Transporting tea from here to the border was no easy task. It was better near Lin’an, where horses could carry the loads for most of the journey. However, some sections had rugged mountain paths where it had to be carried by men. If they encountered bandits or other special circumstances, there would be losses of tea or transporters. All of this had to be calculated into the costs.

“Of course, if we don’t have to transport it to the border ourselves, and the court handles the purchasing and transportation uniformly, we can reduce the price by another fifty wen.”

Qi Ji widened his eyes: “This cheap?”

Ye Chongming frowned.

It was worth noting that tea was quite expensive in this era.

Although tea was grown on mountains, not occupying farmland, common people who cleared uncultivated land would grow crops, not tea. When people couldn’t even fill their stomachs, no one would think about growing tea.

Moreover, without places like Baifeng County’s famous tea mountains, there would be no local tax office for monopoly goods. Even if you grew tea, you’d have nowhere to sell it. It wasn’t feasible to take harvested tea hundreds of miles away to sell—the earnings wouldn’t even cover transportation costs.

Furthermore, this era had no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The tree-form and small tree-form tea plants naturally had low yields. When the weather warmed, pests would emerge, and with insufficient fertilizer, the yield per mu of the tea garden was extremely low.

All these factors led to extremely high tea prices. Even the lowest quality coarse tea costs several hundred wen per jin. Common people who wanted to buy tea for guests would purchase only one or two liang at a time, not to mention good tea.

Now this tea brick tasted so good, completely different from coarse tea. Ye Chongming felt it would be a huge loss if they didn’t sell it for at least ten to twenty taels of silver per jin.

Yet Ye Yaming was only asking for three to five hundred wen, wasn’t this price too low? They still had to pay taxes, after all.

“Of course, this doesn’t include the tax costs,” Ye Yaming added.

If the court unified the purchasing and transported it to the border, then the taxes wouldn’t be their responsibility, so she hadn’t included taxes in the cost calculation.

“The reason I’m quoting such a low price is, first, because this concerns border military affairs. Given this tea’s good taste and low price, the Great Jin should make concessions elsewhere. Second, because our volume is large, even if we earn two hundred wen per jin of tea, it’s still a considerable profit. If we quote too high, the profit would be too substantial. Then someone might set their sights on this business and take it away. Giving appropriate benefits to the court would be extremely advantageous for us.”

In this business, Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji remained hidden in the background, with the Ye family as the front. With the Ye family doing such a large annual business with the court, they were bound to get the title of Imperial Merchant.

“Think about how many tea mountains we have, and how much spring tea we produce each year. This is already enough for us to make a fortune, why should we compete with the court for profits on this small matter?”

Qi Ji and Ye Chongming exchanged glances, both feeling somewhat ashamed.

As men, their vision and breadth of mind were still not as good as Ye Yaming’s.

Especially Qi Ji—he initially wanted to transport tea to the border for the Great Jin’s benefit, but when Ye Yaming quoted such a low price, he felt it was too cheap and they wouldn’t make money.

“Alright, we’ll do as you say,” Qi Ji said with absolute determination.

He pointed to the tea brick on the table: “So I’ll take this?”

Since the tea brick was meant for Lu Guanyi, naturally, the sooner the better.

“Take it,” Ye Yaming nodded.

After Qi Ji left hurriedly with the tea, Ye Chongming asked Ye Yaming: “Besides that one time, have you made black tea again?”

Ye Yaming nodded: “I made another hundred jin last spring.”

She understood Ye Chongming’s meaning and couldn’t help but smile: “I’ll send a few bricks to your place later, you won’t miss out on any tea to drink.”

Ye Chongming’s thoughts had been seen through, and he couldn’t help but laugh heartily.

Ye Yaming continued: “However, this tea gets better with age. It will taste even better after a few years.”

When Ye Yaming said this tea was made two years ago, Ye Chongming had a question: “Doesn’t tea become stale and bad after being stored for a year? Why do you say it gets better with age?”

“Black tea is different from green tea. It transforms slowly over time. The longer it’s kept, the more mellow, sweet, and smooth it becomes, and the brighter red the tea color gets.”

After hearing this, Ye Chongming wished Ye Yaming would immediately teach the apprentices how to make this black tea.

Now it was late spring and early summer. After picking the tea buds, there were plenty of old leaves and stems left. Rather than wasting them to make unpalatable coarse tea, they might as well make black tea. Whether or not they sold it to the border, their Ji Xiang Lou could sell this type of tea.

Of course, the price definitely couldn’t be that cheap.

But Ye Yaming had just returned, and in a few days would be Ye Yaqing’s wedding, so this matter had to be put aside for now.

On the day before Ye Yaqing’s wedding, Ye Yaming met the eldest daughter of the Ye family, Ye Yaxiu, who had already married.

Ye Yaxiu was in her twenties and already a mother of two children. Her features were seventy percent similar to Ye Yaqing’s, but their temperaments were completely different.

Ye Yaqing had a gentle and quiet nature, while Ye Yaxiu, either because she had been the eldest daughter since childhood or because of her married environment, appeared more domineering. When she raised her head to look at Ye Yaming, a sharp gleam flashed in her eyes.

Ye Yaming looked at her thoughtfully, and following the original owner’s memory, called her: “Eldest Sister.”

Ye Yaxiu nodded, looking Ye Yaming up and down, the corners of her mouth curling into a half-smile: “Three years not seeing each other, my second sister and I remain the same. But the third sister seems like a completely different person, becoming more capable than my father or grandfather. It’s truly impressive.”

Ye Yaming smiled lightly: “Eldest Sister is too kind.”

Ye Yaxiu raised an eyebrow.

Her words seemed like praise but were mockery. If Ye Yaming had retorted, it would have shown a lack of grace.

Now she was treating those words as genuine praise and responding with modesty, which was a subtle counter-attack. After a few years apart, this cousin had indeed become formidable.

Old Lady Ye’s gaze had become sharp when Ye Yaxiu spoke those words.

She stared at Madam Tao.

This eldest granddaughter, Ye Yaxiu, had inherited one hundred percent of Madam Tao’s nature—appearing magnanimous on the surface, but petty underneath. However, no matter how petty, there was no reason to needle her cousin immediately upon returning.

Madam Tao must have said something to Ye Yaxiu beforehand.

Was Madam Tao still dissatisfied with Ye Yaming being the household manager?

Seeing Madam Tao uncomfortably shift her gaze away, Old Lady Ye said: “Isn’t she capable? If it weren’t for your cousin creating Dragon Well tea and making it a tribute tea, and her becoming engaged to a fifth-rank noble official from the capital, how could our family have such honor? To the extent that a family like the Xies would come proposing marriage. In my opinion, you girls of the first branch should thank Yaming for Qing’er’s marriage.”

These words caused both Madam Tao and Ye Yaxiu’s expressions to change.

As for Ye Yaqing, who had made this marriage with the Xie family because of Ye Yaming’s engagement, and knowing that Ye Yaming’s engagement was actually “nonexistent,” she felt both guilty and uncomfortable in her heart.