Chapter 174

The old lady thought for a moment and asked, "How many branches do you want? What's the price?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Let's go with the market price for persimmon seedlings. We just came from the orchard this morning; it's about fifty-one seedlings. We'll offer the same price for these branches."

The old woman, her wrinkled eyes sizing him up, saw his serious expression and had no further objections. "Then you'll have to build a ladder and climb up to cut them yourself. Don't cut too many, or there won't be many persimmons left in the fall."

Qing Mengzhu quickly agreed, "Watch me cut, I definitely won't cut too many, I'll only cut five or six branches."

The old man has a ladder at home, but it's just a regular handrail ladder. To use it, he has to prop it up in a tree and then climb up.

Zhao Hexi was a little worried. "Why don't I go up and chop it?"

Qing Mengzhu: "I'll do it. The cuttings should be selected from branches with high viability; you might not be able to."

Zhao Hexi really didn't have much experience in planting, and she wasn't insistent either. "If you want to do it, then you do it."

This persimmon tree was the old lady's favorite. When they were cutting the branches, the old lady stood under the tree, watching intently.

Qing Mengzhu cut down two branches from the persimmon tree, and the old lady even instructed him, "Come down first, move the ladder to the side, the branch over there is also good for cuttings."

Qing Mengzhu examined it carefully and found that the branch was indeed better than the one he had chosen. He couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Grandma, you have such a good eye!"

The old lady said proudly, "Don't let my age fool you. When I was young, I was quite skilled at propagating trees by cuttings; otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to plant this big persimmon tree."

Qing Mengzhu: "This persimmon tree has a story behind it?"

The old lady said, "Yes, back then my uncle was working in the countryside in Northwest China. I read in the newspaper that they had particularly good persimmons there, so I specially asked him to bring me a persimmon tree from all that way during the Spring Festival. I think this persimmon tree was also propagated by cuttings back then; it didn't have any seeds."

Qing Mengzhu: "That's truly fate! We'll take some back from all this way to plant."

The old lady said, "It's fate. You have sharp eyes; you knew my persimmons were good just by passing by the roadside."

The old lady is a master gardener. Qing Mengzhu just noticed that all the flowers, plants, and vegetables in the yard are growing very well, and most of them are of "Good Grade+".

Now, whenever the old lady talks about plants, Qing Mengzhu understands why—it's all experience accumulated over a lifetime.

Qing Mengzhu himself had excellent planting skills, and the old lady chatted with him for a while, feeling quite like they were kindred spirits.

Knowing they hadn't had lunch yet, the old lady immediately and warmly invited them to have lunch at her home.

The old man's children are not around, and he usually lives alone, which is quite lonely. Now that two young people are having dinner at his home, the old man is very hospitable and even went to the butcher shop outside to buy some meat.

Unable to refuse, Qing Mengzhu and Zhao Hexi went into the kitchen to help out.

At the dinner table, Qing Mengzhu talked about their company, and the two elderly people had actually heard of it.

The old lady said, "Your company is quite famous now. I've also heard that you're hiring a lot of people, both men and women?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Yes, there's a lot. There's a lot of work to do right now."

The old lady said with regret, "What a pity. If I were a few decades younger, I would have gone to work for you."

The old man chuckled and said, "It's such a long way, you wouldn't be able to handle it."

The old woman retorted, "Don't they have tea plantations over there? I can work there. I may not be good at anything else, but I can certainly grow tea, right?"

Qing Mengzhu quickly replied, "We don't have tea plantations, we only have orchards."

The old woman said, "No tea plantations? I heard you have tea, and your tea is quite famous."

Chapter 174

The Qing Mengzhu family owns tea, and as more and more tea leaves are grown, they also bring out tea to entertain guests.

As for the famous tea garden, Qing Mengzhu was inclined to believe that the old lady had misremembered.

Zhao Hexi also said, "Grandma, are you sure you're not mistaken? You've mistaken someone else's tea plantation for our company's."

The old lady said, "Probably not. Your company's name is so hard to pronounce; I don't know of any other company with that name."

Qing Mengzhu: "Then you might have mistaken my family's tea for our company's tea."

The old lady nodded. "That's possible. Anyway, it's yours, so it's hard to tell whether it's a company or not."

After saying that, the old lady sighed, "I thought your company had a particularly impressive tea plantation, and I wanted to exchange experiences with you."

Qing Mengzhu became interested. "Grandma, are you planting tea?"

The old woman said, "I've been growing tea since I was young, but I haven't made much of a name for myself."

The old man chimed in, "My wife still grows tea trees in her vegetable garden; all the tea we drink is processed by her."

Qing Mengzhu and Zhao Hexi both looked at the old lady. "Amazing!"

The old lady was so flattered that she felt like showing off her treasure. She stopped eating and went to get them some tea. "Let me let you try this year's spring tea. Everyone who has tasted my tea says it's quite good. Try it and see if you agree!"

The old lady quickly brewed the tea.

The tea leaves were placed in the cup, and the brewed tea turned a bright yellow color, which looked very appealing and smelled delicious.

Qing Mengzhu has been dealing with tea a lot lately, and she can tell that this tea has "Good Grade+" just by smelling it.

The old lady grows very good tea, but unfortunately, due to the variety, the tea isn't particularly good. Also, because she uses tap water to brew the tea, the tea isn't as clear and refreshing.

Overall, this is considered a very good tea for an ordinary family, considering the old lady wasn't exactly a professional.

After Qing Mengzhu carefully considered the matter, he looked up and saw the old lady looking at him expectantly. When she saw him looking over, she raised her head slightly, as if to ask him for his opinion.

Qing Mengzhu understood and said with a smile, "This tea is really well-grown."

The old lady said, "Tell me, where's the skill?"

Seeing that the old lady was taking it seriously, Qing Mengzhu also became serious. "If I remember correctly, this tea is from a local common tea tree. There's green tea made from this kind of tea leaves on the market, and it costs ten yuan a pack."

The old lady was surprised that he could actually taste the difference and happily exclaimed, "Yes! It's our local coarse tea!"

Qing Mengzhu said earnestly, "Ordinary coarse tea doesn't have such a fragrance, nor does it have this bitter yet sweet aftertaste. That's why I said your tea is of high quality. If it were grown poorly, it would be a bitter and strong-tasting large-leaf tea with little aftertaste after processing."

The old woman said, "Yes, most of the tea we grow here is for quenching thirst."

The old lady loved tea, and seeing that Qing Mengzhu could speak so knowledgeably about it, she took the opportunity to invite him. "My vegetable garden isn't far from here, would you like to go see it?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Want to see the tea trees?"

The old lady said, "Just look at the tea trees!"

Qing Mengzhu: "Go ahead, let me take a look."

Seeing that they were about to leave, the old man quickly grabbed the old woman's arm. "Hey, what's the rush? Let the child finish his meal in peace, and you should eat first too."

The old lady snapped out of her daze, "Yes, let's eat first, then we'll talk."

That's what she said, but the old lady was clearly impatient.

Under the old lady's gaze, Qing Mengzhu had no mind to eat slowly and quickly finished the rice in her bowl, wanting to go with the old lady to the vegetable garden to see the tea trees.

Zhao Hexi is going with them too.

So, after lunch, the old lady took the three of them to see the tea trees.

The old lady's vegetable garden was right behind her house; it was less than a five-minute walk from the path behind the house into the field.

The vegetable garden wasn't big, not even exceeding three-tenths of an acre in total.

The old lady, however, planted tea trees all around the vegetable garden, almost as if she were using them as a fence.