Chapter 89 Avoiding Li Yang's Business - Selling the Dragon Pearl...

At 3:45 AM, the sky was bright.

Li Yang stretched her limbs out from under the covers, feeling a sense of relief in her shoulders and neck, before finally getting up. As she turned, she nearly bit her tongue – there was someone beside her.

Chen Junbo is usually an early riser, but after they slept together, he was too shy to do so, so he got up early before Li Yang woke up. Today, she was awake while he was still asleep, which was unprecedented.

The man slept perfectly still, as if he had etched rules into his nightmares.

Li Yang turned to the side, propping himself up with one arm, and blinked his wet, round eyes at his sleeping face. Perhaps due to his days of hard work, his complexion was a little pale with a bluish tinge. His slightly furrowed brows finally relaxed, and his tightly pursed lips showed a hint of fatigue. A few unruly strands of dark hair fell across his forehead, softening all his sharp features.

She marveled at how handsome he was, holding her breath as she cautiously reached out to brush away a stray strand of black hair. But just before she touched it, she curled her fingers. Her outstretched fingers merely traced his forehead, the bridge of his nose, and the line of his lips. When they reached the corner of his lips, she grabbed them.

He opened his eyes with a light laugh. "After looking at you for half a day, are you satisfied, Zhao Zhao?"

Li Yang quickly withdrew her fingers, telling him to hold her hand loosely. "Now that you're awake, why don't you get up? You're bullying me so early in the morning." With that, she scurried back into bed.

Chen Junbo turned around and hooked his finger over her nose, saying, "Between us, who's bullying whom?"

Wrinkling his nose, Li Yang changed the subject, "Why aren't you up yet today? When I'm not home, don't you leave at dawn every day?"

Upon hearing this, he suddenly sighed, as if he were very tired. "A few days ago, I checked the treasury accounts with Lord Lin and the others. Not only me, but all the managers and accountants in the house worked from dawn till dusk. This matter has been settled in the last two days. We are just waiting for Lord Lin to make a decision before we can proceed."

After explaining the reason, he looked at the person in front of him, and suddenly his eyes narrowed mischievously, "Besides, my wife is back now, who needs to look at those account books?"

"Go away, go away," Li Yang said, but his body was limp and he let the other hug him. He raised his hand and rubbed his eyebrows, stroking along the shape of his eyebrows. "One or two days is fine, but if you only sleep for one or two hours a day for ten days in a row, what will happen if your body collapses? This whole family is counting on you."

She looked at the weariness in his eyes and felt a pang of pity. Everyone knew he was rich and powerful, but who knew the hard work he did behind the scenes?

He placed his large hand on her cheek, his thumb brushing away the stray hairs on her forehead. "So, are you pointing at me too?"

Li Yang looked at him without blinking, her lips slightly parted, and after a few moments, a dimple appeared at the corner of her lips. "I'm pointing at you." As she spoke, she reached out and hooked her arms around his neck and kissed him.

He was exhausted. Since his grandfather passed away, he had devoted himself to his work and hadn't had a moment's rest. Looking at him, she suddenly felt a subtle, tingling sensation in her heart, and she felt a pang of sympathy for the man before her.

She rarely took the initiative, and Chen Junbo visibly froze for a moment until she kissed his lips so hard that he snapped out of it and immediately took the initiative.

Her kissing skills are terrible; I need to teach her properly. The thought that he had personally taught his wife how to kiss filled him with a sense of satisfaction.

In broad daylight, the two of them flirted and entangled for a while, but in the end, they didn't go too far.

Chen Junbo called for a carriage to take Li Yang to the flower shop, and then went to the salt shop on his own.

"Young Madam, what happened to your mouth?" Xiao Lu's exclamation brought Li Yang back to his senses.

She quickly replied, "Oh, no, it's nothing. Maybe the new rouge is causing an allergic reaction."

She thought to herself: Chen Junbo is really like a wolf. He insisted on personally demonstrating and teaching her again and again this morning, only stopping when his lips were red and swollen. If she hadn't been so weak and powerless at the time, she definitely wouldn't have been able to let him succeed.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Lu stopped talking and handed her a cool handkerchief to wipe herself.

