Yun Shuyao’s carriage stopped outside Linlang Pavilion at midmorning.
Of the dowry her maternal grandmother had left her, it was the finest jewelry shop. It was said that half the noblewomen in the capital had ordered their jewelry sets there.
She lifted the curtain and stepped down, followed by two sturdy older women. They were her mother’s most capable attendants, but she had borrowed them for the day.
The women looked somewhat uneasy. Perhaps they thought it was unbecoming for an unmarried young lady to manage a shop herself, and that word of it would spread.
Yun Shuyao paid them no mind and went straight to the counter.
The shopkeeper, a slightly plump, middle-aged man surnamed Liu, was clicking away at his abacus. When someone entered, he didn’t even look up.
“What would you like to see, honored guest? We’ve just received a new batch of South Sea pearl sets—”
He stopped halfway through his sentence when he looked up and recognized her. One of the abacus beads clicked out of place.
“Miss…?”
Shopkeeper Liu hurried to his feet, his eyes darting away.
“What brings you here? Please, have a seat.”
Yun Shuyao did not sit. She merely glanced over the display cases behind the counter.
Jade bangles, red-gold hairpins, kingfisher-feather ornaments… Nothing out of the ordinary.
The truly fine pieces had probably long since been moved to Yong’an Marquis’s Residence by the Marchioness.
“I’m here to check the accounts.”
Yun Shuyao’s voice was calm, but left no room for argument.
The flesh on Shopkeeper Liu’s face twitched. He forced a laugh.
“Miss, you must be joking. The accounts for this shop have always been sent to the Marquis’s Residence every month. The Marchioness said—”
“What the Marchioness says has nothing to do with me.”
Yun Shuyao cut him off and tapped the counter with her fingertip.
“This shop is part of my dowry. I have the deed, so the account books should be shown to me.”
Shopkeeper Liu’s expression darkened, and his voice grew impatient.
“Miss Yun, this is going too far.
The Yong’an Marquis’s Residence manages the shop for you out of consideration for your standing.
You’re an unmarried young lady. What do you know about accounts?
Besides, the Marchioness has treated you so well. Why would you—”
“Whether I understand accounts is none of your concern, Shopkeeper.”
Yun Shuyao pulled a property deed from her sleeve and slapped it onto the counter.
“Now, either bring out the account books, or go enjoy a stay in Shuntian Prefecture’s jail.
My Duke’s Residence has no place for servants who steal from their master and refuse to acknowledge their employer.”
“You!”
Shopkeeper Liu hadn’t expected her to be serious. His face flushed red.
“Miss, don’t bully people! The Marquis’s Residence manages this shop. If you want to check the accounts, you’ll have to ask the Marchioness first—”
“Oh?”
Yun Shuyao raised an eyebrow.
“So this shop belongs to the Yong’an Marquis’s Residence, not me?”
Her voice was quiet, but it carried a chill.
The few assistants nearby shrank back in alarm. Everyone knew Linlang Pavilion was the Miss’s dowry.
Shopkeeper Liu’s words were a blatant betrayal of his employer.
Shopkeeper Liu realized he had misspoken, but still held his ground.
“That’s not what I meant… It’s just that the rules can’t be disregarded!”
“The rules?”
Yun Shuyao smiled, though the smile never reached her eyes.
“An outsider takes over my shop and spends my money, while I’m not even allowed to ask about it—is that your idea of the rules, Shopkeeper Liu?
You took money from the shop to buy your son an official post. Last month, you removed three chests of red gold from the storeroom to pay off your brother-in-law’s gambling debts. Shall I take you to the prefectural offices and go through every offense one by one?”
She had uncovered these old accounts in her previous life, after taking over the management of the Marquis’s household.
Shopkeeper Liu’s face went white.
He had kept those dealings extremely secret and had never told anyone. How could the Eldest Miss know?
“Well? Are you going to hand them over or not?”
Yun Shuyao’s voice turned cold.
Grinding his teeth, Shopkeeper Liu reluctantly went into the back room and brought out an account book.
Yun Shuyao took it and flipped through it casually.
The handwriting was sloppy and the income and expenses were a mess. They had sold a set of South Sea pearl jewelry just last month, yet the accounts listed only a fraction of the price.
She snapped the book shut and tossed it back to him.
“These are false accounts. Bring me the real ones.”
“W-what false accounts?”
Shopkeeper Liu still tried to deny it.
He had no idea that in her previous life Yun Shuyao had managed the Marquis’s household for eighteen years and handled countless accounts.
