"Ah Qing... The tea soup is all cloudy, is it really necessary for us to drink it? As for me, with An's industry experience, tea soup this turbid can only result from issues during sun-drying, or perhaps the tea exploded during frying."
"Exactly! You can't produce such an old stock without blowing up two stoves."
Facing the spoon Ah Qing handed over, Ansheng opened his mouth and started criticizing without hesitation.
Of course, even though Ansheng was insulting it, he understood why this tea could turn out so poorly.
Anyone who spends a fortune contracting tea fields must be either an industry veteran or an experienced tea aficionado. Even if they don't understand chemical formulas and principles related to tea making, or the various microorganisms, plants, and geography...
They surely know the simplest thing, which is how to taste and distinguish the quality of a tea.
Since they know, why does it turn out so bad?
The reasoning is very simple: either they failed in their attempt to process new tea into aged fired tea using craft techniques, which refers to deeply roasted charcoal fire tea...
Or they simply made a fragrant special supply tea for judges, aiming to earn a title in a tea competition.
For such tea, Ansheng didn't even have the desire to taste it.
"Master Ah Qing, quickly translate, translate! What's Master Fox saying?"
"From the vibes, it sounds quite nasty."
"The fox's expressions are so human-like..."
As Ansheng began his rant, the audience in the live stream instantly burst into laughter. In the short half-hour of the tea-tasting competition journey, nearly over thirty thousand viewers have seen Master Fox jumping to curse, wearing a foxy small face with a pout, cursing away.
But this time, little Fox was slapping the tea table as he cursed, which the viewers couldn't understand and urgently needed Master Qing to translate what the fox was howling.
Urgent! Urgent!
We want to see Master Fox's latest review.
"Uh..."
Ah Qing looked at the densely packed bullet comments, showing an awkward expression as she said, "I can translate, but the stream might get banned..."
"Even though Xiaolan says a lot, his review for this tea is summed up in two words: 'trash batch' and 'having sons without valve hole, having daughters must attract blondies'..."
As Ah Qing translated the fox's yells for the live stream, she discreetly tossed the plastic spoon she had into the event group's trash bin, not wanting to try it.
After tasting more than twenty teas beforehand, whatever Xiaolan said was bad must genuinely be bad; but he objectively evaluated the tea soup, explaining what made it bad and what caused the poor taste.
But this time, little Fox didn't evaluate; after just smelling it, he launched a comprehensive personal attack.
In such a situation, Ah Qing decisively and wisely disposed of the spoon filled with tea soup.
"Is it that mystical? I don't believe it!"
The tea-tasting competition scene wasn't as serious as most would think. During the tasting process, it's typically official tea masters brewing tea at the table, with all visitors and tea enthusiasts gathered around to taste, exchange findings and rate the tea by its corresponding number.
The tea master brews more than a dozen competition teas at a time, and due to the live broadcast, Ansheng and Ah Qing often received special attention from the tea master and got to taste the latest teas.
A visitor, skeptical of the scenario, thought Ah Qing was using the tea tasting fox's name for hype.
A fox drinking tea? Are you joking?
You didn't taste it, yet recklessly labeled a tea as having no tasting value? You're kidding!
How could a girl who can't even distinguish tea bags comment on the age-old Oolong tea?
"........"
The tea master glanced at the speaking visitor, barely suppressing his rising smile, calming his hard-to-contain feelings. He elegantly handed over a disposable spoon to the visitor, presenting the tea that little Fox slammed.
Being a professional...
Judging a tea's quality sometimes doesn't require tasting.
The tea can be assessed based on its soup, aroma, and leaves.
This tea's leaves had a slippery feel, clearly not a normal state for tea leaves.
After half an hour of contact, the tea master was very certain that the fox across was Xia Dong's type, and genuinely knowledgeable about tea.
"Slurp~"
The visitor put the spoon to his mouth, slurping the tea soup into his mouth so it could pass through his tongue, allowing for perfect flavor assessment.
"Hmm!?"
A sip of tea soup down the throat made the visitor's expression freeze, his eyes gradually widening as if startled by something.
"Friend? What's that expression supposed to mean?" Fellow tea enthusiasts at the same table observed this visitor questioning Ah Qing's evaluation without speaking, wanting to see what opinion the visitor had.
But his stupefied look—what does that signify? How does the tea really taste?
"Numb..."
"Numb tongue? Isn't aged Oolong tea typically..."
"Numb like the neighbor's wall! This crap tea soup is foul!" The reason for the visitor's pause wasn't the greatness of the tea soup, but it being swallowed too swiftly, with the taste buds reacting too late, regretting deeply.
"Bleh—"
"Haha!"
Ansheng, seeing the visitor gagging, laughed, face full of teasing, "Buddy! You're obviously a newbie at the tea competition. The tea competition is about picking gold flakes out of dung; don't have beauty filters on especially untested market teas."
"You see, it's so delicious that you have to gag!"
The visitor was genuinely gagging, spewing porridge and pickled vegetables with small shrimps into the tea bin.
His regret was immense for not believing the streamer's words, feeling this irresistible urge to try that tea.
To produce such inferior tea genuinely deserved the remarks like trash batch or having sons without air valve core.
"Uncle, you're really pulling hard..."
Ah Qing felt somewhat horrified, glancing at the spoon she had tossed in the trash bin.
With the nauseating scent spreading, Ah Qing, who initially wanted to continue trying tea, had no choice but to leave early.
"Almost had a broadcasting accident," Ah Qing, holding Ansheng in her arms, faced the live stream audience somewhat helplessly, "I planned to promote our contestant tea after tasting."
"Everyone should see that all tea competing in the tea tasting are uniformly packaged twice, so aside from farmers and tea masters, no one can distinguish whose tea is whose."
"Uh? You ask how I can distinguish which tea is ours? This question is hard to explain; let's just say different teas have different flavors, and since I've tasted our own tea, I can recognize it..."
Ah Qing explained to the audience, leveraging the opportunity to plug their family's tune store, advertising her own tea. Our tea may not suit everyone's taste, but it's at least properly sourced.
"Mm? Ah Qing, hold up, I think I hear a familiar sound."
During Ah Qing's stream, Ansheng climbed onto her shoulder, swinging his head cutely and making quirky expressions to keep the live stream lively.
But in his head-swinging process, Ansheng faintly heard familiar sounds with his sharp triangular ears.
"How could I be a bad guy? I merely wish to enroll my child in your kindergarten. If you agree to thirty thousand a week, we can head to the hospital for medical checks immediately; if we're all fine, it settles then and there. All meal and lodging expenses are on me."
Guided by Xiaolan's raised hand, Ah Qing gradually moved to the periphery of the tea competition area.
With just one look, Ah Qing saw Yin Pengfei, who was previously obsessed with Momo, willing to jump into the sea, clinging onto a cheongsam-dressed tea master, displaying a creepy, lascivious grin as if discussing something.
"Hiss! It's a scumbag!" Seeing the scene, Ah Qing inhaled sharply, raising her hand to cover Ansheng's eyes, "Xiaolan mustn't see, you're not allowed to learn these traits, or you'll become a little bad fox."
"......"
And opposite Yin Pengfei, he clearly spotted Yu Xueqing holding a phone, with a fox hanging on her shoulder.
Yin Pengfei's body stiffened, eyes slowly widening.