"What... you're actually a Ger?" Carpenter Liu still seemed unable to believe it, asking dazedly, "Then how can you draw this blueprint? Or is this blueprint not drawn by you?"
Shen Xuan replied with a bitter smile and shook his head, "Though I am a Ger, why can't I draw blueprints? If you don't believe me, just test me, and see if this blueprint was truly made by me."
Given Shen Xuan's directness, Carpenter Liu couldn't help but believe him. He was silent for a while, then after a long sigh, he said regretfully,
"It's such a pity for your talent in carpentry, to be a Ger, just like my own child..." He continued, "If he wasn't a Ger, with his talent, his craftsmanship would surely surpass mine, and why would I be so anxious to find someone to marry into the family?"
Shen Xuan frowned upon hearing this and spoke, "Boss Liu, since Brother Liu has talent, why don't you directly pass on your skills to him?"
Carpenter Liu replied, "But he's a Ger. Even if he learns a skill, can he really show his face outside to work?"
"Why not?" Shen Xuan countered. "If he has a skill and your shop has built a reputation, are you still afraid that no one will come? Furthermore, if Brother Liu has his own skill and can earn money to support himself, isn't that better than relying on others? Right now, you've taken in a live-in son-in-law, and he will humble himself to inherit your skills. But what if after your death, that son-in-law turns against him and divorces Brother Liu? Both the skill and the shop would become someone else's. How would you expect him to live then?"
Carpenter Liu fell silent, seemingly pondering Shen Xuan's words carefully. Previously, when Brother Liu wanted to learn carpentry from him, he would always scold him, saying that a Ger should act like a Ger, and not roughen his hands, or no one would want him later.
But Shen Xuan's words today indeed hit him hard. What if he died, and Brother Liu knew nothing and was bullied? If he truly encountered such a heartless person who divorced him, he wouldn't even have the skills to survive.
Just then, Brother Liu, who had left earlier, walked out again. He came to Carpenter Liu's side and said, "Father, he's here to ask you to make something. Don't delay his business."
Shen Xuan looked at Brother Liu and saw him smile gratefully at him. He then added, "My father is old too, he only thinks of finding a live-in son-in-law when he meets anyone. Please don't take offense, Ger."
After all, mistaking a Ger for a man was quite impolite. Although Shen Xuan was indeed difficult to tell apart, Brother Liu still felt quite embarrassed.
Carpenter Liu then remembered the main business. He picked up Shen Xuan's blueprint and studied it carefully, discussing a few possible improvements with him.
Finally, he took a one-taels silver deposit from Shen Xuan and agreed to deliver the finished product two days later.
***
After sorting out the stall cart, Shen Xuan began preparing the materials needed to make his teas. First was the tea base for the citrus lemon tea, for which tea leaves were essential.
Biluochun was refreshing and fragrant, while Tieguanyin was rich and mellow, each with its own unique characteristics.
Shen Xuan wasn't sure which tea base would be better, so he simply bought several kinds of tea at the tea shop.
Biluochun and Tieguanyin, of course, but he also bought a jin of jasmine tea for its refreshing jasmine aroma, which offered another unique flavor.
Tea prices varied widely in the Great Jin Dynasty, ranging from over twenty wen per jin for low-grade tea leaves, to two hundred wen per jin for mid-grade ordinary tea, and over five taels per jin for high-grade pre-Qingming tea.
To save costs, the tea served at outdoor tea stalls and low-end eateries was mostly made from low-grade tea leaves.
Shen Xuan, for his tea base, chose not the cheapest low-grade tea leaves, but mid-to-high-grade tea priced at five hundred wen per jin, on par with the tea served at Guiyun Tower.
It was important to remember that Shen Xuan would be selling tea on Jinli Street, and his main customers would surely be literati, scholars, or students from the academy.
They weren't short on money at home, and having drunk fine teas often, they had discerning palates.
Five-hundred-wen tea had a significant difference in aroma and taste compared to low-grade tea leaves, and connoisseurs could tell the difference with one sip.
Moreover, Shen Xuan planned to go the high-end route with his tea and wouldn't price it cheaply. If the ingredients were subpar, how could he retain customers?
Five hundred wen per jin for tea seemed expensive, but it could brew over a hundred bowls of tea, so the cost per bowl was only a bit over one wen, making it not so expensive after all.
Once the tea was purchased, it was time for the fruit and syrup components. For citrus lemon tea, citrus and lemons were naturally essential.
Lemons had been imported into the Great Jin Dynasty as a spice for a long time, and later, locals began cultivating them.
They were typically sliced and dried for sale as spices, so fresh ones weren't too expensive.
Citrus was even more common, with numerous varieties and much lower prices than lemons.
These fruits were all sold at specialized shops concentrated in the South City Dock of Lezhou. Shen Xuan had already inquired about prices and done his calculations.
The fruit cost per bowl of tea amounted to at most one wen. Besides these, there was the syrup. In addition to white cane sugar, Shen Xuan planned to add some honey to enhance the flavor.
Although it would be a bit more expensive than using only cane sugar, this would also be a selling point to attract customers, so it wasn't a loss.
Shen Xuan made a large round of purchases in Lezhou City, finally acquiring all the raw materials needed to make his teas, before returning home.
Upon arriving home, he first boiled a large pot of water. After filtering out the scale with gauze, he used it to brew the purchased tea leaves.
He first took about one taels of Biluochun and steeped it in boiling water. Because there were many tea leaves and little water, the brewed tea had a very deep color and an intensely rich aroma.
