Chapter 91 – Tea room
Given Pei Yan’s arrogance and capriciousness, it was indeed possible for him to do such a thing. However, with his pride and intellect, he shouldn’t act in such a manner.
Yu Tang thought of all the past misunderstandings between her and Pei Yan.
Could there be something she didn’t know about?
Yu Tang’s heart was in a mess. Then she saw her eldest uncle tiptoeing around and looking towards the direction of Little Plum Lane several times.
Was it to check and see why Pei Yan hasn’t arrived?
What if PeiYan failed to show up?
Should we think of an explanation in advance?
Yu Tang was mulling over this in her mind when she saw that Big Supervisor Tong had brought over congratulatory gifts with his two servants.
She breathed out a sigh of relief.
As Big Supervisor Tong was one of PeiYan’s people, if PeiYan really didn’t show up today, she could still come up with an explanation – albeit a poor one.
However, why didn’t Pei Yan come?
Was there a mistake in Hu Xing’s message? Or was he held up by something urgent?
Yu Tang saw her eldest uncle greeting Big Supervisor Tong with a smile, clasping his fist and chatting warmly with him.
Master Wu and the others also gathered around upon seeing him.
Xia Pinggui squeezed in amidst the crowd and whispered a few words in Eldest Uncle’s ear. Eldest Uncle frowned and looked towards the store in disappointment before giving Xia Pinggui some instructions. Xia Pinggui also had a helpless expression on his face as he turned around and stood on the steps at the store entrance and shouted “The auspicious time has arrived!”.
Nearby, they set off the firecrackers that were prepared in advance.
The smoke billowed up, and the children all covered their ears and ran, while the adults stood to one side.
The smoke was so bad that Yutang had to close the window.
Soon the sounds of gongs and drums rang out from below.
The lion dance had begun.
Yu Tang quickly instructed Shuang Tao, “Quickly go down and see if Third Master Pei has arrived.”
Shuang Tao nodded and ran downstairs as fast as she could.
Yu Tang stood at the stairs quietly for a while, before seeing Shuang Tao run up again hurriedly, saying with a somewhat dejected expression, “No. I didn’t see Third Master Pei.”
“What about the rest of the Pei family?” Yu Tang asked.
Shuang Tao replied, “They didn’t come either. I haven’t seen anyone from the Pei family.”
Yu Tang’s heart ran cold.
Even if there was a problem with Hu Xing’s words, their Yu family’s invite was received by the Pei family, therefore, Peiyan was aware of the opening of their store. Even if he couldn’t come in person, or didn’t want to come, he should have sent someone to attend on his behalf.
Acting in such a way, could there really be something she was unaware of that made PeiYan hate the Yu family?
Then what would happen to the nautical chart?
Yu Tang’s heart panicked, and she hurriedly went downstairs.
The lion dance outside had ended and her eldest uncle and Big Supervisor Tong were laughing as they got ready to cut the ribbon.
Yu Tang was about to slip out from the back door to find Pei Yan.
However, there was a sudden commotion outside, and someone shouted, “Third Master Pei is here!”
Yu Tang was so elated that she didn’t care if it was appropriate or not, she just ran out, lifting her skirts a little for ease of movement.
Her eldest uncle and the others were overjoyed, and they didn’t even bother to cut the ribbon. They all gathered around Pei Yan’s carriage, so no one noticed that Yu Tang came out at an inappropriate time.
“Third Master Pei!” Yu Bo did not expect that things would change for the better at the very last minute. Just when he was about to give up in disappointment, Pei Yan came. In his excitement, he reached out to lift the curtain for Pei Yan. Fortunately, Pei Man who was beside Pei Yan was fast enough and lifted the curtain of Pei Yan’s carriage before he did.
PeiYan wore a moon-white plain silk robe, with a inky black mink fur coat, which only served to make his face look as pale as white porcelain and colder than the north wind. You would think that he had come to attend a funeral instead.
