Xu Nuo raised his eyes and looked at Mrs. Ye. She was in her early thirties, with a thin and long face, and delicate and shiny skin, which showed that she was well maintained. 【Read full text】
She wore no makeup, two jade hairpins on her head, and wore a moon-white collared jacket, an indigo blue skirt, and a pea-green pleated patterned jacket. Although she was thin, she had an outstanding temperament.
"Liu Niang, I haven't thanked Mrs. Ye yet. You must study hard in the future and don't let down Mrs. Ye's teachings." Lu looked at Xu Nuo with a gentle look, with a little expectation in her eyes.
Xu Nuo nodded and saluted Madam Ye: "Thank you Madam Ye."
Mrs. Ye glanced at Xu Nuo and said calmly: "The Xu family asked me to teach the ladies the tea ceremony. I will naturally teach you seriously and it won't be a waste of time." She actually did not ask about Lu's serious illness a few days ago.
Lu didn't say much, said goodbye and left.
The teahouse is a courtyard with two entrances. There is a circular garden in the courtyard. The main room is used to teach tea ceremony. One of the side rooms on both sides is used to store tea sets. The other is a place where the maids of the ladies who study tea ceremony can rest and wait. The east wing is usually used to entertain guests, the west wing is Madam Ye's residence, and the back room houses several maids who serve Madam Ye.
Xu Nuo followed Mrs. Ye into the tea room and smelled the faint fragrance of tea. The aroma filled her nose and made her whole person feel more energetic.
My grandfather loved tea in my previous life, and my grandmother went to learn tea art when she was young. After being exposed to tea making and tea drama, she became completely obsessed with the tea ceremony. Later, she actually loved tea even more than her grandfather. Grandma always made tea for her grandfather, and her grandmother also liked to drink tea every day. She grew up beside her grandparents and listened to them talk about the tea ceremony. After more than 20 years of experience, she was only half-aware of tea.
The main room is very spacious. In addition to Mrs. Ye's tea table, there are three rows of tea tables, two in each row.
The tea table in the first row to the east and the two tea tables in the last row were both empty. Xu Nuo went to the first tea table without a second thought. When she was about to sit down, Madam Ye called to her.
"This tea table belongs to the Fourth Lady. Let the Sixth Lady sit on the other side." Lady Ye's voice was still cool and calm, with a somewhat commanding tone.
Xu Nuo turned his head and glanced. When he turned back, he raised the corners of his mouth and said with a smile: "The fourth sister feels the most distressed about me. I guess she won't say anything if I sit here. Madam Ye, are you right?"
She could feel that Mrs. Ye was dissatisfied with her and even looked down upon her.
If the impression left on Madam Ye was too bad in the past, she would not care. If she learns tea ceremony well in the future, Madam Ye will naturally improve her view of herself. But if Mrs. Ye treats herself this way because of Xu Qian, then she will not follow Mrs. Ye's advice, because some prejudices are difficult to change.
I really don’t know how well Xu Qian has learned tea ceremony, but Mrs. Ye is so protective of her.
However, Xu Qian has always known how to please people, otherwise her mother would not treat her as her own daughter.
Madam Ye didn't expect Xu Nuo to say this. She paused for a moment before saying, "It's about the superiority of elders and younger ones. Since she is the elder sister, she should sit in the front row."
"Is the fourth sister in this house the oldest?" Xu Nuo asked doubtfully, while looking around sideways, meeting those eyes that were either contemptuous or disdainful.
There are six ladies in the Xu family. The eldest daughter, Xu Yan, got married the year before last and Xu Qian was grounded. The second and third ladies in the teahouse are all older than Xu Qian, but Xu Qian sits in the first row instead of the second row.
Madam Ye realized what she said hit her in the face, her face turned white and blue, she coughed and explained: "The third lady and the fourth lady are the same age, but the sixth lady can sit here if she wants."
Xu Nuo couldn't help but sneer in his heart, but his face was as calm as water, and there was no trace of anything strange.
If she sits in the front row at this moment, she will inevitably be accused of being competitive and not being humble in the future.
