Outside the outer corridor, hot air hit them head-on.

At the street corner sat a beggar whose clothes barely covered his body. Missing one leg, he lay twisted on a wooden board. Passersby all avoided him.

When he spotted Su Minguan, he crawled over and pleaded pitifully: “Master, may you prosper! This humble one is about to starve to death…”

Su Minguan was holding a sweet osmanthus cake in his hand—glossy and fragrant, brought out from Defeng Trading House.

He walked around the beggar to avoid having his clothes touched by those dirty hands, nonchalantly took a bite of the cake, and ordered Lin Yuchan: “Keep up.”

Lin Yuchan felt compassion in her heart. Looking again at Comprador Su’s completely indifferent attitude, her face couldn’t help but show indignation.

Su Minguan seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, catching her expression. He sneered coldly: “Don’t be so kindhearted. I only do one good deed per year.”

Lin Yuchan: “Did I use up this year’s quota?”

“No,” he turned back with a smile, “you’re drawing on next year’s advance.”

Lin Yuchan was stunned, following his gaze to look over. The beggar, seeing no one paying attention to him, muttered curses for a while, then somehow suddenly produced another leg and ran swiftly into the alley!

Lin Yuchan: “…”

Looking at Su Minguan again, she found him somewhat more agreeable.

“Minguan… young master?” Seeing they were out of Wang Quan’s sight range, Lin Yuchan tried to make conversation. “Speaking of which, I forgot to kowtow in thanks for saving my life last time…”

One must say, clothes make the man. When Lin Yuchan first met Young Master Su, he wore plain clothes and hemp shoes, scared out of his wits by a fake corpse, looking like a poor but kind young man. The second time, his clothes were tattered, and he looked haggard, mixed among a group of fierce criminals, appearing particularly frail.

Today, he wore a respectable long gown, elegant and refined, with a cold expression, quite showing the cool composure of someone who “acts ruthlessly but speaks little,” able to command respect anywhere on this bustling street.

His back was straight, standing out like a crane among chickens among the hunched and stooped pedestrians.

“You’re welcome. No need to kowtow.” Su Minguan put on his sun hat, glancing at her sideways. “Why didn’t you tell me then that you were from Defeng Trading House? Made me wait for nothing.”

His voice carried a lazy quality—perhaps from fatigue, or perhaps from having his throat parched by the summer sun.

“It’s a long story. I was sold here by someone.”

Lin Yuchan didn’t want to elaborate, not wanting to seem like she was complaining. Passing over it with one sentence, she suddenly softened her voice and said: “You also didn’t tell me you were originally a legitimate young master from the Thirteen Factories.”

Su Minguan was momentarily stunned, stopping in his tracks.

“How do you know…”

Lin Yuchan quickly said, “I guessed.”

From his excellent English, his disdain for Defeng Trading House’s false claims to be part of the Thirteen Factories, Wang Quan’s awe toward his father, and his words about “the whole family being exiled and struck from the Thirteen Factories’ records”…

Calculating the time, this should be right after the First Opium War.

He was young at the time, thus escaping disaster.

Su Minguan didn’t believe her completely. His sharp gaze swept over this sharp-tongued girl, needle meeting needle, shell against shell, but found no flaws.

He thought it over and found a reason for her himself.

“Have you heard of Xingrui Trading House?” He spoke with faint pride, saying softly, “I didn’t expect anyone would still remember.”

Tea shop workers used internal passages hidden under the eaves to go from the warehouse to the shop front; when Lin Yuchan escorted customers, she had to go around half the street.

As they approached the warehouse gate, Lin Yuchan suddenly stopped.

She had harbored a question in her heart and finally couldn’t help asking: “Young master, are you a comprador?”

Su Minguan raised his eyelids but didn’t answer her question: “Isn’t your illness better yet? Your steps are so unsteady.”

Lin Yuchan wouldn’t let him change the subject, continuing: “You were once opponents of foreign merchants, now working under foreign merchants—are you willing?”

