But six thousand taels was far too much!

Yu Tang said, “Father, shouldn’t you reconsider? Since Lord Jiang is a businessman, he certainly won’t only make this one shipping voyage. Since we’re doing business with him for the first time after all, shouldn’t we proceed step by step?”

Yu Wen was not a rigid patriarch. On the contrary, he quite liked the approach of discussing matters together as a family. Moreover, he knew that Yu Tang’s thoughts were also the thoughts of the rest of his family. If he wanted to gain his family’s support, as long as he could persuade Yu Tang, he could persuade everyone else.

“A’Tang, what you say makes a lot of sense.” Yu Wen thought for a moment and said carefully, “But sometimes when we partner in business, what we’re investing in isn’t the business—it’s the person. You must understand that business is dead, but people are alive. As long as this person is honest and trustworthy, capable and talented, worthy of trust, even if he doesn’t make money on this deal, he’ll make money on the next one. We just need to follow along with him. The day he rises to success and prominence will be the day we profit handsomely. You need to take a long-term view. Don’t just争 争for the petty gains right in front of you.” After finishing, he looked toward Yu Bo and continued, “Just like Old Master Wu next door—the reason his family prospered wasn’t it because he had a good brother-in-law? But the reason his brother-in-law has what he has today wasn’t it because Old Master Wu’s father continuously supported his studies when he was alive? Doing business is sometimes the same principle.”

Yu Tang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

When Old Master Wu’s father, Old Master Wu Senior, was alive, the family already had modest assets, but the annual taxes and silver for managing lawsuits still left him gasping for breath. So he selected Old Master Wu’s brother-in-law, who had considerable talent for studying but no stable family property, and sponsored his studies for ten years. Old Master Wu’s brother-in-law lived up to expectations, passed the jinshi examination, and became an Education Commissioner in Jiangxi. Only then did Old Master Wu’s family truly hold their heads high, no longer fearing trouble from people at the yamen, and able to associate with official households.

Because of this precedent, the two sons-in-law Old Master Wu selected were both scholars—one was a xiucai, the other a juren.

In Lin’an City, they were considered a family with a story.

She understood the principle that it was better to sponsor someone’s studies or business ventures than to keep money stored away. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have found an excuse to go to Suzhou Prefecture. But her concerns weren’t without merit either. The events from her previous life were all things she’d heard through hearsay—she would have to see for herself what the truth really was. Although the money from auctioning the map was an unexpected windfall, it was still silver after all and shouldn’t be wasted carelessly.

She couldn’t help but say, “Father, what you say makes sense. That’s exactly why I’m saying—couldn’t we invest a little less silver? After all, our family’s foundation isn’t thick. The mountain forest requires silver, the lacquerware shop requires silver too. No matter how much firewood and rice you have, it’s never as much as the days ahead—it’s better to maintain a steady flow.”

Yu Bo nodded repeatedly.

Six thousand taels of silver was something he hadn’t even dared to imagine before.

Investing more meant greater returns, but the risk was also greater.

He would rather take it slowly—even if they lost money, it wouldn’t hurt so much.

Seeing his elder brother nod in agreement with Yu Tang’s reasoning, Yu Wen quickly said, “Elder Brother, adding flowers to brocade and sending charcoal in the snow are not the same thing. I think highly of Lord Jiang as a person, which is why I want to invest in his business. He’s just starting out now, at his most difficult time. Rather than waiting until he’s achieved success and fame to invest in his business, we might as well stake everything now and form an alliance with him. When there are even better business opportunities in the future, only then will we have the capital to negotiate with him, and only then will he possibly look after our family! Friendship that begins from humble beginnings is true friendship!”

Most importantly, no one in the Yu family had such great boldness to conduct such large business ventures.

Since that was the case, they might as well find a reliable partner. When the partner ate meat, they could follow along and drink some soup.

Yu Bo was swayed again by Yu Wen’s words and kept nodding.

Seeing this, Yu Wen’s heart leaped with joy. He smiled at Yu Tang and said, “Just as A’Tang said, no matter how much firewood and rice you have, it’s never as much as the days ahead. Since this is an unexpected windfall, it was gained unexpectedly and there won’t be a second time. Rather than holding it in our hands and slowly consuming it, we might as well take a gamble. Even if we lose it, everyone can maintain a balanced mentality and just treat it as if we never received it in the first place.”

Now even Wang Shi and Chen Shi began nodding.

Yu Tang said helplessly, “I agree with everything Father says. I’m just afraid Lord Jiang might misunderstand and think our family is wealthy. I’m worried that if there are other business opportunities in the future that require our family to invest money, but we can’t produce it, Lord Jiang will be displeased and a rift will develop between our two families. What was originally a fine story would instead become a laughingstock.”

“That won’t happen!” Yu Yuan interjected. “Uncle already thought of this point, so he told Lord Jiang that this is all the silver our family has. Otherwise, why would he have added an additional two thousand taels at the last minute?”

Hearing this, Yu Wen smiled smugly and waved his fan, saying, “A’Tang, do you think your father only knows how to read books? I truly appreciate this Lord Jiang and want to help him further. But a sheng of rice brings gratitude, while a dou of rice brings enmity—I don’t want to turn a good deed into a bad one. That’s why I added those two thousand taels, to tell Lord Jiang that this is the entire savings of our two families, all the silver our two families can mobilize. I believe that if this venture doesn’t make money, even if Lord Jiang has other business opportunities, he certainly won’t have the nerve to ask us to put in this much silver again. Moreover, I made thorough inquiries. To finance this sea voyage, Lord Jiang sold his family’s ancestral fifty mu of good farmland and even pawned the family’s ship to the pawnshop. He’s mobilizing his entire family’s resources, so he certainly values this deal even more than we do. Following him, there definitely won’t be any mistakes.”

