Interstellar Travel: Becoming a Dress-Up Game Designer

Chapter 184

The tea merchant soon returned carrying a sandalwood box. Inside were eight white jade teacups, each only three fingers in size and two finger joints high. They were crystal clear and incomparably lustrous.

There are also purple clay teapots with plum blossom handles, their shapes are absolutely beautiful.

He followed the tea-making process and poured several cups of tea.

Properly fermented black tea is incomparable to that made by amateur enthusiasts; the tea soup looks like a ruby ​​when poured out!

Slightly swaying, the liquid clinging to the white jade teacup resembles flowing ruby, a breathtakingly beautiful sight. The rich aroma of the tea fills the air the moment it's brewed, soothing and refreshing, warming the heart with just a whiff.

"Fine tea, fine tea! Only a place like this could produce such fine tea!"

The captain asked, "What do you mean by that?"

The tea merchant took a sip and said slowly, "The fog here is heavy, and the location in the mountains provides sufficient humidity, which is excellent for fermenting tea leaves. They will ferment as long as they are left to sit, making it extremely suitable for making fermented teas such as black tea and dark tea."

He wasn't sure if what he said was correct, but it was a deduction based on his own understanding and the information given in the copy. He savored the tea carefully; its flavor was extremely fresh, and the tea soup was rich and mellow. The tea merchant squinted, deep in thought.

The tea itself is of the highest quality.

"Your tea is excellent; I'll buy as much as you have."

He planned to withdraw some of the money to keep for himself, and then sell the rest at several times the price in other regions, making a huge profit. This player was an avid tea drinker with an exceptionally keen eye for tea. The captain remained silent, waiting for the elderly couple's response.

The old man and his wife were overjoyed. "Wait a minute, I'll go find everyone to go together. You're lucky to have come at this time. The tea in the mountains is just starting its second round of picking. If you had come in a few days, you probably wouldn't have made it in time. The other adults would have had to finish their harvest first."

As she spoke, the old woman ran out and quickly roused more than 800 people in the village. Over the next two days, the tea picking and processing team took away a full 300 jin (150 kg) of tea leaves.

The tea team members were also very curious and followed the villagers to the tea plantations on the mountain. The tea plantations were located opposite the village, on a misty mountain. Around noon, a thin mist still clung to the tea bushes, making the tea leaves appear very moist and fresh.

The tea merchant carefully examined the tea leaves. He noticed that the leaves were thick and firm, and a fragrant aroma wafted out when they were broken. He couldn't help but exclaim repeatedly, "Good tea, good tea indeed!"

Looking around at the surroundings, I immediately felt that this was a natural habitat for top-quality tea. The year-round mist and the moderate temperature allow the tea leaves ample time to grow and accumulate nutrients, resulting in plump, flavorful leaves. It would be strange if such tea didn't produce excellent tea.

An old man, who seemed to be the village chief, was overjoyed to hear the praise and said happily, "You're absolutely right, sir. When our village moved here, a wonderful tea forest appeared right here. This tea forest is all transformed from that tea forest, and there's even a sacred tea tree. Would you like to go and see it, sir?"

A villager nearby approached the village chief uneasily and whispered in his ear, "Village chief, is it alright to tell outsiders about the Tea Sacred Tree?"

Deng Yijun, disguised as the village chief, calmly nodded and said, "It's good for the adults to go and take a look. They can patronize our village's tea business more often in the future, so we won't have to rely on that one family all the time."

The tea merchant and his teammates were very happy. The village chief meant that they could come often in the future.

They arrived before a gigantic tea tree. The tree had few new buds, but its blossoms were abundant. These camellias were different from wild camellias; their petals were pure white, thick, and lustrous. A few yellow stamens in the center emitted a faint fragrance, and dewdrops, condensed from the mist, were held within the petals, seemingly about to drip. Two beautiful women were collecting the dew from the blossoms in jade bottles on the tree.

A viewer watching the live stream asked curiously, "What are they doing?"

The village chief said, "These are all unmarried young women from the village who came here specifically to collect camellia dew. Tea made with this dew is absolutely divine! A single drop of this dew is worth a fortune, and it has already been reserved for a gentleman from outside."

The players from Team Tea were stunned. Collecting camellia dew?

Unheard of!

Many viewers in the live stream firmly believe that this is indeed an officially created village, and that the characters inside are all NPCs!

Many people quickly packed up and rushed to follow the scenic route of the live stream. These players are truly extraordinary; given just the slightest clue, they can uncover earth-shattering secrets.

Soon, based on the scenery and geography along the way, they figured out this newly emerged ancient tea route.

Upon receiving the news, Deng Yijun began to devise a plan to get the tea team to leave as soon as possible!

Their mission requires hosting at least five tea caravans to be successfully completed, and many more tea caravans are expected to follow, making it possible to finish the mission in one go. However, they need to send the first tea caravan away first to avoid discovering too many flaws.

The 800 villagers were on tenterhooks, and even after work, they had to hold a meeting in a small group to see who hadn't performed well and needed improvement, as well as to refine some plot details. The official team had only provided a general plot and character designs; the specifics still needed to be filled in by the villagers themselves, but these additions couldn't be so perfect that players would notice something was off.

