Chapter 34: Influence

Ye Yaming had been paying attention to the commotion outside.

Hearing Madam Yin and Nanny Bai’s conversation, she opened the door and said to Madam Yin, “Mother, I think if you want others to respect you, you need to have skills. Look at me, with my tea-making skills; who in the family dares to give me a hard time except for Fourth Aunt, who can’t see the situation clearly? Father too. He has tea-making skills…”

She pointed toward the main branch and lowered her voice, “Do you see how Eldest Aunt has always been trying to win over our branch? Fourth Uncle and Aunt rely on Grandmother’s favoritism, and now Eldest Uncle and Aunt have to give in to them. But what about in the future?”

She shook her head and looked at Ye Yayin.

These words were mainly meant for Ye Yayin. Madam Yin’s life was set, but Ye Yayin was still young and very moldable. She took the opportunity to instill the idea of self-reliance and independence in Ye Yayin.

Sure enough, hearing Ye Yaming’s words, Ye Yayin blinked her big eyes, thought seriously, and whispered to Ye Yaming, “Sister, I also want to learn tea-making.”

Ye Yayin, not yet thirteen, had big eyes and a baby face, pure and innocent. Ye Yaming was quite fond of this younger sister.

She unceremoniously reached out and pinched Ye Yayin’s smooth cheek, smiling, “If you like it, you can make tea with Father and me; if you don’t, you can do something else. The important thing is that you enjoy it.”

“I like embroidery,” Ye Yayin said. “Teacher Yin has praised my embroidered flowers many times.”

Teacher Yin, whose full name is Yin Xiu, was originally an embroiderer in an embroidery workshop. Now that she is older and her eyesight is not as good, she has taken on a few apprentices. The Ye family specifically invited her to teach the girls in the family embroidery, and everyone in the Ye family respectfully calls her Teacher Yin.

“Then study hard. If you master Teacher Yin’s skills, we’ll find you an even better teacher,” Ye Yaming said. “Teacher Yin can support her entire family with her embroidery skills. Even if you don’t need to support a family, having a skill is still respected. Look at Teacher Yin, when she goes out, people call her ‘master.'”

No one had ever said this to Ye Yayin before. Because the Ye family was wealthy, everyone told her that if she liked embroidery, she could learn it casually and didn’t need to take it too seriously. After all, the family didn’t rely on her skills for income, and there were embroiderers to help make clothes. She had no worries about food and clothing in her parents’ home, and even if she got married, her husband’s family wouldn’t be poor, plus she had a generous dowry.

She nodded vigorously, “Then I’ll study hard with Teacher Yin.”

“If you do well, your sister will reward you,” Ye Yaming said, patting her head.

Madam Yin did not approve of her younger daughter being obsessed with embroidery. Learning embroidery could harm her eyes, and at such a young age, she might not be able to see clearly. Even if a girl needed to learn needlework, it was enough to learn it casually. But since it was her eldest daughter who said it, she couldn’t oppose it even if she didn’t agree.

“Speaking of embroidery, I have to ask you, have you prepared your Mid-Autumn Festival gifts? The festival is in a few days. If you haven’t prepared them, you need to hurry,” she asked Ye Yaming.

Ye Yaming was taken aback and then remembered that the original owner would prepare gifts for the Song family mother and son during festivals. Besides various dried fruits and snacks, she would also make clothes for them. The original owner’s monthly allowance was mostly spent on the Song family mother and son, with very little spent on herself.

Her eyes turned cold, “I haven’t prepared them. With everything going on at home and being busy making tea, I don’t have the time or energy to make clothes for the Song family. Every year, I make them plenty of clothes, and the family sends them 200 taels of silver. If they really need clothes, Madam Song can make them herself.”

Not wanting to discuss the topic further, she said, “I’m going back to make tea,” and went inside.

Watching her daughter’s back, Madam Yin felt something was off.

Since her eldest daughter got engaged to Song Yifeng, her heart and mind were all about him. Other girls would use their monthly allowance to buy flowers and powder or save up for clothes and jewelry.

Only Ye Yaming spent all her money on the Song family. If it weren’t for the family’s quarterly provision of two sets of clothes for each person, she wouldn’t even have decent clothes to wear when going out.

But now, not only did she not make clothes for the Song family, but she also spoke coldly about them. Could it be that she had a falling out with Song Yifeng?

It seemed she needed to find time to ask Bai Xin about it.

Inside, Ye Yaming wasn’t thinking about the Song family. Remembering Madam Yin mentioning the Mid-Autumn Festival in a few days, she knew that Ye Hongchang would definitely rush home in the next couple of days, given how important these festivals were to the ancients.

After hearing her suggestion, Ye Chongming had sent someone from Lin’an City the day before yesterday. Lin’an was a certain distance from the capital, and it would take four or five days by fast horse.

Calculating the days, they should meet on the road. She wondered if Ye Hongchang would encounter Meng Chengwei’s people and if things would still follow the original trajectory.

Thinking too much was useless. Ye Yaming pushed aside her thoughts and went to feel the temperature of the tea pile.

In ancient times, there were no thermometers, so tea makers relied on their sense of touch to gauge the temperature of the tea pile. Without experience, even knowing the method of scenting flower tea wouldn’t produce good tea.

“Alright, sift the flowers and send them outside to bake,” Ye Yaming instructed.

The maids and servants got to work.

While Ye Yaming was busy making tea, Ye Chongming was busy buying loose tea, collecting osmanthus flowers, and keeping an eye on Meng Chengwei’s movements. He wished he could have someone put a sack over Meng Chengwei’s head and beat him half to death.

But “the older you get, the more cautious you become.” At sixty years old, having spent his life in the business world, Ye Chongming knew there were some people you couldn’t provoke. Especially as merchants without power or influence, they were vulnerable to others but couldn’t retaliate.

So these days, he could only have someone watch Meng Chengwei, trying to figure out his background.

When Ye Chongming returned from the mountain, Meng Chengwei also arrived in Lin’an City, renting a small courtyard in the best inn. Every day, he would take his cousin and servants to the Ye family’s tea house, Jixiang Lou, to drink tea and listen to stories. In casual conversations, he revealed a lot about himself.

He mentioned that his father was the head of the Meng family, who were imperial merchants, his aunt was Consort Min, and he had been entering the palace since he was a child.

These were things he had told the innkeeper in Baiteng County, so they weren’t new. But they were enough to make Ye Chongming wary.

The Ye family couldn’t talk about being targeted and framed because it involved private tea.

With the eldest son not at home, the grandson seemed unreliable compared to Ye Yaming.

Ye Chongming had to mention this to his wife, lamenting, “We know this person is framing us, but we can’t do anything about it. It’s really frustrating.”