"Mother, you are being unreasonable! Your brother, the Crown Prince, is thinking of you wholeheartedly, why are you misunderstanding his good intentions?!" Ye Jingyu questioned loudly, her eyes red.
"You brat!" Ji Wushuang glared at Ye Jingyu, about to scold him, but she felt a little guilty and couldn't bring herself to say the words she usually spoke so readily.
"Go play somewhere else by yourself, don't stand in my way!" Ji Wushuang waved her hand dismissively at Ye Jingyu.
"Hmph!" Ye Jingyu snorted coldly and ran away in anger.
"Suzhi, what do you think of this matter?" Ji Wushuang asked, looking at the two price lists left by Ye Jingyu.
Suzhi thought for a moment, then pointed to the price list in the palace, "There must be something wrong with this price list!"
Ji Wushuang had a long face. She had never liked looking at anything related to numbers, whether it was ledgers or anything else.
I don't know what got into His Majesty. Why did he suddenly put her in charge of the palace's food and drink?
"Granny Zhang and the others are all old women brought from the Ji family; they would never betray me!" she said irritably.
"Perhaps the nannies and the others were also fooled?" Suzhi guessed.
"Go and invite those old women over for questioning." Ji Wushuang tossed aside the two price lists with a headache.
Inside Chengqian Palace, the emperor was also looking at two price lists.
The price list in his hand was different from the one in the Imperial Concubine's hand. It contained not only ingredients, but also a list of all items purchased outside the palace.
Although the purchase price of the ingredients differed from that outside the palace, it was insignificant compared to other prices.
The emperor could see through the trickery at a glance.
Those eunuchs in the Purchasing Department dared to fool him like that; they deserve to die!
Ji Wushuang, as a woman of the Ji family, can't even manage the palace supplies properly, allowing her subordinates to line their own pockets so blatantly. She's utterly useless!
What a waste of his trust!
"Investigate for me! Start from the time I ascended the throne! I want to see which audacious scoundrels are stealing my money!" the emperor said angrily.
"What about the Imperial Concubine—" Zhang Shunde asked cautiously.
Zhang Shunde's question reminded the emperor that Jingchen wanted to give Ji Wushuang a chance.
It's probably because of Jing Yu's sake.
The emperor thought about it. Ji Wushuang was, after all, a member of the Ji family, and it wouldn't be appropriate to make things too ugly. Jing Chen's wishes and Jing Yu's reputation also had to be taken into consideration.
"Investigate secretly, without alerting her." He changed his words, then added, "Have someone keep a close eye on everything that happens at Weiyang Palace!"
He wanted to see how Ji Wushuang would handle this matter!
It was impossible to keep what happened in the Eastern Palace from the Emperor's sight, especially since some people with ulterior motives were eager to use this opportunity to sow discord between the Emperor and the Crown Prince.
Therefore, the emperor knew about this earlier than Ji Wushuang. While Ji Wushuang was still looking at the price list that Ye Jingyu brought her, the emperor already had a price list of all the items purchased outside the palace.
The emperor could have investigated the matter thoroughly with swift and decisive action, but since the crown prince wanted to give the imperial concubine a chance, he chose to cooperate.
After the three head maids arrived at Weiyang Palace, Ji Wushuang showed them the two price lists.
These three nannies were all carefully trained by the Ji family, specifically to assist the married-out daughters of the Ji family in managing the affairs of the inner quarters.
They were adept at managing accounts and skilled at employing people, but there was one problem: the Ji family's ancestral home was in Yongzhou, and they had always lived in Yongzhou before entering the palace. They were not familiar with the capital city and had no opportunity to leave the palace, so naturally they did not know the prices in the capital city.
Since the Imperial Concubine took over the management of palace supplies, all affairs have been handled by these three matrons.
When they first handed over the accounts to the purchasing department, the purchasing department's list contained these prices. They had also thoroughly checked the purchasing department's expense records from previous years, and there was nothing ambiguous or unreasonable about them.
Therefore, although they were puzzled by the high prices in the capital, they didn't think too much about it.
After all, if there were problems with this list, it's impossible that Consort De, who personally oversaw the palace's food preparations, wouldn't have discovered them.
Therefore, when they saw the two vastly different price lists, their expressions were full of surprise.
“These three old ladies are all veterans of the Ji family, with rich experience in managing accounts. Don’t you find such outrageous prices strange?” Ji Wushuang questioned, noticing their expressions.
“Miss, since we three took over all the affairs of the palace four years ago, we have checked the accounts for at least the previous five years and found no problems, which is why we did not suspect anything. If there is a problem with this price list, it means that the problem has existed for a long time, and even Consort Chen was kept in the dark!” The three matrons exchanged glances, and the head matron, Zhang, said calmly.
“It’s also possible that Consort Chen wasn’t kept in the dark, but rather participated and even benefited from it!” another nanny, Li, added.
After their initial surprise, the three old women remained calm.
Because of their status, in order not to arouse the emperor's suspicion, they always acted cautiously, seeking no merit but only avoiding mistakes.
Before their mistress took charge of the palace's food supply, the procurement prices of the purchasing department were already so high. How can this be blamed on their mistress?
The former Consort De, now Consort Chen, was hated by Ji Wushuang even more than Ye Jingchen because she had harmed Ye Jingyu and the evidence was conclusive.
“Chen Wanrou has always been shrewd. I don’t believe she doesn’t know about this. Perhaps, all of this was at her behest, just to seek personal gain!”
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