Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

On the way back to the prefect's mansion, Chen Shao lifted a corner of the curtain and silently looked at the shops on both sides of the street.

Huimin Pharmacy is on the same street as the prefectural government, which is also the main street of Hongyuan County. The shops on the street are basically the businesses of several large families that were confiscated. Now that the weather is cold and the shops are closed, there are few people walking on the street. In addition to being deserted, there is also a sense of decline.

We have to open the shop quickly. If the economy is not flowing, no matter how well the fields are cultivated or how big the pharmacy is, the people will still be poor.

Thinking this in his heart, Chen Shao was about to lower the curtain, but the number of people on the street gradually increased, and the noise gradually became incessant. Looking outside again, he found that there were many more straw huts on the street, with straw curtains hanging on three sides of the huts and only one side open. There were all kinds of stalls in the straw huts. The further he walked, the denser the straw huts were, and the more people there were. Finally, a lively market was formed thirty feet away from the prefectural government.

"For the past month, young master has been entering and exiting through the back door every day. He has almost forgotten about this side, right?" Quan Shuyu asked.

Chen Shao nodded. She really didn't expect that just because of the casual remark she made at the time, they could persist until now and there was a trend of long-term development.

The carriage slowed down, and many people saw her and greeted her enthusiastically. Chen Shao responded one by one, and when she entered the prefectural government and got off the carriage at the second gate, she felt her ears quiet down.

After returning to Chengfeng Courtyard and taking a short break, Chen Shao asked Quan Shuyu, "Did you ask someone to build those thatched huts?"

Quan Shuyu nodded, "The temperature dropped significantly the night before yesterday. Before the temperature dropped significantly, the weather was also very cold. It was not easy to see them shivering in the cold wind every day, so we had people build some straw huts."

"Very good." Chen Shao praised him and then asked about the business, "Have you finished reading the account books of Wanhetang?"

Quan Shuyu was surprised: "Master, you don't remember?"

Chen Shao looked at him and asked: What don’t you remember?

Quan Shuyu couldn't help but laugh, "I had already finished reading Wanhetang's account books half a month ago. As soon as I finished reading them, I told you, young master."

"Really?" Chen Shao tried hard to recall, but he couldn't remember it.

Quan Shuyu laughed again, "It's my fault. At that time, the young master was searching for those jades with all his strength. After I told him, he said 'I know'. I thought he had remembered it and never mentioned it again."

As he said this, he went to the study and took out the records of Wanhetang, handed them to her, and said, "Wanhetang has been open for sixty-five years. There have been seventy-four cases of fraud leading to death, forty-nine cases of bankruptcies, and a total of three hundred and forty-six thousand nine hundred and twenty-six coins have been earned."

As Chen Shao was looking through the records, Quan Shuyu continued, "In addition to Wanhetang, in the past half month, I also checked the largest medicine store under the Zhu and Gu families, Xinglinguan, and the largest medicine store under the Fan and Qi families, Deyitang. The results are similar to Wanhetang. I think what we should care about now is not how much money these medicine stores have left, but what evil they have done."

Although Chen Shao had been mentally prepared, he was still shocked when he saw the records that Quan Shuyu had copied down. Rubbing his frowning eyebrows, Chen Shao asked, "What about the account books of the shops? How are they?"

"I only roughly flipped through the account books of the shops, and there were quite a few cases of fraud. Take the cloth shops under the names of the Zhu and Gu families, for example. They first defrauded the other cloth shops and weaving workshops, dyeing workshops, and embroidery workshops in Hongyuan County. Later, after they had defrauded all the weaving workshops, dyeing workshops, and embroidery workshops, they began to defraud merchants traveling to Hongyuan County. In the first 10 to 20 years, the number of frauds was large and frequent. In the past 30 to 40 years, probably because of their notoriety, there have been fewer cases." Quan Shuyu said as objectively as possible, "There are many shops in the county city that they took over by using this fraudulent method."

Chen Shao got up and went to the west wing.

The fake account books in the west wing had been moved away, and the ones left were all real account books. Flipping through a few of them, Chen Shao asked, "How much money is left in Wanhetang's account books?"

Quan Shuyu said: "It's only about twenty strings of cash."

Chen Shao looked at her inquiringly.

Quan Shuyu explained: "At the end of every month, they would send 90% of the money they earned that month to the Zhu family. After paying the monthly salary, they would not have much left."

Chen Shao asked: "Is it only Wanhetang that is like this, or are all the shops like this?"

Quan Shuyu: "All shops are like this."

After Chen Shao flipped through a few more account books, he said, "If that's the case, then there's no need to give the account books to them for self-examination. You should work harder and copy down all the records of fraud in each shop for me."

Quan Shuyu nodded.

After coming out of the west wing and standing in the courtyard, Chen Shao asked her again, "How is your investigation going?"

"The money vault has been checked to the Qi family," Quan Shuyu stood with her, rubbing her hands in the cold wind as she answered, "The grain vault has been checked to the Zhou family."

It was rare to hear such good news, and Chen Shao's brows relaxed unconsciously. Seeing that her hands were red from the cold, he returned to the main hall: "So, the grain warehouse is almost finished with the inventory."

Quan Shuyu asked, "Do the homes of these people in the shops need to be checked? If not, then it will be over soon."

