During this time, many more people had successively arrived at the teahouse to while away time, chat, and listen to storytellers. Those who hadn’t noticed the commotion at the stairway suddenly saw three men arguing noisily as they were escorted downstairs by the attendants and pushed out the door. The one leading them was dressed in silk and satin, and at first glance looked quite familiar, which excited everyone as they stood up to watch the spectacle.

Even the most fascinating story told by a storyteller couldn’t compare to real-life drama.

Someone recognized Yang Hong and called out, “Oh my, isn’t that Master Yang, the owner of Taifeng Teahouse? What’s going on?”

Lin Zhensheng knew that doing this would cause a sensation. Linan was prosperous, with plenty of idle people. If a household was robbed or a man stole someone’s wife, within half a day, everyone would know about it, let alone something happening in this teahouse.

Rather than letting people make wild guesses and spread false rumors, it was better to clarify things himself.

He immediately explained the situation thoroughly.

He couldn’t mention the matter of the Fourth Master falling into a trap and buying private tea, but he could openly speak about the Elder Master returning from the Capital City, being robbed, and getting injured. This wouldn’t harm the Ye family’s reputation in the slightest.

As for the tea currency matter, it needed to be publicized more to benefit Baofeng Bank. With so many people present, this was the perfect opportunity to discuss it.

So he spoke about these matters openly, without any concealment.

Even without embellishment, Yang Hong’s smug and ugly expression was displayed before everyone’s eyes. People’s gazes, apart from being surprised, were full of contempt.

Naturally, they despised his character, while their surprise was directed at his intelligence.

Speaking of kicking someone when they’re down, if the Ye family were declining, it would be understandable if the Yang family stepped on them a couple of times. But the Ye family was doing well, and Ye Chongming was still the head of the guild. If he had said a few words in the tea industry, Yang Hong would have been squeezed out of business in Linan city.

How stupid must he be to do something like this?

Yang Hong had already wished he could find a crack in the ground to disappear into when he was being escorted downstairs.

He had been too eager. Upon learning that Meng Chengwei was an imperial merchant looking for partners in the tea business, he had been single-mindedly trying to connect with Meng Chengwei.

Unfortunately, Meng Chengwei looked down on him, preferring to spend every day at Jixiang Teahouse waiting for Ye Chongming to extend an olive branch rather than pay attention to him who had taken the initiative. This made him feel extremely unbalanced.

When Meng Chengwei finally expressed willingness to cooperate with him and hinted that he should put Ye Chongming in his place and tarnish his reputation, he naturally wanted to perform well, which was why he had hurried over.

In his view, Ye Chongming had always prided himself on being kind-hearted and gentle, with a good temperament, not the type to hold grudges. Even if he came to make sarcastic remarks, Ye Chongming shouldn’t mind and certainly wouldn’t confront him publicly.

Even if there was a confrontation, it would just be a few heated words, nothing serious or harmful.

He hadn’t expected the manager to be so bold as to have people escort him out the door, causing him to lose face, and then adding insult to injury with fabricated claims.

They were truly a bunch of bandits, how unreasonable!

Although arguing with the Ye family’s manager in public would damage his status, he really couldn’t care less now. If he didn’t deny it, his shameful behavior would be spread throughout Jiangnan by tomorrow.

“Nonsense. I merely asked Old Master Ye a few questions and spoke some truths. You can’t be so tyrannical that you don’t allow people to speak the truth, can you?” he argued. “Is this the family tradition of your Ye family? Normally acting like saints, but when someone speaks a few truths, you become furious and turn black into white. I just want to ask, is there any place in this world where reason prevails?” he said sharply.

“So many people are listening, and you said what you said. Do you still want to distort the facts in front of so many people?” Lin Zhensheng said, then stopped arguing further. Seeing that the attendants had taken Yang Hong outside, he turned and went back into the teahouse.

Saying too much would make it seem like the Ye family teahouse was being aggressive. Anyway, with so many people watching, there was no worry about not having people embellish and spread Yang Hong’s recent performance.

The world never lacks idle people who enjoy watching drama and don’t mind making things worse.

Entering the teahouse, he asked the attendants, “You didn’t hurt him, did you?”

“No, Manager, we know what we’re doing,” the attendants said with grins.

Since arriving in Linan city, Meng Chengwei had rented a private room on the second floor of Jixiang Tower near the stairs for a month to attract the attention of the Ye family, possibly encounter them, develop a connection, and build a friendly relationship.

After being repeatedly rejected and having the Ye family discover that he was stealing their tea farmers, effectively breaking their relationship, he no longer planned to visit teahouses owned by the Ye family.

However, since the Yang family’s teahouse was some distance from Jixiang Tower, and he wanted to see Ye Chongming being humiliated to ease his inner anger, he still came to Jixiang Tower early.

When Yang Hong caused trouble, Meng Chengwei was sitting in a private room on the second floor, listening to the commotion outside.

At first, when he heard Yang Hong humiliating Ye Chongming, Meng Chengwei was quite pleased. But the result made him scowl.

“Useless,” he cursed, deeply regretting his cooperation with the Yang family.

Meng Liang had received many favors from Yang Hong, so naturally he wanted to speak up for him: “The Ye family is too disrespectful. Being in the same guild, the Yang family’s business is no smaller than the Ye family’s. How dare they be so discourteous? For this matter, I’ll find some idle men to speak ill of the Ye family.”

Meng Chengwei initially didn’t want to respond, but after hearing this and thinking for a moment, he nodded and said, “Fine, go ahead.”

Seeing Meng Liang stand up, he was worried about his cousin and instructed: “Be careful, take several detours, don’t let people discover it’s our doing.”

“Yes.”

After a pause, Meng Chengwei added, “Have people spread these rumors to the tea farmers on the mountain?”

Previously, when the tea farmers heard rumors spread by Liu Qilin and others, they might not have believed them. But now with citywide rumors of the Ye family’s decline, they would become anxious and choose to quickly redeem their tea currency to avoid any mishaps.

Once many people redeemed and word spread, those who had deposited silver in Baofeng Bank would certainly become uneasy, worrying that their silver might be used by Baofeng Bank for those tea farmers, and when they needed their silver, Baofeng Bank wouldn’t be able to provide it. They would choose to withdraw their silver as well.

When Baofeng Bank collapsed from the bank run, he didn’t believe Ye Chongming’s days would be good.

In short, anyone who dared not give face to Meng Chengwei would have a hard time.

“Yes,” Meng Liang quickly flattered his clan brother, “Master, your strategy is brilliant.”