Glory

Ye Yaming breathed a sigh of relief.

This bridal farewell ceremony was truly more exhausting than negotiating business deals in the commercial world.

The groom's wedding attendant came forward to support Ye Yaming, flanking her on either side with Madame Zhou as they guided her outward. At the doorway, Ye Jiaxing was waiting to carry Ye Yaming on his back toward the exit.

With the bridal veil covering her head, Ye Yaming's senses seemed muffled as well.

She only knew that Ye Jiaxing carried her from the inner gate to outside the main entrance, surrounded by the voices of Ye family relatives, clansmen, and strangers—likely the in-laws of Ye Ruhui and Ye Yaxiu.

Amid festive music and bursts of firecrackers, she was placed inside the bridal sedan. Outside the sedan, Lu Guanyi's voice could be heard, accompanied by waves of teasing cheers.

Soon, as the gongs, drums, and suona horns crescendoed, the sedan was lifted and slowly carried out of the alley.

The bulky furniture had already been arranged in the bridal chamber, but the rest of the dowry would follow the bride through the streets for a procession before being delivered to the Lu family.

Veiled and unable to clearly discern the voices of onlookers, Ye Yaming occasionally caught exclamations like "I didn't get a good look" or "Why is it displayed this way?"

She could roughly guess what was astonishing them.

Ye Yaming's dowry included substantial property—not just the tea mountains she had acquired in Huizhou and Minzhou, but also six or seven manors and shops gifted by relatives as additional bridal presents.

After all relatives had contributed their gifts, Ye Chongming reviewed Ye Yaming's dowry and found it unsatisfactory. After all, Ye Yaming had not only secured Tribute Tea for the Ye family but was also on the verge of becoming an Imperial merchant. She herself was to become the Madam Heir Apparent of the Xuanwu Marquis. Even before her fiancé's identity was known, Ye Yaqing had secured an unexpectedly advantageous marriage thanks to her influence.

It could be said that she single-handedly elevated the Ye family's social standing by several notches. Henceforth, the Ye family had the confidence to arrange marriages with nobility. If a sixth or seventh-rank official sought to marry into the Ye family now, they would no longer feel overly honored.

Moreover, Ye Yaming's marriage was personally decreed by the Emperor.

If her dowry lacked grandeur, it would not only disgrace the Ye family but also displease the Emperor.

Thus, avoiding Ye Yaming, he privately gathered his sons and daughters-in-law for discussion.

The Ye family's annual earnings had multiplied several times over the past two years, not to mention the visible income from the tea mountains in Huizhou and Minzhou. Everyone knew that maintaining good relations with Ye Yaming could benefit future generations. No one was willing to oppose her and earn her resentment.

Consequently, the family treasury allocated an additional fifty thousand taels of silver to purchase several large manors for Ye Yaming in places like Tongxiang.

Each tile represented one room, and each clod of earth symbolized one mu of land. If a courtyard had twelve rooms, one dowry case would hold twelve tiles. If a manor had three hundred mu of land, three hundred clods wouldn't fit in one case. To make the dowry appear abundant, one hundred mu was typically placed per case—five hundred mu would fill five cases. This made it convenient for both the bride's and groom's families, as well as the spectators, to count and remember.Among Ye Yaming's dowry, not to mention the manors in Tongxiang, even the way she herself purchased entire mountains in Huizhou and Minzhou with a single transaction gave a clear idea of how many land deeds representing fields were included.

The clansmen who had helped organize Ye Yaming's dowry were astounded and said to Ye Hongchang, "Even five hundred carrying poles wouldn't be enough for all these land assets. This isn't just a ten-mile bridal procession—it's more like twenty or thirty miles!"

"Hongchang, we always knew your family was wealthy, but we never imagined to this extent. Have you bought up all the land in Lin'an? Just the dowry for your niece Ming'er alone contains so much property, let alone your family's own holdings."

The words carried a distinct tone of envy.

Ye Hongchang had always understood that jealousy was a root of trouble. Ye Chongming had consistently advised them to maintain a low profile among clansmen, avoiding displays of wealth or arrogant postures.

He smiled and replied, "Ming'er's dowry consists mainly of mountainous land in Huizhou and Minzhou—it's not particularly valuable. The price of an entire mountain there is equivalent to just ten or twenty mu of medium-grade farmland here. But regarding how to handle the dowry display, I'll consult Ming'er."

Upon learning of this, Ye Yaming said, "Our social status isn't high enough, and excessive display of wealth would do us no good. However, we shouldn't be too modest either, as excessive humility might invite contempt. Please follow my suggestion..."

Her family had added 50,000 taels worth of manors to make her dowry more substantial. She couldn't use low-value fields and tea mountains from other regions to pad the numbers and become a laughingstock, nor could she be overly humble and conceal such a substantial dowry.

Moreover, those tea mountains might not be highly valued now, but that didn't mean they wouldn't appreciate in the future. Those who currently looked down on them and mocked her would surely envy her later.

Thus, following her proposal, the dowry was arranged as follows:

For the manors, each manor occupied one carrying pole, displaying densely arranged miniature tiles inscribed with "Manor - 500 mu" or "Manor - 800 mu." Similarly, the tea mountains from Huizhou and Minzhou were represented by small soil blocks densely arranged on carrying poles, marked with "Tea Mountain - One Site" or "Tea Mountain - 500 mu."

Consequently, when passersby saw the dowry items representing land assets, they initially paid little attention. But upon clearly reading the inscriptions, they erupted in astonishment.

"At first I thought this dowry was similar to those of typical noble families, but I never expected such extravagance—hundreds of mu manors on single poles, entire tea mountains per pole. Impressive!"

"Did anyone count how many manors there are?"

"I did! I counted!" exclaimed an excited bystander, as if he had struck gold himself. "There are seventeen manors alone, all large estates of several hundred mu each, undoubtedly including numerous manor serfs. Plus over ten tea mountain sites—some single mountains, others spanning hundreds or even thousands of mu. Heavens, how wealthy must they be!"

"Which family is marrying off their daughter? And who is the groom?"

"I asked the wedding procession—it's the Ye family, major tea merchants from Jiangnan, marrying into the Xuanwu Marquis Household to become the wife of the heir."

"No wonder. Major tea merchants from Jiangnan—they must be incredibly wealthy."

"What's the use of wealth? Merchants don't have high status. Marrying into the Xuanwu Marquis Household as the heir's wife—that's like a sparrow turning into a phoenix overnight.""Ah, not necessarily. It depends on what kind of merchant. I know this Jiangnan Ye Jia—have you ever drunk Dragon Well Tea? It's from their family."

"Dragon Well? That Tribute Tea?"

"Right."

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