Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Village Chief Lin suppressed his anger again and followed up: "Alright, Mingzhu. Although as the family member of a wounded retired soldier, you get first dibs on the job, and you're also an educated youth, surely well-educated, but since this involves our brigade's financial work, we still want to test you to see if you're capable of handling this job. Do you agree?"

"You..." Du Shan started, assuming Village Chief Lin still opposed Gao Mingzhu becoming the accountant, and wanted to say something.

"I agree!" Gao Mingzhu shot back, looking straight at Village Chief Lin without the slightest fear.

Of course she knew why the village chief wanted to test her even now—he just wanted to see if she had real skills.

Well then, of course she wouldn't show them what she could really do!

"How will you test me?" she put him on the spot.

Village Chief Lin gave Gao Mingzhu a long, meaningful look, then shot a glance at Lin Tianxiong beside him: "Tianxiong, give her the ledger!"

Lin Tianxiong immediately picked up the ledger. Unlike Village Chief Lin's stern demeanor, he was smiling: "Mingzhu, this is..."

"Don't be so familiar. Just call me Accountant Gao," Gao Mingzhu interrupted him again. "So people won't get the wrong idea about us!"

Lin Tianxiong was speechless "..."

Everyone was stunned "..."

They had known before that this girl was hot-tempered and moody, but back then, mostly women dealt with her, and it was mainly women who talked about her. The men hadn't quite believed it, but today they got a real dose of it!

If it were a tough guy, he wouldn't have put up with Gao Mingzhu. But Lin Tianxiong was clearly more civilized. Even though she snapped at him, he didn't get angry and even said politely: "Alright, Accountant Gao. This is the ledger I made. There are a few discrepancies. Please take a look!"

Gao Mingzhu took the ledger, opened it, and scanned it.

The others had also stood up and crowded around to look. Seeing the dense columns of numbers and accounts, they got dizzy and their heads spun.

They couldn't help glancing at Gao Mingzhu, who was flipping through the pages incredibly fast.

So fast—how could she possibly be sure where the mistakes were?

Village Chief Lin and Lin Tianxiong felt their hearts drop. Could it be that Gao Mingzhu actually had real skills?

Just as that thought crossed their minds, Gao Mingzhu acted. She held the ledger up to Lin Tianxiong and pointed at a number: "Here, in the cotton purchase accounts, it's short by fifty catties. And here, in the grain distribution, there's an extra twenty catties."

Lin Tianxiong's heart plummeted. She spotted it that fast? He hurriedly looked at the spot she pointed to, and he heaved a sigh of relief.

She was wrong!

As he breathed a sigh of relief, he was also surprised.

He looked at Gao Mingzhu. Her beautiful almond eyes were bright and confident, and the corners of her mouth lifted with complete self-assurance.

Lin Tianxiong: "..." She thought she was right?

The others didn't know if she was right or wrong. They all looked at Lin Tianxiong. Village Chief Lin couldn't wait to ask: "Tianxiong, how is it? Is she right or not?"

Lin Tianxiong: "..."

"Could it be that she's wrong?" someone asked in surprise, seeing Lin Tianxiong's conflicted expression.

Lin Tianxiong looked rather embarrassed and nodded, saying: "No, she's not."

Gao Mingzhu's expression immediately changed, and she said somewhat petulantly: "How is that possible? Then tell me, where's the mistake?"

Lin Tianxiong took back the ledger and pointed at his own mistakes: "I didn't actually fudge the numbers. I set up some small traps. In these few entries, the numbers are correct, but the dates don't match. For example, in this cotton purchase entry, the date is two days off, and in this grain distribution entry, the date is one day ahead. You missed all of that..."

He wore an apologetic expression, looking even more embarrassed than Gao Mingzhu.

Everyone's expression toward Gao Mingzhu turned mixed.

"No way, is she just a pretty face?"

"Wasn't she only bad at farm work? She's an educated youth with a degree and professional training. How could she mess up such simple accounts?"

"Shut up!" Du Shan shouted, stopping the murmurs. He looked at Gao Mingzhu, embarrassed and puzzled.

This shouldn't be how it was. Mingzhu was proud and aloof. Because she rarely chatted or interacted with people, everyone disliked her condescending attitude, but no one had ever doubted her knowledge. She carried an aura that suggested she was highly educated and had seen the world...

So when she said she wanted to be an accountant and claimed she had studied the relevant field, he never doubted her!

Could it be...

Du Shan couldn't help suspecting Lin Tianxiong had rigged the ledger: "You didn't rig that on purpose, did you? Deliberately set a trap for Mingzhu, making her fall into it, so everyone would think Gao Mingzhu didn't understand accounting, and then naturally she wouldn't get the accountant job."

