Glory

Ye Chongming finally set his heart at ease: "No, no."

"But," he then raised an issue with the price, "this tea-making recipe is only being sold for thirty to fifty thousand taels of silver? Ming'er, aren't we selling it too cheaply? Let me tell you, even if we ask for a hundred thousand taels, someone would still buy it."

This was, after all, a secret tea-making recipe that could be passed down to descendants, ensuring wealth for generations.

Why had the Ye family's tea always sold so well? It was all thanks to the tea-making techniques handed down from their ancestors. A hundred thousand taels—even if one family couldn't afford it, two or three families pooling their resources could certainly come up with the sum.

Ye Yaming shook her head: "No, Grandfather, I'm not planning to sell it to just one family. I'll sell it to as many families as are willing to pay."

"Ah?" Ye Chongming was stunned.

Lu Guanyi, standing nearby, praised: "Miss Ye has a brilliant idea."

Ye Chongming, after all, was an experienced businessman. After a moment of shock, he grasped the reasoning.

Indeed, even if they sold the recipe for only thirty thousand taels, if ten people bought it, they would earn three hundred thousand taels. That was far more profitable than selling it to just one person for a hundred thousand taels.

Moreover, if people could buy the secret tea-making recipe for just thirty thousand taels, they would likely choose to pay rather than take the risk of stealing it.

After all, even if they didn't know about the Ye family's collaboration with Lu and Qi, the fact that Dragon Well Tea had been presented to the Emperor indicated that the Ye family had influential backing. Rather than provoking such a family with no guarantee of obtaining the recipe, it would be wiser to simply spend some silver to buy it.

Though he understood the logic, he couldn't help feeling resentful: "But if everyone knows how to make Dragon Well Tea, we won't be able to command high prices for it anymore."

"Right now, we're merely riding on a favorable trend. Coupled with the fact that our Dragon Well Tea production this year is genuinely limited and demand far exceeds supply, we can sell it at high prices. The Tea Monopoly Office hasn't raised any objections either."

"Wealth stirs greed. If our family alone held the secret recipe and produced large quantities of tea, monopolizing the business year after year, not only would tea merchants in Lin'an covet it, but even powerful figures in the capital would be tempted. Sooner or later, they would pressure the Tea Monopoly Office to cause us trouble, send people to disrupt our teahouses, and fabricate false charges to imprison you. At that point, not only would we lose our wealth, but our lives would be at risk as well," Ye Yaming said calmly.

"Miss Ye makes an excellent point," Qi Ji added. "Old Master Ye, if we don't sell the recipe, it's highly likely that what Miss Ye described will happen."

He gave a bitter smile: "Zi Mo and I don't have enough influence yet to fully protect you."

"No, no, even if you could protect us, we shouldn't handle things that way," Ye Chongming quickly replied.

This was, after all, the Ye family's business, and Lu and Qi hadn't taken a single coin from it. Soon, when selling the tea-making recipe, the Ye family would even charge them. How could the Ye family, out of their own greed, cause trouble and then expect Lu and Qi to shield them? That would be utterly unreasonable.

After Ye Yaming's analysis, his mind cleared.

In truth, even if Ye Yaming hadn't spoken, he would have realized this eventually. He had simply been momentarily blinded by greed when he made those earlier remarks.

"Ming'er, you're right. Let's do as you say."

Grateful for the care Lu and Qi had shown the Ye family during this time, and considering that the Ye family held half the shares in their joint venture, he added: "However, could we sell the recipe to these two gentlemen first and delay selling to others?""I urgently called you two gentlemen over to discuss this matter." Ye Yaming smiled and gestured towards Qi Ji and Ye Chongming. "Each of you give me five thousand taels of silver, and I'll have my father train twenty tea-making masters for you. We can still harvest one round of summer tea and autumn tea this year."

"I'm not boasting. Even as summer or autumn tea, this pan-fired green tea tastes better than when estate holders process it into crude tea and then make other teas. It also commands a higher price. Moreover, with the experience of making summer and autumn tea, your tea masters will undoubtedly produce higher quality spring tea than others next year."

"As for others, after your twenty masters complete their training, my father will teach the next batch. Each batch can have up to twelve people - first come, first served. For those sending three people to learn, the tuition is thirty thousand taels; for six people, it's fifty thousand taels."

Qi Ji was utterly impressed with Ye Yaming: "Miss Ye, this move of yours is truly brilliant. Those who were still hesitating will see others spending money to learn and then starting to make autumn tea for profit - they'll surely become anxious. Moreover, learning tea-making directly from Second Master Ye is different from sending people to learn and then having them teach others. Who knows if the latter would truly master the skills? If they only half-understand, wouldn't their apprentices learn incorrectly? Wouldn't that thirty thousand taels be wasted then?"

"So when you announce this, not only will tea merchants compete to learn, but they'll also opt for the fifty-thousand-tael option." He clicked his tongue twice, his face full of admiration. "Miss Ye's money-making ability truly makes me envious."

"If I weren't backed by you two gentlemen, even with all my abilities, I wouldn't dare to reveal them." Ye Yaming offered them a small compliment.

"As repayment, when the tea leaves are ready in Huizhou's tea mountains, I plan to use another secret tea-making recipe to produce a tea different from Dragon Well Tea. And that one won't cost you any silver."

"Another secret tea-making recipe?" Lu Qi and Ye Chongming asked in unison.

Ye Yaming nodded: "It will still be pan-fired, but the specific production method will be different, with slightly varying aroma and tea soup flavor. In the future, I intend to have each region produce its own characteristic tea. This way, we won't be competing against ourselves."

"Characteristic tea?" The three men looked at each other in surprise.

Ye Chongming asked: "Ming'er, how many types of tea do you actually know?"

Ye Yaming shook her head, not answering his question directly: "Oranges grown south of the Huai River are oranges, but become trifoliate oranges when grown north of it. Tea is the same. The tea trees in Huizhou's mountains are slightly different from those here in Lin'an. Their leaf sizes vary, and their bitterness differs. Even the same tea variety differs depending on whether it grows at the mountain foot or summit, on southern or northern slopes, with more or less sunlight exposure."

"When making tea, we must adapt to the tea. Using different production methods for different tea leaves to bring out their best flavor - that's what makes a good tea master."

These words captivated not only Lu Guanyi and Qi Ji but even Ye Chongming.

Qi Ji was a complete novice in tea-making, but that didn't prevent him from feeling excited: "So, does this mean we're going to make huge profits in the future?"

"That is unquestionable." Ye Yaming nodded seriously.

Her earnest and solemn expression made Qi Ji burst into "ha ha" laughter.Lu Guanyi's lips curved into a smile as he asked Ye Yaming, "What are you planning to do next?"

"Make Jasmine Tea," Ye Yaming replied.

At the beginning of spring, she had arranged for hundreds of acres of jasmine flowers to be planted on the Ye family estate. These flowers, propagated through cuttings, could bloom and be harvested within the same year.

It was now May or June, and the first batch of jasmine flowers was about to bloom in full. She intended to move to the estate and begin producing Jasmine Tea.

Author's Note:

Apologies for the short chapter today—I've been busy with end-of-term matters and haven't been feeling well.

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