She didn’t have the patience to teach people to read, especially since she had been gradually familiarizing herself with traditional Chinese characters by reading books and secretly practicing calligraphy to make her handwriting resemble that of the original owner.

The original Ye Yaming had excellent small-script calligraphy. In contrast, her previous handwriting with a fountain pen had been flamboyant and unrestrained.

Their personalities were opposite, which was reflected in their writing styles. Despite having the original owner’s memories and muscle memory, the characters she wrote still displayed a distinctly different style.

Bai Rui took the paper with confusion and looked at it carefully.

After reading two lines, she suddenly raised her head to look at Ye Yaming.

The paper listed the gold, silver, and jade jewelry that the original Ye Yaming had given to Madam Yu over the years.

To secure financial support from the Ye family, Madam Yu had always pretended to be poor. She wore wooden accessories in her hair and on her hands, then would hint to the original Ye Yaming during their conversations that neighboring madams looked down on her for not having jewelry, crying in front of Ye Yaming.

The original Ye Yaming wasn’t blind to Madam Yu’s attempts to solicit jewelry, but to please her future mother-in-law and for Song Yifeng’s sake, she had no choice but to give Madam Yu gold and jade accessories.

However, she wasn’t financially comfortable either. The family only made a limited number of accessories for the young ladies, and she couldn’t go without proper adornment herself, as that would disgrace her position as a Ye family daughter. Besides, she also knew not to encourage Madam Yu’s appetite—she couldn’t possibly give gifts for every festival and occasion.

So, enduring Madam Yu’s cold glances, she would only give Madam Yu a piece of gold, silver, or jade jewelry as a New Year’s gift.

One thing led to another, and after the first couple of times, it became a custom. Every New Year, the original Ye Yaming would give a piece of jewelry to Madam Yu.

Under Madam Yu’s pressure, the jewelry she gave was never inexpensive. Over these years, the total value of those accessories amounted to two or three hundred taels of silver.

Ye Yaming knew why Bai Rui was surprised.

She said calmly, “Since the Song family now disdains me, I naturally must take back the jewelry I gave them before. We can’t simply let them benefit without consequence. Look to see if anything is missing from the list, and add it if there is. If nothing’s missing, take this list to Meng Ji.”

Hearing this, Bai Rui carefully examined the names of the jewelry on the list, thought for a moment, and had Ye Yaming add one more item before taking the list to the main courtyard.

…

Although Song Yifeng had passed the provincial examination, he was still a young scholar without connections or wealth. In his anger, he hadn’t thought to go near the Ye residence to inquire about recent happenings there.

Therefore, he didn’t know that two carriages had visited the Ye family today, one of which was Secretary Wu’s frequently used carriage.

Upon returning home, he recounted his conversation with Ye Chongming to Madam Yu. Because Song Yifeng had previously prepared his mother for this possibility, Madam Yu accepted it relatively well.

She knew that Ye Chongming was a businessman who had been in trade all his life and wouldn’t make a losing deal. Since the Song family wanted to break off the engagement, it was fairly reasonable that Ye Chongming would require them to return the money the Ye family had provided over the years, rather than extorting a pound of flesh from them.

Perhaps it was also because he feared her son’s abilities, so he dared not be too excessive.

She rolled her eyes thoughtfully and said, “Let’s return fifteen hundred taels of silver to them.”

Song Yifeng opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but finally closed it again.

Since he was ten years old, the Ye family had given them two hundred taels annually, which now totaled fourteen hundred taels. Not to mention the additional money for his participation in poetry gatherings, literary societies, and imperial examinations, as well as the funds requested under the pretext of illness for him and his mother—easily another two hundred taels per year.

Over seven or eight years, the silver given to them by the Ye family was no less than three thousand taels, and this didn’t include Ye Yaming’s monthly supplements or the cost of buying their current residence.

After a long silence, he said, “Please prepare three thousand taels of silver for me first. Returning just fifteen hundred taels might cause the Ye family to be relentless. If they use this as an excuse to refuse to break off the engagement, that would be disastrous. Though the silver is substantial, the benefits of breaking this engagement are greater. We shouldn’t lose the greater for the lesser.”

Three thousand taels of silver was approximately the total amount the Ye family had given him over the years. If calculated in detail, it would only be more. But he believed the Ye family wouldn’t sever ties with him over two or three hundred taels of silver. Returning about three thousand taels should be sufficient.

As for the thousand taels the Ye family spent on buying their house, he chose to ignore that entirely.

Although Madam Yu managed the household finances, Song Yifeng knew how much money they had. By selling their land and gathering funds, they could still collect three thousand taels of silver. To gather four thousand taels, they would need to sell their residence.

A residence was a person’s face. If they sold their home and moved to a small courtyard with a poor environment and limited space, his dignity as a provincial graduate would be completely lost, and no official’s daughter would marry him and live in such a place.

As for waiting for an official’s daughter to bring a residence as part of her dowry so they could move there in the future, Song Yifeng wasn’t willing to rely on such good fortune, nor did he dare to imagine it. Unless a wealthy merchant desperately needed his services, no family would include such a large sum in their daughter’s dowry.

So this residence absolutely could not be sold.

Madam Yu and Song Yifeng were mother and son, and their thought processes were identical.

She hadn’t even considered selling their residence to gather silver.

She said, “I’d like to give you the money, but we simply don’t have it. Even the fifteen hundred taels were borrowed today from those small landlords.”

The reason these small landlords wanted to put their land under Song Yifeng’s name was not only to avoid certain taxes but also to seek his patronage.

In these times, having money without power or influence meant dealing not only with local ruffians but also with extortion from yamen runners and village chiefs. Affiliating with a provincial graduate allowed small landlords to live more peacefully. After all, even when beating a dog, one considers its owner.

Who would underestimate the future of a provincial graduate? Even if they couldn’t pass the metropolitan examination, the more successful ones could, like Secretary Wu, serve officials, or teach at the county or prefectural school. At the very least, they could participate in poetry gatherings and literary societies, allowing them to speak before officials or influential people.

Madam Yu was a shrewd and calculating woman. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to bring her son to Linan City and improve their living conditions. Because she could previously ask the Ye family for money whenever they lacked funds, she didn’t keep much money on hand. Whenever she accumulated two or three hundred taels of silver, she would use it to buy land.

Recently, since Ye Yaming had stopped coming to the Song family to be their cash cow, Madam Yu had spent a considerable amount, and now had only a few dozen taels of silver on hand.

When Song Yifeng mentioned breaking off the engagement, she knew they would certainly need to return some money to the Ye family. Today, she had spent the entire day running around and had barely managed to borrow sixteen hundred taels.

Without the income from the Ye family, she needed to keep at least a hundred taels in reserve. The future days for the mother and son would be difficult, and she was unwilling to spend more silver than necessary.

“That won’t do. You need to borrow more, at least twenty-five hundred taels,” Song Yifeng insisted.