Village Chief Lin hadn't expected Gao Mingzhu to be so useless either. He was very surprised. When Du Shan said this, he snapped back and argued: "Who tampered with it? The trap was there, but her failure to see it is her own problem. It has nothing to do with my son!"

He said this and then glanced at Gao Mingzhu mockingly.

"Enough!" Gao Mingzhu said, her expression darkening, as if she hadn't expected to make a mistake. She explained: "It really was my mistake. But what I studied is different from the accounts in your village. It's understandable to misread... But I can learn! Nobody knows everything."

Everyone looked at her with unreadable looks. How could she remain so calm and unfazed in such an embarrassing situation? They were embarrassed for her!

Huo Weicheng, as a member of the Huo family and Gao Mingzhu's nominal second brother-in-law, looked even more embarrassed.

Gao Mingzhu: "..."

As if afraid they would just rule her out for the accountant job, she quickly added: "How about this: give me one month. If I can't handle the job, then I'll step down and let someone else take over!"

"No, Mingzhu..." Du Shan started to say something.

"Fine! You said it yourself!" Village Chief Lin immediately cut in. Then he disapprovingly looked at Du Shan and said sternly: "Ah Shan, Mingzhu is the family member of a wounded retired soldier and has work priority. We've already given her the job. But if she can't handle it, we can't force her to stay! If we do, it'll hurt the whole commune."

He paused, then threw Du Shan's earlier words back at him, not hiding his sarcasm: "Although Mingzhu is your nephew's wife, you can't abuse your power for personal gain!"

Du Shan choked. He looked at Gao Mingzhu, sighed, and finally said nothing more.

The others also looked at Gao Mingzhu with complicated expressions.

Village Chief Lin was overjoyed inside. He said to Gao Mingzhu: "Come on, I'll take you to hand over the work."

With that, he walked away first.

"Alright." Gao Mingzhu immediately followed.

As for the reactions of the others, she didn't care for now.

...

The accountant had a separate office on the second floor, since it was one of the three leading positions in the brigade.

Village Chief Lin unlocked the door with a key, and a heavy, damp, musty smell rushed out.

He walked over and pushed open the window. Fresh air rushed in, instantly brightening the room.

The furnishings in the room were also very simple: a large but worn-out cabinet with peeling paint, secured with a small padlock.

There was also a desk and a chair. On the desk sat some account books, a pen holder, and a few pens—not many items, and they were arranged quite neatly.

But since no one had been in for a long time, a thick layer of dust had built up.

Village Chief Lin looked at the scene before him, waved his hand to fan away the dust, and said with a somewhat sorrowful tone: "After Old Suanshu passed away, no one has come in here. Sigh, it's very dusty here. You'll have to clean it up yourself."

The way he spoke made it sound as if he had lost a blood brother.

In fact, the former accountant Lin Suanshu and Village Chief Lin Xiangsong were indeed from the same clan and lineage—they were cousins within five generations who had been close since childhood.

Lin Xiangsong's display of grief at this moment was understandable to others.

But Gao Mingzhu felt like sneering. Others might not know, but she had been reborn and knew the truth all too well.

Lin Suanshu didn't die from accidentally falling off a cliff while climbing a mountain—he was pushed off by Lin Xiangsong!

For the past ten years, Lin Suanshu and Lin Xiangsong had been collaborating to embezzle the brigade’s property. Because of a dispute over uneven distribution, they had a falling out. Afraid that Lin Suanshu would expose his dirty deeds in a desperate move, Lin Xiangsong silenced him without a second thought by pushing him off the cliff.

This incident came to light a few years later. The amount they embezzled was as high as fifty thousand yuan. In an era when an able-bodied laborer could earn an average of two hundred yuan a year, fifty thousand yuan meant the total net income of 250 able-bodied laborers for an entire year!

It was an incredibly high amount. If exposed, even prison would be too light a sentence!

—This was exactly why Lin Xiangsong was blocking her from becoming the Brigade Accountant and testing her true abilities.

If she saw through the account issues, his family would be finished!

And in her previous life, after Lin Suanshu died, Lin Xiangsong had stopped. He found his son who was best with numbers, Lin Tianxiong, to balance the books.

Unexpectedly, Du Shan discovered it and was about to report him. Fearing exposure, Lin Xiangsong set a fire in the dead of night, burning Du Shan's entire family to death.

If it hadn’t been for Huo Huaichuan’s insistence on investigating the true cause of the Du family’s death, the Lin family’s dirty secrets would never have been uncovered!

Under such circumstances, of course, she couldn’t let the Lin family know her true abilities.

She would play the fool to bide her time, aiming to strike the Lin family down in one move!

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