“Is this the person?”

The major shareholder had returned, making Shopkeeper Mau’s head ache on one side. He couldn’t help but pick up the snuff bottle on the table, close his eyes, and take a sharp inhale, letting the spicy mint fragrance clear his mind.

When you’re under someone’s roof, you have to bow your head. Shopkeeper Mau didn’t know where Miss Lin got thousands of taels of silver; he only knew that now, with one word from her, she could make him completely unemployed.

He took the paper from Lin Yuchan’s hand and couldn’t help but laugh again. His expression changed too quickly – that smile carried bitterness, and he rubbed his temples again.

She completely didn’t understand drawing. With just a few simple strokes, she had drawn a pancake-like man’s face wearing glasses. Both the lenses and cheeks were covered in oil shine.

“Yes, yes,” Shopkeeper Mau immediately said, “That Shopkeeper Wang looks just like this, though thinner than your drawing… Yes, yes, he mentions feng shui in every other sentence, quite ridiculous…”

According to Shopkeeper Mau’s account, Defeng Trading House appeared in Shanghai three months ago. At that time, Lin Yuchan was completely busy with Rong Hong’s case and hadn’t noticed this market development at all.

Lin Yuchan’s first reaction was: Defeng Trading House still wasn’t completely dead?

Giant foreign trade houses weren’t so easily strangled. Defeng Trading House had only been fined and bled fifty thousand taels, and could recover by selling some property and assets. The Qi family still had banks – this loss wouldn’t kill them with one blow.

Su Minguan’s family’s former Xingrui Trading House had faced a much more serious crisis back then. They had struggled for several years with expenses exceeding income before gradually failing.

It was reasonable for Defeng Trading House to decide to relocate after being unable to continue in Guangzhou.

Guangzhou’s foreign trade had shrunk severely, and many major trading houses had come to Shanghai to open branches or relocate entirely – this wasn’t unusual.

Foreign merchants were too lazy to understand China’s national conditions and relied mainly on compradors when purchasing tea. Compradors emphasized efficiency and mainly looked at qualifications when selecting suppliers.

Those like Boya who took an unconventional path and directly pursued high-end channels were in the minority. Most tea merchants still followed the old route of stockpiling goods at the docks, depending on others’ moods, waiting to be selected.

Defeng Trading House possessed the old masters from Guangzhou’s Thirteen Factories – original factory, original equipment, definitely not counterfeit – this was an extremely precious non-renewable resource. When Defeng’s people appeared at Shanghai’s tea cargo docks with tea samples transported from Guangzhou, they were immediately surrounded, and their orders sold out.

Of course, the current Defeng Trading House had also lost its original warehouses, workshops, and other fixed assets, leaving only a few personnel who rented an inconspicuous small storefront and couldn’t operate normally.

So Wang Quan, after investigation, also recognized talent when he saw it, found the thriving Xujiahui Tea Shop, and developed cooperation with them.

In Shopkeeper Mau’s eyes, Wang Quan was smooth and experienced, rich in experience, good at managing subordinates, and had Thirteen Factories masters under him – much more reliable than that little witch from Boya. So he gradually began deceiving superiors and subordinates, favoring one over another, giving the main resources to Defeng Trading House.

Shopkeeper Mau, thinking of Miss Lin’s place of origin, carefully asked: “Miss, what connection might you have with this Defeng Trading House…?”

Lin Yuchan thought for a moment and said lightly: “Defeng is a famous house in Guangzhou, locals all know that Shopkeeper Wang. I’m just asking out of curiosity. Nothing special.”

“You said to borrow for one hour, now you’re extending again. This young master has lost half a day’s work, that’s a big loss. Please compensate for lost wages.”

Su Minguan straightened the hat on his head, lightly jumped over a construction road edge, and glanced sideways at Lin Yuchan with dissatisfaction in his eyes.

“You should compensate me with an intelligence reward!” Lin Yuchan wasn’t to be outdone, catching up with him, “Fortunately we haven’t run into Wang Quan these past months, otherwise regardless of you or me, if he recognized either of us and reported to officials, if any clerk had nothing better to do and investigated along the line—”

“Then we’d have no choice,” Su Minguan stopped walking, his expression grave, looking around to ensure no one was nearby, saying in a low voice, “We could only storm Shanghai County. I’ve calculated that with my current men, ships, and firearms, we could probably hold out for one month. A’Mei, when that time comes, don’t worry about me, find a ship to Macau yourself…”

He was spinning quite a detailed tale. Lin Yuchan drooped her eyebrows, acting like a romance novel heroine, clutching her heart and saying: “I won’t. If we leave, we leave together.”

