Chapter 5
Bai Qingyu quickly gave the housekeeper the information, “It’s pre-rain new tea from Wuyi Mountain’s Zhengyan area, Maocha, not dried, and got damp. I begged the housekeeper to give it to me.”
He Renyuan didn’t care whether the tea he gave away was expensive or not, he had plenty. He just didn’t understand why the housekeeper favored this new housekeeper so much, even making up a cheap variety when giving tea, for fear that he would think this housekeeper was greedy.
“You just arrived, how could Uncle Qi give you damp tea? Take it out, I’ll exchange it for a box of Fenghuang Dancong for you.”
The housekeeper didn’t understand why He Renyuan was competing with Bai Qingyu. Dancong meant that each tree was picked and processed individually, with a unique aroma, and the price was very high.
The housekeeper felt that the exchange was worth it, and reselling it could make him rich, “That’s a tea tree that the young master spent millions to acquire, he personally went to the mountain to choose it…”
Bai Qingyu was shocked, “Millions for a tree?”
So He Renyuan was the kind of big boss who would acquire tea trees. You can’t judge a book by its cover. He had heard that many tea trees received very good treatment.
The housekeeper said, “It’s four hundred years old, rare and precious.”
Bai Qingyu “oh”ed, then it was indeed a little older than him.
However, no matter how expensive the tea was, he couldn’t pluck his child’s hair to exchange for it. A bald baby wouldn’t be cute. Bai Xiaocha’s hair was dark, although not green enough, it was still quite cute.
“No exchange.”
Did he really think he couldn’t live without that box of tea? He Renyuan said, “Uncle Qi, find the merchant and buy as much as you can.”
Bai Qingyu, “You won’t be able to buy it. The production of new tea is low, this box should be all of it. The quality of tea is closely related to the rain and sunlight of the year. Even if you find that merchant, you won’t be able to buy the exact same tea. Just like the same parents can’t have the same child twice.”
Just like Bai Xiaocha was a unique tea baby. As Bai Qingyu spoke, the corners of his eyes curved slightly, a little proud.
“One-year-old trees and two-year-old trees are also different. Even the same tree, with the same rain, the quality will be different after a year. The young master should be able to taste that last night’s was a two-year-old new bush, right? The taste of new tea changes every year.”
Bai Xiaocha was a two-year-old baby, his hair was fine and soft, it would be different next year.
Bai Qingyu’s tone was soft, but it sounded sharp to He Renyuan.
He Renyuan sneered. This didn’t look like a brain-damaged person at all. His aunt really cared for her nephew, finding him an irritating housekeeper. The other person’s expression was full of provocation in his eyes. He Renyuan’s cold eyes moved, fixed on Bai Qingyu’s face, “Then I’ll spend money to buy back your box.”
He used a tone of forced buying and selling. If Bai Qingyu didn’t sell, he would be kicked out immediately and not allowed to take anything with him.
Bai Qingyu cut off Young Master He’s idea, “I can’t, because I used it all up in a bath last night.”
The housekeeper gasped. Why did it seem like they were arguing? His young master was not a pushover. He Renyuan had been a lawyer before, and his tone of questioning was like that of a criminal police officer, as if he wanted Bai Qingyu to bring the bathwater as evidence.
He Renyuan said word by word, “Bath? Tea can be used for bathing? I’ll give you one hundred thousand, take it while you can.”
Bai Qingyu was slightly surprised that the employer was willing to pay so much, but no was no. They, as tea deities, couldn’t use their advantages to disrupt the human tea market and compete with the people for profit.
He couldn’t sell.
Bai Qingyu said, “I really used it for a bath. If you don’t believe me, smell it, I still smell like it.”
He walked closer and extended his wrist to He Renyuan.
He Renyuan smelled a faint, elegant aroma of new tea. His disdainful eyes suddenly lowered, glancing at a section of snow-white wrist. He was startled, as if something had struck his heart. His eyes immediately moved up, and he saw the same bland, honest face.
The honest man looked innocent.
Thinking that such good tea was used as bathwater by the housekeeper, and this person was only willing to give him a few leaves last night.
Was this something a normal person would do?
He Renyuan was so angry that his teeth itched, but he had no righteous position to get angry. The look in his eyes as he stared at that wrist was as if he wanted to devour it.
He had only brewed a small cup, but the housekeeper had taken a whole bath! Bathing in tea was unheard of, and he had actually managed to get a whole body fragrance from it.
But it was just the effect of the tea. No matter how fragrant it was, it was just a crow with peacock feathers, only temporarily deceptive. He couldn’t fall for this housekeeper’s tricks.
