3. Harvesting Yellow Tea
◎Find a place to stay.◎
One of her feet, which was suspended in the air, retreated. She turned her back to the shopkeeper, the corners of her mouth slightly raised, and her eyes were filled with unconcealable joy.
That’s it!
She was invited back into the store.
Shopkeeper Sun shook his head helplessly and said, "Okay, I appreciate your courage, young lady. One ounce and a half is one ounce and a half! I believe you won't let me down."
Since the shopkeeper has given in, she also wants to express her attitude, "I will naturally do my best, shopkeeper, don't worry."
Xu Ruolan smiled as she greeted Song Jinyi and said, "There are no guests yet. I'll show you around the backyard first."
Song Jinyi followed Xu Ruolan, lifted the curtain, and stepped into the backyard. The yard was not big, with only a small house in it. There was also a corner next to the house where a tarpaulin was set up to store goods.
"This used to be a warehouse. I had nowhere else to go, so I rented this place for three hundred coins a month. When it gets dark, I'm all alone. Now that you're here, I finally have a companion."
Xu Ruolan was really happy about Song Jinyi's arrival, and she pulled her aside and talked a lot.
In this way, Song Jinyi found a temporary place to stay.
******
In a blink of an eye, three days passed. Since the addition of Song Jinyi's dim sum to this small teahouse, the business has been several times better than before.
Some people have heard that the taste of the tea fruit here is comparable to that of Zui Liu Xia and Liu Xiang Ju, but the price is less than half of them, so they come here specifically for the tea fruit.
That afternoon, Song Jinyi made an appointment with Xu Ruolan and others to go buy ingredients together after the store closed.
At the time of Shen, Xu Ruolan was alone in the front tidying up the tea sets, carefully placing them one by one.
In the east kitchen, Song Jinyi was cleaning the kitchen alone. She was quick and efficient and finished it in half an hour. She thought she could go out directly with Xu Ruolan after she left.
Unexpectedly, two men ignored the proof sign hanging at the door and walked straight into the store.
One of them was thin, wearing navy blue clothes and had a goatee. The other was of medium build and had a pair of shaggy eyebrows, which were very eye-catching.
Xu Ruolan saw the two of them startled for a moment, then stood up and greeted them, "It's Manager Li, long time no see."
The thin man also exchanged a few words with Xu Ruolan.
Song Jinyi listened to the conversation and realized that the two people were there to deliver tea.
Xu Ruolan brought two cups of tea and asked them to sit for a while. She then sent the waiter to see where the shopkeeper was. She said to Song Jinyi with a hint of apology, "I didn't expect that we would be collecting tea leaves today. I'm sorry that you have to wait for me for a while."
Song Jinyi waved her hand and said it was nothing.
Collecting tea leaves sounded novel. Song Jinyi sat on a chair at the back, holding her chin with one hand and looking ahead.
The waiter walked around the store twice, then went to the east kitchen but couldn't find anyone. He then went to the nearby street market but still didn't see anyone.
Seeing this, the steward Li said, "Miss Xu, why bother with so much trouble? You can just take care of the collection."
"How can I decide?"
In the past, collecting tea leaves was the shopkeeper's job, and she had never been involved. If anything went wrong, she couldn't take responsibility.
"Mrs. Xu has worked in this teahouse for many years. Could she not even know how to collect tea leaves? It's already 3 p.m. If she can't collect tea leaves today, I don't know when we'll be able to come back."
When he said this, Xu Ruolan was put in a difficult position. It was not right for her to accept it, nor was it right for her not to accept it.
Seeing her in trouble, Song Jinyi thought that she knew a little about tea in her previous life. Xu Ruolan also studied tea and naturally understood tea. The two of them together would not be fooled by each other with this kind of tea.
She patted Xu Ruolan's shoulder, leaned in and whispered, "Sister Ruolan, don't worry, keep it. I'll watch it with you."
Xu Ruolan felt the warm hands on her shoulders, and she suddenly felt a surge of strength in her heart. After pondering for a moment, she finally decided to collect the tea leaves herself.
Manager Li waved his hand, and the man behind him came with a gray linen bag in his hand. He loosened the knot and took out three bamboo tubes about the length of chopsticks from it and placed them on the table.
Xu Ruolan brought a small white porcelain plate, opened the sealed mouth of the bamboo tube, held the tube body, shook it slightly, and evenly distributed some of the tea leaves inside.
She lowered her head and gently picked the tea leaves with bamboo chopsticks, picking them up and smelling them from time to time, carefully checking the quality of the tea.
This is a slow process.
After about half a minute, Xu Ruolan put down her tools, smiled slightly, and said, "I really want to thank Manager Li for saving such good yellow tea for us."
