Chapter 416: Did You Think I Would Not Kill?

Seeing the managers kneeling in a mass behind Lin Cunxin,

and watching them gradually calm down because of Lin Cunxin’s plea on their behalf, Wangchuan let out a cold laugh and said to Chen Ergou,

“Bring them in.”

Lin Cunxin and the others all showed looks of surprise.

Who?

The next moment,

a line of Caobang disciples filed in from outside.

The managers’ expressions changed.

They recognized at least one of them!

Because some of them were their own subordinates.

Only...

these people were all employees that Sanjiang Studio had planted among them.

Under instructions from Sanjiang Studio’s manager, Li Na, they had long since gained an extremely detailed understanding of the Sub-Helms, islands, and mines where they had been assigned.

They had recorded the scale of each Sub-Helm’s shipping business and the size of each escort team with near-perfect accuracy.

As for the business on the islands and in the mines, they had long since observed it with their own eyes and noted it all down in ledgers.

“Now then, all of you will report the profits of the Sub-Helms, islands, and mines where you were stationed in the tenth and eleventh months...”

Wangchuan gave the order.

The crowd jolted.

“Yes!”

The disciple from the Main Helm was the first to speak.

“Reporting to Hall Master! According to this subordinate’s records, the Main Helm’s profit in the tenth month was four thousand five hundred taels of gold. In the eleventh month, the profit declined somewhat and was only three thousand seven hundred taels of gold.”

The moment he finished speaking, the Main Helm Master’s face went deathly pale, and he collapsed limply to the floor.

He wanted to argue.

But only now did he remember that these people had been planted under him by Hall Master from the very beginning.

Hall Master had long since secretly grasped the true state of the Main Helm’s shipping business.

It was over.

The faces of the other managers turned equally grim.

One after another, they looked like condemned prisoners awaiting sentencing, listening as the men under them reported the true profits from the tenth and eleventh months.

The monthly profits of the Sub-Helms generally exceeded three thousand taels of gold.

The islands each earned more than one thousand eight hundred taels of gold per month.

The mines made a little over one thousand taels of gold in profit each month.

Every one of them should have been turning in at least six hundred taels of gold to the Hall...

In other words, these men had skimmed off all the profits for themselves.

The thirteen managers all looked as if their parents had just died. Kneeling on the floor, they trembled from head to toe.

Lin Cunxin was stunned as well.

He had not expected Hall Master to have been secretly monitoring every single district from the start.

Wangchuan stared into Lin Cunxin’s eyes and said coldly,

“And there are still the revenues from the dockside branches of the Sub-Helms and the branch gangs! The three Sub-Helm Masters are truly remarkable. Not only did you conceal and embezzle most of the profits from your own Sub-Helms and pocket them, you even dared swallow every last tael that the dockside branches offered up to the Hall. Your courage... is truly impressive.”

“Did you think I would not kill?”

Lin Cunxin’s gaze trembled.

All thirteen managers immediately began begging for mercy.

“Hall Master, spare us!”

“This subordinate was wrong!”

...

Wangchuan’s eyes were icy.

“Without rules, there can be no order!”

“As for the silver and gold you embezzled, I do not even need you to repay it in full. Consider it your road money for the Yellow Springs. You may take your wives and children and set out on the road in peace.”

The moment those words were spoken, all of them were terrified.

“Hall Master, spare us!”

“It was the Deputy Hall Master who ordered us to do it!”

“Spare us!”

“Most of our money was handed over to Deputy Hall Master Lin!”

“Deputy Hall Master Lin, say something! Didn’t you tell us this was Hall Master’s own idea?”

The thirteen managers all sold out the one behind it.

Zhao Heiniu and Chen Ergou both turned to look at Lin Cunxin.

Wangchuan looked at Lin Cunxin as well.

The pressure on Lin Cunxin instantly became overwhelming, and sweat poured down him like rain.

“Deputy Hall Master...”

