From what Ning Chen had learned, Jiang Hui's reputation was decent enough... He'd bent the rules here and there and skimmed a little, but he'd never done anything truly wicked.

Ning Chen figured Jiang Hui had most likely been framed!

He was Vice Minister of Revenue. He had any number of ways to get his hands on money, and he'd never have picked one this easy to catch.

Only a handful of people had access to the ledger, so finding the culprit shouldn't be hard.

A few tens of thousands of taels didn't mean much to Ning Chen... But if he didn't come down hard this time, there would be no end of trouble later.

Building Xuanwu City poured money out like water every day. If he didn't dig this out by the roots now, who knew how many fat rats it would feed? (TL Note: 碩鼠, "big rats," from the Book of Songs poem of that name, in which farmers beg the fat rat eating their grain to leave them alone; a standing image for officials who grow fat on the people.)

Ning Chen went back to the lodge.

Jiang Hui saw him and came running over in a panic. "My lord prince, something terrible's happened, something huge..."

Ning Chen stopped and looked at him. "What is it?"

Jiang Hui said, "My lord prince, look at these entries. They're all fake."

Ning Chen took the ledger and started reading. His face grew darker and darker.

The fakes had begun at a few thousand taels and climbed to tens of thousands... Construction on Xuanwu City had only begun a few months ago, which meant someone had embezzled well over a hundred thousand taels of silver in just a few months.

Ning Chen looked at Jiang Hui. "Your signature is on every one of these."

Jiang Hui nodded. "It really is this official's signature, but this official swears he never signed any of them... I beg my lord prince to see the truth!"

Ning Chen thought for a while, then gave Pan Yucheng his orders. "Old Pan, take some men and…