Audit and Creating a Chance to Strike Back

The audit did not stop just because Minister Cao of the Ministry of Revenue dropped the matter, nor would it ever stop for that reason. On the contrary, Adrian Dongling (Prince Rowan) vented all his anger directly onto the Ministry.

Minister Cao embarrassed Prince Rowan in public, but Rowan, enraged, forced a smile. Instead of blaming Minister Cao, he actually made excuses for him.

"Minister Cao is elderly, so it's only natural that his temper flares up sometimes. Don't take it to heart, everyone. Let's finish the task Father assigned us and make sure the Ministry of Revenue's accounts are clear—that's our real duty."

With these words, Rowan not only gave himself a way out, but also showed princely composure. The officials present nodded quietly, agreeing that Prince Rowan had matured—he finally knew how to restrain his emotions and not display his joy or anger in front of outsiders. Only then did his followers feel confident in him.

Although Minister Cao left, he was not shirking his duties—he simply refused to wait on Prince Rowan himself. As soon as he turned away, he sent two vice-ministers to assist Rowan with the audit.

The two vice-ministers were not Minister Cao—they lacked the backing of Ninth Royal Uncle and the late Emperor. After greeting Prince Rowan, they immediately apologized on Minister Cao's behalf, saying he was unwell.

Prince Rowan graciously said nothing more and simply asked the Ministry staff to organize the ledgers. They needed to conduct the audit, so the vice-ministers quickly agreed and led Rowan's group to the workroom where the Ministry officials handled their duties.

"Your Highness, please wait a moment. I will fetch the ledgers right away." With that, the man vanished. Prince Rowan showed no emotion on his face, but a hint of satisfaction flashed in his eyes, thinking Minister Cao had finally yielded. If he had paid closer attention, he would have noticed that not even a single cup of tea had been served since they arrived.

A quarter of an hour later, the vice-ministers directed eight guards to carry in four chests of ledgers. "Your Highness, here are the ledgers."

"Is that all? You'd better not be hiding anything from me." Although Prince Rowan had never worked in the Ministry of Revenue, he knew the basics. He immediately put on a stern face and asked.

Decades of accounts—how could there possibly be so few?

The two vice-ministers shamelessly replied, "Your Highness, we wouldn't dare deceive you. These are all the ledgers from the first year of Jingfeng Era. If you don't believe us, you can inspect them yourself. As for the second year's accounts, we've already sorted them, but if we brought them in now, the room would be too crowded and it would be easy to mix things up. Or does Your Highness want to start with the ledgers from the late Emperor's reign?"

Their words were a slap in Prince Rowan's face, exposing just how ignorant his earlier remark was. These ledgers were only from the first year of the current Emperor's reign, but the Emperor had been on the throne for over twenty years, and the late Emperor ruled for more than thirty. The sheer number of ledgers...

Even with all his composure, Prince Rowan couldn't help but feel embarrassed by the vice-ministers' words. Staring at the four overflowing chests of ledgers, he felt as if he'd volunteered his own cheek for a beating.

So this was just a single year's accounts, and yet there was so much—how was he supposed to audit all this?

Whether it was intentional or not, the vice-ministers, seeing Prince Rowan silent, added, "Your Highness, we still have other governmental duties to attend to. It's not convenient for us to stay here during the audit, but we've called in the clerks who kept the books that year. If you have any questions about a specific entry, you can ask them directly."

Although the Emperor ordered the Ministry of Revenue to cooperate, he didn't suspend its daily work. So the vice-ministers had to handle regular business too, and couldn't afford to neglect their duties—no one could bear that responsibility.

Prince Rowan was just a prince, not the Emperor or the Crown Prince, so he had no authority over official appointments. The Ministry of Revenue was really Ninth Royal Uncle's domain and an enemy to Rowan, so its officials had no reason to curry favor with him.

Rowan didn’t trust the Ministry staff either. Though annoyed, he reminded himself of his real purpose for coming here, forcing down his frustration. Secretly, he vowed: once I uncover the Ministry’s crimes, I’ll throw all of you into prison and wipe out your entire clans.

The vice-ministers withdrew. At the doorway, they exchanged glances and smiled, their eyes full of mockery.

Anyone who’s never worked in the Ministry of Revenue could never imagine how mind-numbingly complex its ledgers are. Go on, Your Highness, enjoy wrestling with those books. Didn’t you want to find mistakes in the Ministry? We’re giving you the chance…

Prince Rowan arrived full of confidence, but in less than an hour, his fighting spirit had faded.

What kind of heavenly script was this? Line after line of silver coming in and going out—far too complicated. How was he supposed to spot any errors?

The worst part was, after a whole hour, he hadn’t even finished a single ledger. Looking at the hundreds of books in just one chest, he realized that even with a dozen people working together, it would take days to get through them—and this was only one year’s worth…

Thinking about the more than twenty years of accounts still to check, Rowan’s head throbbed. In frustration, he tossed the old ledger back into the chest, raising a cloud of dust that nearly choked him.

Out of habit, he reached for a teacup—only to realize there wasn’t a single cup of tea. Furious, Prince Rowan ordered the Ministry staff to summon those two vice-ministers.

But Rowan didn’t lash out about the tea. Instead, he told the vice-ministers to bring out this year’s accounts—he would focus on the current year.

