Pampered Poisonous Royal Wife Chapter 116

Chapter 116: Brother, Might You Treat Me to a Cup of Tea?

Wei Yi, Yun Chun, and the others were not the only ones whose expressions had grown tense. Even Steward Qin felt sweat bead across his forehead.

Previously, he had thought everything was seamless. Now, thinking it over, there were flaws everywhere. If not for Mu Yunyao’s reminder, who knew what trouble might arise later?

“Miss, rest assured. This old servant will remind them at all times.”

Mu Yunyao nodded. “You need not be too nervous either. All of this is only to guard against the unexpected. If my plan succeeds, then with that golden signboard, no one will dare casually inspect this place or come looking for trouble. As long as you remember your current identities, I imagine no great mistakes will occur.

“However, if a flaw does appear, you must tell me and Steward Qin in time. Buxian Tower will certainly not have only one branch in Jingling City. We can arrange for you to go elsewhere. You must never conceal it and handle it on your own, lest you provoke even more trouble.”

“Yes. We will respectfully obey Miss’s teachings!”

“Steward Qin, have the garden tidied up. According to the tea prices we discussed before, we will open on time tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

The people of Jingling City were still furious over Niyun Pavilion being burned, and the news that Mu Yunyao was opening a tea house spread quickly through the city.

Filled with curiosity, people came one after another to the surroundings of Jinxiu Garden. Through the entrance, they secretly tried to glimpse the scenery inside. Unfortunately, all they could see was a lush cluster of Xiangfei bamboo.

Once the news spread that Governor Zhang, Cao Yunnian, the Governor’s wife, and Madam Jin had successively gone to the tea house to drink tea, everyone’s curiosity toward Jinxiu Garden grew even stronger. One after another, they made up their minds that once the tea house officially opened, no matter what, they had to go inside and see it for themselves.

By the next day, however, when Jinxiu Garden opened its gates, people were stopped from entering.

“Why is this? Could it be that you are still not opening today?” asked a man dressed like a scholar, his face full of doubt.

“This young master, please forgive us. Because Buxian Tower has limited hands, we cannot receive so many people at once. For now, we can only first receive guests who have received Buxian Tower’s invitation cards,” Steward Qin explained, his face full of apology.

As he spoke, someone holding an invitation card arrived. Wei Yi immediately instructed someone to welcome the guest inside.

As soon as that person entered the garden, he saw the fifty tea attendants standing at the entrance, all dressed in fluttering white. When they bowed in unison, the men were warm as jade, and the women were lovely and graceful. This alone made him feel that his own status had become extraordinarily different, and he could not help feeling somewhat light and floating.

Someone at the entrance had already stared himself into a daze. Pointing toward Wei Yi, Yun Chun, and the others, he asked Steward Qin, “Shopkeeper Qin, may I ask who these people are?”

Steward Qin’s public identity was the shopkeeper of Buxian Tower. Hearing this, he quickly answered, “They are all tea attendants of Buxian Tower, specially responsible for brewing tea for honored guests. Because there are only fifty of them, in the early days, we could only receive fifty tables of guests. Our manpower is truly limited.

“If the honored guests wish to enter and taste tea, you can only wait until someone leaves and then take their place. Moreover, each tea attendant may receive at most eight tables of guests each day. This is to ensure that they can devote themselves fully to brewing every pot of tea well and not betray the expectations of our honored guests.”

The people gathered outside to watch the excitement were all stunned.

There were tea houses in Jingling City as well, but even the most particular among them, at most, paid special attention to the water and heat when brewing tea. Yet Buxian Tower had actually found fifty people, one person for each table, to brew tea. This was truly refinement taken to the extreme.

Instead, everyone became even more impatient. They all wanted to go in and experience it for themselves, to taste what it felt like to be personally received.

When another person came with an invitation card, someone familiar with him immediately went up to greet him.

“Brother Ma, surely you still remember that we ate together two days ago? Look, it would truly be a waste for one invitation card to allow only one person inside. Why not let me accompany Brother Ma? Did you not say last time that you liked the spring dalliance painting in my room? When we return, I will roll it up and send it to Brother Ma.”

“Master Wang, we have done business together before, remember? How about we go in and drink a cup of tea together today?”