As Yu Bo saw him, he shuddered internally and felt that his hand that was extended in greeting was especially impolite, and he stammered out “Third, Third Master Pei ……”
“Eldest Master Yu.” Pei Yan did not wait for Yu Bo to finish his words before interrupting him and stated, “Apologies for being late. As you know, I’m still in mourning, so there are occasions when it’s not appropriate to show up immediately.”
Although Pei Yan’s face was still a little cold, but his tone of voice was calm, and his explanation was reasonable and justified. Yu Bo was relieved and said, “Yes, absolutely.” After he finished speaking, he became alarmed as he realized that his response was not appropriate. Since he knew that Third Master Pei was still in mourning, even if he had agreed to come to the opening ceremony out of courtesy, he should have given Third Master Pei an excuse to politely decline his invitation.
He did not handle this matter properly.
In order to ride on the Pei family’s coattails, they acted too impulsively.
“Third Master Pei, please have some tea in the back room!” Although Yu Bo was not a quick-witted person, but after accumulating so many years of experience in business, he was instantly able to think of a countermeasure and immediately yielded and invited Pei Yan to enter the store.
Pei Yan didn’t bother to be polite either, as he immediately walked towards the store with confident and steady steps.
Behind him was Pei Man as he smiled and greeted the others and various shopkeepers, followed by Hu Xing with his head lowered towards his chest like a quail, deeply afraid to make eye contact with others.
However, he was Grand Elder Pei’s previous steward, so even if he didn’t know the people, others would all know him and offer their greetings.
He had no choice but to raise his head and greet people with a smile, but his smile was worse than his crying face.
The people were curious about what happened, but since Pei Yan was present, no one paid much notice to him, and nobody bothered to ask him what was going on.
As Pei Yan got off the carriage and walked for a few steps, he saw Yu Tang standing at the corner of the main gate, wearing a gray robe, dressing like a servant boy.
At once, a surge of unexplainable anger came up inside Pei Yan.
Why did she ignore his words again?
Why can’t there be a moment where she’s obedient.
He glared at her sharply.
Yu Tang was still caught up in the joy of Pei Yan’s sudden arrival, when she was suddenly glared at by Pei Yan and she was momentarily lost for words.
What did she do to upset him again?
Yu Tang immediately reflected on her actions…… and looked down and saw her gray pants …… thinking of how Pei Yan wanted her to “dress up properly” to meet him… …
She quickly fled to the back room, all the while thinking if she left to go change her clothes, would she be able to return on time.. Then she saw Pei Yan also heading towards the back room.
Eldest uncle should be thinking of serving him tea in the back room.
A person like Pei Yan is always an honored guest, so of course you’ll have to serve him tea in the back room. Surely, you wouldn’t keep him standing in the store for all the people to gawk at?
Yu Tang felt so embarrassed by her own stupidity that she was on the verge of tears.
But now she too had nowhere else to flee to.
Instead of hiding like a thief, she might as well openly go out and offer her greetings, explaining herself and perhaps redeem herself in his eyes somewhat.
As Yu Tang thought about this, she coughed softly, and walked up to give Pei Yan a curtsey “Third Master Pei!”
Pei Yan glanced at her through the corner of his eye and gave her condescending “hm”, as he brushed past her and sat on the tai shi chair in the middle of the room.
Yu Bo froze, as he sensed that Pei Yan seemed very angry, but he couldn’t pinpoint the exact cause, so he instructed Yu Tang in a low voice, “Quickly have someone serve a good cup of tea”, and proceeded to attend to Pei Yan as enthusiastically as he could.
Even if her eldest uncle did not instruct her to so, Yu Tang would also have served Pei Yan with the best tea they had.
She immediately led Shuang Tao to retreat to the adjacent tea room.
Master Wu, Big supervisor Tong and others also followed them into the back room, while Hu Xing went to the tea room in a dejected state.
