Chapter 229 Lin Xian Tea

Chapter 229: Chapter 225: Lin Xian Tea

Waking up in the morning, I remembered my father reminding me last night that something was unusual about the Lin Xian Tea. After breakfast, I headed toward South Mountain.

"Boss, where are you off to in such a hurry?"

Lin Feng saw it was Wu Jiaxing. The guy was living a good life now—his mother had fully recovered, and he even had a wife.

Every day, he carried a drawing board on his back, sketching scenes around Lin Xian Village. If a tourist asked him for a painting, he would paint one for them.

"I’m heading over to South Mountain to take a look. What’s up?"

Wu Jiaxing said hesitantly, "My master is coming to visit. I might have to trouble you then, Boss."

"Oh! Your master’s coming? That’s no trouble at all."

Lin Feng knew Wu Jiaxing’s master. He was Director Yang’s father, a master of traditional Chinese painting.

"He’s not coming alone. I hear a few of his friends will be with him."

"That’s fine, too. It’s just a matter of hosting a few more people."

Wu Jiaxing opened his mouth, but some words remained unsaid. Mainly, it was because the boss wasn’t in their line of work, so he wouldn’t understand certain things even if they were explained.

"Well, you go on then, Boss. I’ll tell you more when my master arrives."

Lin Feng was a little puzzled. From the way Wu Jiaxing was acting, there was clearly something else going on.

Since Wu Jiaxing didn’t elaborate, Lin Feng didn’t press him. He’d find out when they arrived.

Besides, he couldn’t believe anyone would dare to come to Lin Xian Village and cause trouble.

As he passed the village square, he glanced at the area in front of the Land God Temple. He had to admit, the range of that Sacrificial Artifact’s influence was growing larger and larger.

’Looks like I need to transplant that Peach Blossom Tree over here as soon as possible.’

He had specifically asked someone to find a very large Peach Blossom Tree. The owner hadn’t even been willing to sell until they heard it was being transplanted in front of the Land God Temple.

He could take the opportunity of transplanting the tree to renovate the village square.

It looked a bit bare and ugly. Especially now that there was water in the valley, planting some trees along the edge would make the scenery even better.

Since the cave system opened, this area had seen a lot of tourists. Everyone was curious about what was inside the caves.

The huge cavern in the center had been renovated and fitted with many recreational facilities for tourists.

Only a small part of South Mountain was open to the public, but many tourists really enjoyed the scenery in the valley.

Lin Feng arrived at the Lin Xian Tea area. Looking at the leaves on the tea plants, he saw the silver patterns were even more distinct.

Never mind making tea with these leaves; you could probably sell them as works of art.

Under the sunlight, the leaves reflected the light, making the plants look as if they were woven from silver threads.

Moreover, since there were three different types of tea plants, the leaves of the West Lake Longjing Tea were longer and more slender, resembling green silverfish.

The Huangshan Maofeng Tea leaves were rounder, like oval pieces of green jade inlaid with silver threads.

The old tea trees that had been left from before had the largest leaves, each one the size of a palm, and their silver veins were the thickest.

’I can’t believe the Lin Xian Tea ripened in the middle of winter.’

But, considering what happened with the Jade Grapes, it wasn’t actually that strange for the Lin Xian Tea to be ripe.

Lin Feng understood with just one look at the tea plants. Lin Xian Tea was different from other teas; its new shoots weren’t the best part.

Only the fully mature leaves produced the best effects when brewed, so harvesting required picking only the mature ones.

Furthermore, the mature leaves were the ones with silver veins that had developed some white, jade-like patterns. It was very obvious.

’Harvesting this tea is a bit of a hassle. The mature leaves have to be picked out by hand.’

The growth cycle of Lin Xian Tea was also completely different from the Jade Grapes. The Jade Grapes ripened once every three months, whereas the Lin Xian Tea produced mature leaves every single day.

However, in terms of yield, the output of Lin Xian Tea was similar to that of the Jade Grapes.

Lin Feng picked a mature leaf and chewed a tiny piece of it. A fresh fragrance filled his mouth.

