Placid Chang'an

Three months later, Yangzhou City

The water in the spring river is warm, and everything is new, which is the most beneficial spring of the year.

The tea garden of the Su Family is also a lively scene. Before and after the Grain Rain in the Qingming Festival is the critical time for new tea to be launched. The tea trees have different types and prices every day, and the prices are clearly marked on the tea cabinet. Without Gu Yu, it is worthless.

The tea garden is [-] mu green, and the tea girls shuttle around with dustpans in their hands. Each tea tree only takes the top pinch of buds, one leaf and one bud. The pekoe is full, the goose yellow is plump, and it is as delicate as a graceful girl.

There are several shacks next to the tea garden, and the tea tips in the tea mother's dustpan have to be sieved again before they can be stir-fried in the pot.

Roasted tea is the most important thing in the tea forming process. It is cooked twice in a lifetime, and every step must be sloppy.

At this time, there are several large pots in the shack, and they cooperate in pairs, one controls the heat and the other stir-fries. In March, everyone is sweating profusely, and some even take off their shirts and go into battle shirtless. Muscles, don't care about the cold spring that is still expected.

"Brother Su, I don't see that you are good at frying tea." Ah Liu, who was in charge of controlling the fire, looked up and praised, "You are better than Master Liu in our shop."

"Master Liu has been frying tea for more than 30 years. He is better than me." Su Cen smiled lightly, but his hand movements did not stop. The prototype of Biluochun.

"But Master Liu has a big temper. The fire is too hot, the fire is too low, and which pot is burnt. It's all our fault. We never look for problems from ourselves. Brother Su, you won't," Ah Liu pouted. Complain to Su Cen.

Su Cen smiled and stopped talking, her hands moved between the leaf buds skillfully, powerfully and freely, but they were too slender and tender, and her fingertips and palms were slightly reddened from the heat.

Fried tea pays attention to the handle, and you have to put your bare hands into the pot to feel the remaining moisture in the tea and the degree of heat. People who fry tea all the year round have a thick layer of calluses on their hands, as if they have practiced iron sand palms—they are all scalded.

There are no calluses on these hands, and they look like pampered hands when they are white and clean, but this does not affect the speed at all, they are coherent and smooth, not like frying tea, but like splashing ink.

Looking at it, Ah Liu suddenly remembered those rumors in the market. I heard that the second young master of the Su family was originally an official in the capital, and he was quite a big official, but he was demoted back for unknown reasons, and he will not be able to do it again in the future. Become an official.The Su family is a big family in Yangzhou, they dare not say these words in public, but they spread the ups and downs behind their backs, some say that they made a wrong judgment and killed a person, and some say that they offended the dignitaries in the court, What's more, it is said that the reason why the second young master Su was promoted so quickly was because he did some nasty things with others behind his back, and now that he has fallen out of favor, he naturally fell down.

Ah Liu looked at the person in front of him, but he didn't think it looked like him.

He is obviously a very good-tempered person, although he doesn't like to talk very much, but it makes people feel very comfortable to stay quietly.And he never put on airs, and his occasional complaints never reached the ears of his boss.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt puzzled, and the more he was worthless for others, but he knew how to measure, he knew that there were some things he could say and some things he couldn't say, so he asked instead: "Brother Su, how is Chang'an City?"

Su Cen was slightly taken aback, before saying after a while: "Very good."

"The shopkeeper said that he would send some savvy guys to help the tea shop in the capital, and he also said that I am quite suitable..." Ah Liu bowed his head and smiled a little embarrassedly, and hurriedly explained: "Of course the main reason is that I didn't Let’s start a family, you don’t need to drag your family with you. Brother Su, you have stayed in the capital, so I want to ask you, what is the capital like? Can I get used to it?”

"The capital city..." Su Cen lowered his head and pursed his lips. "The capital city is very prosperous and lively. There are three major inner cities, one hundred and eight squares, and two eastern and western cities. There are foreigners and foreigners..."

"Are the people there easy to get along with? Will they be arrogant and look down on the people here?"

Seeing that Ah Liu was about to ask questions and would not give up, Su Cen interrupted: "Ah Liu, the fire is about to go out."

Ah Liu looked embarrassed, just now he said that Master Liu was throwing the pot around, and then he made a mistake here, and hurriedly lowered his head to add firewood.

Su Cen lowered her head and rubbed slowly, steaming the water from the tea leaves, but her mind was no longer there.Chang'an City... What does Chang'an City look like, except for those familiar places, the others are already somewhat blurred, but it has only been a few months, and the distant things seem to be a lifetime ago.

The tea master on the stove next door started the pot in two pots, then transferred the tea to another pot to fry, and sighed: "This batch of tea should be fried well, this is the tea that will be tributed to the palace."

Su Cen paused, and suddenly forgot to move.

It wasn't until Ah Liu gave him a hand that he came back to his senses. There was a big blister on his hand, and the skin swelled up.

"Ah, this..." Ah Liu panicked, and it took him a while to remember, "I'm going to fetch cold water."

"Forget it," Su Cen said, looking back at the tea leaves in the pot, "When you come back, this batch of tea will be finished."

"That……"

"It's okay, let's continue frying," Su Cen waved his hands and stood in front of the pot.

"I'll do it." Ah Liu rushed forward.

"I'll do it." Su Cen shook her head, her tone was obviously not serious, but with an unquestionable meaning, "I'll do it myself."

