Chapter 19: Ruolan Walks Out

The Guild's senior auditor was an old man in a dusty black gown, with a white beard and spectacles pushed up onto his forehead.

He received them in a bare room over a pawnshop, with a pot of cold tea and one chair.

He gave the chair to Qiao and stood.

"You are the junior bookkeeper," he said.

"I am."

"For two years I have asked the Hengtai Bank for its cash books."

"For two years he has sent me books without a single mistake."

He tapped the table.

"Real banks make mistakes, Miss Lin."

"A bank that never does has a second set somewhere."

Qiao sat very straight.

"I have only his private loans."

"I do not have the bank's own accounts."

"Those are kept in the records room behind the counting hall."

"Only he and the chief clerk hold keys."

"Then your book proves what was taken out," the old man said slowly.

"It does not prove what came in."

"On the first of November, a banker will stand up and call it the work of a clerk with a grudge."

"There is nothing I can do about that."

"No. I thought not." He looked at her, not unkindly. "But I wanted to see your face before I sat in judgment of it."

He looked at Jinyu next, and bowed an inch.

"The Tingsong's tea is good," he said. "I will be in the gallery."

They went out into the street, and neither of them said a word until they reached the boarding house door.

Qiao leaned against the wall and put her hand to her mouth.

"The records room," she said. "If I could only see the real accounts..."

"You can't. He has the key."

"He has the key and a match, and he knows it."

They had barely started up the stair when Auntie Hu came pounding after them, red in the face, her blue headcloth askew.

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