Fang Zheng was unmoved by the Medicine Hall Elder's outburst.
That was for one reason.
Fang Zheng already knew who the culprit was.
He also knew that said person wouldn't be caught. And even if they were caught, it would be hard to punish them.
That was why he was unconcerned; even if the Medicine Hall Elder found someone it would more likely than not be a scapegoat like some unassuming mortal and not the real culprit. "It seems like an honest mistake," Fang Zheng said, trying to let it slide.
"Lord Clan Head, you are being too lenient!" the Medicine Hall Elder countered. Fang Zheng felt the familiar irritation of being lectured. The elders constantly told him how the "old Clan Head" would have acted. Perhaps they had caught on to the fact that Fang Zheng wasn't nearly as confident as he should be, maybe it was because of his age, or some other factor entirely - they tended to push their limits quite a bit.
Before, he would entertain these thoughts and even try to argue.
He had learned it was easier to just nod along until they shut up during these circumstances. As it was, this tended to be nothing more than just noise. Like pots and pangs clanging in the wind - ultimately meaningless.
The Medicine Hall Elder finished his tirade and Fang Zheng nodded, saying, "I'll leave you to it." as he left.
While leaving, he caught Yao Le's eye and whispered, "If you keep giving away resources like that, we will run out. I covered for you this time, but don't do it again."
Yao Le froze, lunch in hand. Her eyes widened, but she didn't deny the accusation. "I... I understand," she stammered.
Who else could've taken things without alerting others? A mortal would not dare. Neither would the lower Gu Masters.
None of these items could be sold easily on the open market for long without drawing attention. So profit wasn't the motive either.
The motive was that many people who came to the Medicine Hall wanted more than what the Hall would give them. Even in the good times, the Medicine Hall had to ration out healing supplies. After all, no one knew when the next calamity would strike.
Despite the widespread availability of puppets to handle certain matters of the clan, Human Path methods were not being developed here. Fang Yuan had initially prevented this as he wanted to monopolize Human Path resources - now though, Fang Yuan knew that delving too much into the Human Path in the open would invite the fury of Heaven's Will.
That meant that not everyone could be healed as much as they wanted.
The people of the Medicine Hall knew that and were not moved by such requests.
But if there was someone in the Medicine Hall who was naive. Who couldn't refuse such things.
What would they do?
They would acquiesce to nearly every such request.
Yao Le's memories went to several people. The old lady who wanted some extra ointment for her knee pain. How could she have refused that? Her and so many others...
Fang Zheng knew she had good intentions, but her lack of a spine was creating a deficit the village couldn't afford. And she wasn't Medicine Hall Elder yet - but would have to learn about these harsh facts if she wanted to be in the future.
As it was, he wasn't simply not punishing her because of any history between them. If the Medicine Hall Elder discovered it was Yao Le, Fang Zheng already knew that he would try his best to prevent such a thing from getting out.
Yao Le was just too valuable to the Medicine Hall as evidenced by her creations and her potential to become Rank 3.
Of course - if it became known that Fang Zheng already knew about this matter, then the Medicine Hall Elder could do nothing but bow his head and ask for forgiveness.
Fang Zheng suspected the Medicine Hall Elder might very well already know. If Fang Zheng could tell this, why couldn't that man?
Him reaching out to Yao Le accomplished two things - it meant that Yao Le would stop doing this and so wouldn't be caught if she had been already, and it also meant that if the Medicine Hall Elder did know about things he would learn of Fang Zheng's deduction through Yao Le and wouldn't waste any further time trying to cover things up.
In that manner, they could reach an understanding without having to air things out. Such tacit deals were common when one belonged to the righteous path.
Overall though, the matter was another one of those things that Fang Zheng felt was of no real worth spending any more of his time or attention on.
Fang Zheng walked away from the Medicine Hall after that.
There were some other issues with the accounts in other places, but they were minor rounding errors compared to what was going on in the Medicine Hall. In other words, not worth his time.
His evening was spent with Gu Yue Qing Shu, reviewing the numbers again.
"I've already taken a look over them and rectified what happened in the Medicine Hall, I'd like you to see the other numbers," Fang Zheng said.
"I'll take a look at them," Qing Shu said.
Qing Shu was an excellent lieutenant and worked nearly as hard as Fang Zheng.
Fang Zheng felt that without him, he might have resigned from the position long ago. Either that or been exposed as a fraud long ago.
"There are some minor discrepancies here and there," Qing Shu noted.
"They always have them," Fang Zheng said. "However, I thought they were minor enough to be accidents or just miscalculations. The question is whether or not they're worth going over..."
"It's hard to detect a pattern based on just this month's records," Qing Shu said. "I'll have to go over the past few months and compare them to this."
"I will leave it to you then," Fang Zheng said. He could've just pawned this entire task off to Qing Shu, but if he did so he'd never get the hang of it. And that would give Qing Shu the chance to start embezzling clan assets. Not that Fang Zheng thought that Qing Shu would do so, but there was no point in giving the guy ideas. And Fang Zheng had to at the very least pretend that he was keeping his track on the clan's pulse.
Fang Zheng hoped to spend the night washing his aperture walls, but a message arrived stating that the Bei Clan wanted to meet with him next morning.
Fang Zheng sighed.
Dealing with the rival clan was always a source of dread for him.
The reason being was that at least in Gu Yue Village, he was surrounded by his own backers and people who nominally were with him. It was hard for him to fail too badly here. No one would really want to call him out. Even if they thought that their clan head was a fool, no one lacked the tact to go and say it out loud.
But when it came to negotiating with a rival clan, that was where his mettle would really be tested.
It was here that a small mistake could cost him dearly, if not in terms of resources than at least in terms of reputation. He wanted to simply deny them but that wasn't really possible either. And he could not run from them forever.
The message was short, simply requesting a meeting - and Fang Zheng said that they could meet tomorrow.
The thought of what it would be like already threw him slightly off-balance. He could no longer focus on washing the walls of his aperture; instead preparing himself for tomorrow's event.