"Your Highness, that won’t do. The Ministry’s silver accumulates year after year—if you only look at one year, how will you know how much silver there is, or whether any is missing?" The vice-minister of the Ministry of Revenue offered this advice with feigned concern.

Rowan had to admit they had a point. "If we can’t just check one year, then let’s check the last five years. Forget about the old accounts."

This time, the vice-ministers didn’t argue. They simply asked Prince Rowan to wait—they would work through the night to organize the last five years’ accounts. Hearing this, Rowan immediately left, saying he’d return the next day.

At the next morning court session, Rowan immediately impeached Minister Cao, accusing him of contempt for the law. The Emperor ordered Minister Cao to defend himself, only to find that he hadn’t attended court at all—he was supposedly ill.

Well then, Rowan had gone to the Ministry yesterday, and today the Minister of Revenue was suddenly sick. The timing was suspicious, but Minister Cao was old, so illness was plausible. The Emperor didn’t want a reputation for mistreating his father’s trusted minister, so he suppressed the matter for now.

Besides, with Minister Cao out of the way, it would be easier for Rowan and his team to audit the accounts.

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Though Rowan was pleased that Minister Cao had tactfully stayed out of the Ministry, he still felt frustrated—as if he’d punched cotton.

As soon as court ended, Rowan led a team of specialists from various ministries, plus accountants he’d hired from wealthy mansions, straight to the Ministry of Revenue, determined not to give its staff any breathing room.

This time, he brought in professionals—he was sure they’d uncover problems in the Ministry and finally bring down Ninth Royal Uncle.

He’d expected the Ministry staff to use Minister Cao’s absence as an excuse to block the audit, but to his surprise, everything went smoothly—the ledgers were already neatly laid out.

The Ministry’s excessive cooperation made Rowan uneasy, but with the Emperor’s order hanging over them, he figured they didn’t dare resist. He suppressed his unease, sat at the head of the table, and coldly sized up the Ministry officials.

The two vice-ministers, sporting heavy dark circles under their eyes, forced themselves to stay alert and pointed to eight large chests on the floor. "Your Highness, these are the accounts from Jingfeng Year 20, January through June. Please inspect them."

Eight big chests for half a year’s accounts, all sorted overnight—Minister Cao had clearly put in effort just to torment Rowan.

"This much?" Rowan’s eyes went wide again.

Good grief, eight chests for just six months—they were obviously playing with him.

"Your Highness, the Ministry of Revenue handles a lot of silver, so naturally there are a lot of ledgers." The vice-minister bowed slightly, hiding the disdain in his eyes.

A prince who knew nothing, thinking he could dig up problems in the Ministry’s books with a bunch of accountants—it was laughable. Did they not realize all the Ministry clerks were experts at bookkeeping? If they wanted to find flaws in the ledgers, fine…

…but let’s see if Prince Rowan could handle the consequences.

The Ministry’s ledgers were indeed numerous, but if Minister Cao really wanted to cooperate, he could have just provided the master accounts—there was no need to haul out every original voucher and subledger.

Minister Cao was clearly making things difficult for Rowan. After two days, Rowan understood this, but even so, he still ordered his people to comb through the detailed accounts.

The Ministry’s books were too perfect—just looking at the master accounts, he couldn’t find any tricks. Only by tracing the detailed entries could he follow the flow of every tael and uncover the Ministry’s problems.

After all, the Ministry wasn’t just covering up for Ninth Royal Uncle. Rowan didn’t believe there hadn’t been any problems in the past few years. Such a huge sum of silver couldn’t have been transferred all at once—Minister Cao must have prepared in advance, moving a little each year until it added up…

Rowan and his team patiently combed through the Ministry’s accounts. Sure enough, they found several entries with missing funds, suspiciously high expenditures, or amounts recorded on paper but never actually received.

Rowan kept these findings quiet, instructing his team to keep digging. He knew Ninth Royal Uncle had been targeting the Ministry for years, siphoning off silver bit by bit.

This time, he wasn’t just going to bring down the Ministry—he wanted to make sure Ninth Royal Uncle could never recover.

With renewed motivation and fighting spirit, Rowan was like a man possessed, working tirelessly in the Ministry day after day without complaint.

Of course, while Rowan and the Emperor were busy hunting for trouble in the Ministry, Ninth Royal Uncle wasn’t idle either. Escaping wasn’t as terrifying as it sounded—a whole squad of soldiers trying to catch three people was no easy task.

In the mountains, it was manageable, but once they entered the city and changed their appearance, picking someone out of the crowd was much harder.

After leaving the mountains, Ninth Royal Uncle, Feng Qingchen, and Zuo An changed their disguises. But they didn’t dare enter big cities, sticking to small towns instead—they couldn’t be sure which officials had received the Emperor’s orders.

Still, Ninth Royal Uncle didn’t believe the Emperor would openly order his death. Killing one’s own brother wasn’t something to brag about—it could be done, but not talked about. Traveling through small towns was just a ruse to confuse their pursuers. Although he couldn’t mobilize the army, that didn’t mean he’d keep running forever; he was planning to strike back.

If there was no opportunity, he’d create one. He wanted to show the Emperor that, even without command of the troops, he wasn’t as powerless as imagined. Even outside the capital, he was still the illustrious Ninth Royal Uncle of Dongling.

And the opportunity was right before him…