"Ms. Ye, I thought about it carefully, and it's better to sit in the back. After all, the fourth sister is older than me. I just didn't think well, and I hope Ms. Ye won't blame me." A look of guilt appeared on Xu Nuo's face. , saluted Mrs. Ye, then walked quickly back and sat in the last row.
Madam Ye opened her mouth, but said nothing.
Chuntang followed Xu and placed the tea tray on the tea table. Then she placed the teaspoons, bamboo tea spoons, long-handled tea ladles, soup bottles, tea pots, tea grinders, tea rolls, tea brooms, etc. that were needed when ordering tea. Tea cages, tea mortars, and stoves are placed one by one.
After lighting the fire for Xu Nuo, Chuntang retreated.
Staring at the table full of tea sets, Xu Nuo couldn't help but feel frightened.
People in the Tang Dynasty cooked tea, people in the Song Dynasty ordered tea, and brewing tea only appeared in the Ming Dynasty.
She has a lot of theoretical knowledge about ordering tea, but has never practiced it.
Whether it was my grandmother ordering tea at home in the past or watching Grandma Li ordering tea for herself these days, I have never realized that ordering tea requires so many utensils.
The ladies of the Xu family studied piano in the morning and female workers in the afternoon. I studied calligraphy in the morning and tea ceremony in the afternoon. The course schedule is full.
Half a month later it will be the day of tea fighting, so the tea ceremony learning time was extended from the usual one hour to one and a half hours.
During the break, Xu Erniang turned to look at Xu Nuo, then sat down next to Xu Nuo with a smile, and said sarcastically: "I saw you ordering tea just now, you were quite decent."
Xu Nuo looked puzzled and rested her elbow on the tea table to support her chin: "Excuse me, who are you?" The person in front of her was Ding's second daughter, Xu Ling, the second oldest in the family.
From the day she woke up on the first day of February to today, except for the second bedroom, no one from the Xu family except Ding has come to visit her, which shows that the Xu family ignores her.
She remembered very clearly that Xu Erniang had a very good relationship with Xu Qian, so how could she come to get close to her?
Xu Erniang smiled half-heartedly, casually picked up the tea cup on the tea table, passed it around in front of her nose, poured the tea soup into another tea cup, and observed how quickly the water marks appeared at the bottom of the tea cup. Then she looked at Ms. Ye calmly and said in a low voice: "I am Er Niang. If you have lost your memory, you may have forgotten me. We will learn tea ceremony together in the future and we will gradually become familiar with each other. The tea you brew is actually very fragrant. , but I still didn’t control it well in some places, the water marks appeared too fast, and I didn’t bite the cup at all.” The voice sounded very friendly.
"Second sister, I'm new to tea ceremony and I still don't understand many things. Why don't you give me some pointers?" Xu Nuo pretended to be a little white rabbit, with a respectful and pious voice and sparkling eyes.
Xu Erniang was very satisfied with the attitude of the promise, and smiled with her lips pursed: "We are all a family, we can't give you any advice. When you ordered tea, you used too much force when filling the water the first few times, so the water marks appeared a bit quickly. These Madam Ye has made friends with us earlier, and if you are a beginner and can do it well without being taught by anyone, she will definitely be impressed by you."
After speaking, he patted Xu Nuo on the shoulder with an expression that said, "I'm optimistic about you." He stood up and left without waiting for Xu Nuo's answer.
Looking at Xu Erniang's head full of gold ornaments and her slightly fat back, the expression on Xu Nuo's face turned cold.
Do you think she is a fool?
When the tea soup is thick and sticks to the bottom of the bowl, it is called "biting the cup". The finer the tea powder particles, the less likely the tea milk will show water marks. The stronger the whisk, the more the tea milk will bite the cup. Moreover, when ordering tea and filling it with water seven times, there are requirements for the priority of each stroke, which cannot be explained in just two words.
In her previous life, she watched her grandmother make tea for her grandfather every day and listened to them talk about various teas. These elementary knowledge had long been engraved in her mind.
Xu Erniang actually came to fool her!
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ps: Tea Baixi: Various landscape paintings or flower and bird paintings appear on the surface of the tea soup. You can stir it with a tea ladle, or you can control the angle of the spout of the soup bottle when ordering tea. Chabaixi is very similar to the coffee in today’s coffee shops. The ancients were so awesome.
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