Finally, Ye Yaming concluded, “So this marriage, whether for me or him, is not the best choice.”
Upon hearing that Lu Guanyi had such a formidable stepmother, Ye Hongrong immediately abandoned the idea of matchmaking between the two.
Being an idle person himself, he thought that since Ye Yaming didn’t lack food or clothing, wouldn’t it be good for her to take in a son-in-law and live a carefree life at home? Why go to the Lu family and suffer?
“Alright then. With your explanation, I now know what to do. We’ll pretend we know nothing about this matter. If he comes to speak with you and you find it difficult to refuse, just direct him to me, and I’ll talk to him,” he said, patting his chest.
“Good, I’ll be counting on Fourth Uncle when the time comes,” Ye Yaming said with a smile.
…
Xin’an City was much smaller than Lin’an, far less prosperous, and had limited consumer spending power. Lin’an had twenty to thirty teahouses of various sizes, while Xin’an only had about ten. Establishments of the scale of Pin Ya Xuan and Wang Jiang Lou were limited to just these two.
Therefore, after Fang Xing gave money to a ruffian for directions in the morning, Ye Yaming and Ye Hongrong had already visited all the slightly larger teahouses, and by the afternoon, they found themselves with nothing to do.
Considering that they would be traveling again tomorrow, Ye Yaming decided not to go anywhere in the afternoon and instead rest at the inn.
Unexpectedly, shortly after Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji had left their room next door, a servant guarding the gate came to report that Master Wu from Pin Ya Xuan had come to visit.
“Is he coming to try and get our tea-making secret formula again?” Ye Hongrong said.
Ye Yaming first told the servant, “Please invite him in.”
The servant left, and Fang Xing followed to welcome the guest.
For this trip, Fang Xing had taken on the title of steward of the Ye household. When Ye Yaming went out to negotiate business, after reaching an agreement, she would write the contract, deal with the teahouse managers, and handle all the receiving and seeing off of guests.
Originally, Ye Chongming was concerned that Ye Yaming, being a junior, wouldn’t be able to control Ye Hongrong; he was also worried that Fang Xing was too young and inexperienced, and that Ye Yaming would still have to handle matters herself. So he had considered sending Zhou Xiang along.
But Ye Yaming had refused.
This trip was also meant to personally train Fang Xing. After returning from this journey, she would require Fang Xing to handle matters independently. In the future, if there were new staff, Fang Xing would lead them, with Ye Yaming guiding at most.
If Zhou Xiang were present, how could she train Fang Xing? Moreover, Fang Xing and Zhou Xiang might not get along well.
As for Ye Hongrong, he wasn’t as unreasonable as Ye Chongming imagined. If he misbehaved, she had ways to deal with him.
After Fang Xing left, Ye Yaming said to Ye Hongrong, “He still wants the secret formula, but he might try a softer approach rather than being forceful again.”
Soon, Master Wu entered with Fang Xing, and Ye Hongrong stood in the corridor to receive him.
Ye Hongrong had a poor impression of this Master Wu and was impatient with the small talk.
As soon as Master Wu sat down, Ye Hongrong opened his mouth, “May I ask what brings Master Wu here?”
Master Wu had become arrogant ever since his granddaughter married the Assistant Magistrate and successfully became pregnant. In Xin’an City, even the stewards from the Prefect’s residence treated him with great respect, not to mention others. It had been a long time since he had met someone who was so discourteous to him.
He had originally planned to be indirect and probe their thoughts. But after being questioned so directly by Ye Hongrong, his face darkened, and the words in his heart slipped out, “I wonder how you two have considered what I said yesterday?”
Seeing that he still dared to bring up the same old topic, Ye Hongrong was stunned for a moment before giving a cold laugh, “Is Master Wu perhaps still not fully awake? Haven’t you inquired about who we are? Let me tell you, this world does not yet belong to your granddaughter’s husband. Above, there is the Emperor; below, there are officials. There are countless people in this world whom you cannot afford to offend. Master Wu, are you trying to use power to oppress others and seize things by force? Are you tired of living?”
He dared to say these words because he, too, had become arrogant.
Previously, no matter how wealthy the Ye family was, they had to be cautious. Sometimes, even a minor clerk or a runner from the government office was enough to give the Ye family trouble.
But now with Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji as their backers—and with Lu Guanyi having feelings for his niece—whether they became relatives or not, if the Ye family were bullied, Lu Guanyi would certainly not stand by idly.
That’s why Ye Hongrong dared to speak in such a manner.
Master Wu was indeed intimidated. He was angry and annoyed, but he didn’t dare to lose his temper. His old face turned bright red.
Manager Zheng, who had come with him, quickly smoothed things over, “Haha, Master Ye, you’ve misunderstood. Our master doesn’t mean that. He wanted to ask if he wants to buy that tea-making formula, how much silver would it cost, or what would you require for him to buy it? Don’t you want to buy tea mountains? Our master has many excellent tea mountains at his disposal.”
“After all, we’re not in the same province, and the two prefecture cities are far apart. Even if you exchange the tea-making formula for tea mountains, it won’t affect your business, right? Exchanging one tea-making formula for several hundred mu of tea mountains, why not?”
Ye Hongrong laughed again in anger, “Several hundred mu of tea mountains in exchange for a tea-making formula? Do you think we’re fools?”
In Lin’an, the best fields closest to the city were worth twelve taels of silver per mu; inferior fields were eight taels. Xin’an couldn’t compare to Lin’an at all, and the price of land was much lower, at most ten taels per mu for the best fields near the city. This was still close to the city. In the distant suburbs, the price would be one or two taels of silver lower.
As for mountain land, the price was at most half that of inferior fields. Even if tea mountains were more expensive than ordinary mountain land, they wouldn’t exceed six taels.
Wanting to buy their tea-making secret formula for just a few hundred or a thousand taels of silver, wasn’t this Master Wu still trying to take by force?
“No need, we won’t exchange, no matter how many tea mountains are offered,” Ye Yaming promptly stopped Manager Zheng’s words.
They weren’t haggling; they simply weren’t interested.
She wouldn’t keep this tea-making secret formula forever. An innocent man with a treasure invites calamity. The Ye family had no power or influence but held several tea-making secret formulas in their hands, which would attract disaster. So if there were suitable buyers, she would sell. And she wouldn’t sell to just one party.
But she wouldn’t exchange it for tea mountains.
People of this time cultivated tea using the most primitive methods, which involved planting tea seeds and allowing the tea trees to grow freely into trees or small trees.
Tea trees grown this way had unstable characteristics, few buds, extremely low yield, and were very difficult to harvest.
In later generations, the method of cutting and grafting was used for planting. This stabilized the tea’s characteristics, generally preserving the excellent qualities of the mother plant. During the growth process, the tea trees were pruned and dwarfed, turning them into half-height shrubs with many buds, which facilitated harvesting.
The reason she hadn’t mentioned these things to Ye Chongming earlier was that tea trees needed to be planted for three years before they could be harvested in large quantities. If she had asked Ye Chongming to cut down the tea trees on Baifeng Mountain and replant them, the Ye family’s losses would have been immeasurable, so she had never brought up this topic.
But now, when buying new tea mountains, she hoped to find a place that hadn’t been planted yet. She would re-plan and design, select the highest quality tea trees as mother plants, adopt the cutting and grafting method, and have the gardeners perform timely and proper pruning.