After waiting for so long, Ye Yaming knew that Madam Cai did not welcome her.

The Ye family residence was not small, with six courtyards in total. Except for Ye Hongchang, who as the eldest son had to live in the courtyard close to the main courtyard and situated on the central axis, the other sons could choose their courtyards when they married.

Generally, they would choose larger courtyards closer to the main courtyard.

This way, when they had more children later, they wouldn’t be crowded and wouldn’t need to move again. It was also more convenient for paying respects to the elders in the main courtyard daily, and they wouldn’t have to walk so far when coming and going.

However, Madam Cai said she preferred tranquility and chose this most secluded courtyard, which was not large and far from the main gate.

The first, second, and fourth branches all had large courtyards with smaller courtyards nested within, so parents and children could live together while maintaining independence, without being cramped together.

But the third branch’s courtyard consisted of only two courtyards. Now Madam Cai lived in one courtyard, and Ye Yayu lived in the other.

At a normal walking pace, the old servant who had gone to consult Madam Cai could have made two or three round trips in the time she took.

Ye Yaming gave the old woman a long look, then nodded with a smile. “I’ve disturbed Third Aunt. In that case, I’ll head back.”

“Take care, Third Young Miss.”

Ye Yaming left with her two maids.

She knew that Lu’E surely had a belly full of complaints she wanted to voice, but due to her status, she couldn’t criticize the masters, so she kept them to herself.

Ye Yaming also had many thoughts.

But regardless of her suspicions, she had no intention of meddling in Madam Cai’s affairs. Everyone had their way of living. As long as she wasn’t harming others or benefiting herself at others’ expense, what did it matter how she lived?

When Yang Shu came to the Ye household, both Ye Chongming and Ye Yaming suspected the Yang family’s intention to obtain the osmanthus tea recipe through marriage. But given the long-standing discord between the Ye and Yang families and their previous falling out, to avoid embarrassment, they sent Yang Shu to gauge the Ye family’s thoughts. Now that Ye Yaming had openly told Yang Shu she intended to bring in a son-in-law, the Yang family should give up their ideas and not persist stubbornly.

Unexpectedly, the Yang family had thicker skin than they imagined.

The day after Yang Shu returned, a matchmaker came to the door to propose marriage to Ye Yaming, and the proposed match was none other than Yang Tai.

The matchmaker’s words were extremely flattering: “The largest tea merchants in Lin’an City now are your Ye family and the Yang family. Though the Yang family doesn’t have your depth of heritage, they are still rising stars.”

“If your two families join forces, even if the wealthy and powerful families from the capital wish to dabble in the tea business in Jiangnan, it wouldn’t be an easy matter. Don’t you agree, Old Master?”

She glanced at Ye Chongming, and seeing his expressionless face with no discernible reaction, she continued her persuasion: “Young Master Yang Tai is the eldest legitimate son of the Yang family. The Yang family has only him and Miss Yang Shu, who are of legitimate birth. The other children born of concubines will move out of the Yang household after marriage.”

“Moreover, Young Master Yang said he has always admired Third Miss Ye, but since Third Miss Ye was previously engaged, he couldn’t express these feelings. Now that Third Miss Ye has broken off her engagement, even though there are some misunderstandings between the Ye and Yang families, he still sent me to express his intentions. He said that if he could marry Third Miss Ye, he would swear to heaven that he would never take a concubine in this lifetime.”

Ye Chongming and Old Lady Ye exchanged a glance.

Old Lady Ye said, “Thank you for your trouble, Matchmaker Li. However, our Third Miss intends to bring a son-in-law into our family and will not be marrying out. Besides, even if she were to marry out, she would not form a marriage alliance with the Yang family. You know our two families are not on good terms, so sending our daughter to their family would be like handing them leverage against us, wouldn’t it?”

As she spoke, without waiting for Matchmaker Li to respond, she turned to instruct Madam Yu: “Give Matchmaker Li a premium red envelope.”

Turning back to Matchmaker Li with a smile, she said, “The autumn wind is chilly. Matchmaker Li, take this to buy yourself a couple of cups of wine. In the future, we’ll need your continued help with our children’s marriages.”

Matchmakers like this who scurried from household to household knew many things. Though the Ye family had nothing for people to gossip about, there was still such a thing as “making something out of nothing” in this world. It was best not to offend such people if possible.

Matchmaker Li had initially felt disappointed when Old Lady Ye rejected the proposal. After all, the Yang family had promised her a large sum of money.

But when she heard Old Lady Ye mention a premium red envelope, she had no complaints.

For a wealthy merchant family like the Ye’s, a premium envelope meant at least ten taels of silver. She had worn out several pairs of shoes helping arrange marriages and only received one or two taels of silver; for less generous families, it might be just one or two hundred copper coins.

She also knew this marriage would be difficult to arrange. When the Ye family had fallen on hard times, Yang Hong had personally gone to the Jixiang Tower to mock Old Master Ye. The Ye family would have to be foolish beyond measure to marry their granddaughter into the Yang family.

So she stopped trying to persuade them, said a few flattering words, and took her leave.

After leaving the Ye residence, she took out the purse Madam Yu had given her and looked inside—it contained twelve taels of silver! Matchmaker Li was delighted and decided that in the future, no matter where she went, if she encountered anyone speaking ill of the Ye family, she would speak well of them.

After Matchmaker Li left, Old Lady Ye sighed deeply: “See? Now that Ming’er has broken her engagement, all sorts of people will try their luck with our family.”

Over the years, because Ye Yaqing hadn’t been betrothed, countless people had tried to pursue her. After all, the Ye family was wealthy and offered substantial dowries. Those who wanted to profit from marrying a Ye daughter buzzed around like flies. Even Ye Yayin, who was only thirteen, had received marriage proposals through matchmakers.

Now that Ye Yaming had broken her engagement, the Ye family would likely have many matchmakers visiting in the coming days.

“Most are manageable, but you should warn your second daughter-in-law,” Ye Chongming said.

Old Lady Ye frowned slightly. “Indeed. My in-laws are fine, but it’s just that third daughter-in-law of the Yin family who loves to scheme. If you hadn’t mentioned it to your second son, Yin might have already arranged Yin’er’s marriage. Now that Ming’er has broken her engagement, wouldn’t that suit her third sister-in-law’s plans?”

When the Ye family married Yin, they had considered that Yin De’an and his wife were extremely good people, and their three sons were also of upright character.

The Yin family’s circumstances were far inferior to the Ye family’s, but Old Master Yin was a man of integrity. When the Ye family sent annual or seasonal gifts, even if he couldn’t return items of equal value, he would make up for it in other ways, determined not to take advantage of the Ye family.

As for Yin using her own private funds to buy things to show filial respect to her parents, that was another matter entirely.

But in every family, there were always some unsatisfactory elements. Yin’s eldest and second sisters-in-law were fine, but the third sister-in-law liked to take small advantages and often tried to persuade Yin to match Ye Yayin with her son.

Although the Yin family was scholars and the Ye family was merchants, making the former supposedly more socially prestigious than the latter, the Yin family was merely at the level of xiucai scholars, while the Ye family was extremely wealthy merchants. If the Ye family hadn’t humbled themselves to marry a daughter-in-law from the Yin family, Yin would never have married into the Ye family.

The third sister-in-law’s son was fifteen this year and, due to insufficient skill, hadn’t even taken the tongsheng examination yet. For someone like him to covet a Ye family daughter was simply taking advantage of the marriage connection with the Ye family.