CH 137

Chapter 137 – Awareness

After discussing, both men weren’t as anxious as before and instead spoke about Jiang Chao.

Master Wu remarked, “Ultimately, Master Jiang lacked the experience. All he knew was that Boss Wang was setting up his own business, but he failed to prepare countermeasures against the two sons of Boss Wang’s former employer. This is a lesson learnt for him as well. Thankfully, Master Jiang is still young, and there will be plenty of opportunities for him in the future, so this might turn out to be a good thing for him.”

Yu Wen nodded his head in agreement, commenting “The Jiang family are orphaned and widowed; they must be having a hard time right now. Since we are partners, I’m thinking of sending his family some gifts for the Mid-Autumn Festival.”

“That’s a good idea! Why didn’t I think of it?” After commending him, Master Wu said, “Everyone praises Brother Yu for his kindness and generosity, but I didn’t notice it much before, but now it seems that I’ve overlooked and failed to appreciate Brother Yu.”

“Brother Wu, what are you saying?” Yu Wen responded with embarrassment. After Master Wu left, he instructed Ah Cam to prepare ten taels of silver, a set of the four literary treasures, and two freshly made purple and plain silks to be sent to Master Wu’s house, and they would be sent together with Master Wu’s gifts to the Jiang family in Suzhou delivered by the Chief steward of the Wu family.

After hearing that Jiang Chao’s business had taken a turn for the worse, Yu Tang was confused.

Why would Jiang Chao fall prey to this?

In her previous life, he was known to be an astute man.

Could this be the trials and tribulations that preceded his success?

Yu Tang felt uneasy about this.

Due to her rebirth, many things changed. For example, Wei Xiaoshan’s death …… was a result of her involvement. Although Jiang Chao in her previous life was a successful and influential businessman, who could guarantee that Jiang Chao had not been affected by the effects of her rebirth in this life?

Yu Tang felt uncomfortable, but she was glad that Jiang Chao was a person with good morals and did not abandon the business, otherwise she would not be able to explain to her father and brother!

Evidently, there were still some things that could not be done just on the basis of having experienced them in a previous life.

Yutang sighed, but she did not reveal anything in front of her mother and did her best to look after her illness. Old Aunty Chen and the others were even more worried, fearing that Madam Chen would be bedridden for eight out of ten days, just like before. Everyone in the family was afraid of scaring Madam Chen, even just by speaking loudly, as they all gathered around and attended to her, so who had time and mood to make mooncakes?

It was only when the crab shop worker came to their house to deliver the crabs they had ordered earlier that Yu Tang and Yu Wen both realised that they had completely forgotten about the Mid-Autumn Festival gifts for the Pei Family.

“Look at my poor memory!” Yu Wen rapped himself on the head and asked Yu Tang, “Can you make mooncakes? If not, I’ll get someone to go to Hangzhou City to buy some new types of mooncakes and send them over.”

Of course, moon cakes were not the only gifts to be sent to the Pei family, but they were definitely required.

Madam Chen received such a fright a few days ago, and Yu Wen was afraid that something would happen to her again, so he wanted her to rest, so how would he let her continue making moon cakes?

Yu Tang grimaced and said, “How would I know how to make them?”

Yu Wen said decisively, “Then, I’ll go and ask around if anyone’s going to Hangzhou in the next couple of days and have them bring back a few boxes of moon cakes from ‘Wu Fang Zhai’ Shop.”

Yu Tang agreed and saw her father out.

But before the family could send the Mid-Autumn Festival gifts to the Pei residence, Pei Yan came over.

However, Pei Yan did not enter the house, choosing instead to stop the carriage in the alleyway at the back of the house and having Ah Ming approach Yu Tang in private, saying “Our master is waiting outside and would like to have a short conversation with Eldest Miss.”

It so happened that in the past few days, Yu Wen was not at home as he was at the Wu Family’s residence and Madam Chen had gone to rest after taking her medicine. After thinking it over, she returned to her room, changed her clothes and went to see Pei Yan.

Pei Yan was sitting in the carriage and only got out when he saw Yu Tang.

As soon as he stepped out, he examined Yu Tang carefully.

Yu Tang was wearing a new lake-green plain silk cloth robe, her inky black hair was neatly pulled back in a double bun, and she had a cluster of jasmine flowers pinned on each side of her hair. She looked unassuming and elegant, her face was fair and bright, and her appearance was clean and crisp, fresh and natural like the newly emerging young green buds of a tree.

He mentally nodded in approval and waited for Yutang to come forward and curtsy before asking, “Were you staying at home these past few days?”

Yu Tang was baffled by his question and didn’t respond for a while.

What was Pei Yan doing?

Why was he speaking to her about such daily mundane affairs?

After such an opening statement, what would he say next?

She was so nervous that she forgot to reply to his question.

Pei Yan could see that she was nervous and couldn’t help but feel puzzled as to the reason for her nervousness. He oddly glanced at Yu Tang and continued, “Do you know that the Li family is selling their land?”

Yu Tang nodded, saying “Yes.”

Not only did she know about it, but she was thinking of the ways to rub salt into the Li family’s wounds!

However, after the incident at Jiang Chao’s side, she didn’t have the heart to care about the Li family’s affairs.

Now that Pei Yan brought it up, she couldn’t help but feel a little regretful and said wistfully, “It’s a pity that I have some family matters to attend to, otherwise I planned to make this matter known to everyone, so that their family would never be able to raise their heads high in Lin’an City again!”

Having reached the point where they had to sell their ancestral property, it was clear how short of money the Li family was.

Even if their family didn’t buy it, it would be good to force the Li family to sell the fields to the Pei family.

Lest the Li family, who always thought they were superior, playing tricks behind the Pei family’s back, trying all means to take the Pei family’s position.