Yu Tang carefully thought about those events from her previous life.

The Jiang family definitely hadn’t gone bankrupt.

Otherwise, if Jiang Chao could recover after bankruptcy, that would be an even greater achievement for others to boast about. Not only would it not damage Jiang Chao’s reputation, it would add to his aura of glory, and she definitely would have heard about it.

At most, Jiang Chao probably just didn’t make a huge profit.

“Since Father has already decided, I’ll definitely support Father!” Yu Tang said readily, but her cautious nature still made her unable to resist reminding her father, “Just make sure to read the paperwork carefully when the silver is transferred, so we don’t end up in disputes later if something happens.”

“You can all rest assured about this.” Yu Wen said for the whole family to hear. “I may not know how to do business, but I know how to judge people! When the time comes, I’ll go with Old Master Wu to transfer the silver.”

“What?!” Yu Tang shot to her feet.

Yu Wen chuckled and said, “On our way back from Hangzhou City, we ran into Old Master Wu. When he heard about Lord Jiang’s matter, he decided to invest together with us.”

“Father!” Yu Tang couldn’t help but raise her voice. “Maritime business is risky. If our family invests, that’s our own affair, but we can’t encourage other families to invest money too. If we lose money, we won’t even be able to remain neighbors anymore.”

“I know, I know.” Yu Wen smiled. “That’s exactly what I said to him. But he said he trusts my judgment. It’s just that he can’t produce that much silver at once, so he only plans to invest one thousand taels. Besides, given Old Master Wu’s family wealth, one thousand taels is a small amount for him. At worst, if we lose it, I’ll make it up to him.”

Yu Tang put her hand to her forehead.

She suddenly felt that even being reborn, she had no way to change her father’s spending habits. Her earlier failure to prevent her father from buying Lu Xin’s “Fishing in Seclusion by Pine Creek” really wasn’t her fault…

Yu Yuan also knew about this matter and had been quite opposed at the time. But since Yu Wen was his uncle and Yu Wen was speaking with Old Master Wu, it wasn’t appropriate for him to interrupt. Now he immediately sided with Yu Tang, saying, “Uncle, I think Little Sister makes a good point. If our family invests, let it just be our family. As for Old Master Wu’s side…”

But before he could finish speaking, A’Tiao ran in and said, “Old Master Wu has arrived, saying he’s come to deliver the silver.”

Yu Wen’s face lit up with joy as he repeatedly said, “Please show him in quickly! Quickly!”

Yu Tang and Yu Yuan exchanged a glance, knowing that even if they wanted to prevent this matter, it was already too late.

Seeing this, Xiang Shi immediately patted Yu Yuan’s hand reassuringly and quickly walked to Yu Tang’s side, whispering to her, “Don’t worry. If we really do lose money, I’ll provide the thousand taels to compensate Old Master Wu. I originally agreed with this matter anyway.”

But silver shouldn’t be used like this!

However, looking at Xiang Shi’s sincere gaze, Yu Tang couldn’t bring herself to say these words.

Everyone had good intentions and was doing this for the family. If she continued to persist and oppose, it would only discourage everyone.

Yu Tang sighed quietly to herself.

She suddenly recalled Pei Yan’s straightforward “not seeing visitors.”

She should learn from Pei Yan.

But if she were truly like that, Sister-in-law would be hurt too, wouldn’t she?

Just as when she had heard Pei Yan refuse so bluntly, hadn’t she found it difficult to accept at first hearing?

Yu Tang smiled bitterly and could only deal with the current situation first. So she took Xiang Shi’s arm and said, “How could we use Sister-in-law’s silver? Sister-in-law’s silver is meant to be saved for my nephew to buy books, ink, paper, and inkstones for his studies, and to reward the yamen runners who bring news when he passes the juren or jinshi examinations. It absolutely cannot be taken out so easily like this! Even if Sister-in-law has such thoughts, I as his aunt cannot agree.”

Xiang Shi smiled with a flushed face.

Fearing that she still harbored thoughts of using her dowry silver to cover the Yu family’s losses, Yu Tang quickly changed the subject, saying in a low voice, “Sister-in-law, when I returned to the old residence a few days ago, I discovered that the peanuts planted in the mountain forest will soon be ripe. I’ve already spoken with Fifth Great-uncle about it—we’ll send some to the Wei family to try as well. Do you think you should personally deliver them, or should we send someone?”

If Xiang Shi personally delivered them, she would have an excuse to return to her maiden home.

Xiang Shi was indeed very pleased and said, “I’ll personally deliver them when the time comes. I haven’t seen my aunt in a long time and really miss her.” Then she began talking about Wei Xiaochuan and the newly married Gao Shi.

Yu Tang breathed a sigh of relief.

When she turned back around, she didn’t want to say a word to her father.

She simply took advantage of Yu Wen’s excited discussion with Old Master Wu about whether to make another trip to Suzhou to shut herself away and carefully peruse the books that Pei Yan had lent her.

Only now did Yu Tang understand why Pei Yan had told her that if she didn’t understand something, she should either ask her father or consult the steward of their family estate.

She knew what a plow was, but what were lei and si? What was the relationship between a plow and lei-si? What was the difference between a moldboard plow and a rotary plow?

Yu Tang read with complete bewilderment.

What made it even harder for her to understand was that she only wanted to know how to farm, so why was there also a collection of miscellaneous notes included?

What did this collection of miscellaneous notes have to do with farming?

Yu Tang suddenly understood Yu Wen’s slightly stiff posture when he had initially flipped through these books.