When night fell, Fu Jingxuan returned to Xiao Heng’s residence from the city gates.
Xiao Heng had been quite free lately and would occasionally make an appearance; it seemed his family’s matters were mostly settled. He looked flushed with success as he was just beginning to prepare for the tea competition.
Hu Yunshan and Pu Ling did not dare to underestimate their opponents, practicing their tea skills until late every night. Today was the same; Fu Jingxuan had intended to return to his room to rest after coming back from outside the city but seeing the light still on in Pu Ling’s room, he walked inside.
In addition to Pu Ling, Tao Xianzhi and Lord Xu were also sitting in the room. During this time, everyone had lived and eaten together and had long since become well-acquainted. Lord Xu, especially, showed not the slightest trace of official bearing; dressed in a round-collared informal robe, he sat at Tao Xianzhi’s side, studying together with him the dozen or so varieties of tea laid out upon the low table. These teas had all been sourced from Xiao Heng’s residence. Xiao Heng truly loved tea; besides the tea cakes from the Four Great Families, he also collected many tea cakes and scraps from other sources; regardless of whether they were famous or not, or of high or low grade, he would buy them all to keep.
With a quick glance at the patterns and textures of the tea cakes, Fu Jingxuan could tell which household they originated from. Sitting down opposite Tao Xianzhi, he asked, “What are you doing?”
Tao Xianzhi said, “I’m trying to see if there is any way to make the foreigners accept the taste of our state’s tea.”
Fu Jingxuan casually picked up two leaves of “Carved Lotus” that had been pried loose by a tea needle and sniffed them. “Have you thought of anything?”
Tao Xianzhi had a look of distress. “There are no good methods yet. Today, I scouted out information from that tea merchant and learned that foreign commoners don’t like drinking tea at all on ordinary days. They mostly drink water or freshly boiled cows and goat milk. Those things are terribly gamey; in our state, no one would ever enjoy them, yet here they have become the soups that every household drinks daily.”
With that said, Hu Yunshan walked in carrying two bowls of fresh white milk and placed them on the small table where several people were sitting.
People of the Central Plains usually enjoy drinking plain water and are skilled at using it to brew tea, while those of foreign tribes prefer bovine and ovine dairy products. Could they perhaps follow local customs and use fresh white dairy to brew tea?
Fu Jingxuan raised his hand and dropped two tea leaves into the warm milk while listening to the group’s lively discussion. After a while, the tender green leaves slowly unfurled in the milk before releasing a peculiar, fresh fragrance.
Over the next few days, Tao Xianzhi dragged Fu Jingxuan along to figure out how to boil tea with dairy. Some versions were drinkable, while others were quite terrible. Fresh milk naturally has a strong gamey smell; although adding bitter tea leaves could mask some of that odor, it remained difficult for Central Plains people to swallow. Fu Jingxuan tasted a cup of freshly boiled milk tea, tossed in a pinch of sugar, and found the flavor improved.
“This won’t do.” Fu Jingxuan said.
Tao Xianzhi, who was currently adding salt to the milk, asked, “Why not?”
“We sample it here again and again, yet what we are ultimately discerning remains the taste of the Central Plains palate. We need to find people from foreign tribes to test tea. Whether it should be sweet, salty, or just right; they must be the ones to decide.”
Tao Xianzhi thought this made sense. After explaining his purpose to Xiao Heng when he showed up that day, he took Fu Jingxuan and Lord Xu to the same market they had visited a few days earlier at first light the next morning.
The market was as lively as ever. Tao Xianzhi arranged the tea-brewing utensils one by one, poured fresh white dairy along with a large quantity of tea fragments into the cauldron, and set it to boil over a strong flame. He stopped the fire once it reached a scorched brown color. By then, the tea aroma mixed with the rich fragrance of milk had already wafted out, attracting a crowd of onlookers drawn by the scent.
Among the foreign tribesmen, a burly man clad in beast furs lingered around the tea cauldron for quite some time; at last, unable to withstand the onslaught of its aroma, he stretched out a broad, iron-like palm before gesturing for Tao Xianzhi to serve him a bowl of tea. Tao Xianzhi trembled with fear while staring at that massive hand; not daring to say a word, he hurriedly took out a small rabbit’s fur-glazed cup and filled it for him.
The burly man took the tiny teacup and tasted it but couldn’t catch the full flavor. Mimicking the Mandarin of the Central Plains, he asked, “Is there a larger bowl?”
Tao Xianzhi had intended to say that tea must be savored slowly and should not be gulped down like an ox drinking water, but Fu Jingxuan had already found a large ancient porcelain bowl and helped fill it to the brim.
The man nodded with satisfaction, took the large bowl, and drank heartily before exclaiming that the taste was delicious! Truly a top-grade delicacy!
At that moment, a thin, small elderly man walked over. He requested a bowl of tea from Lord Xu, tasted it, and asked in confusion, “I have also boiled tea this way before, so why does mine not taste as delicious as yours?”