Pei Yan stared unflinchingly at Yu Tang as if she had flowers growing on her face, causing Yu Tang to feel very uncomfortable. She could not help but rub her cheeks and asked gingerly, “Third Master, is there dirt on my face?”

“There isn’t.” Pei Yan answered, and couldn’t help but glance at Yu Tang again.

There was nothing on her face, instead, she looked like a freshly peeled egg, fair and with a rosy glow, making her appealing to the eyes.

Then why are you staring at me?

Yu Tang looked at Pei Yan perplexedly.

Pei Yan understood her look, he merely raised his eyebrows and said to Yu Tang, “Didn’t you want to see the Li family’s downfall? Why, at this opportune time when the Li family is in trouble, you didn’t even make the slightest move?”

Yu Tang got upset.

Was this the image Pei Yan had of her?

Yu Tang glared at Pei Yan.

Pei Yan didn’t think much of it, assuming that Yu Tang was just trying to preserve her dignity in front of him. After further thought, he found it quite amusing to observe how energetic and angry Yu Tang got when she was gossiping about the Li family in front of him previously.

He couldn’t help but chuckle, “Since you don’t want to know, then I’ll leave.”

Hmph! Just leave! Speaking as though she couldn’t learn about what had happened to the Li family if she didn’t ask him!

Yu Tang coldly scoffed in her heart.

However, she didn’t expect Pei Yan to actually leave as soon as he said that he would.

He lifted the curtain of the carriage and was about to get in.

Yu Tang was a little dumbstruck.

Did he come all this way just to talk to her about this?

Yu Tang couldn’t help but take a few steps forward and called out to him.

Pei Yan, whose back was turned away from her, imperceptibly lifted the corners of his mouth. He paused for a few moments before adjusting his facial expression as he turned around and gazed at Yu Tang silently.

Yu Tang’s mind raced.

If Pei Yan dared to make such a statement, then he must be the only one who knew about the reasons for the Li family’s changes, or at least he was the only one in Lin’an City who knew.

Yu Tang felt that she was simply too foolish to be petty with Pei Yan. Moreover, she had long learned of Pei Yan’s strong pride, so she did not speak in circles and simply asked, “Third Master, what happened to the Li family? Why would their family need to sell their ancestral land?”

She was not a pretentious person, and since she was asking Pei Yan for a favor, her tone was sincere and her attitude was humble.

Pei Yan felt that a large part of the reason why he was open to chat with Lady Yu was most likely because she was aware of decorum and status and acted accordingly, without pretence. He didn’t intend to keep teasing Yutang either, and said, “After Minister Li was promoted to the position of Left Minister of the General Secretariat, the number of social engagements with various officials increased day by day. The issue of the nautical chart caused a rift to form between the Lin family and the Peng family, and they didn’t have that much money to support the Li family. Last year, your dispute with them caused the Li family’s countryside estate to suffer, and many servants were exiled and the Li family lacked the necessary funds for a trip to the capital. Selling their other properties wouldn’t bring in much funds and could easily arouse suspicion from the Li family’s patriarch house and other neighbours, so they took out 50 acres of prime land for the rice fields and sold them secretly.”

In other words, after the Li family had fallen out with the Gu family, they also fell out with the Peng family.

Yu Tang was elated and her eyes grew brighter than usual.

Pei Yan smiled subtly.

He knew that Lady Yu would definitely be overjoyed to hear about it.

“However, the Li family will only sell that fifty acres of land.” Pei Yan reminded Yu Tang, “After Minister Li stays in the capital for longer, there will be moneylenders who will come knocking at their door, and their family will get a reprieve.”

What did Pei Yan mean by this?

Was it telling her to take advantage of the opportunity now to strike?

Where should she begin?

Yu Tang didn’t have a plan.

Pei Yan, however, was only reminding her that regardless of what the Yu Family did, it was none of his business.

He said, “I heard that Mr. Shen helped your family get some saplings of sea buckthorn trees, have they all been planted?”

Yu Tang replied, “They are all planted well and surviving. The worker seemed to be a good and a loyal person.”

Pei Yan nodded and said, “Then has anything happened to your family?”

If it wasn’t a problem with the planting of trees, then what else could have caused Yu Tang to skip out on poking fun at the Li family?

Yu Tang deliberated whether she should tell Pei Yan about the incident – if she did, she was afraid that Pei Yan would help her, and her family would be further indebted to Pei Yan; if she didn’t, news would spread eventually, and if Pei Yan heard about it from others, he might think that he was being snubbed and become offended, and that the Yu family didn’t know any better.

These thoughts flashed across her mind, and Pei Yan already had a slight dim in his eyes at her hesitation.

Forget it, it’s better to tell Pei Yan. She would rather owe him a favor then to incur his wrath.

Once Pei Yan got upset, it wasn’t that easy to coax him.

Yu Tang immediately said, “It’s my father ……”

She told Pei Yan all about their stake in Jiang Chao’s maritime business.

Pei Yan looked at Yu Tang in surprise and did not speak for a while.

How come this Lady Yu was like a cannon, he didn’t know when she would blow up if he didn’t pay attention.

Previously, when she was reluctant to take a stake in the business with those influential families, he thought she was aware of the challenges of maritime business and thus backed out. Who knew that things were like this!

Now, it was only 20,000 taels of silver in total, but even before much time had passed, 6,000 taels were gone at once, no, there was also that 1,000 taels from Master Wu, making a total of 7,000 taels.

Pei Yan didn’t even know what to say.

Yu Tang also felt a little ashamed.

Largely because she had a part to play in this.

She lowered her head in shame and replied weakly, “Jiang Chao is still a good person, and our two families are of comparable status, so no one would cheat on the other. It’s just that we were careless this time. I think that if there is a chance, Jiang Chao will definitely rise again.”