After regaining his composure, Li Yang got down to business. "Manager Zhong, how is the tea collection progressing?"

Zhong Qian bowed and said, "Young Madam, there are five tea shops in total. Four of them have delivered their goods on time and have temporarily stored them in the backyard after inspection. The other shop had some issues yesterday and has sent someone to inform us that they will deliver their goods this afternoon. Currently, Miss Ziyan is leading people to sort the tea leaves by grade..."

Seeing that he clearly had something else to say, Li Yang put down the receipt in her hand and looked up at him.

Seeing this, Zhong Qian bowed and said, "Master, we have received a lot of goods these past few days, and the warehouse is really stretched thin. If we continue to store them according to the categories that Miss Ziyan divides, plus the new goods that are being produced every day, I'm afraid we won't even have enough for the best."

He also sighed and complained that the warehouse of the flower shop was not big to begin with. If all the goods were piled up indiscriminately, there might be enough space. But once they were sorted by product and category, and with the newly ordered packaging, etc., it would take up 50% more space. Where could he find such a place?

Not to mention that nowadays teahouses also have all kinds of flour, seasonings, and dried goods, which all have to be placed in this small space, leaving very little room to maneuver.

“In that case,” Li Yang thought for a moment and understood Zhong Qian’s melancholy, “I will go and see if we can send out a portion of the goods first.”

Zhong Qian was overjoyed to hear this. This was not his original plan, but he had to admit that the young mistress's plan was excellent.

If we could prepare and ship the new tea at the same time, not only would we be able to free up space in the warehouse, but we would also be able to recover our money much faster. “What you say is absolutely right, sir. There is just one more thing,” he hesitated before revealing his thoughts. “Recently, some traveling merchants who have been visiting the shop have tried the new tea and want to order a batch to take away. I wonder if the stock we have this time will be enough to meet the demand of these individual customers?”

Hearing that Manager Zhong had opened up a new channel, Li Yang was naturally delighted. "Well then, Manager Zhong, I'll go find Madam Zhang now. We'll discuss everything after I return."

As he spoke, he hurriedly returned to the Chen residence's storeroom, selected some jade ornaments, and then went to the Zhang residence.

Upon seeing the Chen family's carriage, the gatekeeper of the Zhang residence lazily approached and bowed, saying, "Young Madam Chen."

Li Yang nodded, and after the coachman behind him handed over the silver, he asked with a smile, "Is Madam Zhang at home? Madam Li from the Chen family requests an audience with Madam Zhang."

The two gatekeepers bowed their heads and exchanged glances. The taller one said, "Young Madam Chen, what a coincidence! Madam has gone out today."

"Going out?" Li Yang frowned slightly. "Do you know where Madam went?" As he spoke, he took out a purse from his sleeve and handed it to her.

This time, neither of them dared to accept the money. "Young Madam Chen, please don't make things difficult for us. If you wish to see Madam, please send her an invitation and see if she has a free day."

She had visited the Zhang residence twice before, and she had never been treated like this before. Today, the gatekeeper didn't even dare to accept money. Was this because... Madam Zhang didn't want to see her?

Li Yang pondered this in his heart, realizing he had no other choice but to return to his residence first.

That night, when Chen Junbo returned, she told him in detail about the strange events of the day, "What do you think is the reason for Madam Zhang's actions? Last time we met, she told me that she had already smoothed things over in the capital, and now that everything is ready, why has she suddenly stopped seeing me?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Junbai seemed unsurprised. While washing his hands, he explained to her, "Don't go to the Zhang residence these days. Madam Zhang probably won't see you again."

"Why?" Li Yang became anxious. How could she not see that all this tea was purchased in accordance with the promise made by Madam Zhang? Now that the tea has arrived, she wants to break free.

Chen Junbo walked back to the table, picked up some food with his chopsticks, and said, "Lord Lin is currently checking the treasury accounts. Lord Zhang has been lingering here for so many years, and this time I'm afraid Lord Lin will expose his true colors."

