At midday, the sun was high in the sky and it was very hot.

On the third floor of Huaguang Pavilion, the manager bowed and scraped to welcome Shang Changge.

"Princess, please have a seat!"

"Why did you come in person? If you had any orders, you could have just sent someone to call me. There was no need for you to come all the way here!"

Huaguang Pavilion is one of the top jewelry stores in the capital, located in a prime location.

Furthermore, due to its novel jewelry designs, it became one of the most frequently visited jewelry stores by officials, noblewomen, and ladies of high society.

With Princess Shang Changge as its powerful backer, Huaguang Pavilion is quite formidable among its peers.

The view from the third floor is excellent.

Sitting and brewing tea, one can overlook a quarter of the capital. Shang Changge takes a sip of tea.

Her beautiful eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at the shopkeeper, who had been respectfully fawning over her ever since she entered Huaguang Pavilion, and said with a meaningful smile:

"Manager Luo, you must have sat here quite often for tea, right? Such a great view and such fine tea."

No wonder Manager Luo has become increasingly arrogant and forgotten who he is.

Manager Luo's face twisted for a moment, but he forced a forced smile to cover it up.

He still wore that smiling businessman's face, feigning ignorance and belittling himself as he said:

"Your Highness is too kind. How could I dare to say that!"

"I'm just someone who manages Huaguang Pavilion for you; to put it more politely, I'm the manager of Huaguang Pavilion."

To put it bluntly, he's just a dog under your command, and he dares not forget who he is, much less harbor any other thoughts.

Shang Changge: "Is that so?"

Shang Changge gestured to Qingyao, who, with a cold expression the whole way, threw the account book at the shopkeeper and angrily questioned him:

"Then what's going on with these ledgers?! Where did all the missing silver go?!"

Manager Luo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, and tremblingly picked up the account book, turning the pages one by one.

As he carefully examined the circles and dots on each page of the ledger, his face grew even more ashen and ferocious, and the curses he hurled at him intensified.

What's wrong with this woman? She never cared about these things before and didn't understand them either.

How come all these falsified accounts are being uncovered one by one? Who exactly is behind this, ruining his plans?

"Princess..."

Manager Luo suddenly knelt down before Shang Changge; a perfectly healthy, middle-aged man, crying so easily.

Tears streaming down her face, she clutched her chest, heartbroken, and began to feign ignorance and innocence.

"Princess, I really don't know anything about these accounts!"

The accountant did all the bookkeeping by himself; he must have embezzled the money behind the younger ones' backs!

"I...no, no, no, I'll go and fetch the accountant right away! I'll get him right now!"

Manager Luo tried to slip away, but was stopped by several armed guards brought by Shang Changge.

His already contorted face twisted in agony again, but he had no choice but to continue feigning misery as he turned and knelt before Shang Changge:

"male……"

Shang Changge raised her hand, interrupting the shopkeeper's affected, pitiful wailing:

"I ask you, who is in charge of the accountant?"

After struggling for a long time, the shopkeeper finally managed to utter the word "small" under Shang Changge's displeased squinting eyes.

Shang Changge: "Very good."

He stroked the rim of the teacup, still warm from the tea, with his fingertips, and slowly uttered words that completely disregarded Manager Luo's life or death.

"Since it's under your jurisdiction, then I'll talk to you. I'll give you half a day to make up for the missing amounts in the account book."

Otherwise, the people I brought will chop you and all your blood relatives living in the West Street mansions into pieces and feed them to the dogs.

Manager Luo had lost control of his expression; he looked like he was about to say something to threaten Shang Changge, his teeth clenched.

Instead of getting angry, Shang Changge smiled, leaning back lazily in his chair, looking extremely nonchalant.

"I advise you not to try to put up a futile resistance or struggle. Doing so will only further provoke me and will not do you any good."

You should know that giving you half a day to make up the money is already a lenient gesture from me. I could have easily brought people to tear your house down.

Shang Changge is currently wearing a magnificent lake-blue dress worth a fortune, embroidered with patterns reserved for royalty.

Golden sunlight streamed through the wide-open windows on the third floor, bathing the magnificent dress in a golden glow.

As a result, Shang Changge seemed to have received the icing on the cake from heaven, becoming even more dazzling, noble, and arrogant.

Yet, the words spoken by this darling of heaven sounded exactly like those of a female Yama who had crawled out of the eighteenth level of hell to claim lives.

“I keep my word. After all, my infamy is known to everyone in Qingyan and the world. I don’t mind adding you to the list.”

Shang Changge spoke lightly.

They seemed completely unconcerned that Manager Luo wouldn't listen to their advice; on the contrary, they appeared quite expectant of him rising up in resistance.

That way, she can legitimately destroy someone's home and then legitimately chop them up and feed them to the dogs.