The shipping industry flourished along the Suzhou River, with a row of shipping companies opened along the banks. Naturally, business was good for some and poor for others—some competed, some made money, some withdrew.

A small shipping company next to “Yixing Shipping” had been barely surviving for several months before finally closing down. The storefront was quickly rented by someone else, and after opening it was transformed into “Yixing Teahouse.”

As for the dock berths behind it, they naturally connected with the adjacent Yixing dock.

The plaque for “Guangdong-Guangxi Hometown Association” was also moved to the teahouse entrance. Two overlapping copper coins were printed on the door pillars, sharing the trademark with the shipping company. As usual, a land god shrine was placed at the entrance, with very flourishing incense offerings.

The “fellow townspeople” were growing in number and always needed a place to eat, drink, play mahjong, and speak in their home dialect—this was a normal need of the people.

The shipping business was thriving, and visiting merchants who landed in Shanghai always needed a place to rest and eat—this was also market demand.

Zhoupu Town had long had a “Ningbo Guild Hall” of considerable size. Unfortunately, it was “accidentally” used as a command post during the Small Swords uprising and was regrettably destroyed. Compared to it, this “Guangdong-Guangxi Hometown Association” was extraordinarily low-key.

So after paying the necessary taxes and fees, the authorities paid no further attention to this teahouse.

The young and promising Boss Su of Yixing Shipping would also come sit in the teahouse during breaks from his busy work, lest he be cooped up behind the counter all the time without being able to stretch his legs.

It was now morning hours. He lazily reclined in the soft seat of a private room, having already drunk three steepings of tea. He brewed a fourth round, his beautiful and spirited eyes staring at the green, fragrant tea swirling in the cup, not moving for quite a while.

After a long time, he finally spoke, his tone somewhat sour.

“So it was that Manager Chang you went on a blind date with. What a coincidence…”

Across from his tea table, the young lady’s expression was solemn, her pale red lips pressed into a line.

“Talk business.”

“I thought it was some remarkably important person, and you were hiding it from me…”

“Talk business!”

Su Minguan: “How much to borrow?”

“Not borrow—mortgage.” Lin Yuchan suspected he hadn’t been listening properly earlier, only pursuing details about the “blind date” to laugh at her, so she had to patiently explain again: “Mr. Rong said opening a branch is fine, but he’s carrying loans to purchase raw tea and has to make monthly payments, so he can’t spare enough cash for expansion. He asked if I could partner with him. I’ve calculated that with just four hundred taels of silver capital, we could open a sufficiently respectable small storefront in a good location, bearing Boya’s name, specializing in tea sales.”

Of course, convincing Rong Hong hadn’t been easy. She had stayed at Boya Trading House for two hours that day, discussing details with Rong Hong repeatedly, basically improvising a business plan on the spot before convincing him that this branch could make money without affecting the reputation of his “flagship store.”

Actually, with four hundred taels of silver, she could completely open her shop and start her own business. But this tea processing production line that embodied her heart’s blood, whose product details were all custom-made for Boya Trading House, to abandon it and start over, handing the resources to others, she couldn’t do it.

Moreover, Boya’s brand had already made a name for itself in the foreign settlement. Relying on a large enterprise meant starting from a high point.

In the future, she would sell tea at the branch while Chang Baoluo continued as manager of the flagship store. The two could mind their own business and never interact until death.

Her wishful thinking was quite good. Now, everything was ready except for the four hundred taels of silver.

Su Minguan seemed tired from recent busy business, rubbing the corners of his eyes with some fatigue.

“Must it be this way?” He yawned, “Clearly, it’s Rong Hong bullying you. It’s only because Yixing has reduced business now and focuses on charity—otherwise his trading house wouldn’t be able to operate tomorrow.”

Lin Yuchan said seriously: “Please continue your contracts with him as usual, just pretend you never heard about this, okay?”

Su Minguan sighed: “That Chang fellow is also bullying you. Why should you leave and he stay? That kind of personality that can’t distinguish between inside and outside isn’t suitable for business at all. If you had told me earlier, I would have eighteen ways to make him unable to survive in the French Concession.”

Lin Yuchan: “…”

Art truly came from life. It seemed that domineering CEOs throughout history all had similar dialogue.

Fortunately, this domineering CEO was intelligent and was just venting verbally, fully expressing his disdain.

She smiled: “I take my own money to open a shop—isn’t that better than taking a fixed salary from an employer? This is called ‘the old man lost his horse—how do we know it’s not a blessing?’ Without Manager Chang, I wouldn’t have thought of this move.”

Su Minguan shook his head with a smile, picked up an orange, and kneaded it, slowly beginning to peel it.

Ancient fruits were luxury goods that ordinary people couldn’t easily afford. Fortunately, this year the oranges along both sides of the canal had a good harvest, and with continuous heavy rains they couldn’t be sold. Su Minguan, learning of this news, immediately had his fleet collect oranges along the way, achieving fruit freedom in one leap.

Not only could he eat his fill, but he could also supply the nearby police station and sell some at the teahouse to earn pocket money.

“Lending money is easy to discuss.” He arranged the orange segments neatly on the tea tray. “Four hundred taels of silver, right?”

“Not borrow—mortgage.” Lin Yuchan avoided this clumsy trap for the second time, patiently explaining without holding grudges: “The dividends I have stored at Yixing should be about twenty taels, right? What should my one-twenty-fifth share be worth now? I think at least four hundred taels. Combined, that’s four hundred and twenty taels. I’ll use my dividends and shares as collateral to borrow three hundred and fifty taels from you, to be repaid within a year at two percent monthly interest.”

The remaining fifty taels would be enough with her savings.

Su Minguan raised an eyebrow, pushing the tea tray with oranges toward her.

