Chapter 900: Gradually Entering a Better State

The other children scattered in a flurry, leaving even their jump ropes on the ground without picking them up.

Their pigtails swayed in the wind, and the group of children soon disappeared around the bend of the mountain path.

The couple exchanged a glance.

The man lowered his voice: "Emily, let's go check on that fool. I always feel that the people here are not right. If the information is false, the Boss will absolutely not let us off."

The woman looked in the direction where the children had run off, stood in place thinking for a moment, and said: "Kevin, you are right. But we cannot show our faces; find someone to handle it."

Following the mountain path inward, after turning past a bamboo grove, a large thatched shed appeared before their eyes.

The exterior of the shed was very ordinary, with a thatched roof and wooden plank walls, almost blending into the surrounding vegetable plots.

But pushing the door open to enter, the inside was a different world: a stove, a cutting board, and a cupboard were all there, as if the entire house had been moved here. The flames in the stove were burning bright, and heat kept rolling out, warming the whole room.

Erniu led a group of children running in with a clamor, their footsteps making a "patter-patter" sound on the floor.

She ran to the stove and shouted to He Yuzhu, who was chopping vegetables: "Uncle, two strangers are asking about the tea trees, and their accents are weird."

He Yuzhu put down his kitchen knife and mimicked: "Kid, I heard the tea here is amazing, I want to buy some, who should I look for!"

"That's exactly the tone!" Erniu said, then giggled, and the group of children laughed along with her.

He Yuzhu wiped his hands on his apron, took a stack of red envelopes from his pocket, distributed them to the children one by one, and then took out a large bag of chocolate, giving each of them a generous portion.

The children chattered as they took them, the sound of unwrapping candy wrappers rising one after another, and the whole room was filled with a sweet fragrance.

"Erniu, well done." He Yuzhu patted her head, "From now on, whenever someone asks about the tea trees, come and tell me immediately."

Erniu's mouth was stuffed with chocolate, her cheeks bulging, and her speech was slurred: "Uncle Dashan, when will you make Braised Pork? I love that the most."

He Yuzhu thought for a moment and smiled in agreement: "Tomorrow at noon, call all your little friends to come here to eat Braised Pork."

"Alright, thank you Uncle Dashan!" Erniu jumped up happily, then skipped out the door, her pigtails swinging back and forth. A group of children followed behind her, looking just like a string of jumping firecrackers.

He Yuzhu then called out, "Ershuan, send someone to keep an eye on those two."

Ershuan emerged from behind the curtain and quickly ran out of the tent.

Early the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, the mountain mist was even thicker than the day before, and one could not see a person's figure beyond a few steps.

Only Emily came; Kevin did not accompany her.

Yesterday afternoon, the two had already found out clearly in the village: a week ago, there was indeed a mentally disabled person in the village whose condition improved after drinking the tea a few times, and now he could carry on simple conversations. After confirming the news, Emily was certain that the target tea leaves were produced in this mountain forest, but she still intended to find a way to obtain the actual product.

That day she changed her attire, wearing a green wool coat, her long hair covering most of her face, and a pair of tinted glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. She did not get out of the car, rolled down the window, and whispered a few instructions to the driver. The driver nodded, pushed the door open, and walked out.

This driver was a middle-aged man around forty, with a cigarette in his mouth, shrinking his neck and looking around. He walked to the water's edge, approached a young man in a plaid shirt carrying a fishing cage, and asked: "Brother, let me ask you something?"

The young man in the plaid shirt did not look back: "Are you here to buy tea leaves? This stuff isn't cheap, one hundred thousand for one tael, can you afford it?"

Hearing this, the driver turned to leave, but hesitated for a moment and turned back: "Brother, your price is too outrageous, aren't you deliberately trying to scam people?"

The plaid shirt looked up, vigilantly looked left and right, and after confirming no one was around, whispered: "To tell you the truth, the stock of this tea is running low. This tea mountain was long ago contracted by a Boss from Hong Kong, and this tea can cure illnesses."

The taxi driver widened his eyes, and the cigarette in his mouth nearly fell out: "It can even cure illnesses? Are you guys crazy for money?"

The plaid shirt curled his lips in disdain: "You've seen nothing of the world, take it or leave it."

The driver said no more, turned and walked back to the taxi, leaned over to the window: "Miss, the tea leaves are one hundred thousand per tael, do you still want them?"

Emily in the car pondered for a long time, and finally said: "Buy it. Tell him to get in the car, we'll talk in detail."

The plaid shirt opened the car door and sat down in the back seat with a thud. The door closed, and the car interior instantly became cramped. Emily turned to the side, her gaze as sharp as a knife, sizing up the other party from top to bottom, as if she wanted to peel away the secrets in his heart layer by layer.

The plaid shirt, however, looked calm, and even leisurely crossed his legs. He was full of confidence because he had seen the miraculous effect of the tea leaves with his own eyes and believed in it deeply. Just last week, He Yuzhu had used leaves from the Ancient Tea Tree to brew tea and cured a person from a neighboring village who had been mentally disabled for over twenty years.

That person used to be unable to recognize his own relatives and would giggle while drooling all day, but now he could answer questions.

Although his speech was still a bit clumsy, it was already a world of difference.

This matter was spread far and wide in the surrounding villages, and the plaid shirt had witnessed the whole process with his own eyes, so he was not at all timid when facing Emily's cold, stern gaze.

"Big sister," he spoke first, his tone neither humble nor pushy, "To tell you the truth, this tea is sold out as it's sold, one hundred thousand for one tael is really not expensive. These are all stocks that the villagers secretly kept earlier. Now those few Ancient Tea Trees have been bought out by someone, and I heard that person wanted to ship those old trees overseas. But the government wouldn't allow it, so that was the end of it!"

Emily narrowed her eyes slightly and asked calmly: "I only want a little bit, I'll give you ten thousand, is that okay?"

The plaid shirt thought for a moment, nodded, and held up two fingers: "At least twenty thousand, this is just the amount for a single brew."

Emily was silent for a few seconds, as if calculating the gains and losses.

About a minute later, she looked up and said: "Then I'll buy one tael."

Five days later, a Laboratory in Hong Kong.

The pale light illuminated the room brightly, and various test tubes and beakers were neatly arranged on the countertop, the vessels reflecting a cold luster.

Lukasi stood by the operating table, staring intently at the freshly printed test report. With every page he turned, the smile at the corners of his mouth grew a bit wider. Emily stood opposite him, arms crossed, waiting quietly.

"Great!" Lukasi finished the last page, punched the air, his tone full of irrepressible excitement, "A component in the tea soup is exactly the same as in the formula liquid!"

He slammed the report onto the table and turned around: "We have found the core special component in the formula, we are already halfway to success, just one last step left!"

Emily, however, was not as optimistic as him, frowning slightly, and hesitated as she spoke: "Boss, but this batch of tea leaves has long been bought out by Lin Wanning, how should we get our hands on it?"

Lukasi was not discouraged, but rather confident: "We will take over the entire tea plantation with heavy money. I don't believe these people who handle it can resist the temptation of getting rich overnight!"