Since he knew Yu Tang, so when he saw Yu Tang making tea, he greeted her, “Lady Yu, I’ll be borrowing your tea room to have a short rest.”
Hu Xing is the head steward of the Pei family, although only the third in rank, but he also represented the Pei family, so Yu Tang certainly hoped to improve the relationship between him and the Yu family – the closer the better.
“Please rest!” She replied warmly, “Shuang Tao, go and fill up another plate of snacks you just like the one you filled for Third Master Pei and give it to Head Steward Hu to try. This was what my father brought back when he went to Hangzhou City some days ago.”
Saying this, Yu Tang also poured a cup of tea for Hu Xing.
“I’m not worthy of the honor!” Hu Xing immediately stood up, and quickly bent down to take the cup and said to Shuang Tao who was filling the tea, “Young Lady, you should take a rest, how can I eat the same snacks as Third Master, you can just send it directly to Third Master.”
Yu Tang intended to establish a good relationship with him, so she smiled and said “Yes it is indeed for the third master, but doesn’t big supervisor Tong also partake of it as well? Our family doesn’t have that many high value and good quality things either. You have travelled to many places and ate all sorts of delicacies, so our things may not meet your expectations. If the food is not to your liking, please excuse us!”
“Dear me, what words are you saying, Lady Yu.” Hu Xing smiled, and the gears in his mind turned, thinking of how Yu Wen went to the Pei family several times with Yu Tang, so he suddenly had an idea.
“Lady Yu, will you be busy later?” He tactfully asked Yu Tang.
If it was in her previous life, Yu Tang would not have been able to discern the meaning of Hu Xing’s words; but in this life, Yu Tang already understood these hidden meanings.
“Shuang Tao will be helping out in the back room.” She said with a smile, “I’m just here to keep an eye on things, there’s really nothing I’m busy with.”
“That’s good, that’s good!” Hu Xing pretended to sigh, looking as if he wanted to say something confidential to Yu Tang, “There are some things you are unaware of. I have severely offended the Third Master just for the sake of your Yu family. When this visit is over and we return to the Pei family’s residence, I might not be the third head steward anymore.”
Yu Tang’s heart lurched as she listened.
The first question that rose in her mind was that did Hu Xing intend to extort silver from their family?
“How could you say that?” She immediately acted shocked and asked concernedly.
Hu Xing again feigned a frustrated sigh as he replied “I see that your father and third master’s relationship was pretty good, and there were past examples of this, so when your family came to send the invite, I promised that the third master would come to give his congratulations before even asking for third master’s opinion, who knew that the third master …… “
Even now, he could still clearly recall how he went to remind Pei Yan that it was getting late and that he should be heading out to congratulate the Yu family… and his stony expression…… he couldn’t help but shudder.
“You tell me, although I had good intentions, I ended up spoiling everything.” He continued to vent, “Although Third Master still came, but who knows what he actually thinks?”
The only reason why the third master came today was all because he read Pei Yan’s cues wrongly and said the wrong thing. It was not because Pei Yan valued the Yu Family or anything like that. He did such a good deed for the Yu Family but yet wouldn’t get a single benefit in return, not even a word of thanks.
Therefore, he had to let the Yu family know.
And he had to do it without leaving behind any traces.
Yu Tang was dumbfounded.
So, this was all a misunderstanding?
Pei Yan was forced to come to the opening ceremony of the Yu family’s store!
Yu Tang thought of Pei Yan’s face that was as cold and harsh as the bitter winter days, and also shivered.
“Then why didn’t you send someone to say something earlier, so we can also explain the situation!” Yu Tang felt that her family could not afford to shoulder all the blame, and hurriedly added, “It doesn’t matter whether Third Master Pei comes or not, it’s the same if it was you or any other steward of the Pei family that came.”
As soon as her words fell, she felt a chill at her back.
Yu Tang involuntarily turned around.
She saw Pei Yan standing at the doorway of the tea room with his face as dark as the bottom of the pot.
