Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Only she, Zhao Qingyi, has the final say!
Tan Yue was too lazy to say anything more, so she went back to report with a bunch of matching keys in her pocket, and several maids followed behind her carrying stacks of account books.
Luo had only one thought in her mind: Zhao Qingyi had never taken care of the household since she got married. She wanted to see if Zhao Qingyi could manage the servants without her help.
Little did he know that in his previous life, Zhao Qingyi was the one in charge of the household finances. Without her to stabilize the inner house, how could Li Che have a worry-free career if he relied solely on the short-sighted Luo?
As soon as the account book came into Zhao Qingyi's hands, she found problems after flipping through a few pages. Not only were the accounts in a mess, there were even some false accounts, or the same expenses were repeatedly withdrawn. Every time the subordinates falsified the accounts, Luo pretended to know and agreed to them carelessly. Over time, it turned out that everyone in the mansion was fooling Luo.
Not only that, the profits of the shop she brought as a dowry were getting worse day by day. Zhao Qingyi fiddled with an abacus and made a rough estimate, and found that in the past three years, the shop's profits had decreased by 40% in total, while the expenses were far beyond the regulations. The items listed above were either sent to Lingnan to subsidize Li Che, or spent on Luo's social entertainment - the so-called preparation for her son's career.
The second is the monthly expenses of Luo and Li Susu. Based on Li Che's salary, even if he does not eat or drink, Luo and her daughter only have four or five taels of silver available every month. However, the accounts show that this pair of mother and daughter can spend dozens of taels every month, and even hundreds of taels during festivals. Their personal expenses on clothes, jewelry, rouge and powder alone are seven or eight hundred taels of silver a year.
In addition to the subsidies previously given to Li Che, as well as the expenses for maintaining the operation of the mansion, such as repairing the house, monthly wages for servants, food and clothing expenses, and rewards for servants during the New Year, etc., the small Li Mansion would spend nearly two thousand taels of silver a year, which was even more exaggerated than the expenses required to maintain a decent home for a fourth or fifth rank official in the capital.
You should know that the general expenses of officials in Beijing are only between 800 and 1,000 taels. Even Zhao Qingyi's own father, a third-rank official, and his mother and brother only spend 500 taels a year in the official residence they live in.
Even though her maternal grandfather had been royal merchants for generations and was very wealthy, Zhao Qingyi had to sigh at the Luo family's ability to squander the family's wealth. And all this money actually came from her dowry!
It's really hateful.
Zhao Qingyi could only be thankful that she had regained control of the household, otherwise she wouldn't know how much money she would have wasted. What was the difference between Luo's plot to steal her money and her trying to take her life?
Zhao Qingyi tried hard to calm down, while the two maids sorted the account books into categories, putting the accounts of the shop outside aside for the time being. The most urgent thing was to check the accounts in the inner house first, and then circle the problematic parts of the accounts with a red pen. By the time they finished checking, it was already the next morning.
Zhao Qingyi almost didn't sleep all night. He drank a cup of tea to wake himself up. All the maids and servants in the mansion had arrived, except for the managers. However, he waited and waited until noon before they finally arrived.
The Li family is not big, and the trivial matters in the inner house are managed by a steward assisting Mother Luo. The other two are Luo Da and Luo Er, who are in charge of the shops in the capital. They are both relatives from Luo's maternal side. Now the four of them have arrived at Lanyue Pavilion and bowed to the mistress of the house in the octagonal pavilion.
Zhao Qingyi drank tea leisurely, waving a sandalwood brocade fan in one hand. He looked noble, but his face showed that he was only eighteen or nineteen years old. He had never been in charge of a household before. The four people below him looked respectful, but they were disdainful in their hearts. Luo Da and Luo Er even glanced at the person on the main seat.
They were all rough men who worked outside. The most common people they had seen in the house were Luo's mother and daughter. They had never seen such a beautiful person.
Qiao Yue was displeased and frowned, "If you dare to look at our grandma with such a sneaky look again, I'll dig out your eyes!"
Luo Daluo Er immediately lowered his head and said hurriedly, "I dare not."
Zhao Qingyi was not annoyed. He drank a cup of tea leisurely and tried a few cakes after the meal. He had no intention of calling them to get up. The four of them could only bear the scorching sun above their heads, half-bent over, and beads of sweat quickly slid down their foreheads.
Just as one of them could no longer hold on and fell to his knees, Zhao Qingyi cleaned the corner of his mouth with a silk handkerchief and glanced over. "I didn't have time to eat this morning, so I waited here for you all to come and pay your respects. I didn't expect you all to be so busy. I just had a cup of tea. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. Do you mind?"