He Renyuan, “Stand back.”
Bai Qingyu took two steps back and lowered his hand.
Bai Qingyu seemed to have done nothing wrong, but neither had he, He Renyuan. “Uncle Qi, give him three months’ salary—” compensation for dismissal.
Because Bai Qingyu took a step back, the fragrance at the tip of his nose faded. He Renyuan almost leaned forward like a dog chasing a bone at that moment. Realizing his conditioned reflex, his face turned ashen. He said very grudgingly, “What era are you wearing clothes from? Don’t make it seem like I can’t afford to pay you.”
Keep him, and when the smell dissipated, or when he found the same tea, he would immediately kick him out.
Bai Qingyu pinched the fabric of his sleeve. He thought the employer would be furious, after all, the person who introduced him had given him a warning. But the employer was giving him three months’ salary in advance to buy clothes?
Why? Because he really liked the tea he gave him?
He Renyuan was someone who had a ton of tea in his house, and he knew that what the tea deity gave was the most fragrant. The employer’s reluctance was the tea deity’s honor.
Bai Qingyu unilaterally decided that he and He Renyuan had the same taste, so he discussed with his employer, “Can I build a loofah trellis in the garden?”
A loofah trellis… It was unheard of.
He Renyuan had never seen such a thing in real life, let alone allow it to be built under his window.
“Do you think this is the countryside?”
Bai Qingyu, “It can save money on groceries, and homegrown food tastes better.”
He Renyuan, “Uncle Qi.”
Housekeeper Qi immediately understood and said, “The kitchen purchases organic vegetables from designated farms. A single loofah costs fifty yuan. Qingyu, you don’t need to grow your own.”
Bai Qingyu was even more eager to grow them and sell them to the sucker.
No wonder Tea Xiao Bao was still thinking about how there was no free dinner even after eating grilled sausage outside.
He Renyuan finished venting his anger and ate with a sullen face.
Just as Bai Qingyu was about to sit down, he found that only the employer was sitting, and everyone else was pretending to be busy. It turned out that only when the employer was not there would everyone sit at this table to eat together at mealtime.
Bai Qingyu stood up straight and heard He Renyuan say, “You stand here and serve the food.”
Bai Qingyu, “Oh.”
Generally, serving food required some tact. You couldn’t turn the table when the boss was picking up food. Bai Qingyu picked up the serving chopsticks and thoughtfully put a little of everything on He Renyuan’s plate, piling it high.
He Renyuan looked at the hodgepodge in front of him, “…”
The housekeeper had run away when Bai Qingyu was serving the food.
He Renyuan, “Are you feeding pigs?”
Bai Qingyu, “Don’t you like it?”
He Renyuan took a deep breath. He was really out of his mind to let a country bumpkin serve food. He didn’t know any table manners.
He picked up two pieces of vegetables, finished the porridge hastily, and was full of anger, “I’m done.”
Someone quickly came up and cleared all the food on the table. Bai Qingyu blinked in confusion. The young master was wasteful, wasting so much in the morning, what about at noon? The steamed seafood, steamed eggs, and pastries on the table… were almost untouched.
Bai Qingyu quickly pressed down on He Renyuan’s plate, “Leave this for me to eat.”
He Renyuan, “This is my leftover food.”
Bai Qingyu, “I don’t mind.” He would salvage what he could. The little one hadn’t eaten yet, and this bowl was just right.
He Renyuan said stiffly, “I mind, throw it away.”
Bai Qingyu poured it into his own bowl, “It’s wrong to waste food.”
He Renyuan, “…” If he only looked at the movements of these hands, it wasn’t that disgusting.
In the time he was stunned, the leftovers were taken away by Bai Qingyu.
He couldn’t possibly snatch it back.
Ridiculous, this morning had made him energized by anger, and coupled with a good night’s sleep last night, this “energized” was a compliment.
Bai Qingyu carried the food straight to the third floor. By this time, the little one had long been awake, comfortably bathed in the morning sunlight, playing with his fingers, and even turning over 360 degrees to bask.
When he woke up and his dad wasn’t there, and he could bask in the sun, Bai Xiaocha understood that his dad had gone to work.
Bai Qingyu closed the doors and windows and whispered, “Baby, come eat.”
Tea Xiao Bao looked at the bowl in his dad’s hand expectantly.
Bai Qingyu first poured him a cup of warm water and fed him a few sips, then gave him a steamed bun.
Bai Xiaocha held the steamed bun with both hands, licked it, felt the softness of the bun, his eyes curved, looked at the plate, and like Grandpa Deng, dipped the bun into the soup on the plate, and took a big bite, “Let’s eat!”
