What a small world!
"Madam is back! It just so happens that my aunt sent me to find you!"
Before she had taken two steps, Li Chang'an was called back, so she could only suppress her impatience and listen to the person finish speaking.
"Knowing that Madam is busy, my aunt specifically asked me to remind you not to forget about the account books."
Xing'er had a forced smile on her face, and her tone was very unpleasant to listen to.
"Understood, I'll go right away."
Li Chang'an couldn't help but take a deep breath, suppressing the irritation in his heart, and nodded lightly. He then prepared to go back to his own courtyard to calm down.
"Then I'll trouble you, Madam. I'll send someone to pick it up later."
Xing'er smiled faintly at her again, then bowed slightly before straightening her back and leaving first.
"My elder sister is back!"
At this moment, Li Changsheng was reading a book in the courtyard. When he saw Li Chang'an return, he greeted her with a smile.
Li Chang'an nodded slightly to him, feeling a little relieved. He then let out a deep sigh and went into the study.
Upon entering, one immediately noticed that the table was covered with ledgers, some of which were even yellowed, clearly indicating that they had been stored for a long time.
As Li Chang'an sat down at the table, he casually tidied up the pile of messy account books on the table and immediately smelled a dusty smell mixed with a slight musty smell.
Li Chang'an picked up a book at random and flipped through it, only to find that it was actually an account book from five years ago!
I hadn't even arrived at the General's Mansion yet!
Li Chang'an couldn't help but laugh in anger.
Those people went to great lengths to cause trouble for themselves, even digging up these old grievances.
This added another task to her job: to categorize the ledgers by time.
Li Chang'an had no choice but to patiently flip through the accounts one by one, even though the pile of things made her feel overwhelmed. She could only swallow this bitter pill now.
Now that she has revealed her identity as the mistress of the house, she must do what she is supposed to do, otherwise some resentful people will definitely hold a grudge.
It took Li Chang'an a full hour to sort out all the accounts.
After removing the ledgers from many years ago, there aren't actually that many ledgers left that I need to process myself.
Then she brought out an abacus and picked up an account book to carefully look through it.
The beginning was mostly fine, but later Li Chang'an discovered many loopholes in the accounts.
After looking at it again, I realized that the problems started about six months after I left the General's Mansion. From that time onwards, the accounts I kept were somewhat unclear, and some parts were even contradictory.
The further Li Biao'an read, the more somber her expression became, because she discovered that in just three short years, the General's Mansion had suffered significant losses.
Fortunately, I carefully checked these accounts today; otherwise, if the losses continued like this, the entire General's Mansion would become an empty shell in just a few years.
Although the General's Mansion had some businesses outside, such as restaurants and banks, it wasn't enough to keep squandering money like this.
Moreover, Qin Xiashi almost never interfered with those businesses, leaving them all to be managed by people from the general's collateral branches.
The more Li Chang'an thought about it, the more his head ached. If those collateral branches were up to no good, the General's Mansion's properties would probably be in jeopardy.
"Li Chang'an, you come out here right now!"
Suddenly a commotion arose outside.
Upon hearing that familiar child's voice, Li Chang'an immediately straightened his face.
Isn't this Qin Yubao?
Li Chang'an quickly stood up and strode outside.
Pushing open the door, I saw Qin Yubao standing there, hands on his hips, looking furious.
"Shut up! Who taught you to address your elders by their given names?"
Looking at the sulking little one in front of him, Li Chang'an's face no longer showed the affection he usually had for the child.
The thought that these were the words that the brat had just said made Li Chang'an want to pick him up and beat him up.
Looking at the woman's dark face, Qin Yubao was stunned for a moment, but then he started shouting at the top of his lungs, looking like he was ready to risk everything.
"You big bad guy! Why did you drive away Granny Qin and Sister Chunyu!"
Looking at Qin Yubao's hysterical state, Li Chang'an suddenly felt puzzled, unable to understand what the child was saying out of the blue.
But after thinking about it carefully, the only ones I drove away were the two maids who bullied Li Changsheng, but what did that have to do with Qin Yubao?
"Hey, can you please stop making noise? I'm reading!"
At this moment, Li Changsheng couldn't help but speak up and rebuke him.
Actually, it wasn't a big deal that Qin Yubao disturbed his reading. The main reason Li Changsheng was so angry was that he couldn't stand the boy's rude behavior towards Li Chang'an.
"Shut up, you big bad guy! It's because of you, Granny Qin, that Granny Qin and Sister Chunyu were kicked out!"
This time, Qin Yubao turned his attention to Li Changsheng.
Upon hearing this, Li Changsheng was displeased, and the two children started arguing back and forth.
Li Chang'an listened to their argument with a frown and roughly understood what was going on. It turned out that the two maids he had driven away that day happened to be responsible for preparing three meals a day for Qin Yubao.
The child was used to the food cooked by those two people, so when he suddenly switched to food cooked by someone else, he started picking and choosing. Moreover, the milk soup he ate every day was Qin Mama's specialty.
"Whoever made it can't eat it? Look how delicate you are! What's the use of coming to us? Would we even cook for you?"
Li Changsheng criticized him mercilessly, feeling that the kid was clearly being unreasonable.
In fact, Qin Yubao didn't know what the point was of him coming to make a scene. If it weren't for Qin Xia's reminder, he wouldn't have cared about not eating the milk soup today.
Li Chang'an knew in his heart that the child must have been instigated by others, so he tried his best to soften his tone and persuaded, "Alright, alright, stop arguing. Yu Bao, you should go back first. I'll hire someone to cook for you later, okay?"
"No, no! I want Granny Qin and Sister Chunyu! Stop trying to fool me, you two big bad guys, it's because you live here that things have turned out like this..."
Qin Yubao wasn't buying it at all; instead, he became even more outrageous.
Hearing these outrageous words, Li Chang'an finally lost her temper and slammed the door shut, leaving Qin Yubao to make a scene outside.
"Chang Sheng, you go back inside too, don't pay any attention to him!"
Turning his head, Li Chang'an seemed to suddenly remember something, opened the door, gave Li Changsheng a word of instruction, and then closed the door again.
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