Chapter 44: An Unexpected Incident

The next day, Ye Chongming visited another Li Zheng’s home, settled the matters, and was accompanied to three nearby villages with many garden households. He signed contracts with more than twenty households, which finally put his mind at ease. The remaining twenty or so households lived in small, scattered mountain villages. Some villages had only a dozen households, and only one or two had tea gardens.

The mountain roads were rugged and uneven, full of potholes, making it impossible for carriages to pass. They had to ride horses. The two Li Zhengs couldn’t accompany him, so Ye Chongming had to slowly visit each household with his attendants.

Fortunately, he was a kind and honest person. Even in years of famine, when garden households couldn’t deliver the pre-ordered tea, he agreed to carry over the orders to the next year without forcing them to return the money. If a garden household had an emergency and needed money or help, they could always turn to him, and he would help as much as he could.

Now, he was only changing the white contracts to red ones without asking for extra money. The Li Zhengs would handle it and even give a gift. Hearing that the Li Zhengs had accompanied Ye Chongming to two villages and that those two large villages had agreed, the garden households naturally gave face to the Ye family and had no objections.

As for the tea currency, initially, everyone was hesitant and refused when they heard there would be no cash. However, when they learned that exchanging 100 taels of tea currency for tea in the spring would yield half a tael of silver in interest, it became an unexpected windfall for the garden households, who had no other income besides tea. Therefore, most garden households who didn’t urgently need money were willing to accept tea currency instead of cash, just like the households in the villages below.

This made Ye Chongming very happy.

The more garden households accepted tea currency, the better he could explain to Mei Chonglin.

After running around from morning to night for another day, only three small villages were left, and the tea gardens in these villages were not large.

Li Fu advised, “Old Master, why don’t you rest? We can visit these two households tomorrow.”

Other attendants also urged, “Yes. The Master and Young Master are still injured and can’t worry about things. If you collapse from exhaustion, no one will manage the household affairs.”

Ye Chongming sighed.

Although even a mosquito’s leg is meat and was best to secure the tea from these two villages, he was getting old and had been very tired these past two days. If he continued, he might really fall ill.

“Alright, we’ll go tomorrow,” he said. “Let’s rest well at the mountain villa tonight.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and quickly helped Ye Chongming onto the carriage, slowly returning to the villa.

Seeing Ye Chongming’s carriage stop at the gate, the old caretaker of the villa breathed a sigh of relief and came forward, saying, “Old Master, you’re back? The third young master from the Li Zheng Zhou’s family has been waiting for you for a long time.”

“Zhou Xing?” As soon as Ye Chongming heard this, he guessed what it was about. He hurriedly entered the gate and went to the hall. Zhou Xing, who had been resting in a room, also came out and greeted Ye Chongming, “Uncle Ye.”

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Ye Chongming asked, “Is there something you need?”

“This afternoon, a tea merchant from out of town visited my father and offered a large sum of money to have the garden households under his jurisdiction sign contracts with him to sell tea to him next spring. My father naturally refused and sent me to inform you.”

Ye Chongming squinted his eyes and asked, “What is his name?”

“Liu Qilin.”

A cold smile appeared on Ye Chongming’s lips. He had already investigated Meng Chengwei’s situation. He knew that Meng Chengwei had three capable people by his side: his cousin Meng Liang and two managers, Liu Qilin and Yuan Fang.

This Liu Qilin was one of Meng Chengwei’s men.

As expected, Meng Chengwei had sent someone to steal the garden households.

Fortunately, he had acted first and signed contracts with most of the garden households before them. Although they hadn’t yet gone to the yamen to change the white contracts to red contracts, the two Li Zhengs had informed the four large villages about the red contracts. The garden households, fearing the government, were unlikely to breach the contracts.

The two Li Zhengs had received his benefits and had cooperated with him for many years. The Ye family’s foundation in Lin’an was not something that out-of-town tea merchants could compare to. The Li Zhengs were also aware of his relationship with Master Wu. He believed they would stand firm and not change their minds for a small profit, persuading the garden households to breach the contracts. As for the two villages that hadn’t signed contracts yet, their tea gardens were small. Losing them wouldn’t have a significant impact on the Ye family.

With this in mind, Ye Chongming was no longer anxious.

After having a good breakfast at home the next day, he set off with his attendants towards the two villages.

These two villages were actually quite close to Lin’an City. Ye Chongming had to go down the mountain from the Ye family’s villa. Most of the tea gardens were on the southern slope, while these two villages were on the eastern slope, and their tea gardens were not large. So he had initially gone south, planning to circle back and visit these last two villages.

The road was narrow, and in previous years, they had used mules to carry the tea out. Ye Chongming rode his horse slowly, taking more than half an hour to reach the first village.

“Is anyone home? Is Gong Daniu here?” Wu Qingping, the tea factory manager, stepped forward and called out toward the courtyard.

After a while, a middle-aged woman came out of the house.

Wu Qingping had come with Ye Hongchang to order tea in previous years and recognized this woman. He first introduced her to Ye Chongming, “This is Gong Daniu’s wife, Mrs. Zhao.”

Then he said to Mrs. Zhao, “Aunt Gong, this is our Old Master Ye, here to order tea from your family.”

Mrs. Zhao opened the courtyard gate but stood at the entrance without inviting everyone in. She had a slight smile on her face, “So it’s Old Master Ye. But you’re late this year. Our tea has already been pre-ordered.”

Everyone was stunned to hear this.

Wu Qingping repeated in disbelief, “Pre-ordered?”

“Yes.”

Although Ye Chongming had a suspicion, he frowned and asked, “May I ask who pre-ordered it? And are you planning to cooperate with him next year as well?”

Mrs. Zhao’s smile stiffened, and her expression turned indifferent, “I don’t know who pre-ordered it. My husband makes these decisions, and I don’t handle these matters.”

She continued, “This year’s tea is gone. Please leave.” With that, she closed the gate and went back inside.

Wu Qingping was stunned and frowned, “Is the Gong family planning not to cooperate with us anymore? Otherwise, they wouldn’t have this attitude.”

Old Master Ye himself had come in person. Even if the Gong family’s tea had been pre-ordered, they should have invited him in for a cup of tea.

However, the Gong family’s attitude was almost like turning their backs on them.