Chapter 41: Highly Insulting and Extremely Harmful

At the pier, there sat a tea shack. Manager Liu and Manager Xiao were the center of attention, surrounded by a crowd like stars orbiting the moon. Some thirty or forty local bailiffs and village heads had gathered here, all desperate to invite these two "gods of wealth" to conduct site inspections in their respective townships. Yet, no matter how they pleaded or how honeyed their words became, the two men remained unmoved.

Ye Xiu and Cheng Pengju sat in a corner, sipping tea, looking very much like outsiders.

"I went to Longhu Mountain to have it divined. My sister and your father's birth charts are a perfect match, a marriage made in heaven," Cheng Pengju said with a sincere expression, his eyes filled with anticipation. "Having her as your stepmother—you wouldn't be losing out."

"Why are you so dead set on my father?" Ye Xiu asked, his eyes full of helplessness. He had absolutely no way to deal with this stubborn rogue.

"Because the people in your family all have 'hard' destinies," Cheng Pengju replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "If she doesn't marry your father, do you expect me to let my sister go wreak havoc on someone else?"

"So..." Ye Xiu felt smoke rising from his forehead, his teeth gritted as if he wanted to kill. "It's my father's bad luck, then?"

"Ye You'an, do you think a woman from my Duke of Weiguo's estate isn't good enough for your Ye family?" Cheng Pengju’s expression darkened. "Do you want me to head back to the capital now, bring my grandfather down to Jinling, and reason with your family?"

"The Duke of Weiguo? He doesn't 'reason' with people," Ye Xiu said, utterly dejected. "Do you believe me if I say he’d show up with a giant axe and tear our house down?"

"I believe it. It has always been the Cheng family bullying others; who would ever dare touch a single hair on the Cheng family?" Cheng Pengju shrugged nonchalantly, a treacherous smile appearing on his face. "Dear nephew, if you feel that life is violating you and you can't resist, you might as well close your eyes and enjoy it. My sister dreams of having a fine son like you..."

"..." Ye Xiu’s eyes bulged, a fierce urge rising within him to strangle Cheng Pengju and dump his body into the Yangtze River. Deciding to ignore him, he turned his attention to the crowd.

"Gentlemen, please, quiet down." Manager Xiao pressed his hands downward, and the noise immediately subsided. "For this tea procurement, the steward is in charge, but everything will still follow Manager Liu’s lead."

The eyes of the crowd snapped toward Manager Liu. Those who had met him recognized him as the head manager of the Jinling Wine Shop and the representative for the Jinling government’s official businesses.

"I have seen everyone’s enthusiasm, and I am truly flattered," Manager Liu said, clearing his throat. "However, the volume of this acquisition is massive. Let us sit down and discuss it properly."

"Yes, yes, we will listen to whatever Manager Liu and Manager Xiao say."

"Then, according to the two managers, what is the arrangement?"

The two managers saw the desperate eagerness in their eyes. The more anxious the sellers were to offload their goods, the more composed they remained. Before arriving, they had already sent people to make inquiries.

Excluding this year's spring tea, the sellers were still sitting on a massive stockpile of last year's autumn tea. If they didn't offload it soon, it would rot in their hands. Even if Shen Wanshan himself were to appear, he couldn't help them clear such inventory. The buyers held all the cards—the timing, the location, and the leverage.

Manager Liu, well-versed in the essence of military strategy, opened with a move to divide and conquer: "We are primarily collecting 'Sparrow Tongue' tea this time. Do not try to pass off 'Eagle Claw' as the real thing."

"Come one by one, and first report the main products and asking prices of your respective tea cooperatives."

His words hit the crowd like a heavy bomb, instantly turning the tea shack into a cauldron of chaos. Tea regions in Jiangsu primarily produced green tea, with a small amount of broken black tea and black tea. Ye Xiu and his group were focused on green tea, including varieties like Yuhua tea, Dongting Biluochun, and Huaguoshan Cloud Mist.

