The chubby servant’s behavior was extremely discourteous. No household would treat guests this way.

Ye Hongsheng couldn’t help but think the worst, saying to Ye Yaming: “This matter, I’m afraid, cannot end well.”

Ye Yaming, however, didn’t think the servant’s attitude was because of the tea.

She was observant of details.

When Li Fu first mentioned tea to the chubby servant, his face still wore a smile. It wasn’t until Li Fu mentioned the words “young miss” and the servant saw her that his expression changed, subtly revealing impatience.

Could it be that someone resembled her, and the servant had mistaken her for that person, and that person happened to have done something annoying, causing his expression to change?

Ye Yaming searched her mind but couldn’t recall any sisters or relatives who resembled her.

This body was a combination of Ye Hongsheng and Madam Yin’s features, taking the best of both. Not to mention her cousins from both the Ye family and the Yin family, even her own younger sister Ye Yayin didn’t look much like her.

Besides a pair of beautiful eyes that looked similar, their face shapes and features were different. She had inherited Ye Hongsheng’s oval face, while Ye Yayin had taken after Madam Yin with a round face.

Finding no conclusion, Ye Yaming stopped making useless efforts and simply waited to see what the other party’s approach would be.

The servant hadn’t said “my master isn’t home,” but instead took the visiting card and told them to wait, indicating that the master was indeed home. However, given the servant’s apparent dislike, perhaps the master wouldn’t see them.

After waiting for nearly half the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the chubby servant finally came out and asked Ye Hongsheng: “Are you certain you’re only here to exchange the tea?”

Ye Hongsheng was taken aback before responding: “Yes, besides exchanging the tea, we’ve also come specifically to apologize to your master.”

The chubby servant glanced at Ye Yaming from the corner of his eye, seeing that while her beautiful almond eyes were looking at him, her face showed no expression.

He immediately stepped aside: “Please come in.”

As the group walked in, they saw that the entire residence was lush with vegetation. All along the way, pavilions, towers, ponds, and trees were exquisitely arranged.

Although the Ye family’s ancestral home was quite nice, it couldn’t compare to this meticulously designed garden with its cultural depth.

It seemed that this person called Lu Guanyi was not only wealthy but also had great taste.

However, the vast garden seemed to have few people; they walked for quite a while and only encountered one old woman and one young servant. The garden was so large and sparsely populated that Ye Yaming thought it would appear eerie and frightening after dark.

Soon, the chubby servant led them into the main hall, where a handsome young man stood up from his seat as they entered.

Ye Hongsheng, though not fond of socializing, had no choice but to force himself to exchange pleasantries. He bowed to Lu Guanyi with a smile: “You must be Young Master Lu? I am Ye Hongsheng.”

He gestured to introduce: “This is my daughter, Ye Yaming. Today we’ve come specifically to apologize to Young Master Lu. The compressed tea that Ji Xiang House sold to you a few days ago has issues, and we would like to take it back.”

Li Fu and the accompanying servant Lao Nu quickly placed the silk fabrics and pastries on the table.

Lu Guanyi returned the courtesy to Ye Hongsheng: “Master Ye, please sit.”

He then invited Ye Yaming: “Miss Ye, please be seated.”

Though he said this, from beginning to end, his gaze never lingered on Ye Yaming for even a moment, as if deliberately ignoring her presence.

After Ye Hongsheng and Ye Yaming took their seats, Lu Guanyi instructed the chubby servant: “An Tai, go bring those tea cakes for Master Ye.”

“Yes.” An Tai left and soon returned with the tea cakes.

For compressed tea sold at the Ye family’s tea house and tea shops, purchases of ten cakes or more came with a rectangular wicker box with a lid, perfect for storing all the tea cakes.

Ye Hongsheng stood up to receive the wicker box, personally checking the tea cakes inside. He found that one cake was broken, and among the broken pieces, moldy tea was mixed in.

He looked up at Lu Guanyi.

Lu Guanyi made no attempt to hide it and smiled: “I was curious why this tea needed to be recalled, so I had my servant open it and take a look.”

Ye Hongsheng nodded without speaking, then closed the wicker box, seemingly about to stand and take his leave.

Ye Yaming quickly spoke up: “I heard from the manager that Young Master Lu bought many varieties of tea from Ji Xiang House. Does the young master enjoy drinking tea? If our Ji Xiang House has new teas, would you like us to send some samples for you to taste? They’re just samples, not large quantities. If the young master doesn’t like them, it’s fine; you needn’t send someone to purchase more.”

Probably because tea was officially sold, and the amount available through tea permits from the government bureau wasn’t very large, tea merchants of this era only sold tea in tea houses and tea shops, and didn’t deliver to homes.

Ye Yaming had experienced modern tea sales, where, due to intense competition and the rise of e-commerce, simply selling in shops and waiting for customers was no longer viable. For premium customers, they would bring tea samples to their homes for tasting.

For customers who bought tea online, they would analyze data and gift samples of teas that the customer might like and could afford. If customers enjoyed the samples after tasting, they would place orders, and when the tea was delivered, two new sample varieties would be included.

Although competition in ancient times wasn’t as fierce as in the modern era, it still existed. Not just between tea merchants, but also between tea merchants and official vendors.

Why premium customers would buy from one merchant rather than another was a matter of marketing strategy.

This Young Master Lu had recently bought various teas from Ji Xiang House—ten cakes each of different compressed teas, and ten jin each of loose tea, coarse tea, and powdered tea. Though the silver he spent at Ji Xiang House couldn’t compare to that accumulated over time by old customers, the price of his one-time purchase was astonishing, making him a significant customer.

Regardless of what he used these teas for, it at least indicated his desire to purchase tea. That made it worth the effort to keep him as a customer of Ji Xiang House.

Lu Guanyi bowed slightly to Ye Yaming: “Thank you for Miss Ye’s generous offer. However, I’m often not at home. If you send them over, just leave them with the doorkeeper.”

He then bowed to Ye Hongsheng: “I’m grateful for Master Ye’s visit today. Your tea tastes excellent. I hear they’re all made by the Second Master; the Second Master is highly skilled.”

Hearing praise for his tea-making, Ye Hongsheng immediately smiled and made a few modest remarks.

The chubby servant called An Tai, when Lu Guanyi was speaking to Ye Yaming, raised his eyes to look at her, seemingly wanting to observe her reaction.

Seeing him secretly observing her, Ye Yaming suddenly had a moment of clarity, belatedly understanding why this chubby servant An Tai had been somewhat resistant to their arrival.

She discreetly examined Lu Guanyi.

This Young Master Lu had sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, quite handsome, and stood tall at about one hundred and eighty centimeters. Judging by his appearance, he wasn’t very old, but his strong presence and steady demeanor made his age difficult to discern, though by estimation he shouldn’t be more than twenty years old.