All the employees had good reasons to be grateful to Lin Yuchan.
Not to mention Aunt Zhou, who had nearly lost her life savings in a moment of poor judgment.
Lin Yuchan lectured while eating: “Don’t spend real money on things you don’t understand. Remember this lesson?”
Aunt Zhou had her first personal finance lesson. This time, she was meek and submissive, completely convinced by this girl half her age, not arguing a single word.
Chang Baoluo’s cold war with his wife finally ended. Meng Sanniang’s family was far away in Ningbo. Initially, hearing that Shanghai land prices were soaring, they sent a relative to scout the situation. He’d already reached the foreign company counter when Chang Baoluo forcibly dragged him out. Their in-law relationship hit rock bottom. Those gossipy aunts, learning that Lin Yuchan strictly forbade employees from property speculation, began spreading various baseless speculations.
Now, no one had anything to say. Son-in-law Chang became the family savior. Last week, he took leave to visit relatives in Ningbo, where they set off firecrackers at the village entrance, leaving his ears ringing for three days.
Old Zhao wasn’t so fortunate. His distant relatives who’d gone bankrupt speculating were pestering him for loans, constantly camping outside his house. Old Zhao could only hide in the company working overtime, leaving early and returning late, though his efficiency improved several times over.
As for Aunt Hong, Aunt Nian, and several new errand-running employees, they’d originally had no money to participate in property speculation. Watching the drama with entertainment, seeing the feast end and the building collapse, they all applauded, feeling that rich people deserved the lesson.
…
The financial tsunami’s aftershocks were still ongoing. Lin Yuchan paid Heaven and Earth Society errand boys to scout around Defeng Company’s entrance daily.
Wang Quan had completely lost his fighting spirit, sitting listlessly in his shop daily, either staring at the sky or ground, or suddenly breaking into curses.
Cursing friends for misleading him, former masters for abandoning him, a lowly woman for riding over his head, fortune tellers he’d met years ago for only saying nice things without predicting this disaster in his fate—surely they’d deliberately harmed him.
He’d originally had wives, concubines, and daughters in Guangzhou. After the human trafficking incident, to restart his business in Shanghai, he’d dismissed his concubines and married off his young daughter, keeping only his original wife to manage household affairs. Who could have imagined that even women would chase wealth and status, corrupted by foreign settlement culture, developing materialistic habits? The originally honest and gentle yellow-faced wife initially consoled him when she saw Wang Quan losing money daily, but later even began talking back, pointing at his nose and calling him useless. Their bedroom became a nightly battleground, making him even more restless.
The shop clerks all knew their boss had lost money speculating, but didn’t know he’d mortgaged the entire shop. They still worked normally but were frequently absent, as Wang Quan simply didn’t care.
On the scheduled day for delivering premium tea to customs, Defeng Company’s delivery clerk was detained by Cui Yinmei at the rear gate of Jianghai Customs and lectured for half an hour. The tea had been improperly stored, becoming damp and sour, completely inedible.
“During the initial bidding, you were fine,” Cui Yinmei said with frustrated disappointment, “best quality, lowest price, claiming secret formulas as a century-old brand—what’s this about today? Hm? Is this the standard of a century-old brand? This tea is for foreigners to drink—do you want foreigners to think all Chinese are fake goods peddlers?”
After scolding several sentences and seeing the clerk dejected, Cui Yinmei knew the clerk had no authority—further cursing would be useless.
“Replace it with good tea and have your boss personally deliver it tomorrow! Next time this happens, it’s a breach of contract! We’ll pursue penalty fees!”
The clerk left silently. Cui Yinmei remained angry.
Foreigners were particular—if they couldn’t have good tea for a day, he’d catch hell too.
“Mr. Yinmei.” Lin Yuchan had been waiting nearby and politely approached to greet him. “Defeng Company has encountered problems recently. That boss is overwhelmed and might not come tomorrow either. Boya Company’s tea can provide emergency supply. Same price as last year’s bid—we won’t overcharge.”
