25 Honey Grapefruit Tea

◎Come here because of its reputation◎

The summer colors fade away, the heat dissipates suddenly, the cicadas' chirping weakens, the autumn feeling suddenly spreads over the branches, and the autumn wind rises and the leaves fly.

The autumnal equinox.

In the early morning, Song Jinyi slowly opened the door. She was wearing a light pink shirt and a green gauze skirt, like a blooming lotus, but the color did not match the gradually bleak autumn.

The sun peeked out from the east, its tip a mere speck of dark blue behind it, like a seaside sea, with orange-yellow waves slowly spreading out in either direction. The scattered buildings blocked the shallow sunlight, casting a gray-blue shadow over the courtyard where Song Jinyi lay, the leaves of the pomegranate tree stained a mossy green.

Song Jinyi picked a leaf and held it in her palm to examine it carefully. Half of the green leaf had turned yellow. She pinched the yellowed part with a little force, and with a "crack" sound, it broke into small pieces. She murmured softly, "It's the beginning of autumn."

She has been in this world for nearly half a year, and a month has passed since the bet with Song Zhangye. She was so busy that she didn't notice how time passed so quickly. Only now did she realize that the clothes she usually wore felt cold, and she remembered that today was the beginning of autumn.

In my previous life, every time the beginning of autumn came, the director would buy a honey-colored pomelo from a street stall. The pomelo was bigger than my head. She would add a little honey to this big pomelo to make honey pomelo water, and every child in the orphanage would get a share.

At this moment, Song Jinyi suddenly wanted to drink a cup of honey grapefruit tea.

At the same time, she also thought that her tea menu should be changed. She had thought about this before opening the shop. Since the scenery is always new throughout the year, her drinks should also be changed frequently.

Today she can start making some grapefruit honey tea.

A cool breeze suddenly blew, making her shiver. She covered her arms with her hands, hesitating whether to go back to the house to put on another jacket. Another small room in the yard was quietly opened.

Xie Wuyang was wearing a reed-yellow linen gown. He was yawning, his eyes were sleepy, and he walked to the yard with staggering steps. He seemed to have just woken up from a nap. His golden curly hair was not tied up with a cloth strip, but was casually draped behind his back, with some scattered on his chest.

Song Jinyi lived and ate with Xie Wuyang, but she had never seen him use anything special to take care of his hair. He usually washed his hair with plain water. Later, Song Jinyi taught him to use soap nuts to wash his hair.

Although his hair was curly, it was not frizzy, and it shone like silk under the light.

Perhaps sensing Song Jinyi's gaze, Xie Wuyang, who had been lowering his head, suddenly raised it. He looked at the person standing in the courtyard, startled at first, then the mist in his eyes dissipated. He stared at Song Jinyi and softly called out, "Sister."

He walked closer and saw that Song Jinyi was wearing thin clothes. He immediately took off his coat and put it on Song Jinyi.

Song Jinyi was startled, looking down at the extra clothes on her body. She didn't expect that she would be taken care of by a child younger than her. She returned the clothes to Xie Wuyang immediately with some discomfort and said, "I just came out to get some fresh air. I'll be back soon. You can put them on."

******

You hour.

A wooden sign saying "Closed" was hung at the door of Song's Sweet Water Shop. The door was half-closed, and only Song Jinyi and Xie Wuyang were left in the huge shop.

Xie Wuyang lowered his head and washed the tea set carefully. From time to time, he looked up at the other end of the kitchen counter. Song Jinyi was holding a long knife and cutting the pomelo carefully. She did not cut it directly with one knife, as that would easily damage the flesh.

She held the knife handle in one hand and turned the pomelo with the other, making a circle. Then she poked a spoon into the pomelo and slowly peeled off the skin. This step required a lot of effort. Song Jinyi spent a long time before completely separating the skin and flesh.

She scraped the white flesh from the pomelo peel, cut the peel into strips with a knife, and soaked it in salt water. She turned around and began to clean the pomelo, tearing off the orange peel bit by bit.

Xie Wuyang had finished washing all the tea sets and was about to go to the tea room to clean up the tables and chairs with a rag when he saw the bowl of yellow shredded ginger and asked, "Sister, is this shredded ginger?"

Song Jinyi stopped what she was doing and glanced at it. She didn't think it looked like shredded ginger when she was doing it, but after he said that, it really looked like shredded ginger. She laughed and explained, "This is not shredded ginger, it's grapefruit peel..."

She showed him the remaining half of the grapefruit and said, "Here, this is it. I sliced ​​it into strips. This is what it looks like."

She suddenly thought of something, looked at Xie Wuyang and smiled, praising him: "You have cleaned the table very well recently."

Xie Wuyang's expression suddenly became very stiff. Without saying a word, he just walked away in a daze.