For a time, the entrance of Jinxiu Garden was extraordinarily lively.

Each invitation card could additionally invite five people. Aside from the first few guests, who had not brought enough companions, everyone else entered Jinxiu Garden in groups of six per card.

Once they entered the garden and saw the scenery inside, they could not help exclaiming again and again.

To be extravagant enough to use an entire garden to open a tea house, this Miss Mu truly had a unique mind. More importantly, the scenery within Jinxiu Garden was simply too beautiful.

A small river wound its way inside, the flowing water murmuring softly, clear enough to see the bottom. At the center of the garden, it gathered into a lake. A winding nine-turn corridor bridge connected east and west. Across the lake, lotus leaves spread thickly, while lotus blossoms swayed.

Looking to either side, the east held the Xiaoxiang Bamboo Courtyard, Proud Plum in Snow, Hundred Blossoms Breaking Through, and Strange Fragrance of the Empty Valley, with plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum each claiming its own color. To the west were Spring Harmony and Clear Light, Only After the Clearing Rain, One Color Beneath the Endless Sky, and Scenery Like Spring Splendor, with spring, summer, autumn, and winter each possessing its own grace.

Aside from these eight main courtyards, the other areas were built according to the movement of the water. Every five steps revealed a small building; every ten steps, a pavilion. Each had its own character, arranged with graceful disorder and perfect rhythm. Every scenic spot had a place prepared for drinking tea.

There were tables, tree stumps, and long benches, all perfectly blended with the surrounding scenery, without the slightest sense of discord. Sitting within it, one felt only that the mind grew peaceful and all worries disappeared.

The tea attendants’ tea-brewing skills made people click their tongues in wonder even more. Their brewing methods were so particular that it seemed as though even the number of tea leaves and the amount of boiling water had been measured with precision. When the tea entered the mouth, one felt the heart washed clean, and the entire body soothed.

Outside Jinxiu Garden, many people waited for those with invitation cards to finish drinking and come out, so that they might go in and glimpse the scenery inside. Yet none of them had expected that this wait would last more than an hour before someone finally came out, reluctant to leave.

“This young master, how were the scenery and tea inside the garden?”

The guest who came out shook his head with a face full of deep meaning.

“Were they both poor?”

“No, no. They were so good they are difficult to put into words. If I must force myself to describe them, I can only say: wonderful. Wonderful beyond words!”

“Is it truly that good?”

That guest’s entire bearing was full of pride, carrying the air of one sober while all others were drunk.

“You have not personally gone in to taste it, so naturally you cannot understand the wonder I speak of. Miss Mu is truly a remarkable woman! It is only a pity that I had no fate to enter Buxian Tower itself and could not taste tea personally brewed by Miss Mu. What a pity! Truly a pity!”

“Is this tea house not called Buxian Tower? How is it that even after entering, there are still places where people are not allowed?”

“Those words of yours are truly spoken like an outsider. Do you know why Buxian Tower is called by this name?”

“What meaning does it have?”

“Buxian Tower: ‘I envy not golden wine vessels; I envy not white jade cups. I envy not entering the Secretariat at dawn, nor ascending the Terrace at dusk. A thousand envies, ten thousand envies, all for the waters of the Western River, which once flowed down beneath Jingling City.’ Only those who truly understand tea and love tea may enter Buxian Tower. Otherwise, no matter what status you have or how much wealth you possess, it will be difficult to step onto the sixth floor of Buxian Tower.”

“I envy not golden wine vessels, I envy not white… what was it? Brother, would you say it again?”

“You do not even know this poem. You are truly unworthy of my company. Hmph. I am leaving.”

This exchange was heard by the people gathered around to watch the excitement. Before long, it had spread throughout all of Jingling City.

As a result, the number of people who wanted to go to Buxian Tower to drink tea grew greater and greater. Yet Buxian Tower issued only fifty invitation cards each day. As for the rest, whether they could enter depended entirely on chance.

Thus, many people fixed their eyes on Jinxiu Garden. The moment they discovered a tea attendant coming out to deliver an invitation card, they would follow behind, find the person who received it, and try every possible method to cling to the invitation and seize a place for themselves.

For a time, the sentence heard most often in all of Jingling City became:

“Brother, might you treat me to a cup of tea?”

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