“Not a bad estimate. Your assets stored with me are approximately four hundred and twenty-seven taels. I don’t have an abacus now—I’ll calculate the fraction when I get back.”

Lin Yuchan beamed with joy: “Thank you, Boss Su!”

“I haven’t agreed yet.” Su Minguan glanced at her, “Miss Lin, do I look very much like a sucker?”

Lin Yuchan was startled, “Two percent monthly interest with collateral doesn’t cheat you.”

“First, this isn’t a money shop. Opening a special mortgage business just for you—considering our past cooperation, I won’t charge you for the costs.” Su Minguan said, “Second, you need a guarantor to prove your character is reliable and you won’t run away midway—this I’m waiving for you, self-guaranteeing, which is a major industry taboo. Third, I need to evaluate your repayment ability—this I’m also helping you cheat on, giving you a perfect pass directly…”

Lin Yuchan smiled: “So I’m taking quite a bit of advantage of you.”

“Finally, I was short of money a while ago and happened to understand this year’s Shanghai commercial mortgage loan market conditions—depending on the different collateral, the amount of money you can borrow varies. Mortgaging real estate or land gets you about sixty percent of the property value; mortgaging ships or carriages gets you at most fifty percent; as for calligraphy, paintings, precious stones, family heirlooms and such, there’s plenty of room for manipulation—general big money shops won’t give more than thirty percent.”

Lin Yuchan nodded and asked: “What about mortgaging shares?”

Su Minguan spread his hands: “No precedent for this. But calculate your mortgage rate yourself—aren’t you asking for way too much?”

Lin Yuchan was speechless. She wanted to use four hundred and twenty taels of collateral to borrow three hundred and fifty taels. Roughly calculating, the mortgage rate exceeded eighty percent, completely outside market rates.

She thought for a moment and said: “Real estate, ships, and such—their prices fluctuate, they wear out and depreciate, so mortgage rates aren’t high. But shares don’t depreciate, and given your management ability, they’ll even continuously appreciate. A higher mortgage rate is appropriate.”

“Flattery won’t work on me.” Su Minguan smiled faintly, putting an orange segment in his mouth with a crafty “even landlords don’t have surplus grain” expression, “Miss Lin, I’ll give you sixty percent at most—two hundred and fifty taels.”

“Two hundred and fifty…” Lin Yuchan said desperately, “Can we change the number?”

“Two hundred and forty?”

She was so angry she peeled an orange for herself and swallowed half of it in one bite, so sour that tears streamed down her face.

Ancient fruit varieties weren’t good. And he ate them with such relish.

Su Minguan watched her face scrunch up and finally couldn’t help laughing aloud, the corners of his eyes curving into beautiful arcs.

“Don’t you look to see if it’s red or green before peeling an orange?”

Her lips sweetened as he fed her a segment from his hand.

…It had some flavor. She had wronged ancient people.

“A’Mei,” he confided in her, “actually, you could completely withdraw your shares, taking out the full amount of shares and dividends. I’ll even round it up as a friend—four hundred and thirty taels. We can go get the silver right now.”

Lin Yuchan pretended not to hear. Yixing shares were priceless and hard to come by. Recalling the tug-of-war battle she’d fought with him for shares, it had nearly killed her.

If he wanted to buy back the shares now, he had ulterior motives. Once she gave up these shares, she’d never get them back.

She blinked pitifully: “Boss Su, please be more flexible.”

While speaking, she frantically racked her brain, looking for flaws in his earlier words.

“Playing pitiful” indeed did not affect Su Minguan. He smiled and fed her another orange segment.

“Not sincere enough—you haven’t shed a single tear.”

Lin Yuchan steeled herself, swallowed the other half of the green orange, and looked at him with teary eyes.

“Woo, Young Master Bai, I need money.”

Su Minguan was slightly moved, pulling out a handkerchief from his sleeve to gently wipe her tears, even lightly scratching her cheek.

“Sigh, I can’t bear to see girls cry. Two hundred and fifty-five taels, there you go.”

Lin Yuchan suddenly gritted her teeth, looking at that punchable handsome face above her head, saying word by word: “Continue. Scratch twenty more times.”

Didn’t he love scratching? One scratch per cheek is worth five taels of silver.

Su Minguan indeed immediately withdrew his hand, saying seriously: “Never mind, never mind. A gentleman shouldn’t take advantage of someone in distress.”

She drained the tea in her cup in several gulps and smiled at him.

“Thank you for the quote, Boss Su. Now I know the market rate. I’ll go look for other options.”

Lifting the door curtain of Yixing Teahouse, she heard footsteps behind her.

“A’Mei,” Su Minguan seemed to have completely forgotten the earlier storm, walking alongside her as if nothing had happened. Water birds by the Suzhou River spread their wings and leaped up, flying past him, “I’m very curious—you seem to have forgotten the simplest option. I hinted at it several times earlier.”

Lin Yuchan was still angry at his stinginess, puffing her cheeks and asking irritably: “What?”

“Borrow money from me. In a personal capacity, easy to borrow, easy to repay.” He turned his head slightly, looking into her eyes with a direct gaze, “I would lend it.”

Lin Yuchan smiled, stopped walking, and explained simply: “Opening a shop has risks. I can’t be one hundred percent certain I can repay the money. If I default, you’d suffer greatly. Yixing’s finances aren’t abundant either. I choose to mortgage my shares so that if the business fails and this money goes down the drain, you can reclaim the shares and won’t lose too much.

“I value my reputation and don’t want you to bear unnecessary risks.”

Su Minguan was stunned. Lin Yuchan’s expression was calm as she stood upright under the camphor tree. The camphor’s branches and leaves cast fine shadows on her brow, adding three parts delicate pride to her bearing.