Song Jinyi was left puzzled. Hadn't she just been praising Xie Wuyang? Why did he look unhappy? Didn't he dislike being praised? She rubbed the leather of her sleeve in her hand and shook her head. Forget it. If it weren't for the points, who would do such a fuss?

She continued with her work, not noticing that the tips of Xie Wuyang's ears had turned pink, or that he walked with his hands and feet moving in a funny way.

The pomelo shreds need to be soaked for an hour. During this period, Song Jinyi peels all the seeds inside the pomelo and breaks it into small pieces.

After the grapefruit peel is soaked, put it in water and boil it, then pour it out and wash it clean. Repeat the process three times. Song Jinyi picked out the finished product and put it in a small bowl. She tasted a small piece and found only a faint grapefruit fragrance and almost negligible astringency.

She boiled another small pot of water, added sugar, grapefruit peel shreds, and grapefruit pulp, and simmered it over low heat until it became thick. After letting it cool, she added honey and stirred evenly. This small bottle of honey grapefruit tea was ready.

She picked out a little and rinsed it with warm water. The orange-yellow tea sauce at the bottom of the cup spread out like a peacock spreading its tail. The unique aroma of grapefruit instantly overflowed from the cup, firmly locking people's sense of smell like a bird's claw grabbing a branch.

The mellow fragrance of honey is like the base note of perfume, slowly and oppressively rushing towards the tip of the nose, leaving only this smell between breaths.

Song Jinyi took a sip, and the taste was light, slightly sour and blended with honey. She didn't like sweet things so she didn't put much honey and rock sugar in it, but it was almost the same as the honey water she had drunk in the past.

It was the beginning of autumn then, and it is the beginning of autumn now. They drank the tea together, and it had a similar taste. Her eyes gradually became blurred, covered with a layer of mist, and everything around her became blurry, as if she was still in her childhood, without having to worry about what would happen when she grew up.

She sniffed, and when she opened her eyes again, she looked at everything in reality and thought: This is probably another meaning of the existence of delicious food. Similar taste can make people recall the scenes of the past.

Song Jinyi once watched a TV series about food. In the TV series, a powerful character cried because he tasted a delicacy he had eaten before. At that time, Song Jinyi thought it was strange. How could he cry because of eating?

Now that I am in a foreign country, I can empathize with this.

Xie Wuyang saw Song Jinyi's eyes were red and her brows were filled with worry, so he asked, "Sister, why are you crying?"

Song Jinyi wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with her sleeve and lied, "Because it tastes so good, it made me cry..." She paused and watched the calm surface of the water in the cup begin to ripple.

She handed the bowl to Xie Wuyang and said, "Try it too."

Xie Wuyang took it with both hands and took a sip directly from the place where Song Jinyi had drunk.

"It's delicious." Xie Wuyang praised it first, and his hand rubbed the wall of the cup, and added softly: "It's a little not sweet."

When Song Jinyi heard this, she added another spoonful of honey without saying a word, stirred it evenly, and handed it back to Xie Wuyang. After Xie Wuyang said it was okay, she nodded, and the proportion was decided happily.

This was not because she liked listening to Xie Wuyang, but because she found that Xie Wuyang had good "taste". As long as he thought a drink tasted good, it would basically sell well.

Song Jinyi had previously wanted to make a mint drink, but no one was interested. This wasn't the only case. Later, Song Jinyi learned her lesson and would always have Xie Wuyang try any new teas she developed.

She lowered her head and packed her things when she suddenly heard Xie Wuyang arguing loudly with someone. He spoke incoherently and seemed very anxious at the moment. He unconsciously raised his voice and sounded very fierce.

Song Jinyi was afraid that he would get into an argument with someone, so she ran over to check what was going on. Xie Wuyang had one hand on the door frame, and was about to close the door, but there was a pedestrian standing in front of the door, trying to enter the store.

When this person saw Song Jinyi coming over, he smiled and said, "I guess this is Madam Song."

Song Jinyi agreed and asked politely, "May I know who you are, sir? And what brings you here at this time?"

The man replied, "I heard there's a Songji Sweet Drink Shop here that serves delicious drinks, so I came here because of its reputation."

Xie Wuyang said, "We're closed."

Song Jinyi reached out to stop Xie Wuyang and said to the man with a smile, "Sir, we are indeed closed, but because you are a new customer and I feel that we have a connection, we will make an exception. Please come in."

When Xie Wuyang heard Song Jinyi say this, he immediately looked away, frowned, and seemed unhappy. But in the end, he walked away without saying a word.

Xie Wuyang walked away, and Song Jinyi had to lead people in.

Xie Wuyang stood behind her and asked in a low voice, "Sister, why are you making an exception today?"

"Look at his shoes. They're made of the finest material. Many people can afford to buy such fine material for their clothes, but to use such fine material in making shoes means he must be from a wealthy family. Perhaps he's a distinguished guest?"

"What if it's not?"

"That's fine, it can't be an enemy, right?"