Chapter 1: Perplexity

  It wasn't until now that Gao Huaiyuan understood why Gao Jian was so generous in handing over the old mansion to him for management. It turned out that the Gao family thought there was no profit to be made from this side of the old mansion, which is why they were so generous. He really had to thank that damned old man Gao for embezzling and concealing the truth. If it weren't for this guy's private corruption, Gao Jian probably wouldn't have been willing to hand over this piece of fat land for him to manage.

  Look, Li Er has no more oil to swindle, so Gao Huaiyuan wrote down everything he said and had him sign it. This guy cried and confessed that Gao Laogen had given him some benefits, and he had used some of Gao Laogen's small money. Gao Huaiyuan waved his hand and said: "Since you've already confessed, I won't pursue the matter further. From now on, just remember who's in charge here, and those things will be forgotten!"

  Li Er was moved to tears, hastily pressed the hand-drawn painting, and retreated. Then, Gao Huaiyuan interrogated several other servants, who all truthfully told what they knew, which was basically consistent with Li Er's account. They also exposed that Gao Laogen would often withhold their wages, and they all signed and stamped to form a set of incriminating evidence, making Gao Laogen's crimes a reality!

  At this time, Li Tong had already made a copy of Gao Laogen's nest with Huang Yan and Zhou Hao, and all the account books were brought over by Gao Hua Yuan, piled up in a big heap in the main room.

  Gao Huaiyuan flipped through it casually and felt dizzy. In ancient times, there were no Arabic numerals, and account books were written with some complex traditional characters. If one were to finish reading them, they would probably be driven mad! The account books of later generations are much more comfortable to look at, clear at a glance. At this point, Gao Huaiyuan decided that he would change the accounting method here to use Arabic numerals in the future, so as not to feel dizzy when looking at them.

  Although he was not interested in looking at these account books, he casually flipped through them and still saw that there were many alterations inside, so he knew that the words of these servants were not false, and the crime of embezzling the Gao family's property was indeed pinned on Old Man Gao!

  So he ordered the servants to take turns guarding Gao Lao Gen, and everyone else went to sleep. He warned the servants that if anyone let Gao Lao Gen escape, they would be held accountable. The servants were so scared that they nodded repeatedly. Li Er even found a rope and recklessly rushed in, tying Gao Lao Gen up tightly. Now Gao Lao Gen knew that he had reached the end of his management career. Looking at the attitude of these former subordinates who used to be obedient to him, he knew that he had been betrayed by them. He was so scared that he wanted to find a hole to hide in and escape.

  Gao Huaiyuan didn't care about him, stretched his waist and went to wash up, then lay down and fell asleep. He didn't expect things to go so smoothly, and it was almost unbelievable that he could overthrow the person in charge here and take over this old mansion in less than half a day. Being able to solve this matter quickly was a good thing for him. The next step would be to tidy up here, then replace Gao Laogen and continue to embezzle on a large scale, making some arrangements for his own future!

  For two consecutive days, Gao Huaiyuan ignored Gao Laogen who was tied up in the house. Instead, he called all the servants in the mansion and gave them a lecture, telling them that from now on, only he had the final say in the old Gao residence, and everyone must listen to his orders. After the previous lesson, the elderly people here didn't dare to utter a word of dissent! They obediently agreed and treated Gao Huaiyuan with utmost respect.

  Moreover, Gao Huaiyuan also said that as long as they were loyal and obedient to him in the future, not only would their wages not be deducted, but during the New Year, he would also give them red envelopes, increase their wages, and make several servants happy. Under such a combination of kindness and authority, Gao Huaiyuan quickly took over the affairs of the old mansion.

  As for those boys, Gao Huaiyuan had them all clean up and then gave each of them two sets of servant's clothes to wear. He told them that from now on, if they wanted to make a name for themselves, they would have to do as he said, and his words were law, not to be disobeyed by anyone. These boys, who had initially been somewhat disdainful of Gao Huaiyuan when they first arrived, now knew his methods all too well after this incident, and became even more obedient than before, listening to him without daring to disobey in the slightest.

  Apart from handling these matters, Gao Huaiyuan also appointed Li Tong as the manager of this place, specifically in charge of managing these servants in the old mansion. This can be considered as fulfilling his promise. However, the accounts were not handed over to Li Tong. Nevertheless, this made Li Tong extremely happy, knowing that being a manager in the Gao family was at least twice as lucrative as being an ordinary servant. He was now even more devoted to Gao Huaiyuan than ever before.

  Xue Yan was assigned by Gao Huaiyuan as the guard of the mansion. For such a large house, having several guards is normal, especially since it's said that the world outside isn't very peaceful either. With Xue Yan, who knows some martial arts, as the guard, at least he can be more at ease.