His mind felt much clearer. The effect was truly instantaneous.

Lin Feng picked a few of each of the three different types of tea leaves, planning to take them back and test their effects.

Zhou Jun, who was strolling through the village, saw Lin Feng coming down from the wooden bridge.

"What were you doing over at South Mountain so early in the morning?"

Lin Feng waved the tea leaves in his hand and said, "The mutated tea over on South Mountain is ready for harvest."

"What! Really? That’s great! I’ve been wanting to taste that mutated tea for a while now."

He took a leaf from Lin Feng’s hand. Looking at the veins on it, he felt these tea plants were truly magical.

Just from looking at the leaf, you could tell it was no ordinary thing. It was definitely something special.

"Come on, let’s go back and try it."

The two went to the lounge. Lin Feng took out a tea set, placed the leaves directly into the teapot, and poured in boiling water.

They both stared at the leaves in the teapot and watched as the silvery-white veins slowly disappeared, melting into the water.

Even the emerald-green leaves began to change. The green faded, the leaves turned a lighter cyan, and they took on a translucent quality.

"What magical tea. It hasn’t even been processed, but just steeping it releases such a fresh fragrance."

Lin Feng paid no mind to the fragrance wafting up with the steam. He was now curious about what the tea would be like when made using the processing method he’d received as a reward.

It was obvious that even without any processing, simply steeping the leaves would produce special effects.

"Here, try it."

Lin Feng poured a cup for Zhou Jun and one for himself.

Zhou Jun picked up the cup, looked at it, and said, "This is really amazing. Look, the tea is actually a little milky white."

Indeed, the tea was slightly milky white with a hint of green, and the fresh fragrance rising with the steam was even more pronounced.

Lin Feng took a sip. The flavor was unique. It lacked the bitterness of typical tea and instead had a faint sweetness.

And his mind felt as if he’d drunk a cool, soothing glass of ice water during the peak of summer. It was incredibly comfortable.

Neither of them spoke. Although they were taking small sips, they drank the tea in their cups very quickly.

They didn’t even notice Zhao Shiyun come in.

"What are you two drinking? It smells so good!"

Zhao Shiyun stared at their cups and quickly realized the aroma was coming from the teapot.

Lin Feng put down his cup, picked up the teapot, and poured one for her.

"Here, try the freshly ripened tea leaves."

Zhao Shiyun was a little curious, but she still picked it up and took a sip.

Her eyes instantly narrowed in a cute expression, filled with blissful contentment.

After a moment, she said, "This is delicious! I’ve never had such delicious tea before."

"It really is delicious. I never thought the mutated tea plants would taste this good."

Zhou Jun thought about the tea garden. With about five acres of tea plants, this tea could become even more popular than the Medicinal Cuisine and the Jade Grapes.

Especially in Huaxia, where even powerful figures loved good tea, let alone a top-grade tea like this.

"Lin Feng, how much of this tea can be harvested?"

"I’m not sure. I’ll get someone to start picking in a bit and see."

Thinking about the yield of the Jade Grapes, he figured the tea’s yield probably wouldn’t be very high either.

Soon, everyone who heard the news rushed over, wanting to try the mutated tea.

Hu Zhiming said while drinking the tea, "Brother Lin, I’m afraid this tea has some special effects, just like the Jade Grapes."

’This guy is really sharp to have noticed the special qualities of the Lin Xian Tea.’

"It does have some special effects. In any case, it’s good stuff, and I don’t plan on selling it to the public.

Hu Xia, in a little while, find a few young women—the serious, Skillful and Artistic types—and take them over to pick the tea leaves.

From now on, we’ll need dedicated people to handle the harvesting of that tea patch."

"Got it. Lili, you go ahead and select the people in a bit."

"Okay."

Even Sun Lili, who wasn’t a tea drinker, had fallen in love with this tea. It tasted so good, and it made her feel much more mentally comfortable.

After the tea leaves Lin Feng had brought back were all used up, the group urged him to take them to the tea garden to have a look.

Soon, the group arrived at the mutated tea garden. They watched the leaves shimmer silver under the sun, a beautiful, sparkling sight.

