By the pavilion beside Mingshan Lake, as the cold wind blew past, it was bone-piercingly cold.

Yu Tang wrapped her cloak around herself, shivering as she asked Pei Yan, “Why must we talk here? Couldn’t we find a warm chamber or something?”

Pei Yan didn’t answer but glanced at Yu Tang’s cloak.

Gray squirrel fur lining with plain Hangzhou silk exterior—no wonder she felt cold.

In this season, one should use fox fur or sable fur lining with kesi tapestry or Shu embroidery exterior.

The Yu family was now considered wealthy—how could they not be willing to make Miss Yu a better cloak?

Pei Yan frowned.

Yu Tang was astonished.

Following his gaze, she looked at her own cloak.

Her brows immediately shot up in anger.

This Pei Yan—why did he always stare at her clothing?

She wasn’t a Pei family young lady who had many social engagements and needed to wear different garments to each one. This cloak had been altered from her mother’s dowry. The fur was very well preserved, and the plain cloak had only a cluster of orchids embroidered at one corner with fine, dense stitches and elegantly coordinated colors. By any measure, it was a presentable garment.

What right did he have to always find it displeasing?

Yu Tang sneered inwardly and decided not to let Pei Yan off easy either.

Just then another cold wind blew over, pouring straight through. She deliberately wrapped her cloak tighter around herself and said pointedly, “Or the waterside pavilion would work too! Standing here like this, people will freeze into popsicles.”

Was the place he’d chosen really that bad?

Pei Yan explained, “This is the closest place to the plum grove.”

Fine!

Considering that Old Madam An was still admiring plum blossoms in the grove, Yu Tang decided that even if there was much to say, it should be said briefly.

She said, “Is there something you wanted to see me about?”

Pei Yan had originally wanted to directly ask what had happened at her home, but Yu Tang’s earlier complaints made Pei Yan feel he hadn’t arranged things well, making him somewhat uncomfortable. So he first brought up the matter of the Li Duan family—in his heart, he subconsciously felt that if Yu Tang knew Li Duan had fallen on hard times, she should be very happy.

“After you told me about the Li family matter, I made special inquiries.” Pei Yan said thoughtfully, “It really is as you said—when Li Yi was serving as prefect in Rizhao, his hands were indeed not entirely clean.” At this point, he pressed his lips together.

Becoming an official a thousand li away was for wealth.

This was the reason many people originally entered officialdom.

Pei Yan could understand this, but didn’t approve.

Therefore, when he learned what Li Yi had actually done in Rizhao, he was very angry.

Everything had a bottom line. Cross that line, and it became contemptible.

He had written a letter about Li Yi’s affairs to a classmate of his who served as a censor in the Censorate, and this classmate had always been ambitious, wanting to become a capable official whose name would remain in history.

He would certainly teach Li Yi properly about how to conduct oneself.

Yu Tang’s heart leaped with joy.

That meant that family could clear their name of injustice sooner.

She couldn’t help saying, “Then, what do you plan to do?”

Pei Yan saw that familiar brightness like summer sunlight appear in her eyes again. Inwardly satisfied, he nodded, though his face remained impassive as he said, “Doesn’t their family want to move to Hangzhou City? Then they might as well move there.”

Yu Tang was astonished.

Usually families who moved out and never returned were those who no longer had property in their original location.

That is to say, Pei Yan wanted to force the Li family to sell their ancestral property—if not all of it, then at least most of it.

She thought of the ancestral properties the Yu family had sold in her past life and suddenly felt that the Li family’s karmic retribution was slowly arriving in this life through Pei Yan’s inadvertent attention.

“Thank you, Third Master!” she murmured, her eyes glistening with moisture.

Pei Yan looked suspicious.

He hadn’t really said anything—why was Miss Yu suddenly so excited and grateful? Could Miss Yu’s hatred of the Li family have reached the point where she was happy as long as they suffered misfortune?

Pei Yan couldn’t understand.

Yu Tang had no intention of explaining to him and deflected vaguely: “Oh, I was just thinking about the Li family’s remaining one hundred fifty mu of land. Their land is the best in our Lin’an City—you can’t buy it even with money. Finally waiting for the Li family to fall on hard times, how could I resist such a huge temptation?”

She spoke as if joking, with a pure joy in her eyes that didn’t involve grudges or vendettas.

It was genuine happiness.

Pei Yan was startled, and his voice involuntarily lightened a bit as he said, “What if our family also wants that one hundred fifty mu?”

Yu Tang was very surprised.

In her mind, Pei Yan was not someone who spoke casually.

Yet now he was asking her for the Li family’s one hundred fifty mu of land.

Knowing this statement was probably a joke, Yu Tang still couldn’t help feeling pleased.

She said, “Then naturally I’d yield it to your family! It’s good to enjoy the shade under a big tree! Following your family, at least we wouldn’t have to worry about irrigation water in the future.”

Thinking about it this way, it really did make some sense!

Pei Yan rarely smiled and said, “How about we go to the waterside pavilion over there to talk?”

Across the lake from the pavilion stood a waterside pavilion half-perched over the water.

Yu Tang had thought Pei Yan had only come to tell her this matter. She shook her head repeatedly, saying, “Never mind, this place is fine. Old Madam An is still waiting for me to return!”

Seeing her return to her normal state, Pei Yan’s mood also gradually calmed down. He spoke of his actual purpose: “Your family sent someone to reply to your letter the same afternoon you sent your letter home this morning. Has something happened at home?”

