บท 170: Standoff

Xiao Moxian sat at the front of the room and sipped on a cup of tea. His sharp gaze swept across the room, watching as his servants went through the heaps of account books and ledgers. Sun Da and his officials stood around the room, also watching the auditing process. 

"Bring me the main ledger for this year," Xiao Moxian ordered. Sun Da waved at one of his subordinates, who went and fetched a thick book from one of the shelves. He passed it off to Wuxin, who gave it to Xiao Moxian.

Xiao Moxian slowly flipped through the ledger. Each page had a date, transaction amount, and a short memo detailing what the money was used for and who was involved. It was very neat and in order. He tossed it aside.

"I want all the ledgers from the past twenty years."

Sun Da raised an eyebrow. "The past twenty years? Your Highness, those are very old account books. I doubt they would be useful to the investigation."