This time he didn’t avoid the topic, saying quite directly: “No need for you to worry about it.”

“Minguan young master,” Lin Yuchan said suddenly, “when the Jardine senior partner came to get you, he said you’d been missing for four days and was very angry. But when you were arrested by the authorities as a rebel, I heard those bailiffs say it was three days ago.”

Lin Yuchan’s gaze fixed on his face, observing his reaction.

“So actually, when you saved me at the mass grave, you had already left Jardine Matheson & Co. without saying goodbye.

“I remember now—I was dying then, but my ears could still hear. I remember you saying you weren’t planning to stay in Guangzhou City anymore, doing a good deed before leaving to accumulate some virtue for yourself… Oh yes, you were carrying a traveling bag then too.

“Are you here today representing Jardine Matheson & Co. to buy tea?”

For a moment, the air was quiet. Su Minguan leaned against a pillar of the memorial archway at the crossroads, patiently studying Lin Yuchan’s face. Seeing her getting annoyed, she glared back at him defiantly.

After a long while, he finally said expressionlessly, word by word: “You are an indentured servant bought outright, and I am a customer of your master’s house. A’Mei, you may not know that with just one embellished complaint from me, your shopkeeper could beat you black and blue.”

Lin Yuchan’s heart suddenly felt uneasy. She didn’t know whether his words were a reminder or a warning, but summing them up, it was roughly: “You know too much.”

“Minguan young master…” She quickly knew when to stop, hurriedly saying: “I’m bored, I’m meddlesome, if I asked something I shouldn’t have…”

“Minguan is my business name, not my real name.” He suddenly said, “You don’t need to call me that.”

Lin Yuchan was surprised: “…Business name?”

“It’s the name used when doing business.” Seeing her nervous, he suddenly laughed softly, “You don’t know, ah?”

Like spring water beginning to thaw, the earlier shadow immediately cleared away. Lin Yuchan unconsciously looked away.

Regretting in her heart, she was scared of him, how embarrassing.

Minguan told her that merchants of the Thirteen Factories, besides their ordinary given names, surnames, and courtesy names, would all take another catchy business name to facilitate dealing with foreigners.

Though merchants were wealthy but not noble, they all hoped their descendants would take the official path, so business names often contained the character “guan” (official).

His grandfather’s business name was Minguan, a name once passed from mouth to mouth among foreign merchants. Later, when his father took over the family business, the foreign merchants only recognized old established firms, affectionately calling this new head of house “Minguan the Second.”

The vast family fortune couldn’t be passed to “Minguan the Third.” In Young Master Su’s childhood memories were scattered all kinds of farewells.

He could never again see that beautiful grand courtyard with its artificial hills and gardens. Each new home was smaller than the last; servants were dismissed, household items moved out, and beloved delicacies could no longer be eaten. Until people began coming to collect debts, one of those times, they took away his mother, Minguan the Second’s most beloved concubine.

After the family business failed, fortunately some family friends helped so he wouldn’t be left on the streets. When he grew up, relying on the business acumen absorbed in childhood, he found work at a foreign trading house and could make a living.

This was probably what they called the coldness of human nature. From a wealthy young master living in luxury to an abandoned child whom no one would protect, even when randomly arrested by authorities, just over ten years had passed.

…

“Then… what should I call your real name?”

The thin voice, like a pool of water in summer, scattered the oppressive memories.

“I…”

Su Minguan seemed hesitant, probably regretting his earlier impulsive revelation to her.

“Wait, we business people believe in reciprocity. A’Mei, you tell me first—what’s your name?”

He raised his head, smugly pursing the corners of his mouth.

A young girl’s intimate name surely couldn’t be casually told to others, even if she was just a low-status servant girl.

Who knew this little girl wouldn’t play by the rules at all? She answered quite readily: “Right, I should have told you earlier—my surname is Lin…”

The original host had no name anyway, so Lin Yuchan kept her name unchanged, telling him and thoughtfully specifying which characters.

