Chapter 40: I Treat You Like a Brother, Yet You Want to Be My Uncle?

Cheng Jianbi.
Twenty-five years old.
The fiercest woman in the capital.
She has consecutively brought about the deaths of three husbands.
The noble and powerful families of the capital all tremble at the mere mention of her name.
With no one daring to propose marriage, she naturally remains unwed.
Cheng Pengju has gone to great lengths for his sister's happiness.
Five years ago, he suddenly set his sights on Ye Wuji.
In Cheng Pengju’s view, Ye Tianxiang was a favored courtier of the Emperor.
For decades, two successive emperors had never grown weary of him.
Ye Wuji was, without a doubt, the ultimate second-generation official.
The significant age gap did not matter; as long as he was capable, that was all that counted.

The two ships met, and a gangplank was laid down.
The little plump man stepped onto the cargo ship.
"My dear nephew!" Cheng Pengju jumped over and patted Ye Xiu on the shoulder. "Back in the capital, I told you, if it is fated, we shall meet again."
"..." Ye Xiu gritted his teeth. I treat you like a brother, yet you are hell-bent on being my uncle?
"Hearing that my brother-in-law was going to sit for the provincial examinations, I came here immediately."
Cheng Pengju laughed, surveying the crowd with an air of natural authority.
Shopkeeper Liu, Shopkeeper Xiao, and the others hurried to pay their respects.
Cheng Pengju waved his hand, and everyone rose.
"My dear nephew, where are you headed?" Cheng Pengju sat on a round stool, looking at Ye Xiu with meaningful intent.
"To purchase tea." Ye Xiu did not hide it; he took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to throttle Cheng Pengju, and sat down opposite him.
"Purchasing tea?" Cheng Pengju pondered for a moment, then suddenly seemed to have an epiphany. "Does your merchant fleet have any partners?"
Ye Xiu looked at him with a complex expression. A spark of inspiration flashed in his mind, and he grabbed Cheng Pengju's hand. "My dear uncle... I was just thinking about writing a letter to be sent to the capital... but fate has brought us together here..."
"Last June, the old man went to Tianjin to fight the Japanese pirates and captured a batch of merchant ships."

Cheng Pengju continued unhurriedly, "Your grandfather, Ye Tianxiang, impounded these ships. After petitioning His Majesty, he established a maritime merchant fleet. Just as he was wondering how to make his mark, you started this oceanic trade. We are family after all; we only offer help in times of need, never kick someone when they are down... If this succeeds, the old man will have to praise me for being brilliant, and he will never again say that I am useless or a nuisance to everyone."
Shopkeeper Liu and Shopkeeper Xiao looked at each other in astonishment, finding it hard to believe. With the maritime fleet of the Duke of Lu, what cause could not be achieved?
"You two sit as well," Cheng Pengju beckoned to them. "Let’s discuss the distribution of profits."
Ye Xiu explained the previous profit-sharing arrangement, and Cheng Pengju immediately became anxious.
"For a deal this big, you are only putting up two thousand taels each? How poor are you?"
Ye Xiu frowned, the words squeezed out through his teeth: "Our family has fallen on hard times; having two thousand taels is already quite an accomplishment."
"Oh, right!" Cheng Pengju slapped his forehead. "Your grandfather is still locked up in the Censorate... I’ll take a loss: I’ll invest another five thousand taels, plus a fleet, so a forty percent stake is quite reasonable, right?"
"What about the Jinling Prefecture government?" Ye Xiu widened his eyes. "One should not be too greedy."
"Do you think that forty percent is all for my family? Why do you think I had to petition His Majesty?"
Cheng Pengju lowered his voice, speaking with a maturity beyond his years. "The three of you should each contribute a little to make up a one-percent share for Xu Yougong."
The three of them looked at each other and nodded almost simultaneously; as long as a business involved imperial power, it was a guaranteed profit.

