A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 115 Let’s elope

Wuji Thatched Cottage, in the front yard living room,

Luo Sanniang was helping to entertain Du Shiniang. When Li Yi came in, the two of them were chatting and laughing and getting along very happily. Du Shiniang was even teaching Luo Sanniang how to make tea.

When Li Yi walked into the living room,

When Du Shiniang saw him, her eyes were filled with joy.

His eyes were so hot that Li Yi didn't dare to look him in the eye.

A young woman who is just beginning to fall in love throws herself wholeheartedly into it, like a moth to a flame.

Li Yi knew that he was wrong, extremely wrong. The collision of two people from different eras and different concepts led to the current situation.

"I just came back from the fields and I'm thirsty. Sanniang, please pour me a cup of tea."

Du Shiniang stood up, then sat down again, with a hint of disappointment in her eyes, then she became more enthusiastic. "Knowing that Li Lang likes loose tea, I specially found a good tea. This tea is called Cactus, which was made by the Zen master abbot of Yuquan Temple in Yuquan Mountain, Jingzhou, Shannan.
This Zen master was not only good at tasting tea, but also good at making tea. He used tea leaves from the Yuquan Mountain to make flat loose tea in the shape of a cactus.
This tea is fragrant and smooth, and its shape is like a palm. You will definitely like it."

Li Yi watched Du Shiniang take out new tea and brew it.

The tea leaves are emerald green in color, with white hairs showing. After brewing, the tea leaves expand, and are tender green and pure, like lotus flowers standing upright in the water. The tea soup is tender green, clear and bright, with a light and elegant fragrance.

"How about you try it?" Shi Niang brought the tea to him.
Li Yi thanked him and sipped the tea.
The first sip is light, the aftertaste is sweet, and then it becomes mellow and refreshing.

"Good tea."

"The Zen master of Yuquan Temple also has the surname Li. Yuquan Mountain was known as one of the Three Famous Mountains of Chu as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, and today Yuquan Temple is also known as one of the Four Most Famous Buddhist Temples in the World.

I heard that Yuquan Mountain is majestic and magnificent, with rolling green hills and crisscrossing streams, and the tea is also particularly spiritual."

Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, tea has mainly been steamed and then pressed into tea cakes, which makes it easier to store and transport.

Although loose tea has always been available, it is very rare and is not easy to store and transport. Tea cakes are not only compacted to make them easier to transport, but also less likely to spoil, extending their shelf life.

The abbot of Yuquan Mountain has a lot of high-quality tea next to his temple. He makes and tastes it himself, so it doesn't matter if it is made into loose tea.

Tea cakes are steamed, then mashed, pressed into molds, and finally dried. Therefore, when drinking, the Tang people were accustomed to first baking, then grinding into powder, boiling, and then filtering the tea soup, and even adding various seasonings.

It has a completely different taste from loose tea.

Loose tea retains the complete shape of the tea buds and leaves. After brewing, it looks better when it expands and tastes fresher.

Loose tea is more rare and is a more luxurious way to drink it.

Tea is not produced in the north, and the cactus made by the abbot of Yuquan Temple must not be much, but Du Shiniang, who was far away in Chang'an, was able to get it, which shows that he really put a lot of thought into it.

Li Yi was very touched.

He felt as if he had played with someone else's pure love, although he did not do so subjectively, it was just the result of the collision of different concepts.

But in the end, this fact still happened.

Sanniang looked at the two of them and stood up. "I have some work to do at the stall downstairs at the bridge, so I'll go get busy now. You guys can chat slowly."

After leaving the thatched cottage, Sanniang felt very uncomfortable. Although she was slowly trying to let go, she still felt reluctant sometimes.

But when she saw how Du Shiniang treated Li Yi, she felt relieved.

"Did you receive the portrait I drew for you last time?"

Li Yi held the coarse ceramic teacup in his hand, hesitated for a moment, and decided to make his point clear.

"Shi Niang, this cactus tea comes from Yuquan Mountain, a famous mountain in the Three Chus. It was personally made by the abbot of Yuquan Temple, one of the four wonders in the world. He brought it all the way to Chang'an. This tea is extremely precious."

Shi Niang said, "As long as Li Lang likes to drink, that's fine."

Li Yi smiled bitterly and placed the teacup between them. "Look at this teacup. It was made in a workshop on Shenheyuan. It's a very crude piece of pottery, molded from clay and fired with fire. It doesn't even have a glaze. Its only feature is that it's cheap."

"The cactus tea in this cup could probably buy a thousand of these cups."

Du Shiniang put away her smile and became serious.

