Chapter 70: The Best Plan

Seeing her husband remain silent, she finally softened and said, “Yaming’s idea is to go half and half. The family can’t come up with the silver, so this is the best way. At least the benefits stay within the family. Mr. Lu and Mr. Qi want to partner with us in business, saying they will buy tea from other regions, but who knows what the situation will be? What if they can’t buy any? Our tea business in Lin’an will continue as usual, so it won’t have much impact. Offering half shows our sincerity, and Mr. Lu and Mr. Qi can’t say anything against it.”

“And it’s normal for Yaming to have personal motives. Without her ideas these past few days and the osmanthus tea she made, who knows what our family’s situation would be now? She has contributed so much. Should all the money she earns go to the main household? Even with her current suggestion, the second household only gets twenty percent, and she is not greedy.”

Ye Chongming said, “I can understand Yaming’s personal motives. Even if she didn’t say it, I wouldn’t treat her and the second household unfairly. But now, the family’s business has become the daughters-in-law’s business, and I feel it’s inappropriate.”

‘Since you said you wouldn’t mistreat her, let’s do it this way: the communal fund will contribute twenty thousand taels, the main household fifteen thousand taels, and the second household ten thousand taels. The second household’s father and daughter have worked hard to make osmanthus tea and chrysanthemum tea, so they will be credited with five thousand taels, making a total of fifty thousand taels. As for the third and fourth households, they will each contribute five thousand taels. And these shares will not be considered the daughters-in-law’s shares but the shares of each household. This way, the benefits stay within the family.”

Logically, the fourth household shouldn’t be included this time, given the trouble they caused.

However, the fourth household’s wife, Madam Zhang, is quite a troublemaker, and Old Madam Ye gets a headache just thinking about her. She is also biased towards her youngest son. If other households can earn private money and he can’t, won’t he come to her for money?

So she decided to be biased once more and include the fourth household.

With this private money, Ye Hongrong will have no reason to ask her for money in the future. The communal fund’s money can’t be squandered by him anymore. Perhaps the main and second households would prefer it this way.

Hearing this, Ye Chongming smiled bitterly, “If the main and second households could come up with ten or twenty thousand taels of silver, I wouldn’t have been so worried a few days ago. The main household, with Madam Tao’s efforts, might be able to gather over ten thousand taels of silver; borrowing from the Tao family, fifteen thousand taels wouldn’t be a problem. But the second household definitely doesn’t have that much silver; ten thousand taels would be difficult.”

‘Don’t worry about it. Just tell them this plan and see what Yaming says. Since she dared to suggest involving the women, Madam Yin must have some silver, at least ten thousand taels.”

They needed to gather sixty thousand taels in total, and the family could come up with twenty thousand taels. According to Ye Yaming’s plan, the remaining four households would each contribute ten thousand taels. So she should be confident in coming up with ten thousand taels.

Ye Chongming was puzzled, “The second son is honest and has never embezzled communal money, and he doesn’t handle business matters. Madam Yin’s family isn’t wealthy either. Where would Yaming get ten thousand taels of silver?”

Old Madam Ye shook her head, “I can’t figure it out.” She couldn’t understand her third granddaughter more and more.

After thinking for a while, she said, “The second son and Madam Yin are frugal. They must have saved three or four thousand taels of silver over the years. Madam Yin’s jewelry, if pawned, could fetch a few hundred taels. Yaming and Yin’s jewelry could also add a few hundred taels. As for the rest…”

She frowned and thought for a long time but still shook her head, “I really don’t know.”

Ye Chongming asked, “Do you have any silver?”

Old Madam Ye laughed and said, “I knew you were thinking about my private silver.”

She nodded, “Yaming has indeed made great contributions. Compared to the main household, the second household is indeed poorer. I’ll help them with the shortfall, but it’s a loan, not a gift.”

She paused, “It’s a loan, not a gift, so the other households can’t say anything.”

Ye Chongming was relieved and promised, “If the shortfall isn’t much, I’ll repay you when the osmanthus tea is sold; if it’s a lot, I’ll repay you after the spring tea is sold next year.”

Although the sale of osmanthus tea would bring in money, the tea factory, tea house, and tea shop managers and staff needed to be paid, and the Ye family household, with over a hundred people, had daily expenses. They also had to pay monthly wages at the end of the month, so money was needed everywhere. So, the money owed to his wife could only be repaid slowly.

“This matter can’t be delayed; we need to give Mr. Lu and Mr. Qi an answer soon.” Ye Chongming looked at the time and felt it was too late to call Yaming over, so he hesitated.

“Let Nanny Yu go,” Mrs. Ye suggested.

Ye Chongming agreed.

Nanny Yu went to Yaming’s courtyard and said, “Miss, the old master thinks your suggestion is very good. After discussing it with the old madam, they decided that the communal fund will contribute twenty thousand taels, the main household fifteen thousand taels, and the second household ten thousand taels, plus the credit for the osmanthus tea and chrysanthemum tea, making a total of fifteen thousand taels. The third and fourth households will each contribute five thousand taels.’

She added, “Old Madam said that if you don’t have enough money, she can help.”

Yaming secretly praised Ye Chongming for this idea. In fact, his idea was the proper business approach.

The fourth household, Ye Hongrong, caused such a big trouble, resulting in huge losses for the family. The other three households didn’t hold him responsible for the money, and now they were including him in a good business deal, giving him a share. Why?

As for the third household, Old Madam Ye pitied the young widow and often gave her rewards and support. Yaming also sympathized with the third madam and her cousin and had no objections to Old Madam Ye giving them more, even during the division of the family property.

But in business, merit should be rewarded accordingly. Otherwise, who would be willing to work hard while others reap the benefits?

But after all, they were family. Excluding them from the opportunity to earn private money would be unreasonable. The fourth household couple could cause trouble, and the third household was pitiful. If the fourth household caused problems and the third household said the Ye family bullied orphans and widows, it wouldn’t be good.

So they were included in the shares, but with a smaller proportion, considering all aspects.

She initially suggested a share worth ten thousand taels, but the second household couldn’t come up with that much silver. However, she remembered that Ye Hongsheng once acquired an inkstone that appeared plain and of average quality. In her previous life, the original owner often used that inkstone, and when she got married, Madam Yin included it in her dowry, taking it to the Song family.

Later, Song Yifeng discovered that the inkstone was an antique and sold it to a colleague who liked it for eight thousand taels of silver. He lied to the original owner, saying he accidentally broke it.