Chapter 934 Matchmaking (I)

November 15th, morning.

Yuan Xiao, Yan Shun, Hong Si, and Lei Zhen went to the central hall to discuss matters at the invitation of Liu Xunyi. Xunzhen, Abaolu, Xiao Yang, Su Hu, and Xun Budao came together to "join in the fun." Strangely, Liu Xunyi, the protagonist, was nowhere to be seen.

"Miss, ever since you explained the pros and cons to us, we have been determined to make peace with Liu Xunyi." Lei Zhen couldn't help complaining to Xunzhen while sitting in the central hall, "But I don't know why? We didn't want to see him a few days ago, but he deliberately avoided us these days. It made us unable to find a chance to 'turn enemies into friends' with him."

"I know why." Xunzhen teased, "He has probably discovered the flaws in the accounts and knows that you are more cunning than each other, so he doesn't dare to meet you easily again."

"Miss, we already know our mistakes..."

"No need to say more, just follow my instructions later."

"understand!"

Before he finished speaking, there was a sudden sound of chaotic and noisy footsteps outside the hall. Then, Pan Yuyin led dozens of Yuanmen disciples to carry boxes of various sizes into the hall and arranged them in an orderly manner in front of everyone.

Looking at the familiar box, the worried Yuan Xiao and the other three suddenly changed their expressions and looked at each other with a hint of trepidation in their eyes. Xunzhen, on the other hand, sat leisurely on the side, drinking tea and silently observing the situation in the hall.

"The deputy sect leader is here!"

Accompanied by a shout as loud as a bell, Liu Xunyi strode into the hall accompanied by Tang Afu and a young man.

"Greetings to the Deputy Sect Leader!"

When they saw Liu Xunyi, Yuan Xiao and the other three, who were feeling very uneasy, suddenly stood up and bowed to him respectfully.

It is worth mentioning that when Yuan Xiao saw the young man following Liu Xunyi, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

He was about twenty years old, with bright eyes, thin brows, bright forehead, neatly dressed and handsome. Between his brows there was a boldness and tenacity of "a newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger", and from time to time a gleam of wisdom flashed in his pair of clear black and white eyes.

Looking closely, the aura exuded by the young man in his every move is quite similar to that of Yuan Xiao, the head of the "Four Prefectures of Shangjing".

"You four are my seniors, so there's no need to be polite." Seeing Yuan Xiao and the other three's attitude change drastically and being more respectful to him, Liu Xunyi was secretly surprised and quickly saluted them back. At the same time, he asked Pan Yuyin, "Miss Pan, can you prepare everything?"

"They are all here!" Pan Yuyin counted them quickly and replied, "The Yuan family has fifteen boxes, the Yan family has thirteen boxes, the Hong family has twelve boxes, and the Lei family has twelve boxes, a total of fifty-two boxes. Among them, twelve boxes contain the roster of people from the four prefectures in Shangjing, business account books, land deeds, and silver bills and pawn tickets. Forty boxes contain gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings."

"Open them all!"

At Liu Xunyi's command, dozens of Yuanmen disciples standing next to the box opened the lid together, revealing rolls of wrinkled and yellowed files and account books and piles of dazzling gold, silver, pearls and jade.

Seeing this, Yuan Xiao, Yan Shun, Hong Si and Lei Zhen were secretly surprised and subconsciously looked towards their own boxes.

When they saw the account books that they had deliberately messed up were now neatly arranged in the box, a sense of foreboding arose in the four of them.

They knew that Liu Xunyi had checked the accounts of the four prefectures in the capital thoroughly after several sleepless days. By comparing the gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, silver bills, pawn tickets, land deeds and other items in front of them, and checking and calculating them one by one, it would not be difficult to find out their details and find the loopholes in the accounts.

Little did people know that Liu Xunyi had served the Song Dynasty court for many years. During the more than ten years he studied hard in Tianji Pavilion, in addition to literary talent and martial arts, he also learned how to identify people, distinguish criminals, eavesdrop, track, interrogate, check accounts, and search homes... which are also the skills that every East Palace Junior Guard must learn, master, and master.

