As for Madam Zhang, the wife of the fourth son, Ye Hongrong, who had caused the huge financial hole, she should have taken most of the responsibility due to her husband’s fault. But she was a troublemaker who valued money more than life itself. If anyone mentioned borrowing her dowry money and jewelry, Madam Zhang would create an uproar and wouldn’t rest until she turned everything upside down.

So it was better not to stir up that hornet’s nest. At this moment, less trouble was better than more.

Ye Chongming ignored the Old Lady.

Unless it was the last resort, he would not touch the women’s private property.

Moreover, Ye Yaming’s words had hidden meaning.

He asked: “You only mentioned filling that part of the gap, but what about the money for pre-ordering tea from the garden owners?”

Three thousand taels wasn’t a large sum ordinarily. But gathering it now was truly difficult.

“You should discuss with Great-Uncle about issuing a certificate called ‘tea currency’ to the garden owners,” Ye Yaming said. “This tea currency is similar to bank notes, guaranteed by the bank. When garden owners take tea currency to the bank, matching it with their name and amount information left at the bank, they can directly exchange it for silver.”

“Tea currency?” Ye Chongming was stunned, digesting Ye Yaming’s words, and hesitantly asked, “Will this work?”

“Those garden owners have been cooperating with our Ye family for decades and have deep connections. Plus, since these tea currencies can be exchanged for silver with the bank’s guarantee, they should be willing to pre-sell spring tea this way. And you can tell them that if they keep the tea currency until next spring when full payment is due and exchange it directly with you then, for every ten taels of silver, they can get an extra hundred copper coins.”

At this point, she quickly added: “Of course, I’m just suggesting these numbers casually. As for the specific interest rate, you can discuss with Great-Uncle later to decide what’s appropriate.”

Ye Chongming thought for a moment and said: “There’s no problem with the garden owners.”

Even without giving them bank-issued tea currency that could be directly exchanged for silver, based solely on the Ye family’s business integrity and decades of cooperation, most garden owners would do him a favor and pre-sell next year’s spring tea to him.

But such favors could only be called upon once. And after selling him this favor, if the garden owners encountered any issues in the future, he would have no grounds to reprimand them. The garden owners might also become lax about the quality of the raw tea, causing endless troubles.

So there was still a big difference between giving tea currency and giving nothing.

But…

He said: “The problem now is still the bank. Your Great-Uncle won’t agree to do this. Doing so would be more harmful than privately lending us money. Garden owners are numerous and talkative. Once word spreads that one can exchange a piece of paper for silver at Baofeng Bank, think about it—won’t the depositors panic?”

“Once this panic spreads, and everyone goes to Baofeng Bank to withdraw their money, Baofeng Bank will be finished.”

Ye Yaming dared to make this suggestion because she had naturally thought of these issues.

She said: “This matter will spread. Grandfather, don’t forget that Meng Chengwei is still watching us. At that time, he will certainly exploit this issue, and Baofeng Bank will face a bank run.”

“Then why do you suggest this?” Ye Chongming looked at her suspiciously, then his eyes brightened. “Do you have some good countermeasures?”

Ye Yaming’s eyes curved, revealing a smile like a little fox: “What if Baofeng Bank not only doesn’t charge depositors a safety deposit fee, but also gives them interest for every deposit they make? Wouldn’t that attract a large number of people to deposit money at Baofeng Bank?”

Ye Chongming and Old Lady Ye were both stunned.

“Where would the interest come from?” Old Lady Ye asked.

“From the tea merchants,” Ye Yaming said.

Ye Chongming’s eyes brightened, thoughtful.

Ye Yaming asked Ye Chongming: “Aren’t there many tea merchants who face cash shortages every autumn, always trying to find ways to borrow money to pre-order next year’s spring tea?”

Ye Chongming nodded: “Indeed. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be in such a difficult situation. We could borrow some money from relatives and get through this crisis.”

Because the tea business was highly profitable, every tea merchant wanted to pre-order more spring tea in autumn. Therefore, they would use all their available funds to buy tea. However, after obtaining spring tea, it was impossible to sell all these tea leaves before the Mid-Autumn Festival, which was half a year away. Since the period around the New Year was also a peak sales season for tea, if they wanted to pursue substantial profits, they had to keep tea to sell during the Spring Festival.

In other words, the funds invested at Mid-Autumn Festival the previous year couldn’t be fully recovered before Mid-Autumn Festival the following year, which left tea merchants always short of funds when pre-ordering tea every Mid-Autumn Festival.

As the saying goes, “Help in emergencies, not in poverty,” let alone lending money for business. If you earned money, they wouldn’t benefit; but if you lost money, their money would be wasted. Besides, tea merchants didn’t need small amounts—who would lend tens of thousands of taels for business?

Therefore, no matter how desperately they needed money, tea merchants couldn’t borrow from relatives and friends. Even if they asked, they wouldn’t get the money and would only lose face.

Tea merchants could only carefully calculate and gather funds from various sources to get through the pre-ordering phase. Those who sought stability could only pre-order less spring tea; those who were more aggressive would be anxious every Mid-Autumn Festival.

Other tea merchants were like this, and naturally, the Ye family was the same.

“What if Baofeng Bank is willing to lend money to tea merchants, only asking for a certain interest from them? Would tea merchants be willing to borrow this money?” Ye Yaming said.

As Ye Yaming asked step by step, Ye Chongming had already guessed something. Now he slapped the table forcefully: “Good idea!” This startled Old Lady Ye.

In all their years of marriage, she had never seen her husband so excited.

Ye Chongming immediately stood up excitedly and walked quickly toward the door: “I will go find your Great-Uncle to discuss this matter now.”

The sixty-year-old man now displayed the agility and impatience of a young person.

“Grandfather,” Ye Yaming quickly called to him, “Shall we continue making osmanthus tea?”

Ye Chongming slapped his forehead and stopped.

“Make it! Why not? First thing tomorrow morning, I’ll give orders to purchase osmanthus flowers and buy loose tea. However much raw material we have, we’ll make that much—the more the better,” Ye Chongming said.

He thought Ye Yaming’s idea was truly excellent.

Given his wife’s cousin Mei Chonglin’s character, he would agree. And since the Ye family had provided such a good idea, Mei Chonglin would naturally lend them a substantial sum.

In those days, many people didn’t trust banks and would rather keep gold and silver in broken jars buried under their beds. This way, they felt secure and also didn’t have to pay a safety deposit fee to the bank.

But now, turning it around, just by depositing money in the bank, they could earn interest, making money generate more money, without worrying about the reputation of lending money at high interest—what was not to like?