When Lu Yu wrote his book, before she transmigrated, she had no idea she would meet a collaborator with the surname Lu. This connection made no sense at all.

After finishing the book, Ye Hongchang had already forgotten about the pen name issue, his mind filled with images of the tea sets selling like hotcakes in the tea house.

He planned to tell Qi Ji to make more tea sets when he met with Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji after the New Year.

With this book, even the most frugal scholars and refined gentlemen would buy one or two sets of tea ware.

This meant pure silver in their pockets.

He then said to Ye Chongming, “Father, now that loose tea has gained a reputation because of tea settings and tea ware, our high-grade loose tea has long sold out, yet people still come asking for it every day. Let’s produce more in spring—we can sell as much as we make.”

Ye Chongming had been pondering this question and asked, “What about compressed tea cakes? Do they still sell as well as before?”

“Somewhat worse than before, but not by much,” Ye Hongchang said. “But that’s only because Lord Fan learned about the benefits of tea settings, tea ware, and loose tea when he went to give New Year gifts to Master Zhineng. Soon after he returned, he hosted a banquet, and the next day his group of friends came to buy many tea sets and loose tea. Just that one day, our tea house took in over ten thousand taels of silver.”

Old Lady Ye, sitting nearby, immediately widened her eyes.

She knew that the tea house in Lin’an typically had a daily turnover of only about a hundred taels of silver.

Even though Ye Chongming was mentally prepared, he was still startled, “That much?”

“Indeed,” Ye Hongchang said. “That group doesn’t lack silver. When they see tea sets they like, even those priced at five hundred taels per set, they don’t even blink before buying one or two sets. As for the ones at one hundred taels per set, they buy them as if they cost nothing, taking seven or eight sets at once. We’re still limiting the sale of our loose tea, otherwise, the income would be even higher.”

Ye Chongming looked at Ye Yaming.

He finally understood how insightful Ye Yaming had been when she said, ‘Cooperating with others to expand the business will only earn us more money.’

Making tea ware required capital, and after deducting costs, they split the profits equally with Lu and Qi. From over ten thousand taels, they must have received at least three to four thousand, right? And that was just one day’s income—pure profit.

The Lin’an tea house’s monthly turnover was barely that much.

Moreover, those costs included Ye Yaming’s share from the five special tea sets, as well as the fee for purchasing her tea ware designs. All this money flowed into the Ye family—the meat stayed in their own pot.

Ye Hongchang continued, “During the New Year, there are many banquets, and Lord Fan’s friends will certainly showcase their tea settings to relatives and friends. I have a feeling that our loose tea will be extremely popular next year. And as compressed tea cakes and tea settings rise in popularity, loose tea will gradually replace compressed tea. So the direction of our tea production must change accordingly.”

Ye Chongming nodded, strongly agreeing with his eldest son’s view.

The high price of compressed tea cakes was partly due to expensive production materials, but more because scholars and refined gentlemen had driven up the price with their enthusiasm.

Among these scholars and gentlemen, there was always a leader—someone with outstanding achievements in painting, calligraphy, poetry, and prose, who also had noble birth and knew how to “play” the cultural game. Lord Fan was undoubtedly such a person.

If he said drinking loose tea was good, if he said tea settings were elegant, if he said one should use tea ware that matched the theme to arrange tea settings, then both loose tea and tea ware would become things pursued by the nobility in the capital to showcase their refinement.

He looked at Ye Yaming: “Mingʻer, do you think your uncle is right?”

Ye Yaming nodded and smiled, “Yes.”

Ye Hongchang saw that his niece had only said this one word without elaborating, and couldn’t help but remark, “Our Ye family previously had some status among the tea merchants in Lin’an, but outside of that, who would pay any attention to us? Now it’s different. If people knew that the author of ‘The Tea Classic,’ the maker of tea ware, and the producer of osmanthus tea were all Ye family members, even the nobility in the capital wouldn’t look down on us.”

He smiled at Ye Hongsheng, “Second Brother has gained the favor of Lord Fan and his group recently. Lord Fan even invited Second Brother to his mansion to discuss tea.”

Ye Hongsheng had been silent, with low spirits. Now, hearing his brother mention him, he finally perked up and nodded, “Yes.”

“By the way,” he looked at Ye Chongming, “Lord Fan said that when tea production begins in spring, he wants to bring several friends to Lin’an to see how we make tea.”

“Of course, he won’t see the key steps. He’s just curious and wants to see how tea leaves are picked from tea trees and processed into tea.”

“Haha, no problem. This is an honor for our Ye family,” Ye Chongming said happily.

Such figures were not people that just anyone could connect with.

Although Master Zhineng’s status and position were higher than Lord Fan’s, he was an otherworldly sage, and the Ye family’s connection with him wasn’t something they could publicize—outsiders didn’t know about it.

Lord Fan was different. When they came, they would certainly visit the mansion and also the Fragrance Collection Tower in Lin’an.

Everyone in their group had significant status, and Magistrate Qi and other powerful figures would be alerted. Once they learned that the group had visited the Ye family, who in Lin’an would dare to look down on them?

And all of this was brought about by his third granddaughter.

Ye Yaming saw her grandfather looking at her with exceptional kindness, and seeing that he was about to start showering her with praise again, she quickly changed the subject, asking Ye Hongchang, “Uncle, how are the chrysanthemum tea sales in the capital?”

Ye Hongchang smiled, “Do you even need to ask? After we ran out, people came to our place every day asking if we had more. Its only flaw is that there’s too little of it.”

“There will be more next year,” Ye Yaming said. “I bought an estate specifically for growing chrysanthemums.”

“Oh?” Ye Hongchang was very interested and quickly asked about the specifics.

Ye Chongming turned to look at his second son, seeing that he had been gloomy and quiet since arriving. He knew that Ye Hongsheng must have heard about Song Yifeng’s matter while washing up in his room, and was in a bad mood.

To prevent him from worrying and rushing back home from the capital, he and Ye Yaming had decided not to tell Ye Hongsheng about the broken engagement and Song Yifeng’s imprisonment. When Ye Hongchang went to the capital, he also kept silent about it.

Now that Ye Hongsheng had heard, how could he not be upset? He was both angry at Song Yifeng’s viciousness and upset that his family hadn’t told him, right?

Ye Chongming sighed inwardly. Seeing that the conversation between Ye Yaming and Ye Hongchang had come to an end, he said, “Let’s eat.”

The family ate together, completing the circle.

After the meal, Ye Chongming and Old Lady Ye kept the second branch’s couple behind and explained Song Yifeng’s matter to Ye Hongsheng in detail.

He said, “Don’t blame your elder brother for Song Yifeng’s matter. I didn’t let him tell you. If he had told you, you definitely wouldn’t have stayed in the capital and would have come back. But after returning, we couldn’t have done anything. Not just you, even I didn’t intervene. Instead, I let Ming’er take revenge herself.”

“Song Yifeng’s punishment was decided a few days ago: his scholarly rank was permanently revoked, and he was exiled three thousand li away. Because he was disrespectful to the Emperor and the court, which is among the ten unpardonable crimes, he will never be pardoned.”