Therefore, when Liu Xunyi used the same skills he used to deal with court ministers to deal with Yuan Xiao and the other three, even if he couldn't do it effortlessly, he was at least familiar with it.

At this moment, Yuan Xiao and the other three, who had something to hide, all looked embarrassed and cast earnest glances at Xunzhen at the same time.

However, Xunzhen pretended to be ignorant of their worries. Instead of helping them out, he asked in a serious tone, "These things are all confidential information of the four prefectures in Shangjing. Can you find out what the problem is?"

"To be honest, there are... some problems." Liu Xunyi took a deep look at Yuan Xiao and the other three who were distracted, and answered reluctantly.

After saying that, Liu Xunyi took an account book from Pan Yuyin and said bitterly, "This account book...is the number that Brother Tang recalculated with Miss Pan after he inquired everywhere and verified everything one by one. Among them, the disciples of the four mansions in Shangjing are roughly the same as the population list. Not counting the clerks who manage the business and the idlers who eat and wait for death, Yuan, Yan, Hong, and Lei each have more than a thousand disciples. The Yuan sect has the most disciples, and the Lei sect has the least disciples, but the difference is only one or two hundred. However, except for the population list, the rest of the mansions and fields, business profits and losses, money and grain income and expenditure, etc., are all slightly different from the accounts that the four of you gave me."

As soon as these words were spoken, the hearts of Yuan Xiao and the other three instantly rose to their throats and their faces became uglier than each other.

"Oh?" Xunzhen frowned slightly, pretending to be surprised, "What's the difference?"

"This..." Looking at Yuan Xiao and the other three who were uneasy, Liu Xunyi hesitated and remained silent.

"Why don't you tell me?" Xunzhen asked impatiently, "Is there something you can't tell me?"

"Actually, it's not a big deal. Why don't we let everyone go back first and we can do it privately..."

"No! It's not something sneaky, why can't it be made public? What's more, everyone present today is our own people, there's no need to hide anything." Xunzhen interrupted Liu Xunyi's suggestion, and turned his fascinating gaze to the bewildered Pan Yuyin, and said in a serious tone, "Miss Pan, tell me what the difference is? Is it more... or less?"

"This..." Pan Yuyin looked at Liu Xunyi, who was frowning, and then at Xunzhen, who was anxious. After struggling for a while, she finally answered hesitantly, "Compared with the amount we settled, the amount recorded in these account books...is more in expenditure and less in income." "Miss Pan, what you mean is...they spend one penny but record one tael in the account? Conversely, they earn one tael but record one penny?" Xunzhen fixed his cold eyes on Yuan Xiao and the other three and questioned, "Is this the reason why you cry poor every day?"

"Humph!" Abaolu shouted angrily, "That day, when the young lady asked you for help, you kept saying that 'manpower, material resources, and financial resources are limited'... Now that your true colors have been exposed, what can you say?"

"We know we are wrong... We have nothing to say."

Faced with Xunzhen and Abaolu's resounding scolding, Yuan Xiao and the other three were disheartened and kept silent.

"Abaolu, Xiaoyang, Suhu, Xun Budao, take down all four of them!" Xunzhen seemed to be getting angrier and angrier the more he thought about it. He slammed the teacup on the table with a "bang" and said angrily, "You are a bunch of ungrateful people. The young king of Qin entrusted you with important tasks and responded to your every request. How dare you take advantage of his trust to deceive your superiors and subordinates and enrich yourself? It is really abominable, hateful and shameful. I will chop off your heads and report to the young king of Qin!"

"We know we are wrong! Miss, please spare us! Miss, please spare us..."

Seeing Xunzhen's fury, Yuan Xiao and the other three immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed to her for mercy. At the same time, dozens of disciples in the hall also knelt on the ground and pleaded for mercy for the four.

