Chapter 30: Just the right opportunity to attack
Warehouse stolen?
What a coincidence? Xiaochun hadn't even started checking the details of Gu's family transactions when the theft happened?
Jiang Xue frowned and looked at Gu Lintan.
Gu Lintan just stared at Huang Fu and asked, "What's going on?"
Jiang Xue felt that he didn't seem surprised.
She stopped looking at Lin Tan, put down her chopsticks and sat up straight.
Huang Fu said, "This morning, I was thinking of taking inventory and tidying up the storeroom so that I could hand it over to Miss Xiaochun."
"Oh?" Jiang Xue raised her eyebrows and asked, "Didn't Uncle Huang hand over the warehouse key and all the records to Xiaochun yesterday? How come he can still enter the warehouse today?"
"This..." Huang Fu said with a guilty look on his face, "We are all old slaves. We are old and forgetful. There were originally two copies of the storehouse key, and one is in the old slave's room."
"I only thought of this when I returned to my room last night. But it was too late, so I thought, if Miss Xiaochun wants to manage the household, I should check and count these items before handing them over to save Miss the trouble."
"So, I originally wanted to count the keys today and then hand them all over to Miss Xiaochun."
Jiang Xue said coldly: "Uncle Huang is really thoughtful."
"What about the theft in the warehouse?" asked Gu Lintan.
"I went to the storehouse and found that some valuable items were missing, so I hurried to report to His Highness and his wife."
"Really? What was lost?" Jiang Xue asked.
"The Prince Consort's Mansion didn't have many valuables originally. When His Highness and Prince Consort got married, the dowry sent from the palace and the gifts from various mansions were countless. Because we've been busy recently, they were all piled up in the storeroom."
"Today, I went to the storehouse and looked around. The red jade coral tree sent by the Prime Minister's residence, the white jade and ivory screen sent by Minister Zhang's residence, and some other large items whose names I cannot remember, were nowhere to be found."
"Although Mr. Huang is old, he has a good memory." Jiang Xue said sarcastically, "He said he was too busy to take care of these gifts, but he seems to remember every one of them. He can tell which ones are missing at a glance."
She looked at Xiaochun, and Xiaochun stepped forward and said:
"Then I will take the storehouse register that Uncle Huang gave me yesterday and go to the storehouse to check and count what is missing, in case I lose something when I return the gifts to you all in a few days."
Jiang Xue was about to nod, but she heard Huang Fu tremblingly speaking:
"Your Highness, please forgive me! Your Highness, please forgive me! There are too many gifts. I was busy preparing for the wedding a few days ago, so I only hastily recorded them in a book. I remember that I put the book in the gift box in the warehouse, but today, I can't find it no matter how hard I try!"
Jiang Xue clenched her hands into fists under her sleeves.
Gu Lintan, good, very good!
He had just handed over the position of housekeeper to Huang Fu yesterday, but today he used the excuse that the storehouse was stolen - even the books containing these valuable gifts were lost!
"I don't know which thief would take away these worthless books when stealing?" Jiang Xue said.
"Maybe the thieves were only interested in the gold, silver and jewelry in the box, so they took the box away as well..." Huang Fu hesitantly said.
Jiang Xue then looked at Gu Lintan, "What do you think, Prince Consort?"
"Your Highness, please calm down and let me ask you in detail. After all, Uncle Huang is old, so it is normal for him not to remember some things." Gu Lintan said.
"He's old," Jiang Xue said with a mocking smile, "Although Uncle Huang has a bad memory, he can tell at a glance what was stolen from the warehouse."
"If you say that Mr. Huang has a good memory, he can't even remember how many copies of the storeroom keys he has, and he can just throw the booklet recording the details of the gifts into the box."
"Uncle Huang, you are unwilling to take good care of the gifts you received for your wedding. Is it just because you have a bad memory, or do you disrespect the royal family?"
Huang Fu immediately fell to his knees, shaking like a sieve, and shouted loudly, "I dare not! I dare not!"
Seeing that Jiang Xue was too aggressive, Gu Lintan frowned slightly and said:
"Your Highness, Uncle Huang is an elder of my Gu family after all. He has watched me grow up since I was a child. I hope Your Highness will give me some leniency for my sake."
Jiang Xue's face was as cold as ice and she didn't say anything.
If we talk about what happened just now, she was willing to humble herself and pretend to be nice for the sake of protection.
But at this moment, it was obvious that Gu Lintan had teamed up with Huang Fu to make a fool of her. The matter involved the accounts of the Gu Mansion's treasury. She was so angry that she couldn't give him a single good face.
"Your Highness, now that things have come to this, there is no point in complaining. After all, Mr. Huang is old and incapable."
"Didn't Your Highness just say that incompetent people can be replaced, and it is useless to punish them?"