He was much more diligent in eating than the big one downstairs.
Bai Qingyu looked at his son with satisfaction, “Baby, you will definitely grow taller than Young Master He in the future.”
How tall was He Renyuan? 1.9 meters? Anyway, he was one of the tallest people Bai Qingyu had ever seen. Using him as a reference for Bai Xiaocha’s height was sure to be correct.
“Adults can’t bring children to work, they will be fired by the boss. If the boss is at home, I can’t take you to the garden to bask in the sun.” Bai Qingyu rubbed his son’s head, “You bask in the room, okay?”
Bai Xiaocha was very happy to have eaten free and abundant food again, and answered excitedly, “Okay!”
The little one’s voice was very loud. Bai Qingyu almost wanted to cover Bai Xiaocha’s mouth, but then he thought, if he had to suppress his nature because he was living under someone else’s roof in the city, he might as well go back to the countryside to farm.
The sound insulation of the mansion should be good, no one could hear normal conversations.
Bai Qingyu played a clapping game with Bai Xiaocha without any burden.
“You clap one, I clap one, a baby sits on an airplane.”
Bai Xiaocha, “A baby sits on an airplane!”
“You clap two, I clap two, two babies sing a nursery rhyme.”
Bai Xiaocha was puzzled, “Are there other babies?”
Okay, the clapping rhyme needed to be adapted.
Bai Qingyu stuffed a small cookie that the housekeeper had given him into his mouth, “There are no other babies. You clap three, I clap three, Cha Bao loves to eat cookies the most.”
Bai Xiaocha immediately forgot that he was playing a game and shrank his hand to hold the cookie in his mouth.
The cookie was so delicious!
Downstairs, He Renyuan, who was about to go to work, frowned when he opened the car door.
Was he hallucinating? Why did he hear the sound of a child?
But when he listened carefully, there was nothing.
It was impossible for there to be a child in his house. Even if three children were crying their hearts out in the nearest house, it wouldn’t reach him here.
It might be a wild cat.
“Young master, should I prepare dinner tonight?” The housekeeper tactfully inquired whether He Renyuan would be home at night.
He Renyuan was about to say no, he lived at the company and could use work to numb his brain, he could work at any time when he couldn’t sleep. The next moment, his eyes lifted and saw the window on the third floor. That smell should be almost gone, right? He changed his mind, “Yes.”
The housekeeper responded calmly. He Renyuan wouldn’t come home on time for dinner, usually around eight o’clock. The others in the house could eat on time.
There was a circle of tea trees in the garden. The tea trees didn’t live well in the city. Even with the careful care of the gardener, they didn’t look as vibrant as those on the mountain. Bai Qingyu “nursed” the tea trees for a while, and when he saw that they were more energetic, he washed his hands and planned to go to the kitchen to see if he could help.
On the way to the kitchen, Bai Qingyu actually found a tea-frying room with all the tools, but the door was closed, and it looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time.
It seemed that He Renyuan really liked tea. The tea deity Bai Qingyu decided to be more tolerant of him.
In the kitchen, Auntie Liu was busy. She was called Auntie, but she was actually older than the housekeeper. Liu A’jie was her local name.
Bai Qingyu lifted a pot lid and saw a pot of steamed rice.
“Is this lunch? Is it a bit little?”
Auntie Liu explained, “No, this is the rice prepared separately for Young Master He in the morning, because we don’t know if Young Master He wants porridge or rice, so we prepare both.”
Bai Qingyu, “Then let’s eat it at noon.”
Auntie Liu smiled and said that the housekeeper had ordered to make stewed noodles for lunch. She had already made the noodles, and the portion was large. Rice wouldn’t be needed at noon.
The stewed noodles were the housekeeper’s selfish idea. Because if they made dishes, Bai Qingyu would mix them and feed them to Bai Xiaocha. Rather than that, it was better to have a bowl of soft and delicious noodles, which were easy to digest. A child eating noodles must be very cute.
Bai Qingyu, “Then I’ll eat it at night.”
Auntie Liu, “We’re also having noodles at night.”
Bai Qingyu, “Ah, then this pot of rice… leave it for the young master to eat, it was originally for him. I heard that the young master won’t be home until eight or nine o’clock at night. I’ll make supper from now on.”
Auntie Liu was old and used to going to bed early and getting up early. He Renyuan’s return time was not fixed. It was better to leave the staying up late to the immortal.
Auntie Liu, “No, no, the rice must be freshly steamed to be fragrant. Young Master He can taste it as soon as he takes a bite.”
