He said, "The tea farrs reserve the good tea leaves for their old custors; it’s impossible to sell them to . And do you know how much a brick of good tea costs?"
Zhou Silang used to unload goods for others in Yizhou City, so naturally, he encountered tea rchants and had inquired about the price of tea.
However, the tea he could unload by the box wasn’t of the highest quality, and the price was moderate.
Only after directly interacting with the tea farrs this ti did he realize that there were so many kinds of tea leaves in the world. He said, "Just such a small brick of tea costs eighty taels, and that’s just moderately good. I’ve heard that so wealthy families with ten or so tea mountains get two bricks of top-grade tea in spring, and each brick costs one hundred eighty taels. There are also tributes for the palace, which are even more expensive; you can’t buy them even if you have money."
Old Zhou couldn’t understand, "Tea is also sothing you drink to quench your thirst. Anyone who wants can pick the leaves from those two tea trees in the back hills, fry them up, and brew them into bitter tea. Why can such things be sold at such a high price?"
He could understand why at and grain were expensive, and he understood why fabric was costly—one tastes good, the other looks good—but what about tea?
Zhou Silang shook his head, "I don’t understand either, but wealthy families love to drink this stuff. They have money, of course, they can afford to drink it."
Manbao thought for a mont and said, "Sir said that sotis savoring tea is like savoring life; within one tea is a world, and one cup of tea is a lifeti."
The mbers of the Zhou family all listened blankly without understanding the aning at all. It sounded sowhat impressive, but also a bit unreliable. However, since these words were said by Mr. Zhuang, the Zhou family mbers believed them without question.
Old Zhou nodded deeply, "Then it seems tea is indeed a good thing."
Manbao nodded.
Old Zhou then asked Manbao, "Why don’t you drink?"
Manbao helped himself to a piece of at and said righteously, "Sir said I’m still too young to appreciate the taste of tea; I only know it’s bitter, so I might as well not drink."
"And because we’re young, drinking too much tea is bad for us," Manbao added, "But Dad, you and Mom can drink more, and Brother, you all can drink too."
Zhou Dalang said, "I can only taste the bitterness, but tea does quench thirst."
That was the reason they preferred to brew a pot of tea and take it to the fields when they went out to work; it quenched thirst better than plain water and made them feel more energized.
Manbao said, "Tea is also dicine; it can prolong life, resist aging, and strengthen the body."
The mbers of the Zhou family suddenly realized. Old Zhou said, "No wonder, I said those wealthy families surely wouldn’t spend so much money to drink tea just for quenching thirst and tasting bitterness, right?"
He said, "It must be because good tea leaves are better at prolonging life, resisting aging, and strengthening the body, so they are expensive."
Zhou Silang also suddenly realized and lightly slapped the table, saying, "I know how to talk to those Hu rchants when I return to the capital."
Then he looked up at Manbao, slightly complaining, "Why didn’t you say earlier that tea has this effect?"
Zhou Sanlang then asked, "If tea is so good, wouldn’t it be more profitable than growing yam and ginger? Can our family grow it?"
Everyone began to ponder.
Zhou Dalang directly said to Zhou Silang, "Next ti you go out to collect tea leaves, ask how to grow tea. Is it from seeds or like privet, directly inserting branches?"
Zhou Silang nodded.
Manbao then felt a sense of crisis, calling out, "Brother, you also promised to grow grapes for ."
Zhou Dalang smiled at her, reassuring, "I’ve kept the seeds you gave . I’ll have your sister-in-law clear a piece of land in the vegetable garden for you to plant."
Manbao said, "Grapes are vines; one plant can grow really long. So many seeds surely won’t fit in the vegetable garden."
Junior Ms.Qian said, "It’s just such a small packet, not much."
The seeds Manbao brought back were indeed just a little bit, but after seeing pictures of grapevines from Keke, Manbao knew they could grow so big.
But Junior Ms.Qian and the others hadn’t seen this, and such small seeds might not even grow well, let alone taking up much space if they did grow well.
Zhou Sanlang said, "If there’s not enough space, we’ll move things around a bit. Didn’t you say grapes are fruit trees? Trees are all the sa; you can move them and they’ll survive."
Manbao thought about it and agreed that this was sensible; the encyclopedia entries stated that grapevines could be cut and planted, and her brothers certainly knew more about farming than she did.
Zhou Sanlang brought up the idea of planting tea trees again. Old Zhou didn’t oppose it. He also thought that tea leaves sounded quite profitable.
Zhou Silang promised he would definitely ask properly the next ti he went out to collect tea leaves.
Zhou Erlang said, "I guess tea seeds aren’t cheap either?"
Zhou Wulang lanted, "If only we could do like we do with privet, collecting so branches and seeds from the wild to plant at ho. There are quite a few tea trees on the mountain."
Manbao interjected, "Wild tea leaves are too bitter."
You could tell from the tea leaves Daohe gave them.
But Zhou Silang rolled his eyes and asked Manbao, "Does the young master Daohe at the Taoist temple still pick tea leaves?"
"You want to buy from him?" Manbao said, "He doesn’t have much."
Zhou Silang said, "He doesn’t have much, but I rember there are quite a few wild tea leaves on several mountains around Dali Village. Isn’t spring coming soon? By then, tea trees will start to sprout..."
Anyway, Aludun couldn’t tell good tea from bad tea—as long as it’s tea, it works. Plus, the price he gives Aludun isn’t high, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for...
Zhou Silang calculated in his mind. Manbao said, "Daohe can’t make tea bricks."
"No worries, back in the capital, when I gave loose tea to Aludun, they accepted that too."
Plus, it’s cheaper; just takes up a bit more space.
Zhou Silang was ambitious, wishing to fill all four carts he brought with tea leaves to take back to the capital. But he didn’t have enough money, so to pursue a larger quantity, he could only try to bring down the price of tea as much as possible.
But the prices of tea held by farrs were all about the sa. If it were too low, he couldn’t compete with the rchants they were familiar with.
Therefore, to buy tea leaves, he had to offer a price slightly higher than other rchants—sotis three coins, sotis two—to ensure that people were willing to spare so leaves for him.
Otherwise, Zhou Silang wouldn’t have thought about buying loose tea. There weren’t many tea mountains in Luojiang County, and the tea people drank was usually picked by themselves from the hills—so fry it carefully, but so families, finding it cumberso, simply sun-dry it and brew it.
These were all wild tea leaves growing on the mountains, just like wild vegetables, extrely bitter.
He had seen Aludun drink tea. They boiled tea leaves in goat milk, unlike them who only drank tea water; they would chew and eat the boiled tea leaves.
He had followed them and found that tea leaves boiled in goat milk weren’t as bitter, and the gay taste of goat milk was also gone.
Thus, he thought, even if it’s wild tea, Aludun shouldn’t mind too much. If he really cared, Zhou Silang could just offer it at a cheaper price.
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