Chapter 45: A Face-to-Face Encounter

He turned to look at Ye Chongming, waiting for his instructions.

Ye Chongming squinted at the Gong family, showing no expression, and said, “Let’s go.”

The group followed Ye Chongming out of Gongjia Village. Once outside, Ye Chongming instructed Wu Qingping, “We’ll wait here for you. Go into the village and find out what’s going on.”

Gongjia Village was nestled in a mountain hollow. The Gong family had the largest tea garden in the village and was considered wealthy. Other families in the village also had small tea gardens and usually sold their tea to the Ye family along with the Gong family. Since the tea fields were small, the villagers also relied on hunting, farming, and herbal gathering for their livelihood.

The village had mixed surnames and varying wealth levels, so it wasn’t a united front. With some money, it wouldn’t be hard to get information.

Wu Qingping had come here to collect tea in previous years and was familiar with the villagers, so he knew the situation well.

He agreed and went back. After a short while, he returned, panting, and reported to Ye Chongming, “Old Master, an out-of-town tea merchant came before us to buy tea, offering a high price. Normally, the villagers wouldn’t sell to him, but he spread rumors that…”

He glanced at Ye Chongming, hesitant to continue.

Wu Qingping had accompanied Ye Hongchang to these villages before and was familiar with the routes and situations, which was why Ye Chongming brought him along. He didn’t know about Meng Chengwei and his schemes, only thinking it was an out-of-town tea merchant causing trouble.

“Speak!” Ye Chongming said sternly.

“The man spread rumors that our Ye family’s tea factory had major problems and lost a lot of money. He claimed we had no money to buy tea and that even if we collected the spring tea next year, it wouldn’t cover the losses, so their tea would be wasted.”

Wu Qingping paused, then continued, “Because of this, Gong Daniu sent his son to investigate and found that we were indeed offering tea currency instead of cash and requiring everyone to sign red contracts at the government office. Gong Daniu then convinced the villagers to sell their tea to the out-of-town merchant.”

Ye Chongming’s face darkened. Although he had anticipated that Meng Chengwei was behind this, confirming it still made him furious. Moreover, it was clear that Gong Daniu had taken bribes from Liu Qilin, which led his son to misrepresent the facts to the villagers.

The attendants were also angry and muttered curses under their breath.

“Let’s go back to the villa,” Ye Chongming said.

Wu Qingping was surprised, “We’re not going to Wangjia’ao?”

Ye Chongming shook his head, “Gong Daniu is worried we’ll hold a grudge and retaliate, so he’s likely allied with Wangjia’ao.”

Wu Qingping nodded, agreeing with Ye Chongming’s reasoning.

Wangjia’ao was not far from Gongjia Village, and the two villages had intermarried. Gong Daniu’s mother was from Wangjia’ao. Since he had received the news and believed it, he would have informed the people of Wangjia’ao.

“I’ll still go and take a look, just in case. Besides, we’ve always bought their tea. If we don’t even ask this year, they might accuse us of breaking the contract, which would harm our reputation,” he said.

Ye Chongming had the same thought. However, he had his own way of managing his subordinates. As a newcomer, he would give hints. But if Wu Qingping, who had been a manager for many years, couldn’t think of this or was unwilling to work hard and pretended not to think of it, Ye Chongming would send someone else to Wangjia’ao. However, it would be difficult for Wu Qingping to advance in the future.

“Alright, I’ll have Meng Ji and a guard accompany you,” Ye Chongming said.

He immediately assigned a guard to go with Wu Qingping to Wangjia’ao while he returned to the villa. On the way, he sent Zhou Xiang and two guards to a nearby village where they had already signed contracts to gather information. He wanted to know if the rumors had spread there and how the garden households were reacting.

By nightfall, both Zhou Xiang and Wu Qingping returned.

“How did it go?” Ye Chongming asked, still looking tired after resting for half a day.

As the manager, Wu Qingping spoke first, “Wangjia’ao indeed sold their tea to the out-of-town merchant, just as you suspected. Gong Daniu persuaded them.”

Looking angry, the attendant who had accompanied Wu Qingping added, “Hmph, Gong Daniu is ungrateful. When his father was sick, it was the Old Master who sent a doctor to treat him, giving him several more years of life. Now, not only has he betrayed us, but he also convinced Wangjia’ao to do the same. He’s a traitor!”

Ye Chongming ignored him. Complaining now was useless. He turned to Zhou Xiang, “What about your side?”

Zhou Xiang reported, “They probably started pre-ordering tea today. They began at the foot of the eastern mountain, went to Gongjia Village, then Wangjia’ao, and then headed south. When we reached Banshan Village, they had just arrived.”

Their route was the opposite of ours. If we hadn’t acted quickly and started with the larger villages, they might have taken some of our garden households.

Ye Chongming became serious, “Did you see them? What’s their name?”

Zhou Xiang hadn’t mentioned the name earlier because he didn’t know if the Old Master wanted Wu Qingping and the other manager to know about Meng Chengwei’s group.

Now that Ye Chongming asked, he replied, “I saw them from a distance. The leader was dressed in fine silk, about thirty years old, named Liu Qilin. He was accompanied by several attendants and guards.”

“Liu Qilin!” Ye Chongming squinted his eyes.

As expected, it was Meng Chengwei’s man.

“What did the people of Banshan Village say?” Ye Chongming asked Zhou Xiang.

“They were skeptical and argued among themselves. Some said you had been kind to Banshan Village, and the tea currency could be exchanged for cash with interest. They believed the Ye family wasn’t out of money. Since the contracts were signed and were red contracts, with the Li Zheng willing to guarantee and register them at the government office, they thought their claims were just rumors.”

“What did Liu Qilin do when he found out we had pre-ordered the tea?” Ye Chongming asked.

“Hmph,” Zhou Xiang sneered, “When they heard from the villagers that we had pre-ordered the tea, they were dumbfounded.”

“Since the contracts were signed and were red contracts, they knew that no matter how much they talked or offered, the villagers wouldn’t sell the tea to them. They had to leave in disgrace.”

“I gave a few coins to some village children to eavesdrop on their conversation. They planned to stop running around and find a place to stay. The day after tomorrow, they would return to report to Meng Chengwei that they had visited seven or eight villages, but the tea had already been pre-ordered by the Ye family with tea currency. Despite their efforts, the villagers wouldn’t change their minds.”