Su Minguan’s eyes curved, he gave her a look, they increased the distance between them, arranged proper expressions, and passed by two patrolmen.

“I’ll have Yixing people investigate the details,” Su Minguan said, “From now on, go to Xujiahui Tea Shop less often. If there’s business, have your managers and clerks relay it.”

Anyway, she didn’t have the money to buy out Defeng Trading House, too, so she could only temporarily avoid confrontation.

Su Minguan now felt his winning chances had returned somewhat, smiling as he reminded: “A’Mei, don’t spend money randomly this year, don’t buy too many things.”

Lin Yuchan was confused by this jumping logic for a moment, asking puzzledly: “Why?”

“The dormitory I’ve prepared for Yixing’s accountant is rather small, I’m afraid it can’t fit many girls’ belongings.”

The old Guangzhou tea house, Defeng Trading House, and Shanghai’s emerging high-end tea dealer, Boya Company, were in direct competitive opposition.

At the docks, while other tea shops’ goods were still being picked over by compradors, weighed and measured, Defeng Trading House’s tea had already passed through three levels of inspection channels and was directly loaded onto familiar foreign trading houses’ ships.

This competitiveness was extraordinary.

But because Boya had acquired Xujiahui Tea Shop, and Defeng Trading House commissioned Xujiahui to do much processing work, it was equivalent to Boya earning money from their competitor Defeng Trading House…

Lin Yuchan found this strange symbiotic relationship headache-inducing.

She naturally only felt dislike for Defeng Trading House, with no old friendship. But since Defeng Trading House hadn’t dragged her down to death, and instead, thanks to her had been fined five hundred thousand taels of silver, becoming dispirited and forced to leave their homeland, she felt her anger had mostly dissipated.

If Wang Quan could operate with integrity from now on and stop engaging in those unconscionable side businesses, Lin Yuchan felt she would be quite willing to coexist with Defeng Trading House.

The prerequisite was not being squeezed out by them.

Boya refined tea’s profit margins and sales channels were both limited. Lin Yuchan had Xujiahui Tea Shop work overtime continuously to develop two new products:

Little Boya (Liberal Junior) was the civilian version of Boya refined tea, with slightly simplified processing procedures and correspondingly lower raw tea quality, allowing for faster mass production. It also didn’t need such exquisite hand-painted tea cans. This brand targeted ordinary Chinese tea exported to Europe and could compete with other tea house merchants at the tea cargo docks.

Lin Yuchan had Mau Shuniang responsible for Little Boya’s selection and sampling. She occupied a workshop alone, working with great satisfaction.

Additionally there was Boya Russian Special Supply (Libéral Cadet) – at this time Russia was also pursuing complete Westernization, with nobles competing to learn European customs, greatly increasing black tea sales. Moreover, Russians weren’t picky about taste. For example, Hunan tea, which the British considered too spicy and heavy, thus priced lower than Fujian tea, was actually preferred by Russians.

After the Great Qing opened ports, Russian merchants purchased tea from Shanghai, transported it by water to Tianjin, then overland to the Sino-Russian border city of Kyakhta, then across the Eurasian continent to western major cities.

This was a very popular tea trade route. The journey was extremely long, so requirements for tea freshness weren’t high – it would be stored for a long time on the road anyway.

So, Russian special supply tea could relax material selection somewhat. But packaging had to be extremely tight, layer upon layer, absolutely preventing Siberian snow from penetrating.

With these two second-tier products, it was enough to compensate for the missing profits from Boya refined tea.

However, Lin Yuchan didn’t dare visit Xujiahui Tea Shop often, only sending Zhao Huaisheng to supervise regularly, so work efficiency inevitably suffered. The new tea production lines hadn’t yet brought rolling wealth.

But at least they weren’t losing money.

As for packaging for Boya Russian Special Supply, Lin Yuchan hired a traitor from among the Western powers – Customs’ Mr. Victor Levin, to design French-painted tea cans and write French advertising copy – at this time, French was the common language in Europe, and Russian high society took pride in speaking French. Only country bumpkins spoke Russian.

Half a day’s work cost ten taels of silver.

No choice – high-end translation talent was scarce. Otherwise Rong Hong wouldn’t have easily earned a huge monthly income before, while old Boya lost money daily.

