The 41st Tea Ceremony

  Episode 41: [Sending Tea] (Today is the first day of 2013, Happy New Year everyone! Wu Bi has a new year's wish, hoping to collect one thousand on the first day of the new year, since it's already over nine hundred, dear readers please give me your support and quickly add it to your bookshelf! The exciting plot begins below.)

  Su He vomited again last night.

  But compared to last time, it's much better, didn't vomit too badly, washed off the stuff on my hands and stopped vomiting.

  That night was the first time both of them fell asleep contentedly at the same time.

  The next day, before dawn, Li Chengqian was woken up again by Su He.

  After eating a mouthful of Su He's dangling and swaying big white rabbit, he reluctantly got out of bed.

  After another round of fuss like yesterday morning, Li Chengqian, wearing a big red robe, got on the carriage to go to work.

  Long Liang was the charioteer in front of the carriage, and behind him followed a group of eunuchs led by Zeng Yi. As soon as Li Chengqian got on the carriage, he saw that more than half of the carriage was filled with tea packages, and nodded his head in satisfaction, off to work!

  Arrived at the Taiji Gate, Li Chengqian ordered the eunuchs to bring down the tea packages. Then they arrived at the Taiji Hall and saw that a small number of officials had come. He smiled and gave each official a package of tea leaves.

  The officials took the tea bags, opened them and looked at them. At first they were shocked, then they saw the more than 200 packages behind Li Chengqian and thought of yesterday's events, and their facial expressions became richer.

  The officials who came later were divided into one package, while the officials who followed Li Chengqian and were fined three months' salary yesterday were divided into two packages.

  "Uncle, here you are." Li Chengqian saw Li Xiaogong coming and smiled as he handed over two packages.

  Li Xiaogong curiously opened the tea bag and found that it was actually yesterday's tea, but much better than yesterday's tea, and he couldn't help but take a deep breath.

  The tea leaves from yesterday must have been trampled on countless times before they reached Li Xiaogong's hands, so the intact tea today is naturally better than yesterday's.

  "What?......" Li Xiaogong was a bit like he had asthma!

  "Uncle, please don't get angry until I finish speaking..." Li Chengqian calmed him down first, "This tea was roasted by the Eastern Palace and then sent to my mother's place. I didn't know that my mother would give it to Father Emperor, and then Father Emperor gave some to Lords Fang and Wei. Later, Cheng Yexia asked for tea in front of all the officials... At that time, I didn't know that this tea was from the Eastern Palace. If I had known earlier, I would have reminded Uncle too... Hehe, so now it's been sent to Uncle immediately."

  "Cheng Ye Sha? ???" Li Xiangong looked at Li Chengqian with interest.

  "Ah?" This big mouth, actually even said out this nickname.

  "But it's quite fitting." Li Xiaogong nodded, "Hmm, this tea smells good too, but with just these two small packets, I'm afraid once I finish drinking it, I'll have no more tea to drink."

  "Uncle can come to the East Palace at any time after he finishes drinking." Li Chengqian guaranteed.

  This uncle is quite good, giving him some tea is nothing.

  Li Xiaogong nodded with satisfaction after hearing this. Then he entered the palace and boasted to the officials about how he became a god after drinking tea last night.

  The tea was half drunk when the hero finally arrived.

  Cheng Yesha was still very overbearing, and the other officials saw him hastily dodging to one side, making way for a wide path in the middle for Cheng Yesha. This guy Cheng Yesha still showed off his row of buck teeth, grinning savagely and terrifyingly at these officials.

  When he saw Li Chengqian handing out tea packets to the officials, he was very curious and walked over to Li Chengqian's side, couldn't help but take a few more glances.

  Li Chengqian naturally wouldn't give Cheng Yesha tea, directly ignoring him.

  After Cheng Yesha went in, he looked back with a gloomy face and bumped into an old man who was smelling tea leaves. The old man was scolded by Cheng Yesha, and the tea was snatched away to take a look. Then, after scanning the people around him again, everyone had tea in their hands, and Cheng Yesha finally understood that Li Chengqian was distributing something outside, and his face didn't look good.

