Glory

After speaking, he continued, "Brother Jin and Zhang Zhiyi were the first to express interest in learning, so it will be your two families. Go to the Gathering Fragrance Pavilion today to pay the fee, and send your apprentices to my tea garden in Baiteng County tomorrow. If you fail to pay today, the offer will be void."

With that, he stood up and prepared to leave.

"Wait, wait!" a middle-aged man named Wang Kuan called out. "I spoke up first—I registered before Zhang Zhiyi."

Excluding Ye Chongming and his granddaughter, there were twelve people in the room. After Jin Baoshan registered, the others appeared to sign up together, but there was still an order to who spoke first and who spoke later. Everyone was aware of the sequence.

Moreover, Zhang Zhiyi was a relatively honest and straightforward person. Earlier, he had hesitated about whether to mention that Wang Kuan had registered before him.

Now that Wang Kuan had spoken up, Zhang Zhiyi quickly added, "Yes, yes, Brother Wang Kuan spoke before I did."

"I am aware of that," Ye Chongming said coldly, casting a sharp glance at Wang Kuan. "Wang Kuan, you need not come to learn. Didn’t you send two groups to steal the tea formula? One tried to infiltrate the tea garden, and the other attempted to bribe the family members of my tea-making masters. With such underhanded methods to obtain the secret tea-making recipe without spending a single coin, why would you need to pay? I dare not accept your money. Who knows when you might bring ruin upon my family?"

With that, he turned to leave.

This Wang Kuan was one of those who still refused to give up on stealing the tea formula.

"Hey, wait! What evidence do you have that I tried to steal the tea formula? You’re slandering me outright!" Wang Kuan reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, flying into a rage and stepping forward to grab Ye Chongming. "You’re not leaving until you explain yourself clearly!"

"Don’t think that just because you’re the guild leader and have produced Tribute Tea, you can falsely accuse people at will. Let me tell you, if you can’t produce evidence, not only will you have to apologize to me, but you’ll also have to train three additional tea-making masters for me, free of charge."

He thought his actions had gone unnoticed and that the people he hired to steal the formula were too indirectly connected to trace back to him. Thus, he spoke with unwavering confidence.

Meng Ji and another page quickly stepped forward to block Wang Kuan.

But Ye Chongming stopped in his tracks, turned back, and sneered, "You want evidence, do you? Fine, I will produce it. But not for you—it will be submitted to the authorities for judgment."

He looked at the others and declared, "Those who have schemed with ill intentions need not come to pay or register. Even if you do, I will not teach you. Since you’re so capable, go ahead and try. I’ll catch every one of you and hand you over to the authorities. The officials are discerning—no matter how deeply you hide your fox tails, they will be exposed."

With that, he turned and went downstairs, followed closely by Ye Yaming.

The remaining people exchanged uneasy glances. The more astute among them had scanned the crowd while Ye Chongming was speaking and indeed noticed several who looked visibly guilty. Wang Kuan appeared the most flustered.

"Utter nonsense!" Wang Kuan blustered, trying to mask his panic. "Does he think that just because he holds the Tribute Tea, he can slander everyone without proof? I’ve done nothing wrong. If he dares to take me to court, I’ll sue him for defamation!""Moreover, everyone should not be too naive. That is Tribute Tea, which can sell for ten taels of silver per jin. Would he sell the secret tea-making recipe to you for just thirty to fifty thousand taels of silver? Perhaps he is relying on his powerful backing to reveal his true colors, using his past good reputation to deceive everyone and swindle the silver from your hands, then merely going through the motions with perfunctory teaching. By then, even if you take him to court, you won't win because he has connections."

"Yes, yes, I also find this matter suspicious. That is Tribute Tea, after all. If the tea-making masters we send learn the craft and surpass the master, producing tea even better than his family's, who knows which family the Tribute Tea will belong to in the future? Why would he dig his own grave? In my opinion, this is unreliable."

The person who echoed these sentiments, like Wang Kuan, had ulterior motives. He reckoned that if he went to sign up for tea lessons, Ye Chongming would treat him just as he had treated Wang Kuan—without sparing any face and outright rejecting him.

So it would be better to incite everyone not to learn tea at all.

This way, their past actions would not be exposed, they wouldn't fall behind others who learned tea while they didn't, and they would also undermine Ye Chongming's authority, thwarting his plans—killing multiple birds with one stone.

Many others shared the same mindset, so they joined in the echo, stirring up trouble and creating a chaotic uproar throughout the room.

