flstandardbreds Chapter 175 Obstacles Encountered at the Beginning of the Tea-Seeking Journey
Chapter 175 Obstacles Encountered at the Beginning of the Tea-Seeking Journey
The search for tea was fraught with difficulties at the beginning.
As the glass wick burst open with a burst of light, Su Yunlan was pressing the last half of a withered leaf onto the frosty page of the pharmacopoeia.
The spring water seeped into the yellowed paper from the tip of the silver hairpin, and a faint pine scent spread across the cinnabar marks on the sheepskin map.
"Three hundred li to the southeast, the white dew turns to frost." She lightly tapped the bitter apricot kernel on the table, gazing at the lingering snow outside the window with a soft laugh. "It's a good time for pickling plums."
Before dawn the next day, the aroma of plum wine wafted from the kitchen of the Xiao Family Inn.
As Su Yunlan sealed the twelve jars of freshly pickled plums into the cellar, Young Master Xiao Twenty-Second rushed into the courtyard gate, holding a bamboo tube covered in morning dew: "Fourth Sister-in-law!"
Last night, the caravan from Chen's Tea Company unloaded twenty cartloads of tea bricks in the suburbs!
The morning light swept across the crackled tea caddy swaying at the girl's waist, casting fine tortoise-shell patterns on the bluestone slab.
Su Yunlan's fingertips lightly brushed the Kunlun jade pendant embedded in the tea caddy, and suddenly she smelled a faint fragrance—clearly the scent of aged Pu'er tea mixed with Western Region frankincense.
"Twenty-second brother, do you know that if a snakeskin bag from India is mixed into a pile of tea bricks..." She poured the remaining tea from the bamboo tube onto the stone table, the dark green tea soup even etching the Big Dipper pattern into the moss, "It would be perfect for fumigating poisoned darts."
The boy's gasp was shattered by the sound of horses' hooves in the morning mist.
Xiao Yuhan rode his horse around the back alley, his black cloak sweeping away a few patches of snow from the wall, revealing a newly replaced black iron sword sheath at his waist—the groove that was empty last night was now inlaid with a Kunlun jade that was exactly the same as the one on Su Yunlan's tea caddy.
"The snowmelt from Kashgar won't arrive until three-quarters past dusk." As he dismounted, the tassel of his sword brushed against the silver tea hairpin in Su Yunlan's hair. "The tea market in the west of the city opens at dawn."
As Su Yunlan watched the tea stains gradually disappear in the cracks of the bluestone slab, she suddenly tossed the tea scoop into the air.
The morning breeze swirled the crackled porcelain shards, which jingled as they landed steadily in Xiao Yuhan's outstretched palm amidst the exclamation of Young Master Xiao.
"Please keep this cup warm for me, my lord." As she tightened her fox fur coat and stepped out of the courtyard gate, the ends of her hair brushed against the wolf head tattoo faintly visible inside the man's clothes. "I'll retrieve the first batch of cloud-mist buds this year."
As the hustle and bustle of the tea market assaulted his ears, Su Yunlan was stroking the rough earthenware pot at the third tea shop.
The tea dust clinging to my fingertips had an eerie bluish-gray hue under the sunlight—clearly old tea that had been fumigated with sulfur.
"Please forgive me, Manager Su." The tea merchant with a mustache clicked the abacus away. "Master Chen has bought up all the top-quality tea. He said he's going to make something for a Persian nobleman... Ouch!" He suddenly clutched his hand, which was red from being scalded by hot tea, and stared in horror at the purple clay teapot that had suddenly shattered on the table.
Su Yunlan slowly picked up a tea bud clinging to her sleeve. Golden veins meandered through the emerald green leaf. "Does the shopkeeper know that tea leaves dyed with the juice of the Nanzhao Heartbreak Grass..." she said, flicking her fingertips. The golden-veined tea leaf drifted into the boiling teapot. "...the brewed tea can reflect the demons and monsters in people's hearts."
