Meanwhile, the bank would lend money to tea merchants at an interest rate several times higher than what they gave to depositors. Tea merchants, with the substantial profits from their tea business as a foundation, would be extremely happy just to be able to borrow money, so how could they not be willing to pay some interest? At that time, they would only be competing to borrow.

As for potential bad debts, they didn’t exist. Before lending silver to tea merchants, Baofeng Bank would certainly require them to use fields and shops as collateral. If tea merchants couldn’t repay, selling these properties would offset the loan.

Additionally, tea currency was extremely beneficial to both tea merchants and garden owners. Tea merchants didn’t need to produce actual silver, and garden owners, if willing to keep the tea currency until spring to exchange with merchants, would get extra interest, which they would be very happy about.

From any perspective, this was an excellent idea. And since the Ye family had given Mei Chonglin such an idea and were the first to use tea currency, the Mei family would naturally help the Ye family through this crisis.

With the Mei family willing to lend, there naturally wouldn’t be a shortage of funds for producing osmanthus tea. Although Ye Hongchang’s money shouldn’t have problems, Ye Chongming wouldn’t mind having extra money to invest in the tea business.

Ye Chongming left like the wind.

Old Lady Ye and Ye Yaming exchanged glances and couldn’t help but laugh.

Old Lady Ye picked up the teapot and personally poured a cup of tea for Ye Yaming: “Yaming, thank you. If you hadn’t given your grandfather this idea, our family would have been in trouble.”

To make her manage Ye Hongrong properly and not indulge him anymore, Ye Chongming had told her about the Ye family’s predicament in detail last night, even exaggerating a bit.

At that time, Old Lady Ye had broken out in a cold sweat and hadn’t slept all night.

Now, hearing their conversation, it seemed this predicament could be resolved. Old Lady Ye was sincerely grateful to Ye Yaming.

Ye Yaming was a girl, already fifteen years old. Her fiancé was a young Juren (provincial examination graduate). In the future, he might be a major support for the Ye family. So Ye Yaming’s dowry had been prepared early on and was very substantial.

Therefore, no matter what difficulties the family encountered, the impact on Ye Yaming was actually minimal. She could have completely ignored the family’s affairs.

But now, she had gotten involved and offered so many good ideas, which made Old Lady Ye extremely grateful to her third granddaughter, and also deeply moved.

This granddaughter had always been quiet before; who would have thought she was such an intelligent person? As a grandmother, she didn’t understand the girls in the family well enough.

Ye Yaming waved her hand: “I’m part of the family. How could I just mind my own small life when the family is in trouble?”

She paused, raised her eyes, and looked at Old Lady Ye: “My mother injured herself when giving birth to Yayin and can no longer have children, and my father doesn’t want to take a concubine. As the eldest daughter of the second branch, I need to take responsibility. Regarding the matter of taking a husband into the family, Grandmother, you might consider it for me.”

Her modern parents had a business marriage with very little affection. She had no illusions about marriage. Since the family needed an heir, she had been prepared to have a test-tube baby in her thirties.

In ancient times, such methods were technically and legally impossible.

She was accustomed to being in charge and neither suited to go to someone else’s home to be subservient as a daughter-in-law, nor could she tolerate children she had worked hard to give birth to not belonging to her when she died. The solution was to take in a husband who would join her family.

If the husband wasn’t well-behaved after children were born, she could just give him some money and divorce him, keeping the children. This approach was most in line with the principles of this era and also best suited her personality.

“Uh, this…” Old Lady Ye hadn’t expected that Ye Yaming was genuinely considering the feasibility of this matter.

She carefully examined Ye Yaming and asked: “Do your parents know about this idea?”

Ye Yaming shook her head: “My father doesn’t care about anything except tea. As for my mother…”

She smiled helplessly: “You know, she takes pride in Song Yifeng being her son-in-law. Moreover, Song Yifeng is also my maternal grandfather’s student, and he was the matchmaker. If Song Yifeng turns out to be of bad character, it’s equivalent to negating my maternal grandfather’s judgment. The one who would accept this least is my mother. She wouldn’t believe anything I say.”

She poured a cup of tea for Old Lady Ye: “When Grandfather finishes dealing with the family’s affairs, he will certainly send someone to investigate Song Yifeng. At that time, with the facts in front of her, my mother won’t be able to say anything even if she doesn’t believe it.”

Old Lady Ye believed she understood the personalities of her daughters-in-law well.

Her second daughter-in-law was undoubtedly a good person. But precisely because she hadn’t given birth to a son, and her maternal family’s circumstances weren’t as good as those of her sisters-in-law, she tended to overthink, always feeling that the Ye family looked down on her. When Song Yifeng passed the provincial examination, she straightened her back and was quite proud. Now, to give up this outstanding son-in-law, with her daughter also being pointed at and discussed, Madam Yin, who was naturally strong-willed, definitely couldn’t bear it.

“Alright, Grandmother will help you with this matter,” she said straightforwardly.

Ye Yaming became happy, raising her teacup to Old Lady Ye: “Thank you, Grandmother.”

The Mei family, from which Old Lady Ye originated, was a large family with numerous members. After marrying into the Ye family, she had started as a young daughter-in-law and now managed the internal affairs of the Ye family’s dozens of members. Her ability to navigate family politics should be considerable.

With her help, breaking the engagement would certainly go smoothly.

Ye Chongming went to the Mei family for more than an hour. By the time it was completely dark, when Bai Rui was urging Ye Yaming to wash up and go to bed, Ye Chongming finally sent an old female servant to tell Ye Yaming: “The Old Master said that the idea Miss gave was agreed to by Old Master Mei. Old Master Mei also said he wanted to thank Miss.”

“Ah, that’s wonderful.” Ye Yaming happily asked Bai Rui to reward the servant.

Tea currency was issued by the China Silk and Tea Bank in 1925 as an emergency measure when the tea business was booming and there wasn’t enough currency circulating. The differences between banks and money houses, as well as the specific circumstances, were all different.

And the current money houses were also different from modern banks. This wasn’t just due to the limitations of the era’s development but also various other reasons.

Although Ye Yaming had spoken confidently and appeared very assured when talking to Ye Chongming, she wasn’t completely certain in her heart.

Now that the matter was settled, the Ye family’s problems were completely resolved. Even if Ye Hongchang couldn’t bring back that sum of money, the Ye family’s business wouldn’t be affected, and they could even counter-attack Meng Chengwei. Ye Yaming was naturally very happy.

The old servant also said: “The Old Master said if Miss hasn’t rested yet, to come over for a while. If you’re resting, we can talk tomorrow.”

Ye Yaming knew that Ye Chongming must want to discuss making osmanthus tea tomorrow, so she stood up and said: “I haven’t rested yet, let’s go.”

She took Madam Xia and Bai Rui to the main courtyard.

Upon seeing her, Ye Chongming briefly recounted his conversation with Mei Chonglin.

“Hey, you don’t know how your Great-Uncle praised you, saying you’re capable, intelligent, and that you’ll certainly achieve great things in the future. All good words flowed freely,” he said with a smile, his eyes narrowing to slits.