Song Yifeng waved his hand at Guizi.

Today’s situation had made Guizi rather nervous. He was especially worried that the Ye family would be relentless and have someone beat them up, making it impossible for him and his young master to leave safely.

He swallowed hard and stepped forward with trembling legs, extending the box in his hands toward Ye Chongming.

Ye Chongming, however, turned to Zhang Yuniang and said, “Matchmaker Zhang, please trouble yourself to check this.”

Zhang Yuniang nodded, stepped forward to take the box, and in front of everyone, took out the silver ingots one by one, counted them, and then said to Ye Chongming, “There’s a total of one thousand five hundred taels of silver.”

Ye Jiaxing immediately laughed from anger.

Earlier, when dealing with Meng Chengwei, he had already worked in coordination with Ye Chongming. He was quite experienced at playing the impulsive, easily angered “black face” role.

He said in a sarcastic tone, “Oh my! Since Young Master Song is so principled and unwilling to be tainted by association with us, he should have the integrity to return the money he took from our family. Now, after using our family’s silver to study and obtain your scholarly title, you turn around and look down on us, yet you evade repaying most of the expenses. Young Master Song, you truly are a man of principle!”

Song Yifeng’s face turned bright red, though it wasn’t clear whether from anger or shame.

He argued forcefully, “Your family gave me two hundred taels of silver a year, for a total of seven years. I’m returning you one thousand five hundred taels of silver—what’s wrong with that? Where does ‘evading repayment of most expenses’ come from? Ye Jiaxing, don’t spout such nonsense.”

After speaking, he looked at Ye Chongming with threatening eyes: “Old Master Ye, think carefully about whether you truly want to break ties with me. If you continue to let your grandson talk nonsense, then whatever goodwill remains between us will be completely gone. There are certain matters that I won’t help you conceal anymore.”

Ye Chongming didn’t bother to argue with him and said to Meng Ji, “Go call Wentao in.”

Wentao was the Ye family’s accountant. He had been waiting in the corridor.

So when Meng Ji went out and called for him, Wentao immediately entered and bowed to Ye Chongming.

“Give him the account book,” Ye Chongming instructed.

Wentao brought an account book to Song Yifeng.

After this account book had been prepared, Ye Chongming had originally planned to send one copy to Song Yifeng and another to Zhang Yuniang. Later, when he sent someone to invite Madam Wu, and she agreed to help as a witness, Ye Chongming decided not to produce the account book in advance to expose Song Yifeng’s true nature more thoroughly.

As a result, today Madam Wu got to watch another drama unfold.

Upon seeing Wentao, Song Yifeng had an ominous premonition. When the account book was presented before him, his heart immediately sank. He didn’t even dare to reach out and take the book.

Ye Chongming didn’t mind and instead instructed Wentao: “Since Young Master Song doesn’t dare to accept it, give the account book to Madam Wu and Matchmaker Zhang to see.”

Wentao immediately withdrew his hand. Madam Yu’s nanny stepped forward on her initiative, took the account book from his hand, and presented it to Madam Wu.

Madam Wu was literate. She took the account book and began to look through it.

When Song Yifeng heard Ye Chongming’s words, his heart first tightened, then relaxed.

Only the wives of officials with rank could be called “Madam” (Furen); otherwise, they could only be addressed as “Tai Tai.”

This Madam Wu had been invited by the Ye family as a witness, and Song Yifeng had initially been wary, thinking she might be the wife of some official. Now that he knew she was merely a “Tai Tai,” obviously not of high status, his heart relaxed, and he immediately sneered.

The Ye family was mere merchants—what people of status could they possibly associate with?

With this thought, he completely disregarded the existence of the account book.

Madam Wu saw that the account book not only recorded which year, which month, and which day how much silver was given to Song Yifeng and who handled it, but also contained the names and handprints of those who handled the transactions, as well as some receipts written by Song Yifeng himself.

She turned to the last page and discovered that over the years, the Ye family had spent a total of four thousand five hundred and thirty-seven taels of silver on Song Yifeng.

She once again silently shook her head, lamenting in her heart the greed and ingratitude of the Song family.

When she was young and married Master Tutor Wu, he was still a student who had only passed the county-level examination, so she knew how much money a scholar needed to spend in a year.

For those with poor family circumstances and tight finances, the expenses would be several dozen taels of silver a year; for those with more comfortable circumstances, it would be one to two hundred taels of silver a year. This expense was an average, including their participation in imperial examinations and occasional participation in poetry gatherings and literary meetings.

In other words, the two hundred taels of silver per year set by the Ye family was enough for Song Yifeng to study well, and for the Song mother and son to live a decent life.

Yet the Song mother and son had spent so much of the Ye family’s silver.

Since they had spent it, they should properly marry the family’s granddaughter and live their lives—Ye Yaming, that child, had done nothing to disgrace Song Yifeng. But the Song mother and son were insatiable, wanting more and more, and now they looked down on the family for being merchants. Tsk, tsk, tsk…

She handed the account book to Zhang Yuniang.

Zhang Yuniang looked at the silver amounts recorded and was shocked.

Song Yifeng had been observing Madam Wu and Zhang Yuniang the whole time. Seeing the shocked expressions in their eyes, his heart began to pound, and his mind raced to think of countermeasures.

After Zhang Yuniang finished looking at the account book, Ye Chongming said, “In this account book, almost every expenditure has either Madam Song’s handprint or notes written by Young Master Song. If Young Master Song doesn’t believe it, I can send someone to invite people from the magistrate’s office to verify the fingerprints or handwriting.”

As a businessman, he was most cautious and careful about the inflow and outflow of money, making sure that every transaction was recorded clearly.

For every large sum given to the Song family, the steward, accountant, or servant delivering the money would, using the excuse that “without a receipt, they couldn’t account to their master,” ask Madam Yu to press her fingerprint or Song Yifeng to write a receipt. These proofs had all been pasted into the account book by the accountant. The Song mother and son couldn’t deny them.

He looked at Song Yifeng and said in a flat tone, “A total of four thousand five hundred and thirty-seven taels of silver. Lending this much money to someone for seven or eight years would generate considerable interest. I won’t calculate the interest with you now, Young Master Song. You just need to return this money in full and write a document dissolving the engagement. Then our two families will have no more connection. From then on, we’ll go our separate ways.”

Hearing the amount, Song Yifeng felt his heart tighten, and cold sweat broke out.

He hadn’t expected it to be so much money, and even less had he expected that the Ye family would have kept such clear accounts.

What to do? What to do? Did he have to return so much money to the Ye family? What would happen if he refused to acknowledge those accounts? Would Madam Wu and Matchmaker Zhang spread this outside and ruin his reputation?

Song Yifeng’s mind was racing, and his palms were wet with cold sweat.

Ye Chongming didn’t rush him, and the hall fell into dead silence.

Zhang Yuniang looked up at Song Yifeng, then at Ye Chongming, and after thinking for a moment, feeling that she couldn’t afford to offend either of them, she simply lowered her head and continued to examine the account book, as if she could find something new in it.

Seeing this, Old Madam Ye pushed the snacks on the table toward Madam Wu and smiled, “These are our cook’s specialty snacks. Madam Wu, please try some and see if you like them.”