How could my childhood sweetheart be the current empress?

Her strong pinch instantly made Xu Chengling's sleepiness disappear for the most part, and he quickly begged for mercy.

"what……"

Yan Jixue suddenly realized her own gaffe and quickly put her hands away. Her surging chest could not help but rise and fall violently, and she couldn't help but think:

"It's all this bad husband's fault. He always makes me lose my composure. Do I still have my dignity?"

"My lady, it's getting late. We should go to bed and rest."

Xu Chengling gently placed his hands on his wife's shoulders, put his mouth close to her small and delicate ears, and whispered.

"Hmm? You stink, haven't you showered yet?"

Yan Jixue looked at the other person with disgust. She sniffed the other person's body and found a smell of sweat. It was obvious that he had not taken a shower today.

"It's too late today. It's too cold. Besides, I'm very sleepy now. Let's take a shower tomorrow."

Xu Chengling said that she knew her wife was very clean, but the situation today was special. Who could bear to take a cold shower in the middle of the night? Even if they had to boil water, everyone would have gone to rest.

This was the only way to deal with it tonight. Seeing his wife's disgusted expression, Xu Chengling couldn't help but hold her shoulders tightly and coax her:

"My dear wife, I am too tired today, so I will let you stay here for one night. I am not dirty, but I smell a little sweaty. You can just sleep inside and you won't smell it when you fall asleep."

"no……"

Yan Jixue originally wanted to refuse directly. She really couldn't stand sleeping with someone who smelled of sweat.

But when I thought about the fact that the other person had not rested all night and had been out looking for someone, and now that he was back, he didn't even have time to take a shower.

And looking at his current appearance, he was obviously exhausted, but he was still very concerned about his own thoughts and forced himself to talk to her despite his sleepiness.

It would be unreasonable if I didn't let him go to bed.

Thinking of this, Yan Jixue had no choice but to endure some discomfort, nodded, and allowed him to go to bed with her.

They both changed their clothes and went to sleep in their clothes.

At this moment, Yan Jixue had a lot to say, so she couldn't help but ask:

"Husband, have you found the person?"

"Ah."

Xu Chengling could only respond softly as he no longer had much strength left.

"Just find the person back."

Yan Jixue said softly, she paused, and then said;

"You really are such a fool. You don't have to focus all your energy on me. You should also focus some energy on Qian'er. After all, she is your adopted sister and the person closest to you. You should be nicer to her."

"I am very pleased that my wife has this heart. I understand."

Xu Chengling nodded slightly. Although Qian'er had said bad things about his wife behind her back before, his wife put aside the past grudges and still said good things about Qian'er.

Xu Chengling felt very relieved that she could accept Qian'er.

How many men dream of having such a good wife who cares about the family?

He has no regrets marrying such a good wife.

Chapter 63 This is too cruel

Xu Chengling slept soundly this time.

When he woke up early in the morning, the woman who slept next to him had already gotten up and could not be seen in the room.

In the past, Yan Jixue would wake up earlier than Xu Chengling, but there were occasional exceptions.

Only when he wins over the other in bed, she will naturally wake up later.

Today is another beautiful day. There is a whistling sound of wind coming from the house and the weather is turning cooler.

Xu Chengling stood up from the bed, washed up in front of the mirror, changed his clothes, put on his coat, pushed the door and walked out.

Outside the house was a quiet and elegant courtyard. When he arrived at the courtyard, he saw a graceful white figure sitting on a stone chair under a plum tree. She was wearing a blue dress that showed off her graceful figure, making her the most beautiful scenery in the courtyard.

I saw the lady holding an account book in her hand, scribbling on it, her slender eyebrows slightly raised, biting her lips lightly, and she seemed a little unhappy.

Yan Jixue was bewildered when she saw the sudden appearance of a deficit in the account book.

“Why did it exceed this month?”

Speaking of which, Yan Jixue initially took over the accounting job from the housekeeper with the purpose of finding out whether there was any suspicious income in the Prime Minister's Mansion, so as to catch the other party's evidence of corruption and bribery.

Her idea was very simple. As long as she could get evidence of Xu Chengling's bribery, it would be equivalent to catching the other party's handle, and then she could easily control the other party.

As a result, after getting the account book, Yan Jixue carefully checked the bills of the Xiangguo Mansion.

She discovered that since Xu Chengling succeeded to the position of Prime Minister, a new account book had been used, and the records also started from the time when Xu Chengling officially took over the Prime Minister's Mansion.

As for the above income and expenditure, except for one income that looks suspicious, there is actually no problem at all. They are all normal income and expenditure.

At least for now, Yan Jixue has not found any evidence of corruption or bribery against the other party.

Just early this morning, Yan Jixue saw that there was suddenly an additional expenditure in the account book, which was distributed to servants throughout the mansion.

As for this expenditure, it was actually double the monthly salary of all the servants in the mansion this month, which was equivalent to overdrawing the budget of the Prime Minister's Mansion for next month in advance.

The monthly salary of a servant is not much, but if all the servants in the Prime Minister's Mansion are added together, it would add up to a considerable expense.

The main source of income for the Prime Minister's Mansion is naturally the monthly salary that Xu Chengling, the Prime Minister, receives from the court, followed by the rent of shops run by the Prime Minister's Mansion in the capital, as well as various miscellaneous income.

Based on Yan Jixue's experience in managing the national treasury, if you want to save money, you must do a good job of increasing revenue and reducing expenditure. You have made some progress in increasing revenue, but there are some problems with reducing expenditure at the moment.

Originally, she could save a considerable amount of money every month through the management reforms of the servants in the Prime Minister's Mansion.

But now, all of them were rushed out by Xu Chengling.

Looking at the row of deficits in the account book, Yan Jixue finally couldn't help cursing in her heart:

"Xu Chengling, I'm going to kill you!"