The tone was soft, yet cold.
The housekeeper was the first to wipe her sweat, "Grandma, what are you talking about? It's this servant who deserves to die. I came late, and now I have to wait, it's all due to me."
"I'm sure you've all heard about what's happened in the mansion recently, and you should know what kind of person I am. In the past, I was the housekeeper, and I didn't care what your rules were. Now it's my turn, and everything must be done according to my rules. From now on, you must come to my courtyard at 2:30 am every day to pay your respects and report the trivial matters of the previous day. If you are late by even a minute, you will be fined one or two months' salary. Remember this?"
Zhao Qingyi waved her hand to signal Tan Yue to move a chair behind the housekeeper. The housekeeper thanked her profusely and sat down carefully. Seeing this, the other three people also hurriedly apologized to Zhao Qingyi.
But Zhao Qingyi ignored him and casually flipped through an account book, saying, "Last night I reviewed the account books for the past three years in the mansion and found that the Li family has 20 to 30 people, but their expenses are comparable to those of a mansion with hundreds of slaves."
"In the past, you were supported by my dowry, and you squandered it recklessly. From now on, you will have to rely entirely on your salary, so you must be frugal. I summoned you all here today to discuss how to reduce expenses in the mansion."
After these words were spoken, the four of them looked at each other.
"That's what Grandma said."
Mother Luo was the first to nod with a smile, then when she looked up at Zhao Qingyi, she changed the subject, "But, Master is going to be admitted to the Imperial Academy in the future. If the allowances from the various academies are less, it would be disgraceful and bring shame to Master."
As a wife, which one would not care about her husband's face?
Mother Luo was sure that Zhao Qingyi would not dare.
Zhao Qingyi lowered her head and laughed, "Mother Luo, wasn't she once the wife of an official? What does it mean to be disgraceful? What does it mean to lose face? Why don't you teach me?"
Mother Luo choked.
"Let alone whether you can enter the Hanlin Academy now, even if you become a Hanlin editor, your annual salary is only forty or fifty taels of silver. Your family has no property or shops, so where will the money come from?"
Zhao Qingyi stood up and walked to the stone steps of the pavilion, looking down at him condescendingly. "Do you want me to continue using my wife's dowry to maintain my dignity? If this gets out, won't I be ridiculed by my colleagues?"
She leaned forward slightly and lifted Luo's mother's chin. "Or do you want people to think that the master has done something shameful behind my back?"
Mother Luo shuddered all over and sank to her knees. "Grandma, please understand! I have no such intention. It's just that you've never managed the household before, and I'm worried..."
"Who the hell are you? How dare you talk to Grandma?"
Whenever Qiao Yue thought about how Luo and that bunch of slaves had cheated her grandmother out of so much money over the years, she couldn't swallow it. She went over and slapped her grandmother in the face, making Luo's mother's head buzz.
Zhao Qingyi's beautiful eyes were cold and gloomy. "Don't think that just because you were brought up by your mother-in-law and have been in charge of the household for a few years, you understand the ways of survival in the official families of the capital."
She knew very well that the more friendly these villains were, the more arrogant they would become. So from the very beginning, she wanted to step on these people. In this family, only she, Zhao Qingyi, had the final say.
"Open your eyes and look at it yourself. It's such a mess. How does it look like the accounts made by the person in charge?"
Zhao Qingyi pulled out an account book and threw it directly at Mother Luo's face. Mother Luo was slapped first, and now she was hit in the face again. She was in so much pain that she couldn't speak.
"Over the years, you've taken advantage of your mother-in-law's ignorance and fooled her like this, especially your mother Luo. Your mother-in-law trusted you so much, but you betrayed her trust. It's bad enough that you messed up the accounts, but you were also responsible for all the purchases in the mansion. The prices of these purchases have been rising year by year, but in reality, the things you bought are still the same. Tell me, how much silver have you embezzled in these three years!"
Luo's mother kowtowed repeatedly and protested her innocence, "Grandma is innocent! Every expense on this account was approved and signed by the old lady! Besides, it's normal for the same item to have different prices every year. Grandma has lived in seclusion for a long time..."
"You bunch of stubborn slaves, you won't cry until you see the coffin."
Zhao Qingyi didn't want to listen to the old woman's nonsense, so she took out a thin account book and threw it in front of Luo Mama. "This is the market price that Tan Yue checked this morning. Look at the amount recorded in your account. The difference is doubled."
Mother Luo was still stubborn. "Grandma, you don't know, the old lady and the aunt are picky. Ordinary things are not to their liking. Even if they are the same things, there are differences in quality. I always buy the best, so the prices are naturally different."