Chapter 91 – Tea room
Given Pei Yan’s arrogance and capriciousness, it was indeed possible for him to do such a thing. However, with his pride and intellect, he shouldn’t act in such a manner.
Yu Tang thought of all the past misunderstandings between her and Pei Yan.
Could there be something she didn’t know about?
Yu Tang’s heart was in a mess. Then she saw her eldest uncle tiptoeing around and looking towards the direction of Little Plum Lane several times.
Was it to check and see why Pei Yan hasn’t arrived?
What if PeiYan failed to show up?
Should we think of an explanation in advance?
Yu Tang was mulling over this in her mind when she saw that Big Supervisor Tong had brought over congratulatory gifts with his two servants.
She breathed out a sigh of relief.
As Big Supervisor Tong was one of PeiYan’s people, if PeiYan really didn’t show up today, she could still come up with an explanation – albeit a poor one.
However, why didn’t Pei Yan come?
Was there a mistake in Hu Xing’s message? Or was he held up by something urgent?
Yu Tang saw her eldest uncle greeting Big Supervisor Tong with a smile, clasping his fist and chatting warmly with him.
Master Wu and the others also gathered around upon seeing him.
Xia Pinggui squeezed in amidst the crowd and whispered a few words in Eldest Uncle’s ear. Eldest Uncle frowned and looked towards the store in disappointment before giving Xia Pinggui some instructions. Xia Pinggui also had a helpless expression on his face as he turned around and stood on the steps at the store entrance and shouted “The auspicious time has arrived!”.
Nearby, they set off the firecrackers that were prepared in advance.
The smoke billowed up, and the children all covered their ears and ran, while the adults stood to one side.
The smoke was so bad that Yutang had to close the window.
Soon the sounds of gongs and drums rang out from below.
The lion dance had begun.
Yu Tang quickly instructed Shuang Tao, “Quickly go down and see if Third Master Pei has arrived.”
Shuang Tao nodded and ran downstairs as fast as she could.
Yu Tang stood at the stairs quietly for a while, before seeing Shuang Tao run up again hurriedly, saying with a somewhat dejected expression, “No. I didn’t see Third Master Pei.”
“What about the rest of the Pei family?” Yu Tang asked.
Shuang Tao replied, “They didn’t come either. I haven’t seen anyone from the Pei family.”
Yu Tang’s heart ran cold.
Even if there was a problem with Hu Xing’s words, their Yu family’s invite was received by the Pei family, therefore, Peiyan was aware of the opening of their store. Even if he couldn’t come in person, or didn’t want to come, he should have sent someone to attend on his behalf.
Acting in such a way, could there really be something she was unaware of that made PeiYan hate the Yu family?
Then what would happen to the nautical chart?
Yu Tang’s heart panicked, and she hurriedly went downstairs.
The lion dance outside had ended and her eldest uncle and Big Supervisor Tong were laughing as they got ready to cut the ribbon.
Yu Tang was about to slip out from the back door to find Pei Yan.
However, there was a sudden commotion outside, and someone shouted, “Third Master Pei is here!”
Yu Tang was so elated that she didn’t care if it was appropriate or not, she just ran out, lifting her skirts a little for ease of movement.
Her eldest uncle and the others were overjoyed, and they didn’t even bother to cut the ribbon. They all gathered around Pei Yan’s carriage, so no one noticed that Yu Tang came out at an inappropriate time.
“Third Master Pei!” Yu Bo did not expect that things would change for the better at the very last minute. Just when he was about to give up in disappointment, Pei Yan came. In his excitement, he reached out to lift the curtain for Pei Yan. Fortunately, Pei Man who was beside Pei Yan was fast enough and lifted the curtain of Pei Yan’s carriage before he did.
PeiYan wore a moon-white plain silk robe, with a inky black mink fur coat, which only served to make his face look as pale as white porcelain and colder than the north wind. You would think that he had come to attend a funeral instead.
