Chapter 27: The Gap
Qinglian received Lingyun's instructions and naturally wouldn't go directly to the tea house. As Shanshui's personal maid, she was also considered half a member of the new young master's household. Usually, she would only be asked to run small errands outside or deliver messages. However, Qinglian felt that it was best to report to her mistress first, so she went to the west wing to find her. As a qualified personal maid, she had to be her mistress's eyes and ears, telling her everything she saw and heard.
In this regard, Qinglian did better than Mulan. Mulan was always careless and didn't know to report proactively unless Miss asked her. After Gao Shanshu returned in the morning, she had been busy with the affairs of the manor, clearing accounts with butler Gao Bo and accountant Zhang Bo. The Gao family's estate was large and complex, with many farms and shops, both open and secret, especially the secret smuggling channels. To win over the powerful families in southern Jiangnan, this money had to be spent. But relying solely on the income from the manor's open farms and shops was clearly not enough. The three were clearing accounts and preparing to allocate funds from the secret smuggling channels in the north to send south. Although Zhang Bo was the Gao family's chief accountant, he was already old this year, and most of the financial matters had been gradually transferred to Gao Mingyue's hands. Gao Mingyue was not a sworn sister of Gao Shanshu, but her father, Gao Baoning, was also a member of the Northern Qi imperial family, and Gao Baoning had been loyal to the Northern Qi court in resisting the Zhou dynasty, earning him great prestige among the Northern Qi loyalists. Moreover, Gao Baoning had been the one who proposed that Gao Shaoyi ascend to the throne as emperor, and was also the prime minister of the Northern Qi court-in-exile. Having grown up with Gao Shanshu since childhood, they were like sisters. From top to bottom, everyone treated Gao Mingyue and Gao Shanshu equally. Gao Mingyue, who had just passed her 28th birthday, was less mature and stable than Gao Shanshu, but she was born with a beautiful appearance and had a talent for arithmetic.
At this time, in the hall of the Western Courtyard, Gao Mingyue sat at her desk, with two slender and delicate white hands quickly moving the small ivory rods in front of her to rapidly check the accounts on the open ledger. If there was a slight error on the account, she would quickly discover it and point it out to Zhang Bo, Gao Bo, Qian Xue, and others to recheck together. At this time, she didn't have the slightest bit of her usual radiant and lively girl appearance, but instead had an air of elegance and poise similar to that of Gao Shanshui when he was leading the Gao family. In this era, arithmetic required a lot of talent and also needed guidance from famous teachers. Especially for those complicated accounts, it was even more troublesome. Some complex calculations could only be done using abacuses about the length of chopsticks, as convenient calculating tools like the abacus had not yet appeared, nor were there concise and practical arithmetic formulas, let alone Arabic numerals that made counting easy. Gao Mingyue's set of ivory rod abacuses had a total of 276 pieces, which she always carried with her in a silk bag on her waist, whether at home or traveling, and would take out to calculate whenever needed. In the Gao family village, Gao Mingyue was the most skilled at using the abacus, even surpassing Zhang Bo, who had once held the position of Minister of Civil Affairs in the capital city of Daqi, three years ago.
The masters and servants of the Xue family, both inside and outside the house, couldn't help but show their admiration when talking about the Second Miss's arithmetic skills.
After verifying the results of the abacus calculations with the numbers on the account book, Gao Mingyue shook her slightly sore wrist and finally relaxed her furrowed brow, restoring her usual cheerful appearance. "Hmm, another one done. In the past two years, many new businesses have been added in Jiangnan, but none of them are doing well, most of them are just barely scraping by. Sister wants to withdraw a large sum of money from these businesses this time, I think it's unlikely. Most of the businesses in Jiangnan are struggling to stay afloat, if we withdraw funds, they might not be able to survive. I don't know how these managers are running things, with Jiangnan being so stable and prosperous, these businesses should be making good money. Just like these account books, many of them are quite messy, need more refinement."
Gao Bo and Zhang Bo nodded in agreement, they both reviewed the accounts as soon as they were delivered, so they naturally had a sense of the situation. The accounts were done sloppily, and the management of the various industries was also disappointing. Both old men were shrewd people who could guess that there must be some corrupt managers among the hired hands in Jiangnan. This account might not be due to the accountant's incompetence, but rather it was likely that those managers intentionally let the accountant do a poor job to cover up their own greedy behavior. What they didn't expect was that Gao family's second miss, Gao Mingyue, was actually an arithmetic expert and also an accounting expert. No matter how difficult or complicated the accounts were, she could always make sense of them clearly.
"If we were to mobilize a large amount of money and grain from the north to move south, I'm afraid it would easily attract the attention of the imperial court." The situation is getting more and more severe, and it's already at a critical moment. They must be extremely cautious, as large amounts of gold and silver flowing around can easily trigger official vigilance.
"Let's think of a way to deal with this matter." Gao Qianxue said, in fact, she was not unaware of the corruption of the officials below, and knew something about it. Water that is too clear has no fish, let alone when they first set up their business in Jiangnan, one reason was to leave a back door open, and the other was also to create some cover for their identity. As the saying goes, "a cunning rabbit has three burrows", this is what Gao Qianxue meant. She had always been generous, if you want others to follow you and risk their lives, how can you be stingy? However, now that they have a rare opportunity to avenge their country and family's hatred, she did not want to miss it. But to get things done, money is needed, especially for the matters they are about to deal with in Jiangnan, which requires a large amount of gold and silver to pave the way. "First prepare some precious items, in two days Xiao Gongzi will send Chen Gongzi and Gao Ding's team of guards to come to our estate, last time we need to thank Xiao Gongzi properly, can't be rude."
At this time, lunchtime was approaching, and she also let people pass the meal, and at noon, she had lunch with Gao Bo and others in the West Wing. Seeing Qinglian and Mulan, she asked Mulan to call Lingyun over for dinner together. Although Lingyun was not willing to plot against Sui with them now, Shansheng did not want to force him too hard. However, the two were already considered husband and wife, so it was natural that they would have lunch together. Moreover, she also hoped to take this opportunity to let Gao Bo, Zhang Bo, and Mingyue understand him more. For her, Gao Bo and Zhang Bo were her family. Now that Lingyun was her husband, everyone would naturally become a family in the future.
Qinglian and Mulan left, then quietly reported to Gao Qianshuai about Lingyun's plan to make tea.
"Stir-fried tea?" Gao Qianxue smiled slightly, not paying much attention to it. She thought that this wasn't a big deal and maybe it was just her husband's different taste. However, when she received the letter Lingyun wrote to the teahouse from Qinglian, her eyes changed slightly, filled with surprise.
"Is this letter written by Yilang?"
Qinglian nodded, "I and Mulan will grind the ink, young master can write in front of me."
