Lin Yuchan had no choice but to return to the warehouse to continue working, trying to make herself sweat profusely.

Even the bookkeeper couldn’t bear to watch. His surname was Zhan, with a round face like a Western clock dial, and two upturned mustaches at the corners of his lips, forming three-fifteen on the clock.

Mr. Zhan had recently been blessed with a precious son and wanted to hand out red envelopes to everyone he met, radiating Buddha-like benevolence from head to toe.

He pulled Wang Quan aside and whispered: “She’s just an ordinary young girl—why treat her so harshly? Just leave her aside and don’t bully people.”

Wang Quan smiled without sincerity: “Sir, you’re soft-hearted, but you don’t know this maidservant has a vicious heart. If we don’t discipline her, she’ll make monkeys of us!”

Mr. Zhan had nothing more to say. The clerks in the warehouse were accustomed to reading the shopkeeper’s mood, and before long, they began ordering her around to work quite naturally.

…

Another hour passed, and Lin Yuchan couldn’t take it anymore.

She gently pushed the back door open a crack: “Hey, Shopkeeper…”

She immediately shut her mouth.

A customer stood outside the counter, his cool hat tilted back to reveal refined eyes, with several faint healing scars on the back of his hands.

The customer was young, and Wang Quan obviously didn’t take him too seriously, wearing a perfunctory smile as he said: “…However, let me say this upfront—our Defeng Trading House currently only does large-scale business and foreign trade. This is a rule passed down from the Thirteen Hongs…”

“Rules of the Thirteen Hongs? The descendants of the Thirteen Hongs seem far too numerous.” The customer chuckled softly and asked: “Shopkeeper, do you recognize me?”

Wang Quan was somewhat displeased but still smiled in response: “How could this humble person recognize… eh, wait… aren’t you… no, no…”

He removed his glasses and vigorously wiped them with his sleeve, his expression turning to astonishment.

The customer reminded him: “I look very much like my father.”

Wang Quan drew in a sharp breath, hastily waved for the clerks to leave, and spoke in disbelief.

“You are Young Master Su Minguan… no, no, Master Su isn’t he… that…”

“The whole family was exiled to Ili and removed from the Thirteen Hongs.” The customer half-closed his eyes as if chatting about family matters. “But I was still young then, not yet of age for criminal punishment.”

Wang Quan had completely dropped his perfunctory manner, his waist involuntarily bowing as he asked softly: “Su… Young Master Su’s visit today, what brings you here?”

“What are you afraid of? I’m not here to collect debts.” The customer smiled. “Can’t I do business with you?”

Wang Quan straightened his back slightly and resumed his official tone: “Our firm now only does large-scale business with foreigners. May I ask which foreign firm Young Master Su represents for price inquiries?”

“Jardine Matheson,” Su Minguan said calmly, “or you could call it… Jardine.”

At first sight of Su Minguan, Lin Yuchan thought she had mistaken him for someone else.

However, after he spoke a few words, she realized that this Young Master Su, who was showing off excessively, was indeed the same person as the pitiful Su Minguan who had been displayed in stocks the day before.

The Jardine taipan had spoken truthfully. Su Minguan had been missing for several days, leaving behind quite a bit of unfinished business, so that even with his cangue injuries not yet healed, he was working tirelessly, obviously driven by KPIs.

Wang Quan graciously opened the small counter door, and he walked in calmly, sitting opposite the counter.

Defeng Trading House was located on a bustling street on the north bank of the Pearl River. The shop’s main door didn’t open directly onto the street but was set back behind a corridor about five feet wide. The corridors between shops connected, allowing pedestrians to avoid the scorching street while leisurely browsing the shop windows.

The storefront wasn’t wide, but it was extremely deep, with courtyards nested within courtyards in distinct layers, creating great aesthetic appeal.

This was an architectural form from Southeast Asia, quite similar to the prototype of modern Guangzhou arcade buildings.

The weather was hot at the time, but inside Defeng’s shop, with the shaded outer corridor providing separation, it was cool and pleasant.

