Cultivation of Immortals Begins with Drilling Wood To Make Fire

  Chapter 376 [Tea Farmer]

   Going further south, the temperature rises rapidly.

   Even though it is the twelfth lunar month, you can wear unlined clothing here. And from the wind blowing, Fang Chang felt a breath of the sea.

  However, the terrain here is really bad, rough and difficult to walk, and the ground is not three feet flat.

   And it’s winter here, and it actually rains.

  The weather was dark, the raindrops were gloomy and cold, mixed with the damp and heavy wind, the pedestrians on the road felt overwhelmed and began to look for places to shelter from the rain.

  Fang Chang thought for a while, but he didn't go his own way. Instead, like the pedestrians around him, he walked to a village not far away, and knocked on the door of a random person:

   "Excuse me, is anyone there? Travelers want to take shelter from the rain in expensive places."

"I'm coming."

   Someone inside wore a bamboo hat and walked into the yard, took a closer look through the crack of the door, and saw Fang Chang and felt kind. After confirming that he was not a dangerous person, the door creaked open, and the host wearing a bamboo hat looked at Fang Chang and said:

   "It's not easy to travel far, guests please come in."

  Fang Chang slightly cupped his hands in thanks, then walked across the yard and into the house.

  The momentum of the rain is gradually increasing, like a string of thin beads all over the sky, splashing water in the courtyard.

  Inside the room, two young men were sitting on a small bench and were beating straw sandals. On the small square table next to them, there were still half-thinned straw sandals. It should be what the male owner of the house was doing just now. Seeing someone coming in with their father, they politely put down their work, stood up to say hello, and then resumed their work.

  The two young people have reached the age of marriage, and the hair of the male host is already a little gray.

  The owner of the house took a new bench from the side and handed it to Fang Chang. Seeing the man in white looking at the straw sandals on the table, he said with a smile:

"As the saying goes, 'When it's raining, you'll be idle if you're idle'. Besides, it's winter and there's not much to do. Save more shoes for next spring when you pick tea. After all, it takes a lot of time to walk back and forth on the mountain Where are the shoes?"

  Then he said: "Guest take me here, I'll make you a pot of tea."

"Master, wait a minute." Fang Chang hurriedly called out, then pulled the backpack behind his back, opened it, took out a bamboo tube, poured out a handful of tea from it, and said to the host: "It's already a nuisance to come here to take shelter from the rain. If you can spend more money, use mine."

   After all, this family seems to have an average family background. Although it sounds like they pick and grow tea by themselves, it’s better to see outsiders when visiting rashly.

   "Then I won't be polite." The host said, then took the tea from Fang Chang's hand, took a tin pot from the small clay stove next to him, and started brewing. For a while, the water mist curled up in the room, mixed with the faint fragrance of tea leaves.

  The male host laughed at himself while making tea:

"I'm not afraid of jokes from guests. Although my family grows tea for a living, I usually don't like to drink it. Although the price of tea is very low, it can't be sold for much, but as the saying goes, 'Shoemaker walks barefoot, contemptuous craftsman sleeps on a plank bed'. For tea, of course you can only drink plain water.”

  The two young people beside them laughed together, and the atmosphere in the room suddenly became cheerful.

   "Well, good tea, it smells really good." Carrying the teapot over, the host praised. He took a few teacups that had just been rinsed with clean water, poured them for all four present, and continued, "Although the production method is a bit too raw, and it seems that there are few processes, the tea leaves are really good."

   After finishing speaking, he picked up the teacup and tasted it first.

  The tea rich in inspiration enters the abdomen, making the middle-aged man feel light and healthy. He only feels that the taste of this tea is like eating ice cubes in the dog days.

   "Good tea!"

  The family didn't know that this was a great blessing for them.

  Produced on the edge of the Yunzhong Mountain cliff, the tea made by Fang Chang himself, after drinking it, is no different from a good medicine for curing diseases and prolonging life for ordinary people. It's just that they don't have the ability to see or perceive all of this, and the three of them just feel very comfortable and at ease.

   "It's worth it in this life to taste this kind of good tea." The host thought to himself.

  But he didn't say it, but said to Fang Chang: "Thanks to Your Excellency, we are really lucky to be able to taste this kind of good tea."

  Fang Chang smiled and said:

   "Actually, just like you, I pick and make tea myself."

   "Oh? No wonder!" The middle-aged man said in amazement, "It seems that you have some good tea trees, no wonder I just discovered that this tea has a super good base, but the production method is too immature."

   As he spoke, he looked at the hilt of the sword on Fang Chang's back: "Your Excellency is from Jianghu, right? The main business is not like this. It's already very good to be able to make it like this."

  Fang Chang immediately took this opportunity to ask the owner how to make tea.

  When the two teenagers next to him heard this topic, they also started talking to each other, showing a sense of presence, but they were constantly scolded by the host, and they were a little shy for a while.

   After a happy chat, the male host simply imparted his own experience, although they are all necessary skills for tea farmers.

  Fang Chang not only learned how to make brick tea and fried tea, but also heard a lot of chats about the daily life of tea farmers.

There are many mountains and little land here, so it is difficult to live too many people. Fortunately, the mountains produce good tea, so the tea farmers here go up to the mountains every spring every year, and pick the tea leaves from the tea gardens that have been serving them for a year. Then come back to deal with the sale.

  Because many of the necessities of life such as grain and salt here are purchased from outsiders, this gives businessmen the opportunity to collude with bullies and buy low and sell high, so the tea farmers live a very hard life. The price of tea has been kept low, and the price of daily necessities has been raised again, so we can only suffer in silence.

  The tea tax collected by the government is not low, and picking tea and making tea is also tiring. After years of busy work, I can't save anything, so I can only just live. Fortunately, the bully who monopolized the sale of local tea before was taken down by the "recently changed prefect" and sentenced to exile. It is estimated that next year's life will be much easier.

   After chatting for a long time, Fang Chang estimated the time in his heart, and suddenly looked up to the sky outside.

  The rain suddenly became weaker, and then stopped. In a short time, the accumulated rainwater on the stone-paved courtyard ground lost its replenishment, and gushed out from the gutter, and quickly receded completely. It's just that the ground is still wet and covered with tenacious moss.

   Footsteps sounded, but it was the hostess of the house who came back from outside.

  She complained as she entered the door: "Just chatting with the third aunt, it started to rain outside, and I couldn't come back in the rain. Fortunately, it stopped now... Hey, there are guests at home?"

  The male host greeted immediately:

   "Are you back? Come and taste this tea, it's really good. This is a river and lake person who came to shelter from the rain. He can't go on his way due to the heavy rain. His status is different from ours."

   Thank you Mo Chen Wuming and user_Fengchuan for the reward.

  (end of this chapter)