Eat in Song Dynasty

Chapter 487 I'll Go and Talk to the Wang Family
Wen Shu turned to look at him, only to see him smile awkwardly, then bury his face in the tea bowl uncomfortably.

When the Hou brothers saw this, they thought he was just frightened and thought: This young man looks quite impressive, but I didn't expect he is so timid.

Not as good as the girl next to her, who is calm and composed.

In fact, Wen Shu's face was also a little hot.

However, she was thick-skinned and the Hou brothers didn’t see it.

"I'll have some more tea for you guys!"

Seeing that one of them buried his face in the bowl and the other was holding the teacup in a daze, Hou Da's wife thought that the tea was finished and hurriedly tried to refill their tea.

"Thank you very much. Thank you very much." The two thanked him helplessly.

Zhuo Rufeng looked at the two of them strangely, as if thinking about something.

Even as they were talking, heavy rain had already begun to fall.

At this point he had finished talking and there was no sign of stopping.

Seeing that it was getting dark outside, Hou Da said, "I don't know when this rain will stop. How about you all stay at my house tonight and set off early tomorrow morning?"

Wen Shu glanced outside and said, "Sorry to bother you then."

"Don't bother me, don't bother me, it's just that we don't have much rice at home, I'm afraid we can't treat you to a good meal."

"It's okay. I still have some dry food in the carriage. I'll go get it and we can share it." With that, Wen Shu went out and climbed onto the carriage to get the things.

Qin Jingyang was a little surprised to see her getting off the car with a bag, but seeing the people around her, he didn't say anything.

"This is our dry food for three days. We are here tonight to bother you. This is just a token of our appreciation." She opened the bundle and took out two Zhuyu steamed buns to give to the little girl and Madam Hou who were hiding in the corner. "I just made them this morning. They are still fresh. You can have a try."

"Green steamed buns are rare." Madam Hou looked at the thing in her hand.

"I made this myself this morning in the inn's kitchen. I added vegetable juice, and it tastes sweeter than ordinary steamed buns." Wen Shu said, then turned back to the table, took one and started eating.

Seeing this, Madam Hou started eating and praised, "Madam, you have such a skillful hand."

"I can't help it. I just like to tinker with things in the kitchen." Wen Shu laughed while eating.

After a while, Qin Jingyang squeezed next to her and asked, "Where did this bag come from? Why didn't I see it when I was in the car?"

Wen Shu looked at him and said, "Who told you not to come in to load the medicine? The bundle is under the bamboo tube."

Qin Jingyang: If I had known, I wouldn’t have asked

The rain continued to fall until night fell.

"It's a good thing we met their brothers and they took us under their wing. If we were to go to the flooded area and encounter such heavy rain, we would be stuck in neither direction."

Old Man Wen stood under the eaves, patted the moisture off his body, and looked relieved.

With rain like this, I don’t know when it will stop.

Wen Shu nodded repeatedly, and after a while asked Hou Da, "How much tea did you harvest this year? Is it all ripe?"

Hou Da didn't understand what he meant, but he answered truthfully: "They are all cooked, otherwise they can't be kept. There are about 800 kilograms of loose tea and 200 yuan of tea in a cake."

"Can you take me to see the loose tea? If it's suitable, I'd like to buy some."

"of course can."

Although they might not be able to buy much, they would sell as much as they could so that they could go into the city to buy food when the water receded.

The Hou brothers took Wen Shu to the tea room, and Wen Lao and others followed them.

The tea house is on the easternmost side of the wooden house. It is the only brick house, and its foundation is ten feet higher than that of the wooden house.

When we went in, we found that the inside was raised with stones and a layer of oil paper was laid on the stones.

Seeing her staring at the ground curiously, Hou Da explained: "It rains frequently here. To prevent flooding, the room where tea leaves are stored is raised higher than other rooms. These oil papers are also for moisture prevention."

Wen Shu nodded and looked at the row of jars placed in the left corner of the room.

"This is loose tea." Hou Da introduced as he took a handful of tea leaves from the jar and showed them to Wen Shu.

Look at the east corner and you will see piles of round things made of straw.

"This is Tuancha." The Hou brothers introduced them one by one. Tuancha means that tea leaves are pressed together with a mold to form tea cakes or tea bricks.

Wen Shu picked up a small handful of loose tea and put it to his nose to smell it, then carefully examined its appearance in the light of the fire.

