"Okay." Zhao Yiming interrupted their argument.
After the two of them calmed down, Tian An stood up and walked towards Wang with a smile on his face. "After listening to what Second Aunt said just now, I have a few questions in my mind. I hope Second Aunt can help me solve them."
After Zhao Qianhua's lesson, Wang Shi didn't dare to be disrespectful to Tian An anymore and said politely, "You speak."
Tian An raised his hand and gave a thumbs-up, saying, "First, Second Aunt just said that the store has been losing money every year and it is only able to survive with the help of Second Aunt's dowry.
Then may I ask how much dowry Second Aunt brought when she entered the mansion? And how much silver does she contribute to the various shops every year?"
Tian An raised his second finger and said, "Second, Auntie, when you say the old people who worked in the shop when my grandparents were alive, which shop owner or employee are you referring to?"
"Third, Second Uncle used the money to entertain, manage, and exchange favors. Who did he give it to? Who did he go to where for entertainment? Or who did he repay favors to? There must be an account of every single one of these!"
After Tian An finished speaking, he returned to his main seat and waited for Wang's explanation at ease. "Aunt, please explain the doubts."
"Well, so many years have passed, I can't remember those details anymore." Wang felt guilty and made up an excuse to get away with it.
Tian An looked at her with a half-smile: "Do you not remember, or is the truth not what Second Aunt said?"
"It doesn't matter if Second Aunt doesn't remember. Just take out your dowry list and we'll know once we calculate it.
How much cash can those things be converted into? How many years can they sustain the losses of all the shops in the mansion? I think it’s not difficult to calculate.”
"This, dowry, dowry list, list..." When Wang mentioned her dowry, she felt humiliated and her face turned red instantly. Her father was patriarchal, and Zhao Ningsong was just a bastard of the Duke's Mansion. Most of her dowry was inferior goods.
There were clearly only fourteen or fifteen loads of things, but she managed to pack them sparsely and force it to eighteen loads. Even so, it still didn't even hold half of what Zhao Ningyan's wife Jiang had. For this, Zhao Ningsong and his mother scolded her a lot.
Later, her parents-in-law and the first wife passed away one after another, and she got the housekeeper's power. She then used the power for personal gain to buy four shops for herself and saved a lot of money.
But in order to clean up the mess for her daughter, the four shops were taken away by that bitch Aunt Xu and given as compensation to the Tian and Gu families.
Because the mother and son would often complain about her small dowry, everyone in the mansion knew about it.
I didn't expect that the excuse I made in a hurry just now would make me so embarrassed.
After watching it, I saw Wang's face full of shame, anger and embarrassment, she stammered and couldn't speak.
Tian An raised his hands and clapped twice, then said to the outside, "Bring it up!"
As soon as she finished speaking, a guard escorted the mansion's accountant to the center of the hall.
Tian An looked at Wang and Zhao Ningsong mockingly, pointed at the accountant kneeling on the ground and said, "Things that my second uncle and second aunt can't remember, he knows very well!
He was also afraid that he would miss something as he got older, so he recorded it in a booklet.
It records clearly and explicitly what my second uncle took, how much silver he got, and where he spent it.
There's also information about when Second Aunt's family came to the mansion, under what pretext, and how much silver they borrowed, whether it was fine fabrics, jewelry, ornaments, or even food supplements, bonsai for the greenhouse, charcoal for the winter, etc. The quantity, type, unit price, and total price are all included."
After Tian An finished speaking, everyone looked at Wang as if she were a rat in a gutter.
Before anyone else could say anything, Old Lady Cao stood up and hit her with her cane, "You spendthrift woman, you actually secretly used the mansion's things to support your parents.
Are you Wang family the beggars on the street? Why do you want everything? Why don’t you starve that family to death…”
Wang received two solid blows from Old Lady Cao's cane. She tried to argue, "It wasn't me. I didn't do that. This servant must have wronged me."
Upon hearing this, the accountant quickly pulled out the account book from his pocket, presented it to Zhao Yiming and Tian An, and raised three fingers to the sky and swore, "I swear that everything recorded in this account book is true. If even a single word is false, I will be struck by lightning and my entire family will die miserably."
After this oath was uttered, everyone almost believed what he said. However, Tian An specifically asked Wang and Zhao Ningsong, "He dares to swear on what he said, but do Second Uncle and Second Aunt dare to swear on their innocence?"
The ancients believed in ghosts and gods. Zhao Ningsong and Wang had done so many bad things that they dared not swear.
Zhao Yiming flipped through a few pages of the account book, then angrily threw it to the ground. He looked at the people from the second house with a sharp gaze, "What else do you have to say?"
Zhao Ningsong and Wang were so scared that they dared not look at him and could only lower their heads and remain silent.
Seeing this, Zhao Yiming immediately asked someone to bring pen, ink, paper and inkstone, wrote the division document on the spot, and asked them to sign and seal it.
Zhao Ningyan signed the contract readily, but Zhao Ningsong hesitated and was finally frightened by a look from Zhao Yiming and wrote down his name obediently.
After collecting the documents, Tian An immediately had the jewelry box in Zhao Ningsong's arms taken away. He counted it in front of him before putting the items held by the servants back into the warehouse.
"Since the family has been divided, uncle and aunt should pack up and leave the house before it gets dark! If you move quickly, you can still find a place to stay before dark." In order to avoid any more trouble, Tian An ordered them to leave directly.
"You want us to leave now?" Old Lady Cao said in disbelief. How could that be possible? She was planning to go back and think of a way to stay in this mansion forever!
Tian An looked at the people from the second house sarcastically and said, "If you don't leave now, do you think I'll keep you here for the New Year and keep you from emptying out the house?"
People like this are like rolling pins on a chopping block. We should not indulge them. We should give them time and space to continue to cause trouble.
So, Tian An directly set a time limit for them, "I will give you half an hour. After half an hour, no matter whether you are ready or not, you will all be kicked out of the house."
"What? How can half an hour be enough? It's not enough for us to clean up." Wang said unreasonably.
Tian An was even less pleased with her. "How many things has Second Aunt moved back to her parents' home over the years? It's already good enough that my husband and I didn't ask you to go get them back. What else do you want to take?"
After that, she looked at everyone in the second house and said, "Except for underwear and jewelry, you are not to touch anything in the mansion."
Without waiting for them to say anything more, Tian An announced directly, "Half an hour, the time starts now. If you don't want to collect your things, you can continue to make trouble here."
Upon hearing this, the concubines and daughters-in-law behind Zhao Ningsong all dispersed. Seeing this, the remaining Zhao Ningsong, his mother, and Wang Shi could only turn around and go back to their rooms to pack up their things, although they were unwilling.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com