The imperial marriage arrangement was one thing, and showing favor to Lu Guanyi’s wife’s family was another. With the Ye family’s abilities, they were already qualified to receive the title of Imperial merchants. Bestowing this official rank upon them would be beneficial without any cost to him—it was simply the most appropriate thing to do.

“Sister knew that Imperial Brother is the wisest,” Princess Imperial Yuning said delightedly.

Chu Chang waved his hand dismissively and asked about another matter: “How did Yu’an react when she received the imperial marriage decree?”

Princess Imperial Yuning smiled and said, “She seemed quite willing. Speaking of which, her willingness to marry the Xuanwu Marquis is partly due to my contribution.”

Chu Chang gave her a sidelong glance: “Oh? What does this have to do with you? Don’t tell me you’ve been matchmaking between her and Lu Zhongyong?”

“No, no, no, not that,” Princess Imperial Yuning quickly waved her hands and then sighed, “I haven’t even met the Xuanwu Marquis. What I meant was that Yu’an’s agreement to this marriage has a lot to do with Ye Yaming.”

For imperial marriages, national interests came first; as a princess who enjoyed glory and wealth and was served by the entire nation, it was natural to sacrifice one’s marital happiness for the Great Jin Dynasty. Moreover, Yu’an had always been gentle. Even if she was resistant to married life, she wouldn’t dare refuse an imperial marriage decree.

But her first marriage had been unfortunate. If she were to become stubborn and refuse to remarry, running to find senior female relatives in the imperial clan to pour out her grievances, Chu Chang truly couldn’t force this widowed sister to remarry.

That would not sound good if word got out.

Yuning knew well that because of her previous husband’s situation, Yu’an had become disillusioned with marriage and was highly resistant to it. She was especially unwilling to face the complex in-law relationships that would come with remarrying.

If the imperial decree hadn’t been for marriage into the Xuanwu Marquis’s household, she might truly have been unwilling to accept it.

She told Chu Chang about taking Yu’an to Jixiang Garden for tea, where Yu’an met Ye Yaming and they got along exceptionally well, and how Ye Yaming had invited Yu’an to open a pastry shop with her mother.

“As you know, the Xuanwu Marquis spends most of his time at the border. Even if Second Imperial Sister marries the Xuanwu Marquis, she would mostly be alone at home. The person she would interact with the most would be the wife of the Marquis’s heir.”

“If she and Ye Yaming didn’t get along, I suspect she wouldn’t be pleased with this marriage. But now the two of them are as close as mother and daughter. With Ye Yaming as a companion and caretaker when she marries into the Lu family, it would naturally be better than staying alone in the Princess’s mansion.”

“That’s true. This is excellent,” Chu Chang said, feeling quite gratified.

When initially arranging the marriage, he had mostly considered the issue of having Yu’an involve Lu Zhongyong. This was a matter of national importance, and he couldn’t consider too many personal factors.

But Yu’an had suffered, and she was still his Imperial sister, who had always been close to Yuning. He was quite willing to see her happy.

Having received confirmation from Chu Chang, Princess Imperial Yuning didn’t mention anything about this matter after returning home. However, when sending gifts to Ye Yaming, she had her servants convey a message, instructing Ye Yaming to make the black tea well, without any errors.

Even without Princess Imperial Yuning’s message, Ye Yaming wouldn’t have dared to be careless. This was, after all, a product being exported abroad, concerning the face and interests of the Great Jin Dynasty. If anything went wrong, the Ye family would be finished.

Therefore, after seeing off Princess Imperial Yuning and the others, and having completed the pre-rain tea, she went to the tea factory.

Pre-ming tea was high-grade tea, and pre-rain tea was upper-middle grade. After the rain, the temperature rose sharply, and tea leaves grew very quickly. At this time, apart from picking one bud and two leaves to make middle to low-grade Longjing tea, they also began harvesting older leaves and stems to make black tea.

The production of black tea was large in scale, involving not just the tea from Baifeng County’s tea gardens but from all the tea mountains under the names of the Ye family and their three cooperative partners.

Because fermentation was key and took a long time, it required especially experienced people to supervise. Ye Yaming had people pick all the tea from the tea gardens under the Ye family’s name in Lin’an. Tea that couldn’t be transported to the factory on the same night was watched over by those who had learned tea-making from her the previous year, and then transported to the factory the next day. The factory would then pile-ferment the tea according to when it arrived.

Because a large area was needed, she had already ordered the construction of several buildings specifically for fermentation.

Last year, she had led a group of masters in making black tea, and this year these masters were still learning from her. Each was in charge of several rooms, using the tea-making experience they had gained last year to manage the piled tea leaves.

Therefore, Ye Yaming was relatively relaxed, only needing to inspect a few times each day to see if they were doing their jobs properly.

Although Madam Qi had been reprimanded by Princess Imperial Yuning, she was still concerned about Ye Yaming. Under the pretext of sending nourishing soup, she came to see Ye Yaming several times, once even bringing an old physician to check her pulse for peace of mind.

She discovered that Ye Yaming truly wasn’t overworking and was living quite comfortably. Moreover, because she walked more each day, she was healthier than the average pregnant woman. The old physician repeatedly praised this, saying that Ye Yaming would have a very smooth delivery. Madam Qi finally set her mind at ease.

The area around the tea factory had all been purchased by the Ye family. To avoid Ye Yaming having to travel back and forth, Ye Chongming had ordered the construction of a small two-courtyard residence nearby for Ye Yaming to live in.

Ye Yaming lived there for three months. Only after confirming that all the tea masters were strictly operating according to her methods and that the tea piles under their management had no issues did she feel at ease to return to the Lu mansion.

“Ming’er, the tea from Huizhou has been brought back. Try it,” Ye Hongrong, dusty from travel, returned from Huizhou, bringing back the black tea made there.

“Fourth Uncle, you’ve worked hard,” Ye Yaming said. “Is the Longjing tea selling well there? Have there been any negative comments about the tea?”

Ye Hongrong shook his head: “No, all praise. The only negative comment was that it’s a bit expensive, saying it would be better if it were cheaper.”

“It’s impossible to make it cheaper. Good tea is time-consuming and labor-intensive, with limited quantity. It’s a luxury item, not something that ordinary people who can barely afford meat can consume. If we sold it cheaply enough for peddlers and porters to afford, then those officials and wealthy people would dislike it for being too low-class and wouldn’t want to buy it. Who would I sell to then?”

Tea was known for reducing fat and cutting grease, commonly called “oil scraper.” Poor people who couldn’t even eat their fill, how would they buy tea? Therefore, tea, especially high-grade teas like pre-ming and pre-rain Longjing, was targeted at high-consumption groups.

“I’ve given generous rewards to the tea masters there as you instructed. They are very grateful to you,” Ye Hongrong said.

Regarding this, he had two words for Ye Yaming: utterly convinced.

Originally, for the tea gardens, tea estates, and tea masters in various locations, Ye Yaming had established a very comprehensive management system. Outstanding stewards and tea masters could have been directly rewarded by the local managers.

But Ye Yaming didn’t do it this way. She wanted these people to know who truly influenced their promotions and income, insisting that Ye Hongrong and Jiaxing represent her and personally present the awards.

Seeing the stewards and tea masters so moved and grateful to him and Ye Yaming, Ye Hongrong finally understood what it meant to be skilled in managing subordinates.