Bai Qingyu, “It’s okay, does the young master have any dietary restrictions?”
Speaking of this, Auntie Liu talked at length, “Cilantro, celery, bitter melon, lamb, fish…”
Bai Qingyu was amazed, “So picky?” Then how did he grow so tall? He was even more confident that Bai Xiaocha’s height would surpass He Renyuan’s.
Auntie Liu said, “These are all my guesses about Young Master He’s tastes. Young Master He never says what he likes or dislikes.”
She had great wisdom in cooking, “The more Young Master He doesn’t say, the more careful we should be. Like strong-smelling, gamey, heat-inducing, bitter, and thorny foods… we don’t put them on the table.”
Bai Qingyu concluded, “Then he can actually eat everything?”
Auntie Liu was silent. Well, she hadn’t heard of anything he couldn’t eat.
Bai Qingyu was confident.
Auntie Liu’s noodle-making skills were very good. She made her own noodles. For lunch, it was tomato stewed noodles, and for dinner, it was abalone and minced meat rice noodles.
Bai Xiaocha was brought down to eat noodles. He was not suitable to sit at the table at his age, so he sat on the ground with a small stool and fiddled with his food.
He clumsily picked up the noodles with two chopsticks. He accidentally dropped one on the ground, quickly picked it up, ate it, and wiped his fingers on his clothes.
He ate busily and enthusiastically, with a layer of fine sweat on his forehead. When there was only some soup left, he picked up the wooden bowl that was bigger than his face, covered his face, and drank it clean.
It was like a performance. Except for Bai Qingyu, everyone was watching Bai Xiaocha eat.
“Ah, ah.” The mute sisters gestured with their fingers, talking to each other.
The housekeeper asked the sign language interpreter, “What do they want to say?”
The socially anxious interpreter said timidly, “It’s, it’s sisterly gossip.”
The housekeeper “oh”ed and didn’t ask further. After watching the little one eat, he picked up his own bowl with satisfaction.
After nine o’clock at night, He Renyuan, who had ordered dinner to be prepared at home, had just gotten off work.
Bai Qingyu waited downstairs until he was sleepy. Finally, the light of the car headlights shone through the glass window and across his face. At this time, the villa was quiet. Except for Auntie Liu who occasionally made supper for He Renyuan, everyone else was in their rooms enjoying their time off.
He Renyuan didn’t need supper nine times out of ten. He needed quiet more. From the door to the bedroom on the second floor, the events of the day flashed through his mind. He would record them in detail on paper before going to bed. He no longer blindly believed that his brain would fully store memories.
When he reached the stairs, he was stopped by the new housekeeper.
“Boss, have you had dinner?”
He Renyuan thought for a moment and realized that he hadn’t arranged any social events today, so he had missed a meal, “No.”
Bai Qingyu’s eyes lit up, “Then I’ll make you supper.”
Fortunately, he was really afraid that He Renyuan was full and that no one would eat the pot of rice from the morning.
He Renyuan didn’t trust this seemingly honest housekeeper. He stepped up the stairs, “No need.”
Bai Qingyu, “Don’t go, don’t go, I’ve already made it, I just need to bring it out.”
He Renyuan felt a little strange. For the sake of the other party waiting for him until this point, he would see what he could make.
He Renyuan sat at the dining table and turned on a warm yellow wall lamp.
After a while, a bowl of porridge appeared on the table, the soup was green.
“What is this?”
Bai Qingyu, “Tea porridge. Boss, didn’t you like that tea? I rummaged through the box today and found a few leaves left. I soaked them for five hours, it’s very flavorful.”
He Renyuan’s face darkened. Soaked? Was he reminding him of the tea bath again? Hot tea with leftover rice, without any skill. He suspected that this pot of rice was from the morning.
“I’m not hungry.”
Bai Qingyu stirred the tea porridge and tried to persuade him, “Are you really not going to eat it? The only remaining tea in the world.”
He Renyuan took a deep breath. Was this hunger marketing?
He stared at the bowl of rice in front of him. The pure and elegant orchid fragrance of the tea overflowed with the stirring. The new bush tea lacked a bit of thickness. If it were a hundred-year-old bush tea, the aroma would be more mellow and superb… He stopped his thoughts, stared at Bai Qingyu, and speculated maliciously, “This isn’t what you used for your bath, is it?”
A handful of tea could be brewed once, twice, or even nine times. Then wouldn’t he be drinking Bai Qingyu’s bathwater?
How disgusting.
Xiaocha is the cutest! Thanks for translating this story!