“Grandmother, I’m not that experienced. Can you find a person to help me?” Ning Xueyan asked gently, holding up the tea cup from the table and passed it to Madam Dowager.
“She is still too young, so she dares not to take responsibilities. It also means that she is not ambitious.” Madam Dowager was very satisfied with this. She turned to Ning Qingshan and said, “Shan’er, go to check the account books with Yan’er. After all, you will take care of our manor’s business in the future, so you should practice in advance.”
Since Madam Dowager asked Ning Qingshan to help Ning Xueyan, it meant she had great expectations of her.
Ning Qingshan was overjoyed and she immediately agreed in a soft voice. She felt a little relieved. At least, she knew that the Lord Protector’s Manor had not given her up and Madam Dowager still hoped her to be Third Prince’s principle wife.
They had both come early in the morning and had not had breakfast yet, so Ning Xueyan and Ning Qingshan ate something at Madam Dowager’s place before going to the front hall. Since all the visitors were men, Madam Dowager specially asked the sisters to meet them at the front hall.
Since those people were all their subordinates, Madam Dowager arranged for a small hall beside the main hall for the meeting. After all, those shopkeepers were only Lord Protector’s Manor’s servants. Besides, Madam Ling had also met them there before.
“Third Sister, I heard from Mother Qin that the Beauty Contest is coming soon. You’re also in the list of candidates. May all your wish come true!” Ning Xueyan said gently, as if she was really happy for Ning Qingshan.
“Beauty Contest? Our manor has signed me up for the contest?” Ning Qingshan was excited and took a sigh of relief. She worried a lot about what had happened yesterday. Since Madam Dowager had allowed her to participate in the Beauty Contest held by the imperial palace, she believed that she was able to stand out in the contest. Honored Consort Ya treated her so well, so Ning Qingshan was confident that with her help, she would definitely marry Third Prince.
“But why has nobody told me about it? But Ning Xueyan has learned the news from Mother Qin! Does this mean that Madam Dowager takes Ning Xueyan more seriously than me?” At the thought that Ning Xueyan might replace her to marry Third Prince, Ning Qingshan became both jealous and angry. Although she was cunning and calm, she almost lost her mind and wanted to slap Ning Xueyan.
However, she could not do this for the moment. She had been too short-tempered recently and had gotten herself involved in the battle against Ning Xueyan before she could gain a firm foothold at the Lord Protector’s manor. That was why she had suffered great loss. Mammy Luo had reminded her about it yesterday, and she thought Mammy Luo was right. The Beauty Contest was coming, so she should not waste her time on fighting Ning Xueyan now.
When she became Third Prince’s wedded wife, if she wanted her dead, Ning Xueyan could not live.
“Thank you, Fifth Sister! If I rise high someday in the future, I will certainly repay your kindness to me.” Ning Qingshan smiled, covering her mouth with her sleeve, looking gentle and graceful. In the others’ eyes, she was still the gentle and generous Third Young Lady they were familiar with.
Only Ning Xueyan knew that Ning Qingshan was hinting that if she married Third Prince in the future, she would definitely revenge on her.
But Ning Xueyan did not care about it. They seemed to get on well with each other in front of the others, but both of them knew that Ning Qingshan had planned to set up Ning Xueyan yesterday, but unfortunately, she had become the victim of her own plot finally. Of course, neither of them would tell Madam Dowager about it.
“Third Sister, you must have never checked the account books of these shops before. I wonder if you can find something wrong with them. I hope those shopkeepers won’t fool us. It’s said Third Prince owns many shops.” It was obvious that Ning Xueyan was challenging Ning Qingshan by hinting that since she had never been in charge of accounts before, even if there was something wrong with the accounts, she could not find it out. Besides, she was also suggesting that Ning Qingshan might be fooled by those shopkeepers.
Ning Qingshan was so angry that she gritted her teeth. How dare Ning Xueyan look down upon her like this? She would show her and Madam Dowager that although she was not in charge of accounts, she could do a good job, even better than Ning Xueyan!
She had planned to only show up, but say nothing. But now, she had changed her mind. She would surprise Madam Dowager and Ning Qingshan and let them know who was the most outstanding. She could do what Ning Xueyan could do, and she could also do what Ning Xueyan could not do!
“Fifth Sister, thank you for your reminding. I will check them carefully and nobody can fool me.” Ning Qingshan shot back, without hiding her anger.
Then she strode into the front hall with her maid. With a faint smile, Ning Xueyan walked in, following behind her.
The hall was separated into two parts with a bead curtain. Since they were unmarried Young Ladies, they should not show their faces in front of so many men.
They vaguely saw a dozen men sitting outside through the curtain. They were all the shopkeepers of their manor. Since they heard that Fifth Young Lady had been rewarded by Prince Yi yesterday, none of them dared to be absent.
Although they were all here, they did not think in the same way. A few shopkeepers exchanged glances, rolling their eyes. They said nothing but knew exactly what the other meant.
A large pile of account books lying on the table in front of Ning Xueyan and Ning Qingshan. They were the main account books of all the shops, recording the general ledger relating to income and expenditure of the year. Ning Xueyan picked one from them, checked it briefly and found that it was impeccable, so obviously, the shopkeeper had put a lot of effort into preparing it.