Lin Yuchan read through those few lines of French introduction, feeling some words weren’t hard to guess – they looked similar to English words.

If she had some French proficiency, she could save considerable money and time.

“Miss Lin, would you like to learn French?” In the side garden of the Jianghai Customs House, Victor circled her, asking with irrepressible desire, “I could be your private tutor! No tuition needed! Just…”

“You’d better spend that time volunteering at Tushan Bay Orphanage,” Lin Yuchan replied with a smile, “My sister lives there…”

“Your sister! You have a sister!” Victor cried out in delight, “What’s her name? – Florence? A novice nun? My God, she must be beautiful.”

“Everyone loves her,” Lin Yuchan answered truthfully, “Just a bit temperamental. She probably won’t respond to your enthusiasm.”

“No, no one could be more heartless than you, my lovely Miss Lin. You never give me a kind look.”

Lin Yuchan gave him a heartless look, then directly bid farewell, entering the Jianghai Customs House through the side door.

She was also a busy person now, coming out wasn’t easy – she wasn’t here specifically to date Victor.

Cui Yinmei received her politely.

“Miss Lin, this year it’s seven customs houses bidding together – I guess you started this trend last year? Come, come, the forms are here.”

A year had passed so quickly. This time last year, Lin Yuchan had been running frantically through the corridors in her dress, chasing Director He for an explanation about a tea order – many customs employees still remembered that comical scene.

But she later miraculously obtained the seven customs houses’ tea order; people guessed all sorts of things, but no longer dared mock her.

“There won’t be any accommodations this year,” Cui Yinmei pointed to a notice board on the wall. “Look, there are already over ten bidders. More than double last year.”

Lin Yuchan quickly read the form, recognizing her competitors.

Guokang Trading House, Yuanheng Tea Warehouse, Wanji Tea House, Huicheng Tea House, Da’an Tea House…

Among the pile of auspicious shop names, she saw—

Defeng Trading House.

As expected.

“This is intelligence my people gathered,” Su Minguan said while untying the boat, handing over a piece of paper, “Defeng Trading House brought quite a few foreign customers from Guangzhou. The ones we could find are all listed below. Looks like there’s overlap with Boya, you need to be careful about losing buyers.”

The first ray of sunlight pierced through morning dew and mist, falling on his nose and shoulders, making him appear pale and tough.

Lin Yuchan smiled as she accepted it, stuffing some silver dollars into his hand: “Thanks! Hard work fees for the brothers. And boat fare.”

Su Minguan accepted them, casually tossing them to his subordinates behind, his gaze moving down to rest on her waist for a moment.

Lin Yuchan blushed slightly: “Still visible?”

He smiled slightly: “Put it in your bag.”

This girl was too thin, not an ounce of extra flesh on her body, completely unable to secretly hang a gun at her waist like some pot-bellied Western gentlemen.

He suddenly had wandering thoughts, thinking it was fortunate she had come up with that idea, dismantling the gun and wrapping it around her leg…

He looked up, his gaze becoming gentle, supervising as she took down the Derringer 1858, which she had worked so hard to strap tightly around her waist, and stuffed it into her satchel.

Lin Yuchan said, embarrassedly: “Going to the countryside today, if I can find an empty, uninhabited area, I’d like to practice for a while.”

Nineteenth-century guns, accuracy was secondary – the key was familiarity.

“Oh, right.”

She remembered something else, pulling out a black and white photograph from her bosom with several lines written on the back, smiling as she showed it to Su Minguan.

“Master Rong has reached Hong Kong and sent word of his safety.”

At this time Shanghai was already showing autumn winds and falling leaves; in the photo Rong Hong wore a Western short-sleeved shirt, with lush tropical botanical gardens behind him, bright sunlight casting clear shadows.

He stood before the neoclassical-style Governor’s Mansion, overlooking the broad Victoria Harbor.

On the back of the photo was a stamp with the British Queen’s image and several lines of Rong Hong’s handwritten greetings – the prototype of a modern postcard.

Su Minguan counted the densely packed ships in the harbor, softly sighing: “So prosperous.”

Neither had been to Hong Kong, so they gathered around the small photo, looking with great interest for quite a while.

Soon, Aunt Hong and Aunt Nian also arrived at the dock, warmly greeting Su Minguan, jumping onto the small boat, and exchanging pleasantries with the boatman.