Seeing this, Liu Xunyi, Pan Yuyin and Tang Afu were all stunned. Although they expected Xunzhen to be angry, they never expected that she would have murderous intentions towards the four "heroes" of the Shao Qin King.

I still remember that Xunzhen solemnly told Liu Xunyi that he could only use a warning to scare Yuan Xiao and the other three, but not kill a chicken to scare the monkeys.

What happened today? Why did Xunzhen suddenly change her personality? Did she not care about the hard work and contributions of Yuan Xiao and the other four? Did she not care about the friendship between the young king of Qin and them for more than 20 years?

Or maybe... Xunzhen has always disliked them, but in the past, she couldn't beat or scold them because she didn't have any real evidence. Now that Liu Xunyi has found irrefutable evidence, it's just the right time for her to take advantage of the situation and kill someone with a borrowed knife?
In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Liu Xunyi's mind, leaving him confused and upset.

"Liu Xunyi, you are the one who caused us all to fail!" Lei Zhen cursed angrily, "I knew you wanted to kill us, but I didn't expect your methods to be so despicable! We cooperated with you with good intentions, but you found fault with us..."

"I..." The sudden chaos caught Liu Xunyi off guard and he was unable to defend himself.

"Stubborn!" Xunzhen's eyes turned fierce and he said in a cold voice, "You have done something wrong, but instead of repenting, you are committing a crime and speaking rudely. Xiao Yang, slap Lei Zhen's mouth hard!"

"As ordered..."

"I come!"

Before Xiao Yang could step forward, Abaolu, who had been holding back his anger, suddenly flew over. Before Lei Zhen could wink at him, Abaolu had already swung his palm-leaf fan and mercilessly slapped him on the head.

"Snapped!"

With one slap, five bright red fingerprints were instantly left on Lei Zhen's face, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

"Abaolu, you are really serious..."

"It's true that you embezzled money, but why would I beat you up if it's false?"

Seeing Lei Zhen speaking without restraint, Abaolu's face changed. In order to avoid revealing his flaws, he cursed quickly, and then he was hit by a violent storm, which made Lei Zhen, who was unable to speak out his grievances, collapse to the ground, mumbling incoherently.

"What are you waiting for?"

Xunzhen stared at the bewildered Xiao Yang and his companions with an unfriendly look, and urged them, "Go tie up Yuan Xiao, Yan Shun, and Hong Si, and send them off at noon today!"

"Yes……"

"Wait a moment!"

In a hurry, Liu Xunyi had no time to weigh the pros and cons, and stepped forward without hesitation: "This matter is caused by me, you can't kill them."

"It's obviously their own fault, what does it have to do with you?" Xunzhen said with a hint of meaning, "What's more, they have always been dissatisfied with you. Today, I finally found a reason to get rid of them with justification..."

"If that's the case, then we can't kill them!" Liu Xunyi's eyes changed, and he said firmly, "I checked the accounts just to follow your advice, and I definitely didn't intend to find fault. If they get into trouble because of this, how will the brothers in the four prefectures in Shangjing look at me? And how will the world look at me?"

"This……"

Seeing Liu Xunyi speaking righteously for Yuan Xiao and the other three, Xunzhen was secretly delighted, but on the surface he pretended to be stubborn and said angrily: "There is a saying that 'one can see the big picture from the small, and one can know the leopard from the tube'. They falsified the accounts, and they may have done the same in other places. The young king of Qin hates people who say one thing in front of others and another behind their backs. They have committed a big taboo, and you want to make a big deal out of it with just one sentence. What right do you have?"

"This……"

When Liu Xunyi hesitated and hesitated, the young man standing behind him seemed to be unable to suppress his inner panic and interrupted without caring about his status: "Just because he is the deputy leader of the Xilu Wu Sect, in charge of all matters of the four major branches in the Central Plains, including the life and death, reward and punishment of the four leaders, I wonder... Is it okay?"

……

(End of this chapter)