Cui Yinmei was delighted: “Miss Lin! Ah, you’re still reliable. I said we should have continued choosing you this year, but my words don’t carry enough weight!”
Lin Yuchan smiled: “No matter. I’ll have someone deliver tea tomorrow—oh, and Defeng Company isn’t a century-old brand. Don’t believe their boasting!”
The next day, Defeng Company indeed failed to deliver replacement tea as promised.
Because the entire shop was bustling with activity, surrounded so tightly that water couldn’t leak through, nearly erupting in fights.
As Lin Yuchan had predicted, due to plummeting land prices, Defeng Company’s mortgage value also plunged, and the money house demanded immediate repayment.
Where could Wang Quan get the money? Even selling all his stocks wouldn’t cover a fraction.
So the money house used violent collection methods. Such things had mature industry chains. A group of tattooed big men standing at the entrance—if you didn’t submit, they’d give you no peace for a single minute.
Wang Quan’s assets were empty. Intimidated by the tattooed men, he set his sights on his wife, saying he still had an old wife, aged and worthless, but strong enough for manual labor. Why not take her first?
The big men followed to the back for a look, not even a shadow of the “original wife.” The honest Mrs. Wang, after half a lifetime of honesty, finally got smart at the crucial moment, taking Wang Quan’s last few days’ meal money and running away!
Wang Quan sat on the ground crying injustice. Few onlookers remained.
Wang Quan wasn’t the only one who’d lost everything speculating. For days, such scenes of forced eviction had played out throughout Shanghai. Everyone was tired of watching.
Lin Yuchan didn’t get involved either, sending an errand boy to report the matter to customs. That afternoon, she supplemented the contract with Cui Yinmei, taking over the tea supply for seven customs offices for the second half of the year.
No matter how depressed the economy, customs wouldn’t starve. Her tea customers had shrunk by more than half—this big customer’s return significantly reduced pressure.
That evening, she received word from Dingsheng Money House’s Manager Hua saying the shop transfer was complete. He asked Miss Lin to wait patiently while they settled valuations before fulfilling the contract and transferring the shop to her.
When it came time for the actual transfer, there were minor complications. The money house, seeking profit, having been pressured into signing the contract at reduced prices, now seemed to have second thoughts and wouldn’t readily hand over a mature large tea company. Manager Hua produced various supplementary contracts, essentially demanding that she pay more or forget about the transfer.
To deal with such rogue behavior, one couldn’t argue reasonably but needed to be more rogue than the opponent. Taking advantage of Su Minguan’s absence on shipping business, several big brothers from Yixing’s underworld connections earned extra income “helping” Defeng Company transfer peacefully.
Lin Yuchan and Boya’s two managers ran around handling various procedures and paying all taxes. Boya Company’s book cash was nearly drained, but finally, they swallowed that giant tea company that had once dominated Guangzhou.
“Wow—”
When stepping into Defeng Company’s storefront, several people simultaneously exclaimed in admiration.
Of course, it was no longer called Defeng Company. A carpenter was climbing a ladder, removing the large signboard soaked with cooking smoke.
Shopkeeper Mau from Xuhui Tea Shop also eagerly came to see the spectacle: “Look at this shop’s layout! Tsk tsk, it’s been prosperous indeed! Miss Lin, this old man must give you a thumbs up today—very good, very good!”
Originally, Xuhui Native Tea Shop was already considered a successful leader in Shanghai’s tea industry. Previously, doing contract work for Boya and Defeng Company, they’d handled everything with ease. Shopkeeper Mau felt he could at least be considered a minor industry star.
Today’s comparison revealed the real gap with big factories.
Just the way samples were displayed, the catalog’s exquisite quality, and the seemingly casual Western piggy bank on the counter—everything showed professionalism and class.
Only Lin Yuchan smiled secretly, looking at this familiar shop layout and finding it ordinary. Wang Quan had simply brought Guangzhou merchant habits to Shanghai—in the eyes of uninformed masses, this cultural difference seemed distinguished and high-class. But actually… it was just so-so.