At this time, Xu Chengling was standing not far away. Seeing his wife looking crazy after seeing the account book, he thought, Oh no, my wife might be angry.

"Ah!"

Suddenly, he sneezed, which immediately attracted the attention of Yan Jixue who was not far away.

The lady just glanced and looked towards Xu Chengling.

"Madam, are you looking at the account book?"

Xu Chengling couldn't help but smile bitterly, walked over and sat down next to his wife.

"Well, this month's expenses have suddenly exceeded, husband, do you have any idea?"

Yan Jixue raised her eyes, and her beautiful eyes gave him a fierce look, and asked with a fake smile on her face.

It’s really strange. I could have saved a lot of money this month, so how come I went over the limit all of a sudden?

"Yes, it's really strange. Your Majesty must have deducted my salary this month. Your Majesty is really too mean."

Xu Chengling followed suit and immediately put the blame on the empress.

Hearing his words, Yan Jixue really wanted to spray him to death with a mouthful of salt soda.

When had she ever withheld the salaries of court officials? The salaries were paid on time every month. But these bastards always slacked off every time they went to court, and were more diligent than anyone else when it came to collecting their salaries.

Yan Jixue got angry whenever she thought of this, and she wished she could drag all these bastards who were slacking off in court down and chop them into pieces.

But if she really wanted to do this, there would probably be few officials left in the court.

Seeing his wife's angry look, she was actually a little cute. Xu Chengling couldn't help but smile. It was of course a good thing for his wife to take care of the family, so he comforted her:

"Just wait until your husband's salary for next month is issued. In a few days, the rent of the shops rented out by the Xiangguo Mansion will be recovered, and then we can fill this gap."

Of course, in addition to salary and monthly rent, there is a faster way to make money, which is to use the power of being the prime minister to make money.

This method is too cruel, whether it is punishment or not!

Of course, the most important thing is that if he does this, he will easily be caught by the empress, and when the time comes to settle accounts, he will definitely be the first one to escape.

Therefore, after Xu Chengling took over the Xiangguo Mansion, he dismissed some of the original servants, reduced expenses, ensured the balance of income and expenditure of the Xiangguo Mansion, and was able to support the normal operation of the Xiangguo Mansion.

Even though he is the prime minister of a country, he is actually very poor.

At this time, Yan Jixue opened the account book and drew a circle on one of the places in the account book.

I saw that in the area she circled, a restaurant called Zhi Liu Xiang had very suspicious monthly income.

Yan Jixue had some impression of Zhiliuxiang Restaurant, which was ranked among the top three restaurants in Beijing. She had once eaten a meal there.

It is really expensive, and they have all kinds of delicacies from land and sea. But no matter how much money a restaurant makes, it is impossible for it to be so profitable.

So, she asked Xia Chan to investigate the daily income of the restaurant. Even if they made a full profit for a month, it was still less than half of the income in the account book.

Yan Jixue couldn't help but think of a possibility, that is, the bulk of this income did not come from Zhi Liuxiang. This restaurant was just a cover, and the real income should come from another industry of the Xiangguo Mansion.

In her opinion, there is only one industry that can generate such profits, and that is the land of fireworks.

After following the clues, Yan Jixue finally locked onto a brothel called Huayinglou. After Xia Chan's secret observation, she found that people from the Xiangguo Mansion had entered and exited there many times.

Well, it seems that there must be some unspeakable secret between Xiangguo Mansion and Huaying Tower.

So far, Yan Jixue has this information in her hands.

At this moment, Xia Chan, dressed in green gauze, walked in, looked at the two people in the yard, bowed and said:

"Master, Madam, the people from the Jia Mansion have arrived and are currently waiting in the main hall."

"Why are people from the Jia Mansion here?"

Hearing this, Xu Chengling couldn't help but frown slightly. Why did someone from the Jia Mansion come here?

He had originally planned to go to the Jia Mansion in person to discuss the cancellation of the engagement, but unfortunately, someone else came to him first.

Could it be that the Jia family learned in advance that the eldest daughter wanted to break off the engagement and came directly to the door?

But no matter what, the sudden visit from the Jia family was indeed beyond Xu Chengling's expectations.

But he didn't notice that his wife's mouth corner raised a barely perceptible arc.

Everything is under her control.

It seems that the Jia family is quite efficient. The imperial edict was issued yesterday and the people arrived today.

"Husband, just go there. Maybe the other party is here to cancel the engagement on his own initiative?"

Yan Jixue smiled slightly and said to him.

Chapter 64: There is such a good thing?

Seeing his wife smiling, Xu Chengling couldn't help but smile as well and said:

"If it's as good as you say, I'll be back soon."

It is unlikely that the Jia family would cancel the engagement for no reason.

It's a very simple truth. The Prime Minister's Mansion wants to win over the Jia Mansion, but the Jia Mansion needs the power of the Prime Minister's Mansion more in order to gain a foothold in the fiercely competitive market in the capital.

But for Qian'er's future, Xu Chengling decided to take the initiative to propose to the Jia family to cancel the engagement and cancel the original engagement between the two families.

"Tong'er, come with me."

After saying that, Xu Chengling took Tongxin and left the yard.

Yan Jixue couldn't help but glance at him, looking at the villain's back and snorting:

"Humph, believe it or not."

After a while, Xu Chengling brought Tongxin to the main hall used to entertain guests.

At the same time, people from the Jia Mansion had also arrived.

As soon as Xu Chengling arrived at the main hall, a middle-aged man with a lot of money came over and greeted him:

"I have heard of the Prime Minister's great name for a long time. I am Jia Wanyi, and I have come to visit you specially."

This person is dressed in rich clothes and has big ears. One can probably guess his identity from the money he has in his stomach.