Every income and expenditure was clearly recorded.
Ning Qingshan held up an account book as well and looked through it. She had never checked any account books before, but she was a smart person, and she had learned a little accounting knowledge from Madam Ling, she could also tell that the account was clearly indicated, so she nodded approvingly.
Without speaking anything, they both began to check the account books in their hands carefully. They would ask the shopkeepers outside to explain when there was something they did not understand. All the shopkeepers answered fluently, so obviously, they were very familiar with their account books, and they knew what the two Young Ladies were asking without even looking at the account books.
So they must have well prepared before coming to the manor to submit the account books.
It was so quiet in the hall that only the sounds of turning pages and the sweet female voices could be heard. All the shopkeepers had figured out that there was more than one girl inside. They were all smart, and they knew except for Third Young Lady, nobody could be on par with Fifth Young Lady. It was said that Third Young Lady would become Third Prince’s principal wife in the future.
So they became even more respectful to the Young Ladies.
After checking a number of account books, the Young Ladies did not found any mistakes. Ning Qingshan was trying to find out some flaws from them, but so far, she had not found any problems yet, so she could not help frowning. She did not believe that all the shopkeepers were that honest. She touched the account book in her hands for a few seconds and then suddenly pointed at the account book that Ning Xueyan had just closed. “Fifth Sister, let me have a look at it!” she said.
“Third Sister, what’s wrong? Did you find any problems?” Ning Xueyan passed the account book in her hand to Ning Qingshan in surprise. She seemed to have no idea what Ning Qingshan had found out.
All the shopkeepers outside could not help looking in the bead curtain’s direction, nervously. The shrewd Third Young Lady must have found something wrong!
“What’s the profit on the account book in your hand?” Ning Qingshan took the account book from Ning Xueyan and asked casually.
“About twenty thousand taels of silver. What’s yours?” Ning Xueyan asked curiously, moving closer to Ning Qingshan and looking at the account book in her hands.
“A thousand,” Ning Qingshan said in a low voice.
“Huh? A thousand?” Ning Xueyan was shocked. She checked the account book again, and found it was true.
“Mr. Wang, it’s said your candied fruit shop was very busy, but how could it be a profit of only a thousand taels of silver?” Ning Qingshan compared the two figures again and asked in a low voice. Now she realized that she had found the flaw.
There were twelve months a year. It was impossible that a candied fruit shop’s profit was less than a hundred taels of silver a month.
“Third Young Lady, you can’t blame me for that. Our shop is really not doing very well. Many people come to our shop every day, but only very few of them will buy our products, so the monthly profit is small. I have tried my best.” Hearing Ning Qingshan’s query, the candied fruit shop’s shopkeeper, Mr. Wang, immediately walked out from the crowd and defended himself.
From the conversation between Ning Qingshan and Ning Xueyan, the shopkeepers had distinguished the voices of Third Young Lady and Fifth Young Lady.
“Your business is not good?” Ning Qingshan asked incredulously.
Ning Xueyan leaned back, hiding a trace of a smile in her eyes under her trembling feather-like eyelashes. Ning Qingshan was finally behaving as she had expected after being mocked by her. That was great!
“Yes! Third Young Lady, our shop’s business is poor. It has already been very difficult to have so much profit,” Mr. Wang answered anxiously.
“How many employees do you have?” Hearing Ning Qingshan’s question, Ning Xueyan knew that she had hit home.
“There are ten people in our shop, including the accountant, shop assistants, the buyer and me,” Mr. Wang answered, wondering why Ning Qingshan asked about this.
“The shop is located in the main street of the capital and ten people are working for it, but it only has a profit of a thousand taels of silver a year! Mr. Wang, you can go home! As far as I know, the rental of the shop is more than a thousand a year. Besides, if we rent the shop out, we don’t have to raise so many lazy people!”
Ning Qingshan patted the account book in her hand and said coldly.
It was true that the candied fruit shop was located in one of the busiest streets of the capital. That street was the busiest and most bustling, and the rental was very expensive. Even if the rental of an empty shop would be more than a thousand taels of silver a year.
“Mr. Wang, you can pack your bags tonight and go home tomorrow. Dismiss all the employees of your shop and I will tell my grandmother to rent the shop to others,” Ning Qingshan said with a sneer.
“I, I… Please don’t…” Mr. Wang became extremely anxious. He had never thought that Third Young Lady would have been so ruthless and even wanted to fair him and all the employees of his shop only because of an account book. Since half of the employees were his families, if they were fired, he would not be able to support such a big family.
“Third Sister, there are a few shops that have only a profit of a little more than a thousand taels of silver. I think we can fire all the employees of these shops and rent the shops out next year. Then we don’t have to sell anything and support a group of useless people but can get the rental directly. It will be much easier than running shops!” Ning Xueyan said slowly, taking out several account books.
She had checked all of them, and each of them had a profit of a thousand plus taels of silver.
Hearing that they would be fired, the shopkeepers of these shops could not stay calm anymore. Some of them began to sweat, and some looked pale. They exchanged glances anxiously.