Zhao Huaisheng directly sat on the manager’s huanghuali wood stool, stroking the armrests and hopefully requesting: “Miss Lin, should we move the tea business here? This stool is so comfortable!—My bankrupt unlucky relative doesn’t know this place, so he won’t bother Boya…”
Behind the storefront are connected warehouses and storage, plus premium tea roasting workshops. These were all land Wang Quan had purchased with his Guangzhou fortune when he came to Shanghai last year. As land prices rose, these properties had appreciated by over double.
However, after the recent real estate storm, land prices were beaten back to their starting point, even lower.
When Wang Quan initially mortgaged the shop, the money house’s valuation was twelve thousand taels—naturally a deliberately low figure. Wang Quan, eager to borrow money for stock speculation, agreed. At a sixty percent mortgage rate, minus handling fees, he got seven thousand taels of cash.
These seven thousand taels were all converted to real estate stocks, which at peak prices had swelled to nearly sixty thousand taels. Enough to devour two or three Boya companies.
If Wang Quan had been rational enough to sell stocks and withdraw in time, the returned silver would have been enough to crush Boya several times over, letting him thoroughly dominate that hateful little girl.
But Lin Yuchan wasn’t that worried retrospectively. If Wang Quan had truly been that rational, he wouldn’t have followed Old Huang into land speculation in the first place.
Now these seven thousand taels had evaporated to almost nothing. The remaining few clerks conspired and simply took some valuables and fled.
Lin Yuchan looked at the tall shelves lined with boxes of raw and refined tea, suppressing her surging emotions while silently calculating. The real value of all assets in this shop was at least twenty thousand taels upward.
She’d acquired all this for only seven thousand taels. Due to the five percent deposit discount, she’d only spent sixty-eight hundred fifty taels.
Plus Su Minguan’s twenty-five percent commission. Mr. Su had generously rounded down, actually collecting seventeen hundred, deferrable until year-end.
She suddenly remembered a seemingly random comment Su Minguan had made long ago.
“…buying quality assets at discount prices…”
She’d forgotten the original conversation context but remembered his ambitious smile when speaking.
Now she had a deeper personal understanding of those words. What was the essence of business? Buy low, sell high!
Lin Yuchan suddenly remembered something and hurriedly ordered, “Go find Defeng Company’s customer directory. This accumulated tea must be sold quickly—appropriate discounts are acceptable. Unsold stock must be moved to proper storage. The roof leaks and the corners are moldy…”
This precious tea inventory now belonged to Boya Company—best not to lose a single ounce.
Old Zhao ran off and returned, somewhat annoyed: “Customer directories, account books, work records—all useful documents were soaked by the former owner and destroyed cleanly.”
Even in failure and bankruptcy, Wang Quan wouldn’t let his opponents be too satisfied. While the money house conducted a “violent eviction,” he’d quietly destroyed many written records.
Lin Yuchan suddenly said, “The roasting secret formula!”
She hurried into the tea roasting workshop, seeing only scattered baskets, brooms, pots, bowls, and utensils…
A row of nails protruded from the wall. Operating manuals and records had all been removed and destroyed.
The original clerks had long scattered. As for Defeng Company’s inherent veteran masters from the Thirteen Factories, they’d been reluctant to leave home when Wang Quan brought them to Shanghai. When Defeng Company’s financial crisis began and couldn’t pay the masters’ wages, they resigned one by one to return to Guangzhou—after all, their skills traveled anywhere, never lacking employment.
Seven thousand taels to acquire a huge shell. Though an incredibly profitable deal, it didn’t include the “secret formula” Lin Yuchan most coveted.
Lin Yuchan had been disappointed for only a minute when someone beside her suddenly called: “Hey, I know now!”
Mau Shunniang had begged and pleaded today for her father to bring her along to see the world. This girl appeared harmonious on the surface, seeming quite gentle, but had her ideas. Especially after earning independently, she’d learned Lin Yuchan’s speaking and acting style, becoming increasingly lawless at home, sometimes even daring to argue with her father.
