Noble's Woman Guide

Chapter 85 - Busy

The impact Ye family sustained in this disaster was not small either. So after Chu Jinglan left, Ye Huaiyang dedicated herself fully into sorting out the family businesses and lessening the losses. She spent more than half a month in the clan home discussing business matters with various merchants and the chief shopkeepers. Without having these discussions, she wouldn't even know that her own younger uncle, Ye Hong, is truly downright a troublemaker!

It turned out that as early as when the flooding first occurred, the tea house's shopkeeper in Shuzhong felt something was not right and wrote to warn repeatedly. But not only did Ye Hong not take his words seriously, he even took it upon himself not letting them report it, thus Ye Huaiyang was kept in the dark all along. She only knew about the matter today and out of anger, she threw the paperweight on the spot.

"Uncle, you want to let this matter off with just a word of 'inattentiveness' but there were loss of more than a dozen lives and tens of thousands of silver taels! It was no big deal for the loss of money as I can use my personal silver to fill up the loophole, but how are those human lives compensated? Those were all our Ye family's long service workers who had worked hard for decades! Tell me how am I to face them?"

Her words were without breather and every sentence was a reproach which she bombarded like the barrage of gunfire that Ye Hong could not even lift his head up. The gentlemanly and youthful face was even more flushed up because just a door apart in the outer hall was roomful of the chief shopkeepers and this time, he had embarrassingly lost his face.

But he did not answer back either. After all, he did cause the people in Shuzhong not to leave in good time. There are no ways to salvage those lost lives no matter how much is given. Although he is greedy for money and works half-heartedly, he still has a clear conscience of what's right and wrong. It's precisely his fault so he should not resort to sophistry. Even though Ye Huaiyang's tone was a little harsh, he did discern from her words that she would take up the lead and bear the responsibilities hence, the one shouldering the most burden is not him but Ye Huaiyang.

He did not know what to say and just at this moment, Ci Yuan, who just returned from Youzhou a few days ago, came in with a letter.

"Young Miss, there is a letter from Shuzhong."

Catching sight of the familiar embossed seal, her face immediately eased up and spoke to Ye Hong soon after, "You go back first, Uncle and in days to come, you don't have to manage the family matters."

This is stripping the power that is in his hands then.

Ye Hong's face turned slightly pale but he did not say anything more. He turned around and left.

Ye Huaiyang then opened the letter. As she was too occupied to read it, she just scanned to the bottom immediately where the vigorously flourished word 'safe' which soothed all her worries and anxieties making her feel incomparably at ease like all the previous letters.

As long as he is well, all these difficulties in front of her are nothing.

"Ci Yuan, go and call all the shopkeepers in."

"Yes, Young Miss."

Ci Yuan turned and walked to the outer hall. With a low voice, he said a few words when the shopkeepers then walked in one after another. After paying their respects, they sat down on the wooden armchairs on both sides of the room. Ye Huaiyang handily placed the letter on the bottom of the books then began to discuss business matters with them.

"Uncle Xing, the things I asked you to transfer from Ye family pharmacy in Qu, Guan and Ding states to Shuzhong, have it been arranged?"

Ye Xiang stood up and replied with hands cupped before him, "It has all been arranged. The first batch of medicinal herbs will arrive in Shuzhong three days later with dozens of guards escorting them all the way and Shopkeeper Rong will personally coordinate with them. There will not likely be any problem."