Today at Defeng Trading House, chaos reigned. First, the Provincial Governor came to shake them down for money, then the customs foreigners came for a surprise tax inspection. Business at the storefront completely stopped, and they hung up the closed sign early. Even after the sun set in the west, the clerks were still busy putting the shelves and counters back in place, cleaning up the garbage left behind by the officials and their entourage.

But work in the back warehouse hadn’t stopped yet. Several hundred dan of fresh Wuyi Mountain tea leaves they’d newly acquired were being enthusiastically roasted and processed.

Of course, without the shopkeeper’s supervision and urging, the workers were quite leisurely and relaxed. It wasn’t until near the end of the day, when they stood up to stretch, that they noticed a figure wearing a hood outside the small window, standing on tiptoe and peering in suspiciously.

The tea-roasting master initially thought it was one of his drinking buddies, coming to call him out for drinks and gambling after work. When he walked over to greet him, he realized he didn’t recognize the person.

The figure had an upright posture, his hat brim pulled down low, wearing a pair of light, soft shoes, his face not visible.

Seeing that someone had noticed him, he quickly left without letting anyone catch up.

The tea-roasting master remembered the shopkeeper’s recent instructions to “strictly guard against strangers,” and didn’t dare be negligent. He quickly reported it, also to show that he’d worked loyally and dutifully that day.

After hearing the report, Wang Quan’s face darkened, his temples twitching. He burst into the kitchen and dragged out his newly acquired female apprentice.

Lin Yuchan held up half a chicken leg and blurted out: “There’s no evidence! Plenty of people wear hoods – it might not be that Young Master Su!”

But these words lacked conviction. She clearly remembered that Su Minguan, knowing that Defeng Trading House’s tea-roasting secret recipe was confidential, had persistently proposed to visit, and had used “not pursuing the matter of the burnt tea leaves” as leverage to extract information about the tea workshop’s vulnerabilities from her.

Today, a suspicious stranger had appeared outside the workshop. Su Minguan was naturally the prime suspect.

Lin Yuchan had informed him about the tea workshop’s work schedule, making her somewhat of an “accomplice.” Of course, she had to cover for him; otherwise, wouldn’t she be selling herself out too?

Wang Quan didn’t trust this newly acquired female apprentice. He snatched the chicken leg from her hand and tossed it back onto the plate, saying coldly: “Think again. Last time you saw that Su fellow, did he have any suspicious behavior? If you’re deliberately concealing something… hmph, don’t forget you’re a bonded slave. Deceiving your superiors – believe it or not, I’ll throw you into the Pearl River! Think again!”

Lin Yuchan quickly put on a frightened expression, stealing a moment to grab the chicken leg and take another bite, mumbling: “Alright, alright, let me think…”

She swallowed a mouthful of chicken and felt a hard little object in her clothing pocket.

It was the lead bullet Su Minguan had removed from the foreign gun. He probably hadn’t had time to deal with it and had casually tossed it to her to play with, treating her like a curious child.

Thanks to this lead bullet, she also clearly remembered what he had said at the time.

He had said – Has your shopkeeper already become suspicious of me? If Defeng Trading House’s secrets are leaked, A’Mei, you’d be the one who let the wolf into the house, and you probably couldn’t escape responsibility either, right?

Lin Yuchan hadn’t understood his meaning at the time, only feeling that this Su fellow was quite unreasonable – if he wanted to do bad things, so be it, but why drag her down too, and without any guilt.

But now she seemed to understand a bit.

If Young Master Su hadn’t “hinted” at this, then when Wang Quan interrogated her, considering their past life-saving relationship, she would probably have stubbornly denied everything.

Her first reaction just now had indeed been denial, selflessly helping Su Minguan clear the suspicion.

But Su Minguan had specifically reminded her with that comment, warning her not to be too clever, not to try to fool the shrewd Shopkeeper Wang.

For some reason, he seemed not to mind exposing his intentions.

…

Lin Yuchan quickly sorted through the logic and decisively betrayed her teammate.

Looking up to face Wang Quan’s threatening gaze, she hesitantly changed her story.

“…Well, he did seem to mention wanting to visit the workshop several times… Though I refused him, I didn’t dare ask too many questions, in case I offended a customer and we lost business. That’s what you taught me, Shopkeeper…”

Wang Quan’s expression relaxed somewhat, and he snorted.