Fu Jingxuan glanced at the “shopkeeper” selling tea not far away and asked, “Where did you buy your tea?”
The old man said, “Right here in this market; I bought some before, but the tea I brewed had a moldy odor. Not only did it spoil my pot of fresh milk, but it was also impossible to swallow. Could it be an issue with my technique?”
Fu Jingxuan and Tao Xianzhi exchanged a look.
Young Master Tao immediately said, “It is not a problem with your technique. It is primarily because the tea you purchased was stored improperly; it drew moisture and grew moldy, which is what caused the strange odor.”
There is, after all, a code of ethics in the business world, so Young Master Tao did not make the “shopkeeper” selling tea in the market the object of public censure; instead, he spoke a few words in his defense and began explaining how to use quality tea to brew it properly.
Fu Jingxuan listened for a while, and once Hu Yunshan and Pu Ling arrived to help, he withdrew from the growing crowd and walked toward the city gate.
The gate guards all recognized him, knowing he came every day to sit for a while; often staying an hour or two, no matter the wind or snow.
Today was no different. As sunset approached, Fu Jingxuan returned to the rock outside the city gate leaning against the wall and gazing into the distance.
In his youth, he had not understood the bitterness of parting; even when he had been separated from Fang Zesheng for many years back then, the days had not stretched into years as they do now. Perhaps it was because their hearts were now intertwined; he felt keenly that as he longed for him, the other was longing for him as well.
Thus, a single measure of longing doubled, and a single measure of worry multiplied. Since he had been absent for so long, Fang Zesheng would undoubtedly be concerned for him; and fearing that concern, he found himself even more anxious for him.
Fu Jingxuan found it funny. He watched the sun slowly set in the distance with a blade of withered grass in his mouth. A fast-moving carriage seemed to be racing toward him beneath the setting sun. Three people occupied the front of the carriage; besides the coachman, the other two stood recklessly, flailing their arms wildly at him.
One looked like Zhou Qi, and the other figure, who looked as if he couldn’t wait to jump off the carriage, looked like San Bao.
The corners of Fu Jingxuan’s mouth curled up slightly as he shook his head in self-mockery. It seemed he had become so homesick that he was starting to lose his mind.
How could those two young servants possibly appear here?
Fu Jingxuan closed his eyes, wanting to finish this beautiful dream. How wonderful it was in the dream; he could see not only San Bao and Zhou Qi, but also Fang Zesheng; watching him read with utter seriousness or write with a blank, expressionless face.
“Young Master!”
“Young Master—!”
“Second Master—we’re here—!”
“We’re here—!”
Fu Jingxuan listened quietly in the darkness, suddenly realizing that these two crisp voices were getting closer and closer to him as if they were truly coming from somewhere nearby. He hesitated for a long moment before snapping his eyes open. Sure enough, a carriage had come to a halt half a mile away.
That carriage was undergoing a routine inspection for entering the gates of Linhuang Prefecture. San Bao held a set of travel documents and handed them to the inspecting official, answering the relevant questions with meticulous detail. Zhou Qi wasn’t idling either; he leaped nimbly off the carriage, ran to the back to retrieve a dark red silk-covered carriage step, placed it beside the carriage, and slowly lifted the curtain.
The withered blade of grass in Fu Jingxuan’s mouth fell to the ground as he watched the person stepping… stepping down from the carriage in utter disbelief.
That person truly walked off the carriage; although leaning on a cane, his feet were firmly and truly planted on the ground as he stepped down.
Unsure if he was in a dream, Fu Jingxuan stared blankly at him, his eyes suddenly flushing red. He wanted to look more closely, but the tears surging forth blurred his vision; he hurriedly wiped them away in a mess, terrified of missing the image of that person moving toward him step by step.
His gait was unsteady, yet he moved toward him with a firm, powerful resolve in every step.
Certain that this was not a dream, Fu Jingxuan stumbled as he jumped down from the rock before sprinting toward him across the scattering fragments of dry grass.
In the fading glow of the setting sun and the vast expanse of twilight, several fine horses searched for water across the endless withered grassland while a few hunting hawks waited for their chance and alert wild rabbits darted about.
Fu Jingxuan stepped through clusters of dry grass and came to a panting halt.
The man was still a few paces away. He slowly dropped his cane and straightened his body as much as possible. Fearing he might fall, Fu Jingxuan opened his arms to steady him, but to his surprise, the man also raised a hand, suddenly seizing his wrist and pulling him into a firm embrace.
Fu Jingxuan blankly wrapped his arms around the man’s waist in a daze. “Fang Zesheng?”
Having been filled with anxiety throughout the journey, Fang Zesheng finally let out a long sigh of relief upon seeing him safe and sound. He leaned into the crook of Fu Jingxuan’s neck and let out a soft “en.”
Fu Jingxuan had many questions to ask but didn’t know which to start with, so he simply asked, “Why are you here?”
Fang Zesheng held him and was unwilling to let go. After a long silence, he whispered, “I missed you. I wanted to see you.”
