Her Cultivation Diary

Zhang Yanping's hatred made the live stream roar, while Qiaoqiao carefully set up the phone at Zhou Maozhu's house and asked again, "Uncle Maozhu, can this really be filmed?"

"Sure, why not?"

This was the first time Zhou Maozhu was formally on camera, and he was a little uncomfortable. He rubbed his hands together and didn't quite dare to look at the camera. But talking was no problem:

"Not to mention making Mugwort Tea, we can film other teas too. Everyone knows how to do this, it's not rare, it's just that every family controls the heat differently."

"But my tea shed is a mess, so when the spring tea is harvested, we can go to your mountain's tea house to make tea, it'll be much brighter there."

The mountain workshop is small but fully equipped, and although it's been mostly idle since it was built, this year it's finally going to be useful, right?

This year, especially with so much tea at home, Zhou Maozhu alone is clearly not enough, and Wu Lan has been pondering who to hire with good skills and someone reliable.

But right now, the most pressing matter is the Mugwort Tea and Yuxing Grass Tea that need to be sent to the Borderlands.

She and Song Sancheng are a bit old-fashioned, and hearing that the border guards need this, when Song Tan quoted a price, the two of them weren't happy, thinking about reducing it, reducing it more, and then reducing it further.

Finally, it was Zhang Yanping who persuaded them, "If you reduce it any further, it's not a big deal for us if the business doesn't make money, as long as we break even. But if they find out over there, it'll be a problem too."

"If you really don't want to take the money, then think about sending some gifts."

"This is more heartfelt than money."

But with the new spring, the supplies at home are pretty much used up, not even a bit of white fungus or black fungus left to spare.

In the end, after thinking it over, they packed up last year's tea leaf fragments, weighing a little over a pound.

But sending this, the couple felt a bit embarrassed.

Because these weren't the yellow leaf bits and tea leaf fragments that the Song Family drank every day, but the real old leaves and yellow leaf debris blown down with a sieve after the tea was made…

Song Youde wanted to drink these before, but Song Tan wouldn't allow it!

They originally planned to give them to Seventh Uncle to make tea eggs, which was a bit better than the old tea stems, but only slightly better.

Really—Song Tan couldn't help but sigh as she looked at the gift they found: clearly, her family grows tea, but when it comes to drinking their own, from grandpa to father, everyone only picks the broken leaves.

Even though she had packed a few pounds of good tea leaves for Song Youde, he turned around and sent them back.

There's a lot of tea this year, we absolutely can't keep doing this.

"Will people laugh at us for this gift?" Wu Lan was still a bit worried.

"No worries," Song Tan reassured, "If we put this in the live stream, everyone would be moved to tears, it's not embarrassing at all!"

Though it does look…I mean…

Cough.

She didn't really know what to say either.

While Lun Chuan wandered around the storage room for a long time, finally asking, "If not… there's quite a bit of homemade soybeans and chili oil left, why not give some of this too?"

He looked around, and there was quite a bit. In a few months, they wouldn't be edible, and the family would make new ones again.

Might as well give them away, at least they'd be happy.

This is something we can definitely do! Wu Lan instantly lit up with joy.

This random assortment of sauces and oils, they made dozens of jars last year, sold some, and still have a few jars at home.

But with Seventh Master being such a chef, the original taste of daily meals is already delicious enough, so they don't use these every time. After giving to relatives and even frequently eating them at home, there were still plenty left.

This reminder prompted Wu Lan to immediately go to the storage room to dig out some jars — the journey is long and express delivery isn't convenient, but luckily, they have large plastic barrels prepared, which are better for shipping than glass jars.

And Song Tan coordinated the package pick-up time with Brother Xiaozhang, estimated the shipping cost, and thought it's a good thing her family has some money.

…

In Zhou Maozhu's tea shed, Zhang Yanping still had no idea that these ordinary-looking mugwort and yuxing grass were about to come with high-valued gifts. The two of them just focused on the live stream, with Qiaoqiao narrating and Zhang Yanping watching the comments, still cooperating seamlessly.

After being picked yesterday, the mugwort sprouts and yuxing grass didn't look as fresh after sitting overnight.

But tea frying was Zhou Maozhu's familiar territory, and once the tea wok heated up, he clearly got into the groove, forgetting his earlier awkwardness and nervousness.

Right then, he confidently grabbed a handful of drooping yuxing grass leaves and showed them in front of the camera for everyone to see:

"When making tea, you can't use freshly picked leaves, those have too much moisture, not easy to fry evenly, and they get dry and burnt easily."

"Like when we fry tea, we spread them on a sieve first to let them air, until the leaves lose some water, we call this 'withering'."

Saying this, his other rough hand felt the temperature above the iron wok, figured it was about right, and tossed the yuxing grass leaves into the wok.

Then, his iron palms directly pressed down, not minding the heat, slowly and rhythmically kneading the leaves.

The comment section instantly warmed up—

[Hiss!]

[I took a sharp breath! That's an iron palm!]

[Is the frying temperature low? Aren't you afraid of getting burnt?]

[Certainly not low! If the frying temperature was low, their pamphlet would have "low-temperature roasting" written all over it.]

[He's clearly experienced, with thick calluses, not afraid of burns.]

[It's not that hot, you see the leaves are thick, right now they're blocking the heat in the wok, hands on leaves are just warm]

[You should look again, you'll see?]

Under high temperature, the kneaded yuxing grass leaves quickly curled into thin strands, the broad leaves shrived together, and the previously green-covered iron wok, present its cold gray metal surface again.

And Zhou Maozhu's hands pressed down once more, picked up a handful of leaves to toss, rub, fingertips slid across the steaming hot iron wok, causing the whole live stream audience to fall silent.

What can I say? I just knew chefs had iron hands with no feeling, never thought an ordinary tea-frying guy would have them too!

And once Zhou Maozhu got into his rhythm, he became increasingly natural: "Qiaoqiao asked if this technique could be taught, right? Well, you young folks have tender skin, you can't learn this."

"If you want to drink this at home, you don't need to wither or kill green and knead, I'll teach y'all a quick way."

"After picking the yuxing grass leaves, wash them clean and put them directly in the pot to steam, control the heat, steam for half a minute to a minute or two. Stir while steaming to even it out, then after taking it off, just dry it or bake it."

Smiling awkwardly, his honest face broke into a sheepish grin: "I figured yuxing grass and mugwort are pretty good, but just making them doesn't bring out the taste, so I fry them like green tea."

"You young folks don't need to bother doing this yourselves."