Wangchuan’s gaze was frigid. Staring at Lin Cunxin, he asked in an almost casual tone,

“How do you explain yourself?”

...

Lin Cunxin’s heart had gone completely cold.

At that moment, he finally understood.

In the end...

he had underestimated him.

He had thought Wangchuan was merely obsessed with cultivation. Using Seventh Master’s departure and the empty treasury as an excuse, he had believed he could quietly pocket these twenty-one thousand taels of gold...

But he had never imagined

that Wangchuan had already laid out the entire board from the beginning, waiting for him to reveal a flaw, waiting for him to hand over the evidence himself.

Now that this enormous embezzlement had been dragged into the open in public,

he had nothing left to say.

“This subordinate... knows his crime.”

“All the Gold Notes are in this subordinate’s room.”

“Hall Master, please, for the sake of one moment of folly, spare this subordinate’s life.”

At this moment, Lin Cunxin finally understood that Wangchuan’s rapid climb to the position of Acting Hall Master of Sanhe Commandery had absolutely not been a matter of luck...

His youth and seeming inexperience had merely been camouflage.

There was a ruthless streak in him.

At Wangchuan’s order, Chen Ergou went to search Lin Cunxin’s room. He quickly returned carrying a box. Inside it was a thick stack of Gold Notes, totaling thirty-seven thousand taels of gold.

Lin Cunxin had not only spat out all the gold he had embezzled this time, he had also coughed up his savings from many years.

Chen Ergou also found two Lesser Rejuvenation Pills in Lin Cunxin’s box.

Wangchuan still had no intention of letting the matter rest there.

He rose and slowly walked over to Lin Cunxin.

“When Seventh Master and Hall Master Yin were in office, they left behind a rule. Anyone who embezzled the gang’s property would have his entire family thrown into the river.”

...

All the strength in Lin Cunxin’s body seemed to vanish in an instant. He stared at Wangchuan in disbelief.

“Hall Master Wangchuan!”

Wangchuan stared at Lin Cunxin and said, word by word,

“For the sake of you making up the shortfall, I will spare your wives and children. Only you will be thrown into the river to feed the fish.”

“You little beast!”

Lin Cunxin roared in fury. Rage exploded in his eyes as he suddenly drew his sword and struck.

Wangchuan frowned, but instead of retreating, he advanced, smashing a heavy-handed Sanshou strike into Lin Cunxin’s wrist, then seamlessly followed it with a vicious blow from 《Stele-Splitting Hand》 straight into Lin Cunxin’s chest.

Bang!

Lin Cunxin spat out a mouthful of blood and flew backward, crashing to the ground. He could not get back up for quite some time.

A Third-Rank Martial Artist could not last a single move in Wangchuan’s hands.

Wangchuan swept his gaze across the managers in the hall and said coldly,

“The chief culprit has already been executed.”

“All managers will repay the deficit and fill the shortfall. Do that, and I will spare your lives. But every one of you will be demoted by one rank!”

That single sentence rekindled hope in all the managers who had been waiting to die. Overjoyed, they burst into tears and kowtowed repeatedly.

“Many thanks, Hall Master!”

“Many thanks for Hall Master’s mercy!”

“Many thanks for sparing our lives!”

...

“Chen Ergou, assign a squad to go back with them and collect the money!”

“The matter of Lin Cunxin’s embezzlement is not to be spread outside! Everyone present today is to keep silent!”

Wangchuan ordered,

“Otherwise, when headquarters pursues the matter, all thirteen of these managers may end up thrown into the river... and right now, this is still a time when we need capable hands!”

“Yes!”

Everyone answered at once.

In truth, everyone understood perfectly well.

Hall Master intended to conceal this batch of Gold Notes for himself.

But the thirteen managers truly did face the possibility of being held accountable and punished by higher authority, so none of them would dare mention what had happened today.

As for the Sanjiang Studio people involved, their rewards for this merit were all but guaranteed.