Chapter 181

The fifth day of the eighth lunar month, at the first light of dawn. In the study of General Zhenwei's Mansion, candlelight cast the silhouettes of Jiang Wan and Lu Jingyuan against the grey brick wall, standing tall like a pair of bamboo stalks. Jiang Wan held a magnifying glass, scrutinizing the ledgers seized from the merchants line by line. Suddenly, she used a cinnabar brush to circle an entry on the "March Procurement List for Li’s Cloth Shop": "Jingyuan, look at this entry for 'Jiangnan Cloud Brocade.' The unit price is thirty percent lower than the market rate." "Thirty percent lower?" Lu Jingyuan set down the intelligence report he was holding and leaned in to inspect the ledger. "Manager Li was crying poverty just last month. Where would he get the money to buy high-end goods?" "Because this batch of goods never existed." Jiang Wan motioned for Feicui to bring over the Marquis's Mansion’s trade records. "There was a massive flood in Jiangnan during March; the cloud brocade couldn't have been shipped here at all. These entries are nothing more than fabricated transaction records."