After eating a big hot pot, everyone rubbed their round stomachs with satisfaction and tilted comfortably to the bed. Today's wine is very good, some years, Ling'er drank a little dizzy, although good wine is not good, but Ling'er is not strong enough to drink, and fell asleep gently after a while.

Won-hee and Zhong's mother didn't drink, so they didn't feel sleepy. How can you sleep when you are full, then you won't be a pig?" Yuan Xi took the accounts that Rong Zhan locked in the cabinet and looked through them casually under the lamp.

Mother Zhong picked the lights into double twists to illuminate the room brighter.

"Master, let's look at it tomorrow, I'm tired of checking the accounts. Mother Zhong came to help her when she spoke, and Yuan Xi waved his hand, insisting on continuing to watch.

The accounts were a thick stack, and Mother Zhong couldn't resist her, so she boiled hot water, and it was not good to drink tea at night, so she drank some hot water to warm up. Mother Zhong looked at Yuan Xi flipping through the pages, the abacus in her hand crackled, and she couldn't help but sigh, she had lived for so many years, and she had never seen anyone with such a fast speed, even the account office of the prince's mansion could not compare.

"No wonder people say that Wei's firm is invincible in the world, and the master's young age can be regarded as such a good account. ”

Won-hee didn't speak, but a smile curled up at the corner of his lips. This speed is far worse than that of my father, but it is just a strong momentum in front of his peers. If these dozen or so account books are handed over to Wei Dongshu to read, they can be sorted out with the work of managing and protecting them overnight.

Yuan Xi flipped for a while, and couldn't help frowning. Mother Zhong hurriedly stepped forward to support her: "Master, are you feeling unwell?"

Yuan Xi shook his head: "It's the accounts that are not quite right." ”

Mother Zhong should go to the prestige, the snow-white rice paper is clearly marked with the storage expenses, and the rough estimate of the number of people who go in and out can be correct, how can you say that the accounts are wrong? Mother Zhong couldn't help but scratch her head: "What's wrong?"

Yuan Xi didn't answer, with such an account, it's just a decent man like Rong Zhan who doesn't know how to do it, and he still has the face to show off in front of him?

Won-hee licked the pen and hooked it casually.

"Look here. ”

Mother Zhong is a monk who is the second brother and is confused, isn't this account clearly written with two taels of silver for work-related injuries?

"What's wrong?"

"Don't you think that work-related injuries are too much?"

Mother Zhong was silent for a moment, feeling uncomfortable. Although it is said that human life is in danger, it is worthless to say it ugly, but the prince is humane and rewarded two taels of work-related injury money, is this not okay?

"It's not much, is it?" Mother Zhong looked at Yuan Xi tentatively: "Two taels of silver, it's just an extra meat dish on the table every day." In our house, two taels of silver can't even afford a maid's clothes. ”

Yuan Xi shook his head: "That's not what I meant. I mean, how can there be such a merciful foreman? When a laborer is injured, he doesn't deduct his money, and he gives him money to recuperate? I mean, they have the face to say it, and I'm embarrassed to believe it. ”

Mother Zhong pursed her lips, she didn't understand this. If you follow Yuanxi's logic, the foreman is not brutal, and he is sorry for the title of foreman.

"Perhaps. "Mother Zhong always has illusions, there are still many good people in this world.

Yuan Xi didn't believe it, based on her understanding of these contractors, they were the masters of the meat on the mosquito's legs, and they would be so merciful? Judging from the accounts, each craftsman had made a lot of money, enough to return home to buy two acres of land. But isn't the large and small land in Donglin Prefecture still in the hands of the landlord?

Opening a gold mine is a life-threatening job, and the slightest mistake can cost you your life. Mines are not dug casually, and if they collapse somewhere, a large number of them will die. What's more, the foremen who manage the labor are ruthless, and they don't take the lives of the workers as human lives at all. When a person dies, he directly hands over a roll of straw mat to his family, and the salary is halved, and the reward is gone. In the hearts of these foremen, the laborers are the thieves who guard the mountains of gold and silver, and the gold and silver mines put a lot of money into their pockets, and they can't control it, how can they give them so much wages?

Too much harmony is falsehood. Yuan Xi picked up the cup and drank the warm water slowly, the heat curling on his face, damp and sober.

"There must be someone in this who has filled their pockets. Yuan Xi said categorically.

Mother Zhong looked at her silently, she had heard the account office in the house say that mining has always been a confused account, and there will definitely be people who are corrupt, but it can't be found out by auditing the accounts. And the entanglement of interests in it is complicated, and it is a large piece when checked, as the saying goes, the law does not blame the public, and the main culprit cannot be found when the time comes.

"The master wants to be held accountable?" Zhong's mother looked at Yuan Xi incredulously. It seems that Won-hee insists on stabbing a hornet's nest that no one dares to move.

More than 30,000 taels of silver were recorded in the general ledger of this construction period, but judging from this bad account, at least 15,000 taels were stuffed into his pocket by the foreman. My dignified crown princess, the annual salary is only one thousand taels, how can their small foreman He De take so much silver from me?" Yuan Xi put the gold miner's account on the corner of the table and pressed it with an inkstone: "If they don't pursue it this time, they will dare to embezzle more next time." ”

"Then I'll call Wang Nianen and ask him to check the foreman. ”

"Slow. Yuan Xi raised his hand to stop: "Don't startle the snake." ”

Mother Zhong turned around and looked at Yuan Xi even more puzzled, since she knew that someone had filled her pockets, wouldn't it be over if she sent someone over to confiscate the money?

