Of course, Pei Yan was not so petty as to have such a narrow mind.

During this period, he had been busy improving the craftsmanship of the Yu family’s lacquerware shop.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, he immediately arranged to meet Yu Yuan at the Pei family’s teahouse, not far from the Yu family’s lacquerware shop. He gave Yu Yuan the manual he had compiled and personally poured him a cup of tea, saying, “Look carefully to see if this can be of use. If it works, it should solve the problems of insufficient apprentices and leaked techniques in the future. However, nothing can be generalized—my method may not necessarily be foolproof, but you can try it first. If issues arise later, we can gradually improve it.”

Yu Yuan was deeply honored. He hastily bowed slightly, thanked Pei Yan, and took the small manual, examining it carefully from beginning to end.

After finishing, his face burned with embarrassment.

He had been the young master of the Yu family’s lacquerware shop for over twenty years, yet he was not as perceptive as Pei Yan, an outsider, had been in just two months of observation.

Pei Yan had broken down all the craftsmanship processes, assigning each to be led by one skilled apprentice with several students under them. This not only improved efficiency and effectively ensured quality but also prevented the risk of apprentices being poached once they had learned the skills.

“Many thanks, Third Master!” Yu Yuan respectfully poured Pei Yan a cup of tea in admiration.

Pei Yan frowned slightly and said, “Although I am older than you, having married A’Tang, I am now your brother-in-law. You need not be so formal with me.”

However, the term “brother-in-law” was something Yu Yuan simply could not bring himself to say while looking at Pei Yan’s cold and flawless face.

Fortunately, Pei Yan did not force him, but instead continued with the previous topic: “Of course, this method also has its drawbacks. I see that the masters you’ve hired all work as families together. Even if each apprentice specializes in one skill, if several apprentices are close and leave together, the result would be the same. I think if you truly want to develop the workshop, the most important thing is to establish a new reward and punishment system, so they feel that doing good work brings money, and doing poor work brings none. When they feel that working in your household is secure and reliable, naturally they won’t be so inclined to leave.”

This matter was not something he could interfere with directly.

However, Yu Yuan was already thoroughly impressed by Pei Yan. Whatever Pei Yan said, he accepted without careful consideration. Hearing this, he quickly said, “I have little education. Would you please help us come up with a plan?”

But the Yu family’s affairs could not always rely on him!

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Seeing Yu Yuan’s hesitation, Pei Yan thought for a moment and said, “How about this—why don’t you ask Pei Man? Ever since he took charge of the Pei household, he has established some new rules for the household servants and women. You could use that as a reference.”

Yu Yuan thought this was also good.

It was better than facing Pei Yan directly.

When facing Pei Yan, even if he did not understand something, he felt too embarrassed to ask many questions.

Pei Yan then said, “I’ll mention it to Pei Man later.”

Yu Yuan expressed his thanks repeatedly and called in the tea server, wanting to treat Pei Yan to the teahouse’s most famous tea pastry, the Assorted Crisp.

Although Pei Yan originally did not want to eat, considering that Yu Yuan was his eldest brother-in-law and they would have many future dealings—after all, Yu Tang’s heir would certainly come from their family—it was necessary to strengthen their relationship. He thus settled down comfortably to wait for the tea server to bring their refreshments, and casually asked about Yu Yuan’s business.

Besides managing the Yu family’s lacquerware shop, Yu Yuan had also privately invested in Yao San’s general goods store.

He casually mentioned that Yao San had recently purchased a salt certificate and wanted to try his hand at the salt business, seeking his investment.

Hearing this, Pei Yan’s heart stirred as he thought of the Manager Gao that Peng Shiyi had found.

He asked, “Are there many people doing salt certificate business in our area?”

Yu Yuan nodded and smiled, saying, “However, everyone pools together with several families to buy one salt certificate. Although this business is profitable, without connections to ensure people at the Nine Border regions will exchange it for you according to regulations, you’re really just earning hard labor money. Yao San dares to do this business because he has a friend who knows a Regional Commander in Datong, and that Regional Commander is from Haining.”

Pei Yan was not very familiar with the military officials, let alone a Regional Commander from Datong.

But he was willing to help Yu Yuan and said, “Don’t rush into it. Let me first help you find out what that Regional Commander’s name is and see who has connections with him, then you can decide whether to invest.”

If this was indeed the case, their business would be guaranteed profit without loss.

This was truly an unexpected gain.

Yu Yuan was overjoyed and raised his tea cup in place of wine to toast Pei Yan.

Thinking of Manager Gao’s matter, Pei Yan simply took the opportunity to tell Yu Yuan about the Gao family situation, asking him to help keep an eye out: “See what this person is doing in Datong?”

He now suspected this Manager Gao was engaged in the salt certificate business. He just did not know whether it was Peng Shiyi’s own business or a scheme laid out in the Peng family’s business dealings.

Yu Yuan agreed.

The two chatted about various matters for a long time and drank two pots of tea before finally parting.

From then on, Yu Yuan spoke highly of Pei Yan, saying that Pei Yan respected the Yu family and did not look down on them despite his status as a holder of both provincial and metropolitan degrees.

Hearing this, Yu Tang smiled with pursed lips.

This fellow could always put on an act at crucial moments. Just based on his performance in front of her family, Yu Tang felt that after marrying into his household, she really must treat Pei Yan well.