With a pale face, the tea merchant turned and walked toward the teahouse at the end of the alley with a Bagua mirror hanging on it.
On the second floor, near the window, Chen, the tea merchant, was extending his gilded tea spoon toward the jade box held by the Persian merchant when he suddenly saw a flash of colorful light reflected from a crackled porcelain shard in the middle of the street.
"Stop her!" The teaspoon in his hand clinked against the jade box. "Old Qian's tea plantation in the north of the city..."
A gust of wind swept Su Yunlan's fox fur coat across the eaves of the teahouse, and amidst the tinkling of the copper bells on the eaves, she stood in front of a thatched hut in the north of the city, where a straw raincoat hung.
Twenty old tea trees with leaves curled like dragon whiskers rustled in the cold wind, their roots sprinkled with a layer of bone meal that shimmered with a blue light.
"This tea is only given to those with a destined connection." The tea farmer, Qian, squatted before the fire pit, stroking his sparse goatee, his cloudy eyes reflecting the swaying, crackled tea buds at Su Yunlan's waist. "If you wish to take it, young lady, you must exchange it for the mysterious iron from the bottom of the Five Poisons Pool in Miao territory."
Su Yunlan chuckled softly, untied the tea caddy, and poured out three frosty tea leaves.
The leaves fell into the ashes of the fire pit and ignited indigo flames, illuminating the twelve bamboo tea baskets hanging from the beams—at the bottom of the deepest basket, a dark green tea leaf with a gilded edge lay prominently.
“This junior would like to present you with a Tang Dynasty gilded silver tea grinder with a wild goose design.” Suddenly, an object wrapped in cobwebs appeared in her palm. After peeling away the dust, a lifelike wild goose carrying a branch was revealed. “I’ve heard that when Master Qian brewed tea, he most enjoyed listening to the sound of wild geese breaking through the clouds.”
The old man's goatee trembled violently, and the fire tongs clattered into the fire pit.
As the tea grinder emitted a clear, melodious cry amidst the indigo flames, Su Yunlan had already stepped out of the fenced yard carrying a bamboo basket.
The dark green tea leaf at the bottom of the basket throbbed against her heart, subtly resonating with the pharmacopoeia turning in the spiritual spring space.
As dusk settled over the city walls, three white plum blossoms suddenly appeared on the old plum tree in the backyard of the inn.
Xiao Yuhan leaned against the carved railing on the second floor, gazing at the brightening stars on the horizon, his fingertips caressing the warm Kunlun jade on the sword sheath—three hundred miles to the southeast, the faint sounds of camel bells and eagle cries could be heard.
As dusk spread its last rosy hue across the eaves of the green tiles, Su Yunlan's ice-crack patterned tea lotus suddenly felt warm.
She stood under the hanging flower gate in the back alley of the inn, and when she looked up, she met the starry sky in Xiao Yuhan's eyes.
The Kunlun jade on the black iron sword sheath and the silver hairpin in her hair both shone faintly, like two dewdrops recognizing each other in the morning mist.
Xiao Yuhan's fingers, hanging by his side, curled slightly. The tender grass sprouting from the cracks in the bluestone slab was suddenly covered with a thin layer of frost—the chill he had picked up during his youthful campaigns in the northern desert, which was now warmed by the aroma of tea.
"My twenty-second brother buried three jars of snow water under the plum tree." He raised his hand to brush away the tea dust from Su Yunlan's temple, his fingertips brushing against her earlobe, revealing a wolf's head tattoo faintly beneath his collar. "He said he wanted to learn your method of brewing plum wine."
The bamboo basket in Su Yunlan's arms suddenly trembled slightly, and the dark green tea leaf pressed against her heart, emitting a faint buzzing sound.
The pharmacopoeia in the spiritual spring space flipped to the page with the tea tree totem, and specks of golden light seeped from the frosty paper.
