Chapter 31: It’s Best to Recruit a Son-in-Law

On the other side, the money shop lends money to tea merchants at interest rates several times higher than what they offer to depositors. Tea merchants, with substantial profits from tea sales as their foundation, are more than happy to borrow money. Paying a bit of interest is no problem for them, and they eagerly compete to take out loans.

As for bad debts, they are non-existent. Before lending money to tea merchants, Baofeng Money Shop ensures that the merchants provide land and shop properties as collateral. If the merchants fail to repay the loan, the bank can sell these properties to offset the debt.

Additionally, tea currency is highly beneficial for merchants and farmers. Tea merchants don’t need to pay in cash, and if farmers are willing to hold onto the tea currency until spring to exchange it with the merchants, they can earn more interest, which they are happy to do.

From any perspective, this is an excellent idea. Since the Ye family gave this idea to Mei Zhonglin and was the first to use tea currency, the Mei family naturally had to help the Ye family through their difficulties.

With the Mei family willing to lend money, there was no shortage of funds for making osmanthus tea. Although Ye Hongchang’s money should not be a problem, Ye Chongming would not mind having more money to invest in the tea business.

Ye Chongming left like the wind.

Old Madam Ye and Ye Yaming exchanged glances and couldn’t help but laugh.

Old Madam Ye picked up the teapot and personally poured a cup of tea for Ye Yaming, “Ming’er, thank you. If it weren’t for your idea, our family would be in trouble.”

To ensure she managed Ye Hongrong well and didn’t let him indulge anymore, Ye Chongming had told her all about the family’s difficulties last night, even exaggerating a bit.

Old Madam Ye had been so scared that she broke out in a cold sweat and couldn’t sleep all night.

Hearing their conversation now, it seemed that the difficulties could be resolved, and Old Madam Ye was genuinely grateful to Ye Yaming.

Ye Yaming was a girl, and she was already fifteen. Her fiancé was a young scholar who might become a great support for the Ye family in the future. Therefore, her dowry had been prepared early and was very generous.

So, no matter what difficulties the family faced, it didn’t really affect Ye Yaming. She could completely ignore the family’s affairs. But now, she was involved and had come up with so many good ideas, which made Old Madam Ye extremely grateful and emotional.

This granddaughter, who used to be so quiet, turned out to be so clever. As a grandmother, she realized she didn’t know enough about the girls in the family.

Ye Yaming waved her hand, “I am a part of this family. How could I ignore the family’s difficulties and only care about my own little life?”

She paused, looked up at Old Madam Ye, and said, “My mother was injured when giving birth to Yin’er and can’t have more children. My father doesn’t want to take a concubine. As the eldest daughter of the second branch, I need to take responsibility. Grandmother, you might as well consider the idea of recruiting a son-in-law for me.”

Her modern parents had a commercial marriage with little affection. She had no illusions about marriage. Since the family needed an heir, she was even prepared to have a test-tube baby in her thirties.

In ancient times, this method was not feasible either technically or legally. She was used to being in charge and couldn’t adapt to being a submissive daughter-in-law in someone else’s family, nor could she tolerate having children who wouldn’t belong to her after a divorce. The solution was to recruit a son-in-law.

After having children, if the son-in-law was troublesome, she could give him some money and divorce him, keeping the children. This method was most in line with the legal principles of the time and suited her personality best.

“Uh, this…” Old Madam Ye didn’t expect Ye Yaming to consider the feasibility of this idea seriously.

She carefully observed Ye Yaming and asked, “Do your parents know about your thoughts?”

Ye Yaming shook her head, “My father doesn’t care about anything except tea. As for my mother…”

She smiled helplessly, “You know, she is proud of having Song Yifeng as her son-in-law. Song Yifeng is also my maternal grandfather’s student, and he arranged the marriage. If Song Yifeng’s character is bad, it would be like denying my grandfather’s judgment, which my mother would never accept. She wouldn’t believe anything I say.”

She poured a cup of tea for Old Madam Ye, “When Grandfather finishes dealing with the family’s affairs, he will definitely investigate Song Yifeng. When the facts are laid out, my mother will have no choice but to accept them.”

Old Madam Ye believed she understood the personalities of her daughters-in-law.

The second daughter-in-law was undoubtedly good. But because she didn’t have a son and her family’s background wasn’t as good as the other daughters-in-law, she tended to overthink and always felt that the Ye family looked down on her. When Song Yifeng passed the imperial examination, she became very proud. Giving up such an outstanding son-in-law and having her daughter criticized would be unbearable for the strong-willed Madam Yin.

“Alright, I’ll help you with this,” she agreed readily.

Ye Yaming was delighted and raised her teacup to Old Madam Ye, “Thank you, Grandmother.”

Old Madam Ye came from the prominent Mei family, which had many members. After marrying into the Ye family, she started as a young wife and now managed the household affairs of dozens of people. Her skills in managing family conflicts were undoubtedly strong.

With her help, the matter of breaking off the engagement would surely go smoothly.

Ye Chongming spent more than an hour at the Mei family. It was completely dark when he sent a maid to tell Ye Yaming, “The old master said that Old Master Mei approved your idea. He even said he wanted to thank you.”

“Ah, that’s great,” Ye Yaming was overjoyed and asked the maid to reward the maid.

Tea currency was issued in 1925 by the China Silk Tea Bank to address the shortage of circulating currency due to the booming tea trade. The nature and specific circumstances of banks and money shops were different.

Modern banks are also different from money shops. This is not only due to the limitations of the times but also for various other reasons.

Although Ye Yaming spoke confidently to Ye Chongming, she was still uncertain in her heart.

Now that the matter was settled, the Ye family’s problems were completely resolved. Even if Ye Hongchang couldn’t bring back the money, the Ye family’s business wouldn’t be affected, and they could even turn the tables on Meng Chengwei. Naturally, Ye Yaming was very happy.

The maid added, “The old master said you should go over if you haven’t rested yet. If you have, then wait until tomorrow.”

Ye Yaming knew that Ye Chongming must be discussing the matter of making osmanthus tea, so she got up and said, “I haven’t rested yet, let’s go.”

She took Nanny Xia and Bai Xin to the main courtyard.

When Ye Chongming saw her, he roughly recounted his conversation with Mei Zhonglin.

“Hey, you don’t know how much your Granduncle praised you. He said you were capable, smart, and would achieve great things in the future. He kept saying all kinds of good things,” he said with a smile, his eyes narrowing into slits.