"Our Zhao Family Village mainly produces Biluochun. In previous years, it was forty wen per catty; this year, thirty-eight."

"Our Liu Family Collection mainly produces Erquan Silver Needle. In previous years, it was also forty wen per catty; this year, thirty-six."

"Our Qianjin Township mainly produces Jinshan Emerald Bud..."

"Our Jintan Town mainly produces Jintan Sparrow Tongue..."

"Our Xiao Wang Village mainly produces Maoshan Green Peak..."

The prices dropped one after another, eventually falling to twenty-eight wen per catty. Ye Xiu watched the bidding with confusion. He didn't understand—tea quality and variety varied, so why were their prices all so similar?

Cheng Pengju chuckled. "I know a little about this. If you beg me, I'll tell you."

"I..." Ye Xiu felt utterly drained. "Keep it to yourself then."

"Dear nephew, you’re no fun. People say I’m a dog of a man who does nothing right, but that’s just insults and smears; they’re just jealous that my family background is so formidable." Cheng Pengju sipped his tea and began to explain the tea trade to Ye Xiu at a leisurely pace.

The Great Qian Dynasty categorized tea into four grades: Lotus Heart, Banner Spear, Sparrow Tongue, and Eagle Claw. The first batch of new tea plucked in spring, with shapes and sizes resembling a lotus heart, was called Lotus Heart. After the Lotus Heart harvest, the tea continued to grow; the leaves looked like flags and the buds like spears. If the spear was larger than the flag, it was called a Banner Spear; if the flag was larger than the spear, it was a Sparrow Tongue.

After the Sparrow Tongue was harvested, the proportion of buds grew smaller, and when three or four leaves sprouted, it was figuratively called Eagle Claw. Real Lotus Heart was rare and mostly used as tribute tea, while Banner Spear was reserved for the nobility. The tea currently being sold in the shack was Eagle Claw, priced at about ten wen per catty. The managers were buying Sparrow Tongue, the third grade.

Ancient overseas trade was different from the modern era. Modern merchants often sold their best products to foreigners at the lowest prices while selling trash to their own people at sky-high prices. Ancient merchants, however, never cheated their own. They excluded the tribute and premium teas, then took the middle-grade products from the remainder to ship to the Southern Seas, where they sold them for exorbitant prices.

Ye Xiu still looked only half-enlightened. "You’ve said a lot, but you still haven't mentioned the price."

"Don't be so impatient," Cheng Pengju said, sipping his tea. "A top-tier horse can be traded for thirty bundles of tea, a mid-tier horse for twenty, a low-tier horse for fifteen..."

Ye Xiu cut him off, gritting his teeth. "Speak like a human!"

Cheng Pengju didn't get angry. "Sparrow Tongue is a mid-tier tea, and its price is very uniform, usually around thirty wen."

Ye Xiu understood. He finally grasped it: Lotus Heart was tribute tea, virtually non-existent on the market; Banner Spear was allocated to domestic aristocrats; Eagle Claw was common in civilian tea shacks; and the only thing they were there to buy was the Sparrow Tongue.

The reality matched this. Manager Liu watched the bailiffs bidding and fighting against each other, a satisfied smile on his lips. After a glance at Manager Xiao, he said airily, "For this year's tea, I can only offer twenty-five wen per catty!"

*What the hell!*

Ye Xiu’s eyes widened, looking at Manager Liu in disbelief: Are you sure this is haggling and not looking for a fight?

*Damn it!*

The chubby Cheng Pengju’s eyes were filled with shock: I thought Lady Wei was invincible at business, but you’re even more ferocious than her—whose subordinate is this?

Hearing such a highly insulting and deeply damaging quote, the bailiffs felt offended. Their expressions changed drastically, and they began to launch verbal attacks at Manager Liu. The situation quickly spiraled out of control, bordering on a riot.