"My lord, do you know..." She held the bamboo basket in front of Xiao Yuhan, the golden tea leaves at the bottom suddenly illuminating the man's sharply defined jawline, "This tea must be ground with basalt on a full moon night, and seasoned with..."
A warm palm suddenly enveloped her icy fingertips, and Xiao Yuhan's dark sleeve brushed against the edge of the bamboo basket, stirring up the gold dust floating on the surface of the tea leaves.
Those points of light condensed in the sky to form half a star map, which coincided with the vermilion mark on the sheepskin map last night.
"The camel caravan from Kashgar carried thirty-six tea cakes." He traced the afterimage of the star map with his fingertips, writing the seal script character "巽" (Xun) on Su Yunlan's palm. "The malachite embedded in the cracks of the tea cakes is the kind only found in the ancient tombs of Loulan."
The night breeze carried the fragrance of the old plum tree through the corridor. As the third white plum blossom landed on Su Yunlan's shoulder, she suddenly heard the clear, melodious sound of dripping water coming from the depths of the spiritual spring.
The golden-patterned tea leaf moved undisturbed in the bamboo basket, its edges gradually revealing blood-red veins.
Xiao Yuhan took off his cloak and wrapped it around her thin shoulders. The tassel of his sword swept across the jade bracelet on her wrist, causing ripples to spread across the pool of spring water in the bracelet's core.
Looking at the Big Dipper pattern embroidered on the lining of the cloak, Su Yunlan suddenly recalled the star formations etched by the tea soup that morning.
"Seven ounces short." She held the bamboo basket up to the moonlight, watching the golden tea leaves cast distorted, snake-like shadows on the bottom. "This is only enough for three cups..."
The unfinished words were shattered in the night by the sudden sound of the night watchman's drum.
The warmth of Xiao Yuhan's palm seeped through his cloak into the back of her neck. The faint scent of agarwood mixed with the aroma of tea emanated from the man, intertwining their breaths like trembling snowflakes on a plum tree branch.
Suddenly, the sound of a hawk cutting through the air came from the southeast.
The silver hairpin in Su Yunlan's hair jingled, and the ice crack patterns on the tea scoop spread out new lines under the moonlight.
She reached out to touch the Kunlun jade at the tip of the hairpin, but touched Xiao Yuhan's fingers that he couldn't retract in time.
Three hundred miles away, the mountains undulated like the spines of beasts in the night. In the sudden burst of blue light from the tea lotus, Su Yunlan saw a new proverb appear in the Spirit Spring Pharmacopoeia: "Where the white dew condenses on the blade, the golden snake coils around the plum blossom."
At dawn the next day, as Su Yunlan spread the golden-patterned tea leaves across the jade tea scoop, the morning light happened to penetrate the ice-crack patterned tea scoop, casting winding streaks of light on the Xuan paper.
The crimson veins along the edge of the tea leaves moved slowly in the halo of light, piecing together half of a tattered map.
The moment Young Master Xiao burst through the door, Su Yunlan quickly covered the tea scoop with her sleeve.
The rough earthenware jar the boy was holding slammed onto the table with a thud, the aroma of tea wafting from the jar mixed with the smell of damp earth.
"Fourth Sister-in-law, look!" He wiped the sweat from his brow and lifted the earthenware jar. "Last night's torrential rain washed away the tea plantation west of the city, and I found this in the rubble!"
Amidst the stench of decaying leaves and moss, Su Yunlan gently parted the moldy tea leaves with her fingertips.
A faint blue light flashed across the bottom of the jar, and the pharmacopoeia in the spiritual spring space suddenly trembled violently, with specks of scarlet seeping from the frosty pages.
She picked up the tea leaf that was tinged with blue light and examined it closely. She discovered that there were fine golden threads, as thin as hair, running through the veins of the leaf.
The morning breeze, carrying the lingering scent of last night's rain, rushed into the window. Suddenly, the tea leaves curled into the shape of a snake's tongue at her fingertips, creating a strange resonance with the tinkling sound of a mountain spring three hundred miles away.