Just as it finished brewing, Xue Fenglin followed the scent into the kitchen. He, too, was someone who couldn't go a day without tea in the Marquis's residence.
Previously, it was fine when he couldn't get it, but today, upon smelling such a rich tea aroma, he couldn't help but be drawn in.
"What a fragrant tea," Xue Fenglin entered the kitchen and was surprised to see Shen Xuan brewing such a large pot of strong tea.
In the capital, he was particular about tea, and each household had servants dedicated to brewing tea. He had never seen such a rough method from Shen Xuan.
"Is this tea brewed too strong?" Xue Fenglin asked, looking at the dark, murky tea in the pot.
"Not strong; this is for the tea base. It will be reduced later," Shen Xuan explained. Xue Fenglin didn't quite understand what Shen Xuan meant by "tea base" and stood by, curious.
Shen Xuan saw him continuously looking at the tea in the pot, as if he wanted to drink it. Amused, he scooped a little with a spoon and brought it to Xue Fenglin's mouth, saying, "Would you like to taste it?"
Xue Fenglin lowered his head and took a small sip, immediately grimacing from the bitterness. The tea was indeed too strong!
Shen Xuan laughed, telling him to wait aside for a moment, then poured the tea into an empty jar to cool. He then proceeded to brew Tieguanyin and jasmine tea in the same manner.
"Lin Ye, I'm planning to set up a stall to sell tea,"
Shen Xuan said to Xue Fenglin while working. Xue Fenglin knew that Shen Xuan was very skilled at creating food, and he thought that if Shen Xuan said he was selling tea, it probably wouldn't be like others' tea; there must be some new recipe.
"Is this tea your secret recipe? Then I'll leave now," Xue Fenglin said thoughtfully, knowing that Shen Xuan was preparing a secret recipe, and it wouldn't be good for him, an outsider, to stay.
"I'll call you when it's done," Shen Xuan said. He thought that Xue Fenglin was indeed very upright.
If it were someone trying to take advantage, they might have wished to stay and peek. After Xue Fenglin left, Shen Xuan took out the purchased fruits.
After washing them one by one, he sliced the lemons, citrus, and pomelos with their peels. After just a short while of slicing, the entire kitchen was filled with a refreshing and pleasant fruity aroma.
The fruit aroma mixed with the earlier tea aroma, making each scent more prominent and unique.
Shen Xuan had bought two kinds of citrus this time: one with a thick, sour peel, and one with a thin, sweet peel.
The thick-skinned one, Shen Xuan threw into the pot with the lemons and pomelos, pouring in the previously brewed Biluochun tea base to simmer.
He simmered them for a full hour until they cooked down into a thick paste. Shen Xuan scooped out this paste, which was a mix of lemon, citrus, pomelo, and Biluochun flavors, and then similarly cooked down Tieguanyin-flavored fruit paste and jasmine-flavored fruit paste.
These fruit pastes fully absorbed the flavors of the fruit and tea base. What started as a large pot, after the water evaporated, became only one pomelo-sized jar.
Although fragrant, these fruit pastes had no sweetness and were not preserved. After carefully categorizing and storing the fruit pastes, Shen Xuan re-washed the pot and began boiling syrup for preservation and sweetening.
Sugar and honey were natural preservatives; stored in a cool place, they wouldn't spoil for two years, making them ideal for preserving these fruit pastes.
Shen Xuan first added a large amount of cane sugar and a small amount of honey, boiling them into a thick syrup.
Then, he mixed these syrups with the different fruit pastes to create tea base syrups with distinct flavors. After he had bottled these finished tea base syrups, he took a little of each and brewed three bowls of light yellow tea.
When the thick syrup was mixed with cold boiled water, the taste was both refreshing with the citrus's clean aroma and sweet-sour taste, with a faint tea fragrance.
Shen Xuan then threw two slices of the previously cut sweet citrus into the bowls. This made the tea look even more appealing.
Customers seeing the citrus in the bowl would also believe the tea's good taste came from brewing this sweet citrus.
Shen Xuan tasted some himself and felt that the flavor was very similar to hand-shaken lemon tea in the modern world.
In such hot weather, brewing it directly with cold water was even more refreshing and thirst-quenching, and hot water could be used when the weather turned cold.
He then called Xue Fenglin back and asked him to taste the tea he made, to see which flavor was best.
It wasn't Xue Fenglin's first time seeing tea brewed with fruit, but those teas often had no fruity aroma and were very different from what Shen Xuan had made.
He had already smelled the strong fruity aroma from the kitchen while waiting outside, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, only guessing it was a citrus fruit based on the scent.
Xue Fenglin picked up one bowl and took a sip. He was immediately amazed by the refreshing and delicious taste.
After drinking, there was a sweet aftertaste, and it was full of the aroma of Biluochun. He then tasted the two other bowls of different teas and could discern the different tea bases.
One had a particularly prominent jasmine tea aroma, and the other had a richer tea flavor; upon careful tasting, he could tell it was Tieguanyin.
"How is it? Which flavor is best?" Shen Xuan saw him drink several bowls in a row and knew the tea was a success.
Xue Fenglin was actually quite picky, so for him to drink several bowls in a row, it had to be good. "The flavors are all different, but all very good," Xue Fenglin said after careful thought.
"However, when it comes to tea, I've always preferred Biluochun, so I like that flavor more. But if someone likes jasmine tea, they would probably prefer that."
"That's true," Shen Xuan nodded.
Anyway, brewing this tea wasn't that difficult, and one jar of tea base syrup could last a long time. He didn't mind the extra trouble of making a few more flavors.
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