Chapter 357

The Wen family is a wealthy family with many accountants, but they don't live far away, otherwise they would have to continue to wander around other people's houses.

The servant led them to another place, which looked like a courtyard. From the moon gate, they could hear the crackling sound of abacus beads, which seemed to be very busy.

Then the servant asked the two to wait in the pavilion in the courtyard. Not long after, a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties with a goatee and a puzzled face came.

"We are busy, why bring guests here?"

"Don't blame us, Mr. Accountant, we just have something to ask."

Yang Yiyi's words were not right. How could you go to a rich family to ask about the accountant?

So Qin Yan immediately added:

"To be honest, your master asked us to investigate the accountant who was murdered some time ago. I heard that his account book was taken away, so I want to ask."

You see, this is the right way. First, bring up Wen Peng, the master of the Wen family, and then explain the purpose. Even if he is unwilling, he has to cooperate for Wen Peng's sake.

The accountant, who was a little impatient, heard the master's request, and the servant next to him nodded vigorously. He immediately nodded and said:

"What do you two ladies want to ask?"

"Where is the account book of the murdered accountant?"

"In the room, we are checking."

"Checking?"

Speaking of this, the accountant was furious.

"There are several mistakes in the account book. After the master found out, he asked us to check all of them to avoid any omissions. We have been working on it for half a month and still haven't finished checking."

"Is the deceased not careful?"

"What's the point of not being careful? It's just like a child's mischief."

Hearing this, Qin Yan felt strange and asked hurriedly:

"What exactly is it?"

"Even simple additions and subtractions are wrong. For example, the last page says that 10 guan was received and 350 wen was spent on purchasing cotton and linen, but the balance is written as 48 guan."

This is really not a simple miscalculation, it's just nonsense.

It stands to reason that the accountant can't make such a mistake. It's more like deliberate nonsense, so it's no wonder that he was asked to recheck.

"Do you know anything about the deceased?"

"Not really. He's been here for less than two months, and he's gone. And such a big mistake has happened. We're the ones who are busy."

"I heard that he was introduced?"

"Not really. In the beginning of autumn, an old accountant planned to go home to spend his old age. He was short of someone, so I introduced a cousin."

"It's your cousin, and you don't know?"

"Lady, have you heard of this saying? One generation of relatives, two generations of cousins, three generations and four generations are fine. According to the generation, the one who died is my eldest nephew, but I've never seen him before. If he hadn't brought a letter with him when he came, I wouldn't have known that he was related to me."

"Did he come to you in person?"

"Yes, he said that there was a locust plague in his hometown in Yuezhou, and he was the only one left in the family. He said that he used to be a teacher, so I wanted to find him a job to make a living, but who knew so many things would happen."

With the keenness of being a thief, Qin Yan felt that there might be something wrong with the identity of the deceased.

Pretending to be a distant relative of an accountant to seek refuge, there is much more room for maneuverability. After all, there are no telephones now, and transportation is very inconvenient. If the hometown is too far away, it will take more than one or two months to verify it.

If someone forged a family letter to seek refuge, I am afraid that no one would want to verify it before making any suspicious moves.

And if they just want to use this identity for a short time, when the news of verification comes back, the person has already run away.

This trick of stealing and replacing pillars is also a common skill of the thieves in the Sixteen Villages. To get into the mansion of a wealthy family, it is usually enough to get in for a day or two to step on the dishes, and then steal things and run away.

However, this matter is much more complicated than the thieves in the Sixteen Villages stealing things.

Qin Yan quickly calculated in her mind:

"Can you show us the account book?"

"This..."

Everything else is easy to say, but when it comes to the account book, the accountant hesitated.

After all, this is the master's thing, which is still relatively sensitive. Regardless of whether there are some illegal things recorded in the account book, it is not suitable for outsiders to see.

"Don't worry, sir. We are here on the request of the master of the Wen family, and we are just standing here to take a look. It is impossible to memorize such a thick account book by just looking at it."

"Okay, wait a moment, ladies."

The accountant gave in, turned back to the house, and soon took out a blue account book.

"This is it."

Qin Yan opened it and saw that there was still some blood on the latest pages, but not much, which showed that the person who did it was indeed a quick sword, and there was not much blood left.

The two girls gathered together to flip through the account book, and even Yang Yiyi, who had never kept accounts, could see that there were indeed many mistakes.

"How many places are there with mistakes?"

"I found four or five for now, here, I marked them with a pen."

The mistakes are limited to the last few pages. Although there are some in the front, the mistakes are not so outrageous. They are just typos or miscalculations in some places.

But what does this mean?

Qin Yan is just a thief after all. At most, she can think from the perspective of a thief, but she is not a constable who is responsible for solving cases.

After reading a few pages, she felt overwhelmed.

She really couldn't figure out what was going on, so Qin Yan returned the account book to the accountant.

"This may be physical evidence, so keep it well."

The accountant nodded, but didn't care too much. He asked if there was anything else, and after getting the answer, he went back to check the account book.

After leaving the small courtyard of the accountant's office, Qin Yan felt more and more that this matter was troublesome.

There were almost no useful clues at the scene, and there were no witnesses. At present, it can only be concluded that the deceased died under the sword, but it is not clear what weapon was used. Combined with the conflict between the Wen and Qing families, it is no wonder that someone would suspect the Qing family.

After thinking about it for a long time, Qin Yan turned to Yang Yiyi and asked:

"What do you think?"

Obviously, she didn't expect much when she asked her about this matter. These few days of getting along made Qin Yan know that Yang Yiyi rarely used her brain. Although her martial arts value was very high, her style of doing things was very reckless.

Asking her was just to check for omissions and fill in the gaps. If she had an opinion that could make people's eyes light up, there might be a breakthrough in this matter.

"I..."

Just as she was about to speak, Yang Yiyi suddenly stopped talking and changed her tone:

"I want to go to the toilet."

"."

What the hell.

A lazy donkey will pee more when it goes to the mill, right?

It really makes people's eyes go dark.

The servant considerately pointed out the location of the toilet to Yang Yiyi. In Qin Yan's regretful eyes of "why the hell did I ask her", Yang Yiyi trotted all the way.

After entering the toilet and confirming that there was no one around, Yang Yiyi took out the jade sceptre and shook it frantically.

"Don't shake it, I'm watching it all the time."

Hearing Li Chengxi's voice, Yang Yiyi felt relieved.

"Brother Li, have you found anything?"

"Some, but not much. What can be confirmed is that the deceased and the murderer may know each other, and even chatted for a while before they died."

"Ah? How did you see this? Brother Li, did you use your magic to calculate it?"

Not so, really not so...

The title was typed wrong, I wanted to delete and rewrite it, but I clicked publish_(:з」∠)_