Page 1220

Shopkeeper Xiao furrowed his brows, obviously still not quite grasping the principle.

Lin Yuan helplessly shook her head, signaling Shopkeeper Xiao to go into the room and fetch the account books for her to examine.

Watching Shopkeeper Xiao hobble up to the third floor, Lin Yuan was at once speechless and sympathetic. She said to Xia Zheng, "You have to find me a new shopkeeper; this Shopkeeper Xiao is really..."

Xia Zheng nodded. "I knew you wouldn’t be satisfied with this antiquated old man. Don’t worry, I’ve already found someone suitable for you. Once he wraps up the work he has on hand, he will come within half a month at most."

Lin Yuan cocked her head, looking at Xia Zheng, who wore a sly smile. She had a hunch that the "suitable person" he mentioned carried some hidden implication.

Before long, Shopkeeper Xiao had already come down with two large account books in his arms. It wasn’t until he approached Lin Yuan that she realized they weren’t two books at all, but three. The third was so thin compared to the other two that from a distance it looked like there were only two.

"Boss, these are all the accounts of Yi Ran Residence over the past years. Please take a look," Shopkeeper Xiao said as he patted the account books, knocking off a layer of dust that made both of them instinctively step back.

Covering her nose and mouth with her sleeve, Lin Yuan raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. Yi Ran Residence must have been around for three or four years at least, so how could there only be three account books? That was far too few!

"Shopkeeper Xiao, are you sure these are all the account books?"

Shopkeeper Xiao, appearing to sense the suspicion in Lin Yuan’s heart, couldn’t help his face turning red. "Truly, these are the only ones. The accounts of the past years are all here; nothing has been placed elsewhere."

Lin Yuan looked at the account books before her with skepticism and shook her head, though seeing Shopkeeper Xiao’s distressed appearance, she believed him. She took the first book and flipped through it, her brow furrowing even tighter.

"Why are they all expenditures?" she muttered to herself, then opened the second book to find more of the same.

Off to the side, Xia Zheng suddenly coughed and stood up, stepping away.

Lin Yuan, preoccupied with the account books, didn’t notice his abnormal behavior. When she opened the last and thinnest book, she didn’t know what to say.

Two thick, substantial account books were full of expenditures, while the last, thin little booklet recorded the income.

The contrast between the expenses and the income was just too stark!

"What on earth is going on here?" Lin Yuan lifted her head to look at Shopkeeper Xiao, throwing the books back onto the table. Although Yi Ran Residence hadn’t been under her charge before, it was after all going to be her future uncle’s business, and with the accounts in such disarray, she had to inquire.

Shopkeeper Xiao gave an awkward smile, his eyes flickering, speaking evasively.

Lin Yuan was both angry and anxious. If Shopkeeper Xiao hadn’t been older than Lin Jiaxin, she would have seriously questioned him. After all, as a shopkeeper, how could he not be clear about the accounts?

"Where is Mr. Accountant? Have him come here!"

After enduring for a long while, Lin Yuan ultimately couldn’t bring herself to say anything unpleasant to Shopkeeper Xiao, an elderly man, and simply asked for Mr. Accountant to be fetched to clarify matters. But unexpectedly, even Mr. Accountant was nowhere to be found!

"How could even Mr. Accountant be missing?" Lin Yuan was so frantic that her eyeballs almost popped out.

Shopkeeper Xiao hemmed and hawed and said, "There used to be one. However, later, there wasn’t.

That, Young Master Xia said that our restaurant wasn’t really making money, and keeping Mr. Accountant was just for show, even less useful than not having one.

So then, I started handling these accounts. "

No wonder things were in such disarray!

Lin Yuan couldn’t help but hold her forehead, but even if Shopkeeper Xiao wasn’t a professional accountant, he shouldn’t have recorded the accounts like this!

Unable to help herself, she shook her head and only then noticed Xia Zheng’s unusual behavior, her delicate eyebrows slightly knitting together, "What’s wrong with you?"

Xia Zheng, who had been pacing back and forth nearby, stiffened, and with a sheepish laugh, had no choice but to come back with a thick skin, "That about the accounts, you shouldn’t blame Shopkeeper Xiao, indeed it was my brother who instructed this."

Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow, her hand retracting from the ledger she had reached for again, it seems Xia Zheng knew about all of this!

"Then I won’t ask him; you can tell me instead." Looking at Xia Zheng, Lin Yuan felt that he was the one who could make things clear.

Xia Zheng shrank his neck and reseated himself at the table, coughing lightly into his fist before saying, "Well, you also know my brother is really not cut out for business, yet he still wound up with this shop, and mother is even less so. Originally, I planned to take it over, but the old man was strict, insisting that I make a name for myself in the army like my brother before I could start a shop. But you know I’m just not suited for martial practice.

I couldn’t bear even half a month in the army, so naturally, the shop was out of the question. "

Lin Yuan had previously been puzzled by this; when Xia Zheng initially gave her the shop, she had wanted to ask why General Xia would not allow Xia Zheng to engage in commerce but allowed Xia Zhen to run a shop—it turns out this was the reason.

She patted the ledger on the table, also understanding why the expenses were greater than the income: Xia Zhen was not cut out for business and naturally did not know how to manage a shop.

And he happened to employ many people in Yi Ran Residence: naturally, the expenses exceeded the income.

However, how could Yi Ran Residence maintain such a deficit for so many years, could Xia Zhen have been throwing money into this bottomless pit?

Thinking this, Lin Yuan could not help but ask.

Sure enough, Xia Zheng clapped his hands and sighed, "Heh, you’ve guessed right.

Xia Zhen is such a fool—if my shop were losing money every day, I would have closed it long ago.

Yet he keeps pouring the Reward Silver he earned through blood and sweat into this pit!

Of course, the shops I run will definitely never be in the red! "

Watching his confident demeanor, Lin Yuan couldn’t help curling her lips, but she agreed with his words. Despite Xia Zheng’s disinterest in martial practice, he really had a knack for business—if Yi Ran Residence were in his hands, surely it wouldn’t have fallen into such a sorry state.

"Forget it. Everything’s already like this; talking any more is pointless," Lin Yuan sighed and casually flipped through the ledger. It was just a casual flip, but her eyebrows became a tangled mess.

Glancing sideways at Shopkeeper Xiao, Lin Yuan’s eyes shifted, placing the ledger to one side with a pat of her hand, "As for how bad the business of Yi Ran Residence has become, I reckon Shopkeeper Xiao can’t explain clearly in a short time.

In that case, I’ll take this ledger back later to study it thoroughly and use it as a reference for my future plans. "

Seeing that Lin Yuan wanted to take the ledger, Shopkeeper Xiao appeared somewhat panicked; his trembling hand seemed to want to say something, but meeting Lin Yuan’s almost smiling face, he was at last seized with trepidation and couldn’t speak.

Xia Zheng seemed to sense something was amiss; looking at Lin Yuan, then at Shopkeeper Xiao, he too began to reckon his own thoughts.

While the three of them conversed, the chefs from the back kitchen had already prepared the dishes.