  The Black-Faced Door God arrived and also received a package of tea from Li Chengqian. He opened it, laughed happily, and walked in to see Cheng Yesie. He immediately put his arm around his shoulder and said: "I knew this tea was nothing special, why did we fight to the death yesterday? How much sour plum soup did you drink when you got home last night to soothe your throat? Hmm, how come your face is even darker than mine?"

  "Get out of here, or I'll take your dog's head off!" Cheng Yexia thundered in a stifled voice.

  The black-faced door god looked down and saw that Cheng Ye was not there, understood, hahaha...

  Cheng Yasha wanted to kill Hei Lian Men Shen, but just then the bell tower outside rang out with a loud "dong", signaling the start of the morning assembly.

  Old Li came in with a terrible look on his face.

  After all, yesterday because of the little tea in his hand, he ended up getting his own team into a group fight. The next day, his son brought over a large batch of tea, one pack per person, and everyone was beaming with joy. This is slapping Old Li's face, and it's a big slap!

  Li Chengqian hastily came forward, presenting the more than 20 packages of tea he had left in his hands to Old Li, and explained that this tea was still in the trial-drinking period yesterday, so it wasn't presented to Old Li. He hadn't expected that the tea sent for the Empress to taste would end up with Old Li, resulting in the subsequent misunderstanding. Only then did Old Li's expression improve somewhat.

  Lao Li rewarded Ming Jun generously, as he always made a clear distinction between rewards and punishments. He gave him some money and cloth with great pleasure. Today, Li Chengqian was very cunning, saying that the tea was not his sole achievement, but also thanks to Crown Prince's wife Su Hui, and the cooks from the imperial kitchen, including Ma Zhangru and others. Then he let Lao Li spend more money again.

  After lunch, Li Chengqian looked at Cheng Yesha's dark face and felt extremely happy.

  Returning from the government office, today's teacher for Li Chengqian was not Kong Yingda or Yu Zining, but a Lu Xueshi. According to his introduction, he is also a Confucian scholar. Today's lesson was on the Book of Songs. Li Chengqian first asked Lu Xueshi to read it once, so that he could add punctuation marks, before proceeding with the normal class time.

  The last class had not yet ended when Long Liang walked in and said in a low voice, "Your Highness, the Crown Princess asked me to tell you that Dr. Sun has arrived."

  "Who?"

  "Sun Simiao!"

  "Ah!" Li Chengqian almost jumped up, "Wheelchair, Zeng Yi, go back."

  "Your Highness..." Lu Xueshi shouted.

  "Teacher, I'm taking a leave!" Li Chengqian's voice came from outside the hall.

  They arrived at Xian De Hall, but didn't see anyone. Su He said that the person was still outside the East Palace and hadn't been summoned in yet, so he had to let Zeng Yi go and summon the person in. Li Chengqian waited inside Xian De Hall.

  Zeng Yizhou brought in two people, not one.

  When Li Chengqian saw this person wearing a plain grayish-blue garment, not very tall, looking thin and dark like an African native. With a head of black long hair and a thick beard, he looked like a farmer uncle in his 40s!

  Behind the old peasant was a grey-headed and grey-faced boy wearing a sleeveless grey jacket, pulling at his hem, as if ready to go down to the fields with his family.

  How can this be so awkward? Didn't they say that Sun Simiao, the King of Medicine, was almost sixty years old at this time? Was it the village chief from his previous life who got Sun's age wrong or found the wrong person?

  "I pay respects to Your Highness, the Crown Prince." The peasant uncle pulled the boy down into a kneel to pay his respects to Li Chengqian.

  In this era, farmers who saw the emperor and the crown prince also called themselves subjects. Unlike in the Ming and Qing dynasties later on, where they had to humiliate themselves by calling themselves slaves, rustic people, or inferior people.

  "Get up, no need to kneel!" Li Chengqian stretched out his hand to support him, then asked: "Are you really Sun Simiao?"

  The old farmer was taken aback, then chuckled humorously: "Huh? I've been called this name for over sixty years, that's one thing that's certain."

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