"Don’t just pick randomly. Only the leaves that have grown milky-white patterns on their veins are mature."

The group stared at the leaves and soon discovered that some of the originally silvery-white veins had indeed developed milky-white patterns.

It was as if the silver was inlaid with fine fragments of mutton-fat jade.

"Brother Lin, the yield for this tea really isn’t very high."

Hu Zhiming walked through the rows a few times and found that the mature leaves were only on the very tops of the plants.

What was even stranger was that the leaves on the lower parts of the plants hadn’t developed the silver patterns.

Only the leaves growing on the upper parts of the tea plants had undergone some kind of strange mutation.

But even so, the leaves on the lower parts were still good stuff.

"It’s true, it’s not high. Only about a hundred or two hundred pounds of tea leaves."

Soon, Sun Lili arrived with the selected tea-picking girls, emerging from the cave exit.

"Everyone, take a look. Only pick the leaves with this pattern. The size of the leaf is very distinct.

Don’t make a mistake and pick the new shoots at the top."

"Understood, Boss."

Watching them pick the tea, Lin Feng looked at the old tea trees. They were too tall, which made harvesting them a bit troublesome.

’If I had known this would happen, I shouldn’t have kept these old tea trees back then.’

Fortunately, there weren’t many of them, only about twenty or thirty.

"Brother Lin, for these old tea trees, I’ll have someone bring over some equipment in a bit. We’ll be able to harvest them then."

"If that doesn’t work, we can just prune the branches and adjust them to a height people can reach."

As for the losses from pruning, Lin Feng really didn’t care.

Zhou Jun said, "Lin Feng, it would be a huge waste to prune them. We can just build a circular ladder around each tree."

The thought of losing the branches pained him, especially when the problem could be solved by spending a little money.

"Brother Zhou’s idea is good. Brother Lin, I’ll have someone look into building a harvesting platform around the trees."

"Alright. As long as it doesn’t delay the harvest."

Hu Zhiming and Zhou Jun discussed it and decided to build the platforms directly out of wood. Since all the mature leaves were at the tops of the trees, it was an easy problem to solve.

The tea harvesting task wasn’t completed until four o’clock in the afternoon.

Lin Feng looked at the reward he received after the task was completed: the processing method for Lin Xian Tea.

[Lin Xian Tea Processing Method: After picking the tea leaves, hang them up to dry in the sun for ten full days.]

’This tea-making method seems so strange. It’s just like hanging clothes out to dry.’

Although he didn’t understand why the tea had to be processed this way, Lin Feng still planned to follow the instructions.

Since it was the method from a task reward, there was no harm in following it exactly.

Besides, if the task reward hadn’t told him otherwise, he would have likely processed the Lin Xian Tea using traditional methods.

Although the others didn’t quite understand why they had to hang the tea leaves on strings to dry,

they still followed Lin Feng’s instructions, tying up every single leaf and hanging them on the drying racks they had made.

"Zhiming, in a bit, have the Woodworking Workshop make some proper racks specifically for drying tea. Tying them with string like this is too much trouble."

"Okay, I’ll go tell them right away."

They would probably be harvesting tea every day from now on, so they needed to have the proper drying tools made.

Otherwise, handling the drying of these tea leaves every day would be a chore.

Lin Feng’s method of drying the tea also attracted the attention of tourists, who were all curious about what it was.

Because the tea leaves looked so beautiful, some tourists even asked if they could buy them.

Of course, the news that Lin Xian Village had harvested a batch of mutated tea also reached many people’s ears.

For now, no one else had obtained the tea, and its effects remained unknown.

So, most people didn’t think much of it. Only a small number of people were curious about this batch of tea.

Unfortunately, they had no way of getting their hands on the tea, so even if they were curious, they could only wait for news to leak out from within Lin Xian Village.

As for the few who had drunk the tea, they currently had no intention of leaking the news. Naturally, they wanted to enjoy such a good thing for themselves first.

However, it seemed their efforts to keep it a secret were useless. The news got out anyway.