Ye Yaming continued, “In the future, when the Ye family produces new and fine teas, we will first bring them to Jixiang Hall for everyone to taste and collect your feedback. To ensure everyone has a comfortable tea-drinking environment without being disturbed by unnecessary people, I plan to establish an admission system—that is, to issue membership cards to everyone. Only those with membership cards will be able to enter the teahouse to drink tea. We will only issue two hundred membership cards, first come, first served. If you’re interested, you can consult Manager Zhang and Manager Wen to apply.”
She stood up: “Well, I won’t say more. I’m sure everyone is eager to go to the private rooms to drink tea and tour the garden. Please make yourselves at home. Allow me to take my leave.”
With that, she bowed to everyone, turned behind the screen, and exited the hall through the back door.
She wasn’t tired and didn’t need to rest. But as a businessperson, she knew when to advance and when to retreat. If she had stayed, everyone would certainly have asked her many questions, and she would have had to continuously promote her business in response.
When something is overdone, it becomes distasteful. The most brilliant businesspeople don’t push their sales relentlessly, which would be demeaning; instead, they set out a hook and wait for others to desperately ask to buy.
Her identity now was not just that of a businessperson but also the wife of the heir to the Xuanwu Marquis Manor, Lu Guanyi’s wife. Constantly promoting wasn’t her style, nor did it suit her status, and could easily lead to others looking down on her.
So, temporarily leaving under the pretext of changing clothes was the best strategy. Zhang Tao, Wen Xiu, and others were sufficient to answer questions from the guests, promote them, and help them apply for membership cards.
After she changed into a new outfit, touched up her makeup, and had a cup of tea, Bai Rui came to report, “Madam, everyone has applied for a membership card.”
Ye Yaming nodded.
This was within her expectations.
On the opening day, she didn’t want anyone to cause trouble. Today’s guests had been carefully selected after discussion with Lu Guanyi—people who had goodwill toward them as a couple and who loved tea.
Of course, some came with invitation cards from their family members, such as Princess Pingyang and An Jingning, the daughter of the Zhenbei Marquis Manor. They held invitation cards issued to the wife of Prince Zhong and the wife of Marquis Zhenbei.
Prince Zhong was the Emperor’s younger brother and was close to the Crown Prince; Marquis Zhenbei was Lu Guanyi’s current superior. Regardless of how these two ladies felt about her, she had to issue invitation cards to them.
The young lady from the Zhenbei Marquis Manor was said to be most compatible with Lu Guanyi. There had once been rumors among the common people that Lu Guanyi would become the son-in-law of General Zhenbei. And the legitimate daughter of General Zhenbei was only An Jingning.
Regardless of how this Miss An, who had been linked with Lu Guanyi in gossip, felt about her, as the legitimate daughter of a marquis family, under public scrutiny, she presumably wouldn’t embarrass her publicly. Therefore, Ye Yaming expected today’s opening to go relatively smoothly.
As it turned out, the result was indeed as she had anticipated.
Besides these, there were also the wives of several high-ranking officials who couldn’t be bypassed.
“What are the guests doing?” she asked.
“They’re all drinking tea in the private rooms they chose. The teahouse’s pastries are also very popular with the ladies. They keep asking if they can buy some to take home.”
Ye Yaming nodded: “That’s fine.”
At this point, Bai Rui smiled: “One lady’s servant secretly asked Manager Wen if they could buy one or two recipes for making the pastries for her mistress.”
Ye Yaming frowned slightly: “Who was it?”
“The wife of Minister Li. The servant said her young lady is going to be married, and the mistress has been collecting unique pastry recipes for her dowry. Today’s pastries were enjoyed by both her mistress and the young lady, so she asked privately. She said her mistress is very generous, and if the recipes can be sold, we can name our price.”
“She also said that her young lady is marrying into another region and would not use these recipes to make pastries for sale in the capital. Furthermore, she said she was asking on her own without her mistress’s knowledge, wanting to please her. If we have no intention of selling the recipes, then there’s no need to mention this to her mistress. She would be grateful for our consideration.”
Ye Yaming smiled.
What nonsense about asking on her own, without her mistress’s knowledge—this was clearly Minister Li’s wife using her servant to test the waters, to probe her character.
If she had been from a noble family, Minister Li’s wife would never have asked such a question. It was because of her humble origins, yet having married Lu Guanyi, a young general who was very likely to hold military power in the future, that Minister Li’s wife wanted to test her.
Whether she was soft-natured and would freely offer the recipes, or greedy and would demand an exorbitant price, or socially inept and would directly refuse, or if she would make her own decisions or consult her husband first—all these reactions would determine the attitude of Minister Li’s wife and other high-ranking officials’ wives toward her.
The Lu family was of noble military rank. In future confrontations between civil officials and military generals, or between noble families and officials of humble origins, she could potentially become a weak point to be exploited. After all, with the Lu family controlling military power, their importance to the Jin Dynasty was self-evident.
“What did Manager Wen say?”
“Manager Wen said she couldn’t make this decision and had to ask you first.”
“Go directly to that servant and tell her that these pastries are made using recipes provided by others who collaborate with the teahouse. The owners of the recipes are not selling them.”
Bai Rui asked, “If she keeps asking who is collaborating with us, what should I say?”
Ye Yaming smiled, “She won’t keep asking. If she does, just say you don’t know, you’re not clear about it.”
“Understood.”
Ye Yaming asked again, “What is the Young Master doing?”
“Young Master is accompanying Prince Consort Fan and his group for tea. He asked where you were, and I told him that Madam was changing clothes and resting for a while. He then said to let you rest well in the back and not rush to come to the front. He and the Master will take good care of the guests in the front, so you shouldn’t worry.”
Hearing this, Ye Yaming nodded with satisfaction.
If he hadn’t asked at all, it would mean he didn’t care about her; if he had come looking for her directly, abandoning the guests, that would be too clingy, showing no sense of the overall situation, which would displease her.
The current situation was just right.
“Are the two Princesses Imperial in the front courtyard or the back courtyard?” Ye Yaming asked again.
“The back courtyard.”
Ye Yaming stood up: “I’ll go to the back courtyard. You go attend to your business.”
Bai Rui curtsied and left first. Ye Yaming, accompanied by Zi Yuan and Qing Zhi, walked slowly toward the back courtyard.
The female guests seemed to have all gone to the back courtyard, with the mistresses drinking tea inside the rooms and their servants standing outside. Seeing Ye Yaming approach, the servants all curtsied to her. Throughout the garden, greetings of “Madam Lu” rose and fell.
With guests drinking tea in the private rooms, Ye Yaming naturally would not intrude. She would just walk around the garden. The rooms were not soundproof, and if guests heard the servants’ voices and wanted her to enter, they would surely send someone to call her.
Sure enough, before long, Princess Imperial Yuning’s maid walked over and said to Ye Yaming, “Madam Lu, Princess Imperial Yu’an, Princess Imperial Yuning, Princess Pingyang, and Miss An from the Zhenbei Marquis Manor invite you to join them for tea.”