Old Lady Ye swallowed.

During this time, she had been busy arranging Ye Yaqing’s marriage and had no time to attend to other matters, so she hadn’t tasted the teas Ye Yaming mentioned. But she had heard Ye Yaming’s accounting.

She didn’t think it was boasting. This third granddaughter of hers was extremely reliable. If she said she would have income from three to five tea recipes, then she certainly would.

That was precisely why she was so shocked.

Although the Ye family was wealthy and their business was quite substantial, their annual income was only around a hundred thousand taels, and that didn’t account for personnel expenses.

Earlier, selling the Dragon Well tea recipe had suddenly brought in several hundred thousand taels of silver, which had left Old Lady Ye trembling with fear for quite some time, worrying that this windfall would bring disaster. If it happened again several times…

“Why don’t we… just forget about it? Too much money will bring trouble,” she said nervously.

Ye Yaming understood her concerns.

Ancient times were different from the present, with incomplete legal systems. Such a large amount of silver would certainly draw attention, and at that point, even Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji couldn’t protect the Ye family.

Ye Yaming had thought about this long ago. She said, “I won’t sell them here, but in Huizhou and Minzhou, and I won’t make a big fuss about it, so it won’t attract too much attention.”

Those tea merchants who bought the recipes would prefer that not too many people knew about it, so that only they had the recipe.

“Also, I won’t sell them all at once in the same place. I’ll sell one per year, or one every couple of years, depending on the circumstances. Don’t worry.”

Tea merchants were all shrewd. Knowing that the Ye family planned to sell tea recipes, as soon as the Ye family produced a new tea, they would find ways to inquire and persuade the Ye family to sell the recipes to them. At that time, by negotiating a bit, they could sell at a higher price, and without the Ye family having to advertise, they could secretly sell the recipes.

By the time others saw that other businesses were producing the same tea, the Ye family’s recipes would have been sold for a year or two.

Moreover, the Ye family wouldn’t always be in such a vulnerable state. Once black tea was introduced, and the court wanted to do such significant business with the Ye family, wouldn’t they have to give the Ye family the title of Imperial Merchant? With the title of Imperial Merchant, the Ye family would have another layer of protection.

In short, everything depended on the circumstances, and if the situation didn’t look good, they would stop. They couldn’t scare themselves into not taking a step forward.

After hearing this, Old Lady Ye’s heart finally settled back into her stomach.

Calming down, she accepted the fact that Ye Yaming had gifted Ye Yaqing a shop worth ten thousand taels of silver. Not only did she accept it, but she also became happy about it.

The fact that Ye Yaming was willing to give such a good shop to Ye Yaqing showed that she valued family relationships. And since she valued family relationships, she and the old man wouldn’t have to worry about her becoming distant from the Ye family after marriage.

Although it had been decided that Ye Yaming would be the next family head of the Ye family, and would still control the Ye family even after marriage, with Ye Yaming’s money-making abilities, even if she didn’t want the Ye family’s sixty percent of assets, she would be able to earn more money in just a year or two.

If she were to give up her responsibilities, the loss wouldn’t be to Ye Yaming herself, but to the Ye family.

So Ye Yaming, valuing family relationships and not money, made her and the old man more at ease.

Ye Yaming first escorted Old Lady Ye back to the main room, but didn’t enter herself, instead going to Madam Yin’s courtyard.

Ye Hongsheng and Madam Yin didn’t know about her gifting two shops worth ten thousand taels as a wedding gift. If they knew, Ye Hongsheng wouldn’t say anything, but Madam Yin would certainly object.

However, since Ye Yaming had become the Ye family’s successor, she was naturally also the head of the second branch. If Madam Yin didn’t want to give these shops and Ye Yaming insisted on giving them, it would be disregarding her birth mother’s feelings. Then the Ye family elders and Ye Hongsheng would have thoughts, and even though the first branch had benefited, they would talk behind her back about her being cold-hearted.

In any case, no one would speak well of her.

But if she listened to Madam Yin and didn’t give them, then what was the purpose of her being the family head? In the future, if Madam Yin came to stop her from doing something, should she listen or not? If she listened, wouldn’t it mean that Madam Yin was effectively running the family?

Ye Yaming always looked ten steps ahead, and she wouldn’t let herself be caught in a dilemma. So she decided to act first and report later, to make her attitude clear to both the Ye family and Madam Yin…

As the successor to the family head, she could consult with everyone when encountering issues and listen to everyone’s opinions. But they shouldn’t try to pressure her with the status of elders or restrain her with filial piety to make her listen to them.

Now that the shops had been given, she planned to explain this matter to Madam Yin properly.

“Mother, I just went to the first branch and gave Second Sister a wedding gift on behalf of our second branch,” she said. “I gave two shops and two sets of head ornaments and jewelry.”

Without waiting for Madam Yin to inquire, she continued, “Originally, Uncle was the successor to the family head, and my eldest cousin was the heir. Now I’ve become the successor to the family head, and the first branch has changed from the main branch to a side branch. Although I didn’t intentionally seize power, and this is also more beneficial for the Ye family’s development, Aunt still harbors resentment towards us, and Uncle and Eldest Cousin, though they don’t say it, can’t help but feel uncomfortable.”

Madam Yin had originally wanted to ask about the details of the two shops, but with Ye Yaming’s explanation, her train of thought was diverted, and she nodded repeatedly: “Indeed, your aunt has been passive-aggressive towards me quite a bit during this time.”

At this point, she couldn’t help but smile.

In the past, it was Madam Zhang who was passive-aggressive towards Madam Tao, while she herself didn’t dare to say anything odd, keeping her words bottled up inside, then going back and crying alone in private, while Madam Tao could display her broad-mindedness and magnanimity in front of her two sisters-in-law.

Now it was Madam Tao’s turn to be passive-aggressive.

And when Madam Tao said strange things, she didn’t even have to speak up; Madam Zhang would directly confront her, putting Madam Tao in an awkward position.

During this time, both she and Madam Zhang were in particularly good spirits.

However, pleasant as it was, family harmony still needed to be maintained; moreover, the Ye family’s assets had changed from seventy percent for the first branch to sixty percent for the second branch, so now it was appropriate for the second branch to gift two shops to the first branch’s daughter as a wedding gift. She, Madam Yin, also knew how to behave properly.

She nodded and said, “But it’s understandable that the first branch isn’t happy. You’re giving two shops to Qing to make them feel better, right? That’s appropriate, go ahead. After all, we’re not short of money now.”

These words were so extravagant that Ye Yaming couldn’t help but laugh.

She said, “Mother is truly generous. Since we’re giving shops, we can’t be too stingy. So I bought one shop in the capital, and with this one in Lin’an, they’re worth ten thousand taels of silver together. In the past, Aunt gave me two sets of head ornaments, and I don’t want her to keep bringing this up in the future, so I also gave two sets of head ornaments to Second Sister, which can be considered as returning Aunt’s favor.”

“What? Ten thousand taels?” Madam Yin almost knocked over the teacup in front of her.

The pastry business she had started with Ye Yayin and Ye Yayu had only spent three thousand taels of silver to buy a shop. Though not large, it was in a good location.

She had thought that the two shops Ye Yaming was giving, to show generosity, wouldn’t be small in size, but the location might not be that good, and together they would be worth at most five thousand taels of silver. Although she felt pained, it was still acceptable.

But ten thousand taels, plus two sets of head ornaments and jewelry, that was too much.

She didn’t even have ten thousand taels of private money.