Are You Trying to Weasel Out of Your Debts?
The next morning, Zheng Linglong and Qin Yuan were woken up by knocking on the door before they even got up.
Qin Yuan frowned and asked, "Who's that so early in the morning?"
The servant outside said, "General, a large group of people have arrived. They want to see you. You said you wanted to settle their accounts today, so they came."
Qin Yuan said helplessly, "What debts? Does our Qin Clan need to owe debts?"
The servant outside said helplessly, "Yes, that's what I said too, but the seal on it is definitely from the Qin Clan."
Qin Yuan frowned and said, "Let Madam handle this. I never concern myself with these matters."
The person outside responded and withdrew.
Zheng Linglong was woken up and said impatiently, "What is Jiang Yunyao doing? She can't even manage the internal affairs properly. I don't think she should be in charge of anything."
Qin Yuan sighed and said:
"Let her manage it for now! She's been doing a pretty good job, and most importantly, no one is more suitable than her."
The Qin Clan is broke now; they all depend on her.
A moment later, the steward hurriedly said, "General, something terrible has happened! The lady has disappeared!"
Qin Yuan frowned and said, "What do you mean 'disappeared'? Where could she have gone? Go find her right now."
The butler responded, but after searching for a long time, he found nothing.
Zheng Linglong was furious. "It's so early in the morning, and I can't find a single person. They're utterly useless! I can't even sleep in!"
As soon as Qin Yuan and Zheng Linglong reached the door, they saw hundreds of people rushing towards them.
"General Qin, you've finally come out! We thought your family was going to renege on their debt!"
"Didn't you say you'd settle the account after the marriage? Hurry up and settle the account for us!"
"We ordinary people can't wait that long; we're almost starving."
General Qin frowned and asked, "What settlement? What are you talking about?"
Everyone was stunned for a moment and said:
"General Qin, these are the things you'll use for your wedding."
"But they all owe our shop money. Now that the wedding is over, are you trying to renege on your debts?"
Old Madam Qin came out and said, "Nonsense! When has our Qin Clan ever relied on credit to make ends meet?"
Everyone pulled out IOUs and said:
"Old Madam Qin, this is your Qin Clan's official seal!"
It's all written clearly in black and white; we wouldn't have bought on credit if it weren't for your company seal!
Shen Tao and several officials also came in and said, "General Qin, someone invited me from the county office early this morning, saying that your family owes a lot of debts and they want me to come and settle them."
Qin Yuan frowned and said, "I was unaware of these matters. My wife was handling these things before, and I'm still looking for her."
Shen Tao glanced at him and said:
"Madam Qin? Didn't Madam Qin divorce you?"
Isn't the current Madam Qin the one next to you?
The shopkeepers said, "Is the Qin Clan trying to renege on their debt?"
"Isn't this just trying to renege on your debt? Your family owes me 8,000 taels of silver!"
I have tens of thousands of taels of silver here!
"What's a few tens of thousands of taels? I have hundreds of thousands of taels here!"
General Qin was taken aback and said, "What? How could she owe so much? What exactly did Jiang Yunyao do?"
The shopkeepers said:
"The Qin Clan has some clever tricks up their sleeves! They got Madam Qin to borrow money, and then they got a divorce."
"Are you trying to pin all the blame on Madam Qin?"
"What's the rush? This bears the Qin family's seal; it can't be run away."
"Yes, General Qin, you must give us an explanation today. There are simply too many debts to settle."
General Qin's vision went black. Zheng Linglong said, "This was done by Jiang Yunyao. You should go find her! What are you doing coming to the Qin family?"
Old Madam Qin also said, "These things were all done by Jiang Yunyao, and have nothing to do with our Qin family. You've come to the wrong person!"
Shen Tao, standing beside him, smiled and said:
"Sigh! They came to me because they were afraid this matter wouldn't be clear-cut."
I also looked at the bills, and all of them were for the wedding. To put it bluntly...
Everything here is for the Qin family's expenses; not a single penny has been spent on Jiang Yunyao.
Surely the Qin family's expenses shouldn't be borne by a frail woman?
That wouldn't sound good to people!
The shopkeepers around nodded and said:
"That's certainly true! It's one thing for General Qin to marry a concubine."
"How can it be reasonable for one's own wife to bear the cost of marrying a concubine?"
"I heard that the previous Madam Qin managed the Qin household very well, was extremely virtuous, and even passed the position of Madam Qin to the current Madam!"
"Where can you find such a wonderful wife?"
"Yesterday, with the grand wedding procession stretching for miles, your Qin Clan was so splendid. Surely you don't want to push all the blame onto your ex-wife?"
Qin Yuan was also dumbfounded; he hadn't expected things to develop this way.
Qin Yuan frowned and said:
"Is the accountant here? Settle the accounts with them and see how much they owe in total."
If it's not much, we'll settle the bill with them.
This kind of commotion isn't going to work.
The accountants arrived quickly; five accountants lined up, holding abacuses, and began settling accounts.
When the results were tallied up, everyone was stunned. "General, our family owes a total of 110,000 taels of gold and 1,742 taels of silver."
Qin Yuan nearly fainted. "What nonsense are you spouting? Did you even do the math properly? 110,000 taels of gold? Are you crazy?"
The accountant wiped the sweat from his brow and said, "We've calculated it three times already, and it's always the same number. Just buying houses, shops, and estates has cost 20,000 taels of gold."
Qin Yuan gasped and asked, "What house? What shop? What estate?"
The accountant explained, "Actually, the bulk of the money was in the betrothal gifts. Eighty-eight sets of betrothal gifts cost more than 50,000 taels of gold. The rest was for the wedding banquet."
Qin Yuan was dumbfounded:
"That Jiang Yunyao is insane! She spent 110,000 taels of gold of mine on her wedding banquet. Is she crazy?"
"I need to find Jiang Yunyao and get her to tell me where all this money went."
The accountant continued, "Where did this money go? It's all written down clearly and explicitly, all on the bills."
The accountant brought out all the bills. Zheng Linglong took the bills, flipped through them, and her face turned green.
Qin Yuan looked at the bills and said, "A wedding banquet cost so much? Where the hell is Jiang Yunyao? Find her for me."
Shen Tao looked at Qin Yuan and said, "General Qin, are you saying you're going to renege on your promise?"
Qin Yuan looked at Shen Tao and said:
"I don't mean to deny it, but this wedding banquet was prepared by Jiang Yunyao."
I didn't know about the debts outside, so naturally I need to find her and explain them to her."
Shen Tao looked at Qin Yuan and said, "General Qin, this is your family matter, but the debt must be settled by the Qin family."
Old Madam Qin snorted coldly and said, "You think the Qin family can just return it because you say so?"
Shen Tao said with a smile:
"It's not necessarily the Qin family who has to pay; the bill clearly states that."
If you can't repay it, you can exchange it for the military tally in General Qin's possession. General Qin, what do you think?
Qin Yuan's face darkened completely. "A military tally? Shen Tao, this wasn't a scheme you devised, was it?"
Shen Tao waved his hand helplessly and said:
"What use would I have for your broken military tally? I have no intention of rebelling."
These are your own family rules, why are you arguing with me?
If you can't afford to get married, then don't. Now you've left a mountain of messy debts, forcing me to rush over early this morning. I haven't even settled accounts with you yet!
Qin Yuan was so angry he felt dizzy. He took a deep breath and said:
"I will not acknowledge this debt. I never let Jiang Yunyao spend so much money on this wedding banquet. She made this decision on her own."
I'll find her soon and get her to pay the money.
Then they heard someone outside say, "General, the lady has returned."