Cicadas shrilled like boiling water, their sound piercing the carved lattice windows and weaving a suffocating net of noise across the gold-tiled floor of the council hall. Mixed with the cloying sweetness of the water lilies in the courtyard basin, the heat made one’s temples throb painfully. The Marquis’s knuckles drummed against the rosewood desk; amidst the rhythmic rapping, the ledger splayed open on the table shook its corners. The fresh red ink of the deficit glared mockingly in the bright sunlight, mirroring the droplets of blood Jiang Rou had coughed onto her silk handkerchief moments before.
"A loss of a hundred taels at the silk shop, and the grain accounts don't match." A low growl like rolling thunder rumbled in the Marquis’s throat. The corners of his eyes, etched with deep crow’s feet, twitched violently. "Wan, is this how you manage the household assets?"
Jiang Wan lowered her eyes to the jarring red marks in the ledger, her fingertips lightly brushing the frayed edges of the paper where "Losses" was written. Three days ago, she had pressed these pages flat with a paperweight herself, yet now they looked like withered branches soaked in a downpour, curled and crumpled. The falsified numbers stared back, the blurred edges of the ink still damp—clearly added only last night. Behind the screen came the sound of shallow, stifled breathing. A hem of moon-white silk embroidered with a Twin Lotus design flickered in the gap of the gilded screen, like a snake hiding…
Chapter 83