Jing Zhe didn't have time to listen to their bickering; instead, he carefully examined the account book in his hand.

The good news is that the ledger shows that Wenxiangju suddenly received a large sum of one thousand taels of silver recently. Combined with the remaining working capital in the ledger, Wenxiangju now has about two thousand taels of working capital available.

For Jing Zhe, that was enough.

The bad news is that the ledger shows that the monthly profit is not much when the accounts are settled at the end of each month, and some months—such as the one a few days ago—even showed a loss!

This Wenxiangju restaurant is so big, it's almost always packed, and lately they've been selling spirits. They should be making a fortune just from selling spirits, so how could they be losing money?

He threw the ledger on the table and said with dissatisfaction, "Manager Song, are you messing with me? Other people can easily make a fortune by opening a small restaurant, how come you're losing money?"

Manager Song's expression finally softened a bit:

Ha, don't think that Wenxiangju is so easy to take over! You'll have your share of headaches later!

"President Jing, just flip back through the ledgers and you'll see!"

Jing Zhe flipped through the pages and indeed discovered the root cause of the losses.

Someone is buying on credit!

Moreover, the number of people involved is large, and the amount of money involved is enormous!

Take Song Jimao and Yu Haixing, who just left, for example. One owed three hundred taels of silver, and the other owed two hundred taels. Yu Haixing only comes to Jingzhou for a few days a year, yet he owes two hundred taels of silver.

Needless to say, the others were even worse off. Prince Su Xinping, the heir of the Prince of Jin, owed nearly a thousand taels of silver. It seemed that from the day Su Xinping arrived in Jingzhou, he had never paid for his meals at Wenxiangju!

"What happened? How come they owe so much?"

Manager Song gave a helpless laugh: "Jingzhou is the capital of the emperor, and there are countless imperial relatives, sons of powerful officials, and so on. The power dynamics here are very complex, and a slight misstep could lead to utter ruin. These people come to Wenxiangju for meals every day. How can we possibly offend them if we want to continue doing business in Jingzhou?"

"So every time they come to eat, they pay on credit. Over time, the debts they owe are almost equal to what they earn from other people, right?"

Manager Song nodded and said with a wry smile, "Since President Jing knows about my situation, to be honest, these powerful and wealthy people are now going even further, spending more and more at Wenxiangju. The money they owe is almost equal to the money they earn from others. In addition, Wenxiangju has to prepare working capital every day to buy wine and vegetables and pay the staff their monthly wages. In fact, the money is not enough every month."

As you can see from the books, the accounts are usually a bit higher at the end of the month, and that's because I used a large portion of the kickbacks from the Du brothers to cover those costs! Otherwise, Wenxiangju would have gone bankrupt long ago! But since they started selling strong liquor recently, they not only came and owed us money, but they also took the liquor with them, so we've lost even more, resulting in a deficit. The extra money on the books is from the Du brothers this time.”

At this point, Manager Song was filled with righteous indignation, and even had a sense of awe.

Jing Zhe had come to understand him to some extent, but that was not enough to justify his aiding and abetting evil, so he did not sympathize with him.

"Manager Song, so you're saying that Wenxiangju is a hot potato after I took over? If it's not managed well, won't it lose money every day? You've really given me a tough problem!"

Manager Song sneered inwardly, "Even if you run your business well, you'll still lose money. Otherwise, I'd need to take money from the Du brothers every month to make up for it."

"President Jing, since you want Wenxiangju, you naturally have to bear all the consequences. What, President Jing, have you changed your mind?"

Jing Zhe waved his hand, "No, I just like challenges. But I still have to thank Manager Song. I've roughly looked through it, and the amount of silver owed by these people is no small sum! If I could get it all back, wouldn't I be rich?"

"Yes, then congratulations to President Jing in advance!"

Manager Song flattered him, but inwardly he sneered: Heh, you'll see whether you make money or not when the time comes!

Jing Zhe put the account book away and then said, "We shouldn't delay, let's go to the yamen right away and transfer the house and land deeds!"

With that, he took the lead and stepped out.

"Big brother..."

Shopkeeper Song glanced at Song Er and spread his hands, saying, "You've seen it too. Now that things have been exposed, what can we do? My only hope now is that what he said is true, and that Prefect Li will promise not to pursue us any further. I'll go with him to the prefect's office to see if he really knows Prefect Li, or if he's lying! You hurry back and pack your things. This place is not safe to stay in any longer. We need to leave quickly to avoid further trouble!"

Song Er agreed and watched Manager Song leave.

...

Jing Zhe and Manager Song arrived at the yamen gate one after the other.

The constables in the yamen were already very familiar with Jing Zhe. After all, Jing Zhe had repeatedly surprised them, especially since he had orchestrated the case of Anguo's largest casino, which they had just cracked yesterday. At the end of the year, the imperial court would probably reward him for his merits!

Thinking of this, the constables had an even better impression of Jing Zhe.

"President Jing is here?"

"President Jing is here to see Prefect Li, right?"

"Prefect Li is in the backyard. Shall I take Chief Jing there?"

Jing Zhe smiled and declined, "It's alright, I'm very familiar with your government office, I can go there myself, no need to trouble yourself!"

Seeing Jing Zhe enter the yamen as if it were his own territory, Manager Song was almost convinced of what he had said before about his relationship with Li Haoyun.

Ordinary people, how could a constable give you such a nice look?

At this moment, Li Haoyun was sitting in the courtyard enjoying tea, his mind still preoccupied with how the first issue of the newspaper would promote him, and he was filled with anticipation.

Suddenly, Jing Zhe walked in.

He laughed loudly, "President Jing, I was just thinking about you and you came over. We really are on the same wavelength!"

"..."

Jing Zhe was taken aback. "What do you want me to do?"

She looked somewhat wary; after all, having a telepathic connection with a grown man was never a good thing.

Seeing Jing Zhe's expression, Li Haoyun laughed: "President Jing is overthinking it. I was just thinking about how to write the first issue of the newspaper!"

Jing Zhe finally breathed a sigh of relief, "Don't worry about that, they'll definitely highlight you. His Majesty won't be able to resist praising you!"

He then pointed to Manager Song behind him and said, "I brought Manager Song here to transfer the property. Prefect Li, please do a notarization for us and affix your seal."

Li Haoyun glanced at Manager Song, his eyes brightening slightly.

At this moment, Jing Zhe had already handed over the house deeds and land deeds.

Li Haoyun asked, "Manager Song, have you agreed? Is it voluntary?"

"Agreed, it's voluntary! Prefect Li!"

Manager Song sneered inwardly. He was now completely certain of the close relationship between Li Haoyun and Jing Zhe. He thought to himself, "You're working together to get me. Can I refuse?"

————