Iron Powder and Spellcaster

To the educated young ladies of Aquamarine City, their weakness and ignorance before marriage were endearing and as beautiful as artificial flowers in a celadon vase.

But when they got married, they suddenly became the majestic hostess of the family: managing the servants of the whole family in an orderly manner, keeping the living room, study, bedroom and the male master's dress spotless, and ensuring that the kitchen can provide decent food, etc. wait.

Is marriage really so magical that it can transform an ignorant girl into a qualified hostess overnight?

That is of course impossible.

In fact, the appearance of ignorance before marriage is just a disguise. In order to shoulder the responsibility of the hostess in the future, in this era, every woman of good origin has received a lot of training before reaching the age of marriage.

They have followed their mother since they were young, learning how to run the entire mansion. When they married, they took over another household with servants, a dowry, and enough skills.

Men think women are weak and ignorant, and women cleverly take advantage of this to play with men. This is a little secret between ladies that is not known to gentlemen.

If the men who are deceived must blame this society, who makes this society set a unified goal for unmarried ladies to find a husband who is well-matched?

The same is naturally true for the Navarre family. Just like every decent family in Hailan City, Ana Navarre has been trained by her mother to be an excellent wife and hostess since she was sensible.

Even compared to ordinary ladies from a famous family, Mrs. Navarre has higher requirements for her eldest daughter.

An ordinary lady from a famous family will give birth to children, raise children, and manage everything in the house well.

But there’s only so much. Things outside the family, in the view of ladies, should be the responsibility of gentlemen and should not be interfered with casually.

For a woman to be out there working like a man is very unbecoming and gets everyone talking, unless...unless she's a widow.

As a respectable widow, Mrs. Navarre not only requires her eldest daughter to become a qualified hostess, she also hopes that Anna can have a better business acumen than men and be able to take on the tasks that women should not take on in traditional concepts. Responsibility, one day in the future, he will take over the management of the Navarre Trading Company - at least not to lose this property due to the incompetence of the heir.

So every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon, when Mrs. Navarre came to work in the large office of Navarre Firm, Anna would sit quietly next to Mrs. Navarre's large mahogany desk and use Xiao Dao helped her mother open letters one after another, assisted Mrs. Navarre in checking the accounts, listened to employee reports together, and silently watched Mrs. Navarre's decision-making process.

"Mr. Lodovico." Mrs. Navarre's voice was gentle and magnetic. She asked slowly: "Can you please explain why I gave you a written order two months ago, but until today? Didn’t even reach half of the planned purchase amount?”

The employee's chair is two meters away from Mrs. Navarre's desk, in the center of the empty office. This chair is not easy to sit on. There is no obstruction in front of you and nothing around you. The entire office is designed to make the person sitting in the chair feel that he is being seen through.

But the middle-aged man sitting opposite Mrs. Navarre now is not as nervous as those young employees. He is sitting upright on the chair, holding his hat in his hand, and his hair with a few silver threads is combed meticulously.

Lodovico replied calmly: "Madam, the prices of sulfur, saltpeter, lead and iron are rising steadily. There are still many competitors on the market competing with us for goods. The current inventory is the result of our efforts to sweep away goods. Besides, If we buy the quantity you require at the current price, it will drain most of the liquidity on our books. Our main business direction is not these bulk goods, so I cannot agree with your speculation."

"What you said makes sense." Mrs. Navarre nodded with approval. She knocked on the bell on the table, and the maid standing outside the office opened the door.

"Invite all the senior partners to come to me." Mrs. Navarre ordered loudly.

The maid nodded and closed the door again.

Anna vaguely noticed that the atmosphere seemed to have changed and became more solemn. The soft hat in Lodovico's hand had been deformed by his grip, but he still pretended to be calm and his face remained calm as usual.

The senior partners of Navarre Commercial Bank, who were directors and above, filed in. They communicated wordlessly with their eyes and stood roughly in a row, with only Lodovico sitting.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen." Mrs. Navarre nodded.

The senior partners also put their hats on their chests and bowed their heads in return.

"Now that everyone is here, Mr. Lodovico can explain to us these two light and dark account books." Mrs. Navarre took out the two account books with black covers from the drawer.