Unable to sell the house in Lin’an City, Li Duan could not live peacefully there either. Moreover, Li Yi was still waiting for money to bribe the officials along the way. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, Li Duan personally returned to Lin’an City, only then learning that Pei Yan and Yu Tang had become engaged.

Standing in his family’s dilapidated courtyard, Li Duan remained stunned for quite a while.

Such a beautiful young lady, like a flower, should not have grown in an ordinary household or bloomed in a common courtyard.

He simply had not expected that she could marry into such a solid fortress.

Thinking again of Gu Xi, who had also married into the Pei family.

It seemed that both young ladies connected to him had found their way to the Pei family.

Li Duan’s heart felt sour.

He sent someone to the Pei family with his calling card.

Pei Yan was not home—reportedly he had gone to Suzhou.

As for what he was doing in Suzhou, the Pei family naturally would not tell him, nor could he find out.

Li Duan stayed in Lin’an for two more days.

During this stay, he was found by Peng Shiyi, who had made a special trip to Lin’an to find him.

Peng Shiyi had no other purpose—he simply wanted Li Duan to return the five thousand taels of silver that had been “lent” to him previously.

Hearing this, Li Duan trembled with anger, but the Peng family remained wealthy and powerful, and under another’s roof, he had no choice but to bow his head.

“You know what our family’s situation is. Where would we get the silver to repay the Peng family those five thousand taels?” he said in a deep voice, deliberately emphasizing the words “Peng family.” “Otherwise, Brother Peng, wait until I sell this ancestral house and then we’ll talk?”

With the Pei family having spread the word, could the Li family’s house still be sold?

Peng Shiyi sneered inwardly and said, “How about this—you value it at two thousand taels and sell it to me.”

He planned to buy this house and give it to Pei Yan as a gesture, asking Pei Yan to spare him.

Li Duan’s anger surged, but he dared not lose his temper. He said, “That price is far too low.”

Their family’s house was listed at four thousand taels, and he was prepared to sell it for three thousand five hundred taels.

Previously, he certainly would not have cared about this difference of fifteen hundred taels, but his days in the capital running around for his father had taught him that sometimes even one coin could defeat a hero, let alone fifteen hundred taels, which could allow them to live comfortably for several years.

Li Duan also did not want to appear too weak and allow Peng Shiyi to take advantage, so he said with some threat in his voice, “The Pei family has always been charitable and benevolent. If it doesn’t work out, I plan to sell this house to the Pei family. That way I can also repay you more money.”

Peng Shiyi did not want to provoke Li Duan and draw the Pei family’s attention, inviting unnecessary trouble. With a cold expression, he said, “Very well. Then I’ll wait until your family has sold the house.”

Li Duan had a young servant see Peng Shiyi out while he himself stood in the courtyard without moving.

The loyal servant who had accompanied Li Duan could not help but say, “Young Master, are you just letting him leave like this? Those five thousand taels were their tribute to the Master!”

However, this tribute was related to when the Peng family had asked the Li family to help retrieve that painting “Fishing in Seclusion on Pine Creek.”

So Peng Shiyi would not dare to truly turn against him, would he?

Li Duan looked at Peng Shiyi’s retreating figure with cold eyes and said, “If he pushes me too far, I’ll go find Pei Yan and tell the Peng family patriarch about him demanding silver from me.”

He instinctively felt the Peng family was not so petty as to demand back silver they had given out.

If word got out, who would the Peng family expect to help them in the future?

The loyal servant nodded repeatedly.

Li Duan felt he must see Pei Yan. He quietly waited at the Shao Creek dock for several days and finally caught sight of Pei Yan.

However, this time Pei Yan took a single-masted small boat and went directly from the Shao Creek dock into the Pei residence.

Li Duan submitted another calling card.

Pei Yan agreed to see him.

He simply stopped caring about face and directly asked for help, requesting that Pei Yan purchase his family’s house.

Pei Yan, intending to compensate the Li family’s main branch, spent three thousand taels to buy the Li family’s old residence.

Li Duan was immensely grateful and, as if casually, sighed, “Speaking of it, all the misunderstandings arose from the Yu family’s painting ‘Fishing in Seclusion on Pine Creek.’ If not for being commissioned by the Peng family, my family would not have targeted that painting from the Yu family. If we hadn’t targeted that painting, we would not have implicated the second young master of the Wei family, causing him to lose his life. If the second young master of the Wei family had not lost his life, Miss Yu would not have been so fixated on it, insisting on destroying our family. Now our family’s situation is probably karmic retribution!”

Pei Yan’s hand holding the tea cup paused.

He repeated the words “second young master of the Wei family” several times in his mind.

Fearing that Pei Yan did not understand, Li Duan explained, “Miss Yu originally had a marriage engagement with the second young master of the Wei family and had even met him. But just before the formal betrothal, the second young master of the Wei family passed away. Because of this, Madam Yu and Madam Wei became sworn sisters, and Yu Yuan married Madam Wei’s niece, so the two families continued as in-laws.”

Pei Yan had heard of this matter before but had not thought much about it.

However, hearing Li Duan put it this way, the feeling was quite different.

It was as if Yu Tang still harbored feelings for that second young master of the Wei family.

Although Pei Yan clearly knew Li Duan’s words were ill-intentioned, hearing them still felt like being stabbed in the chest—not only bleeding profusely but also causing such pain that he could hardly speak.

He smiled and served tea to see his guest out. Returning to his study, he was so angry that he paced back and forth several times but still could not calm his emotions. He simply smashed several tea cups before finally suppressing this rage deep in his heart.