The Incense Monopoly Order

Chapter 83 Selling Fake Tea
"Absolutely impossible!" Chen Che was confident in his own tea. "This is Tianmu tea that my mother personally purchased. No one can cheat under my mother's nose."

"Don't be so ungrateful." Shang Zishu was very angry. "If I didn't see that you were not a bad person, do you think I would be willing to intervene in such trivial matters? People from outside the Great Wall are always warlike, impatient and irritable. Look at them traveling thousands of miles to trade here. I see that they don't dress like wealthy people. If they spent all their money to buy your tea, and then found out that it was inferior goods, I don't know what they would do."

Shang Zishu felt a little regretful. Why did she impulsively meddle in other people's affairs just because Chen Che was a clean young man?

"How can you prove that there is something wrong with my tea?" Chen Che still didn't believe it.

"Believe it or not." Shang Zishu turned around and was about to leave.

In a state of panic, Chen Che grabbed Shang Zishu's wrist and said, "You dragged me here for no reason and said my tea was inferior. I don't know you at all, but I believed your one-sided statement and it's ruining our business. If you can prove that the tea is inferior, I will reward you handsomely."

"Let go." Shang Zishu growled angrily.

Chen Che realized his offense and quickly let go: "I'm sorry, I was just anxious..."

Shang Zishu looked at the bewildered Chen Che in front of her with a gloomy expression: "Just wait!"

With that, Shang Mingshu left Lingfengfang and walked towards other teahouses in the tea market. Shang Mingshu watched from afar without asking any questions. She guessed that Shang Zishu was giving Chen Che some advice because Chen Che apologized and gave her the precious tea.

The people outside the Great Wall are tough and it is only in recent years that they have started to trade. They mainly eat beef and mutton, and tea is their daily life-sustaining food. If they do not drink tea, according to their eating habits, they are likely to get sick and have a short life.

Shang Mingshu knew from the looks in these people's eyes that they were not ordinary people. If she bought inferior tea from Lingfengfang, not only would Lingfengfang's reputation be in jeopardy, but they would also become ruthless and might kill Chen Che.

She just said a few words casually, but Shang Zishu couldn't sit still.

Shang Zishu went around in circles before she found top-quality Tianmu tea in a tea shop. She carefully examined the tea and found nothing wrong with it. There was only half a pound left in the tea shop, and she bought it all.

He returned to Lingfengfang with the perfect Tianmu tea and said, "Have someone boil some water and bring some of your Tianmu tea over."

Chen Che calmed down several merchants outside the Great Wall and told the servants to do as Shang Zishu said. The teahouse had to make tea to entertain guests at all times and there was no shortage of boiling water.

Shang Zishu brewed two kinds of tea, and she controlled the water temperature to be exactly the same. There was no difference between the two pots of tea, whether it was the color of the soup or the leaves, and even when she held them up, Shang Mingshu felt that the aroma was almost the same.

"What's the difference?" Shang Mingshu couldn't tell the difference, and Chen Che couldn't tell either.

"Wait a moment." Shang Zishu said slowly as she poured Shang Mingshu a cup of real tea that she had bought from outside.

Shang Mingshu didn't hesitate and drank a cup of tea with Chen's snacks. When she finished the tea, there was a difference between the two cups. The tea soup brewed from Chen's Tianmu tea had subtle stratification, which would be difficult to notice if there was not a cup of real tea next to it for comparison.

"The fake tea maker is very skilled. It's hard for ordinary people to tell the real thing from the fake." Shang Zishu wanted to know the fake tea maker. She had never seen such a level of imitation before. "This tea is not Tianmu tea, so it needs to be incense-burned to make the tea smell the same as Tianmu tea. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

Shang Zishu may not be good at anything else, but she is very sensitive to tea. She can tell the quality of various teas just by smelling their natural aroma, not to mention fake aromatherapy products.

Chen Che looked at the layers. The layers were not obvious. He knew nothing about tea. To an outsider, these subtle differences did not seem important.

"This tea isn't even inferior, it's fraudulent." Shang Zishu saw the confusion and bewilderment in Chen Che's clear eyes. "If the person who bought the tea reports it to the authorities, Lingfengfang's reputation will be destroyed."

Shang Mingshu also took the opportunity to explain the law to Chen Che: "According to the laws of this dynasty, those who sell a small amount of fake tea will be flogged; those who sell more than 500 kilograms of fake tea will be exiled; those who sell more than 1,000 kilograms of fake tea will be exiled to the frontier." Chen Che's face turned pale.

"Both ladies are knowledgeable and erudite." At this time, a strong female voice came.

The Shang Mingshu sister followed the sound and found out that the woman was a middle-aged woman who looked a bit wealthy. She was not dressed luxuriously, but her facial features were dignified and resolute, and she walked with a steady pace.

"Mom." Chen Che hurried to greet her.

Shang Mingshu and Shang Zishu stood up and saluted: "Mrs. Chen."

"Ladies, please stop being so polite." Madam Chen strode forward and supported Shang Mingshu and her sister. "Thank you so much for today. Otherwise, the Chen family would have been in great trouble. I wonder which family you two are from? I have some matters to attend to personally today. I will come to your house to express my gratitude tomorrow."

"Mrs. Chen, you're too polite. My sister and I are surnamed Shang, and our family also makes a living in the tea business." Shang Zishu was just trying to get closer to the Chen family, and she helped just now in the hope of finding an opportunity to learn the method of roasting Longjing tea.

Hearing their foreign accents and their elegant attire, Mrs. Chen immediately guessed, "Xiang Ming Zhai."

"That's right." Shang Zishu nodded with a smile.

"I've heard that Mr. Shang has three daughters who are incredibly intelligent. Seeing them today, I can see they're truly as good as they say." Mrs. Chen praised them and said, "Excuse me. I'll come and apologize tomorrow."

When this happened, Shang Mingshu and Shang Mingshu knew that Mrs. Chen was anxious. She had to first stabilize the merchants outside the customs and quickly find the source of this batch of fake tea.

"Third sister, do you think this fake tea has anything to do with Chen Jin?" Shang Zishu and Shang Mingshu left Lingfengfang, and after they walked away, Shang Zishu couldn't help but discuss with Shang Mingshu.

"Not necessarily." Shang Mingshu didn't dare to conclude.

"Why?" Shang Zishu's first reaction was to suspect Chen Jin.

"Chen Che said the tea was purchased by Mrs. Chen herself. Mrs. Chen is not easy to fool. Perhaps the tea wasn't fake when it was purchased, but was later replaced by someone else," Shang Mingshu analyzed. "If that's the case, Chen Jin doesn't have the ability to do that. And if the fake tea incident is exposed, he will also be implicated."

Shang Zishu nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.

"You don't want to be him?" Shang Mingshu exposed Shang Zishu.

Shang Zishu did not hide it: "Although I am not so obsessed with him that I will marry him, I am still optimistic about him and I don't want to be blind."

Shang Zishu did not have deep feelings for Chen Jin. She just wanted to know how to make Longjing tea. Chen Jin happened to appear and took the initiative to show his courtesy to her, so Shang Zishu did not reject him. Later, she found out that there was no possibility for Chen Jin to marry into her family, and the Chen family was so complicated, so she immediately stopped and cut off contact with Chen Jin.

Chen Jin didn't necessarily think much of her, and once she made her attitude clear, Chen Jin simply stopped pestering her.

"You said Mrs. Chen will come to visit tomorrow, and I suggested that we see the Chen family's method of frying Longjing tea..." Shang Zishu was thinking about the frying method of Longjing tea.

(End of this chapter)