Glory

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Ye Yaming grabbed him: "Father, don't be impatient."

She turned to Wen Tao: "I haven't said anything yet, but you're already preempting me, Mr. Wen. Are you feeling guilty? Afraid we might expose something about you, so you're trying to anger me into dismissing you outright, so you can escape?"

"Haven't said anything? You've already done everything." Wen Tao pointed at the two manor guards behind him. "Are you treating me like a criminal? I said I had matters at home and would come back later, but they forcibly brought me here."

Ye Yaming had no patience for his excuses. She raised a hand to Lve E, who immediately brought several account books and placed them before Wen Tao.

"Page twenty-one: On this day, sixty-four premium pressed teas and seventy-two medium-grade pressed teas were sold. Premium pressed tea sells for fifteen taels each, medium-grade for twelve taels each, totaling one thousand eight hundred twenty-four taels. Yet the record here shows one thousand six hundred twenty taels. Where did the missing two hundred and four taels go?"

"Now turn to page forty-three of this ledger: On this day, the sales... the accounts appear balanced, all numbers match. The problem is, the actual tea sold that day far exceeded what's recorded here. Where did the money for seven premium pressed teas and nine medium-grade pressed teas disappear to?"

As Ye Yaming listed each accounting discrepancy, Wen Tao maintained a forced calm, but Xu Shen and Shen Zhongyi both turned pale.

Especially Xu Shen—the accounts Ye Yaming had just cited were from the tea house.

Tea houses primarily serve tea for consumption. Only when new tea arrives in limited quantities do they sell directly in such high-traffic locations. Other customers who buy tea for personal collection, gifting purposes, or even smaller tea houses without their own tea gardens and tea factories would purchase wholesale directly from the tea house.

Therefore, the tea house handled large-scale transactions at considerable prices, with single deals often exceeding a thousand taels.

The pressed teas weren't standardized by weight—some used one jin of tea to make eight pieces, others four pieces. Since retail customers often bought one or two pieces, and small tea houses typically ordered three or four of each variety, the Ye family tea house priced them by individual piece.

These non-round-number accounts were inherently troublesome in ancient times without calculators and generally poor mathematical skills. With several or even dozens of transactions daily, if both the bookkeeper and auditor intentionally allowed minor errors, detection became extremely difficult.

"I've examined the accounts from the past five years. Initially, Mr. Xu only made small mistakes—a few taels here and there, totaling ten to twenty taels per month. But by the third month four years ago, he grew bolder, skimming dozens of taels monthly. In recent years, it's reached one to two hundred taels per instance."

"Over these years, you've embezzled four thousand seven hundred eighty-five taels."

"I didn't! I didn't embezzle any money!" Xu Shen cried out. "If there are errors in the sections you mentioned, Third Miss, they were unintentional miscalculations. With numbers this large and chaotic, occasional mistakes are unavoidable. Old Master Ye was aware of this."

Ye Chongming slammed the table: "Nonsense!"

He did know that Xu Shen occasionally made errors, but he never imagined the man would be so audacious as to embezzle such a substantial amount.

Ignoring Xu Shen, Ye Yaming raised her hand and signaled Bai Rui to bring Shen Zhongyi's account books and place them before him."Mr. Shen, without large sums coming in, you frequently made errors in minor accounts. But you didn't make many mistakes four years ago - the frequent errors started in March four years ago. I've calculated the total amount you embezzled - two thousand five hundred sixty-three taels in all."

Shen Zhongyi's lips trembled as he said, "No, I didn't. These were all calculation errors from my inadequate skills. I haven't embezzled a single coin."

"I've already reported this to the authorities. You can save these excuses for the magistrate's court," Ye Yaming said. "But Mr. Xu and Mr. Shen, you should think carefully - will you bear the responsibility alone, or will you disclose those who conspired with you or even instigated your wrongdoing?"

Wen Tao, who had been maintaining his composure, couldn't hold back upon hearing this: "Third Miss, are you referring to me? Are you inciting them to drag me down to reduce their own punishment? With three accountants in the Ye family, you've already falsely accused two of them, and now you want to eliminate me too? Not leaving any of the Old Master's people, directly replacing them with your own? Third Miss, I must say your methods are utterly ruthless!"

He turned to Ye Chongming: "Old Master, I've always conducted myself with integrity and never stooped to underhanded tactics. My character and abilities were both affirmed by you. Now you're just going to stand by while Third Miss slanders us, frames us with false charges, all to drive us out and replace us with her own people?"

"There's no need to drive a wedge between my granddaughter and me," Ye Chongming said. "You know perfectly well what you've done. All these years I trusted you, yet you've been scheming right under my nose. Wen Tao, I never expected you to be this kind of person."

Before summoning Wen Tao and the other two, Ye Yaming had pointed out all the discrepancies in the account books to Ye Chongming and Ye Hongchang.

Since the Ye family engaged in business, mastering arithmetic was a fundamental skill. Due to their trust in Wen Tao and the complexity of the accounts, they had only given them a cursory review each month.

The Ye family's business was substantial, with monthly transactions amounting to at least ten thousand taels, reaching over a hundred thousand during the busy spring season. The three accountants had been very careful in their manipulations, embezzling only eight hundred to a thousand taels annually from the accounts, making it virtually undetectable.

After Ye Yaming pointed out the issues, they recalculated and confirmed the errors. The records all bore Xu Shen and Shen Zhongyi's handwriting without any signs of alteration. Moreover, given Ye Yaming's consistently upright conduct and her reputation for valuing integrity over wealth, they didn't genuinely suspect she was staging this to replace old staff with her own confidants.

Ignoring Wen Tao completely, Ye Yaming addressed Shen Zhongyi: "Mr. Shen, the amount you embezzled isn't large. If you can return the silver you took, we can choose not to pursue the matter. The condition is that you must disclose everything you know."

As she spoke, she nodded to Ye Hongchang.

This Shen Zhongyi was timid - he had immediately gone to find Wen Tao at the slightest hint of trouble. Judging from his accounts, he had likely started falsifying records and embezzling under Wen Tao's instigation. The amount he had taken was relatively small, making him the easiest to break.

Ye Hongchang stood up: "Mr. Shen, shall we speak in the next room?"

Upon hearing that he wouldn't be held accountable if he returned the embezzled silver, Shen Zhongyi immediately perked up and promptly followed Ye Hongchang to the adjacent room.He was literate and numerate, capable of earning a living anywhere. The silver he had embezzled hadn't been completely spent—he had used it to purchase a small shop. At worst, he could compensate the Ye family with the shop, and he would still be a respected accountant wherever he went.

Moreover, half of the embezzled silver had been given to Wen Tao. The accounts in the ledger were his doing, and the evidence was solid. If the Ye family were to report this to the authorities, given the Third Young Lady's status, the prefectural office would only curry favor with her and would not side with him, a guilty accountant. If he were convicted while Wen Tao remained free, he would die with everlasting regret.