She looked directly into Li Yi's eyes and asked, "Is this the reason why Li Lang has been avoiding me all this time?"

“That’s part of the reason.”

"There's more," Li Lang said directly. "I already know your feelings, but I can't accept it."

"Why? Just because my grandfather is against it, just because of the disparity in family background?"

"If my parents and family don't accept me, it's hard to have any results, right? Besides, I actually have no plans to get married right now. I'm only sixteen and just returned to secular life. I don't want to get married or have children. At least, I don't want to get married and have children within the next ten years."

Hearing this, Du Shiniang was shocked.

sad.

But she soon smiled again. "So what if my parents don't accept me? Li Lang has also read the story of Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun. Zhuo Wenjun was the daughter of Zhuo Wangsun, a wealthy man in Shu. She was born into an iron smelting family. She was beautiful, proficient in music, and good at playing the qin. She was a talented woman.

Later, she fell in love with Sima Xiangru at first sight. Despite her family's opposition, she eloped and got married.

Sima Xiangru was talented, but his family was poor and he could hardly make a living. However, Zhuo Wenjun was willing to give up her family's fine clothes and delicious food to elope with him. They sold their carriages and horses, rented a shop, Wenjun worked as a wine bartender, and Xiangru wore calf-nose trousers to wash cups.

"If Li Lang was afraid of the Du family's opposition because they were a prominent family, then I could also run away from home like Wenjun and elope with Li Lang.

Even if I have to make tofu, sell bean curd sheets, and farm with Li Lang in the future, I would still be willing to do that."

Li Yi didn't know how to reply.

After a long while, he said, "I really haven't made any plans to get married. Maybe I won't have any plans to have a wife and children in the next ten years."

"Why?"

Li Yi was also unable to explain to her that he had just experienced marriage. Although marriage did not scare him, it did make him tired, and he did not want to enter into it again right away.

"I was an abandoned baby. According to my master, when he found me in front of Xuandu Temple in the second year of Renshou in the previous dynasty, the swaddling clothes I was wrapped in showed that I came from an aristocratic family. There was also a jade plaque inside the swaddling clothes with the word 'Li' on it..."

Du Shiniang didn't expect Li Yi to have such an identity. "Then you must be a descendant of a noble family named Li in Chang'an. Didn't your master look for you?"

"I did, and he said my mother's surname is Zhang and my father's surname is Li."

"Now that you know, why?"

"He carried me to my house, but they refused to acknowledge him and kicked him out."

What he said were all Wu Yi's real memories. The jade token with the word "Li" was still in his space. It had always been hanging around his neck, but when he came, he threw it into the space.

"Why would your own child refuse to recognize you and abandon you?" Du Shiniang was puzzled.

Li Yi smiled and said, "My master didn't tell me the details, nor did he tell me which Li family it was. Maybe I was an illegitimate child, or a child born to a maid, so I was abandoned."

"Is this why you don't want to get married and have children?"

"It's a bit of both. I'm like this coarse pottery teacup, not worthy of the precious Yuquan cactus tea. I don't want to get married or have children now.

So to be honest, I don't want to delay you, and I apologize for my previous attitude."

Du Shiniang's eyes turned red.
Li Yi returned to the inner courtyard and took out a self-portrait that Shi Niang had given him. It showed a beautiful woman with a delicate head and eyebrows, a charming smile, and beautiful eyes.

He picked up his brush and wrote a poem on the painting.

Let out a long sigh,
Li Yi returned to the front yard living room,
"This is the self-portrait you gave me. I'm returning it to you. I'm still busy harvesting rice in the fields, so I won't keep you any longer. Drive slowly and be careful."

Li Yi left,
Du Shiniang stood there in a daze. She picked up the painting on the table, opened it, and found a short poem next to her own painting.

"A thousand miles of yellow clouds cover the sun, the north wind blows the geese and the snow falls. The willow fluff on the branches is blown away, where in the world is there no fragrant grass?

I am the three-inch snow on the eaves, and you are a stunning stranger in the world. Don’t worry about having no close friends on the road ahead, for everyone in the world knows you.

Du Shiniang burst into tears.
Shuying, who was outside, rushed in upon hearing the noise.

"Shi Niang, how did he bully you?"

Du Shiniang just looked at the poem and cried bitterly. Her rejection was too direct.

Shuying looked at the painting. Wasn't that the one that Shi Niang had spent a lot of effort on and had given to the farmer a long time ago? After looking carefully at the poem, Shuying, who had grown up with Shi Niang since childhood, understood it at a glance.

How dare that country boy do this!

(End of this chapter)