Thinking about Ye Hongchang’s words, Huang Yaozu agreed with his explanation for why the Second Master was accepted by Lord Fan and the others.

Indeed, after spending so long in the business world, they had learned to speak differently to different people and had become somewhat smooth and slick in their dealings. Lord Fan didn’t even like people from official circles, let alone merchants like them.

Ye Hongchang looked at Ye Hongsheng talking with Fan Yu and sighed, “In the past, when business was poor, I worried; now that business is too good, I still worry. Look, the New Year is approaching, and my brother and I should return to Lin’an. But now that the tea sets have become so popular, I expect many people will come to buy them in the next few days. It would be fine if I weren’t here, but if the Second Master isn’t here, it would be problematic.”

Having worked with Ye Hongsheng for some time, Huang Yaozu understood the Second Master’s character.

He said, “The Second Master wants to go home for the New Year. He wouldn’t stay in the capital just to sell more tea sets.”

Ye Hongchang had been conflicted, but hearing this, he no longer needed to be. He smiled and said, “Indeed. My brother is someone who cherishes family and home.”

Now, for the Fragrance Collection Tower in the capital, the most important person was not the eldest master, but his younger brother, who had never been good with words. If his brother was going home for the New Year, naturally, he should too.

So on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, Ye Hongchang and Ye Hongsheng returned from the capital.

The entire household was delighted.

“Father, you don’t know how famous our Fragrance Collection Tower has become in the capital,” Ye Hongchang said excitedly after sitting down. “Now with the New Year, isn’t every household hosting banquets? If they can buy a tea set from our Fragrance Collection Tower and arrange a tea setting according to my brother’s instructions, brew tea, accompanied by the sound of a zither or xiao flute, praise for their elegance will follow. Our tea set business is booming.”

It’s worth noting that their tea sets were not sold cheaply. Mass-produced sets cost one hundred taels of silver each; those with particularly distinctive designs, limited to only five sets, could sell for five hundred taels of silver each.

But the capital was full of wealthy and powerful people. The higher the price, the more it demonstrated their status and wealth. Especially for people like Fan Yu and Tan Xuan, who were willing to spend even more silver for sets they particularly liked.

With their influence, the prestige of Fragrance Collection Tower’s tea sets was established. Everyone took pride in owning a set from the Fragrance Collection Tower.

Especially after “The Tea Classic” was spread by Fan Yu’s group, the nobility in the capital no longer dared say that loose tea was inferior and only drinking compressed tea cakes could demonstrate status.

Ye Chongming was immediately pleased upon hearing this and asked, “How do they evaluate ‘The Tea Classic’?”

Ye Hongchang related all the praise he had heard. And the usually modest Ye Hongsheng, not restrained by the fact that the book was authored by his daughter, also repeated what Fan Yu and others had said.

Ye Yaming could only restate, “This book wasn’t written by me; I dreamed of a person called Lu Yu who wrote it.”

However, when writing this book, she had added her elements.

In Lu Yu’s era, compressed tea cakes were still the main form. If she had copied it exactly, it wouldn’t have served Ye Yaming’s purpose, so after the original content in “Five: Boiling” she added a section on brewing loose tea; after Lu Yu’s criticism in “Six: Drinking” that tea brewed with green onions and ginger was like “discarded water from gutters,” she added praise and advocacy for the flavor of loose tea.

Additionally, since Great Jin was a fictional dynasty, “Seven: History” from “The Tea Classic” couldn’t be included. Although Ye Yaming had gained some understanding of Great Jin’s history through reading books, her knowledge was still shallow and superficial, and she knew even less about Great Jin’s tea history and policies. She didn’t dare to write this section, so she simply deleted “Seven: History” entirely.

She also added, reduced, or modified parts where the tea conditions mentioned didn’t match those of the Great Jin.

After completing it, she gave it to Ye Chongming and Master Zhineng to read, repeatedly emphasizing that the book was written by Lu Yu in her dream, but they still attributed the authorship to her. She was too tired to argue. Anyway, at her request, nobody would spread the word that she wrote the book.

After they had all passed away, Great Jin’s tea history would only record “The Tea Classic” written by Lu Yu.

The Ye family had learned not to argue with Ye Yaming about this issue. Whether it was dreamed or not, the book came from Ye Yaming’s hand, so it was written by the Ye family’s daughter.

Even if the true author wasn’t revealed to the public now, Master Zhineng knew, and it would certainly be discovered someday. This would greatly benefit the reputation of Ye family tea.

“You said you wrote another book. Is it finished? Lord Fan kept asking me for it. I told him the book was in Lin’an and I hadn’t brought it. After the New Year, when your uncle goes to the capital, he will certainly come asking for it again,” Ye Hongsheng said.

“It’s finished,” Ye Yaming said. “It’s about tea settings.”

Because the family business was tea, she had memorized “The Tea Classic,” “Tea Record,” and “Tea Treatise” since childhood.

The previous “Tea Classic” only required her to write it from memory and make some revisions, which didn’t take too much time or effort. During this period, with nothing else to do, she had focused on writing books.

She had previously shared many theories about tea settings in letters to Ye Hongsheng. Reorganizing this content and adjusting the language, a book of around ten thousand characters wasn’t difficult for her. She completed it in two or three days, then spent time revising and editing, finishing it in a week.

Since publishing books didn’t require going through a publishing house for book numbers at this time, she just wrote it, then gave it to Ye Jiaxing to copy three times. After binding, one copy went to Ye Chongming, one to Master Zhineng, and one was sent to the capital.

Ye Chongming and Ye Hongsheng would mention it to tea lovers in the Fragrance Collection Towers in Lin’an and the capital, and people would borrow it to make their copies. In this way, these books would gradually spread.

Ye Yaming planned to write just these two books for now and not rush other content. After she produced stir-fried green tea in spring and brought it to market, she would write other books.

“It’s finished? Let me see,” Ye Hongsheng said eagerly.

Ye Hongchang was also looking forward to it.

Ye Chongming instructed Meng Ji, “Go to my inner study and bring it here.”

Meng Ji ran off and quickly returned with the book.

Ye Hongchang and Ye Hongsheng ignored everything else and first looked at the author’s name. Seeing the characters “Ye Meng” written there, they both looked up at Ye Yaming.

“Meng” represented the dream person who taught her, and “Ye” was Ye Yaming’s surname. This pen name had more origins than “Lu Yu” and was more appropriate.

“This name is good. It’s clear at a glance that it was written by someone from our Ye family,” Ye Hongchang was finally satisfied.

He had strong opinions about the author’s name of “The Tea Classic.” Whatever the name might be, it should at least have the surname Ye, shouldn’t it? Wasn’t Ye Yaming writing these books to enhance the reputation and prestige of the Ye family tea? What was the point of using the name “Lu Yu”?

He even wondered if Ye Yaming admired Lu Guanyi and wanted to marry him to become Mrs. Lu, which would make her Madam Lu née Ye, so she had preemptively used the surname “Lu” for her book.

If Ye Yaming knew how he was overthinking this, she would be utterly speechless.