Chapter 27: Filling the Deficit

Gu Jiu Ling's gaze withdrew from outside the carriage window and fell onto the package she held. "Jiu Yue, are those documents ready?"

Jiu Yue hurriedly said, "Ready. Earlier, I, following your orders, went to Zhou Fu's place; her son's consumption had lingered a long time, I delivered your medicine, and unexpectedly it improved a lot."

"Zhou Fu told me that, having a son late in life, being able to live thanks to the young lady's divine medicine, his whole family will serve you as ox and horse from now on."

Gu Jiu Ling nodded. Zhou Fu was a major gift she had prepared for Madame Lin. Consumption was actually pulmonary tuberculosis; Gu Jiu Ling had taken several boxes of levofloxacin and moxifloxacin from her space, plus some medicines to assist bronchitis treatment. Naturally she could snatch Zhou Fu's only son from the King of Hell's grasp, and he owed her a huge favor. Seeing her master's face slightly fatigued, Jiu Yue steadied herself and said, "Master, for this matter of returning to the shop and manor, why not ask the Prince for help? You wouldn't be so exhausted!"

Gu Jiu Ling smiled faintly and said to the honest and straightforward maid Jiu Yue, "In this world, never place all your chips in a man's hands; a woman must stand on her own."

Jiu Yue froze there. As a child her mother had told her to marry a man, to wear clothes and eat, but she never expected her own young lady to think this way. Moreover these days she felt the Prince was not as ferocious and unfeeling as rumors claimed; on the contrary, he treated the young lady extremely well. Gu Jiu Ling smiled and pinched Jiu Yue's round, chubby cheek, saying, "Girl, men only affect how fast you make money! Follow me, and I'll feed you well, and later I'll save more dowry for you."

Jiu Yue's cheeks flushed red as she snapped, "Master loves to tease the maid; I'll never marry, I'll only serve you!"

While Gu Jiu Ling and Jiu Yue chatted, they arrived at the two shops on the east side of Zhu Que Jie—one dealing in silk, the other in jewelry—with heavy foot traffic. The two shopfronts stood side by side; counting the rear courtyard and the front shopfronts, there were at least dozens of rooms big and small, especially the jewelry shop, which actually rose as a three-story pavilion, exceptionally grand. One could imagine how wealthy the Du family had been back then; on this prime Zhu Que Jie in Shang Jing, where every inch of land is precious, building such a high-rise was certainly beyond ordinary wealthy households. Jiu Yue first dismounted from the carriage and carefully helped Gu Jiu Ling down. Seeing Gu Jiu Ling slowly walk in from the main door, whether it was the busy shop assistants at the counter or the customers inside buying goods, they all froze. Gu Jiu Ling's composed face, supported by Jiu Yue, entered the jewelry shop's Zheng Ting and promptly sat in the chair beside the front counter. Gu Jiu Ling is now a hot topic in Shang Jing: first palace gossip, then premarital pregnancy, then she even stopped Prince Rui on the street and forced marriage, and now word has spread that she actually saved the Bei Di little prince on the royal hunting grounds. Who would have thought she'd show up here today; from any angle, this Miss Gu of the Gu family is coming to cause trouble. The customers gathered around, their curiosity aroused. A shop assistant had already run to the back to find the manager. The manager overseeing these two shops, Lin Wancai, a distant relative of Madame Lin of the Gu Xiang residence, was stout-eared and sharp‑faced. Upon hearing the news, Lin Wancai hurried into Zheng Ting, spotted Gu Jiu Ling seated there, his eyes flickered slightly. After Gu Jiu Ling took away the dowry, Madame Lin had already contacted him, deciding not to let Gu Jiu Ling easily take over the shop left by the Du patriarch. His mind turned, he walked toward Gu Jiu Ling, clasped his hands in a slight bow, and smiled, "Young lady, you've come?"

"We don't know why the young lady has come today."

Gu Jiu Ling snorted inwardly, feigning ignorance, still pretending! She waved to Jiu Yue, who stepped forward, unfolded the package she had been holding, took out the shop deed left by the former lady to Gu Jiu Ling, and laid it on a side table. Lin Wancai's eyes flashed, and he gave an embarrassed smile, "Young lady, what do you mean by this?"

