"......The kids from Changxi Town are completely set for the future."
Upon seeing the thickened, fitted burlap bags hanging in front of the ancestral hall door, Ansheng couldn't help but comment with a peculiar expression on his face.
"There's no helping it. After all, there's never been a precedent for blowing up cow dung in the ancestral hall. It's a first for all of us, and we didn't have a standard before..."
"And besides, the approach taken by Chen Zhi's family isn't quite suitable for promoting throughout the village. In the end, after weighing things up, the village committee came up with a way to appease the public anger and give a bit of a show for the ancestors."
Although Old Chen didn't understand Ansheng's words, he could infer a thing or two from his expression, and opened his mouth with a smile.
"From now on, anyone who commits a wrong will be hung inside the burlap bag, and their parents will whip them publicly in front of the ancestors and villagers."
"It's not great for the kids' dignity, but very good for the parents' wallets."
Ansheng thought for a moment and said, "If you put it that way, I've got to find a way to trick Chen Nian back when I get some free time..."
Hmm... The dual-bladed cudgel of the West Coast Gang.
Being strung up in front of the ancestral hall by the village chief and having your own mom and dad give you a mixed beating—just thinking about it sounds pretty intense.
Old Chen rode his electric bike around to the back, arriving at the newly built complex behind the ancestral hall, and unlocked the lock on the door.
The Chen Ancestral Hall in Changxi Town, having stood through several hundred years, now boasts an area of over 4,000 square meters, including the newly constructed section, although only part of it is normally open for worship.
Large sections with historical patterns are kept closed due to maintenance difficulties, only being fully opened for significant events, allowing villagers and tourists to visit.
The tea workshop Old Chen managed to acquire is part of the newly constructed tourist area of the Chen Ancestral Hall. Inside are some old tea-making tools as well as brand new ones, providing a complete narrative of the development of the Chen family in Changxi Town since the founding of the nation.
After unlocking the ancestral hall door, Old Chen sneakily shut and locked it tightly again.
On the floor of the room lay two bags of freshly picked tea leaves, casually placed there.
"Ne-he-he—"
Ansheng approached the tea leaves and briefly checked their quality, showing a pensive expression. He waved Old Chen over, signaling for him to lend a hand.
The quality of the tea leaves, as the old Tea Master mentioned, was high in moisture content. Plus, young saplings during development have tea polyphenol content that's relatively low.
High tea polyphenol content leads to a bitter taste.
Whereas low tea polyphenol content significantly weakens the fragrance and freshness of the tea brew.
When delving deeply into tea-making techniques, essentially, it's all about chemistry, botany, and geography.
Factors like polyphenol substances, caffeine, land element content, and others all affect the tea's quality.
It's a systematic academic discipline; however, during the olden era of prevalent empiricism, no one would compile all the 'whys' of tea-making and answer them in academic papers.
The lack of thorough investigation wasn't due to incompetence by past Tea Masters; they simply tended to "hold back something" after solving each problem habitually.
But those times have changed now.
Back then, "holding back something" hindered both large-scale and industrial development, and manual tea-making couldn't keep up with the pace of mechanized tea-making.
Even a dozen old men exhausted from frying tea couldn't match the monthly profit rate from machines.
Most tea-making techniques are nowadays easily found on agriculture bureau websites and tea universities.
"Is Master Fox... looking up research papers?!" While Old Chen was originally helping with the withering process by spreading out the two bags of tea leaves on the cement floor to dry them using residual heat...
He swore he was merely tired and just stepped out for a smoke.
But he never imagined Master Fox would be using his phone to browse academic databases, seemingly researching something.
"What's so surprising? I haven't seared any of this stuff myself in years; how would I remember anything?"
Ansheng rolled his eyes and complained, "If it weren't for the fact I had to write some highbrow PPTs during work before, there's no way I'd remember anything about tea polyphenols, chlorophyll, or caffeine's impact on tea quality."
"Is it now required for me to get a master's degree in chemistry just to drink a cup of tea?"
Old Chen didn't understand the weird noises Fox was making.
But watching Master Fox holding academic forums bravely and confidently, Old Chen felt a bit inferior and sheepishly went back to drying the tea leaves.
Shortly after Old Chen went back to work, his phone rang, prompting Ansheng to hand it back to him. Old Chen answered the call and was momentarily stunned before hurriedly running outside.
"Master Fox, I need to handle something; should be back in about ten minutes..."
"Ne?"
Ansheng tilted his head, vaguely hearing someone fighting over the phone.
The little fox shrugged, stood upright, and continued the process of turning over the tea leaves amidst the withering procedure.
About fifteen minutes later, Old Chen returned.
"Ne?" With a rake in hand, Ansheng glanced at Old Chen and made a soft inquiry.
Old Chen responded with a dark line on his face, "It's nothing, just a routine fight between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law."
"The elderly don't want to give up the dividend from Tea Mountain, and are trying for a third child, hoping for a grandson. The mother-in-law persuades the son to divorce and marry a new wife for a grandson."
"I just need to go over and say a few words to keep them calm for a few days."
"Ne..." Hearing this, Ansheng felt a bit of frustration. "I suggest you kick them out of the Chen family, and they'll behave."
"Doesn't your Changxi Chen family distribute dividends based on males? Is there a difference between male and female?"
In some villages with abundant natural resources or land resources, dividend distribution exists.
While the land belongs to the state, due to historical and policy reasons, some villages gained significant land-use rights through land reclamation, all held by the production teams and village committees.
The villagers have the right to enjoy dividends from these lands, albeit varying in amount.
Besides land rentals, Changxi Town's biggest benefit is the tea garden land rental to local villagers.
Villagers monitor and cultivate tea trees according to guidance from the village committee and the agricultural bureau, renewing every ten years.
Most wealthy people in Changxi Town initially accumulated their capital through growing tea trees.
And Changxi Town's villager dividend rights don't depend on having male or female children; as long as they're villagers, they can enjoy dividend and land profit sharing.
Of course, some villages stipulate that only males or locals can have dividend rights.
Thus, Ansheng was genuinely puzzled as to what conflict Old Chen was referring to.
She honestly wasn't worried about the two granddaughters of the household unplugging her oxygen tube or simultaneously unplugging her life support machine to plug in a quick-charge phone.
"Buzz buzz buzz—"
Old Chen had just begun helping when his phone rang again.
He answered, cursed, told them to wait, and swiftly ran off.
"Master Fox! An overloaded construction vehicle collapsed our village road and fell into the pond, blocking other cars from outside. I need to sort it out..."
"Ahong got stuck on the road too."
Ansheng's eye slightly twitched. "......"
Are you messing with me? How come you don't seem to have this many issues in normal times?
Why do they all converge during tea-making sessions?
Surely you aren't secretly setting the alarm and running off to slack at opportune moments.