Chapter 1: The State of the Balance Sheet

The Lian family accounting records were, Lian Zhu discovered on her third day of consciousness, a creative work of fiction. Debts had been recorded as assets, assets had been misnamed as goodwill, and goodwill appeared to have been exchanged for actual goods at some point in 1247 and never reconciled. Her previous self had apparently managed this information by fainting frequently. The new Lian Zhu put the ledger down, asked for a fresh brush, and began drafting what she called a turnaround strategy and what the family steward called, in a shaking voice, a lot of very strange diagrams.