I saw Yuan Xi take another book, this one remembered how much ore was collected by the gold mine every day, and how much it was converted into pure gold. This book is simpler, Yuan Xi casually flipped a few pages, and then threw it aside, and couldn't help laughing.

When Zhong's mother saw her laughing, she wondered again, and looked through the accounts, but she still couldn't see any clues.

"Master, isn't there a lot of gold mines that are harvested every day? What are you laughing at?"

Yuan Xi smiled: "The net income is quite a lot, but the accounts are too flat." ”

Mother Zhong looked at her inexplicably, Yuan Xi took the pen and casually circled the accounts for a few days, the amount was not small, and they were all about the same. Mother Zhong frowned: "What's wrong?"

Yuan Xi took Zhong's mother's hand, and there happened to be a yellow shrimp bracelet on her wrist. Yuan Xi nodded on her bracelet: "Your bracelet is red gold, but do you know where the red gold came from?"

This question is too simple, isn't it extracted from gold mines? Mother Zhong also felt that this question could not be asked to her, so she was quite proud.

Yuan Xi said: "The amount of metal contained in each piece of ore is different, that is to say, if you mine a hundred stone deposits today, propose a hundred taels of red gold, and mine another hundred stones tomorrow, you may not be able to refine a hundred taels of red gold." ”

Mother Zhong opened her mouth and looked at the gold bracelet on her wrist in a daze: "So, the number on this account should fluctuate?"

It's not that there are big ups and downs, the amplitude should be there after all. Yuan Xi looked at the account book in his hand, and couldn't help laughing, this foreman still looks like a layman among laymen, and he can't even think of this.

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi was a little puzzled, it is said that this foreman was introduced by the former government of Donglin Prefecture, how can he also have some experience, how can he be such a novice with an empty mind?

By the way, this foreman was introduced by the Donglin Prefecture Mansion, and since he rebuilt the Patriarch's Mansion in Donglin Prefecture, the former Mansion has become an ornament, and he has no power in his hands, so naturally he can't get any money. Who can bear the fact that they are accustomed to living a prosperous life, and suddenly let them suffer poverty? Presumably, it was they who ordered the foreman to move his hands and feet in the accounts, and the hard-earned money of the laborers must have gone into the pockets of this group of people.

"This man thinks that there should be as much as anything dug up in a mine. Therefore, he swallowed more red gold into his pocket, and in the days when the amount of refining was small, he also carefully used the gold he had secretly swallowed in the past to make up for it, which was really difficult for him. ”

Zhong's mother smiled: "No wonder people often say that the more you do, the more you make mistakes." ”

That's exactly what happened. Won-hee cleaned the brush in the water tank, hung it back on the pen holder, and locked the account back in the cabinet.

Standing up and stretching her muscles and bones, she felt that what she had just eaten had been digested, but Mother Zhong couldn't help but burp from time to time. Mother Zhong served Won-hee to wash her face and change into her bedclothes.

In the days when there was no Rong Zhan to accompany him, only Mother Zhong and Ling'er accompanied Yuanxi. Ling'er was already asleep at this time, snoring gently, and Mother Zhong straightened her body, took off her coat, and covered her with a quilt.

Ling'er was drowsy, and her mouth was grunting and she didn't know what to say. Mother Zhong thought it was funny, so she came back and said to Yuanxi: "Miss Ling'er talks in her dreams, and I don't know whether she picked up ingots or married a virtuous son-in-law." ”

Yuan Xi couldn't help laughing, drank two sips of the decoction that calmed the mind and protected the fetus, and said, "Where did she sleep?"

Mother Zhong pointed to the outside of the curtain and whispered, "Miss Ling'er slept on the warm kang outside, and she couldn't wake up." ”

Yuan Xi leaned on the wall of the bed, put his hands between his lower abdomen, and couldn't help sighing: "I don't know when my belly will get bigger." ”

Mother Zhong gently pinched Yuan Xi's sore shoulders and said, "When I was four months old, my belly was revealed, and I guess Niangniang's pregnancy must be a boy." ”

Won-hee gently stroked his lower abdomen and asked, "Why?"

Mother Zhong smiled and shook her head: "The slave doesn't know why, she just feels like this." Niangniang has a big appetite lately, and she loves sweet and sour food, like a sign that she is pregnant with a boy. In fact, the prince really wants the mother to give birth to a boy, and I have seen the prince begging the Bodhisattva for a few moments to bless the mother to give birth to a boy safely. That's the first little son of our Da Chu, how noble should that be?"

Yuan Xi didn't have such big expectations for the child in her womb, she only hoped that the child could be born safely, as long as it belonged to her and Rong Zhan's child, it didn't matter if it was a boy or a girl.

Mother Zhong tucked the corner of the quilt for Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi stretched out his hand from the quilt and pulled her: "You sleep with me today, let's lie down and talk." Won-hee said, moving his body to the bunk inside, giving up half of the couch.