Originally, when he had sent people to inquire in the Capital, the higher-ups had only said they would summon Meng Chengwei and give him a warning. After all, Meng Chengwei’s troublemaking in Lin’an was disrespectful to Governor Qi Zhipei.

If his attitude was good, they would let him return, only requiring him to leave Lin’an and stop targeting the Ye family. There was no need to imprison him. Becoming enemies with the faction behind the Meng family over a small family like the Ye was unnecessary.

But if Meng Chengwei continued to be so unwise and disrespectful to Governor Qi Zhipei, Governor Qi would naturally not let him off so lightly. Instead, he would throw him in prison for a couple of days, until he yielded, begged for mercy, and offered some benefits before releasing him.

As for whether Meng Chengwei would seek revenge against the Ye family after leaving Lin’an, as long as it didn’t cause major chaos or affect Lin’an’s tea industry, Governor Qi Zhipei had not planned to intervene further.

But now that Lu Guanyi wanted to cooperate with the Ye family, things were different.

In the Capital, the Lu and Qi families were neighbors. Lu Guanyi’s grandfather, the old Marquis Lu, and Qi Zhipei’s father, the old Master Qi, had a good relationship, often arranging to play chess and enjoy leisure activities together. Consequently, their two children had also played together since childhood and grown up together.

When the old Marquis and his wife were still alive, Lu Guanyi had lived with his grandparents, and his life had been quite good. For Lu Guanyi’s future, the old Marquis had planned far ahead, encouraging him to befriend the Crown Prince.

However, after the old Marquis and his wife passed away one after another, the Marquis of Xuanwu remained stationed at the border and didn’t care much about his eldest son. The thirteen or fourteen-year-old Lu Guanyi was suppressed by his stepmother, and his situation became difficult.

Fortunately, the boy was astute. He used the Crown Prince’s influence to counter his stepmother, and after coming of age, he began working for the Crown Prince.

Thinking about Lu Guanyi’s capability and the maturity he displayed, and then thinking about his own foolish son, Qi Zhipei shook his head with a wry smile.

Being able to establish a connection with the Crown Prince through Qi Ji’s friendship with Lu Guanyi would be beneficial for their faction. His son could be considered a fool with good fortune.

Although the Qi family was not military or noble but rather a family of civil officials, Qi Zhipei would not normally have to fawn over Lu Guanyi. However, Lu Guanyi was representing the Crown Prince’s faction in coming to Jiangnan for this tea business, which gave him a different status and position.

The Crown Prince was the legitimate heir, and his character and abilities were exceptional. Although his mother had died early and his maternal clan’s influence was weak, there were still many court officials who supported him.

The Fourth Prince was several years younger than the Crown Prince, having just come of age this year, and had not yet independently handled any assignments, so his abilities remained to be seen. Although he had the support of the Empress and her maternal clan, the Emperor still appeared to rely more on the Crown Prince.

The faction to which Qi Zhipei belonged was the royalist party, unwilling to take sides too early, but they were still quite willing to maintain good relations with the Crown Prince.

Consort Min was not favored, but she had been with the Emperor since his days as a commoner and had a daughter. If the Crown Prince’s faction hadn’t emerged, Qi Zhipei’s faction wouldn’t have bothered to oppose her. But now that they could curry favor with the Crown Prince, Consort Min’s faction no longer mattered much.

Having understood this point, Qi Zhipei stood up: “I will send people to arrest Meng Chengwei right away.”

With that, he strode out.

Upon returning to the government office, he didn’t immediately send people out, but instead stroked his chin thoughtfully for a while. Then he called for Advisor Wu and gave him some instructions.

Upon hearing his words, Advisor Wu was delighted and immediately sent one of his trusted subordinates to the teahouse. Under the pretext of buying tea, the subordinate passed the message to the Ye family.

Since the teahouse was crowded with people coming and going, it wasn’t convenient to directly look for Ye Chongming. Therefore, Advisor Wu took a roundabout approach, first seeking out the teahouse’s head manager, Song Dequan.

