Chapter 222: Brothers at Odds

Inside the Document Repository, Duan Rong's speed at reviewing accounts was becoming faster and faster. Xiao Yu and Huang Qing would find the ledgers he needed, and he would flip through them a few times to find the entries he sought. Then, with a sweep of his eyes, he would memorize the figures, fold the corner of the page, close the book, and set it aside.

Because of Duan Rong's increased speed, the speed at which Xiao Yu and Huang Qing found ledgers on the shelves also grew faster and faster.

Especially Xiao Yu; now, in the time it took her to find two books, Huang Qing could barely manage to find one.

Because the ledgers Duan Rong needed were just being shuffled back and forth on those few shelves, as long as Xiao Yu put her mind to it, she could quickly become familiar with them.

Every time Duan Rong finished checking an account entry, he would stack the relevant ledgers in the order they were nested into three piles, placing them on the floor by the wall.

It was plain to see that the piles of ledgers on the floor by the wall were growing more and more numerous...

Unconsciously, twilight had already gathered all around.

Cluttered footsteps could be heard from the corridor and Main Hall outside the Document Repository. After a day of hustle and bustle, the Backyard Accounting Office had already finished its shift.

Duan Rong carried a pile of ledgers from the desk and set them down by the wall. He raised his head and looked at Xiao Yu and Huang Qing, who were standing by the shelves. Xiao Yu was fine, as she was a Martial Artist after all, but Huang Qing looked listless, a layer of fine sweat seeping from his forehead; he was clearly quite exhausted.

Duan Rong walked to the desk and glanced at the summary ledger for the twelfth lunar month that was open there. He took a look; the amount of auditing done over these few hours in the afternoon was better than expected. Although it was a bit slow at the start, it had become faster and faster later on.

If they kept up this speed, finishing the audit of the twelfth lunar month in the remaining four days should be no problem.

Duan Rong looked at Xiao Yu and Huang Qing and said, "Hard work. Let's stop here for today. We're off the clock too."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yu and Huang Qing breathed a secret sigh of relief.

For some reason, Duan Rong had implicitly become the decision-maker among them. If Duan Rong had said to keep working just now, the two of them likely wouldn't have had any objections.

Huang Qing was already exhausted and covered in foul sweat. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling his arms and calves aching in waves. He was an accountant, after all; he usually didn't engage in physical labor and had very poor stamina.

Duan Rong looked at Huang Qing and said, "Huang Qing, you go back first. Go back and get some good rest."

Huang Qing agreed gratefully and walked out of the Document Repository with weary steps.

Only then did Duan Rong close the summary ledger in his hands. Seeing that Huang Qing had left, Xiao Yu fixed her gaze on Duan Rong, her eyes full of doubt. She had been suppressing a question in her heart, but she hadn't been able to ask it while Huang Qing was there.

Seeing the expression on Xiao Yu's face, Duan Rong knew that if he didn't explain now, Xiao Yu wouldn't be able to let it go. He stopped hiding it and said directly, "These accounts have problems. Someone is embezzling money."

Xiao Yu's heart skipped a beat, and astonishment flowed through her beautiful eyes.

What she was surprised by wasn't the fact that someone was embezzling money, but that such shocking news had been spoken by Duan Rong, and the moment he said it, she had actually believed it without a shred of doubt.

Xiao Yu couldn't help but ask herself in her heart: if someone else had told her this, would she have been able to believe it just as easily?

Had she already come to trust Duan Rong this deeply?

Under the dim lamplight, firelight also danced in Xiao Yu's eyes, and she looked at Duan Rong in a somewhat dazed manner.

Duan Rong, however, only said faintly, "Let's go too."

As Duan Rong spoke, he blew out the lamp in the corner of the desk, and the Document Repository was immediately plunged into darkness.

The two of them walked slowly toward the door in the darkness.

Inside the Document Repository, it was completely silent, and they could both hear each other's footsteps and breathing...

This short distance felt to Xiao Yu as if they had walked a very long way...

The two stood at the entrance of the Document Repository. Xiao Yu locked the door. There were still two Apprentice Accountants in the Main Hall flipping through ledgers; clearly, their tasks for the day weren't finished yet...

The two walked out of the Backyard Accounting Office and walked slowly through the twilight.

Duan Rong suddenly remembered that in the dozen or so account entries he had checked in the afternoon, every account signed and confirmed by Xu Shouxian, Wang Dean, and Zhu Shicheng had a discrepancy of a similar proportion.

