The Ye family’s tea silver had not actually been robbed, nor were they short of funds. But if they denied this point, the issuance of tea currency would be difficult to explain.

So since the rumors claimed the tea silver had been robbed, Ye Chongming simply neither confirmed nor denied it, using only the phrase “the matter of the robbery” to remain ambiguous.

Although Ye Yaming had told him to let the rumors circulate for a while without rushing to refute them, that was in situations where the matter wasn’t brought directly to their faces.

Now that someone was pointing at their noses, some things needed to be clarified. As for how to clarify, that was a matter of speaking technique.

At some point, Yang Hong had come up from the first floor and had been standing at the stairway entrance listening for quite a while.

Hearing these words, he couldn’t help but sneer and said, “Not breaking faith? Uncle Ye, aren’t you exaggerating a bit? I’ve heard that what you’re giving the garden households this time isn’t silver, but a piece of paper called ‘tea currency.’ Isn’t that just like an IOU?”

Ye Chongming knew full well that Yang Hong had colluded with Meng Chengwei and was preparing to deal with the Ye family. But seeing him here now, he felt extremely disappointed in this person.

The Yang family also owned a tea pavilion, so Yang Hong only sought him out when there was tea guild business; ordinarily, he never set foot in Jixiang Pavilion. Yet now he had specially come to kick the Ye family while they were down, which was a bit too despicable in terms of personal conduct.

As the saying goes, “A gentleman loves wealth, but acquires it properly.”

There was no problem with the Yang family wanting to compete with the Ye family; it was also understandable that those present wanted to snatch garden households from his hands. But merchants should also follow the way of the gentleman.

If merchants didn’t give people negative impressions—such as being unprincipled, cunning, calculating, and only seeing profit—why would their status be so low?

As guild head for so many years, he had always bound Lin’an’s tea merchants to principles of integrity and honesty, and had been gratified to see the generally good business atmosphere.

But as soon as he faced misfortune, these people immediately revealed their true faces, which made Ye Chongming deeply sorrowful.

Standing behind his grandfather, Ye Jiaxing saw everyone’s true colors and was greatly shocked.

Since his birth, the Ye family had been wealthy; since he came of age, Ye Chongming had been the tea guild head. Wherever he went, people were polite to him, and some children of tea merchant families even flattered him because of his grandfather’s position.

But now he was witnessing the cold reality of the world.

If his cousin hadn’t anticipated everything in advance and the Ye family had truly encountered trouble, seeing these changed faces when going out would surely have crushed his spirit.

“Yes, due to our misfortune, the Ye family is temporarily short of silver. So we’ve established a partnership with a money shop, having the Mei family’s Baofeng Money Shop issue tea currency to pre-order spring tea from garden households. Garden households can take this tea currency to Baofeng Money Shop to exchange it for an equal amount of silver. If the garden households wait until spring when trading tea leaves to exchange with us, our family will pay a certain interest.”

He tried to ignore the various expressions on everyone’s faces and cupped his hands toward the crowd, saying, “For those present, if in some year you find yourselves inconvenienced, lacking silver to pre-order tea leaves, you can refer to this old man’s method today and cooperate with a money shop. Although my actions were born of necessity, I’ve also devised a solution for everyone to address fund shortages, somewhat living up to my position as guild head, so as not to disappoint everyone.”

As soon as he said this, many people began to discuss it among themselves.

To be honest, although the government implemented the tea monopoly system, it still left a certain profit margin for tea merchants. The reason everyone engaged in this trade was because of its substantial profits. Therefore, each year everyone wanted to pre-order more of the next year’s spring tea.

Unfortunately, tea leaves had to be pre-ordered half a year in advance, and not only did they have to pay the monopoly bureau, but they also had to pay deposits to garden households. This meant spending thousands or tens of thousands of taels of silver at once, or even more. How many people had that much liquid capital?

It should be noted that from the Mid-Autumn Festival to the Qingming Festival, there was still almost half a year; and their tea leaves could not possibly be sold out in half a year. Those tea leaves sitting in inventory tied up their funds.

As a result, many people had no choice but to hold back, even though they knew the profits were substantial, and only pre-ordered a small amount of tea leaves each year.

Now that Ye Chongming had suddenly introduced the concept of “tea currency,” everyone’s thinking suddenly opened up.

If this tea currency worked, could they also do the same when their funds were short?

So some people began to ask about the tea currency with interest.

“Old Master Wang, Master Li, Master Yue…” Ye Chongming addressed several people who had either spoken words of comfort or shown sympathy on their faces earlier. “Let’s go up to the third floor for tea together.”

As he spoke, he gave the tea pavilion manager Lin Zhensheng a meaningful look, then glanced in Yang Hong’s direction.

Lin Zhensheng, in his fifties, had been working under Ye Chongming since he was a teenager. He understood what Ye Chongming meant with just a glance.

He nodded slightly.

“Good, good, good.” Those invited were very pleased and followed Ye Chongming up to the third floor.

The others left behind looked at each other awkwardly.

Yang Hong, having lost face, was already uncomfortable. Seeing this situation, he couldn’t help but mock, “Hmph, that tea currency is just like an IOU. The only reason it works is because the garden households respect Old Master Ye’s reputation. And it’s just this once—if it happens too often in the future, who will still honor it? Talking about solving fund shortage problems—he’s good at putting a golden veneer on things.”

When Ye Chongming was surrounded by the various proprietors, tea pavilion manager Lin Zhensheng had come out. He had intended to help his employer out of the difficult situation, but his help wasn’t needed at all.

Yang Hong had specifically come to the Ye family’s tea pavilion to ridicule Ye Chongming, which was extremely despicable to begin with, and now he was still saying such things. Lin Zhensheng was furious.

He immediately said, “Master Yang, just a few days ago you were desperately flattering my old master, but after just a few days, you’ve come to our tea pavilion to mock and ridicule us?”

“Although changes in human sentiment are common, our family is merely short of some funds. We haven’t broken any bones or shown signs of decline, yet you suddenly turn on us, kicking us when we’re down, coming to our tea pavilion to embarrass my old master—isn’t your behavior too ugly?”

He swept his eyes over everyone present: “Gentlemen, be careful. Don’t ever encounter difficulties in your business, and pray that everything goes smoothly throughout your lives. Otherwise, you will surely see Master Yang’s ugly face.”

As he spoke, he raised his hand to summon several attendants, pointing at Yang Hong, “Throw him out.”

Several attendants immediately rolled up their sleeves, grabbed Yang Hong, and pushed him downstairs, shoving him toward the door.

“Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? Is there no law…” Yang Hong hadn’t expected the Ye family’s manager to dare lay hands on him. He suffered a great loss of dignity, his cultivated appearance completely ruined, and he couldn’t help but shout out.

He had brought two servants with him, but this was the Ye family’s territory. To prevent hooligans and idlers from causing trouble, and also because carrying teapots required strength, the attendants hired were all tall and strong. Even if Yang Hong’s two servants wanted to rescue their master, each was restrained by two attendants, and they were all sent toward the first floor and the door together.