Lin Yuchan breathed a quiet sigh of relief and continued: “But… but in my opinion, the window outside the workshop is too small. Even if he wanted to steal our techniques, he might not be able to see clearly. Besides, he’s just someone working for a foreign company – what use would it be for him to steal our tea-roasting secrets?”

Wang Quan irritably removed his glasses and wiped them vigorously, sneering: “I thought you were so clever! You can’t even figure out this simple logic! It’s not him who wants to steal – it’s the foreigners who want to steal!”

Lin Yuchan still didn’t quite understand but didn’t dare ask more questions. Foreigners bought finished tea from China and resold it to European countries at high prices, already making huge profits. They did not need to personally handle the “tea processing” step – that would be too costly.

Wang Quan originally had no patience to waste words with her, but today for some reason – perhaps because she had successfully dealt with the foreigners, or perhaps because he had inexplicably promoted her to apprentice – today he found this servant girl more pleasant to look at than usual.

He rarely softened his attitude and said: “You don’t know – foreigners love drinking tea. In the past, only our Great Qing could produce quality tea, so foreigners could only bring out silver to buy from us. But later, the British discovered quality wild tea trees in a province in India called Assam, and they tricked tea farmers from China into going there, making them sign indentured labor contracts and forcing them to work there. In just a few years, those tea trees have grown to scale.

“That Assam tea is good in every way, except for one thing – using ordinary crude roasting methods, they can’t produce the kind of fragrance that our Chinese tea has.”

Lin Yuchan listened attentively and immediately understood: “So they want to steal our techniques!”

Wang Quan said solemnly: “That India is a British colony. If they can produce fine tea there and ship it directly to Britain, costs would naturally drop greatly. Then would our Great Qing’s tea still have a market? Therefore, Guangdong – not just Guangdong, but all the tea trade guilds in the southeastern provinces have issued orders that we absolutely cannot let foreigners steal our techniques.”

Wang Quan’s last few words rang with conviction, and his greasy face radiated patriotic glory, making him not quite so detestable.

Lin Yuchan finished the last bite of chicken meat and stood up.

“I understand. Next time I see Young Master Su, I’ll advise him to stop.”

But Wang Quan waved his hand, hesitating for a moment. He found half a bottle of French wine from the packed leftovers, took a big gulp from the bottle, and said slowly: “No, no. That would make the foreigners resent us, wouldn’t it? I have a plan – why don’t we turn the tables on them…”

Several days later, at a teahouse beside Wuxian Temple, Lin Yuchan strolled up to the second floor and generously slapped fifty wen in tea fees on the table.

“Young Master Minguan, please.”

Of course this counted as normal “client entertainment” expenses, fully reimbursed by Wang Quan. Considering that she was penniless, he had given her the full advance.

Of course, Wang Quan didn’t know that Kou Laicai had left in such a hurry that he’d left several silver coins hidden under the shelves, with no time to take them. These silver coins had already been “inherited” by Lin Yuchan as his “estate,” carefully hidden away.

So Lin Yuchan had private savings inside and public funds outside, making her unprecedentedly wealthy.

Su Minguan wasn’t polite either, smiling: “Please.”

He carried a document bag with him, stuffed with various papers. Though young, he already had the bearing of a “successful businessman.” He must have been busy with business, making quite a bit of money for Jardine Matheson & Co. that morning.

Since he was taking time from his busy schedule to honor her with his presence, Lin Yuchan had reported to Wang Quan and didn’t dare neglect him. She chose a teahouse with some class – clean tables, chairs, and floors, well-dressed tea patrons, and at every table, one could hear different topics of learned discourse. It was quite elegant.

Su Minguan was very satisfied with this environment. He put down his small bag, found a quiet seat, and ordered a pot of Longjing tea from the tea master.

“A’Mei,” he said with some amusement, “what’s with this outfit today?”

Lin Yuchan was dressed in men’s clothing – she had taken an old servant’s clothes from the manor, washed them clean, and asked Xiao Feng to alter them – wearing a small cap with a long braid hanging down the back of her head, looking exactly like a fake young man.

She had been eating well lately, and her posture and gait were light and healthy, more upright than most real young men on the street. Except for her full temples and somewhat feminine oval face, from a distance, one really couldn’t tell she was a woman disguised as a man.