Mau Shunniang had volunteered to be Boya Company’s sole research staff member, attempting to decode Defeng Company’s tea roasting secret formula. Watching others earn money daily while she accomplished nothing and burned money instead, not only did she feel frustrated, but her parents, colleagues, and even Manager Zhao at headquarters had complaints about her. If not for her relationship with Lin Yuchan, she’d probably have been fired long ago.
The little girl had held her breath for a long time. Today, finally seeing inside Defeng Company’s workshop, though without veteran masters’ guidance, looking at the roasting equipment, crouching to smell the stove’s aroma, and studying the thermometer, she was beginning to understand—like a top student getting a textbook marked with key points, mastery was just a matter of time.
“Dad! Come look, they roasted in batches—these cutting boards all have different colors… I never thought of this before, bah bah bah, so stupid… This is their raw tea, the rolling force is so strong, those masters must have been very powerful… What’s this for?—Ah, I know, it’s for observing humidity…”
Shopkeeper Mau, seeing several grown men nearby, felt quite embarrassed and quietly scolded: “Enough! Watch quietly! Don’t shout! Even if you understand this, it’s useless! You’re about to marry—”
“If I understand this, of course it’s useful—I can be Boya’s tea expert!” Mau Shunniang also quietly argued with her father. “Don’t mention marriage to me. If I can’t do these things after marrying, I’ll become a sworn spinster!”
Shopkeeper Mau’s nose nearly crooked with anger: “You… you… Who did you learn this from?!
“Boya has several sworn spinster sisters! Someday when I’m unhappy, I’ll go find them!”
Mau Shunniang rendered her father speechless and smugly made a “blah blah” face.
Lin Yuchan, with Old Zhao and others, smiled and waved for no one to interrupt.
Mau Shunniang’s abilities were growing. Initially, Lin Yuchan had to presumptuously interfere in family affairs, risking disapproval and making many compromises to convince her father to let her stay and work. Now, whether from age, experience, or finally reaching rebellious adolescence, she could be self-sufficient, spouting unconventional arguments that left Shopkeeper Mau speechless.
Shopkeeper Mau thought hatefully: Such a daughter would get severely beaten in other families! Hmph, I’ll beat you to death when we get home!
But he also felt sad: Once married, she’d be another family’s daughter-in-law—probably wouldn’t have such carefree opportunities anymore.
Pitiful parental hearts. Under this strange, contradictory psychology, as his daughter chattered and ran around, he sighed and pretended not to see.
Lin Yuchan made the decision: “Business is slow now—Defeng Company needn’t rush to reopen. Old Zhao, assign people to organize and integrate shop resources—merge what can be merged, separate what should be separated, and promote more in the trade association. Miss Mau’s workshop can move here—just a few steps away. If Shopkeeper Mau is worried, let her bring a maid. With the ‘Hometown Association’ symbol here, neighbors will all help. Everyone, when the market recovers vitality, with these additional assets, I guarantee Boya will accomplish great things!”
Clap, clap, clap, everyone applauded.
Of course, not sycophantic leadership applause. The several Boya backbone members present averaged a full generation older than Lin Yuchan, but this girl they’d watched grow up now clearly had the bearing to handle things independently—no one dared underestimate her.
Arrangements for Defeng Company concluded, as Lin Yuchan stepped out the door, she suddenly saw a weathered figure by the roadside.
For the first time, Wang Quan wasn’t wearing a long robe but was dressed in a dirty short shirt and pants. He still wore glasses, smeared with oily dirt. A heavy carrying pole rested on his shoulders. Behind him followed a big man holding a stick—a dock tyrant and local thug from the Sixteen Pu docks.
“What are you looking at! First day on the job—perform well for me! I know you were a rich man. When you finish paying back those five hundred taels of debt, I’ll naturally let you go back to being a rich man, haha!”
His mortgaged assets evaporated overnight, leaving Wang Quan owing the money house large sums and falling into complete isolation.
The money house had connections, directly “outsourcing” him to work bosses, making him do manual labor to repay debts.
When desperate, men sold labor and women sold bodies—both perfectly normal outcomes.