Yu Tang felt that Pei Yan had already seen her at her most embarrassing and disheveled—there was nothing she couldn’t tell him now.

So she told Pei Yan about commissioning Young Master Zhang to paint designs.

Pei Yan was very surprised and looked Yu Tang up and down several times.

Yu Tang said nervously, “What’s wrong?”

But inwardly she anxiously wondered if she had done something wrong, repeatedly reviewing her actions.

Who would have known that Pei Yan would say seriously, “I didn’t expect you to have this business acumen. Have you considered making mother-of-pearl inlay?”

The most expensive furniture nowadays was inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Items like carved red lacquer from families like theirs were usually small pieces, might be used for a lifetime, and some families might not necessarily need to buy them even when getting married.

Furniture was different.

Every household needed it.

But there was still more black lacquered furniture.

Apparently Pei Yan wasn’t always right about everything.

Yu Tang’s refusal was tactful. She smiled and said, “Our family’s ancestral craft is carved red lacquer. If we made mother-of-pearl inlay, it would be like abandoning the near to seek the far, throwing away all our old craftsmanship. Thinking about it, it’s still not worthwhile.”

The Pei family had many businesses, but most were managed by stewards. At most he would make some requests and review the account books. He really didn’t understand these matters.

“I’m just suggesting.” He said. “Recently someone asked me to acquire a mother-of-pearl inlay workshop. I’m still considering it, so I thought to ask first if your family could use it.”

Yu Tang was surprised.

If it was just a mother-of-pearl inlay workshop, there would be too many places it could be useful.

As long as the manager didn’t act recklessly, it was quite a profitable business.

This really fulfilled that old saying “money chases wealth.”

However, she was also a bit curious about what kind of family would sell such a workshop.

Pei Yan didn’t hide it from her either, saying, “It’s the Song family.” He also explained, “Aren’t they partnering with the Peng and Wu families to build ships? The Peng family goes without saying, and that Wu family was originally nouveau riche who whitewashed themselves into gentry. But shipbuilding costs are huge—where would their family have the silver to compete with those two families? I estimate that the Peng and Wu families want to join forces to squeeze the Song family out, so they set some kind of trap. The Song family is now caught in a dilemma and can only quietly sell off some properties for emergency funds.” At this point, as if thinking of something, he made a sound of realization and added, “Doesn’t carved red lacquer require many coats of lacquer? The Song family seems to also have a lacquer workshop…”

But their family didn’t need a lacquer workshop to provide lacquer!

Most importantly, their family had no one to manage these properties.

Properties that relied on others to help manage would ultimately not earn much money.

This was Yu Tang’s experience from her past life.

She tactfully declined again, feeling that if she continued talking with Pei Yan like this, who knew what other startling things he might say. She quickly changed the subject: “Are you thinking of taking over Song family properties? What’s their most profitable business?”

“Textile manufacturing.” Pei Yan said, not answering whether he wanted to take over Song family properties. “However, textile manufacturing is too troublesome. Not weaving tribute items isn’t enough to make people think the textiles are good quality, but making tribute items requires having someone deal with people in the Twenty-Four Yamens…” Having said this, he suddenly stopped and fell into a daze.

Yu Tang didn’t understand.

Pei Yan asked her, “Do you know Jiang Chao?”

Jiang Chao had stayed at her family’s home for a period of time—of course she knew him. But looking at Pei Yan’s expression, he clearly meant whether she understood Jiang Chao as a person.

Yu Tang said carefully, “Somewhat! Usually I’ve heard my father mention him many times.”

Pei Yan nodded, then asked about other matters in a free-associating way: “Does your shop only need good design patterns?”

“Currently it seems so.” Yu Tang said conservatively. “Business is something you have to explore bit by bit.”

Pei Yan then said, “Are Young Master Zhang’s paintings really that good?”

Yu Tang smiled and said, “My experience is shallow. Among all I’ve seen, Young Master Zhang’s paintings are the best.”

Pei Yan nodded and said, “Good! As long as nothing’s wrong at your home. I invited you to keep my mother company—I couldn’t have you worrying about two things at once. If anything happens at your home, just have a maid or servant boy come tell me. I’ll do my best to help you resolve it.”

Yu Tang expressed her thanks.

The two parted ways.

Yu Tang naturally returned directly to the plum grove. However, by now the poetry gathering in the plum grove had already ended, and everyone was preparing to go to Old Madam An’s place.

As soon as Gu Xi saw her, she said with a smile, “It’s better to arrive at the right time than early. We just decided to eat mutton hotpot tonight and you returned—clearly Miss Yu is blessed with good fortune.”

“Wasn’t it said we’d eat roasted meat tonight?” Yu Tang said in surprise.

How had they changed their minds again?

Fourth Miss said with a red face, stammering, “Miss Gu’s poem was judged first place, Third Elder Sister was judged second. Miss Gu said she was the eldest and let Third Elder Sister choose. Third Elder Sister said roasted meat causes internal heat and isn’t good to eat at night, so we changed to hotpot.”

That Gu Xi’s poem was judged first place didn’t surprise Yu Tang at all.

Apparently there had been another wager after she left.

She could eat anything and said with a smile, “Then that’s fine. If it still snows tomorrow, we can roast meat then.”

Yu Tang’s words struck right at the hearts of Fourth Miss and Fifth Miss.

The two nodded in unison, and the group chatted and laughed as they accompanied Old Madam An to the main courtyard.

Along the way, Gu Xi several times wanted to ask Yu Tang “aren’t you concerned about what place your poem got?” but restrained herself each time.