They didn't notice that, aside from Jin Baoshan, there was another young man named Lin Xian sitting in the farthest corner, closely watching them. Both men silently memorized who said what and mentally noted the few individuals who actively incited the crowd in their little mental notebooks.

Thus, less than half an hour after Ye Chongming and Ye Yaming returned to the Gathering Fragrance Pavilion, they received two lists and conversation records detailing who had said what.

The vast majority of names on the two lists were identical, with the only difference being that Lin Xian's list included one additional name—Zhao Botao.

Upon comparing the conversation records written by the two, while the accounts of others had some discrepancies, these were merely due to memory lapses or differences in wording. Only regarding Zhao Botao did Lin Xian record a series of negative remarks, whereas Jin Baoshan's record contained two lines of ambiguous, meaningless chatter.

After glancing at the two lists, Ye Chongming couldn't help but sigh to Ye Yaming, "Fortunately, you advised me to hire Lin Xian."

He then explained, "Zhao Botao is Jin Baoshan's nephew-in-law."

"Everyone has their biases; such things are unavoidable," Ye Yaming comforted him. "Old Jin has done quite well in this matter today. You didn't make a mistake in choosing him."

Some time ago, these tea merchants had been growing restless, but they were not foolish enough to send their own servants directly. Instead, they hired street ruffians engaged in petty theft, offering them generous rewards.

Some of these ruffians had been recruited by Ye Yaming, and she quickly obtained information and gathered evidence.

However, there were others who had not been recruited or, even if recruited, were tempted by the substantial rewards offered by the opposing side and considered betraying her to steal the Ye family's tea formula.

Regardless of whether they had been recruited or not, once caught, with enough silver spent, they could usually be persuaded to reveal who had hired them. Yet, some individuals operated with such secrecy that they hired people through multiple layers of intermediaries.Ye Yaming could indeed follow the clues to eventually identify the culprits, but getting them all to testify would be quite difficult. Moreover, they ultimately failed to steal the secret formula, didn't they? Even if reported to the authorities, the government wouldn't be able to convict them.

Both Ye Chongming and Ye Yaming were determined not to sell the tea formula to tea merchants who resorted to underhanded tactics. To avoid wronging innocent people, the grandfather and granddaughter devised today's plan after discussing it together.

Not only did they inform everyone that Ye Jia was selling the secret formula under duress, but they also forced those with ulterior motives to reveal their true colors.

Thus, Ye Chongming had Jin Baoshan arrange today's gathering to verify his suspicions.

"Brother Shen!"

"Hmm!"

As Shen Changqing walked along the road, whenever he encountered acquaintances, they would greet each other or exchange nods.

But regardless of who it was.

Everyone's face bore no extra expression, as if they were indifferent to everything.

Shen Changqing was already accustomed to this.

Because this was the Demon Suppression Division, an institution that maintained the stability of Great Qin. Its main duty was to slay demons, monsters, and supernatural beings, though it also handled some side tasks.

It could be said.

That every person in the Demon Suppression Division had much blood on their hands.

When one becomes accustomed to life and death, they grow indifferent to many things.

When Shen Changqing first arrived in this world, he found it somewhat uncomfortable, but over time he grew accustomed to it.

The Demon Suppression Division was vast.

Those who could remain in the Demon Suppression Division were either powerful experts or individuals with the potential to become experts.

Shen Changqing belonged to the latter category.

The Demon Suppression Division was divided into two main professions: Garrison Envoys and Demon Subduing Envoys.

Anyone joining the Demon Suppression Division started from the lowest rank of Demon Subduing Envoy.

Then they would advance step by step, with the ultimate prospect of becoming a Garrison Envoy.

Shen Changqing's predecessor was a probationary Demon Subduing Envoy in the Demon Suppression Division, the lowest rank among Demon Subduing Envoys.

Possessing his predecessor's memories.

He was very familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Division.

Without taking much time, Shen Changqing stopped before a pavilion.

Unlike other solemn and murderous places in the Demon Suppression Division, this pavilion stood out like a crane among chickens, presenting a different kind of tranquility within the blood-soaked Demon Suppression Division.

The pavilion's door was wide open, with people occasionally entering and exiting.

Shen Changqing hesitated only momentarily before striding inside.

Upon entering the pavilion.

The environment suddenly transformed.

The scent of ink mixed with a faint bloody odor assailed his nostrils, causing him to instinctively frown before quickly relaxing.

The bloody scent that clung to every person in the Demon Suppression Division was almost impossible to wash clean.