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The next day, the gossip circulating among the Three Provinces and Six Ministries was about how, due to a heavy rainstorm the day before, Lord Qin's carriage had fallen apart midway, leaving him drenched and suffering from a cold. Today, he looked rather unwell.
The Su Yan pretended she hadn’t heard any of it. She took the accounts that Bai Ci had verified for her and went to find Qin Shuyang.
“Lord Qin, we need to reconcile the accounts and also receive this month’s budget,” the Su Yan said as she handed over the ledger. She glanced at Qin Shuyang ’s face and thought to herself how he hadn’t even ended up with a black eye despite such a mishap.
Qin Shuyang didn’t even lift his eyelids. He extended his hand, and Du Zhi obediently passed him another ledger. Qin Shuyang opened both ledgers and began reading them rapidly.
The Su Yan grumbled internally again; Du Zhi could handle the accounting without all this fuss. It was always such a hassle.
What fairness and integrity! The other five ministries had to set up their own financial ledgers because of this. Thankfully, she had Bai Ci as her free labor; otherwise, she wouldn’t know how much it would cost her.
She glanced at the rather handsome Qin Shuyang beneath her eyelids and added, “Stingy, picky, and with a terrible personality—what woman would ever want to marry him?”
After finishing his review, Qin Shuyang closed the two ledgers and waved his hand at Du Zhi. Du Zhi then handed a wooden box to the Su Yan.
She couldn’t help but roll her eyes; he was so stingy with words too—truly an Iron-Fisted Chicken.
As she opened the wooden box to count the money, her face grew paler with each count until she nearly shouted Qin Shuyang ’s name in disbelief.
“Qin… Lord!” she said through gritted teeth. “You better explain this to me!”
Finally, Qin Shuyang lifted his eyelids with great reluctance and offered a single sentence: “War is imminent in the northwest; all departments must cut their budgets.”
“Damn it, fighting for money? This is clearly a personal vendetta!” The Su Yan felt a surge of anger rise within her as she slammed the wooden box onto the table, causing a loud bang that startled everyone around who had been eagerly watching the spectacle.
She leaned on the table, nearly grinding her back teeth to dust. “Lord Qin, you can’t just cut the budget down to thirty percent! Do you think the people I lead are just loafing around?”
Wow! Openly challenging the authority of the Minister of Revenue, the gazes around them instantly turned sharp, all eyes darting towards the two.
“If they’re loafing around, I wouldn’t leave even one percent for them.”
The Grand Minister remained composed, elegantly resting his chin on one hand, responding with a calmness that deflected her fury. The Su Yan ’s rage fizzled out like wet firewood, leaving only wisps of smoke.
At that moment, the Grand Minister suddenly narrowed his eyes and spoke with a serious tone, “If you want to increase the budget, you could always sell a smile or offer an apology or even yourself; anything is possible.”
What?! Everyone present froze in disbelief: their upright and incorruptible Lord Qin was openly teasing the female official? Lord Qin “teasing” a woman?! It couldn’t be true; they must have misheard!
Family scandals should never be aired; they must not let anyone from the other five ministries know about their leader’s embarrassing behavior!
From the moment she heard those words, the Su Yan ’s head buzzed with confusion. It wasn’t until she caught snippets of whispers around her that she truly understood what the Grand Minister had just said. Her body trembled slightly; this was too shocking!
“You’ve got guts!” she finally managed to spit out three words before grabbing her wooden box and storming off. As she passed by the Ministry of Rites, the Minister of Rites looked at her eagerly and asked, “ Lord Su, when will you send someone to fix our roof?”
Without even glancing at him, she tossed back over her shoulder, “Just catch it with a bucket,” and swept past like a gust of wind.
The Minister of Rites blinked his bleary old eyes in confusion; by the time he looked again, the Su Yan had already vanished. He couldn’t help but groan, “Oh dear, it’s already leaked three buckets…”
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