As Yu Bo saw him, he shuddered internally and felt that his hand that was extended in greeting was especially impolite, and he stammered out “Third, Third Master Pei ……”
“Eldest Master Yu.” Pei Yan did not wait for Yu Bo to finish his words before interrupting him and stated, “Apologies for being late. As you know, I’m still in mourning, so there are occasions when it’s not appropriate to show up immediately.”
Although Pei Yan’s face was still a little cold, but his tone of voice was calm, and his explanation was reasonable and justified. Yu Bo was relieved and said, “Yes, absolutely.” After he finished speaking, he became alarmed as he realized that his response was not appropriate. Since he knew that Third Master Pei was still in mourning, even if he had agreed to come to the opening ceremony out of courtesy, he should have given Third Master Pei an excuse to politely decline his invitation.
He did not handle this matter properly.
In order to ride on the Pei family’s coattails, they acted too impulsively.
“Third Master Pei, please have some tea in the back room!” Although Yu Bo was not a quick-witted person, but after accumulating so many years of experience in business, he was instantly able to think of a countermeasure and immediately yielded and invited Pei Yan to enter the store.
Pei Yan didn’t bother to be polite either, as he immediately walked towards the store with confident and steady steps.
Behind him was Pei Man as he smiled and greeted the others and various shopkeepers, followed by Hu Xing with his head lowered towards his chest like a quail, deeply afraid to make eye contact with others.
However, he was Grand Elder Pei’s previous steward, so even if he didn’t know the people, others would all know him and offer their greetings.
He had no choice but to raise his head and greet people with a smile, but his smile was worse than his crying face.
The people were curious about what happened, but since Pei Yan was present, no one paid much notice to him, and nobody bothered to ask him what was going on.
As Pei Yan got off the carriage and walked for a few steps, he saw Yu Tang standing at the corner of the main gate, wearing a gray robe, dressing like a servant boy.
At once, a surge of unexplainable anger came up inside Pei Yan.
Why did she ignore his words again?
Why can’t there be a moment where she’s obedient.
He glared at her sharply.
Yu Tang was still caught up in the joy of Pei Yan’s sudden arrival, when she was suddenly glared at by Pei Yan and she was momentarily lost for words.
What did she do to upset him again?
Yu Tang immediately reflected on her actions…… and looked down and saw her gray pants …… thinking of how Pei Yan wanted her to “dress up properly” to meet him… …
She quickly fled to the back room, all the while thinking if she left to go change her clothes, would she be able to return on time.. Then she saw Pei Yan also heading towards the back room.
Eldest uncle should be thinking of serving him tea in the back room.
A person like Pei Yan is always an honored guest, so of course you’ll have to serve him tea in the back room. Surely, you wouldn’t keep him standing in the store for all the people to gawk at?
Yu Tang felt so embarrassed by her own stupidity that she was on the verge of tears.
But now she too had nowhere else to flee to.
Instead of hiding like a thief, she might as well openly go out and offer her greetings, explaining herself and perhaps redeem herself in his eyes somewhat.
As Yu Tang thought about this, she coughed softly, and walked up to give Pei Yan a curtsey “Third Master Pei!”
Pei Yan glanced at her through the corner of his eye and gave her condescending “hm”, as he brushed past her and sat on the tai shi chair in the middle of the room.
Yu Bo froze, as he sensed that Pei Yan seemed very angry, but he couldn’t pinpoint the exact cause, so he instructed Yu Tang in a low voice, “Quickly have someone serve a good cup of tea”, and proceeded to attend to Pei Yan as enthusiastically as he could.
Even if her eldest uncle did not instruct her to so, Yu Tang would also have served Pei Yan with the best tea they had.
She immediately led Shuang Tao to retreat to the adjacent tea room.
Master Wu, Big supervisor Tong and others also followed them into the back room, while Hu Xing went to the tea room in a dejected state.
