“Your brother’s house?” Shao Yunan coldly snorted. “I have heard that Shijing has a sister, but I have not seen you since his marriage. You have the nerve to say that he is your brother. You have not even shown up for the wedding, so what’s the point of coming to my house now?”

Wang Chunxiu’s lips moved as she nudged her own father. Wang Dali looked toward the door, waiting for Wang Shijing to come in. But Shao Yunan already became so angry, he raised his voice to shout. “Wang Qing, go and call Zhao Lizheng! Say that someone from the Wang family is making trouble again!” 

Wang Dali’s body tensed and Wang Chunxiu also became anxious as she called out. “Big brother! Did you really forget your mother after marrying your wife? Look at how your wife bullies people!” 

Half of the soup was still left in Shao Yunan’s bowl. When he entered the kitchen, Wang Shijing drank the remaining half of the soup. Hearing the shouts of Shao Yunan and his sister one after another, he asked the children to go to his and Shao Yunan’s room first, He then scooped a bowl of soup for Shao Yunan and carried it into the room. 

Before Wang Shijing even set foot into the room, Wang Chunxiu called out again, “Big brother! You really don’t want your parents and siblings anymore, do you? Second brother and second sister-in-law were arrested and Wang Zhisong was punished by the Dean and you didn’t say a word? Look at what your wife has done. Look at how he treated me and father!”

“He is your  sister-in-law!” Wang Shijing blocked Wang Chunxiu’s discontent with one sentence. Putting the bowl in front of Shao Yunan, Wang Shijing looked directly at his father and said, “I know why you have come to see me. I already spoke about it with Zhao Lizheng and the patriarch. Wang Tianyan and Wang guo were punished by the county magistrate and Wang Zhisong was punished by the Dean of the county school. I have already begged for mercy for them.” 

Wang Chunxiu opened her mouth and said, “Don’t you have a jade plate from the county magistrate? Go to the county magistrate! Or use that money to redeem second brother and sister-in-law ,since you are not short of money.” Damn. Shao Yunan, who has never hit a woman, really wanted to do it now. 

“Wang Shijing, whose jade plate is that? Whose money is that money?” Shao Yunan said in a cold voice, making Wang Chunxiu’s body tremble again. If a girl could not be as vicious as old lady Wang, she was really not an opponent for the cold faced Shao Yunan. 

Wang Shijing replied, “The jade plate is your sister-in-law’s, the money is also earned by your sister-in-law and he is in charge of them.” Wang Chunxiu immediately said, “What is your wife’s is yours, isn’t it?”

Wang Shijing’s face also became cold. “If you keep saying ‘my wife’ without any respect, get out!” Wang Chunxiu could not believe that this was the older brother she remembered. The older brother who never said a word, who was just as lame as her father. Wang Dali finally spoke. “Shijing, that’s your brother!” 

 “I don’t have a brother who only thinks about his brother’s family’s wealth all day long and bullies his sister-in-law, niece, and nephew!” Wang Shijing was full of momentum. “Before you come to me, why don’t you take a look at how they treat me first?” To Wang Chunxiu, whose face became pale and was too frightened to say a word he said, “You are saying ‘your wife’ but you didn’t even show up when I married your sister-in-law. Do you still even know I am your elder brother?! When you made Nizi wash your clothes on cold days, did you still think of me as your eldest brother? If nothing had happened to Wang Tianyan and Wang Zhisong, would you have even stepped into my house? I already separated and your sister-in-law is not a woman. You should not come here since you are still a girl who is not married.”

Even Wang Tianyan couldn’t stand the full momentum of Wang Shijing, let alone Wang Chunxiu. Wang Chunxiu, who was spoken to like this burst into tears while Wang Dali with muddy eyes looked coldly at Wang Shijing asking coldly, “You really don’t care?”

“I don’t care!”

“As if he dares to care!” Shao Yunan said. “I am the master of this family. I told him to face west so let’s see if he dares to face east.” Taking out the jade plate from his pocket and putting it on the table, Shao Yunan said arrogantly. “If you have the ability, take it and go beg the county magistrate to let people go. But don’t even think of taking a copper coin from my family! Is it the tradition of the Wang family to fear wifes? When you can control mother-in-law, you can come back to your son to make the decision.” Glancing mockingly at Wang Dali, who felt ashamed, Shao Yunan yelled at Wang Shijing, “There are so many things left unpacked, hurry up and unpack them!”

Wang Shijing, an honest man who was ‘afraid of his wife’ obediently went out, while Shao Yunan pointed at the door. “Take care. Wang Chunxiu, from now on, if you casually step into my door, I will say that you tried to seduce me.”

“You!” Wang Chunxiu burst into tears. What a shame! How can you say such words casually. Wang Dali’s lips trembled as he grabbed his daughter and rushed out, afraid that if they go even one step too slow, an unpleasant gossip might start. Old lady Wang and Wang Dali were both trying to find a big family for Wang Chunxiu to marry into. Wang Chunxiu also didn’t need her father pulling her, she wished she hadn’t come in the first place! 

