Daily Life in the Countryside After Being Reborn-Chapter 29 - 28 centuries-old tea trees

Li Yelu was familiar with the path, racing and hopping over half of the mountain before he remembered that "city person" Zhu Xiaoxian was still following him, and quickly turned back to find him. As he turned back, he almost collided with Xiaoxian.

"Hurry up, if we delay any longer, it will get dark. The crops on Black Mountain are very damp. My grandfather is not feeling well recently; he has developed a cough and cannot be exposed to moisture," Xiaoxian not only kept pace, if not for the unfamiliar path, she would definitely have run ahead of Yezi.

"Hey, wait for me," Li Ye had his eyes opened today, witnessing the nimble spirit of a Han Clan girl for the first time. He actually kind of liked it.

Reaching the summit, Xiaoxian looked ahead to see the evening sky tinged with red clouds. The tea picking season had passed, and the tea bushes were filled with lush green leaves. Zhu Shijun and others had already reached a higher part of the tea garden. From afar, you could see three shadowy figures faintly discernible among the bushes.

The earliest wild white tea bushes grew on cliffs and beside streams, preferring light and water and being particular about their location. It took ancestors from Dongnan Miao Village decades to carve out this precious tea garden at the foot of Black Mountain. Adjacent to it was a perennially flowing stream. As soon as the sun rose above the horizon, the garden basked in sunlight, and with ample water and sunlight at the foot of Black Mountain, although the produced white tea did not surpass Zheng'an White Tea, it was indeed extraordinary within its category.

Yezi's mother was talking about the tea garden with Zhu Shijun and others. The tea garden on Black Mountain was divided into several areas, all contracted out to a few major Miao families of Dongnan Miao Village. Among the villagers of Dongnan Miao Village, those involved with tea—picking, roasting, and planting—accounted for forty percent. If one family had a poor yield, it affected the whole village's income for that year.

The Li Family was one of the tea planting majors. It wasn't just Li Ye's family that had a reduction in yield this year; a few days ago, the village had a meeting. They discussed their account books around the kang, and the price of tea leaves had dropped by over ten yuan, not to mention the decrease in yield.

Tea processing is a very delicate and labor-intensive operation, and its transportation has its particularities. After multiple deductions, little money ended up in the hands of Miao people.

"Elder, that's the general situation. The tea garden has been managed by my family for generations, which spans over a hundred years. We always produced the highest quality white tea, but just a few years after I took over, the reputation was tarnished, how can I face our ancestors from now on?" In just half a day, Yezi's mother had changed her manner of speech. She was a forthright and competent Miao woman by nature. After hearing Zhu Shijun talk about tea quality, she guessed that Zhu Shijun must be the agricultural expert often mentioned outside the mountains or at least a technician. Asking him would certainly be right.

Miao families are different from Han families; though primarily farmers, the real agricultural experts in the village had traditionally been the Great Wizards interacting with herbs and serpents over generations. Everybody else just followed old customs, planting when the cuckoo called and harvesting the first scythe of rice when the mountains' red maples turned red.

"Young aunt, all these tea bushes are growing well and haven't suffered any pests," Zhu Shijun had also observed the surrounding mountains. Black Mountain's high altitude typically prevents most pests.

The tea leaves were dark green and glossy, not seeming to lack water or sunlight. Yezi's mother had also mentioned that the excrement from about a hundred pigeons on the hillside was collected and used as fertilizer in the tea garden.

With such natural conditions, it was truly blessed. As soon as village chief Jin Dafu climbed the mountain, he abandoned the idea of learning to plant tea trees to improve the village's prosperity.

"Auntie, how old is this tea tree?" Xiao Xian and Yezi caught up with the adults, seeing Yezi's mother still frowning, they knew the problem with the tea garden was still unresolved.

"Xiao Xian's eyesight is really impressive; this is the only white tea tree that has produced tea normally this year. According to what Yezi's father said, this tree was planted at the end of the Qing Dynasty. It has a history of over a hundred years," Having spotted the homemade birdcage in Yezi's hands, Yezi's mother guessed the reason for the children's slowed pace and did not blame them. Instead, she went to wipe the sweat off the children's faces, knowing that if left sweaty, the night breeze on the mountain could cause them to catch a cold.

Seeing Zhu Xiaoxian standing by and awkwardly refusing to let Mama wipe his face, darting around like a slippery loach, Xiao Xian didn't mimic his awkwardness and let Yezi's mother wipe her sweat. Yezi's mother was both amused and a bit annoyed, and chided them for a while.

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Hearing this, Zhu Shijun went forward to check the normally growing tea tree. At the Li Family's place, Zhu Shijun could tell the quality of tea leaves at one glance, not just because of his many years of tea-drinking habits, but also because he knew that drying the freshly picked tea leaves was crucial, as the quality of these fresh leaves was even more important.

The tea quality this year in Southeast Mountain Village was not up to par, not that it looked bad. If someone like Jin Dafu, who knows nothing about tea, saw it, he would have surely praised this year's tea. Look at those tea leaves, broad and full; each leaf unfurls in the water like a big butterfly, the tea is clear with a hint of green, tasty, and leaves a lingering fragrance in the mouth.

"Old man, you are also someone who knows the ways; this year's tea leaves are too big, the aroma stays in the mouth, but it doesn't reach deep inside the organs, this is inferior tea." After Yezi's mother had dealt with the children's sweat, she joined the conversation.

The charm of white tea lies in its delicious taste and beautiful leaves. Observing its form, slender like needles, every piece of dry tea immersed in water shoots straight down like silver needles, making tea tasting a delightful sight.

This year's leaves are too big, once brewed, the shape is no longer beautiful, and some leaves even have wormholes. Small leaves concentrate the essence, large leaves gather dregs.

Zhu Shijun compared the hundred-year-old tea tree in the garden, looking for any differences with the other trees. However, whether in planting methods or soil, everything was identical, which raised the question - where exactly did the problem arise?

"Auntie," Xiao Xian crisply called from the side, "this place used to have many Ma Yisong trees, right? Why were they cut down? What a pity."

The two children showed little interest in the tea trees and were shooed to the side. Xiao Xian was examining a tree stump on the ground. In the tea garden, there were about a hundred similar stumps, all freshly cut from the year before.

Just as Yezi's mother was about to speak, Zhu Shijun quickly walked over to the tree stump, passed a few cut stumps, and his eyes brightened with realization, "Little aunt, the problem with the tea lies right here."

"How do you know this is Ma Yisong?" Li Ye wondered, looking at the cleared stump which didn't reveal much about the type of tree.

"Even if it were turned to ash, I could recognize what species it is. I know a lot about it." Xiao Xian chuckled twice, proud of her grandfather's quick response. She was only a reminder, yet Zhu Shijun pinpointed the essence of the problem right away.