Since he knew Yu Tang, so when he saw Yu Tang making tea, he greeted her, “Lady Yu, I’ll be borrowing your tea room to have a short rest.”
Hu Xing is the head steward of the Pei family, although only the third in rank, but he also represented the Pei family, so Yu Tang certainly hoped to improve the relationship between him and the Yu family – the closer the better.
“Please rest!” She replied warmly, “Shuang Tao, go and fill up another plate of snacks you just like the one you filled for Third Master Pei and give it to Head Steward Hu to try. This was what my father brought back when he went to Hangzhou City some days ago.”
Saying this, Yu Tang also poured a cup of tea for Hu Xing.
“I’m not worthy of the honor!” Hu Xing immediately stood up, and quickly bent down to take the cup and said to Shuang Tao who was filling the tea, “Young Lady, you should take a rest, how can I eat the same snacks as Third Master, you can just send it directly to Third Master.”
Yu Tang intended to establish a good relationship with him, so she smiled and said “Yes it is indeed for the third master, but doesn’t big supervisor Tong also partake of it as well? Our family doesn’t have that many high value and good quality things either. You have travelled to many places and ate all sorts of delicacies, so our things may not meet your expectations. If the food is not to your liking, please excuse us!”
“Dear me, what words are you saying, Lady Yu.” Hu Xing smiled, and the gears in his mind turned, thinking of how Yu Wen went to the Pei family several times with Yu Tang, so he suddenly had an idea.
“Lady Yu, will you be busy later?” He tactfully asked Yu Tang.
If it was in her previous life, Yu Tang would not have been able to discern the meaning of Hu Xing’s words; but in this life, Yu Tang already understood these hidden meanings.
“Shuang Tao will be helping out in the back room.” She said with a smile, “I’m just here to keep an eye on things, there’s really nothing I’m busy with.”
“That’s good, that’s good!” Hu Xing pretended to sigh, looking as if he wanted to say something confidential to Yu Tang, “There are some things you are unaware of. I have severely offended the Third Master just for the sake of your Yu family. When this visit is over and we return to the Pei family’s residence, I might not be the third head steward anymore.”
Yu Tang’s heart lurched as she listened.
The first question that rose in her mind was that did Hu Xing intend to extort silver from their family?
“How could you say that?” She immediately acted shocked and asked concernedly.
Hu Xing again feigned a frustrated sigh as he replied “I see that your father and third master’s relationship was pretty good, and there were past examples of this, so when your family came to send the invite, I promised that the third master would come to give his congratulations before even asking for third master’s opinion, who knew that the third master …… “
Even now, he could still clearly recall how he went to remind Pei Yan that it was getting late and that he should be heading out to congratulate the Yu family… and his stony expression…… he couldn’t help but shudder.
“You tell me, although I had good intentions, I ended up spoiling everything.” He continued to vent, “Although Third Master still came, but who knows what he actually thinks?”
The only reason why the third master came today was all because he read Pei Yan’s cues wrongly and said the wrong thing. It was not because Pei Yan valued the Yu Family or anything like that. He did such a good deed for the Yu Family but yet wouldn’t get a single benefit in return, not even a word of thanks.
Therefore, he had to let the Yu family know.
And he had to do it without leaving behind any traces.
Yu Tang was dumbfounded.
So, this was all a misunderstanding?
Pei Yan was forced to come to the opening ceremony of the Yu family’s store!
Yu Tang thought of Pei Yan’s face that was as cold and harsh as the bitter winter days, and also shivered.
“Then why didn’t you send someone to say something earlier, so we can also explain the situation!” Yu Tang felt that her family could not afford to shoulder all the blame, and hurriedly added, “It doesn’t matter whether Third Master Pei comes or not, it’s the same if it was you or any other steward of the Pei family that came.”
As soon as her words fell, she felt a chill at her back.
Yu Tang involuntarily turned around.
She saw Pei Yan standing at the doorway of the tea room with his face as dark as the bottom of the pot.