“Girl, get on board!”

Lin Yuchan smiled brilliantly, putting away the postcard and waving to Su Minguan.

The small boat cut through the water’s surface, moving away from the bustling crowds.

The tea business was temporarily settled, with most current operations handed to Zhao Huaisheng. When Lin Yuchan first started supplying tea to Boya, Chang Baoluo was “heartbroken,” and his work performance had plummeted, so most tea was organized, recorded, and stored by Zhao Huaisheng, making him an expert.

Zhao Huaisheng had a pile of children and always rushed home after work to enjoy family happiness. His performance was also steady and dependable, neither outstanding nor lacking.

But when a man becomes a father, he’s generally more reliable – after all, he doesn’t dare carelessly lose his livelihood.

So Lin Yuchan felt comfortable entrusting the tea business to him.

Now she needed to shift focus to another business.

Cotton harvest season had arrived!

For this commodity, no one around her had experience. Observing the cargo docks could only show “terminal” market conditions.

Lin Yuchan took a whole day, bringing Aunt Hong and Aunt Nian to tour the suburban farmlands.

Both Aunt Hong and Aunt Nian were from rural backgrounds. Self-combed women had no family burdens and were more flexible in their careers, having some contact with silk, cotton, tea, and fishing. Lin Yuchan brought them along for everyone to study in the countryside together.

Only after seeing did they realize – there were so many cotton fields!

Modern people have identified a “pregnancy effect”: after becoming pregnant yourself, you notice pregnant women everywhere on the street, showing that many things are only noticed after you pay attention to them yourself.

And Lin Yuchan, only after focusing on cotton, discovered that the suburbs around Jiangnan were almost entirely planted with cash crops, with rice fields rarely seen.

Even many mudflats formed by river sediment were planted with cotton and had simple farmers’ huts built on them.

Meng San Niang had also said that the fields in her hometown, originally for rice, had all been cleared these past two years and converted to cotton and mulberry.

Aunt Hong gazed at the flat, endless cotton fields, exclaiming repeatedly: “Where does the rice we eat daily come from?”

“Commercial grain transported from Hunan and Hubei,” Lin Yuchan could answer this, smiling, “Yixing sand boats going inland always bring back grain.”

Cotton picking season lasted two to three months. Today was a clear day, and there were already scattered women working hard in the cotton fields, picking early-ripening cotton bolls.

The cotton fields belonged to landlords, and these women working hard at picking were temporary hired labor. Working hard from dawn to dusk, picking dozens of pounds of cotton seeds, with wages paid daily, after deducting room and board, only about a hundred copper coins remained.

After picking cotton bolls, they still had to gin them, separating cotton seeds from fibers, to become exportable raw cotton.

Lin Yuchan led several subordinates, running back and forth through over ten acres of fields. When she was slightly sweating, she indeed saw several idle hand-operated cotton gins in the field-side huts.

Aunt Nian tried them and concluded: “Can produce ten to twenty pounds of cotton daily. I’ve done this exhausting work. But it’s only three months of hard work per year, and the money earned is enough for the New Year.”

The pot-bellied overseer paced back and forth, scolding the women workers not to slack off: “All of you be careful! Don’t feel sorry for your hands! I’ll do spot checks! Mixing in debris that foreigners won’t accept! Find one broken leaf and I’ll dock a pound’s wages!…”

Lin Yuchan stood watching for a while, wanting to ask a female worker about market conditions. After calling out several times, they completely ignored her.

Every pound of cotton seeds was money – who had time to chat with outsiders?

Lin Yuchan pulled out a jiao silver coin from her pocket, calling again: “Sister…”

“Hey!” Suddenly, a loud shout came from the distance, “You women over there, what are you doing?”

The overseer noticed several strange women observing the cotton field, dropped the stick in his hand, and walked over aggressively.

Aunt Hong and Aunt Nian looked at each other, simultaneously stepping back, leaving Lin Yuchan alone in place.

“Girl…”

You do it if you think you can!

Lin Yuchan steeled herself and went up: “Big brother…”

“Who’s your brother?!” The overseer acted like a capitalist’s lackey, flinging his queue over his neck, yelling strangely, “Go, go, go, don’t disturb their work!”

Lin Yuchan offered the jiao silver coin.

“Big brother, we’ll just stand here and watch.”

The overseer’s expression softened slightly, pocketing the silver coin with a grunt: “What’s there to see?”