“…The ‘chan’ from ‘chanjuan’ (beautiful moon). You know ‘sharing the beautiful moon across a thousand li,’ right?”

Su Minguan was speechless. Gritting his teeth, he said quietly: “Xiao Bai.”

Lin Yuchan: “What?”

“Xiao Bai. It’s what my family calls me.” He raised his voice, sternly warning: “Don’t tell anyone else. Don’t call me that randomly.”

Lin Yuchan couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“Don’t laugh!”

Lin Yuchan turned away to hide her smile.

So deeply mysterious, yet his pet name was so purely random—this was intentional.

Su Minguan coughed lightly.

“Alright, now I’ll answer your question. I’m reluctant to give up the silver Jardine Matheson & Co. gives me, so I went back to work. I am indeed here today, representing Jardine, to buy tea from your Defeng Trading House. It’s legitimate business—I won’t cheat your boss.”

Having been slightly intimidated by him, Lin Yuchan didn’t dare probe further.

As he spoke, he strode toward the warehouse, patting his pocket: “I even brought the promissory note. If the tea is qualified, I’ll pay the deposit directly.”

Lin Yuchan found this novel: “Promissory note? Is that the kind you can take to a money house…”

The Qing Dynasty’s financial payment methods were advanced. In TV dramas, they always moved silver by the chestful.

Su Minguan looked at her somewhat disdainfully and answered: “What money house? It’s from London’s Liru Bank.”

Lin Yuchan: “…”

The Qing Dynasty was advanced.

As they spoke, the warehouse was already before them. A breeze blew past a dark corner at the turn, carrying a strong smell of latrines.

Lin Yuchan bit her teeth as some strange sensation crept up her lower abdomen, cold sweat suddenly beading on her forehead.

She hadn’t used the toilet since morning…

Just endure it, bear with it.

“This is the place.” She tried to seem nonchalant. “I wonder if it meets the young master’s standards?”

When outsiders entered the warehouse, they walked on a specially laid wooden path, dozens of meters from the bustling workers’ area. From a distance, ordinary people could only marvel at the scale of Defeng Trading House’s tea inventory without clearly seeing the details of tea processing and unloading.

Su Minguan looked from afar at the bamboo baskets and equipment in the warehouse, musing: “These are loose teas collected from tea dealers in Fujian’s Wuyi Mountain area. Processes like withering, rolling, killing green, and drying have been completed by local tea farmers. But foreigners buying tea require high quality, so there must still be fine processing like roasting, supplemental firing, and sifting before they can be sold—from the looks of it, none of this tea has begun fine processing yet?”

The roughly processed tea leaves contained hard stems and were stuffed in bamboo baskets, so they didn’t have a very strong fragrance originally. Even so, a faint fresh woody scent still drifted in the wind, showing this batch of tea leaves was of superior quality.

He spoke deliberately and slowly, probably expecting Lin Yuchan, this little tea shop worker, to praise him with “You know your stuff.” But Lin Yuchan was a complete outsider. Hearing his discourse was more like receiving basic education—she could only nod repeatedly and say perfunctorily: “Everything you say is right.”

Having played his pearls before swine, Su Minguan quietly concluded and asked: “What’s wrong with you? Not feeling well?”

Lin Yuchan: “…”

The little girl was thin as a reed, making her eyes seem especially large. The cold sweat dripping from her forehead was almost as big as her eyeballs. Her face went from pale to flushed, clearly distracted.

Su Minguan grew suspicious, staring at her intently as he slowly said: “Now it’s my turn to ask questions. Who exactly are you? If you’re a tea house worker, why would you collapse outside with no one caring? Trading houses don’t have the custom of hiring servant girls to work—why did Defeng Trading House make an exception?”

Lin Yuchan bit her lower jaw, shamelessly saying in a small voice: “Can we not talk about this now? I… I need to go. I want to use the toilet.”