While Xu Ruolan was chatting with the other party, Song Jinyi carefully looked at the tea leaves on the plate. She picked up a tea with chopsticks, looked from side to side, and sniffed the tea.
Her eyes suddenly became sharp.
Tea is generally graded by color, wholeness, clarity, internal quality, and aroma.
The one or two dry tea ropes she twisted were strong and even, yellow-green in color, clean and pure, and had a mellow aroma.
According to the grading system, the tea quality should be level four or five, which is inferior tea. How can Sister Ruolan say that this is good tea?
She glanced at Xu Ruolan quickly, and a look of doubt suddenly appeared in her sharp eyes.
Has Sister Ruolan been fooled?
Song Jinyi wanted to ask her doubts, but she felt that Xu Ruolan could not fail to tell the quality of tea. She pursed her lips and gently pulled Xu Ruolan's sleeve under the table.
Xu Ruolan felt her sleeves sink slightly, but she was still smiling. She accidentally turned her head and saw Song Jinyi with a serious expression, as if he had something to say to her.
She chatted for a while and said that she would invite the guests to try the snacks in the store. Then she got up and went to the kitchen. Song Jinyi followed her after a while.
The two came to the east kitchen. Song Jinyi still felt that her voice could be heard in front, so she pulled Xu Ruolan to the backyard.
Song Jinyi said sternly, "Sister Ruolan, I've seen that plate of tea. The quality is average. How can it be called good tea? Don't be too nervous and not look carefully."
After hearing her words, Xu Ruolan's slightly nervous expression completely relaxed, with a faint smile on her lips.
There was a hint of confusion in Song Jinyi's watery eyes. Why didn't Sister Ruolan look surprised at all?
"You can tell at a glance that you are not from Yunzhou and you don't know much about the tea business in Yunzhou.
Although Yunzhou has the largest tea house in Daxia, the circulation of tea is not smooth. The best tea is selected batch by batch, and the most excellent batch is sent to Shengjing as tribute. The things that are slightly inferior to tribute are basically presented to the nobles.
"And the rest..." Xu Ruolan pushed open the wooden door of the backyard. Behind the courtyard was a narrow and damp alley. Usually, except for borrowing some from neighbors, no one would go here.
Xu Ruolan pulled Song Jinyi, but the alley was not high, and even a weak woman like Song Jinyi could see the street outside the wall if she jumped up.
Xu Ruolan pointed to the left and saw several magnificent high-rise buildings behind the rows of houses. With the afterglow of the setting sun as a backdrop, they looked even more magnificent.
She said, "The second-grade tea is almost all bought up by big teahouses like Zui Liu Xia and Yun Xiang Ju. Our shopkeeper has a good relationship with Manager Li of Yun Shang Tea House, so we were able to get this little bit of good tea."
Xu Ruolan was a gentle person, and her voice was soft and gentle. She covered her face and approached her and said, "It doesn't matter if it's a tea stall like the ones you see outside. You can only buy the lowest quality tea leaves."
After hearing this, Song Jinyi stared at the tall buildings thoughtfully. She didn't expect that selling tea would involve so many twists and turns.
After all this time, it turned out that she had made a mistake.
Xu Ruolan brought some snacks to Manager Li and sent him away. Only then did the shopkeeper arrive late.
He listened to Xu Ruolan putting away the tea leaves herself, and his face darkened. He asked Xu Ruolan to bring the tea leaves and looked at it for a long time.
In the end, he just said that next time no one was allowed to collect the tea and that we had to wait for him to come back.
Song Jinyi rolled her eyes behind the shopkeeper's back and said that by the time you come back, the daylily will be cold.
The shopkeeper looked at the newly delivered tea and satisfiedly took out two taels of it to take home and drink.
As he carefully packed the tea leaves into cans, he instructed Song Jinyi, "Since you're here too and have seen the newly harvested yellow tea, why don't you make some new tea cakes to go with it? It would be best if they were ready tomorrow."
Song Jinyi said yes on the surface, but she couldn't help but grumble in her heart.
After seeing off the shopkeeper, the sky gradually darkened, and the dusk glow outlined the gradually quiet streets.
Song Jinyi and Xu Ruolan walked to the night market in the afterglow of the setting sun.
At the entrance of the evening market, "Young ladies, please make way." An old lady, about 40 or 50 years old, carrying a shoulder pole with a bamboo basket hanging on each side, shouted at them twice.
Song Jinyi dodged to the side and when she looked down she saw the goods in the woman's basket.
Turning around, she stood still, her eyes like a calm pool of water with a stone floating on it, leaving a waterline, and suddenly lit up.
That’s right!
Yellow tea goes well with light sweet and salty, or savory and fresh snacks.
The things in the basket just now reminded her of something that would be the best pairing with yellow tea.
She immediately called out to the vendor, "Grandma, wait a minute!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
