Chapter 4372 — Preparing to File a Complaint
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Deputy Chairman, this ledger is something I've been secretly keeping for years. Every last one of Wei Zhaotong's tricks—selling high and reporting low, lining his own pockets—is recorded in here, down to the smallest detail," Chai Laoshi explained cautiously.
Keeping this ledger had been just about the only real work he had done in all these years, and it had cost him untold effort and heartache. If he had not been completely stripped of power by Wei Zhaotong and left a man with nothing to do, he would never have had the time to carefully investigate the other man's backroom dealings.
After all, no matter how domineering Wei Zhaotong might be, these dealings could never stand the light of day. Without painstaking effort, an outsider would never notice a thing, let alone record detailed, well-founded figures. Every entry was the fruit of years of hard work, gathered through all manner of covert inquiries and investigations.
"Then why can't I make sense of it?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled. To his eyes, what was written there was utterly incongruous—nothing matched up, front to back, and there was no logical order to speak of. Did this really contain evidence of Wei Zhaotong's crimes?
"That..." Chai Laoshi hesitated a moment before resolving to come clean. "The Deputy Chairman may not know, but I used the Number Eighteen Displaced Accounting Method. That's why it looks like a jumbled mess to outsiders, with no thread to follow. I had no choice—if I hadn't used such a covert method and this ledger had fallen into Wei Zhaotong's hands, everything would have been finished."
"The Number Eighteen Displaced Accounting Method?" Though still completely in the dark, Wei Zhao had the distinct sense that this was something formidable. Truly, every trade is a world apart—hearing the name, one might think it was some exceedingly powerful lost martial art.
"Exactly. The displaced accounting method is a highly unusual way of keeping accounts, with the sequence scrambled and shifted throughout. There are thirty-six varieties in all, according to how the order is disrupted, and they were devised by the great merchants of antiquity. Their purpose is secrecy and security. If you don't know precisely which numbered method was used, then even if this ledger fell into someone else's hands, they'd never find a clue in it," Chai Laoshi explained carefully.
"I see. I didn't expect you to be such a hand at bookkeeping." Wei Zhao could not help but regard Chai Laoshi a little more highly. The man might look timid and easily frightened, but in this respect at least he clearly had real skill. The displaced accounting method sounded like an extremely complex and profound discipline—and unless he was much mistaken, many a merchant guild steward might not fully understand it either.
"The Deputy Chairman flatters me. I was driven to it..." Chai Laoshi said with a bitter smile. His life and fortune were at stake—and against none other than the wily old Wei Zhaotong. No amount of caution could be excessive.
"But if that's the case, doesn't it mean only you can read this ledger? Even if you gave it to the other higher-ups at headquarters, they might not be able to make sense of it, would they?" Wei Zhao said, somewhat troubled. After all, this ledger was meant to be produced as evidence—if no one could understand it, its credibility would be invisibly diminished.
"That... getting every higher-up at headquarters to understand it would be a bit difficult. But if they're told it's the Number Eighteen Displaced Accounting Method, quite a few of them should be able to read it. Many of them rose step by step from branch steward, and are bookkeepers themselves," Chai Laoshi surmised.
"Good, then." Wei Zhao nodded. As long as the professionals could understand it, there was no problem. He promptly instructed, "Make a full copy of this ledger. I'll write a letter explaining the matter, and then we'll send them out together."