Glory

Dark tea naturally becomes mellower and more fragrant with age. However, since she used high-quality raw materials and excellent processing techniques, this dark tea still tasted quite pleasant.

At this moment, Ye Yaming had already poured the tea liquor into each person's teacup.

Seeing the liquor's bright amber-red hue, both Qi Ji and Ye Chongming found it particularly marvelous.

"How is this tea liquor red? Is... is this drinkable?" Qi Ji asked in astonishment.

His question was answered by Ye Yaming taking a small sip.

As the tea liquor entered her mouth, Ye Yaming comfortably narrowed her eyes, revealing an expression of enjoyment on her face.

The liquor was silky smooth on the palate, with a sweet and mellow flavor.

This was exactly the taste she remembered.

Seeing this, Qi Ji quickly picked up his teacup to drink.

When designing teacups, Ye Yaming would create two styles: one with a wide opening and another with a slightly narrower, taller cup.

Drinking scalding tea could burn the mucous membrane of the esophagus, easily leading to esophageal cancer. The optimal temperature for drinking tea should be between 45 to 55 degrees Celsius.

However, many people were impatient and couldn't resist drinking immediately after the tea was poured. Therefore, she generally used wide-mouthed cups for tea sets. Because of their large opening, the tea liquor cooled down quickly.

The taller, narrower cups were more suitable for winter use, as they prevented the tea from cooling too rapidly. The red plum-themed tea set she had previously designed for Imperial Consort Fan used these taller, narrower cups.

People in this era were less health-conscious than modern people. Moreover, without the internet, print media spread too slowly, and books were expensive. Even if she wrote a book on this subject, it wouldn't reach many people.

Therefore, when designing tea sets, she had explained this concept to Qi Ji and Lu Guanyi, asking them to remind the designers to create more wide-mouthed cups.

Drinking slightly cool tea was fine, but scalding tea was not. Health was most important.

When Ye Yaming brewed the tea earlier, boiling water was poured into the gaiwan to steep the leaves, then transferred to the cha hai, already undergoing one cooling process. When poured from the cha hai into the wide-mouthed teacups, the temperature was no longer scalding and was just right for drinking.

Unlike green tea, dark tea had a very subtle aroma. During processing, it underwent pile-fermentation, which could produce some fermentation notes. If stored improperly, it could develop storage odors.

These were the hardest aspects for new tea drinkers to accept. People in this era trying dark tea for the first time would likely feel the same.

Therefore, she paid special attention to these issues during production and storage. Because she craved dark tea, she had been gradually taking some out to drink. The cake she had just opened had undergone dry awakening. Through the tea rinsing step, it underwent wet awakening, so the fermentation notes were almost undetectable. Thanks to proper storage, there were no storage odors at all.

Thus, when Qi Ji and Ye Chongming tasted the tea liquor, they only experienced its mellow thickness, exceptional smoothness, and sweet flavor—completely different from the fresh, light, and brisk character of new tea.

As an elderly lifelong tea drinker with somewhat diminished taste sensitivity, Ye Chongming actually preferred this dark tea's flavor over green tea.

Ye Chongming widened his eyes: "When did you make this tea?"

Ye Yaming smiled: "Late summer to early autumn two years ago, when I was ill and insisted on going with you to the tea garden in Baiteng County to relax—do you remember? I had the servants pick some coarse tea leaves, and I experimented with them in the courtyard.""Is this from the time your elder cousin fell off his horse and encountered Meng Chengwei?" Ye Chongming asked.

"Correct."

Ye Chongming looked at the bright red tea liquor in his cup, then at Ye Yaming, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"How do I remember you asking for old leaves used to make coarse tea back then?"

Despite his advanced age, Ye Chongming's memory remained sharp.

He clearly recalled that at the time, Ye Yaming hadn't yet revealed her talents—she was still the unremarkable third daughter of the Ye family's second branch. Had she requested tender leaves from the tea garden, Ye Chongming would never have agreed, since even tea buds picked in late summer and early autumn could be sold as loose tea. How could they be wasted on a child? But Ye Yaming had only asked for the old leaves and stems left after the tender buds were harvested—materials the Ye family used for coarse tea, which were practically worthless. Moreover, Ye Yaming had just recovered from an illness, her pale little face evoking pity. Softened by her condition, Ye Chongming had immediately instructed the estate holder to follow her directions for tea picking.

"Exactly," Ye Yaming said with a smile. "This tea is made from those old leaves and stems."

Ye Chongming's hand trembled. "How is that possible?"

The coarse tea produced by his family was truly bitter and astringent—completely different from what he was drinking now.