When the two left, Wang Qing, who was watching, immediately ran out and closed the courtyard door. Wang Shijing peeked into the room, while Shao Yunan who just put away the jade plate just said, “Hurry up and eat.”

Wang Shijing made no mention of Shao Yunan’s domineering treatment of him just now. He just sat down on the bed and said, “The soup in your bowl was cold so I drank it. I scooped you a warm one so hurry up and eat it.”

“Father, eat.”

Wang Qing came in with a bowl, and behind him was Wang Nizi with a plate of hot buns in her hands. Shao Yunan was not embarrassed because Wang Shijing drank his soup, so the two of them stuffed their stomachs before Wang Shijing went out with the empty bowls and plates, so that Wang Qing and Wang Nizi could go to bed early. 

As the two children laid down, Wang Nizi asked, “Brother, Dad won’t go away again, will he?”

“No.”

“We won’t be bullied again, will we?”

“With little dad around we won’t. Go to sleep Nizi, we have to get up early tomorrow to help with father and little dad’s work.”

 “Mmm!”

Wang Nizi obediently closed her eyes and went to sleep. However, Wang Qing still kept his eyes open. Grandparents, second uncle, little uncle, and little aunt all treated their father and mother like that, wasn’t it because of little uncle’s studies? If he could also study, he must be better than his uncle. He would take the top position during the examination, so no one would ever dare to bully him and his sister, or his father and little dad!

After the two children went to bed, Shao Yunan and Wang Shijing were not asleep yet. Shao Yunan went to handle the tea, while Wang Shijing went to take care of other things. Today, Shao Yunan bought a lot of things, including large round winnowing baskets, which farmers here used to dry beans and dry goods. Shao Yunan had no time to wave them like people here, so he first bought seven or eight, ready-made for drying tea.

The tea leaves were spread out on the bamboo winnowing basket according to the different ways of plucking tea. On one bamboo winnowing basket, wild chrysanthemums were drying. The small bag of sweet-scented osmanthus picked by Shao Yunan was lavishly put on a piece of paper to dry, but there wasn’t much of it. 

By the time Wang Shijing neatly moved and arranged all the dry goods into the cellar, Shao Yunan finished spreading out the tea leaves to dry. As soon as Wang Shijing came, Shao Yunan said, “Freshly picked tea leaves should be spread out like this to dry for about an hour. It should have been spread out after picking otherwise it would ferment. This kind of tea would taste bad as soon as it is fermented.”

Wang Shijing asked anxiously, “Is it fermented now?” This was the first time he has heard that tea can ferment. 

Shao Yunan smelled the tea and said, “I will deal with it, since it’s not fresh anymore. We won’t sleep tonight, in making tea, time is the key. You go and wash out the two raw iron pots you bought and dry them. Then find some lime that is not too damp.”

“Okay.”

Wang Shijing went to wash the pots. There were only two rooms and a kitchen here, with a small amount of miscellaneous supplies, which were not cleaned up and old. Shao Yunan decided to simply make tea in his and Wang Shijing’s room. The conditions were very simple, but he will make do with them. He did not expect to find tea so soon, so it seems that they should hurry up to buy the land and build a house. 

Shao Yunan went to the kitchen to get a ladle, then went quickly into the space to get a scoop of spiritual water. He then took out the bottle containing spiritual essence and added a few drops inside before stirring it. Shao Yunan sprinkled the water on the tea leaves with the palm of his hand. Ordinary water would certainly aggravate the fermentation of tea, but spiritual water with spiritual essence was a good nourishment.

The tea leaves and the winnowing basket of wild chrysanthemums were sprinkled with spiritual water. Shao Yunan carefully looked at the wick of the oil lamp and estimated the time. He had a watch in his spiritual space, but he would have to look for it. He also didn’t know when Wang Shijing would come back. So for now, he could only estimate the time with this crude method. Because of the sprinkling of spiritual water the drying process would take a little longer.

Longjing belongs to the fried green tea group, so after picking, the production process contained several steps, such as selecting, withering, fixation (using high temperature to destroy or stop further biochemical reactions caused by enzymes), roasting, and crushing and several other processes to produce a good Longjing tea. Since there was no Xihu lake here, Shao Yunan couldn’t call it Xihu Longjing Tea. A kilogram of Longjing tea requires four to five kilograms of fresh leaves, Shao Yunan estimated that they picked about 20 kilograms of fresh leaves this time. More than twenty ancient trees might sound like a lot, but one ancient tree could produce about one kilo of tea leaves, that’s why ancient tea was so valuable. It was precisely because ancient tea trees produced so little tea, that it led to the popularization of tea.

The tea plantations that people see in modern times were actually made from new teas that could be produced in large quantities by modern means, commonly known as tea. In other words, the top buds are subtracted so that the branches could keep branching out, so that more tea leaves could be produced. Naturally, in terms of taste it couldn’t be compared to ancient tree tea. Shao Yunan was not greedy, he was already satisfied with the 23 ancient tea trees. But if someone tried to rob him, he would move all 23 ancient tea trees to his space and then cut branches in the space. He was filled with confidence due to his space. 

Edited by: Jaisland

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