Most importantly, with such a large investment, the tea market in Jiangnan was already saturated, and even with money, they couldn’t buy more tea leaves. They would inevitably need to take these hundred thousand taels of silver to purchase tea from other regions, which would require Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji’s power and connections to smooth the way with local officials and local forces. This was another kind of invisible investment, which balanced out the Ye family’s invisible resources of Jiangnan garden households. Lu Guanyi and his partner weren’t taking advantage of the Ye family in this aspect.

Yet despite this, they still gave the Ye family sixty percent, showing tremendous sincerity in this cooperation.

It seemed that what Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji valued most was the Ye family’s tea-making methods and the reputation of their tea brand.

However, upon hearing this, Ye Hongchang immediately frowned: “Our pre-ordered spring tea will be included in the partnership business? We’ve been doing this business well on our own, why should we let them have a share of it?”

Ye Chongming quickly said, “That’s just the first option; the second option is that we contribute silver, and the shares will be allocated according to the proportion of silver invested.”

He spread his hands, “But we can’t come up with that much silver to invest right now. If our share is too small, it wouldn’t be worthwhile.”

Although the tea money Ye Hongchang brought back hadn’t been robbed, it had been used to fill Ye Hongrong’s hole, produce osmanthus tea, and some had been sent to Baofeng Money House for cash conversion. Now, little remained.

If they scraped together funds from various sources, they might come up with ten or twenty thousand taels of silver. But seventy to eighty thousand or even over a hundred thousand taels was absolutely beyond the Ye family’s reach.

Ye Chongming sighed, “The problem now is, if we don’t invest crude tea but silver instead, there’s no tea left to buy in Jiangnan. All the tea leaves in Jiangnan have already been allocated. Haven’t there been enough troubles in these years over the competition for tea leaves? Where would we buy so much tea with over a hundred thousand taels of silver? So, perhaps we do need to invest in crude tea. Otherwise, there would be no basis for cooperation.”

Ye Jiaxing became anxious upon hearing this and asked, “Grandfather, have you agreed to them?”

Ye Chongming shook his head, “No, I said I would come back to discuss it with the family. However, Master Lu suggested going to other regions to buy tea. They would use official channels, deal with the local Customs Office or mountain owners, buy crude tea and transport it to our tea factories for processing, then sell it to other cities.”

“Of course, since our tea factories aren’t part of the cooperation, they can pay processing fees,” Ye Chongming emphasized once again.

Hearing this, both Ye Hongchang and Ye Jiaxing frowned simultaneously, “Is that feasible?”

Jiangnan was a prosperous region, and its tea had historically been the first to establish a reputation. The people of Jiangnan took pride in their tea, believing that tea from other regions couldn’t compare to Jiangnan tea.

So for many years, the Ye family had stayed in their small corner. Even as the competition for tea leaves in Jiangnan became more intense, the Ye family had no plans to expand elsewhere.

Ye Chongming turned his gaze to Ye Yaming, who had been silent all along, “What do you think, Ming’er?”

“I think it’s feasible, and the investment capital and share proportion are quite reasonable,” said Ye Yaming. “Master Lu’s latter proposal is exactly what I wanted to suggest to Grandfather and Uncle. And I don’t recommend taking sixty percent; fifty percent would be fine. After all, we’ll need to rely on them to deal with officials and local forces in many ways in the future. Giving up ten percent profit will only benefit us, not harm us.”

Ye Jiaxing immediately became anxious upon hearing this, “They said we could still negotiate, meaning we could have more shares. Third Sister, why aren’t you thinking about getting more shares, but instead want to take ten percent less? That’s not how we do business.”

Ye Chongming and Ye Hongchang, however, seemed lost in thought.

Ye Yaming smiled reassuringly at Ye Jiaxing without saying anything, only looking toward Ye Chongming.

Ye Jiaxing then noticed that neither his grandfather nor his father refuted his third sister’s words; they were deep in thought.

So, did this mean his third sister’s reasoning was sound? And he was the foolish one?

Ye Jiaxing couldn’t help but ponder this matter as well.

By now, Ye Chongming and Ye Hongchang had also realized the logic. Ye Yaming’s words were so clear that they naturally understood that Lu Guanyi and his partner weren’t taking advantage of their family. Instead, because of their esteem for the tea-making methods and the scarcity of Jiangnan tea, they had offered an extra ten percent share.

And a fifty-fifty share split was more reasonable, with neither side taking advantage of the other.

But advantages weren’t so easy to gain. After all, the Ye family had no power or influence, and in the future, whether in Jiangnan or other regions, they would have to rely on Lu and Qi’s status and connections. Over time, regardless of what Lu and Qi might think, they would become insecure, living in constant fear, worrying that Lu and Qi might swallow them whole out of dissatisfaction, leaving nothing behind.

Hearts change easily. In the face of profit, who could say for sure?

It was better to take a step back from the beginning and gain Lu and Qi’s goodwill.

With all the events that had occurred during this period, Ye Yaming’s earlier warning that “walking on one leg is too dangerous” had been a wake-up call. After hearing Lu Guanyi’s words, Ye Chongming was also very much moved.

Most importantly, the old man had been frightened by Meng Chengwei’s vicious methods and was eager to cooperate with Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji to use their hands to solve the major threat of Meng Chengwei.

So even if he didn’t think much of tea from other regions, he would agree to cooperate with the two. Moreover, Ye Yaming’s words from a few days ago were still fresh in his mind.

Even if the quality of crude tea from other regions couldn’t match that of Jiangnan tea, the tea business was highly profitable, and with the Ye family’s tea-making skills as a guarantee, making money wouldn’t be a problem.

If they could make money and have a backer, no longer fearing so-called “nobles” sharpening their knives against the Ye family, why not do it?

But…

Recalling Ye Yaming’s earlier words, Ye Chongming quickly asked, “You suggest we adopt the second option? That is, you suggest we directly invest silver rather than tea leaves?”

Ye Hongchang’s eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this.

Jiangnan tea was the foundation of their Ye family, and the profits were substantial. He didn’t want to contribute it to become something shared with others. Otherwise, would Ye family tea still be the Ye family’s? Wouldn’t his father, as the head of the trade, become someone else’s puppet?

Ye Yaming nodded.

Ye Chongming shared the same thoughts as Ye Hongchang. This was also the reason they had struggled for so many years, unwilling to cooperate with others.

If Meng Chengwei hadn’t been so forceful, he wouldn’t have wanted to cooperate with Lu and Qi.

He let out a long sigh, “I would like to do so too, but where would we get so much silver?”

“We could contribute half of our tea leaves as investment. This way, with another sixty thousand taels of silver, it should be about right,” said Ye Yaming.

Then she added, “They want to cooperate with our family not only for the tea-making methods but also for Jiangnan tea. It wouldn’t make sense not to contribute some. Don’t forget that those garden households aren’t the Ye family’s private property. If Young Master Qi’s father, the Prefect of Linan, really wanted those garden households, it would just be a matter of the Prefect having a word with the village head. They’re now formally discussing cooperation with us and showing such sincerity; it’s necessary to contribute some tea leaves”.