She had been paying attention to the commotion outside all along.

Now, overhearing the conversation between Madam Yin and Bai Mama, she opened the door and said to Madam Yin: “Mother, I believe that if you want others to respect you, you must have skills of your own. Look at me with my tea-making skills—now, besides Fourth Aunt, who doesn’t see the situation clearly, who else in the family dares to give me grief? It’s the same with Father. He has the skill of tea-making…”

She pointed in the direction of the First Branch and lowered her voice: “Haven’t you noticed how First Aunt has been trying to win over people from our branch? Though Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt rely on Grandmother’s favoritism, First Uncle and First Aunt can only yield to them somewhat for now. But what about later?”

She shook her head without continuing further, her gaze turning toward Ye Yayin.

These words were mainly meant for Ye Yayin to hear. Madam Yin’s life was already set in its course, but Ye Yayin was still young and highly malleable. Ye Yaming seized the opportunity to instill the concept of self-reliance and independence in her.

Sure enough, upon hearing Ye Yaming’s words, Ye Yayin blinked her large eyes thoughtfully, then moved closer to Ye Yaming and whispered: “Sister, I want to learn tea-making too.”

Ye Yayin, not yet thirteen years old, with big eyes and baby fat cheeks, was innocent and pure. Ye Yaming quite liked this adopted younger sister.

She shamelessly reached out and pinched Ye Yayin’s smooth cheek, smiling: “If you like it, then learn tea-making with Father and me. But if you don’t, you can do other things too. The key is to do what you enjoy.”

“I like embroidery,” Ye Yayin said. “Master Yin has praised my flower embroidery many times.”

Master Yin, whose name was Yin Xiu, was originally an embroiderer from a needlework shop. Now that she was older with failing eyesight, she had taken on several apprentices. The Ye family had specially invited her to teach embroidery to the girls in the household, and everyone respectfully addressed her as Master Yin.

“That’s good, then learn it well. Once you’ve mastered all of Master Yin’s skills, we can invite someone even more skilled to teach you,” Ye Yaming said. “Master Yin could support her whole family with embroidery. Even if you don’t need to support a family, having a skill will earn you respect. See how people address Master Yin as a ‘master’ whenever she goes out.”

No one had ever said such things to Ye Yayin before.

Because the Ye family was wealthy, everyone told her that if she liked embroidery, she could learn it casually without taking it too seriously. After all, the family didn’t rely on her needlework skills to eat, and they had embroiderers to make their clothes. She would be well-provided for in her maiden home, and when she married, her husband’s family wouldn’t be too poor either. Besides, she would have a substantial dowry.

She nodded vigorously: “Then I’ll study hard with Master Yin.”

“If you learn well, sister will reward you,” Ye Yaming said, patting her head.

Madam Yin didn’t approve of her younger daughter being obsessed with embroidery. Learning embroidery was hard on the eyes—there was no need for a young girl to strain her eyesight so early. Even if young ladies needed to learn needlework, studying it casually would suffice.

However, since her elder daughter had said this, even if she didn’t agree, she couldn’t object.

“Speaking of embroidery, I should ask you: how are your Mid-Autumn Festival gifts coming along? The festival will be here in a few days. If you haven’t prepared them yet, you’d better hurry,” she asked Ye Yaming.

Ye Yaming was momentarily stunned, suddenly remembering that during festivals and holidays, the original owner would prepare gifts for the Song family mother and son. Besides various dried fruits and pastries, she would personally make several outfits for the mother and son.

The original owner’s monthly allowance was rarely spent on herself; most of it went to the Song family mother and son.

Her eyes turned slightly cold as she replied: “I haven’t prepared them. With everything that’s happened in the family, I’ve been too busy making tea to think about making clothes for the Song family. Every year I make them plenty of clothes, and our family sends them two hundred taels of silver annually. If they need clothes, Madam Song can make them herself.”

Not wanting to discuss the topic further, she added, “I’m going back inside to make tea,” and entered the room.

Watching her daughter’s retreating figure, Madam Yin felt something was amiss.

Ever since her elder daughter had become engaged to Song Yifeng, her heart and mind had been filled with thoughts of him. Other girls would use their monthly allowance to buy flowers and powder, or save up for clothes and jewelry.

Only Ye Yaming spent all her money on the Song family. If not for the household providing everyone with two sets of clothes each season, she wouldn’t even have decent clothes to wear when receiving guests.

But now, Ye Yaming not only hadn’t made clothes for the Song mother and son, but also spoke of them with obvious coldness. Could she be disagreeing with Song Yifeng?

It seemed she would need to find time to ask Bai Rui about this.

Inside the room, Ye Yaming’s thoughts weren’t on the Song family. Recalling Madam Yin’s mention that the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching in a few days, and given the importance ancient people placed on such festivals, Ye Hongchang would certainly return home in the next couple of days.

Ye Chongming had followed her advice and sent people from Lin’an City the day before yesterday. Lin’an was some distance from the capital, and even with fast horses, it would take four or five days.

Counting the days, the two parties should have met on the road by now. She just didn’t know if Ye Hongchang had encountered Meng Chengwei’s people during their meeting, and whether things would still develop according to their original trajectory.

Realizing further speculation was futile, Ye Yaming set aside her distractions and walked to the tea pile to feel its temperature.

In ancient times, without thermometers, tea makers relied entirely on their sense of touch to gauge the tea pile’s temperature. Without experience, even knowing the method for scenting tea wouldn’t produce good flower tea.

“All right, sift out the flowers and send them outside to be roasted,” Ye Yaming instructed.

The maids and grannies all sprang into action.

While Ye Yaming was busy making tea, Ye Chongming was both arranging for people to buy loose tea and collect osmanthus flowers, and sending people to monitor Meng Chengwei’s movements.

Regarding this man, he wished he could have someone put a sack over his head and beat him half to death.

But “the older you get in the world, the more cautious you become.” At sixty years old, having navigated the business world his entire life, Ye Chongming knew there were some people you couldn’t afford to offend. Especially for merchants like them with no power or influence—others could harm them, but they couldn’t retaliate.

Therefore, these days he could only have people watch Meng Chengwei, hoping to understand more about this person’s background.

Meanwhile, when Ye Chongming returned from the mountain, Meng Chengwei had also arrived in Lin’an City. He rented a small courtyard at the best inn in Lin’an and spent each day bringing his clan brother and servants to the Ye family teahouse’s Zixiang Building to drink tea and listen to storytellers. During casual conversations, he revealed quite a bit about himself.

Things like his father being the head of the imperial merchant Meng family, his biological aunt being Imperial Consort Min, how he had entered and exited the palace since childhood…

This information was what he had told the innkeeper back in Baifeng County, so it wasn’t particularly new. But it was enough to make Ye Chongming wary.

As for the matter of the Ye family being targeted and framed, since it involved private tea, he truly couldn’t speak of it to others.

With his eldest son not at home, and his grandson previously seeming reliable but now appearing less dependable in comparison to Ye Yaming, Ye Chongming had no choice but to discuss the matter with his wife, lamenting: “Even though we know this person is framing us, we don’t dare take action against him. It’s truly frustrating.”