After several batches of tea leaves were roasted, it was already dark, and they didn't stop until it was so dark that the tea color could no longer be distinguished. It was still several miles away from the tea garden to the city, and it was already dark when Su Cen returned to Yangzhou City.

In the evening, it was agreed to go to the teacher's place, and Su Cen made a detour to the south of the city to buy Lin Zongqing's favorite sandwiches.

The Fuchun Steamed Bun Shop in the south of the city is famous far and wide, and it is the only one in the whole city.Su Cen's arrival was unlucky, just in time for the guests, one basket of steamed buns had just been sold out, and the other basket had not been steamed yet, Su Cen stood in the hall and was pushed back and forth by a continuous stream of people, so he had to find a steamed bun. Wait out of the way.

At the nearest table were a few scholars in robes, chatting while eating and drinking.

One person asked: "Brother Chongming, why are you so sad these days?"

The person called Chongming sighed softly, "I've been hesitating recently, should I go to Beijing to catch the exam next spring?"

Another person was puzzled: "There's no reason to hesitate, I'm sure I have to go to the Spring Festival held every three years."

"You don't know, alas," Chongming sighed again, "the current government is very chaotic. Back then, King Ning was enough to cover the sky with one hand, but now King Yu popped up out of nowhere, and the two of them Occupying the Xingqing Palace, another occupying the Taiji Palace, changing the order from day to day, the emperor is young and unable to maintain balance, and getting fame is only a dilemma between the two parties, this official does not matter."

"Hush," the other person hastily made a silence gesture, looked around and lowered his voice again: "You have to be careful when you say this, haven't you heard that the new King Yu has a team under his command?" As a secret spy, he penetrates everywhere, comes and goes without a trace, and there is nothing he doesn't know about."

"What do you call this?" A person who had been silent before said, "The court said it was a double-king regent, but the people didn't call it that. They called it--double-king chaos. Don't say After becoming an official, even we ordinary people don’t know when An An’s life will come to an end.”

Several people sighed again, and it wasn't until the waiter in the store called Su Cen several times that he came back to his senses, picked up the buns and threw down a few copper coins, and almost fled in despair.

When he rushed to Lin Zongqing's place again, the old man's wine had been warmed up, and he had been drinking for himself for three rounds.

Su Cen placed the snacks and steamed buns that he had bought one by one, and then sat down. As soon as he opened the chopsticks, Lin Zongqing coughed gently.

Lin Zongqing was getting older, but his eyes were still working. He noticed the injury on Su Cen's hand at a glance, tapped it with chopsticks, and asked, "How did you do it?"

Su Cen withdrew her hand and covered it a little, "It's a little burn, it's okay."

"Going to fry tea again?"

Su Cen heard Lin Zongqing's unhappy tone, and didn't want to say more, biting his chopsticks and nodded.

"You, you..." Lin Zongqing's words came to his lips, and he could only bite into pieces and swallow them when he saw the man bowed his head in silence. Finally, he picked up the wine cup and drank it down: "Tell me something!"

The hands that dance with words and ink can write eternal articles and draw masterpieces handed down from generation to generation, but they just throw away the pen to fry tea.His most proud student is now the most downcast one, who is obviously still so young, worse than an old man like him.It's like making him feel uncomfortable watching a beautiful piece of porcelain being destroyed.

The old man was so angry that he said casually: "I just said he will harm you."

Su Cen's heart twitched again. In the first month after he came back, he was often out of breath in pain. Su Lan thought he was sick, and invited all the doctors in Yangzhou City to no avail.Later, in order not to make Su Lan worry any more, he learned to hide the pain. His heart was full of holes and blood, and he refused to show it on his face.

But tonight, I couldn't hold it anymore, Su Cen's fingertips sank deep into the wound on his palm, trying to relieve the pain, and said in a deep voice, "It wasn't him who harmed me, it was I who harmed him..."

It caused him to lose half of his country.

"How many times have I told you?" Lin Zongqing put his chopsticks heavily on the table, "Li Sheng has been planning for a long time. This is his struggle with the royal family. You are just involved in it, not you Someone else."

Looking at the person still looking down with his head down, Lin Zongqing sighed, "But it's better to come out, it's better than being entangled in it to death, that kid Li Shi didn't break his promise."

"Break your promise?" Su Cen looked up in a daze, "What break your promise?"

"He didn't tell you?" Lin Zongqing was a little stunned. After realizing it, it was too late to regret, and he couldn't take back the words, so he could only say: "You, like me, have too high aspirations, and Cheng Yusi will ruin you." Yu Si. That’s why I promised him to be the Governor of Yangzhou, and asked him to promise me to save your life no matter what.”

Su Cen's heart froze, and he suddenly forgot about the pain.

That's why Li Shi knew about it a long time ago, and he had already found a way out for him. That night when he asked "Can Tian Pingzhi's case be investigated", he had already put all his eggs in one basket and made all the preparations.

He is always like this, standing silently behind him, standing behind everyone, as the strongest backing, supporting this precarious court situation.

"Regardless of your status or the principles of heaven and morals, you are all too far behind. Nanke Yimeng, there must be a time to wake up. Now that you are back, don't think about it anymore. If you don't want to be an official, go and help me take care of the private school. You can't just throw it away..."

"Teacher, stop talking..." Something fell into the wine glass with a thud, smashing the calm liquid surface, Su Cen's head gradually buried down, and gradually broke down in tears, "Stop talking..."