She explained: “Shopkeeper Wang took me as an apprentice, but said there’s no precedent for taking female apprentices, so he told me to dress as a young man – it doesn’t matter if it’s not convincing, the key is to make a gesture.”

Su Minguan looked at her suspiciously. From her tone, this apprenticeship certainly wasn’t Wang Quan’s initiative.

A bonded servant girl had no reason to directly become an apprentice. He wondered what scheme she had concocted.

Wang Quan had changed his ways too – such a penny-pincher willing to pay her wages. Though not much, Su Minguan had never heard of such a precedent.

He wasn’t a gossip, so he buried his questions in his heart and didn’t ask.

“Wang Quan is right. The business world in Guangdong and Guangxi has never had this custom.” He wiped the water stains from the table. “Since the days when the Thirteen Factories opened, no one has hired women to conduct business, saying it would bring bad feng shui and cause financial loss.”

Hearing his matter-of-fact tone, Lin Yuchan gradually felt uncomfortable.

The locals indeed cared about feng shui, and Shopkeeper Wang was especially superstitious. He even regulated which direction the clerks should face when using the latrine – face the wrong way and get wages docked.

She suddenly felt indignant and couldn’t help saying: “Then, Young Master, don’t you feel unlucky encountering me in business?”

Su Minguan didn’t look up, saying flatly: “The feng shui was indeed very effective – not one of the Thirteen Factories remains today. Congratulations and prosperity.”

Lin Yuchan smiled slightly and attentively took the teacup in front of him to rinse it with the first scalding brew.

The Cantonese pre-meal mysterious ritual of “scalding with boiling water three times” had already declined by the 21st century, and the younger generation wasn’t particular about it.

The teahouse provided copper pots, and Lin Yuchan had barely rinsed two scoops when she clumsily burned her fingers and quickly pulled back to blow on them.

Su Minguan couldn’t help but smile slightly. He took the cups and plates from her hands and skillfully scalded them once.

Scalding cups was quite a test of manual dexterity. Some people dawdled and dragged it out – by the time they finished scalding a set of bowls and chopsticks, they’d already finished chatting about three generations of family history with their tablemates. But Su Minguan was clearly of the efficiency-focused school. His fingers were long and nimble, as if he were playing a pipa in boiling water, then emerging unscathed. Two sets of cups and plates were already clean, warm, and fragrant with Longjing.

Unfortunately, this performance only lasted a few seconds. Lin Yuchan hadn’t finished appreciating it.

She couldn’t help thinking – indeed, these were hands trained by changing gun bullets.

From a pampered young master to an ordinary tea patron who scalded his cups, he accepted it all with equanimity, never complaining about fate.

Lin Yuchan arranged the scalded teacups in a row and filled them with tea for him, quietly pleading: “Don’t tell Shopkeeper Wang – if he knew I let a customer wash cups for me, he’d probably want to scald me in a pot too.”

Su Minguan tapped the table twice with his finger, saying lazily: “That depends on your performance today.”

Lin Yuchan was instantly energized.

“Shopkeeper Wang had the master roast another batch of sample tea according to your requirements for your inspection.” She got straight to the point. “Also, the shopkeeper said there are several new regulations for this year’s export goods that your company might not know about, and he asked me to go through the procedures with you one by one. The customs office has new leadership and is being particularly strict. We don’t dare take risks, so these additional tax payments need to be written out. Oh, and these forms need to be filled out first…”

Doing business in the Great Qing was more complicated than she had imagined. Lin Yuchan’s previous work experience was limited to working at a supermarket. To quickly understand all the procedures, she had put in considerable effort and attention.

When she didn’t understand something, she would probe to the bottom of it. When others wouldn’t tell her, she would shamelessly observe from the sidelines, and others couldn’t drive her away.

Su Minguan listened quietly to her explanation, occasionally interjecting, imperceptibly digging a few traps, but she managed to avoid them all. Her business capability exceeded his expectations.

He suddenly remembered how she had initially clung desperately to stay at the tea house, working tirelessly without complaint. He had occasionally seen her laboring at the trading post, sweating profusely – if he had been pushed that hard, he probably couldn’t have endured it.

In the face of survival pressure, human potential was truly immeasurable.

…

“Young Master? I’ve finished.”

Seeing him remain silent, Lin Yuchan worried she’d been caught in some flaw and asked carefully.