This task is absolutely hellish in difficulty!

Without Deng Yijun's mediation, it would have been very difficult to complete.

Soon, the first tea caravan left with their tea. They had no choice but to leave; their goods were doomed. The fog and humidity here were too high, and dried goods like tea couldn't withstand it. Most of the tea they were transporting was unfermented tea like melon seed tea and green tea, which couldn't stand the humidity at all.

The night before everyone left, the village chief took two strong men to the mountain to fetch two vats of spring water.

On the day they left, they gave the tea team a gift, saying, "Sir, this is spring water from our village. The other adults who came said it's top-quality spring water for brewing tea, and they took quite a bit with them. Please take two pots with you when you leave."

A player in the team who was unfamiliar with tea leaves and brewing tea said with a laugh, "It's all water, what's the difference?"

The tea merchant got quite animated when talking about this tea, saying eloquently, "Water is the soul of a good pot of tea! Good water produces tea with different qualities."

The players were puzzled, "What could be different about this? It's all water."

The tea merchant reached out and carefully accepted the kettle, saying, "Thank you, brother!"

He carefully hung the water bottle on the horse and fastened it securely before slowly saying, "The explanation of 'Qingfengyi' is rather vague, so I'll explain it simply from a physics perspective. Water from different regions and of different types has varying mineral content, which affects the taste. This difference has a huge impact on tea..."

He rambled on and on, finally ending with a line from Qingfengyi: "Seven parts water, three parts tea."

The teammate was stunned. "Tea, tea, shouldn't it be tea first, then water?"

The tea merchant laughed and said, "I thought so at first, until I collected water samples from many good tea-producing areas and studied them, and found that water really is the soul of tea."

What he said is really hard for people who don't have a deep love for tea ceremony to understand. In fact, Lin Shuying doesn't have a deep understanding of tea ceremony, tea, or tea skills, and she can't really appreciate the differences between teas.

At most, the aroma is a little different; I can't detect anything else.

For those who aren't particular about tea, drinking it is simply about quenching thirst; they need the tea's ability to transform the bland taste of water. They don't need to delve into the essence of tea, its artistic evolution, or the profound tea ceremony behind it.

Lin Shuying, who pursues tea cultivation, has no knowledge of it and has only a superficial understanding of it.

For example, when discussing cooperation, bosses always like to sit at the tea table and slowly brew tea. After five or six minutes of work, they pour a thumb-sized cup of tea into a glass or ceramic cup.

When Lin Shuying poured tea to seven-tenths full, she would always think, "Why be so stingy?"

It was gone in one bite.

Sometimes, after driving for most of the day to reach a client's house, she's thirsty and exhausted. All she gets is a sip of tea, and she sits there for ages, staring at the table. It's not exactly refreshing; she's the kind of tea drinker who's like a cow chewing on a peony – completely uninspired.

However, she needs to be reserved; not drinking it all in one gulp would make her seem a bit thirsty and lacking in manners.

However, after seeing many videos and content praising other people's excellent and elaborate tea ceremonies, I suddenly felt that tea culture still needs to be promoted. Others are still stuck in a set of procedures that were introduced from China thousands of years ago, putting on airs that belong to the upper class, while China has long been open to all people to enjoy tea.

Tea art, tea skills, and tea culture have evolved with the times to become more suitable for her, gradually forming the diverse and unique tea culture system she has witnessed.

Isn't that good enough?

For this event, she specifically consulted her fellow countryman—a tech expert—regarding details such as the tea's flavor, the arrangement of the tea, and the tea ceremony, as well as other countrymen who had some knowledge of the subject. After the tea flavor and grade were created, the sub-files were copied into a hologram and shown to the tech expert. It was carefully revised several times before it looked like what the players saw.

A tech mogul commented on Lin Shuying's tea culture illustration with one sentence: "Extremely lifelike, and it allows the interstellar characters to immerse themselves in it." It is being inherited while also being developed.

This isn't just some tech gurus spouting nonsense. He never imagined Lin Shuying would envision interstellar humans personally participating in the formation of tea culture, using only tasks, changes, and rewards to control the plot and guide the storyline to Lin Shuying's desired direction. Only through the personal involvement of interstellar humans, diligently completing each step, can one truly appreciate the remarkable journey of Chinese tea culture's development.

Lin Shuying got her inspiration from the previous episode's "Inheriting the Legacy Through the Ages, Enduring the River of Time" segment.

That previous event was a semi-experimental one, allowing players to participate in a simulation of historical changes in China. Most of the storyline was completed by NPCs she created, with players primarily acting as observers of historical evolution. This time, she's going a step further, with everything being player-driven and the overall direction determined by quests.

To be honest, it was a bit risky, but totally worth it!

Only by experiencing something firsthand can one truly appreciate its wonder; this is true of Chinese culture.

In fact, many cultures are like this; they need constant promotion, inheritance, and use to be remembered forever. In the future, whoever makes something famous through its use and promotion will own it.