“They’re different,” Ye Yaming explained. “The tea trees in our region are small-leaf varieties, while those used for Tieguanyin are medium-leaf varieties. They could probably grow here, but the taste would be different. After all, differences in soil and environment where tea trees grow result in different flavors.”

“Like oranges grown south of the Huai River remain oranges, but those grown north of the Huai become trifoliate oranges?” Ye Hongsheng asked.

Ye Yaming gave him an approving smile. “Exactly.”

“What is ‘shaking the green’?” Ye Hongsheng inquired further.

Seeing that father and daughter were about to launch into an academic discussion, Ye Chongming quickly interrupted: “That’s enough for now. Let’s drink the tea first. We still have business matters to discuss.”

Father and daughter exchanged a smile before turning their attention to drinking the tea.

Everyone had already tasted this tea when they first received it, but the way Ye Yaming brewed it gave it an exceptionally different flavor, which everyone couldn’t help but praise.

Ye Chongming asked, “How do you plan to sell this Tieguanyin?”

Ye Yaming replied, “Qi Ji and I discussed this during our journey. Since the quantity of Tieguanyin is limited, we’ll only give it away as gifts, not sell it. We’ll gift it to major customers who spent over five hundred taels of silver at our teahouse last year. This will help establish its reputation first, and then we’ll bring it to market next year.”

While in Minzhou, Ye Yaming had processed spring tea for two months. However, because there weren’t many mature tea trees available, the daily harvest of fresh leaves was limited, yielding only about two hundred jin of dried tea in total.

As for the newly purchased tea mountain, the newly planted tea cuttings would need two to three years to grow, making the tea supply insufficient for now.

Ye Yaming planned to give it away as gifts this year and start selling it next year, employing a hunger marketing strategy for two years before a large-scale market launch. This approach would elevate Tieguanyin to the status of a top-tier famous tea on par with Longjing tea.

Ye Chongming had complete faith in Ye Yaming’s marketing strategies.

Hearing that Ye Yaming had already consulted with Qi Ji, he nodded, “Very well, let’s proceed as you suggested.”

Having finally managed to convene a shareholders meeting, Ye Yaming hoped to conduct it quickly and efficiently.

She served as the meeting’s facilitator.

“We should have met like this before to share information about our respective operations and keep everyone informed,” she said. “But everyone has been busy with their affairs. Now that we finally have the opportunity to gather together, let’s each report on the businesses we’re managing.”

She looked toward Ye Chongming and smiled, “Grandfather, perhaps you could start by telling us about the situation in Lin’an?”

Ye Chongming nodded, “Certainly.”

Since last year, after Ye Yaming and Ye Hongsheng had trained tea-frying masters, Ye Chongming had dispatched tea-making masters to the gardens where they had pre-ordered raw tea in the spring of this year, producing Longjing tea on site. As a result, the production of Longjing tea had reached another level this year.

However, as the Ye family had sold the Longjing tea-making method, other tea merchants were also producing it in large quantities, causing the price of Longjing tea to drop considerably this year.

“But overall, our profits remain substantial. After all, we produce the authentic version, and tea connoisseurs prefer to buy our tea,” Ye Chongming stated.

“Previously, I couldn’t understand why Ming’er wanted to sell the tea-making secret. Now I understand.”

Ye Chongming continued with deep emotion: “If we hadn’t sold it, and our Longjing tea had been brought to market in large quantities this year with prices remaining high, the profits would have been too great. This not only would have provoked extreme jealousy among tea merchants but also attracted the covetous eyes of the powerful and wealthy.”

“By selling the tea method, tea merchants have begun producing Longjing tea instead of compressed tea, not only promoting the development of loose tea and suppressing compressed tea, which aligns with the imperial court’s wishes, but also making Longjing tea more famous. And because we produce the authentic version, our reputation has grown even stronger.”

This was also why he had unhesitatingly agreed to Ye Yaming’s sales strategy for Tieguanyin, even without fully understanding its intricacies.

Ye Yaming’s decision to sell the tea-making method had not only earned the Ye family hundreds of thousands of taels of silver at once and avoided potential troubles from others seeking to steal the method, but it also carried such profound implications.

Aligning with the imperial court’s wishes and gaining the Emperor’s favor was immensely important for the Ye family, who aspired to become imperial merchants.

This realization became even clearer to Ye Chongming as he listened to the reports from Ye Hongchang, who managed the teahouse in the capital; Ye Hongrong, who oversaw affairs in Huizhou; and Ye Jiaxing, who supervised the teaware business in Xinping Town; along with Qi Ji’s elaboration on the prospects of the tea industry in Minzhou.

Just over two years ago, the Ye family had been merely ordinary tea merchants in Lin’an, struggling to manage the tea from their plantation in Baifeng County while being schemed against and facing numerous difficulties.

Then Ye Yaming had displayed her intelligence and received divine inspiration from their ancestors. In just two short years, the tea business that the Ye family had developed in partnership with Lu and Qi had extended across nearly half of the Great Jin, with tens of thousands of mu of tea mountains under their name, and numerous teahouses established in places like Huizhou and Minzhou. Longjing tea had become a tribute tea, and the Ye family had caught the Emperor’s attention.

These achievements were beyond what they could have imagined before.

Everyone reported on the status of their projects and raised some problems they found difficult to resolve. Ye Yaming facilitated discussions on the spot, and decisions were made during the meeting.

Regarding the situation in Minzhou, Ye Yaming had Qi Ji provide the report, with Ye Hongchang adding supplementary information.

Finally, she said, “Lin’an, Huizhou, and Minzhou are relatively stable. Next, I plan to open two more refined teahouses in the capital and Lin’an to promote tea art and the tea ceremony.”

As she spoke, she took out two books from a nearby box and placed them on the table.

One book was titled “Tea Art,” and the other “The Way of Tea.”

Seeing these two books, everyone present became excited.

Two years ago, Ye Yaming had published a book called “Tea Setting,” which had made their teaware business extraordinarily successful.

After just witnessing what Ye Yaming called the “Oolong Tea Method,” everyone sensed a new business opportunity.

At that time, everyone had only a vague idea, but now that Ye Yaming had mentioned opening new teahouses and presented two books, their understanding became clearer.

“Ming’er, are you planning to arrange tea settings in the new teahouses? And have people brew tea using your method?” Ye Hongchang asked.

In the capital, he had seen how literati and scholars were fascinated by tea settings. But people could grow tired of such things. Now, he suspected Ye Yaming had a new approach, one that was related to the newly emerged Tieguanyin.

Ye Yaming nodded, “Yes, Uncle, your guess is spot on.”

Ye Hongchang smiled with satisfaction.

The meeting lasted the entire morning before concluding.

After announcing the end of the meeting, Ye Yaming boarded Ye Chongming’s carriage and asked him, “Grandfather, have you shown the accounts from the past two years to Masters Lu and Qi?”

This was something she had reminded Ye Chongming about at the beginning of their partnership—that the accounts should be regularly shown to Lu and Qi.

Of course, she also required regular inspection of the projects managed by Lu and Qi’s stewards.

Ye Chongming nodded, “Yes, I have.”

In their three-party partnership, they had earned substantial profits over the past two years. However, the profits had been reinvested in Huizhou and Minzhou. Therefore, there had been no dividends distributed; instead, they had pooled more funds for continued investment.

Huizhou would have a small amount of tea coming to market next year, while Minzhou would be a year later. By the end of this year, they would have dividends to distribute.