Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 441 435. Exposed
"Forget it. The government has already issued a clear ban on price gouging. If we go against the law and commit crimes, we will probably be caught and made an example of."

Du Xi naturally knew that the government today was not the same as it was during the Sun Quan period. His Du family was not small, but it was not big either. If they really wanted to be the first to stand out, no one would be able to protect them.

Du Xiang shrugged his shoulders, helpless. Their Du family was originally a traditional landlord family, relying on collecting rent and cultivating some scholars to gain such power. Now that the world has changed, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to make a living.

"Hey, come and help me pack this silver into boxes and send it to the treasury."

Du Xi checked the account book sent by Du Xiang, and after confirming that the quantity was correct, he and Du Xiang packed the more than 100 taels of silver into boxes and prepared to send them to the treasury.

Du Xi always did this kind of silver that needed to be touched personally. It was because it was always better to be careful. Du Xiang was his elder brother and was not an outsider, so Du Xi dared to let him help him.

The hundred taels of silver were quickly packed into a wooden box that looked exactly like the one in the warehouse. Du Xi opened the drawer, took out his key, and asked Du Xiang to hold the box, and the two of them went together to deposit the income.

"click"

"Just leave it there."

Du Xi unlocked the door of the warehouse, took a quick look, pointed to a small pile of boxes that had not been stacked up, and asked Du Xiang to put it over.

"Oh."

Du Xiang went over and carefully stacked the newly packed wooden box on top of the boxes below. However, Du Xiang was tall and strong, so he couldn't move freely in such a narrow place. He bumped his elbow slightly and accidentally hit the pile of boxes next to him.

"Bang! Plink!"

The result was that Du Xiang's elbow knocked down several boxes, causing them to make a noise and roll to the ground.

"Aye! Something bad has happened!"

Du Xiang couldn't help but yelled, startling Du Xi who was outside the door.

"Look at you, you're so clumsy..."

Du Xi came into the treasury. The sound just now made him know what had happened. He scolded Du Xiang a few words. As a result, he looked at the ground and suddenly felt cold sweat pouring down his face, as if someone had poured a basin of cold water on him in the hottest days of summer. It was like a world of ice and fire.

"Du Xi, why are you standing there? What's wrong?"

Du Xiang was puzzled when he saw Du Xi's expression, which was as if he had been struck by lightning. Du Xi was already speechless and could only point at the box on the ground.

"What's the matter? I just knocked over a few empty boxes. Why is it so serious? Is your box made of gold?"

Du Xiang didn't understand what was going on, so he walked forward, picked up two empty wooden boxes, one in each hand, and prepared to stack them back.

"You...you...ah, how could I put empty boxes in the treasury! These boxes should have been full! Come with me and check how much is missing!"

Du Xi was extremely anxious, but Du Xiang didn't know. As the person in charge of the accounts office of the Du family, he knew everything clearly. Almost all the boxes in the warehouse were sorted by him personally. How could there be boxes without anything in them?
Du Xiang also realized the importance of the matter, and quickly picked up the boxes one by one to feel their weight. After all, a hundred taels of silver was not light, and he could feel it just by picking it up.

Finally, the two of them took inventory and found that 3,300 taels of silver were missing from the treasury, accounting for more than three quarters of the entire treasury.

The two looked at each other in bewilderment. The Du family had lost so much money, and they had to give an explanation, even if they were the old man's biological sons. "Du Xi, think about it, when was the last time you came to the treasury, and who knew about this?"

Du Xiang urged, saying that as the person in charge of the fields and the family's livelihood, he naturally knew the importance of backup funds. Now that several thousand taels of silver had been quietly missing, it had already affected the family's major plans.

"Don't worry, don't worry...hiss...could it be that kid Du Chun?"

Du Xi's mind worked quickly, and he immediately thought of the incident a few days ago when Du Xi came to him to ask for money. In addition, Du Chun was always idle, so he was the most suspicious.

"Well, let's go tell my father about this first and see what he has to say."

Du Xiang shook his head and walked out. Du Xi did not move because he knew that his father would definitely come to see it with his own eyes.

Sure enough, after a while Du Xiang helped Old Master Du to the treasury. Old Master Du almost fainted when he saw the dozens of empty boxes neatly opened on the ground.

You have to know that the silver in their treasury was also saved from generation to generation, and they had to spend money on food, clothing, and servants' monthly wages on a daily basis. In case of any emergency, they would also need to use it for emergency. Now they were directly missing several thousand taels of silver. What did that mean?
If it was a year of poor harvest, one tael of silver could buy more than one acre of land. Even the Du family would have to save up thousands of taels of silver for decades. Now that it has disappeared, how could Old Master Du not be angry?
"Du Xi, what's going on? I asked you to take good care of the household accounts, why did this happen?!"

Old Master Du rubbed his chest, breathed a sigh of relief, pointed at Du Xi and cursed. After all, the silver was lost, and Du Xi, the person who was in charge, must be held accountable first.

"Master, please forgive me. This is all my fault. But the most urgent thing now is to get the silver back."

Du Xi knelt on the ground and answered with gritted teeth under the pressure.

"Retrieve? Do you know where the silver went?"

Old Master Du's expression eased a little. If he knew where the silver had gone, that would be easy. At least there would be a way to get it back.

"Du Chun came to me the day before yesterday and said..."

Du Xi knelt on the ground and told the story of Du Chun coming to ask for money. Old Master Du remembered that Du Xi had mentioned this to him at that time.

"Let's go and search this little beast's room first."

Old Master Du nodded. Although he favored his youngest son, he also knew who was doing the work at home. His original intention was to let his youngest son inherit the family business and be a mascot, while the eldest and second sons would take care of the family business, and his three sons would at least have enough food and drink. Now that his youngest son was doing this, I'm afraid the Du family would be gone soon. How could he have time to worry about anything else?

The group rushed to Du Chun's small building in a hurry. Normally, no one would disturb him except the servants, so no one knew what he usually did in his small building.

Today, Du Chun naturally went out early to compete with Mr. Huang. The two of them would compare with each other over trivial matters.

What made Du Chun most excited was that after his desperate "money-throwing" offensive over the past two days, he and Huang were finally evenly matched, instead of suffering a one-sided defeat at the beginning. This gave him more motivation to continue fighting with Master Huang.

"Go in and search! See if there is any silver!"

At this time, Old Master Du brought his people to Du Chun's small building in a hurry. He waved his hand and asked his two sons to bring the servants to start searching.

(End of this chapter)