Chen Shaoxian asked Li Tianliu: "Is there no news from the General of the State yet?"

Li Tianliu shook his head.

Chen Shao frowned slightly and ordered, "Then check it out. No matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat."

"If we want to check the people in the shops, it may take some time to finish." Quan Shuyu said, "After all, the Zhu family, Gu family, and Fan family are big families. The grain is stored in the granary, so it is convenient to check. The people in these shops are scattered, so it may take more time."

"It's okay, check it slowly." Chen Shao said calmly, "There's no need to send the food from these shops to the border. After finding out the quantity, just hand it over to Master Qi. There are quite a few people in Huimin Pharmacy, giving it to them can also help them save some costs."

Quan Shuyu smiled and said, "If Master Qi knew about this, I don't know how happy he would be."

"Let him be happy for two days first. Before we knew about the fake account books, we announced that we would bring all the pharmacies under the government to reduce the burden on Huimin Pharmacy. Now that the fake account books have been exposed and no one is taking care of them, these pharmacies will no longer be able to be used. The pressure of seeing a doctor for the people of Hongyuan County will all fall on Huimin Pharmacy." Chen Shao said, "You have seen what the situation of Huimin Pharmacy is today. With just a few patients, they are already in a mess. If there are more patients in two days, I am afraid they will find it difficult to cope with it."

"I think the speed of treating patients has increased a lot since Chan Yi came to help." Quan Shuyu said impartially: "Once the prescriptions are unified, the speed should be even faster."

Chen Shao said, "We can't ask her to help every day. Well, let's ask someone to invite Liu Chengxi over. Since he's a useful person, let's arrange for him as soon as possible. If he can help them share some of the burden, then let him share some of the burden."

Liu Chengxi arrived quickly.

All other pharmacies were closed, but Wufutang was still open.

Despite this, there were still very few people who went to Wufutang for medical treatment. Even if they had to walk a little further, even if they couldn't see the doctor immediately, most people would rather go to Huimin Pharmacy. Liu Chengxi had wanted to come to see her for a long time, but after hearing from the Seventh Master that she was always busy, he could only bear it reluctantly. When he saw the yamen runner coming to invite him and saying that she was looking for him, he breathed a sigh of relief and came immediately.

Seeing the anxiety on his face, after asking briefly about the situation of his medicine shop, Chen Shao got straight to the point and said, "There are two options. First, the shops around Huimin Medicine Shop are now empty. You can merge your shop with them and expand the current Huimin Medicine Shop by a few more shops. Qi Ye will be the head shopkeeper, and you will be the second shopkeeper. Second, expand your current medicine shop by a few more shops, and you can work alone. The conditions are the same as discussed before. Your medicine shop will be a branch of Huimin Medicine Shop. You choose one."

Liu Chengxi said without hesitation: "I choose the second one, I want to go it alone!"

Chen Shao nodded readily: "Okay."

Liu Chengxi was surprised: "Your Excellency has agreed so far, but why don't you ask me why I choose to work alone?"

Chen Shao said with a smile: "Okay, then please tell me why you choose to work alone."

"The Huimin Pharmacy is in the north of the city, and Wufutang is in the south," Liu Chengxi said quickly. "Hongyuan County is not too big, but it's not too small either. It's not impossible to merge my pharmacy there, but if I do that, the people in the south of the city or the people in the southern suburbs will have to walk a little further if they want to see a doctor. If we don't merge them together, not only will the people here have to walk less, but it will also reduce congestion."

After a pause, he continued, "I've also been to Huimin Pharmacy to see what's going on these past two days. Even if the store expands, with its reputation, more people will come to see the doctor, not less. Separating the two places is equivalent to separating the patients from the north and south. Even if it gets crowded, it won't be like it is now."

After hesitating for a moment, before Chen Shao could speak, Liu Chengxi mustered up the courage to say, "I have another idea, but I don't know if it's appropriate. The Huimin Pharmacy is the main store, so it can only treat difficult and complicated diseases or seriously ill patients. My store is a branch store, so it can only be responsible for common diseases."

Hmm? Chen Shao perked up: "You mean, you don't have a ward here."

"Yes, that's what I mean." Seeing that she didn't deny it, Liu Chengxi became bolder. "My Lord said earlier that if every assessment is excellent, we will promote them step by step. In the end, all the good doctors will definitely go to the General Hospital. In this case, the General Hospital should bear more responsibilities. Otherwise, if they still use the same assessment standards as us, it will be too unfair."

"That makes sense!" Chen Shao nodded. "In that case, let's call Master Qi back and discuss how to allocate the funds. Master Qi won't be able to leave these days. If there's nothing else to do at Wufutang, you can take some people over to help out. You can also take a closer look at the situation at Huimin Pharmacy and think about whether there are any other plans."

Liu Chengxi happily agreed.

After he left, Chen Shao praised him: "It is indeed a good idea."

"The idea is good, but I don't know if it can be used in shops." Quan Shuyu thought thoughtfully.

Chen Shao looked at her: "Do you have an idea too?"

Quan Shuyu admitted: "Originally I did have a little bit, but after listening to his thoughts, I felt that my little bit was not worth mentioning."

Chen Shao encouraged: "Is it worth mentioning? Tell me first."