After about 15 minutes of being at the banquet, Li Mei hurriedly left with her husband. It was very uncharacteristic of her to leave a banquet so early.
Mu Mansion 20 minutes later,
Li Mei smashed open the sliding door to her room, her face contorted in fury and her body radiating the powerful aura of a seventh-grade martial artist. "That bitch! Fuck, fuck!" she screamed, kicking a table and shattering it into pieces. Her husband, Han Cha Mu, rushed to her side, wrapping his arms around her in an attempt to calm her down.
"Calm down, Lili, calm down. We need to think about what to do next..." he started, but before he could finish, Li Mei's Qi aura intensified. She spoke in a dangerously calm voice, "Go to downtown now. Meet any and all loan sharks, money lenders, and investors. We need to arrange at least 14 gold teals by tomorrow morning."
Han understood the urgency but hesitated, "But it's very late now. Most would be sleeping." A sharp glare from Li Mei silenced him, and he immediately started moving to carry out her orders.
As soon as Han left, Li Mei shouted, "Chuang Chi, bring all the account books of Jinwei Mansion right now!" Her voice, enhanced with Qi transmission, echoed through the mansion, reaching Chuang Chi on the other side. Li Mei knew she had to forge the account books from the past year by tonight. If she didn't, she would be exposed for siphoning funds from Jinwei Mansion.
She was deeply worried about securing 14 gold teals in one night, but she had faith in her husband. He would surely find someone who could lend them that kind of money.
To put things in perspective, 14 gold teals was a significant amount. The entire income and budget of Mu Mansion combined amounted to only 20 gold teals. In central plain’s currency system, 1,000 copper teals equaled 1 silver teal, and 100 silver teals equaled 1 gold teal. For a commoner family of four, 400 copper teals were enough to cover their living expenses for a month, illustrating the vast wealth of the nine great sects.
The reason Li Mei had to secure 14 gold teals was that Jinwei Mansion's monthly allowance was 20 gold teals. She had been siphoning these funds to buy martial arts medicines for her children and herself, and to fund various influential figures to secure her family's positions in the sect. This month was no different, but she had never anticipated needing to produce such a large sum overnight to avoid getting caught and losing her position.
Li Mei's mind raced with thoughts of how to cover up her tracks. The task ahead was monumental, but she had no choice but to proceed. She had to rely on her husband's resourcefulness and her own cunning to navigate this crisis. As she began to formulate her plans, the weight of her actions and the potential consequences loomed over her like a dark cloud. She knew that failure was not an option.
Jinwei Mansion used to produce about 50-60 gold teals a month from its businesses and investments, second only to the sect’s administrative mansion, the Blazing Sun Mansion. This was during the time when Jinwei and his wife were alive. After their deaths, the sect faced difficulties leaving the business without a leader. Rather than taking control of the business away from Jinwei Mansion, which would have seemed like stealing from a child, the sect decided to absorb the business into the administrative mansion's operations. However, they agreed to allocate a portion of the profits to Edina. This arrangement resulted in Jinwei Mansion receiving an allowance of 20 gold teals, the second largest budget for a mansion in the sect.
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Late into the night, Li Mei continued to write up fake account books, inventing expenditures she never made, in a desperate attempt to cover her tracks.
Elsewhere, in Shun Mansion, Blazing Dawn Sect
Junior Edina was sleeping in a nice cushy bed tonight because she was staying at the Shun Mansion. She had been discussing various plot points from the romance novel she just read with her Aunt Qin, feeling more alive than she had in over a year. Her Aunt Qin had left to sleep in her own room, leaving Edina alone in the Shun Mansion for the night. She felt no worries about Xiao Min or the darkroom; it felt like a dream. However, when she remembered she had to return to Jinwei Mansion the next morning, a dreadful feeling arose within her. She calmed herself by recalling her grandfather's words about testing their financial management over the week. Junior Edina also dreaded this task, as she had no experience or idea how to manage finances. She was merely following Senior Edina’s instructions with a look of trepidation.
Edina took out the letter titled “Only open when you are granted control over Jinwei Mansion’s finances” written in Leonese from the inner pocket of her Hanfu.
“You actually did it! Now Aunt Li Mei will be scrambling—do you know what scrambling means? Let me use a simple word: finding a way to make up the lost allowance for the month and forge fake accounts. We won’t be able to challenge them. I know for a fact that she will find a way to get the money and act as if nothing happened. We can't do anything about that, but we can manage our funds properly and earn more money. The next pages contain various methods of arranging data used in the Leon Empire, which will make it easier for you to account for the money. I will fix your calculations or errors on Tuesdays.”
Junior Edina checked the pages and, sure enough, they contained Leonese numbers and methods of calculation such as double-entry accounting, graphical data representation, and other arithmetic examples and explanations.
She continued reading the letter after examining it
“First thing tomorrow morning, go to the Blazing Sun Mansion to receive the account books for Jinwei Mansion and stop all transactions, including the salaries of all the staff in Jinwei Mansion. This will make most of them quiet unless Aunt Li Mei pays them, which I doubt she can do after taking a huge loan to cover her tracks. You can easily hire people from Shun Mansion or request new staff from Blazing Sun Mansion. Of course, Aunt Li Mei will try to interfere since she still has custody over you. Politically and officially, as your guardian, she can stop you from hiring outsiders and claim she will send her staff. But don’t worry. Leave that to Grandfather, Uncle Lu Mingfe, and Aunt Qin. They will take care of it. Focus on learning the basics of arithmetic I provided for you.”
Edina felt a surge of determination mixed with anxiety. The letter provided a clear plan and reassured her that she had support.