Shopkeeper Wang Quan had someone serve tea and put on the appearance of a long-awaited reunion, trying to get close to Young Master Su.

“After so many years, I never expected Young Master Su to have become such a talented and handsome man. It’s truly… truly excellent, excellent. Now that Young Master Su holds a high position at Jardine, it can be called a comeback. Your late father, knowing this from the underworld, would surely be comforted…”

Su Minguan’s lips curved slightly upward as he smiled: “When my family was raided, the shopkeeper just watched the excitement and didn’t join in smashing even a table or chair in my house. I’m very grateful for that.”

Wang Quan tasted these words carefully, feeling they had a somewhat sarcastic tone, yet didn’t seem like seeking revenge. Not knowing how to respond, he could only smile apologetically and change the subject: “Is Young Master truly here representing Jardine today?”

Jardine was an established foreign firm. During the era of single-port trade, it only did business with the top merchant houses among the Thirteen Hongs. Now that the Thirteen Hongs were gone, Jardine remained extremely picky about trading partners. New wealthy firms like Defeng had always been looked down upon by them.

Today’s sudden visit filled Wang Quan with surprised joy, though he didn’t dare fully believe it.

With a snap, a calling card was slapped onto the counter. The paper bore an imposing emblem: two dragons supporting a diagonally crossed flag, with the English letters J and M elegantly intertwined beneath the flag. Flowing waves surrounded it all, very impressive.

Lin Yuchan suddenly recognized this emblem. She had seen letters bearing this emblem at the church.

Wang Quan recognized this trademark too and immediately showed respectful reverence.

Behind the calling card was also attached a letter, with flowery characters all in a foreign script.

Although Wang Quan could speak some pidgin English like “how much” and “one dollar,” when the dense tadpole-like characters were arranged together, he was powerless. Though he couldn’t read it, he could guess it was probably correspondence from foreign merchants commissioning compradors to purchase tea and such.

The smile Wang Quan had worn earlier was mainly polite—corners of his mouth reaching his ears while his eyes still rolled around. Only now did that smile finally begin to come from the heart, his eyes squinting into slits radiating countless wrinkles.

He was already dreaming of getting rich, secretly calculating: Englishmen.

There was also competition among foreign merchants, especially between the English, French, and Americans, who often guarded against each other. Purchasing and shipping were fully handled by compradors without revealing their own details.

Wang Quan knew this well. He always played all sides when dealing with foreigners, exploiting the suspicions between foreign merchants—cheating a little here, eating a price difference there, profiting as the fisherman.

The Qing army might not be good at fighting, but Qing merchants could manipulate foreigners in the palm of their hands. Wang Quan was very proud, feeling that when foreigners attacked cities and burned land years ago, it might not have been a bad thing. Circumstances create heroes, after all.

He familiarly greeted Young Master Su: “Jardine has never purchased goods from our firm before. Your grand visit today suggests that other firms’ tea doesn’t meet your taipan’s requirements. Not to belittle myself, but in Chinese business, there are too many who cheat and use inferior goods as superior ones, only caring about immediate petty profits, damaging the reputation of Chinese merchants abroad—truly detestable. Our firm is different. Defeng’s tea sells well overseas, even earning praise from the American President. Foreign customers can open any crate at will—if there’s the slightest dissatisfaction, we’ll exchange the entire crate for free! So, Young Master, you’ve come to the right place today—how much tea did Young Master say you wanted to buy?”

Young Master Su seemed somewhat impatient, pointing to the letter: “It’s all written on this order. Where’s your interpreter?”

The interpreter wasn’t in. Although Wang Quan knew some English, like most Guangzhou merchants, he could only speak and listen, not read and write. Looking at those foreign tadpole characters gave him a headache.

Anyway, foreign documents would never be wrong. Wang Quan didn’t want to show weakness and smiled: “Young Master can tell me directly—it’s the same thing.”

Hot water was simmering on the small stove. Wang Quan personally poured tea and smilingly had a clerk bring out a plate of sweet and savory snacks.

Lin Yuchan hid outside the back door, unable to leave or stay, listening to Wang Quan’s endless chatter while feeling an increasingly urgent… need to use the toilet.

