Xiao Qingyan: "The world is a game, the common people are chess, paving the road of selfish desires with dry bones, and raising the boat of power with monstrous blood and water, this is your way, not mine." ”

—Epigraph

The capital of the Great Jin Dynasty, Luojing.

The Xiao family was in a private grange in the north of the city, and the stewards began to line up to greet them from early in the morning, the sun was like fire, and large drops of sweat rolled down everyone's foreheads.

But it was not until dusk that the Lord they were waiting for arrived.

There are heroic guards in front of the road, and there are beautiful maidservants in the back, and four strong men in the middle carry a canopy on their shoulders, light gauze manman, ring Pei Chengcong, and the pomp is full.

Xiao Qingyan leaned on her shoulder with a lazy and noble shelf, so comfortable that she wanted to take a nap, she squinted her phoenix eyes and secretly sighed in her heart:

Sure enough, money corrupts people, and power corrupts people.

This is the twelfth year that Xiao Qingyan has been wearing.

In a few days she will be fifteen years old, but she has not had time to do it, and will have to wait until five years later for the man's crowning.

After entering the grange and setting it up, Zhou Shu, the chief housekeeper who came with Xiao Qingyan, took a man in his forties and fifties into the main hall.

"Young master, this is the chief steward of the grange here, Cao Lin."

"The villain Cao Lin has seen Jiulang." Cao Lin knelt down in his clothes, with a broad crown and a broad belt, and his appearance was pure and Confucian, but he looked like a scholar literati.

But to see a person, it is not only to look at his appearance, but also to see how he says and acts.

Xiao Qingyan looked at the man kneeling below, and coldly hooked the corners of his lips.

Zhou Shu, the most trusted person around her, called her "Young Master", but this Cao Lin called her "Jiulang", which was a clear refusal to recognize her identity as the future family heir.

"Grandfather said, these private properties of our descendants have always been taken care of by our uncles and grandfathers, and since you are your uncle's people, there should be no problem in doing things."

Uncle and grandfather Xiao Kun is the younger brother of grandfather Xiao Pei.

Xiao Qingyan's grandfather had disabled legs and lived in a simple house, and her father died when she was three years old, and the huge family had no one to support the family, so her grandfather temporarily handed over the position of head of the family to her uncle and grandfather, and after that, the family's public property and private property were all handed over to her uncle and grandfather.

But now that Xiao Qingyan has grown up, as the eldest grandson of the Xiao family in Yunling, the position of the head of the family should be returned to her.

But once the power is handed over, if you want to take it back, you have to slowly figure it out.

Cao Lin didn't hear the call to get up, so he had to continue to kneel and reply: "The villain thanks Jiulang for his trust, but the head of the family has already passed down the word, and the management of this grange will be handed back to Jiulangjun in the future. ”

"It's not early, Zhou Shu, prepare dinner first, I'm hungry."

"Yes." Zhou Shu smiled and bowed.

Xiao Qingyan glanced at Cao Lin casually: "You send the account book over first, I'll read it when I have time." ”

"And what about the stewards down there?" Cao Lin asked.

"Let them go back first, and you can go down too!"

"Yes!"

Cao Lin answered, and when he got up to leave, he saw the young man on the main seat leaning on a few sides, lightly dressed in snow, and playing with a strand of the beautiful maid's hair around him.

The children of the scholar clan are young and romantic, how can they care about tedious accounts and mundane affairs?

Steward Qian also specially reminded him to be cautious, but this is obviously just a yellow-haired child.

As soon as Cao Lin left, Xiao Qingyan immediately restrained his casual state, and his eyes were as clear as a cold spring under the ice.

Although these granges are nominally managed by their uncle and grandfather, who they use and how they are run are actually in the hands of Qian Dongping, the big housekeeper next to his uncle and grandfather.

For example, this Cao Lin, who is the emperor of soil in the grange in the north of the city, is almost the same, relying on the protection of Qian Dongping.

Uncle and grandfather also have their own children and grandchildren, and at the same time, for the sake of the future of the family, he is reluctant to transfer the power of the head of the family to a fifteen-year-old junior, Xiao Qingyan can understand.

She knew her uncle and grandfather better, and she probably suggested that the following people deliberately caused her a little frustration, just to make her understand that managing a large family was not as simple as she thought, so that she would give up taking over the position of head of the family, but her uncle and grandfather would not covet these private possessions of the lineage.

But uncles and grandfathers are not greedy for money, and the rats below may not be.

The beautiful maid beside Xiao Qingyan withdrew her hair and gestured to her: "Be careful, that person has bad eyes and bad intentions, he must be a bad person." ”

The maid's name is Jian Xin, a mute girl who can't speak, she grew up with her since she was a child, and she is the only one who knows her daughter's body except for her mother.

It's easy to make a living by dressing up as a man, but it's hard to do, and the cover that Jian Xin has helped her with over the years can be said to be indispensable.

Xiao Qingyan smiled and nodded: "Don't worry." ”

At night, Cao Lin came to the main hall and saw that the kitchen was sent in according to Zhou Shu's instructions, and the sound of the sheng flute and the qin was constantly heard, and the graceful dancing of the maids was projected on the screen window, which led people to infinite reverie.

He smiled disdainfully, but he was just a gentleman, what kind of storm could he stir up?

Cao Lin put the heart that had been hanging for a day back into his stomach, turned around and left leisurely.

Inside the main hall.

Zhou Shu raised the corners of his mouth with contempt as he closed the last slit in the window, walked past the maidservants, and walked behind the screen.

Separated by a screen, in front are the maidservants singing and dancing, and in the back are stacked account books and Xiao Qingyan who is immersed in reading, and Jian Xin is also helping on the side.

Zhou Shu also sat aside and began to check, but it didn't take long for the three of them to close the account book in their hands and throw it aside.

"Bad debt!" Zhou Shu snorted coldly.

"Bad guys!" Jian Xin frowned and gestured.

"Master." Xiao Qingyan praised.

Zhou Shu said with a cold face: "Being able to make fake accounts so true and rotten is really hard for them." ”

None of the accounts on this are true, but they seem to be reasonable, as if they are true, but there are some places where they are confused, and the numbers do not match at all.

"You also have to see the strengths of others," Xiao Qingyan said with a smile, "Being able to make fake accounts with ease and variety shows that this bookkeeper has a clear mind and is organized, and doing real accounts is definitely a golden abacus, which is very accurate and detailed." ”

Zhou Shu understood in his heart, and the young master moved the mind of prying the corner of the wall again, so he said: "The bookkeeper here is called Ji Tong, I heard that he used to work in Bai Chong's mansion, and after the Bai family was copied, Cao Lin invited this person with a set of ivory calculations. ”

Bai Chong is the richest man in the Great Jin Dynasty, and he was just raided at the beginning of this year, and I heard that it was because the family's favorite concubine was taken by Yang Xun, the nephew of the Empress Dowager Yang.

It turned out to be Bai Chong's account room, no wonder.

Xiao Qingyan played with the ink jade wrench in his hand and asked, "What did you get when you went to the kitchen today?" ”

Zhou Shu shook his head: "Almost nothing, the mouths of the people in this Zhuangzi are tighter than the other, and they can't ask anything, when they hear me mention Cao Lin's name, they all look like cats and mice, but this has already explained the problem, Cao Lin can be said to cover the sky with one hand here, and everyone is afraid." ”

"He is more majestic than me, the young master." Xiao Qingyan sneered, stood up and said, "Let's go to the field tomorrow first!" ”