Chapter 67: How to Divide the Shares?

After she transmigrated, Ye Hongchang was in the capital and later stayed in the main house due to an injury. Although Ye Yaming had visited him with her sisters and had seen him a few times, she hadn’t had the chance to get to know Ye Hongchang deeply and didn’t know what kind of person the heir of the Ye family was.

Ye Hongchang thought for a moment and asked, “Is that all he said? Didn’t he mention anything about the court or even the Crown Prince?”

Ye Chongming shook his head, “He didn’t say. Mr. Qi provided most of the information about Mr. Lu’s family. Mr. Lu doesn’t seem to be a talkative person. He only spoke a few words when Mr. Qi asked him, and he didn’t say much about his family.”

“Even if it’s a stepmother, she is still a mother. He wouldn’t speak much about her,” said Ye Hongchang.

Ye Chongming nodded and said to his eldest son, “I also wanted to know what you were concerned about. I tried to probe, but both of them only mentioned it briefly. It seems that Mr. Lu really just wants to establish his own business by doing tea trade.”

Ye Hongchang breathed a sigh of relief, “If that’s the case, then it’s all the better.”

As an ordinary person, Ye Hongchang was also very afraid and resistant to getting involved in court struggles and the fight for the throne. If Lu Guanyi’s cooperation with the Ye family had nothing to do with court struggles or the Crown Prince, that would be the best.

Seeing that his eldest son had nothing more to say and his grandson Ye Jiaxing, as usual, was only listening without any opinions or suggestions, Ye Chongming turned to Ye Yaming and asked, “Yaming, do you have anything to say?”

Ye Yaming said, “Grandfather, you can send someone to investigate Mr. Lu’s residence. Is it an old house that the Lu family bought a long time ago? Or is it part of Mrs. Qi’s dowry? Or is it a new house that Mr. Lu recently bought? If it was recently purchased, we might find some clues.”

Ye Chongming’s eyes lit up, and he slapped the table, “That’s right.”

The Ye family’s house and Mr. Lu’s house were on the same street, not far from each other. Ye Chongming naturally knew the price of such houses very well.

The Ye family’s house, with three courtyards and a garden, was worth fifty thousand taels of silver. Mr. Lu’s house, closer to the government office and described by Ye Yaming as spacious and more exquisite than the Ye family’s house, was worth at least eighty thousand taels or even more.

Even if the Marquis of Xuanwu’s family had money, with the stepmother in charge, it was unlikely that they would give so much money to Mr. Lu. Even if they did, he couldn’t possibly spend such a large sum to buy a house and still have money left for the tea business. He was alone, with only a few servants and no large household or many servants. Why would he buy such a large house?

The only explanation was that the money was an investment from the Crown Prince or the house originally belonged to the Crown Prince’s faction.

“Regardless of whether he has any connection with the court, our family is cooperating with him, right?” Ye Yaming asked.

“Yes,” Ye Chongming replied, “And the Prefect’s family. The Prefect’s third son also plans to take a share and join us in the tea business.”

Hearing this, Ye Hongchang was puzzled, “Isn’t the third son taking the imperial examination?”

Their Ye family were merchants and couldn’t take the imperial examination. Otherwise, the status of merchants wouldn’t be so low, and the Ye family wouldn’t always be thinking of marrying into scholarly families. However, since the Prefect could become a Prefect, he must have been a successful candidate for the imperial examination. His son, Qi Ji, looked only sixteen or seventeen years old, the age to study hard for the imperial examination. Why wouldn’t the Qi family let him focus on studying at home and instead let him go into business?

Ye Chongming’s lifelong obsession was to have a successful candidate in the imperial examination in the family, so he was more concerned about this issue than Ye Hongchang.

He said, “I asked about it. The eldest son of the Qi family is a successful candidate, and the second son is a recommended candidate. The third son, he said, was a premature baby and often fell ill. His grandmother didn’t allow his parents to force him to study, and he wasn’t smart and not suited for studying. So after a few years in school, he gave up, and the family didn’t want him to take the imperial examination.”

Hearing this, the Ye family members understood. Although they hadn’t taken the imperial examination, they were familiar with it due to Song Yifeng’s presence.

The county examination was fine, but the provincial and metropolitan examinations were three sessions each, with each session lasting three days. During these three days, they couldn’t eat or sleep well, and a group of people had to eat, drink, sleep, and relieve themselves in the examination hall, which was filthy. In such an environment, they had to nervously answer questions and write essays. When they came out of the examination hall, they were all pale.

When Song Yifeng took the county and provincial examinations, the Ye family sent people to take care of him. The attendants reported that many people fell ill after the provincial examination, and some even died. This didn’t include the usual hard studying.

Ten years of hard study required a good body. The Qi family already had the eldest son to support the family, and the second son had hope. As for the youngest son, who is in poor health, they just let him be.

“So how much share do they take? How much share do we take?” Ye Yaming brought the topic back.

This was the most crucial part. As for Qi Ji taking a share in the business, it was likely to help Lu Guanyi take a share. If their combined shares were higher than the Ye family’s, the Ye family would be at a disadvantage.

However, the Ye family had the secret tea-making recipe, her talented father Ye Hongsheng, and she, a time traveler, could create many new teas. Even if the Ye family’s share were small, they wouldn’t be without a voice. She wanted to know if Lu Guanyi was a greedy person, which would determine how much effort the Ye family should put in.

If the Ye family’s share was small, they could just live a leisurely life without putting in much effort for little benefit.

“Mr. Lu is investing ninety thousand taels of silver for a thirty percent share, and Mr. Qi is investing thirty thousand taels of silver for a ten percent share. Our family is investing the raw tea leaves and tea-making recipes from Jiangnan for a sixty percent share. The tea factory and tea house are not included. If they use our tea factory for processing, they will pay us processing fees.”

“Of course, this is just the general idea. As for the exact shares, it depends on Mr. Lu’s performance. If we find it unreasonable, we can negotiate further,” Ye Chongming added.

Ye Yaming nodded secretly.

This ratio was quite reasonable.

As far as she knew, the Ye family invested about seventy thousand taels in tea leaves each year, with a profit of twenty to thirty thousand taels. This profit was not yet realized, and according to the cooperation rules, it should belong to everyone after the cooperation. But now, Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji included it in the Ye family’s investment, which was very generous and considerate.

Even if the profit was added, along with the tea-making recipes and the intangible assets of the tea gardens, according to Ye Yaming’s calculations, it was worth about one hundred and twenty thousand taels.

Now, Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji were investing one hundred and twenty thousand taels together but only taking a forty percent share, which was their second generous and considerate move.