liu was also a man of action. Once inside the inner hall, he opened the account book and immediately began his work.

Chi Xiyan and Chi Muxue did not dare to disturb him, and only quietly moved a stool over and sat off to the side.

Liu Fu flipped through the account book, occasionally moving the counting rods.

Then, his brows suddenly knit together.

“Huh! These accounts are not right!”