The Books Don't Balance

Auditor Shen Du transmigrates into ancient times and becomes an unranked accountant in a military granary. The original owner was beaten and thrown into a woodshed for refusing to hand over three old account books.

The books listed “losses to rats,” “transport fees,” and “losses to rain and snow.” Shen Du took one look and laughed. The paper was the same, the ink was the same, but the ink on those three pages was just a shade darker. They had been added later. Whoever had altered the accounts was not clever enough to copy the entire book over.

He handed over the books and went along with the grain convoy. The escorting commander, a hundred-man captain surnamed Cao, was a hulking brute. When some grain went missing along the way, he ordered Shen Du to “make the shortfall balance out.” Shen Du crouched by the stable wall and worked out the figures. Then he looked up and said, “My lord, should this cart be charged as losses to rats or as transport fees? You decide.”

Captain Cao stamped the document. Shen Du tucked the account book into his robe. In the corner of the last page was a line of writing as tiny as ants, which Captain Cao had missed.

When they reached Weiyuan Fort, the grain inspector found it. He caught the attention of He Biao, the deputy commissioner of the garrison granary, too. He did not kill Shen Du. Instead, he gave him a better position as a clerk in the garrison granary. Every shipment of grain leaving the granary would pass through Shen Du’s hands, and his seal would be on every account settlement. If anyone ever investigated the books, his would be the first name they found.

This was He Biao’s cage. But on the very first account Shen Du drew up inside it, the approval column bore a symbol he had just seen on the grain cart.

Thirty-seven years ago, a high-ranking official surnamed Zhou investigated this grain route. He stopped when he reached the river. The bronze tally was still there, and the accounts had never been settled.

An auditor transmigrates into ancient times and changes dynasties by auditing the books.