"What does that have to do with my tea? Lord Lin is checking the treasury, surely Madam Zhang won't hold a grudge against me?" Li Yang felt a vague unease.

He laughed and said, "How can it be unrelated? Have you forgotten the last family banquet at the Lin residence? Since your husband is the top merchant, the salt merchants were completely silent when Lord Lin investigated the accounts. How could Lord Zhang not know that I was involved in this matter? As for the tea, that's his wife's way of controlling you."

He seemed to be in a very good mood, and picked out another piece of fish and put it in her bowl. "With his brother-in-law protecting him, Lord Zhang's embezzlement is not a big deal. But he should never have gotten involved in this case of pre-collected salt permits. Do you know that Zhang Youdao actually secretly loaned money to small merchants in the matter of pre-collected salt permits?"

“I think I’ve heard someone mention it before,” Li Yang vaguely recalled that a tea drinker had mentioned lending money. “Isn’t this a good thing? Those small merchants don’t have money. Lord Zhang can lend them some to advance their salt permits. If they make money, they can give more money to the treasury as a reward.”

“Zhao Zhao,” Chen Junbo couldn’t help but chuckle, “You only know one side of the story. The purpose of this advance salt permit is to collect the surplus silver in the hands of salt merchants to donate to the southern border. Do you think he would use his own silver to lend to small merchants this time?”

"Isn't it still using treasury funds to lend to salt merchants? This back-and-forth not only distorts the original intention of setting up the pre-withdrawal of salt permits, but also creates a system of interest-bearing loans."

Li Yang was taken aback. Yes, Lord Zhang used treasury funds to lend to salt merchants, and the salt merchants then used treasury funds to make advance payments. This was a business of transferring money from one pocket to another. No wonder Lord Lin investigated him.

But in the end, aren't all these things just a power struggle between Lord Lin and Lord Zhang? What does it have to do with a tea seller like her? And what is this Yu Liyin?

Seeing that she didn't say anything, Chen Junbo put another pig's trotter on her plate. He wondered if Chef Wang was in a good mood today or what, but he was in the mood to stew such a difficult dish as pig's trotter. "Eat quickly. Chef Wang doesn't have the mood to make these dishes every day."

"The 'interest-bearing silver' was a loan where the salt merchants would pay interest upfront on the loaned silver, repaying the principal later. This infuriated Lord Lin even more, and he immediately began investigating Zhang Youdao for embezzlement in the salt administration."

"But what's wrong with interest on loans?" She secretly hoped that all of this was a misunderstanding, that the Lianghuai salt industry was still in harmony between officials and merchants, and that Madam Zhang's sales channels would return.

"The problem lies in what percentage of the profits are collected, how they are collected, who they are collected from, and where they are collected from... No one knows any of these details except Zhang Youdao himself." Chen Junbai spoke to her with great interest about the annoying official business he had during the day. "So, Madam Zhang's refusal to see you today is to ask me for an answer, but this time Zhang Youdao is really greedy and can't help me."

"I see," she finally understood. This Lord Zhang had embezzled some money in previous years, but this year he had somehow gone mad and was secretly engaging in treasury lending behind Lord Lin's back. He was also secretly collecting surplus profits from salt merchants, and now his accounts were a complete mess.

Last time at the Lin residence, Lord Lin mentioned the war in the southern border, so I'm afraid this money has a place to go. Now that Lord Zhang has stirred things up, I don't know how to clean up the mess. No wonder he took Lord Zhang down in his anger. And all this tea... Suddenly, I heard Chen Junbai tap his bowl with chopsticks. I looked up and found him staring at me.

Seeing her in a daze, Chen Junbai reminded her, "Tea is under control. Now that Madam Zhang's connections are blocked, we must stop purchasing as soon as possible. The goods that have already been purchased should also be sold quickly. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if the tea transport commissioner found fault with us later. That tea transport commissioner has always had a good relationship with Zhang Youdao."

"Okay, I understand."