If she were a child from an ordinary family, she would not understand these things, but she had attended a private school.

There are special classes in private schools that teach how to taste tea and observe the color of tea.

The teas are all of good quality, but their aroma and color have faded after being stored for a long time.

When it comes to tea tasting, Qin Jingyang is more proficient in it than Wen Shu. After all, he has lived in this environment since he was a child.

"This tea is of good quality, but it has been stored for a long time, and the aroma and color of the tea cannot compare to new tea." He spoke, looking like an expert.

Hou Da nodded quickly: "Young Master is right. If you want to buy, you can lower the price by 30% compared to the purchase price of the Zhuo family caravan in previous years."

"What was the price in previous years?" Wen Shu asked.

"Loose tea, ninety coins per pound! Dragon and Phoenix tea balls, two taels of silver per piece."

Two taels of silver for a piece of silver. Wen Shu's eyes widened in surprise!

Ruilong tea cakes are sold for ten taels of silver in Beijing!
No wonder they say traveling business makes huge profits!
Seeing her surprised expression, Hou Da thought she thought the price was too high, and rubbed his hands and said, "I wonder how much you want to buy, young lady?"

He thought to himself that if the other party purchased more than ten kilograms, he would give him a few cents cheaper.

Wen Shu did not answer him, but turned to ask Zhuo Rufeng: "Your Zhuo family business has business connections from north to south. Have you heard of any large cattle farmers near Lin'an Prefecture? It would be best if they have a large number of cattle and can sell milk?"

Zhuo Rufeng shook his head and said, "I've never heard of this."

"I know this. There is a village called Yunshui near Lin'an Prefecture. There is a family named Zhang in the village. I heard that they make a living by selling calves and milk."

Wen Shu thought about it and decided that this would be easy. "Okay, I'll take all the loose tea. I don't need so much tea in batches, so I'll take half."

"What?!!!"

After these words were spoken, not only the Hou brothers were stunned.

Even Zhuo Rufeng and Qin Jingyang were stunned!
The Hou brothers originally thought that she could only buy a dozen kilograms at most, and they would be thankful.

Unexpectedly, she asked for nearly half of the goods in the house as soon as she opened her mouth.

For a moment I didn't know whether I should believe what she said!

Zhuo Rufeng advised, "Young lady, this tea is out of season. If you buy all of it now, I'm afraid it will be hard to sell. If you hoard it, it will become stale tea after the New Year and will be even less valuable."

Ruilong tea is different from other teas. What you taste is the fragrance and tea aroma of new tea. Old tea loses these two qualities and is worthless.

"Yes, sister, this is not a joke. It's difficult to transport these things out!" Qin Rufeng also disagreed.

If I remember correctly, they were going back to Fuzhou to visit their relatives. It was still hundreds of miles away from Fuzhou, and they couldn't carry all the tea all the way back to their hometown.

"Don't worry, I have my own way. I will destroy them all in Lin'an Prefecture." Wen Shu was confident.

She said to Hou Da: "According to your suggestion of a 30% reduction, a pound of loose tea is 63 wen, 800 pounds is 50 liang and 400 wen, and I want 100 yuan for the tea balls, so the total is 250 liang and 400 wen, right?"

"That's right, that's right. However, if such a large amount of tea flows into Lin'an Prefecture, the Wang family will definitely notice it. What will you do if it gets you into trouble?"

Wen Shu didn't care much, "I'm just an ordinary citizen, I'm not afraid of the Wang family or the Li family."

The Hou brothers wanted to persuade him again, but Qin Jingyang said, "Okay, it's settled. If the Wang family makes trouble, I will stop them."

"Then I'll have to trouble you, brother." Wen Shushi flattered him at the same time.

Qin Jingyang was extremely pleased. After all, this was the first time that Wen Shu valued him so much.

"Don't worry, don't worry, leave it to me." He patted his chest, looking very contented.

After discussing the tea issue, they returned to the living room and planned to rest.

It's raining heavily in this rural area, so forget about washing.

Just as they were about to separate, they heard someone knocking on the door, "Sister, brother-in-law, open the door quickly!"

"Yes, Asheng!" Mrs. Hou responded and hurried to open the door.

"Brother-in-law, there are officials. The officials are coming!" A young man in his early twenties wiped the rain off his face and said hurriedly.