Glory

Ye Chongming immediately nodded upon hearing this: "Yes, yes, let's do it that way."

Normally, he wouldn't be so careless in his thinking. But this matter was of great importance, the time was urgent, and most importantly, Ding Jian was the son of Old Shopkeeper Ding. Old Shopkeeper Ding had worked for the Ye family back when Ye Chongming's father was still alive. Ding Jian, now in his thirties, had grown up under Ye Chongming's watchful eye, so Ye Chongming subconsciously trusted him deeply.

Now that Ye Yaming brought it up, he realized his mistake.

By questioning them separately, if there was indeed something fishy going on, as long as these three weren't united or hadn't coordinated their stories in advance, they could uncover the list. Otherwise, if they intentionally concealed two or three ill-tempered customers and the Ye family failed to promptly visit and apologize, allowing them to cause a scene, all their efforts today would be in vain.

As Ye Yaming spoke, she kept her eyes fixed on Ding Jian. Seeing a flicker of panic in his eyes, she knew she had hit the mark.

Ding Jian was the key person in this matter. If someone had bribed him and then tricked Ye Hongrong into the scheme, it could easily be accomplished.

And when the matter was investigated, it would appear that Ye Hongrong had threatened Ding Jian into helping him, with the main responsibility falling on Ye Hongrong. Ding Jian would merely be obeying the fourth master under duress.

In such a situation, the shopkeeper wouldn't be at major fault—how could obeying the master be wrong? In the end, Ye Chongming wouldn't even be able to blame him.

If Ding Jian took full responsibility for the crime, the Ye family would even feel grateful to him and protect his wife, children, and elderly parents. But if he later turned against the Ye family in court, the Ye family would be finished.

Then, Meng Chengwei would descend like a savior to help the Ye family through the crisis, and how could the Ye family not be deeply grateful?

The scheme was intricately linked, all carefully calculated. It would be difficult for the Ye family to avoid falling into Meng Chengwei's trap.

But now, with her here, Meng Chengwei's plans were likely to fail.

So, the Ye family interrogated Ding Jian and the two assistants separately in three different locations. Worried that Ye Yaming was too young and might be fooled by the assistants, Ye Chongming wanted to send Song Dequan to assist her.

Ye Yaming flatly refused: "Let Shopkeeper Song stay with Father. I can handle this."

This granddaughter had given him too many surprises today—clear thinking, calm composure, thorough consideration, speaking and acting as reliably as a seasoned shopkeeper. Ye Chongming inexplicably trusted her: "Then let Li Fu go with you."

Li Fu was the Ye family steward, responsible only for household affairs and unrelated to the family's business dealings. Normally, Ye Chongming wouldn't involve him in business matters.

But since he distrusted the Tea House staff and was wary of the Tea Factory and tea shop personnel, and was short-handed, he had brought Li Fu along.

Having Li Fu accompany Ye Yaming was partly out of concern that the young assistant might not take a young girl seriously, and partly because Ye Chongming wanted Li Fu to act as his eyes and ears, observing how Ye Yaming handled the situation.

Thus, Ye Yaming took Li Fu and Bai Rui to the adjacent room.

"Speak," Ye Yaming said without preamble, sitting down and addressing the assistant. "As long as you honestly tell the truth without any concealment, I promise the Ye family will not hold it against you. Of course, you can no longer work as an assistant at the Ye family Tea House, but you can still find work as an assistant elsewhere."She chuckled lightly, but her gaze toward the shop assistant was icy cold: "But if you intend to conceal it, then I'm sorry—we will publicize your actions. Unless you plan to leave Lin'an Prefecture, it will be difficult for you to support yourself and your entire family."

This shop assistant, named Liu Chunxin, was a young man in his twenties.

Upon hearing Ye Yaming's words, he merely kept his head lowered, silent and unmoving, like a dead pig unfazed by scalding water.

"Meng Chengwei must have given Ding Jian considerable benefits, but you probably didn't receive much, did you? Perhaps they even kept you in the dark about their collusion. Is it worth cutting off all your paths for the meager rewards Ding Jian promised you?" Ye Yaming said calmly.

At the mention of "Meng Chengwei," Liu Chunxin abruptly lifted his head, staring at Ye Yaming in astonishment.

It was true that he was Ding Jian's trusted subordinate. But to secure his cooperation in this matter without him reporting it, Ding Jian had to reveal the truth: an Imperial merchant from the capital wanted to establish good relations with Old Master Ye, but Ye Chongming had always been lukewarm. Thus, Meng Chengwei resorted to this underhanded strategy.

Thinking that this wouldn't actually harm the Ye family, and with Ding Jian promising to bring him along to defect to the Meng family—even flaunting fifty gleaming taels of silver in front of him—Liu Chunxin had decided to go through with it.

But he never expected that such a secret affair would be known to the Third Young Lady. Could it be that Old Master Ye had known about it all along? Given Old Master Ye's shrewdness, if Meng Chengwei set a trap for him, he would likely retaliate, wouldn't he? Then, could the promises made by the Meng family still be fulfilled?

At this thought, cold sweat broke out on Liu Chunxin's back.

After this incident, he had no idea how the relationship between the Ye family and Meng Chengwei would unfold, but Ding Jian and the two shop assistants like himself would undoubtedly be implicated. If the position promised by Meng Chengwei vanished, and the Ye family handed him over to the authorities, confiscated the silver given by the Meng family, and publicized his deeds, he would truly have no way out.

Realizing this, he immediately stopped hiding anything and recounted the entire sequence of events and the customer list in detail.

Time was tight, and Meng Chengwei had designed this scheme to keep it within controllable limits, so this batch of tea had only been sold to a little over ten customers.

Among these dozen or so people, aside from two specifically arranged by Meng Chengwei, the rest were honest individuals and long-time patrons of the Ye family's Tea House, with some acquaintance with Ye Chongming. Even if they realized the tea they bought was subpar, they wouldn't report it to the authorities.

The only concern was one person who had heard about it from an old tea connoisseur and joined in to buy the Pressed tea. This individual was a variable.

Liu Chunxin was also quite cunning. Although Ding Jian had instructed him and Tian Pengyi to sell the tea separately, he still managed to find out who had purchased this batch.

"Tian Pengyi also knows who these people are," he added.

Ye Yaming gave him a deep look, nodded, stood up, and went out. At the doorway, she said to Li Fu, "Uncle Li, go to my father's side and mention the name 'Meng Chengwei' to Tian Pengyi."

Li Fu understood and hurried off to Ye Hongsheng's location.

Ye Yaming then turned and entered the room where Ye Chongming and Ding Jian were.

As soon as she stepped inside, she heard Ding Jian still playing dumb with Ye Chongming: "Boss, this is the entire list. I truly only thought this deal was highly profitable, grew envious seeing others do it, and since Fourth Master wanted to proceed, I followed his instructions and kept it from you. I..."Ye Yaming didn't want to listen to his nonsense anymore and directly interrupted him: "Enough, Liu Chunxin has already confessed. Stop playing dumb. What benefits did Meng Chengwei offer you to not only betray Ye Jia but also frame Ye Jia for injustice, dragging them into a lawsuit? Hasn't Ye Jia treated your family well enough?"