When Lodovico saw these two account books, his face turned pale and he lowered his head and said nothing.

The senior partners are all experienced businessmen, and they immediately understood what was happening when they heard the term light and dark accounting books. The office suddenly became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Everyone held their breath and listened to Mrs. Navarre's words.

"What is the difference between these two account books? The difference is that one of the account books records all the transactions of Navarre Trading Company purchasing large quantities of sulfur, saltpeter and other goods in the past two months, while the other has erased most of the transactions. Only a small portion of the transaction record remains."

Mrs. Navarre threw the account book on the desk: "Mr. Lodovico, your idea is perfect. You give the goods purchased by Navarre Trading Company to your brother-in-law. If the prices of these bulk goods rise, you will Just take out the fake account books and resell them to make a lot of money. If the price drops, you take out the real account books and let the business bear the loss."

Anna found that Mrs. Navarre was signaling her with her eyes. She understood her mother's meaning and obediently picked up the account book and gave it to the senior partners present, but no one dared to take it and look at it carefully. I walked around and brought back the account book.

"What have I done to make you disrespect me so much?" Mrs. Navarre's tone was cold: "You have worked in the Navarre family for more than ten years and are the most senior partner. I trusted you, but you failed me. My trust. Is there anything else you want to say?”

Ever since Mrs. Navarre took out the two account books, Lodovico had lowered his head deeply. No one knew what the most senior employee was thinking.

After a while, he raised his head and found his calmness and composure again: "There is no distinction between true and false account books. One of them is just my deduction. The goods purchased by Navarre Trading Company can only be as much as in the warehouse. Corresponding to the real account books, I did not use the money of the trading company to make profits for myself. Since you no longer trust me, please allow me to resign."

Lodovico calmly arranged his clothes, put on his hat, stood up and wanted to leave. At this moment, he became the chief partner of the Navarre Firm, second only to one person and above all others.

"What are you still holding on to? I hope Mr. Arnold can continue to stand by your side and sell the goods to make up for the shortfall when you leave here?" Mrs. Navarre asked slowly.

The senior partners were in an uproar, but to their surprise, Mrs. Navarre pointed out another giant rat. Another tall and thin senior partner was pushed out of the crowd. He bowed to Mrs. Navarre helplessly, opening and closing his mouth, and finally chose to remain mute and said nothing.

"You are so confident now because you think your accounts are watertight and the merchant's money is worth a silver coin. But you have mortgaged the fabrics in your inventory and used them as the principal to purchase bulk goods. Do you think I can't find out? ?" Mrs. Navarre took out a few more receipts from the drawer and asked with a smile.

Lodovico replied politely: "It is Mr. Arno's personal behavior to privately mortgage the company's inventory. I don't know what it has to do with me. You should hold Mr. Arno accountable."

"Madam! I have never thought about embezzling money from a trading company! It was Lodovico who said he needed a sum of money to turn around that's why I did it!" Arno, who was shocked to realize that he had been sold, shouted: "It was Lodovico who deceived me. Kill me! He is the devil!"

Arno rushed towards Lodovico: "You devil..."

Lodovico punched the lanky Arno over, and the latter covered his face and fell to the ground groaning in pain. Seeing the blood flowing out from Arno's fingers, Anna couldn't help but let out a cry of surprise.

"Funny, madam, madam, gentlemen." Lodovico took off his hat gracefully and bowed to the people in the room, as if he was really sorry for being violent in public: "Mr. Arno is not my partner. Man, we only have a loan relationship, as evidenced by IOUs. As for where the money Mr. Arnold lent me came from, haha, I don’t know."

After saying that, Lodovico put on his soft hat again and turned to leave.

A burst of applause came from behind the desk.

"Wonderful, really wonderful, Mr. Lodovico." Mrs. Navarre applauded and said with a smile: "You have created a complete logic and completely deprived yourself of legal principles. Even if I accuse you, you will You can use this to defend yourself in court. But you got one thing wrong..."

Mrs. Navarre's tone changed: "I can be unreasonable."

Mrs. Navarre pressed the bell on the table again, and several vicious army soldiers walked out from the room next to the office, led by an army colonel.

