It’s no surprise that Zhao Chunhua thought this way. In the past, when the lord was coming over, they would have sent soone two days in advance to let them know so they could prepare early and not end up in a flustered ss. Who would have thought that this ti, they would encounter Mo Yan, who did not follow the usual practices?
Seeing that Zhao Laoda still wanted to say sothing, Zhao Dafu scolded, "Things have already co to this point, what’s the use of complaining? It’s better to calm down and think of a way to dissipate the County Lord’s anger and beg her to give our family a way to live."
With that, he glanced at his silent daughter and said to the daughters-in-law who looked displeased, "Your little sister is right, none of you knew the County Lord was coming today, and whatever you wear or carry will be seen by the County Lord, so stop blaming your little sister."
Once their father-in-law reminded them, several of Zhao’s daughters-in-law quickly recalled their respective attire for the day, promptly putting away their dissatisfaction as their looks towards their younger sister-in-law softened imdiately.
Zhao Dafu nodded in secret, quite satisfied with the few daughters-in-law who still had an understanding of the big picture.
"Old man, the County Lord doesn’t seem hard to talk to. If we take the initiative to confess to the County Lord and ask for rcy, maybe she will let our family go. After all, you didn’t take anything from the County Lord," Old Lady ng hesitantly suggested to her husband.
Zhao Dafu forced a smile, "You think I haven’t thought about that? Confessing to the County Lord and begging for rcy might allow our family to stay on the estate if the County Lord is kind-hearted, but she won’t entrust the managent of the estate to anymore. From then on, our family would only be able to do nial tasks like raising chickens and ducks on the estate, and we’d be under others’ control. Most likely, the County Lord might sell us all off."
Over the years, he had made too many fraudulent entries, and the thought of the large earthen jar hidden under the bed made his heart continuously bitter.
Hearing Zhao Dafu say this, Zhao Laoda and the others, who had just kindled new hope, saw their little fla extinguished again. Although they were servants, no matter what work they did, they were still servants. But there were differences even among servants.
The servants who attended closely to the master enjoyed prestige and received many benefits, but once they offended the master, their fate could be worse than that of the street cats and dogs. As for the lower-class servants, they had to do the harshest work and receive the least monthly silver, which was not a good job at all.
For them, working on the estate, though hard, they had no one to oversee them daily, nor did they have to please or flatter anyone. Such a free life sotis made them forget their status as servants. When they went out, they were the envy of the villagers in Chen Family Village, being seen as wealthy folks.
Therefore, they desperately hoped to maintain the status quo, to continue living on the estate. But they also understood that catching the eye of a new master would not lead to good days. Staying to do hard labor was still better; if they were sent to the Dentist, their family would inevitably be torn apart, possibly never to see each other again.
Old Lady ng had obviously thought of this too. Looking at the room full of children and grandchildren, she pounded on her husband and shed tears of sorrow, "I’ve long told you to stop, but you wouldn’t listen. Now that it’s co to this, how are we to live!"
Zhao Dafu stood still, letting his wife hit him. To say he didn’t regret would be a lie, but at this point, any amount of regret was useless...
It wasn’t just Old Lady ng who was heartbroken; the other mbers of the Zhao family felt the sa. The whole family was imrsed in gloom and doom, all they could do was silently pray that Princess Hejia would show leniency and let them continue to live on the estate, even if as laborers, for they didn’t want to be torn apart from each other.
After flipping through two account books and having a preliminary estimate in her mind, Mo Yan was unaware that her actions had plunged the entire Zhao family into a state of turmoil. She closed the account books, having lost the desire to look any further.
Although the fraudulent entries made by Zhao Dafu were not entirely fake, Mo Yan still noticed sothing was amiss. But the accounts were complicated, and it was hard to calculate the specific amount of embezzlent by Zhao Dafu over those two years without the help of Xue tuanzi. Only then did she realize that each of these two account books showed an unaccounted loss of about Fifty taels of silver.
Fifty taels a year, and with Zhao Dafu managing the estate for twenty years, it ant that he had embezzled at least One Thousand Taels of Silver. One Thousand Liang of Silver wasn’t much for Mo Yan now, but it was enough for the Zhao family to live a life of affluence. It was no wonder they were dressed in silk and adorned with gold and silver jewelry.
Keep in mind, as the Manager, Zhao Dafu’s monthly silver was only One or two and five money silver, while his wife, children, daughters-in-law, and sons-in-law only received one liang each month. For the half-grown kids, it was just Two or three hundred texts a month.
"Yanyan, how do you plan to deal with them?" Xuetuan asked curiously.
Mo Yan rubbed her slightly swollen forehead and shook her head, "Zhao Dafu can’t be considered as being exceedingly greedy, or else with his ability to cook the books, he could have easily embezzled a hundred and eighty liangs a year without detection. This makes want to observe him further to see if he’s worth keeping on."
This estate’s fields were vast, producing up to Two thousand taels a year. Skimming off dozens of taels from that was hard to detect. Moreover, the Zhao family were raising chickens, ducks, and geese on the estate. Regardless of how many were raised, they all belonged to the Noble person, but if they underreported so numbers, the difference would end up in their own pockets. This made it very difficult to detect any discrepancies in the accounting.
Most people are greedy, but when controlled well, greed can sotis be a good thing! Zhao Dafu had abilities; if used well, he might be a great help in the future. Mo Yan did not want to snuff out soone’s life over such a minor fault.
As Mo Yan pondered various things, Zhao Dafu ca in with his family of nineteen, and with a thud, they all knelt on the ground together...
Reviews
All reviews (0)