Su Minguan quickly reviewed the documents one last time and suddenly asked: “You’re left-handed?”

“I…” Lin Yuchan thought for a moment and said, “I can use both hands.”

Her left hand wasn’t as good as her right, but it was more flexible than most people’s. After arriving in the Great Qing, she had secretly practiced calligraphy. Her right hand, accustomed to writing exams, always instinctively wrote in simplified characters. To avoid exposure, she decided to use her left hand for brush writing.

Since she was starting from scratch anyway, it was perfect for erasing past habits.

She hadn’t expected him to notice even this. She’d have to be extra careful.

She smiled and changed the subject: “A person’s left and right hands write in different styles. My left-hand writing is more regular and suitable for drafting contracts and documents.”

Su Minguan was interested: “Oh? I didn’t know that. Learning something new today.”

The principle that “left and right hands have different handwriting” was common knowledge to anyone who had read a few modern third-rate crime novels. Lin Yuchan had finally found a tiny, insignificant advantage from her time travel, though it was useless.

Su Minguan chatted with her for a few moments, then suddenly asked: “Just for these matters, couldn’t we have discussed them at your tea house? Why come here?”

Lin Yuchan sipped her tea, paused, and looked around. The second-floor private seating area was sparsely populated, and the waiters rarely came up.

It was time.

She lowered her voice and asked: “On the 29th of last month, was it you who was peering outside Defeng Trading House’s tea-roasting workshop?”

The sweet, cloying smell of opium drifted in through the door crack. Su Minguan unconsciously frowned.

The teahouse was next to an opium den, with a door installed in the wall between them. Customers smoking opium could order food and drinks directly from the teahouse.

Though it was still the national mourning period, in this remote frontier land of Guangzhou, people weren’t too particular about observance. Wearing mourning clothes meant just tying a white cloth around the waist. Various entertainment activities had only symbolically stopped for a few days before making a strong comeback. The opium den’s business was even more flourishing than in previous years.

Su Minguan moved to an upwind position and drank several sips of tea before hesitantly saying: “You – how do you know?”

This was tantamount to an admission. Lin Yuchan had originally planned that getting him to talk would take considerable effort.

Now the conversation would be easy. She lowered her voice, leaning forward with her chest pressed against the table edge, and said: “This approach won’t work. The shopkeeper is already alert and has told the workers to be especially watchful. If you do this again next time, be careful they don’t catch you in the act. That would be losing face for the entire Jardine Matheson & Co.”

Su Minguan was somewhat surprised and asked: “You’re tipping me off?”

Lin Yuchan smiled: “Young Master Minguan, you know I was sold to the Qi manor. Whether Defeng Trading House makes money has nothing to do with me. You’re my lifesaver, so naturally I’m on your side – let me tell you a secret. The tenth of next month is the Empress Dowager’s birthday, and the Guangzhou Provincial Governor is hosting a banquet with business community figures all invited. After that, the tea-roasting masters will return to their hometowns to worship at ancestral halls – they’ve all asked for leave.”

The “Empress Dowager” was the later famous Cixi. Though she was not yet thirty this year, she had already shown intense interest in “celebrating birthdays.” Having just overthrown the Eight Ministers and achieved regent power, her birthday certainly couldn’t pass quietly.

The hundred-day entertainment ban for “national mourning” was almost over, and Guangzhou was thousands of li from the capital, so there was even less need to strictly observe the rules and waste economic activity. Months in advance, word had spread through the city, and the wealthy used this opportunity to network with each other and compete in spending.

Su Minguan’s eyes flashed, his gaze brightening slightly.

Lin Yuchan smiled: “…So on that day, not only will there be no one at the shops, but the tea-roasting workshop will have no workers from morning to night. You can go in and look around as much as you want, however you please.”

Su Minguan asked with a smile: “How would I get in?”

Lin Yuchan looked left and right, then mysteriously pulled a key from her bosom and gently placed it on the table.

“Take it. The shopkeeper thinks it’s lost.”

Su Minguan picked up the key, smiled slightly, and ate shrimp dumplings one by one, not speaking for a long while.

Lin Yuchan also took a shrimp dumpling. “Young Master?”

“A’Mei,” he finally said, “this key was given to you by your shopkeeper, wasn’t it?”

Lin Yuchan’s heart skipped half a beat, the shrimp dumpling suspended in mid-air, not reaching her mouth.

“I…”