While Dragon Well Tea was a significant improvement over traditional loose tea in terms of flavor and aroma, it was still fundamentally the same tea. But this tea was qualitatively different from both coarse tea and Dragon Well Tea.

They were essentially two distinct types of tea.

"During processing, this tea undergoes a fermentation stage," Ye Yaming explained. "The compounds responsible for bitterness and astringency are transformed through fermentation. That's why Dark Tea isn't bitter or astringent—it's primarily sweet and mellow."

Though Ye Chongming and Qi Ji didn't fully understand the explanation, they were deeply impressed.

Of course, their admiration stemmed from having already been captivated by the tea's taste.

Qi Ji's eyes sparkled as he looked at Ye Yaming as if she were a golden treasure. "Can this tea be produced in large quantities and shipped to the Jin dynasty?"

Ye Yaming nodded. "Yes. It's made from leftover old leaves and stems. Just think—we have tea mountains not only in Lin'an but also in Huizhou and Minzhou. How much coarse tea material could we produce in a year?"

Recalling the tea mountains he had personally purchased, Qi Ji's eyes suddenly brightened.

Coarse tea materials were far more abundant than premium tea materials. Spring Tea only used tea buds—hundreds of acres of tea gardens yielded relatively little Spring Tea material. But coarse tea utilized old leaves and stems, which were plentiful and heavy. A hundred acres of tea gardens could produce vast quantities.

The raw materials were easy to obtain, yet the resulting tea tasted exceptional. Such tea would not only sell well in border regions but also find a substantial market within the Great Jin dynasty.

Considering they had purchased entire mountain ranges in Huizhou and Minzhou—each spanning tens of thousands of acres—the potential tea output was staggering.

If all these tea materials were processed into Dark Tea, the profits...

Both Qi Ji and Ye Chongming felt a surge of excitement.

"What about the price?" Qi Ji asked again, still thinking about the negotiations with the Jin dynasty.

"The price isn't high," Ye Yaming said, picking up an unopened brick of tea. "This tea brick weighs one jin. The cost is one hundred wen, and it sells for half a tael of silver."

Tea pickers earned fifty wen per day. With manual harvesting, they could gather over forty kilograms of summer and autumn tea leaves daily.

It took more than four jin of fresh leaves to produce one jin of dried tea bricks. The labor cost for picking one jin of dried tea amounted to just five wen.In addition to the wages of the tea processing workers and the cost of the inexpensive raw materials, the actual cost per jin of tea was less than twenty wen. She calculated it as one hundred wen, including the shipping cost.

"Brother Shen!"

"Hmm!"

As Shen Changqing walked along the road, he would occasionally encounter acquaintances. They would either greet each other or exchange nods.

But regardless of who it was,

everyone's face bore no extra expression, as if they were indifferent to everything.

Regarding this,

Shen Changqing was already accustomed to it.

Because this was the Demon Suppression Division, an institution responsible for maintaining the stability of Great Qin. Its primary duty was to slay demons, monsters, and supernatural beings, though it also engaged in some other side endeavors.

It could be said

that every person in the Demon Suppression Division had blood on their hands.

When one has witnessed life and death too often, they become indifferent to many things.

When Shen Changqing first arrived in this world, he found it somewhat difficult to adapt, but over time, he grew accustomed to it.

The Demon Suppression Division was vast.

Those who could remain in the Demon Suppression Division were either formidable experts or individuals with the potential to become experts.

Shen Changqing belonged to the latter category.

Within the Demon Suppression Division, there were two main roles: one was the Garrison Envoy, and the other was the Demon Subduing Envoy.

Anyone who entered the Demon Suppression Division started as a low-level Demon Subduing Envoy

and then advanced step by step, with the ultimate goal of becoming a Garrison Envoy.

Shen Changqing's predecessor was a probationary Demon Subduing Envoy in the Demon Suppression Division, the lowest rank among the Demon Subduing Envoys.

With the memories of his predecessor,

he was very familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Division.

It didn't take long for Shen Changqing to stop in front of a pavilion.

Unlike the other solemn and imposing areas of the Demon Suppression Division, this pavilion stood out like a crane among chickens, exuding an unusual tranquility amidst the pervasive bloodshed of the division.

At that moment, the pavilion's door was wide open, with people occasionally entering and exiting.

After only a brief hesitation, Shen Changqing stepped inside.

Upon entering the pavilion,

the atmosphere abruptly changed.

The scent of ink mixed with a faint trace of blood assailed his senses, causing him to instinctively furrow his brows, though they soon relaxed.

The scent of blood that clung to everyone in the Demon Suppression Division was almost impossible to wash away completely.