Chapter 4: The Ye Family

“Jiaxing’s horse was suddenly startled, and Young Master Meng happened to pass by. He inquired about the situation and helped the servant bring Jiaxing home. I am very grateful for this. But having done business all my life, dealing with people in tea houses every day, I believe I have some ability to judge character. I think that Young Master Meng is not someone to be deeply associated with.”

Although Meng Chengwei only showed a moment of amazement and covetousness when he saw Ye Yaming, most people might think it was nothing. After all, it’s understandable for a man to be unable to take his eyes off a beautiful woman. But Ye Chongming believed that a person’s upbringing and character could be seen from a single glance.

A well-mannered and good-natured person should not stare at a woman, let alone show a lecherous expression.

Perhaps he was old-fashioned, but he just didn’t like such people. Because of his integrity, although he missed many opportunities by not flattering the powerful, he earned the respect of his peers and was chosen as the head of the tea trade. This made Ye Chongming even more determined to stick to his principles.

“If you say that person is not trustworthy, then he is indeed not trustworthy,” Tao Liyang said with a smile.

The Ye family’s business was larger than the Tao family’s. As the head of the family, Ye Chongming was over sixty years old, having experienced much more than Tao Liyang. He was also the head of the tea trade, with both ability and vision, so Tao Liyang naturally trusted him.

It was almost noon, so Ye Chongming invited him to stay for lunch.

Having confirmed that Meng Chengwei was not someone to be deeply associated with, Tao Liyang didn’t need to rush back to get close to him. He had lunch at the Ye family’s other house and then rode down the mountain leisurely.

Meanwhile, Meng Chengwei waited at the inn, but no one from the Ye family came, nor did anyone from the Tao family, who owned the Rugu Inn.

“What do you think this means?” he asked Meng Liang. He genuinely didn’t understand why these people were still treating him this way after learning he was a royal merchant.

Meng Liang finally realized what Meng Chengwei was waiting for. He was also puzzled. But he couldn’t show his confusion and said, “I guess the innkeeper is ignorant and doesn’t know what being a royal merchant means, so he didn’t inform the Tao family or send a message to the Ye family. Otherwise, the Tao and Ye families would have come running to flatter and please you like flies to honey.”

This made Meng Chengwei’s expression lighten a bit. After thinking it over, he decided that pushing too hard wasn’t the way to do business. “Let’s go to Lin’an.”

Once he sat in the Ye family’s tea house in Lin’an and revealed his identity, the news would reach the Ye family. With the favor of saving Ye Jiaxing, the Ye family would come to him if they encountered any trouble.

He hadn’t used this tactic earlier because he didn’t want to make a big fuss. After all, the Meng family wasn’t the only one eyeing the Jiangnan tea market.

Although the titles of Consort Min and royal merchant were impressive, those who knew the inside story were aware that Consort Min was not favored and had only given birth to a princess, not a son. Because of her, the Meng family could only do small businesses on the fringes of the royal family. Therefore, saying the Meng family was a royal merchant only made them slightly better than ordinary merchants. In the capital, not many people took them seriously.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have to go to such lengths to target the Jiangnan tea market. Tea was bought and sold by the government, and if he could get through the Ministry of Revenue, he could intercept it upstream without dealing with the tea merchants below.

It was still early afternoon, and Baiteng County was not far from Lin’an City, so they set off for Lin’an.

…

Meanwhile, the carriage carrying Ye Yaming and her group stopped before the Ye family’s ancestral home.

“Eldest Young Master, Eldest Young Madam, Second Miss, Third Miss are back?” The outer steward, Li Fu, and the inner steward, Madam Lu, along with servants and maids, came to greet them.

Since the accompanying guards had gone ahead to inform them, they had already prepared sedan chairs and were waiting.

The servants carried Ye Jiaxing on a soft sedan chair, while Madam Guan and the Ye sisters, having been jostled all the way, didn’t want to ride the sedan chair and ambled behind it.

When they reached the main hall, they noticed something was off.

Given Ye Jiaxing’s injury, both the elders’ love for him and his status as the eldest grandson meant that Old Madam Ye, Madam Tao, and the women of the second and fourth branches should have been in the hall to greet him and send for a doctor. But only the original owner’s mother and younger sister, Second Madam Yin and Fourth Miss Ye Yayin, were there, and they didn’t look happy. Old Madam Ye and Madam Tao, who always doted on Ye Jiaxing, were nowhere to be seen.

“What happened?” Ye Jiaxing asked.

Madam Yin first inquired about his injury and then said, “It seems something happened to your fourth uncle. They are all in the main courtyard with your grandmother.”

Bad things always come in pairs, Ye Yaming thought.

Ye Jiaxing’s heart tightened at the mention of his fourth uncle. The fourth branch of the family was the most unreliable. He ordered, “Take me to grandmother.”

So they headed to the main courtyard.

Seeing Second Madam and the Eldest Young Master, the maids and nannies in the main courtyard didn’t dare stop them and let them in directly.

Inside, they saw Old Madam Ye Mei sitting at the head with a dark expression, Fourth Master Ye Hongrong kneeling on the ground, and Fourth Madam standing beside him, clutching a handkerchief tightly.

Madam Tao sat below Old Madam Ye, her face full of anger.

Seeing Ye Jiaxing being helped in, Old Madam Ye’s expression softened a bit. She got up, walked to his side, examined his bandaged leg, and asked with concern, “Is it serious?”

“It’s nothing serious,” Ye Jiaxing replied, not in the mood to talk about it. He looked at Ye Hongrong and asked, “Fourth Uncle, what happened?”

At this, Old Madam Ye’s face darkened again. She glanced around the room and said, “Jiaxing stays; everyone else can leave.”

Madam Yin’s face turned sour.

The Ye family had four branches. The third branch’s master had died shortly after marrying at eighteen, and the third madam lived a secluded life with her posthumous daughter, not involved in family affairs. But the second branch’s master was still alive.

Now that something had happened to the fourth branch, Old Madam Ye kept the main branch’s madam and eldest son, excluding the second branch. What did this mean? It was because she hadn’t given birth to a son, and the second branch only had two daughters.

Ye Yaming, with the original owner’s memories, knew what Madam Yin was upset about.

When Ye Chongming married off his four sons, he had put a lot of thought into it. Although he had good relationships with the tea merchants, knowing each other well, he thought it was not prudent to marry within the same trade and not conducive to expanding connections. So, he found matchmakers and married his sons to women from various trades.