My younger sister insisted on marrying me and made me the Marquis' wife.

Chapter 494: Accounting Office

The chance of the Yelu clan to stir up trouble was killed at the root.

At least it can bring Daxing peace for a few more decades.

She has not lived her life in vain.

As for the future...the rise and fall of dynasties are determined by fate, and this is not something she should consider.

Gu Jinghui put down his bowl and chopsticks and asked, "By the way, why is Princess Fu Yun here today?"

Qin Yuan sighed and said, "She wants to see Master Nantang."

“?” Gu Jinghui was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.

Qin Yuan put down his bowl and chopsticks.

"I had no choice but to tell her that Master Nantang is a solitary person who doesn't like to see people. After he taught my cousin how to write poetry, he said he didn't want to come out and see people this year."

Gu Jinghui snorted and looked at her.

Qin Yuan said: "Just say whatever you want to say."

Gu Jinghui smiled and said, “Could it be that she is in love with Young Master Nantang? You are really attractive.”

My little wife is so beautiful and talented, she should be kept hidden.

Fortunately, she was not well-known among the ladies, otherwise how could she have picked up such a great treasure.

Mr. Songshan is right, he is indeed blessed with good fortune.

Qin Yuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

When it was Lord Gu's turn to look at others, he saw everything clearly.

Why am I confused now?

"You are really clever."

Qin Yuan mocked him and sighed, "I should have called him Mr. Nantang earlier. People would have thought that Mr. Songshan and I are about the same age and wouldn't have asked so many questions."

Mr. Songshan's poems are much better than hers, but no one comes to ask about him.

Obviously it is because of the name.

"So it is said that writing is worthless when one is old, and the world loves young men."

Lord Gu added.

"Hey, what are you doing..."

Lord Gu smiled and said, "I have been interacting with the civil servants of the six ministries all day long. I have learned it by listening to them with one ear and the other."

Qin Yuan nodded.

As the saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together." Lord Gu often interacted with civil servants and Confucian scholars, so naturally he became more cultured.

"Instead of sitting there to protect the house, why don't you move the book over there and read it? Otherwise, how will you deal with it when your father asks about it in the future?"

Lord Gu quickly changed the subject, looking at Qin Yuan expectantly with his dark, bright eyes, and said softly, "Good Yuan'er, I didn't sleep all night last night, and it's hard to sleep in the office. It's a good time to take a break now. Don't you want to join me?"

Qin Yuan glanced at the hourglass in the corner of the room and said, "Let's go together. It's time for lunch break."

They changed their clothes and lay on the bed facing each other.

Lord Gu stretched out his long arms and held her in his arms. He smelled the faint fragrance of her hair and soon fell asleep.

Qin Yuan couldn't sleep.

As he listened to his long, deep breathing, he thought of this and that.

After finally squinting for a while, she heard Hongye knocking on the door outside and said, "Madam, it's time to get up. The accountants are waiting in the meeting yard."

Qin Yuan got up and said, "Come in and help me comb my hair."

After a while, Cui Ming came in.

Qin Yuan knew that Hong Ye was avoiding Lord Gu, so she smiled and said, "Husband, aren't you going to be on duty this afternoon?"

Lord Gu also got up, put on his coat in no time, leaned against the head of the bed, looked at her lazily, and said, "I'm too lazy to go. Someone is guarding here. I'll go with you."

Qin Yuan said hurriedly, "It's just to look at account books and use abacus. I'm afraid your husband will be bored if he goes there. Mr. Songshan is bored because he is idle. Why don't you go and ask him to tell you a story?"

Gu Jinghui still insisted: "It doesn't matter. The general accounting office has been decided today, and the housekeeper of the inner courtyard must also be decided. Besides... the matter of Accountant Sun and Housekeeper Zhang must be discussed. Didn't Mr. Songshan say that the inner house is like the court, it must be cleaned from time to time, and rewards and punishments should be implemented at the same time." Qin Yuan suddenly realized.

He was thinking of making an example of her.

"Okay, let's go together."

When the couple appeared together, the originally noisy yard suddenly became silent.

Butler Cao, who was sitting in the corner, couldn't help but poke Butler Han.

Butler Han did not respond, but his eyes were full of smiles.

At this time, everyone had already taken their seats, with pens, ink, paper, inkstone and abacus placed on the table. After standing up and greeting, they sat down again and got down to business.

Hongye read out the rules of the examination and required them to review the issued account books within the specified period of time.

After the reading was finished, Hongmian took a stack of account books and distributed them one by one.

Lord Gu leaned forward and asked quietly, "Are these account books all old accounts of the Marquis' Mansion?"

Qin Yuan smiled and shook her head: "They are all from my dowry shop."

These were the crooked accounts that several shopkeepers had used to fool her. They had many loopholes and were most suitable for using as a preliminary test.

After everyone received the account book, Hongye lit incense on the main table and said loudly: "Please complete the request within three incense sticks."

Suddenly, the only sound heard was the clacking of abacus beads.

After three incense sticks burned out, two-thirds of the people had completed their review.

Hongye looked at Qin Yuan.

Qin Yuan nodded.

Hongye said: "After the review is completed, please point out the problems in the account books one by one."

Thus one third of the accountants were excluded.

Among the remaining people, several were eliminated due to careless mistakes.

Qin Yuan said: "Next, please review the account books again within three incense sticks."

Hongmian issued another stack of account books.

These are the account books that Manager Wu sent to the Marquis' Mansion for the second time. He has tried his best to cover them up, but there are still some clues.

The remaining few people were ready for battle, knowing that this was the last test.

Qin Yuan said: "This time, please show your strengths and tell us what you can find."

Several people looked at each other in confusion, seemingly somewhat confused.

But seeing that Hongye had already lit the incense, he didn't care about it anymore and just started to review it.

After the three incense sticks burned out, only one person was still looking at the account book.

Hongye walked closer and whispered, "It's the accountant Wan."

He was a thin, fair-skinned man with no beard. He wore a bamboo-green gown with frayed sleeves. His hair was sparse and slightly yellow, tied up with a bamboo-green scarf.

He looked frail and indeed looked like someone who had just recovered from a serious illness.

Qin Yuan was silent for a moment, then said, "...Oh...let them tell us what they found."

Hongye breathed a sigh of relief.

Gu Jinghui said, “I’m afraid the wind will blow him down. Is this possible?”

Qin Yuan smiled and said, "We don't need him to fight in the battlefield, so my Lord, please don't judge people by their appearance."

Lord Gu chuckled and said, "Okay, I want to see what this accountant Wan is capable of."

The accountants took turns to express their opinions on the account books in their hands, all of them pointing out the mistakes and falsification methods.

Qin Yuan listened carefully and nodded slightly from time to time.

Steward Cao whispered to Steward Han, "These accountants are all equally matched. I'm afraid Madam will have to compete again?"

Butler Han said, "Don't worry, Accountant Wan hasn't said anything yet."

Steward Cao sighed, "We are all laymen. We just thought that Accountant Wan was a man of noble character, so we recommended him to Madam. But he was the slowest among them just now. He didn't even finish reading the account book."