The contract was resigned. Cheng Pengju waved at the large ship. "Leave ten guards, and have the rest return to the capital. Tell my sister that I am staying at the Ye residence for now."
The ten guards changed into civilian clothes and boarded the cargo ship. The large vessel changed course, heading upstream.
After the large ship departed, the cargo ship soon arrived at the Zhenjiang Prefecture wharf.
Zhenjiang is one of the central cities of the Yangtze River Delta. Located at the intersection of the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, it borders Changzhou to the southeast, Jinling to the west, and faces Yangzhou and Taizhou across the river. It is a vital cargo distribution hub connecting Jinling to other cities.
The harbor masters greeted Shopkeeper Xiao as soon as they saw him.
"You know them?" Ye Xiu asked, puzzled.
"Since I started as a merchant apprentice, I have frequented Zhenjiang. I am familiar with all the trades here, and I know almost all the managers."
The manager ordered a gangplank to be set up, and everyone disembarked.
The guards started to follow, but Cheng Pengju waved them off. After looking Zhao Yide up and down, he pointed a finger. "Give him a weapon; he can follow us alone."
A guard immediately unfastened his goose-quill saber and handed it to Zhao Yide.

Zhao Yide hung it at his waist and followed closely behind.
Cheng Pengju deliberately walked slowly, beginning to chat with Zhao Yide.
Zhao Yide answered everything he asked, but when Cheng Pengju invited him to the capital to serve as a military officer, Zhao Yide refused outright.
Ye Xiu pretended not to hear, following Shopkeeper Liu and Shopkeeper Xiao to greet the managers of nearby firms.
An elderly man trotted over and grabbed Shopkeeper Xiao's hand. "Shopkeeper Xiao, are you here to purchase silk?"
"Old Chief," Shopkeeper Xiao replied with a smile, "we are not collecting silk this year, only tea."
*Hiss!*
The surrounding shopkeepers, village chiefs, and local villagers all looked on in disbelief.
The Old Chief widened his eyes, thinking he had misheard. "Shopkeeper Xiao, are you truly here to collect tea?"
"Indeed!" Shopkeeper Xiao surveyed the crowd. "Go back and notify the village heads and chiefs; tell them that for this year's tea, I will take as much as they have."
The crowd scattered, rushing off to deliver the news.
"Of all the shopkeepers in Jinling, I admire Shopkeeper Xiao the most when it comes to external relations," Shopkeeper Liu said with admiration. "He has friends in almost every major town in the south."
"It's just that my peers show me respect and we help each other out," Shopkeeper Xiao said modestly, though he could not hide the pride in his eyes. "Let's wait here; the village heads and chiefs will be here shortly."
Seeing that Zhao Yide was immovable, Cheng Pengju stomped his feet in frustration. The boy was loyal only to Ye Xiu and showed no respect to him, a young Duke.
He looked irritably at Shopkeeper Xiao. "Why not buy tea directly from the farmers?"
This was also the question Ye Xiu was dying to know; signing purchase agreements directly with farmers could avoid the middleman's markup.
"In the past, the largest tea merchant was Shen Wanshan, the richest man in Jinling. He changed the rules of tea collection."
"Individual farmers have low yields, and the quality varies. Master Shen proposed that each village form a collective tea society. This unifies quality and makes it easier for the merchant guild to set a standard purchase price."
"Both the guild and the tea societies receive satisfactory prices, benefiting everyone."
"But since the maritime ban, tea sales have plummeted, and the tea societies have accumulated more and more stock. Without the merchant guild, who would bother coming all the way here to buy tea?"
Shopkeeper Xiao continued to explain, "Even with excess inventory, they cannot stop production, which would inevitably cause tea prices to collapse. Therefore, many tea societies pay out of their own pockets to subsidize the farmers. Our coming here is, in a way, helping them clear their stock."
Ye Xiu understood—he understood everything now. The rest was just a show to be put on by Shopkeeper Liu and Shopkeeper Xiao.