C23 Survival

The spring rain silently rained for a week. The fine lines of rain seemed to be able to drill into the smallest and most secretive gaps, so everything in Dai Village was doused. Tao Huizhen felt that she was about to turn moldy.

The good season for picking spring tea had already passed. In the tea terraces outside Dai Village, there were no longer people harvesting tea. The scene of people gathering and moving, and the flickering tea baskets were also gone. In the vast tea terraces covered by the curtain of rain, there was no one. Between heaven and earth, there was a layer of rain fog.

The Dai village that had been busy for half a month had once again returned to its usual tranquility.

Speaking of picking spring tea. The importance of spring tea was always at the top of the year. The people of the Great Tea Village mainly used planting tea as their main source of income. Whether or not they could continue living for an entire year depended on the quantity and quality of spring tea, as well as the timing of the tea farmers' harvesting of tea.

It could be said that the harvesting of spring tea directly affected the survival of the people of Dai Village. This was the most important moment in a year that could not be the least bit careless.

A day's plan was in the morning, and a year's plan was in the spring. Spring tea was also the season's tea leaves with the richest nutrients in the tea of the four seasons. The leaves were full and tender, and the fragrance of the tea was rich and strong. It was the "ripe and fresh tea" that was darker in summer and "Old Time Tea" in autumn and winter, which was out of reach.

The meticulous care and expectation for the tea terraces was only to wait for the harvest in spring every year. If they missed the chance to harvest the spring tea, The taste of dried tea made from fresh leaves in other seasons would be far inferior, and the price would be less than one-tenth of that of spring tea. In fact, It was only during the spring tea harvesting season that merchants would gather in Dai Village to collect tea. This was the Dai Village apart from the splash festival. It was the grandest event for the entire nation. There was only one chance every year, and the tea collection lasted for about ten days. This was what the Dai villagers had done in February and March. The reason why they joined the tea collection team was because of the gongs and drums. The period when Tao Huizhen was the most depressed was the time when the harvesting of tea was the most urgent. She could only watch helplessly as the students passed by the entrance of Tea Village Primary School. They went to the tea field.

The tea making process that the Great Tea Village had mastered was very simple, and it was mainly made of green tea. The process of making green tea was simple, and it took a short period of time. It could best reflect the original taste of fresh tea leaves.

About ten days after harvesting spring tea, there would be a few groups of merchants who would move from the surrounding cities to Mengla County. At this time, Mengla County was the gathering period for foreign merchants every year. The small streets were filled with people. After that, these merchants would come down to the villages to collect tea. Big Tea Villages were usually the places with the least favours from merchants, and the fifteen kilometers of rugged mountain roads made the tea collectors fearful. Usually, only a small number of merchants would appear in the Great Tea Village in the last few days.

The merchants complained that the mountain paths were difficult to walk on, so they used the price of the tea leaves to lower the price.

The tea farmers in Big Tea Village did not have much tea leaves, and after some tea farmers made dry tea, They weighed only a few catties. This was because the tea fields of the Great Tea Village were limited in area. There were only a few fresh leaves that could meet the requirements of spring tea leaves on a tea tree. Sometimes, due to the weather, Humans were the factors, and the timing of harvesting tea was not grasped well. The quality of spring tea would be greatly reduced within a few days, causing the originally small amount of fresh leaves to meet the standards. It would become pitifully small.

Pairs of hands that were covered in green tea reached out to the merchants at this moment, introducing their dry tea at once.

The Dai people were real. They would never fake their tea. The merchants who accepted the tea would not allow a problem that was inferior to theirs to occur. They had sharp eyes. Even if there was a leaf in a basket of dry tea that was of a different color, they would be able to immediately sense it like Old Eagle.

Every spring, the spring tea sold in Dai Village represented the highest quality of the tea in Dai Village. In order to maintain this standard, some people would rather sacrifice the tea leaves to taste them than swallow them whole.

The people of Dai Village would rather suffer poverty. They did not question the current lifestyle, nor did they complain. They settled down and got used to it. In the mountains. . . Dozens of years passed like a day, year after year. Last year when tea was being sold, a girl from Dai Village. . . She could only take out a kilogram of green tea and weigh it at the merchant's place. People remembered that her thin back figure was holding a tea basket in her hands. The dry tea in the tea basket was not easy to come by. It would be her family's guarantee of survival for the next year.

The adults in the village looked at the girl, but their thoughts drifted far away. The young girl's every move in the tea village gradually grew up. The hardships of life and scenes became vivid in the adults' memories.

This kilogram of tea was extremely precious. The girl used her fingers to tightly clutch the carving mark of the tea basket. The moment she poured the dried tea into the large container of the merchant, It was as if her legs had lost the strength to support her body. A child's voice seemed to come from the loudspeaker, "Orphans! Orphans without parents, brothers, and sisters! She can only bring out a little bit of tea. . . "

The girl obviously did not expect someone to say that. She shook her body as if she had been struck by lightning, but she quickly regained her balance. How could she become immune to all poisons? First of all, she had to face the things that you were afraid of. She was an orphan and did not need to run away. What could a child's words do to her? She tried to persuade herself.

Other than some children, no one laughed at the young girl's lack of green tea. She was the only laborer in her family. No matter what, one person could not seize the opportunity to pick tea. She could make green tea in a short period of time. He would be able to obtain a catty of finished tea when the tea collectors went down to the village. It was already quite difficult. The young girl seemed to have not slept for a few days and nights. She seemed to be very independent in the crowd.

She began to treat her peers as children who were not familiar with the affairs of the world. She stared at the adults with her cat-like, gem-like eyes. The adults all looked away. Her eyes were deep and bottomless, and there was an innate, slightly sharp light hidden in them.

The adults in Dai Village all knew about the missing incident from ten years ago. She also knew that the adults should know about it. She raised her head and looked at the huge group of mountains not far away. The Big Tea Mountain was among them. Everyone became silent.

After the girl got a few old coins worth ten yuan, she left the crowd and walked towards her home at the foot of the mountain. She was Orphanage Qiuhe. That year, she had just turned twelve. . .