His little tricks were child’s play to her.
“You don’t have them?”
Yun Shuyao looked at the older woman behind her.
“Nanny Liu, gather all the shop assistants. I want to question them. If none of them know anything, I’ll send the lot of you to the authorities.”
At the mention of facing the authorities, the assistants’ expressions changed.
Seeing this, Shopkeeper Liu knew he could no longer hide the truth. He shot Yun Shuyao a resentful look, then went back into the room and brought out another set of account books.
These books were neatly kept, but the numbers made Yun Shuyao burn with anger.
Linlang Pavilion earned at least five to ten thousand taels a month, yet the amount recorded as having been paid to her was never more than a few hundred taels.
The rest had all been siphoned off by the Marchioness under various pretexts. In the past year alone, nearly fifty thousand taels had gone missing.
“Where did all this silver go?”
Yun Shuyao pointed to the shortfall in the ledger.
Shopkeeper Liu lowered his head and murmured,
“The Marchioness said… she was saving it for you, for when you married into the family…”
“Whether I marry or not, she has no right to save money for me.”
Yun Shuyao rolled up the account book and tucked it into her sleeve.
“From today on, I’ll manage Linlang Pavilion myself.
From now on, no one from the Marquis’s Residence may take even a single coin from this shop, and no one is to remove anything from it.
You and your assistants may stay if you’re willing to do your jobs properly. Just don’t touch anything in the shop again!
If you’re unwilling, come with me to the prefectural offices now and answer for what you’ve done. You’ll return every coin you embezzled.”
It wasn’t that Yun Shuyao was being softhearted. She still needed these shopkeepers’ cooperation to secure some of the evidence.
Besides, she hadn’t yet found the people who would take over the shops.
But she already had a plan. She would handle things one step at a time.
Yun Shuyao’s expression was cold as her gaze swept over Shopkeeper Liu’s ashen face.
“I think you know what you should do.”
Shopkeeper Liu trembled all over. He no longer dared to act insolently and hurriedly nodded.
“Yes, yes. I won’t dare again…”
Without another word to him, Yun Shuyao turned and headed outside.
As she reached the entrance, she saw several young men in fine clothes blocking the doorway. At their head was Gu Jinghuai’s personal attendant.
“Miss Yun, my heir requests that you come to the Marquis’s Residence.”
The attendant’s tone was unfriendly.
Yun Shuyao sneered.
“Tell him I have no time for anything except calling off the engagement.”
With that, she climbed straight into her carriage, leaving the attendant standing there in a daze.
Wasn’t this completely unlike Miss Yun’s usual attitude toward the heir?
Whenever the heir asked to see her, Miss Yun would happily go at once.
And they servants would get a round of rewards along with her. What had happened now?
For the rest of the afternoon, Yun Shuyao went to Splendid Embroidery House, the embroidery shop;
Treasure Gathering Studio, the antique shop;
Spring Renewal Hall, the clinic;
Qingfeng House, the bookstore;
Food for Heaven, the restaurant;
Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion, the spice shop;
Spring Moon Night, the cosmetics shop;
and Rainbow Garments Pavilion, the silk and clothing shop.
Every shopkeeper had the same attitude as Shopkeeper Liu: first they made excuses, then they threatened her.
In the end, drawing on memories from her previous life, she cut through their evasions with a few words, exposing their private dealings and making them hand over the account books without protest.
After checking them, she found that not a single shop was clean.
Most of Splendid Embroidery House’s finest embroideries had been taken by the Marchioness’s maternal relatives.
The Marquis’s Residence had taken antiques from Treasure Gathering Studio to give as gifts.
The medicinal supplies at Spring Renewal Hall had been completely plundered; they had apparently all gone to fill the Marquis’s storerooms.
The account books piled up in the carriage, a thick stack. Every page recorded the Yong’an Marquis’s Residence’s ugly conduct.
By the time she came out of the silk shop in the south of the city, dusk had fallen.
Her carriage had just reached the gates of Duke Zhenguo’s Residence when she saw a familiar blackwood carriage waiting there.
As soon as Yun Shuyao stepped down, the carriage curtain was yanked open, and Gu Jinghuai strode out.
He wore a moon-white brocade robe. His face, usually gentle and refined, was now full of anger.
The moment he saw Yun Shuyao, he launched into an accusation.
“Are you ever going to stop?”
His voice was so loud that even the gatekeeper nearby turned to look.
“This heir has already told you I’ll marry you. Why did you go and do something to anger Mother?”