"Fortunately, His Royal Highness the Second Prince had the foresight to hand over the housekeeping to Miss Xiaochun. The young lady is smart, young and strong, and I think she will be able to manage the housekeeping well in the future."
Gu Lintan actually used her words to turn the tables on her.
Jiang Xue laughed out of anger. She calmed herself down a little and decided that now was not the time to break up with them.
But she couldn't give in immediately.
Gu Lintan was testing her. If she really got furious and punished Huang Fu, it would be said that she, as the princess, had ignored the old servant's age and blamed him unreasonably.
If she gave in and acted virtuous and gentle, I'm afraid that with Gu Lintan's suspicious character, he would notice something was wrong.
Jiang Xue is a princess of a country after all. Even if she is not domineering, it is normal for her to lose her temper a little when facing this matter.
Jiang Xue spoke with anger in her voice, "Then according to Prince Consort's plan, how should this matter be handled? Should we report it to the police?"
Report to the police?
Gu Lintan had never thought of this.
He asked Huang Fu to report the theft with two purposes.
Firstly, Huang Fu was the only one who managed the warehouse for him in the past, and the shameful objects and account books in the warehouse were only handled by him and Huang Fu.
Now that Jiang Yu has ordered Xiaochun to take over, it is equivalent to Jiang Xue taking over. He must find a reason as soon as possible to hide these things without anyone knowing.
Something happened in the mansion last night. Although he was worried, the appearance of this "thief" did solve his urgent problem.
Secondly, he wanted to use this incident to test Jiang Xue's true opinion on what happened last night.
It was normal for Jiang Xue to feel anxious or angry after hearing about the theft.
Jiang Xueruo showed little reaction to this matter. Therefore, she had probably connected the person from last night with him, Gu Lintan, and that was why she was watching him "crying thief".
It is even more thought-provoking that Jiang Xueruo can still smile at him.
Now it seems that Jiang Xue's reaction is relatively normal.
In Gu Lintan's eyes, Jiang Xue was both anxious and angry, but she was trying to restrain herself because of her status as a princess.
In this way, he felt half relieved.
He gently patted the back of Jiang Xue's hand and said, "Your Highness, please be at ease. Reporting this to the authorities will not work. If this matter is handed over to Jingzhao Prefecture, everyone will know about the Gu family affairs, and both Your Highness and I will lose face."
"The correct thing to do now is to find the thief."
"If you think everything is not feasible, then you don't have to discuss it with me in the future!" Jiang Xue pretended to be angry and said, "Now that the things have disappeared, where can we find the thief?"
"The person who disturbed Your Highness last night was so skilled, he would not have left the Gu Mansion empty-handed." Gu Lintan said.
"Your Highness, are you saying that the man last night was the culprit for the theft in the warehouse?"
Jiang Xue sneered in her heart. Even if Gu Lintan thought she was out of touch with the world and even if he thought she was arrogant and stupid, he shouldn't treat her as a fool.
It was stolen at such a hapless time.
Just take the ruby coral tree that my grandfather sent as a gift, which is three feet tall and more than two feet wide - who can carry this thing and run in the dark without being noticed?
"I think this is the only possibility. After all, there are only two keys to the storehouse, and one is in Uncle Huang's hands. If Uncle Huang wanted to embezzle, he could have kept the gifts privately when they arrived at the mansion, and there was no need to wait until today to make a big deal out of it."
"The other key is in the hands of Miss Xiaochun."
After Gu Lintan finished speaking, he looked at Xiaochun meaningfully.
"Miss Xiaochun is a member of the palace, so she shouldn't be suspected."
"Xiaochun was with me all night last night," Jiang Xue said coldly, "According to what the Prince Consort said, if she has any doubts, then this matter must be related to me."
"So the suspicion of the two of them can be ruled out. The only outsider in the mansion right now is the scoundrel from last night."
"Does the Prince Consort think that he can carry these objects by himself?" Jiang Xue sneered, "It seems that this person must have a gang."
Gu Lintan said: "It should be so."
Jiang Xue had already made up her mind, and said angrily:
"The gang entered the Gu Mansion's storehouse, but none of the guards you selected noticed it."
"It seems that the guards of the Gu Mansion need to be replaced. They really can't wait a moment."
"Fudong, take my token and have Xu Chong accompany Xianglu to the palace immediately to ask my mother to transfer the palace guards to the Gu Mansion."
"Send them all here. Guard the Gu Mansion tightly!"
Jiang Xue was originally afraid that bringing too many people for no reason might alert the enemy.
Now that she and Gu Lintan had a "dispute" over the theft in the warehouse, she took this as an excuse to vent her anger and try to make the Gu Mansion a place under her control.
At least in this way, from the perspective of others, she just lost her temper because she was offended.
Before Gu Lintan could react, Fu Dong had already taken the token and walked out of the small side hall.
Huang Fu knelt on the ground and looked up at Gu Lintan.
Gu Lintan's face turned ashen and gloomy like a ghost.
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