After the incident with Ding Jian, Ye Chongming had thoroughly investigated Song Dequan and, finding no connection to Meng Chengwei, felt comfortable using him.

The news quickly reached Ye Chongming’s ears.

Ye Chongming was very excited upon hearing it and very much wanted to bring Ye Yaming out to watch the show. But fearing that Meng Chengwei might become desperate when cornered, he still restrained himself and hurried out to make some arrangements.

Since the day Yang Hong had been escorted out of Jihong Pavilion after causing trouble, Meng Chengwei had never returned there.

The spring tea in Jiangnan for the coming year had already been pre-ordered. At the Bureau of Duties, although Liu Qilin had made some arrangements and could obtain a portion of raw tea, without direct contact with the garden owners, there was no guarantee of quality, not to mention the limited quantity. Meng Chengwei had little interest in those teas.

Fortunately, although Yang Hong’s attempt to humiliate Ye Chongming that day had been unsuccessful, making Meng Chengwei, who already didn’t think highly of him, even more disappointed, it wasn’t Meng Chengwei’s style to return empty-handed and with his tail between his legs after this trip to Jiangnan.

Therefore, Meng Chengwei still patiently pretended to get along with Yang Hong.

Meng Chengwei’s thinking was similar to Lu Guanyi’s. The garden owners in Jiangnan were already claimed by various tea merchants, large and small, and couldn’t be seized. They could only expand outward to other places to make purchases. His cooperation with the Yang family also involved investing a certain amount of silver to use the Yang family’s tea formula to produce fine tea for sale.

This was the official story.

Secretly, he also planned to use the Yang family’s connections to smuggle private tea to the border for enormous profits.

If things went smoothly, this business would continue; if they were discovered, the Yang family would be a ready-made scapegoat. And Meng Chengwei could remain completely clean.

For the latter reason, Meng Chengwei did not use his own identity to sign the cooperation contract with Yang Hong. Instead, he pushed forward a young man named Gu Jie, whom he had brought along to sign the contract with the Yang family.

Gu Jie was an illegitimate son from a minor family who had lived with his mother since childhood. When he was fourteen, his mother fell seriously ill and sent him to the Gu family before passing away.

The Gu family’s matriarch was jealous. In front of Gu Jie’s father, she displayed magnanimity, allowing Gu Jie to return to the Gu family. But privately, she instructed the servants to bully him. Therefore, after entering the Gu mansion, Gu Jie’s living conditions were worse than those of the servants.

Meng Chengwei was very far-sighted. Besides having clan brothers like Meng Liang, he also sought out useful people outside the family. Gu Jie had caught his eye.

Gu Jie was sixteen years old and could have relied on his abilities to make a living. Even working as a porter at the docks to support himself would have been better than being bullied in the Gu family. But the Gu family matriarch was unwilling to let him go.

Therefore, when Meng Chengwei offered to support him, ensuring that Madam Gu could no longer bully him, and promised to buy him a house in the future and transfer his household registration to establish a new household for him, Gu Jie was moved to tears of gratitude and was willing to do anything for him.

This time, Meng Chengwei had brought Gu Jie to Lin’an but didn’t keep him by his side. Instead, he arranged for someone to accompany Gu Jie to enjoy Lin’an city, eating well every day.

When he called Gu Jie to sign the contract, Gu Jie didn’t ask any questions, signing where he was told to sign and stamping where he was told to stamp.

Gu Jie was a perceptive person. He knew there was no such thing as a free lunch. Meng Chengwei’s kindness to him was certainly to use him for things that Meng himself couldn’t conveniently do publicly.

As for whether these things were illegal or might result in having property confiscated and being beheaded, Gu Jie didn’t care.

Without Meng Chengwei, his life had been worse than death. How could he have enjoyed the kind of good life he had now? Every day he lived like this was a bonus. As for having property confiscated, he hoped for it. He would be happy to see the Gu family members beheaded one by one. At one point, he had thought about simply killing himself, but then realized that would be too easy on Madam Gu and her children.