Chapter 214

At the foot of the rear mountain, Cha Yuan.

An Qinghe bent over picking tea, sweat pouring like rain.

Outside the fence of Cha Yuan, a group of children were chasing and playing, their happy voices making An Qinghe a little jealous.

He wiped his sweat, turned his head and shouted, "Shitou! Shitou!"

"Before you left, you told Gu Xixi you would come help—so why am I working while you're having fun over there?!"

Shitou, Qinger, Gouwa, and the few other kids who usually played well together all stopped.

Shitou said solemnly, "Big Brother An, I am helping—I brought all these people here to keep you company; we're all cheering you on."

An Qinghe was speechless, "Then you'd better not keep me company—go play somewhere else!"

Gouwa, being kind-hearted, thought for a moment and said, "Anyway, we have nothing else to do—why not help Boss An pick leaves? I think it'd be fun too."

Apart from Shitou, everyone else agreed; after all, for children, any new activity always sparks some enthusiasm.

"No—Gu Xixi's tea garden is off‑limits to children."

"You don't even know how to pick tea—if you accidentally damage something, it would be terrible."

Hearing this, An Qinghe snapped to attention and quickly laughed, "Thanks for your good intentions—I was just joking with Shitou earlier; I can finish this little bit of work myself in no time."

He knew very well how precious these tea trees were to Gu Xixi.

If Cha Yuan were left in a mess, he could hardly imagine what his fate would be…

An Qinghe, still uneasy, smiled again and urged, "Go on, play wherever you want—you don't need to keep me company."

The children looked at each other.

Gouwa said with a hint of regret, "All right, since Boss An doesn't need help, how about we go to the Village Chief's place to see the Black General?"

In Village Chief Lao Qian's orchard there is a mighty fighting rooster named Black General, and the bold boys of the village love to go see it.

Gouwa's suggestion indeed sparked a chorus of agreement.

Qinger had also seen Black General; she wasn't afraid at all and exclaimed excitedly, "I'll catch bugs to feed Black General! And there's Xiao Bai, Xiao Huang, and Xiao Hong!"

Xiao Bai is a big white goose, while Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong are the free‑range chickens from Lao Qian's household.

An Qinghe kept his tension, and seeing the gang of kids run off, he finally relaxed and sped up his work.

From last year to this summer, Gu Xixi has developed the tea trees here to about forty or so plants.

The tea‑picking workload isn't huge, but the task assigned to An Qinghe today is a bit troublesome.

He must pick according to the classification marks Gu Xixi made on the tea trees and then sort the leaves properly.

An Qinghe still doesn't know why Gu Xixi wants him to do this.

Since not long ago he taught himself to pan‑fry tea, whenever the household tea ran out he would come to Cha Yuan, grab a handful at random, pan‑fry it, and make the simplest loose tea.

Usually different kinds of leaves get mixed together, and Gu Xixi has never said anything about it—today's explicit request to classify and package is the first time.

So An Qinghe's basket already held pre‑glued paper bags, each labeled with a tea‑tree type number from one to five.

An Qinghe worked for about half an hour, filling six full bags for each number.

The basket was nearly full; he lifted it, felt its weight, satisfied, and decided to head home to hand over the work.

In the cool shade of the courtyard, a clean grass mat was spread on the ground.

Gu Xixi placed a small stool beside it.

An Qinghe blinked in confusion, "Gu Xixi, are you going to cool off here?"

"It's not for me—it's for you." Gu Xixi said, "Pour the tea leaves onto it and do the first round of sorting."

An Qinghe always obeys Gu Xixi; although he didn't fully grasp the purpose, he still set down his basket and sat obediently.

Gu Xixi continued, "Before, the loose tea we drank at home was just made do with—as long as it was clean, it was fine."

"But now we want to try making fu tea, so naturally we have to put in more effort."

"Fu tea?!" An Qinghe exaggeratedly widened his eyes.

In an instant, his handsome blue pupils seemed to transform into two gleaming… gold ingots.

"Is… is… that the fu tea I know of?"

Gu Xixi gave a light cough, "Don't get too excited just yet—I'm only saying we'll try; whether it succeeds is still uncertain."

An Qinghe grinned, "No problem—as long as you tell me how, even if we fail once or twice, doing it a hundred or eighty times would still be worth it!"

So this is the business opportunity Gu Xixi was talking about!

Golden‑flower fu tea, a prized variety among brick teas—this opportunity is quite a big deal!

After all, once we succeed, with An Qinghe's existing sales channels, it will surely become a rare commodity, and wealth will flow in.

Gu Xixi said, "There are fourteen steps in total, and the process is quite arduous."

An Qinghe replied without hesitation, "I'm not afraid of hardship!"

Gu Xixi glanced at him, "Still, overall it's not that bleak—at least the first twelve production steps and the final drying step we have about an eighty‑to‑ninety percent chance of success,"

"Only the thirteenth step, fermentation, is the most difficult."

"If we can ferment the golden flowers, it will be true fu tea; if not, it will merely be ordinary black‑tea brick."

An Qinghe gave a foolish grin, "I get it—ordinary tea bricks sell well too, so as long as I learn how to make it, we'll profit either way."

Gu Xixi fell silent; the reasoning was sound, but was An Qinghe being overly optimistic?

Saying it, doing it—An Qinghe, while manually sifting the tea leaves to remove the withered bits and stems, urged Gu Xixi to continue, "Tell me, what comes next?"

Gu Xixi said, "No rush—we can talk about the next step after finishing this one."

An Qinghe laughed, "Then just tell me about the fu tea fermentation."

Gu Xixi organized her thoughts and said, "You once said your hometown uses sheep's or cow's milk to make sour cheese—actually, that process is fermentation."

"Also, Aunt Zhang steaming buns always has to check whether the dough has risen—that's fermentation too."

An Qinghe drew the analogy, "So tea leaves can also ferment?"

Gu Xixi said, "One difference between the loose tea you've been stir-frying recently and the black tea bricks you're familiar with is whether it has undergone fermentation."

"The golden flowers that appear on fu tea are produced by a more special kind of fermentation."

An Qinghe suddenly understood, "So fu tea is basically a more advanced, more special kind of black tea brick?"

Gu Xixi nodded, "That's basically how to understand it."

"It's not easy to make tea cakes grow golden flowers; it requires suitable soil and climate, in other words, what the saying calls 'favorable timing and advantageous location.'"

An Qinghe pondered, "No wonder I've only heard that fu tea is produced in this part of the Northwest, and the yield isn't high."

"So not just anywhere can produce fu tea?"

Gu Xixi agreed, "Indeed."

An Qinghe rejoiced, "Then we stand to make a big profit!"

Gu Xixi sighed, patting him sympathetically, "Before the fermentation hurdle, you still have eleven steps to go; take it slow."

At the Northwest Army's forward main camp, Meng Chengping, dusty and weary, walked into the tent.

Brother Mu Nan zhao! The batch of medicine from Huachi Du Cun has just arrived!