Glory

"I'll write a letter to Princess Yu Ning later, informing her that our Lin'an Tea Guild is about to host a tea tasting conference," Ye Yaming said.

"Hahaha!" Ye Chongming finally laughed heartily at this, pointing at Ye Yaming with amusement. "You little rascal."

After his laughter subsided, he added, "I originally planned to invite Magistrate Qi as a tea judge, along with some prominent figures in Lin'an to serve as evaluators. If Imperial Consort Fan and the Princess participate, we might even be able to invite Master Zhineng. By then, our tea's reputation will be unmatched."

Ten days later, Lin'an's first tea tasting conference was held in a garden within the city.

The tea guild members watched with bitter expressions as Master Zhineng, Imperial Consort Fan Yu, Magistrate Qi, and others entered slowly.

Though called a tea tasting conference, it was essentially a tea evaluation event. They had initially intended to hold it within the guild itself, inviting a few friendly acquaintances under the guise of "fairness" and "neutrality."

If the Ye family's tea was inferior to theirs or roughly equivalent, they could publicize the results. This way, even though the Ye family had gained an advantage this year by selling tea in large quantities ahead of schedule, they would still have a chance to compete next year.

They had hoped to ride on the Ye family's tea reputation to elevate themselves.

If their tea was far inferior to the Ye family's, the conference would remain a simple tasting event, with everyone dispersing afterward without a word to the outside world.

But something had gone wrong—somehow, news of the tea tasting conference had reached Magistrate Qi.

Magistrate Qi was very interested. After sending Master Wu to the tea guild to inquire about the details, he praised them and suggested inviting Master Zhineng as a judge, while he himself also planned to participate.

The guild members: "..."

Could they refuse?

Who didn't know that Master Zhineng was particularly fond of the Ye family's Third Miss, who had married into the Xuanwu Marquis Household, and was also close friends with Ye Chongming and Ye Hongsheng? Even Magistrate Qi himself was the uncle of Third Miss Ye's husband, the heir. With his involvement, could they still hope to surpass the Ye family?

But one was Master Zhineng, who came from royal origins, and the other was the local magistrate—they truly lacked the courage to refuse.

Before they could devise a solution, Imperial Consort Fan and others from the capital somehow found out and eagerly came to Lin'an to serve as evaluators for the tea tasting conference.

The guild members: "..." Aside from giving up, there was no other path forward.

With Magistrate Qi's involvement, it meant official intervention, so Master Wu presided over the tea tasting conference.

Master Wu first introduced the judges and explained the rules of the tea evaluation.

"For the sake of fairness, all teas have been randomized. Instructor Zhang from the prefectural school will measure the tea leaves, and the tea masters from Jixiang Garden will brew them uniformly. Evaluators will score the tea in the cups according to the sequence numbers, with a maximum score of ten points."

Master Zhineng, Fan Yu, Magistrate Qi, and three others previously invited by Wang Kuan sat in a row behind a table. Each had seven tasting cups placed in front of them.

Soon, a tea master approached, lifting the Fairness cup in hand to pour tea into the first cup before each person.

The evaluators first smelled the aroma, observed the liquor color, then tasted carefully, before finally picking up their brushes to score on paper.

After rinsing their mouths with plain water, a second tea master finished brewing the next round and stepped forward to pour tea into the second teacup.The purpose of this arrangement was to ensure that every tea tasted by the judges was freshly brewed, striving for fairness as much as possible.

Among the audience present were several dozen tea merchants from the tea trade, along with Princess Yu Ning, Tan Xuan and his party, and a few officials from the magistrate's office. The event had not been widely publicized to attract more onlookers.

Primarily, aside from the Ye family, neither Wang Kuan and his associates nor Qi Zhifu and his officials were certain of the outcome. They were all worried that if the side they supported lost, they would lose face. This was especially true since the Ye family bore the prestigious title of Tribute Tea.

Wang Kuan, Zhou Qingsong, Shi Guilin, and Li Sheng, who held little status in the tea trade to begin with, now felt even more insecure and tried to minimize their presence by standing in a corner some distance away from the crowd.

"Brother Wang, do you think Qin Sixiang can win?" Zhou Qingsong whispered.

He was the most anxious of them all.

After all, he was the one who had sold the tea-making recipe to Wang Kuan. Although the Ye family had not explicitly forbidden the resale of the tea formula at the time, they had refused to sell it to Wang Kuan. By doing this, Zhou Qingsong was openly opposing the Ye family.

But what choice did he have?

His funds were already insufficient. Spending tens of thousands of taels to buy the tea formula would have made it impossible for him to pre-order this year's Spring Tea. If Wang Kuan hadn't approached him with a proposal to pool resources and buy the formula together under favorable terms, he would never have even considered purchasing it.

Now, Zhou Qingsong could only hope that the tea processed by Qin Sixiang would surpass the Ye family's tea. Having already offended the Ye family, he certainly did not wish to see them grow stronger and more prosperous.

Wang Kuan remained calm. "Haven't you tasted the tea he made? What did you think?"

"It's better than the Ye family's."

"Then there you have it," Wang Kuan said smugly.

Shi Guilin and Li Sheng also nodded in agreement. "It truly is better."

If it weren't for that, they wouldn't have associated so closely with Wang Kuan and Zhou Qingsong.

The other tea merchants, scattered in small groups either sitting or standing, though not daring to voice their opinions as openly as Wang Kuan and his companions, also hoped that their tea would win and the Ye family's tea would lose.

The time required to evaluate each tea was not long. The seven rounds of tea tasting were completed in just half an hour.

Two clerks from the magistrate's office who were skilled in calculations collected the judges' score sheets, tallied the results, and handed them to Master Wu.

Master Wu announced, "First place: Number Five; Second place: Number Two; Third place: Number One."

Upon hearing these numbers, no one showed any particular reaction.

No one knew which number corresponded to which family's tea. Not only the judges but even Master Wu was unaware.

After Master Wu finished the announcement, the instructor who had been in the back room specifically tasked with placing tea leaves into the teapots came out. Holding a piece of paper, he read aloud, "Teapot Number One: Contestant Jin Baoshan; Teapot Number Two: Wang Kuan; Teapot Number Five: Ye Chongming..."

"Hahaha, I told you so. The Ye family's tea is the best," Fan Yu laughed, turning to Master Zhineng. "The tea from Teapot Number Five was clearly far superior to the others."

Master Zhineng stroked his beard and nodded. "The Ye family's tea has improved significantly compared to last year. To surpass their own standard by so much is no easy feat."

He pointed at the teacup marked Number Two. "This family's tea is quite well-made. If the Ye family hadn't improved, they would have been evenly matched this year, and it would have been hard to predict the winner."

When Wang Kuan heard that he had lost, a chill ran from his head to his toes.

Not only had he lost his reputation, but he also had to hand over Qin Sixiang and his entire family to Ye Chongming.

This was something he could not accept.Since he had already fallen out with the Ye family, he wasn't afraid of offending them now.

He raised his voice and asked, "Honorable officials, may we also have a taste of the Ye family's tea? At least let us concede defeat with genuine conviction."