Gu Jiu Ling snorted, "Are you blind? Can't you see? Or are you pretending not to know, playing dumb?"

Lin Wancai's face darkened. He was the distant elder brother of Madame Lin of the Gu Xiang residence, a well‑known figure on this street, Lin the boss. After being snapped at by Gu Jiu Ling, a hint of malice flashed in his eyes. "Young lady, if you're here to cause trouble, let's go elsewhere to talk; if you're here to buy things, I won't take your money today—I'll just count it as a favor to you. Why speak so harshly?"

"You'll give it to me?"

Gu Jiu Ling laughed angrily. When she had brought her dowry out of the Gu family, any decent person would have handed over the shop and such to the bride. Yet she actually wanted to renege on the dowry—has Lin Qingxue gone mad from poverty? She doesn't even care about her face anymore? She slowly raised her hand and gently stroked the jewelry placed in the eight‑compartment box, saying word by word, "If I remember correctly, these shops, including the goods inside, were all left to me by my maternal grandfather; when did they become the Lin family's?"

Lin Wancai's expression changed. He had heard that the young lady had recently become a different person, her temperament completely altered. He hadn't paid it much mind, but now meeting Gu Jiu Ling's icy gaze, although he had seen all kinds of people in business, he was shaken by those eyes. Lin Wancai's thoughts shifted; he picked up the shop deed on the table, glanced at it, and then snorted, "Come! Bring the account books from the accounting office!"

Soon the shop assistants carried over a tall ledger and piled it onto the table before Gu Jiu Ling, filling the table. Lin Wancai sneered, "Young lady, since you want to settle accounts with us, let's do it properly."

"Originally the Du patriarch left so many shops, but the goods inside were pitifully few—this is the old ledger."

Lin Wancai snorted, tossing the ledger onto Gu Jiu Ling's face, sending up a puff of dust. Gu Jiu Ling didn't even look at the ledger, merely stared coldly at Lin Wancai. Her mother was also a muddlehead, or perhaps her maternal grandfather had left too much, making her think it didn't matter; she had handed these ledgers over to the Gu family for safekeeping, and now they ended up in Lin Qingxue's hands. Only a fool would look at these falsified, rotting old accounts; after more than ten years, trying to audit them backward is basically impossible. Seeing Gu Jiu Ling silent, Lin Wancai felt a surge of confidence, ordered someone to fetch an abacus, which clacked away. "Originally there was nothing in the shops; everything was later stocked by Madame Lin. In those first few years, the people left by the Du family ran them, but poor management lost even the shops themselves."

"Later Madame Lin used her own silver to take over the shops, reviving them to reach today's scale."

Lin Wancai gave a cold smile: "I see clearly—today the young lady wants to take the shops back into her hands, but these shops now belong to Madame Lin's name, no longer the Du family's."

"Moreover… the Du family's shops lost a lot of silver in earlier years; if the young lady wants to take them over, she must first obtain Madame Lin's consent, and then come up with several thousand taels of silver to fill the deficit!"

Gu Jiu Ling's brows knotted tightly; she really couldn't believe such shamelessness. They had forcibly taken over the shop left by her mother, now not only refusing to return it, but demanding she fill the deficit—shameless! If she weren't pregnant, she'd really want to slap him twice. Beside her, Jiu Yue flushed with anger and exclaimed, "This was originally the young lady's property; how did it become yours? Why should the young lady compensate for your losses?"

"And you claim the Du family's shops were in deficit, taken over by Madame Lin—taken from whom?"

Lin Wancai snorted, "Naturally from the former lady! The former lady sold it to our lady!"

"Damn your mother's nonsense!"

Jiu Yue's eyes reddened with anger; everyone in the Gu family knows Lin seduced the Gu Xiang before, causing the former lady's death in anger—how could the former lady have given the shops to the Lin clan? "You bully people, at least have some limits!"

Jiu Yue said with a hint of a sob, "Jiu Yue!"

Gu Jiu Ling gently pulled the angry, pale‑faced Jiu Yue behind her, then rose slowly, took a stack of silver notes from a nearby package, and slammed them onto the table. She curled her lips and said, "Good! I'll make up this deficit!"

Lin Wancai stared dumbfounded—she really would pay it?