Lin Yuchan regretted that the jiao hadn’t gone to the female worker but had benefited the overseer instead.

Since she couldn’t be polite anymore, she pointed at the cotton field and asked: “Is it pre-ordered? What’s the purchase price?”

The overseer had thought she was a sheltered young lady coming to the countryside for sightseeing, never expecting her to ask about market conditions right away. He didn’t understand at first, frowning as he looked at her.

Lin Yuchan patiently asked again.

“For a field like this, after the cotton bolls are ginned, how many pounds of cotton can it produce, and what price does it sell for?”

The overseer said lazily, “I don’t manage that. Whatever price foreigners offer, we sell at that price, depending on the year.”

With just that one sentence, the overseer felt he had adequately satisfied an overly curious little lady’s thirst for knowledge.

Lin Yuchan: “…”

Cotton was Jiangnan’s star bulk commodity, yet Chinese people didn’t even have pricing power.

It was only because cotton had been in high demand recently, with foreigners competing to purchase it, that high prices were achieved year after year. Ordinary cotton farmers might not even know market trends and get rich in confusion.

She was about to ask more when the overseer suddenly saw something, abandoned Lin Yuchan and the others, wiped his sweat with a handkerchief, and rushed to the other side.

“Master Zheng, good fortune! Master finally came, someone come quick, bring a stool for Master Zheng! Haha, our master has been expecting you for days. Would Master Zheng like tea? Please sit in the courtyard…”

A small mule cart stopped on the path. A young merchant in a long robe got out, followed by a servant.

The overseer ran over to pay respects like a streak of smoke, extremely respectful, his head almost buried in the cotton field, as if seeing his bread and butter.

Lin Yuchan: “…”

It wasn’t the first time being looked down upon anyway. She smiled at Aunt Hong and Aunt Nian, suggesting: “Let’s look at the neighboring village.”

The three walked across the field ridges, brushing past the “Master Zheng,” who had gotten out of the cart.

The overseer was enthusiastically introducing: “Our cotton fields here had seeds specially cultivated before, the cotton bolls produced are mature and bright white, Master will definitely be satisfied…”

Lin Yuchan’s heart suddenly jumped, and she slowed her pace.

She knew this “Master Zheng”!

The yin-yang amulet at his waist was distinct in black and white, with gold thread glinting in the sunlight.

Zheng Guanying didn’t notice her at all, listening carefully to the overseer’s words while having his servant pick a few cotton bolls to examine closely in his hands, pinching them to estimate moisture content.

“My Xiangsheng Company only accepts the finest.”

Zheng Guanying spoke flatly, still sparing with words, speaking slowly.

“Of course, naturally!” The overseer swore and vowed, “We’ll have specialists grade our cotton and only give you first-grade!”

Lin Yuchan looked at the back of this thin, weak big shot and instantly wanted to kneel before him.

Zheng Guanying, as a trainee comprador for the British Baoshun Trading House, had once kindly stepped forward to help Rong Hong deliver a guarantee letter when Rong Hong was in trouble.

And what he had just said, “my Xiangsheng Company,” what did that mean?

Lin Yuchan quickly figured it out. A comprador was a broker who helped foreign merchants purchase large quantities of local goods from Chinese merchants, with main activities at docks and shops, not personally visiting cotton fields.

This Zheng Guanying fellow seemed to have privately opened his own trading company, collecting cotton to resell to his employer, Baoshun Trading House!

Anyway, the trading house always needed to buy cotton – buying from anyone was buying, might as well benefit himself, keeping fertile water from flowing to outsiders’ fields.

Taking salary from the foreign house while extracting commission from Chinese merchants, attacking and receiving himself, buying and selling himself, earning the price difference from information asymmetry between both sides.

A trainee comprador in his early twenties could devise such a devious money-making scheme. So that’s why he could become one of the “Four Great Compradors of Late Qing” – there was a reason for it.

However, other compradors wouldn’t lower themselves to personally travel dusty roads to the countryside for hard work. This kind of talented and hardworking character like Zheng Guanying deserves to get ahead.

The overseer also knew Master Zheng was a potential big financier, jumping and scrambling around him, sending people to fetch the landlord, transforming himself into a tour guide, chattering non-stop for 800 words explaining all the advantages of this cotton field.

Only after finishing did he notice that those inexplicably strange girls from before were still standing not far away, listening intently.

“Hey, why haven’t you left yet? Go, go! I have no time!”