“Thank you for your hard work, Fourth Uncle. After I finish tasting these black teas, there will be additional rewards. But you don’t need to go this time; I’ll have Tang Song make the trip instead.”

“If you need me for anything, just say so. I don’t mind the hard work,” Ye Hongrong promptly offered.

“Very well,” Ye Yaming said with a smile.

After Ye Hongrong left, she began to taste each variety of black tea.

Although Huizhou and Minzhou couldn’t produce tea in large quantities, the existing tea gardens she purchased were capable of producing Huangshan Maofeng, Lu’an Guapian, Tun Green, Qimen Black Tea, as well as Wuyi Rock Tea and Zhengshan Small Leaf Black Tea.

But these teas couldn’t all be introduced at once, otherwise the market for Longjing and Tieguanyin would be affected. Competing against herself in the market would be detrimental to their development and also draw too much attention.

Ye Yaming planned to introduce one new variety every five years. During her lifetime, she would bring out all the famous teas from Huizhou and Minzhou regions, making her reincarnation worthwhile.

Therefore, she suppressed her eager heart.

In these regions, except for some medium to large-leaf tea trees in Minzhou, she had instructed the tea masters to process all pre-rain and pre-Ming Festival teas into Longjing.

The different classifications of tea weren’t due to different varieties of tea trees, but rather different processing techniques.

In other words, fresh leaves from the same tea tree could be processed into non-fermented green tea, semi-fermented oolong tea, fully fermented black tea, or post-fermented dark tea, depending on the manufacturing process.

However, tea trees did have processing suitabilities. Different varieties of tea trees and their growing environments made them more suitable for certain types of tea.

In her previous life, Ye Yaming had tasted Longjing tea produced in Huangshan, which was quite good. But since it wasn’t from the banks of West Lake, it wasn’t considered “authentic,” and even with good flavor, it couldn’t fetch a good price.

The value of “branding” in tea was extremely high, which was why Ye Yaming worked so hard to guarantee the advantage of the Ye family’s Longjing while selling tea formulas, even bringing out the silver-pan frying technique this year.

The Longjing tea masters sent to Huizhou and Minzhou were all highly experienced. Ye Yaming had tasted the pre-Ming and pre-rain Longjing they produced this year and found them quite satisfactory—at least they didn’t disgrace the Ye family’s brand.

These teas weren’t transported to the Capital or Lin’an, but were sold directly in local and surrounding provinces. The price was slightly cheaper than the Longjing tea from Lin’an.

After producing pre-Ming and pre-rain Longjing, these two regions began large-scale production of black tea.

Although Ye Yaming had sent her best black tea masters and tea evaluators there, she was still not at ease and wanted to personally inspect the product.

Since the black tea was produced in batches, it took Ye Yaming several days to taste them all.

She wrote down her evaluation results and had someone summon Tang Song, giving him the reward plan: “Please take these rewards to Huizhou.”

There were a total of seven tea masters making black tea in Huizhou. She had designated first, second, and third prizes, one in each category, with rewards of two hundred taels, one hundred taels, and fifty taels respectively, plus a finely made certificate of honor for each person.

Without competition, there was no progress. Establishing a good reward mechanism was crucial.

Tang Song agreed, then asked, “Has the eldest young master not returned from Minzhou yet?”

“It’s far away; I estimate it will take another ten to fifteen days before he arrives. You can’t manage both regions alone, so I’ll send someone else there,” Ye Yaming said.

With Ma Yun around, the quarrel between Madam Tao and Ye Hongchang had reached Ye Yaming’s ears.

Since Madam Tao objected to her only having Ye Hongrong run errands, Ye Yaming put Ye Jiaxing to work as well. Uncle and nephew each covered one region, Huizhou and Minzhou, taking turns and being completely fair.

As a result, Madam Tao started worrying about her son.

However, she didn’t come to speak to Ye Yaming about it, and Ye Yaming pretended not to know. Even when Ye Jiaxing complained incessantly, Ye Yaming didn’t let him off.

“Miss, the young master has sent gifts again,” Bai Rui came in to report.

Ye Yaming’s face showed helplessness as she turned and said, “Bring them in.”

Though Lu Guanyi was at the border, his heart was with his beloved wife. He had his private guards deliver gifts every half month or month. Sometimes it was a special product from the border region, sometimes a small trinket he had purchased.

Perhaps in Lu Guanyi’s view, the gift itself wasn’t important—what mattered was the thought.

Ye Yaming always felt pleased when receiving his gifts.

There was always a letter accompanying the gifts.

Ye Yaming first looked at the gift Lu Guanyi had sent this time.

It was a somewhat crudely made necklace with a rugged style, obviously made by Lu Guanyi himself, with two wolf fangs hanging from it. The wolf must have been killed by Lu Guanyi, otherwise he wouldn’t have sent such a thing to Ye Yaming.

Looking at this gift, Ye Yaming quickly opened the letter, wanting to know if Lu Guanyi had been injured.

After reading just a few lines, she suddenly sat up straight, startling Zi Yuan, who was attending her: “Miss, please be careful.”

She then asked, “Is the young master alright?”

Ye Yaming waved her hand: “He’s fine.” Her gaze never left the letter.

In his letter, Lu Guanyi wrote that recently there had been unrest between several Jin tribes, leading to some conflicts with the Great Jin military. When he led troops into battle, he was surrounded by a wolf pack, but fortunately escaped unharmed and personally killed the alpha wolf.

The wolf fangs on the necklace he sent were from that alpha wolf.

However, Lu Guanyu, who had just returned to the border, wasn’t so lucky in this conflict. While fighting against the Jin people, he was severely injured. Although his subordinates rescued him and brought him back to camp, he had suffered a brain injury and had become simple-minded.

Ye Yaming: “…”

Ye Yaming knew that claims of peace at the border only meant there were no large-scale wars between the two sides, but small conflicts still occurred frequently.

And this conflict had involved both of General Lu’s sons—one surrounded by wolves, the other suffering a brain injury while fighting Jin warriors, conveniently making him simple-minded.

She couldn’t help feeling that this was full of conspiracy.

Without even thinking, she knew this conflict must have been instigated by Lu Guanyu, who, after burying his mother, harbored hatred and suspected Lu Guanyi of causing his mother’s death, thus taking action against him.

Lu Guanyi had waited so long without making a move against Madam Shi and Lu Guanyu because he wanted to stand on moral high ground. After all, he and his wife and children still needed to establish themselves in this world and maintain their reputation while living in the mortal realm.

He had been waiting for Madam Shi or Lu Guanyu to make the first move.

Now it seemed Lu Guanyu had tried to ambush Lu Guanyi, only to be countered.

Lu Guanyu didn’t die but became simple-minded—this was probably an outcome Lu Zhongyong could accept as a father.

After all, Lu Guanyu had fallen from grace into the mire and was filled with hatred for the world. He was like a bomb that might commit a grave crime bringing disaster to nine generations, or cause great trouble at any moment.

Now that he had preserved his life but would no longer cause trouble, it was most convenient. Living as a simpleton might be more relaxing and happier than living with a heart full of hatred.