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Hearing the village elder’s words, Da Han took out a blue ledger from his bosom and respectfully handed it to the village elder.

The villagers craned their necks to peer at the ledger, but since they were too far away, they could only see that it was filled with closely packed writing and couldn’t make out what it said.

The village elder accepted the ledger, passed his walking stick to Da Han, and then shakily opened the book, his slightly hoarse voice echoing inside and outside the ancestral hall.

"April 23rd, Laoliu’s house lost four taels of silver, two silver hairpins, a silver bracelet, and a silver collar."

"May 3rd, Ershuan’s home lost one tael of silver and a silver bracelet."

"May 7th, Fugui House lost thirteen taels of silver, two silver hairpins, three silver bracelets, and a gold hairpin."

...

With each incident the village elder read out, Lin Jiazhong’s body trembled, and by the end, his face had turned completely bloodless.

Closing the ledger in his hand, the village elder looked at Lin Jiazhong with an inscrutable gaze, his husky voice firm and indisputable, "Lin Jiazhong, all these items were stolen by your son, Lin Yongcheng.

Will you return the original items, compensate with silver, or shall we take Lin Yongcheng to the County Government Office and let the chief magistrate decide? "

Where would the original items be? The most recent case had already been a month ago, certainly, they must have been sold.

Taking Lin Yongcheng to the County Government Office, could he come out then? It would most definitely end up costing both money and incarceration!

Only one path remained now, but where could he find the silver to compensate?

Lin Jiazhong thought of the three rooms in the North Room and the three rooms in the side chambers of his house.

"Old, old village elder," Lin Jiazhong tried to make his voice sound calm, but his palms were drenched with sweat, "Please calculate, how much silver do we need to pay?"

Perhaps having anticipated they wouldn’t be able to provide the original items, the village elder sighed, called together the several households that had lost items, asked them about the prices of the various items they lost, and then made a summary.

Watching the village elder hunched over calculating, Lin Jiazhong’s brows furrowed so tightly they seemed about to kill a fly.

Lady Ma clutched her son’s arm tightly, her face pale as she tugged at Lin Jiazhong’s clothing and whispered, "Head of the household, head of the household. You should write it down; our son, he can’t hold on much longer."

Hearing his wife’s voice, Lin Jiazhong became even angrier. He lifted his foot and kicked her, growling furiously, "Can’t hold on, can’t hold on, I’m about to collapse! All brats you brought up, not one gives me peace of mind!"

Despite his words, Lin Jiazhong still urged, "Old village elder, roughly, how much money are we talking about?"

The village elder ignored him for a while before slowly raising his head and twitching his mouth as he said, "I’ve already discussed with them, and we scratched off the insignificant amounts for you, only counting the major losses. Uh, in total, it comes to fifty-six taels of silver."

Fifty, fifty-six taels?

Lin Jiazhong’s eyes widened in shock, as if struck violently by something, and he unconsciously stepped back, his entire body starting to waver.

Lady Ma quickly stood up to support him, fearing he would collapse like Lin Jianling, suddenly stricken by a stroke in agitation.

"Head of the household, head of the household!"

"Go away!" Snapping back to his senses after being called by Lady Ma, Lin Jiazhong’s first reaction was to slap her away, "I told you to watch him closely, you never listen! Now look what mess he’s gotten us into!"

Lady Ma was spun around by the slap, and blood began to trickle from the corner of her mouth. With tears welling up, she lowered her head and returned to her son, Lin Yongcheng, embracing him as he trembled slightly.

After delivering the slap, Lin Jiazhong finally began to calm down. He looked up at the village elder, biting his lips in silence, his eyes fixed intently on the ledger in the village elder’s hand.

Thinking he did not believe the tally could be so high, the village elder passed the ledger to Da Han to give to Lin Jiazhong, "I’d forgotten that you were Mr. Accountant; you should have a look at these accounts yourself.

Please, review them. If there’s any discrepancy, we shall correct it on the spot. "

Hearing the village elder’s words, many onlookers sneered disapprovingly; with so many people guarding the proceedings, would they cheat him of his silver? How petty!