She looked out toward the corridor. This era certainly didn’t have public restrooms. An idle man swaggered to find a corner, turned his back, and began untying his belt, only to be immediately chased away by clerks from nearby shops.

She adjusted her breathing and saw Su Minguan unceremoniously take an osmanthus sugar cake, take a pretend bite, then sip tea instead.

“I see you took in a batch of goods today, right? How much?”

Wang Quan hastily replied: “Yes, Young Master is well-informed. There is a batch. The clerks have already weighed it, but it hasn’t been processed yet…”

Lin Yuchan blurted out: “A total of one hundred and five bags of tea. Calculating twenty jin per bag, that’s two thousand one hundred jin.”

Taking this opportunity, she opened the door and entered the shop, coming face to face with Su Minguan.

Su Minguan raised an eyebrow.

Wang Quan was startled, turned around, and glared at her angrily.

Then he smiled: “Young Master, don’t listen to the little girl’s nonsense. When my bookkeeper finishes calculating, there will be accurate numbers.”

Su Minguan smiled and nodded, withdrawing his gaze as if nothing had happened.

Round-faced bookkeeper Mr. Zhan entered and handed over a slip of paper. Wang Quan looked down at it and frowned.

“Young Master, please excuse the embarrassment,” he poured two more cups of gongfu tea and smiled, “our Defeng Trading House’s goods have always been large in quantity and high in quality. Young Master is well-informed, knowing our firm took in goods today. The bookkeeper just brought the numbers—today we took in a total of fifteen hundred jin of high-quality green tea, still awaiting refinement. Unfortunately, this tea has already been reserved by another foreign firm. Whatever quantity Young Master needs, I can contact tea suppliers again…”

Lin Yuchan was speechless and immediately said, “These numbers are wrong!”

She had carefully observed all morning—being off by three to five bags was possible, but there could never be such a large discrepancy!

Wang Quan said: “Excuse me.”

He got up and pulled Lin Yuchan to the corridor outside, saying viciously: “Shut your mouth! No interrupting!”

He desperately wanted to have this maidservant thrown back into the mass grave. But Lin Yuchan had caught him by the tail, and he was afraid she might impulsively “betray” him and Young Master Qi, so he didn’t dare do anything to her. This threat was thus somewhat hollow.

Lin Yuchan argued: “I counted—today’s tea couldn’t possibly be less than two thousand jin!”

“Exactly! You calculated very correctly!” Wang Quan gritted his teeth in a low voice, pointing his finger at her nose. “But how much tea do we have in stock? Why should we tell customers the truth? However many jin I say is many, there are! No undermining!”

Saying this, he turned and went back inside.

But he couldn’t help turning back to look at Lin Yuchan. The slip Mr. Zhan had handed over earlier showed the actual number of tea bags loaded and unloaded today—exactly one hundred and five bags, no more, no less. Total weight: two thousand and eighty-nine jin.

Of course, after going through various elaborate exploitation processes, the two thousand jin of raw tea that tea farmers had grown with blood and sweat could weigh out to fifteen hundred jin and still be considered generous.

In front of potential customers, Wang Quan certainly couldn’t reveal the details of his trading house’s short-weighing and skimming practices.

In the shop, Su Minguan played with the gongfu tea cup and asked Wang Quan curiously: “Who is that girl? Quite sharp-minded.”

Wang Quan hemmed and hawed: “She’s… she’s a bought maidservant.”

“I’ve never heard of tea houses using maidservants as helpers.” Su Minguan acted as if he had never seen Lin Yuchan, smiling slightly. “Who are your suppliers? I want to see your inventory. Let her take me there.”

Wang Quan hastily said: “These clerks are all very capable. Let me have one of them take you. Just take the road with the drainage ditch and you’ll be there…”

“I want her to take me.”

Wang Quan was so angry his face burned and his glasses fogged up. He wondered why this girl wasn’t urgently running outside yet.

Lin Yuchan jumped at the chance: “I can do it. I know the way to the warehouse.”