The army soldier couldn't help but stepped forward and grabbed Lodovico. The latter yelled and resisted, and was hit hard in the face by a soldier with a lead-filled stick.

Lodovico, who was beaten to death with a stick, was then firmly tied up.

Mrs. Navarre walked from behind the desk to Lodovico, looked down at the latter and said coldly: "Navarre Trading Company signed a transaction agreement with the Army two months ago, you are not reselling my goods. , you are reselling army supplies. So, go to the military court to reason, Mr. Lodovico!"

The military colonel nodded to Madame Navarre and took Lodovico and Arno away.

After seeing the widow's skill, the remaining senior partners of Navarre Firm are now as quiet as chickens.

"Mr. Leo." Mrs. Navarre called the name of another senior partner.

Uneasiness spread among the crowd. Could it be that Mrs. Navarre wanted to take this opportunity to reshuffle the cards?

A plump man of average height stood up and bowed to Madame Navarre with a flattering smile.

"You will take over Lodovico's responsibilities from now on, and the mid-level partner Piero will take over your current position. Others can leave, but Mr. Leo please stay."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that this matter was over for the time being.

After the other partners left, the fat Mr. Leo asked tentatively: "Madam, should we continue to purchase sulfur, saltpeter and other goods as originally planned? The current price is already very high."

"Continue, the price will be higher in the future." Mrs. Navarre leaned on her chair and answered tiredly, holding her forehead.

————Cut————

"I don't think it's necessary to treat Mr. Lodovico like that. It's too cruel... After all, he has been a friend of our family for many years. He even hugged Kate... Those soldiers will not let him go easily."

Sitting in the carriage home, Anna whispered to her mother.

"You...have taught you for so many years and you still don't understand?" Mrs. Navarre sighed: "The world outside the family is a man's world, so a woman's style will be more masculine than a man's so that she will not be looked down upon. . If your father was still alive, would Lodovico dare to do this? Therefore, I must be more cruel and ruthless than your father in order to protect our family's property. You must keep this in mind."

"Then wouldn't it be good for you to teach Catherine?" Anna murmured in a low voice: "She really likes doing business. You took me to the business house, and she was almost jealous to death. I think it's not too late for you to start teaching her now, she I'd be happy to. Why does it have to be me? I don't like looking at the books. Wouldn't it be better to have the right people doing the right things?"

Mrs. Navarre sighed again: "What your sister likes is the feeling of being able to boss people around. When your two sisters get married, I will prepare a lot of dowries, and I will make them the wives with the most generous dowries in Hailan City. But Kate can’t be left in charge of the business.”

Anna pouted and snorted.

Seeing her daughter, she was still unconvinced. Mrs. Navarre warned Anna sincerely: "Listen carefully, being in charge of Navarre Firm is not a power, but a responsibility. It is a parent's responsibility. Take this responsibility I have to take care of your two sisters for the rest of my life."

Mrs. Navarre fell into memories and continued: "When you were a child, you had a fight with your sister. It was obviously you who was scratched, but it was Kate who cried and complained to me. You didn't shed a single tear. At that time, I Understand that your sister is a flower that can only bloom in midsummer. If the world turns bad, Kate cannot survive on her own. That’s why I chose you.”

"I don't want to take care of Catherine for the rest of my life." Anna said unconvinced: "It's okay to take care of Olivia, Catherine...Catherine doesn't need me to take care of her, and she has never regarded me as her sister."

Mrs. Navarre arranged her daughter's hair and said with a smile: "When you grow up, think about the quarrels you had with your sister. It will also be a very good memory."

The carriage drove all the way out of the suburbs and returned to Navarre Manor.

The housekeeper helped his wife and young lady out of the car and reported softly: "General Serbetti and Mr. Montagne are waiting at the house... Mr. Montagne seems to be looking for Miss Anna."

Thank you to book friend 20181013204343295 for his recommendation vote, thank you to book friend Mo Laoxuan for his recommendation vote, thank you to book friend Social Justice Lao Wang for his recommendation vote, and thank you to book friends who have voted for recommendation before. thank you all.