  As for the backyard, it was declared a forbidden area by Gao Huaiyuan. Generally, people other than Li Tong and Xue Yan were not allowed to enter without permission. As for why, Gao Huaiyuan did not explain, and these people did not dare to ask. However, Gao Huaiyuan also set down another rule: anything that happened inside the house was not allowed to be told to outsiders. If anyone was found out, they would be immediately kicked out of the Gao family and their wages would be deducted!

  These people were so frightened that they immediately vowed not to dare speak out of turn! After experiencing the severe and swift punishment meted out by Gao Lao Gen, they had also witnessed Gao Huai Yuan's methods, and now everyone here automatically took Gao Huai Yuan's words as holy commandments, without any thought of resistance. Anyway, they were all underlings, who would listen to whom was not a question! Moreover, that scoundrel Gao Lao Gen had never brought them any benefits, but instead often bullied them!

  Gao Huaiyuan was finally satisfied, and he called out to Huang Yan, Zhou Huan and others, bringing this group of newly recruited young people to the backyard overgrown with weeds, clearing it in one go, leveling it into a small school field, and then letting them go get some green bricks to pave the yard. Huang Yan and Zhou Huan would not object, and immediately led the young people to start working busily.

  After arranging these things, Gao Huaiyuan finally managed to squeeze out some time and started flipping through the account books. He spent a whole day looking at them, feeling dizzy and overwhelmed, before he could roughly make sense of them.

  Originally, the old house of Gao's family had quite a lot of wealth, with over 300 mu of land, and every year just the rent from tenants would bring in hundreds of dan. Even if one dan of rice was exchanged for one guan of money, just looking at the accounts, it would be several hundred guan. This old Gao had embezzled tens of guan by himself, almost as much as half a county magistrate's annual income!

  And this is not counting other income, adding up several other items, Gao Laogen's annual embezzlement of money is at least 70 or 80 yuan more, it can be seen that in these few years, the amount of money embezzled by Gao Laogen is a huge number!

  After closing the account book, Gao Huaiyuan pressed his temples and hummed in anger. He, the third young master, had exhausted all his efforts and only managed to swindle a few dozen taels of silver, and he didn't even dare to let anyone discover it. Meanwhile, Gao Lao Gen, that insignificant steward, had embezzled so much money in just one year. It was infuriating!

  Although this amount of money is small change to Gao Jian, otherwise he wouldn't be so dismissive of the old mansion's affairs. However, for Gao Huaiyuan now, having to support a group of unplanned youths is a huge fortune, so how should this matter be handled?

  Gao Huaiyuan didn't go out for dinner, instead he stayed in his study, stroking his chin and thinking deeply. It wasn't until Liu'er came to urge him again that Gao Huaiyuan made up his mind. He took the food Liu'er had brought him and ate it quickly, then put down his bowl and chopsticks and called out to Huang Yan and Zhou Huan. The three of them walked swiftly to the front courtyard.

  Gao Huaiyan ordered Huang Yan and Zhou Huan, those two sworn brothers, to clear the people from the front yard to one side. Then he walked alone into the room where Gao Lao Gen was being held. Liu'er quietly brought him a lantern and then slipped out unnoticed.

  It's been two days since I last saw Gao Lao Gen, and this guy has almost become unrecognizable. His clothes are dirty and tattered, his face is covered in scratches, and there's a big bump on his forehead - I don't know if he got it from hitting himself or from being beaten by those servants. His hair is disheveled and scattered all over his shoulders, his eyes have sunken in, and he looks like he's aged twenty years overnight. He's completely lost his original shape.

  As soon as he saw Gao Huaiyuan enter, Old Man Gao immediately sat down on the ground in fright, backing away towards the back, until he was stuck in a corner, staring at Gao Huaiyuan with a frightened gaze, his eyes full of pleading, and no longer having the arrogant air he had when they first met.

  Gao Huaiyuan slapped a stack of white paper in his palm a few times, then threw it on the table and raised his chin slightly, saying: "Gao Laogen, do you know what these things are?"

  Gao Lao Gen looked at the stack of papers on the table, his eyes filled with terror, and trembled as he said: "I don't know!"

  "Hmph! Fine, I'll tell you then! These are the testimonies of the old mansion's servants, they've all said something, so I don't need to repeat it again for you. What have you done over these years, I think you're clearer about that than anyone else! Besides these, there are also those account books, plus the tenants' testimonies, do I still need to say anything?" Gao Huaiyuan used his old trick again, but actually he didn't have any time to go find the tenants to verify their testimonies.

  Gao Lao Gen's eyes filled with a desperate look, and he completely collapsed. He quickly crawled to Gao Huai Yuan's feet, crying: "Young Master! It's my fault, I'm the one who should die! I was blinded by greed for pork oil! Please spare my life!"