Mother Luo bet that Zhao Qingyi had no evidence.
Tan Yue frowned as she listened, "Mother Luo, you are so forgetful. We still have grain, oil, rice and flour brought from the small kitchen of Qionghua Hall. I know exactly what you bought."
Mother Luo took a deep breath. How could she have forgotten this?
Before she could think of a proper explanation, Zhao Qingyi flipped through another account book and pointed to one of the entries. "The small kitchens in the various courtyards of the mansion all stock the same things every day. What's in Qionghua Hall is also in my uncle's Cuizhuxuan. But even though this bird's nest and milk are delicious, my uncle, a man, doesn't eat them."
"There's also a note in the kitchen account for 'Golden Minced Fish'. This dish is raw fish sashimi garnished with gold leaf. I remember my mother-in-law and sister-in-law only having it once. Although the fish was delicious, they found it bland and disliked it. We don't usually see this dish on the table anymore, but why does the kitchen record this every day?"
"Grandma is really wronged!"
Mother Luo knelt on the ground and cried, "The masters can choose not to eat, but the kitchen cannot be without it. If the masters want to eat one day and the kitchen doesn't have it, we servants will definitely be punished. Besides, this fish sashimi has to be replaced with fresh ones every day..."
Zhao Qingyi watched her cry, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Fish sashimi must be fresh every day. Does that mean the gold foil will rot and stink, so it needs to be changed every day?"
Mother Luo's crying stopped abruptly.
"Also, there is nothing that is indispensable in this mansion."
Zhao Qingyi gently waved a round fan and paced back and forth in front of several people. As she walked, the hem of her lilac skirt rippled, and her waist was restrained but no sound was made. Her every move showed the demeanor of a lady from a noble family.
"From now on, the procurement for the small kitchens in each courtyard will be consolidated into Lanyue Pavilion. Master, please prepare a list of what you would like to eat and use in advance and submit it to me. After I approve it, I will have people procure it according to the list to avoid waste and prevent some individuals from using the purchase as an excuse to enrich themselves."
She almost mentioned someone's name, and Mother Luo's face turned red with embarrassment.
"I won't pursue the bad debts of the past, but if anyone dares to cheat their boss and embezzle money under my nose again, I will turn them over to the authorities and either kill them or beat them up. It's up to fate."
The last eight words frightened all the servants in the yard so much that they knelt down and kowtowed.
Only the housekeeper, sitting upright, asked in a trembling voice, "Then, then, will the Second Master's courtyard also be operated in the same way?"
"Of course." Zhao Qingyi treated everyone equally. "Second Master has the imperial examination coming up, so he needs pens, ink, and paper for his studies. However, the daily bird's nest, milk, and the fixed five taels of wine are not necessary. Second Master never drinks. The rest is the same as for Qionghua Hall. Just make a list and submit it."
A maid from Cuizhuxuan came out from the back and knelt before Zhao Qingyi. "Grandma, the expenses of the Second Master's courtyard are not much to begin with. If we reduce them further, I'm afraid he will be unhappy."
"I just reduced some of the things he didn't need, and you're already complaining on behalf of your master."
Zhao Qingyi lowered her eyes and continued to look through the account book in her hand. "Why, did all this stuff go into your stomach? Did I reduce your expenses?"
The old woman was speechless and could only twist her sleeves and grit her teeth.
The Second Master was born out of wedlock and was never valued by Mrs. Luo. The family in the courtyard had always been in financial difficulty, and the maids who served them relied on the little money from the small kitchen.
Zhao Qingyi naturally noticed the woman's dissatisfaction and said with a smile, "You don't have to be angry. Cuizhuxuan doesn't have much money. I'm sorry to have wronged you. Tanyue, take her indenture."
The Li family had no money to keep servants. These people were recruited into the mansion by Luo, and all the expenses were paid by her, and their indentures were naturally in her hands.
Zhao Qingyi returned the woman's indenture and said, "Please find another job."
The old woman no longer dared to complain, and said with an embarrassed look, "Grandma, this is not what I meant..."
After all, she was a distant relative of the Luo family and had finally managed to find a job in the mansion. If she left, it would be difficult for her to find such an easy job again at her age.
Perhaps because she was too noisy, Zhao Qingyi looked away. Immediately, two servants came forward, carried the old woman and walked out.
The old woman's screams were heartbreaking, which attracted the attention of Li Heng who was passing by. When the old woman saw him, she burst into tears as if she had seen a savior.
"Second Master, help!"
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