But as long as it was an account entry that had passed through Xu Fuxian's hands and signature, it was completely clean, without a single cent of error.

Duan Rong was naturally suspicious in his heart. He remembered that Xiao Yu had grown up in this Escort Agency and should know more about many things than he did, so he asked, "Does Xu Shouxian have a brother named Xu Fuxian who also works as a Principal in the Backyard Accounting Office?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yu let out an "ah."

Just now, while walking in the darkness with Duan Rong, for some reason, her mind had lost its focus, and she hadn't quite recovered yet. It was only when Duan Rong suddenly spoke to her that she seemed to wake up with a start.

Xiao Yu steadied herself and said, "Xu Shouxian and Xu Fuxian are indeed biological brothers. Xu Fuxian is the older brother, and Xu Shouxian is the younger brother. However, there isn't much difference in their ages. Decades ago, when the Old Shopkeeper was still alive, the two brothers entered the Escort Agency together and worked as Apprentices in the Accounting Office together."

"Later, they both rose to the position of Accounting Manager."

"After the Old Shopkeeper passed away, the Manager took over the Escort Agency, dismissed the original Chief Accountant, and promoted Xu Shouxian to be the Escort Agency's Chief Accountant."

"From about that time on, the relationship between the two brothers became increasingly stiff."

"I heard that when Xu Fuxian's eldest son got married, he didn't even invite his own younger brother, Xu Shouxian. You must know that Xu Fuxian's son is the eldest son of the next generation of the Xu family; everyone in the clan offered congratulations, but he was the only one who didn't send an invitation to his own brother. Since then, it seems the two brothers have had no contact."

Duan Rong smiled slightly and said, "You know quite a lot about these old matters?"

Seeing Duan Rong looking at her, Xiao Yu's expression shifted slightly, and she said, "I heard it from the old gatekeeper of the Escort Agency when I was playing as a child."

As the two chatted, they had already arrived at the Middle Courtyard Martial Arts Arena.

Duan Rong waved goodbye to Xiao Yu and then turned his steps toward Liu Lu.

Xiao Yu stood there, watching Duan Rong's back for a moment, before walking toward her own courtyard.

Walking on the road, Duan Rong kept thinking about what Xiao Yu had told him regarding the two brothers, Xu Shouxian and Xu Fuxian.

Xu Fuxian's eldest son was getting married, and it was the eldest son at that; for such a major event, he had deliberately kept his own brother from coming to offer congratulations. This clearly showed that the conflict between the two brothers had already been very deep even then.

Was it really because Xu Shouxian was skimming money but wouldn't let his older brother Xu Fuxian in on it that the two had fallen out and become enemies?

Duan Rong felt that was not the case.

Xu Shouxian should still have been quite good to his older brother. After all, he was the Chief Accountant and deeply trusted by Ruan Fengshan. He had been the Chief Accountant for decades, yet he had always tolerated his brother—who had already become his sworn enemy—working as an Accounting Manager under him, and he had even entrusted many accounts to his responsibility. From this, it was evident that from Xu Shouxian's perspective, he still held a place for his brother in his heart.

Duan Rong, having audited the accounts, knew that the accounts passing through Xu Fuxian's hands were not small sums either; if he had manipulated them even slightly, it would have been no problem to at least skim a little money. Yet Xu Fuxian's accounts were clean and clear, without the slightest error.

From those accounts, Duan Rong could almost faintly see a person's stubbornness. Perhaps Xu Fuxian was unwilling to be complicit with his younger brother, which was why he had severed ties with him!

Duan Rong couldn't help but chuckle in his heart. These two brothers—one cunning and the other upright—were actually biological brothers. Truly, fate plays tricks on people!

Sighing with emotion, Duan Rong had already walked into Liu Lu.

As soon as he entered Liu Lu, he immediately closed the door and walked quickly into the main room. He took out paper and brush and clearly wrote down the various discrepancies and related accounts he had checked in the afternoon.

Duan Rong had memorized all these figures. This was a side effect of obtaining Proficiency-level mental calculation after devouring the Copper Abacus Artifact Spirit of Li Jun.

In fact, so-called mental calculation had a great deal to do with memory, especially when it came to massive mental calculations of such a large amount of data; without a super-strong memory, it would be impossible to complete.

After Duan Rong finished writing, he looked it over by the lamplight, nodded with satisfaction, and went out to the street to get something to eat.

(End of this chapter)