No matter how sky-high your former wealth, they’d squeeze out your last drop of oil.
Wang Quan looked at the dismantled “Defeng Company” signboard, his vision gradually blurring. The signboard had been moved from Guangzhou—the shiny black wood seemed to still carry aromas of roasted meats and seafood. Under this signboard had passed officials, merchants, and foreigners, with countless silver taels flowing in and out under its gaze. When Wang Quan took over as Defeng Company’s manager, he’d ambitiously envisioned operating this shop until old age, passing it to sons and grandsons, making it stand for centuries like the Qing Dynasty.
Now, not even decades had passed—wealth vanished like ephemeral flowers, coming fast and leaving fast.
Wang Quan felt the world was unfair, then remembered that day at British United Property Company’s entrance when Old Huang was beaten severely by the crowd, uncared for, finally taken away by the Municipal Council’s corpse cart. Looking at himself now, at least he still had his life—perhaps he shouldn’t complain.
Old Huang’s crude declaration echoed in his ears: “How can you make money without taking risks? The bolder you are, the bigger things you can do. Heaven made me useful—rather than living an ordinary lifetime, better to achieve something spectacular!”
Now half of it had come true. Wang Quan’s body was indeed “spectacular”—from carrying pole pressure and whip lashes.
Wang Quan finally couldn’t carry the pole anymore, his knees buckled, and he set the load on the ground, gasping heavily.
He suddenly noticed a familiar figure by the roadside, removed his glasses to wipe them hard, staring at Lin Yuchan as if he didn’t recognize her, along with Shopkeeper Mau beside her.
“You… you’re in cahoots…”
“Boya Company has been Xuhui Tea Shop’s largest shareholder since last year.” Lin Yuchan introduced frankly. “But don’t overthink—I never instructed Shopkeeper Mau to do anything violating professional ethics, nor had him reveal any of Defeng Company’s secrets. He cooperated with you wholeheartedly and fairly.”
Wang Quan’s face darkened. Many events from years past had blurred, but several fragments suddenly became clear.
He forced an ugly smile, saying in Cantonese: “Lin Ba… Mrs. Lin, Madam Lin, now that you’ve prospered, I… I’m quite gratified. Those competitive remarks recently were all to motivate you, reverse psychology… yes, reverse psychology! I knew this girl would accomplish great things! You… please consider that I cared for you for several months in the past… Right! When someone wanted to buy you as a wife, I didn’t allow it! I kept you in Guangzhou!…”
Lin Yuchan nearly laughed, thinking: Thank you for your care—I nearly starved to death.
She smiled and said, “Defeng Company indeed needs a capable manager now. But don’t worry, I won’t pay to hire you. You should learn to labor with your hands. Don’t be lazy. You used to hate lazy laborers most.”
The work boss kicked Wang Quan’s shin: “Lazy donkey, move along!”
That man who’d witnessed the Thirteen Factories era’s decline, personally experienced the Qing Empire’s transformation from isolation to openness, while mastering sophisticated exploitation skills—the first generation of national capitalists. Finally, he ended his small role in this chaotic history, becoming one of countless abandoned dregs of the era.
Lin Yuchan watched Wang Quan leave, then saw off Boya’s managers and employees, turned the street corner, and approached with a smile.
By the park fence leaned a tall, long-legged young man reading a copy of the North China Herald, the newspaper covering his face.
After Lin Yuchan patted him twice, Su Minguan noticed, lowered the newspaper, and his serious expression bloomed with a smile.
“Yipin Xiang Foreign Restaurant, newly opened.” He pointed to an advertisement in the newspaper gap, softly laughing. “Want to try it?”
But Lin Yuchan’s gaze fell on business news in another section. She stood on tiptoe, pulling Su Minguan’s newspaper down a few inches for a careful look—
“Russell & Company appoints new manager… This commercial giant, which achieved great success in India and Sumatra, boasts of dominating the Far East…”
Su Minguan looked down at her tense expression and smiled.
“Iron-clad camps with flowing soldiers. Not afraid of him.” He said lightly, “Let’s go eat.”