Chapter 28: 112

Chapter 112 – Auction

Pei Yan’s words made Yu Tang’s heart skip a beat.

What did he mean?

If the Yu family was experiencing hardship, just on neighbourly goodwill, no matter what kind of condition that mountain forest was in, he would step in and buy it to save the Yu family from their difficult predicament.

Was her understanding correct?

As she recalled events in her previous life, her heart pounded.

Previously, the Yu family sold both their mountains forest land and fields to the Pei family, and it was not only because the Pei family was the wealthiest family in Lin’an City, but also because they offered the highest price.

At the time she did not understand Pei Yan’s actions.

She assumed that the Pei family had vast amounts of wealth and didn’t care about such trivial matters.

But now it seems that, although the Pei family was indeed affluent, they did proper evaluations of the things they purchased.

Clearly, the Pei family’s action of buying their ancestral property, was a covert way of helping the Yu family. Furthermore, it did help the Yu family tremendously. Without the Pei family’s money, she would not have sufficient funds to hire someone to recover her parents’ corpses and buy a burial plot.

In the end, unbeknownst to her, Pei Yan had already shown great kindness to her!

Yu Tang remembered the bitterness and helplessness of her past life. Just the fact that there were people who offered help and warmth to her during her lowest moments made her tear up slightly.

Pei Yan looked at her dazed expression, and couldn’t help but feel something amiss. He reached out and waved his hand in front of her eyes, saying: “Hey, have you decided yet? Is there anything I can help you with? If not or if you have not thought about it yet, let’s wait until after the tenth day before discussing it.”

Yu Tang jolted out from her reverie, and she began to rapidly formulate a plan.

She answered, “I want to grow sea buckthorn trees, make preserves and sell them… do you think it is feasible?”

Pei Yan did not expect Yu Tang to be so stubborn.

However, it was her choice, even if it was a bad one, she had to suffer some setbacks before she would learn.

He advised Yu Tang, “It takes at least three years for the sea buckthorn tree to bear fruit, so you should think it over carefully.”

“I’ve thought it through.” Yu Tang took a deep breath.

In her previous life, no matter the reasons why Pei Yan planted sea buckthorn trees, she felt that as long as she followed his path, she would definitely succeed.

Pei Yan no longer persuaded her and said, “If you have made up your mind, then do it properly. I hate people who give up halfway.”

“Rest assured!” Yu Tang promised, “I will definitely do a good job.”

Pei Yan figured he would just treat it as tuition fees for her to learn some life lessons.

After all, it was common to pay a little silver to learn a new thing.

“I still have a few sea buckthorn seedlings in my residence,” he said, “after the tenth day, you can send someone over to dig them up and plant them in your forest land first. If it survives, it will bear fruit this fall. At that time, you can taste the fruits and make your decision.”

If it’s tasteless, it can’t be used for making preserves.

Yu Tang did not expect to received such an unexpected benefit.

Previously, she heard that the tree was recommended to him by a friend who was an official in the northwest, but in this life, it was Zhou Zijin who dug it up from the northwest. She didn’t know if the information in her previous life was accurate or that the information in this life was the correct one. But no matter what, she decided to make a batch of preserves for both Pei Yan and Teacher Shen who helped to find seedlings.

Both of them helped her tremendously.

Yu Tang respectfully saw Pei Yan off.

Pei Yan returned home and before he could sit down, Pei Man came to him and brought him some rather unexpected news: “The Wu family went around all the families, and got the Tao, Yin, Li, Sheng and other families to fix the price at five thousand taels of silver during the auction. Whichever family wins the auction of the nautical chart, they will share it.”

There is no such thing as eternal friendship, only perpetual mutual benefits.

Pei Yan poured a cup of tea for himself and took a leisurely sip before saying, indifferently, “You don’t need to worry. I’m not prepared to let any one family win the bid. If they have already made prior agreements, then we will sell them the nautical chart for five thousand taels of silver each. Adding the initial deposit of 2,000 taels of silver for each family, the Yu family will be able to get at least 20,000 taels of silver. With this 20,000 taels of silver, although it’s not much, but it’s enough for their family to live comfortably for several generations. Moreover, what’s the point of having a lot of money? If the children and grandchildren are profligates, they will still lose all of it.”

Pei Man was startled, “Isn’t it usually the case that the highest bidder wins?”

Pei Yan chuckled, he regarded him as if he was looking at a fool and said, “The highest bidder gets it, do you think that’s possible? How much is considered a high bid? I didn’t intend for it to work from the very beginning, I just didn’t want them to get their hands on it so easily, otherwise they would think that we had malicious intentions and assume that the nautical chart was fake.”

Indeed there were many people who gauged a gentleman’s intentions using one’s most negative judgement.

*This saying refers to how humans tend to draw negative conclusions even from the most innocuous acts. An originally noble act can be misinterpreted by suspicious people as something malicious, and thereby tarnishing their good reputation.

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Pei Man asked, “Are we really not keeping a copy of the nautical chart?”

The Yu family said that they would send one to Pei Yan, so if they kept it, it will not be considered as a breach of contract, will it?

Pei Yan shook his head and said, “I know my second senior brother’s character, he would do anything to advance his career. Now that the Grand Secretariat, Minister Shen, is advanced in age and will be retiring in approximately two years’ time, he and Li Xun will be competing for same position. Given his personality, he will definitely target the city’s shipping division first, allowing him to smoothly restructure the power balance among the noble families in Jiangnan, so that all those who do not support him would be trampled into the mud. I’m not on good terms with him, if it weren’t for the fact that our teacher is still alive and well, and that he needed help from Senior Brother Fei, I’m afraid he would have disowned me from being his junior long ago. It’s best for us not to get involved.”

Pei Man’s complexion changed greatly and he nodded his head repeatedly.

Pei Yan stood up, stretched and said while yawning, “Yesterday I stayed up too late, so today I need to take an afternoon nap. I still have to receive the Peng family later in the afternoon, so tell Ah Ming to wake me up when the time comes.”

Pei Man assented and instructed the serving maid to make Pei Yan’s bed.

After returning home, Yu Tang was still in a slightly hazy state of mind, as she was immersed with thoughts of the various details of her past life. On the day of the auction, Yu Yuan arrived at Yu Tang’s house early and waited tensely for the news with Yu Wen.

Yu Tang was sitting in the study, lost in thought.

She was wondering about those rumors about Pei Yan from her previous life.

People knew very little about him. They didn’t even know who he married. Neither had she heard anything about him having children, perhaps he didn’t want anyone to know or he didn’t have any after his marriage?

She was simply too oblivious in her previous life. Why didn’t she think about the reasons for the Pei family offering a higher price than the others to buy their family’s mountain forest land? Yet, even if she knew, with her formerly weak disposition and timidity, she probably wouldn’t dare to go to the Pei family to show her appreciation. There was also the Li family, who got hold of the nautical chart in her previous life and partnered with the Peng family to become the second largest family in Lin’an after the Pei family. I wonder how much influence that had on the Pei family? Also, Pei Yan said that the imperial court wanted to remove the Ningbo and Quanzhou city shipping divisions, but according to her memories, at least until the time of her death, the Ningbo and Quanzhou shipping divisions were still in operation……

Thinking of this, Yu Tang almost jumped to her feet.

That’s right! Why didn’t she think of using the information she knew in her previous life to repay the Pei family?

In her previous life, the closure of the Ningbo and Quanzhou’s city shipping divisions did not matter much to her, but it was different for the Pei family. They were involved in many big business ventures, so even if he did not want to be involved in maritime trading, he would certainly have acquaintances or relatives in the maritime business. She could disclose this information to Pei Yan, and he could use this information to do business with others, or let his friends and family suffer less losses.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt it was a good idea.

She circled around the room, wishing dearly to meet with Pei Yan, and this notion was like wildfire burning brighter and stronger in her heart.

Yu Wen watched on and whispered to Yu Yuan, “Look at Ah Tang, although she said she has grown up and has a mind of her own, but she still shows her age; she can’t keep her composure at times.”

Yu Yuan was immensely relieved to be finally rid of this nautical chart after so long.

He couldn’t help but chortle, “Aren’t we all family? If there were outsiders present, I’m sure she would have controlled her emotions, and you would have praised her for her calmness and maturity. Uncle, don’t be so demanding.”

Yu Wen chuckled in mirth and said to Yu Tang, “Stop pacing around, you’re making me dizzy. The Pei family is a honorable family, they will send the auction proceeds to our family exactly as promised. The way you’re circling around is making me nervous too.”

Yu Tang only laughed but did not explain the reason for her anxiousness. Instead, she calmed herself, sat down and drank two cups of tea. She then returned to her room and made two silk flower headpieces before Pei family’s messenger came bearing news.

“The deposit and auction proceeds totals twenty-seven thousand taels of silver.” The person who arrived was a man of about thirty years old, with a very ordinary appearance, wearing a plain blue coarse cloth robe. He spoke in a slow and measured way, and introduced himself as Chen Qi, the accountant for the Pei Family. After he finished, he took out a box, saying “It’s filled with silver bills of 1,000 taels each, and this is the largest denomination of silver bills of the Pei family’s bank.”

Twenty-seven thousand silver taels?

The people of the Yu family were all momentarily frozen in shock.

Yu Yuan couldn’t hide the joy and excitement he felt in his heart. He glanced at Yu Tang and quietly clenched his fist.

Yu Wen was also delighted. He coughed lightly as he took the box and handed it to Yu Yuan without looking at it. He then got up and bowed to Chen Qi, saying, “Mr. Chen has worked hard, the family has prepared some refreshments, so please don’t hesitate to drink some and refresh yourself before returning.”

Who knew that Chen Qi would reply stoically, “Master Yu, the silver bills was given to me by the third master himself, and several people in the accounts room watched over the filling of the box. It was me who brought it here alone, so please check and confirm the amount is correct. If there is no discrepancies, we can then proceed to talk about other things.”

Yu Wen chuckled incredulously, “Since Mr. Chen is the accountant of the Pei family, why should I not trust you? There will definitely be no mistakes ……”

“Still, please count and confirm it personally, Master Yu.” Mr Chen did not speak with Yu Wen anything about trust, and insisted to have the silver counted personally to ensure accurateness.

Yu Wen was a little upset and felt that Chen Qi did not trust him to be a man of integrity.

Yu Tang sighed internally and had to persuade her father, saying “Father, you believe his words, because you trust the Pei family to be honorable, but Mr. Chen is an accountant, so he has his own set of requirements. With such a large amount of silver, if you do not count it personally, how can he go back and honestly report it with a peace of mind? You’d better listen to Mr. Chen and count the silver in person!”

Only then did Yu Wen, together with Yu Yuan, count the silver bills together with Chen Qi.

It was sent over by the Pei family, and handed over to Chen Qi by Pei Yan personally, so naturally there wouldn’t be any mistakes.

Yu Wen thought, this time Chen Qi should be able to drink some refreshments at his place with ease of mind.

However, Chen Qi still refused, saying “I came here in the Third Master’s carriage and have to rush back to report completion of my duties. I’m merely an errand runner.”

Yu Wen got so upset that he didn’t even send Mr Chen out himself, but had Yu Yuan send off the guest on his behalf.

Chen Qi did not feel slighted at all, as he bowed towards Yu Wen, and followed Yu Yuan out of the study.

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