While Li Wu took his afternoon nap, Shen Zhuxi gathered up Li Juan’s feathers and bones and buried them in a corner of the back garden, then placed the little chicken coop — the one Li Juan had never once slept in — on top as a marker. A small scrap of wood happened to be lying nearby, and she propped it up as an unnamed gravestone.

The image of Li Juan hopping about in front of her was still so vivid in her mind — and now…

She had wronged Li Juan. That hen had laid eggs for her every single day and still ended up as a pot of soup, without even a whole body left to show for it.

Shen Zhuxi wiped her tears in silence, sighing from time to time over the inconstancy of the world.

She remained low in spirits for the better part of the day, and it wasn’t until evening that she finally found the heart to pick up the packet of tea that Li Wu had brought back from Shangzhou.

Even through its layer of wax paper, she could already smell the genuine fragrance of Yuhua tea drifting out. The slight disdain Shen Zhuxi had originally felt quietly retreated. She washed her hands, sat up straight at the square table, and carefully untied the wax paper.

Four small compressed tea cakes, each no larger than a palm, were stacked atop one another — pale green in color, as though veiled in a faint white mist, their delicate fragrance reaching her with a quiet, lingering grace.

Li Wu emerged from the inner room, groggy with sleep, and reached out toward the cakes. “Let me steep a cup and try…”

“Wait!”

Shen Zhuxi’s sharp cry made Li Wu snatch his hand back.

“…What?”

“We don’t have the right tea implements, and we don’t have the proper tea bowls to go with it—” Shen Zhuxi said gravely. “We can’t drink it yet.”

“Jumping out of your skin over nothing — are you trying to scare me to death so you can remarry?” Li Wu grumbled. “Steeping tea is just a cup and a kettle of boiling water. What do you need special implements for?”

“For ordinary tea, of course just boiling water and a plain tea bowl will do. But this tea is of such quality — how can you bear to squander it like that?” Shen Zhuxi frowned.

Li Wu said, entirely without shame: “I can bear it.”

“…”

Pearls before swine.

Shen Zhuxi rewrapped the wax paper and said, “No — we have to wait until I’ve gathered the proper implements.”

“Where are you going to find them?”

“I’ll have a look in town.”

“I’ll come with you.” Li Wu said.

The two went to the market in town. Shen Zhuxi was meticulous in her search, making her way through shop after shop, until she finally unearthed, from the bottom of a shopkeeper’s storage chest, a twelve-piece set of black-glazed tea implements from Jian Kiln.

She bought the set with delight, emptying every last coin from her purse without hesitation.

On the way home, Li Wu said: “The tea implements are my gift to you. The money—”

“No!” Shen Zhuxi refused outright. “If you dare try to reimburse me, I will never go out with you again!”

The words came out sounding rather childish, and Shen Zhuxi realized it only after they had left her mouth — but fortunately, Li Wu didn’t seem to notice the petulant, childlike quality of the threat.

“These few plain items actually cost a hundred taels of silver… both the person who sold them and the person who bought them are out of their minds.” His expression was one of pure bewilderment.

“You just don’t understand,” Shen Zhuxi said, cradling her new Jian Kiln tea set through its paper wrapping with obvious adoration. “Without the right tea implements to complement it, even a fine tea will lose its brilliance.”

Li Wu replied without hesitation: “What a load of nonsense — the tea leaves are still the same tea leaves. How could they possibly taste different just because of the bowl they’re in?”

Shen Zhuxi couldn’t be bothered to argue with him and gave him a sideways look. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

“Only you understand,” Li Wu shot back. “You were born with one extra nostril, which is why only you can smell that supposedly different fragrance.”

“You — you—”

Shen Zhuxi was so irritated she couldn’t stop herself from giving him a shove.

“Your mouth is absolutely insufferable!”

She hadn’t put much force into it at all, but Li Wu immediately doubled over. “My injury…”

“Don’t try that trick on me!” Shen Zhuxi said indignantly.

“I’m not tricking you — it really hit the wound… fell right on the wound…” Li Wu’s face was contorted in pain.

“I don’t believe a word of it!”

“Really… check if the bandaging has split open…” Li Wu bent forward.

“…How would I check?”

“See if the bandage has turned red.”

“But the bandage is under your clothes…”

“Silly girl — you have to be resourceful. The bandage is under the clothes — can’t you just undo—”

Shen Zhuxi slapped him and walked away, her face scarlet. “You shameless scoundrel!”

She turned and marched off in the direction of home.

Li Wu watched the furious figure ahead of him, taking note of her flushed red earlobes, and a faint smile crept onto his lips. He lengthened his stride and sauntered lazily after her.

“Hey, silly girl — wait for me. Don’t you want your precious tea implements?”

“They’re Jian Kiln tea implements!”

She turned her head, fuming.

“All right, all right — Jian Kiln, Jian Kiln…” Li Wu covered the distance in two quick strides and fell into step beside her. “I suppose I’ll have to see what kind of shrimp-paste brew you manage to make with these Jian Kiln implements…”

“It’s Yuhua tea!”

“Fine, fine — Yuhua tea, Yuhua tea…”

After they returned home, Shen Zhuxi could not wait to wash the tea implements. Afraid someone else might do a poor job or break her Jian Kiln set, she didn’t entrust the task to anyone — she cleaned every piece herself, scrubbing them thoroughly and then carefully wiping every last water droplet off each one.

While she attended to this, she asked the attentive Li Que to grind one of the compressed Yuhua tea cakes into powder using the tea grinder.

“…If it were aged tea, there would be an additional step of roasting it over the brazier to drive off the stale flavor. But since this is this year’s new tea, there is no need to remove any staleness, and that roasting step can be skipped.” Shen Zhuxi explained with great enthusiasm.

In the courtyard, three people: Li Que bowed his head over the tea grinder; Li Wu sprawled in a chair like a feudal lord at leisure; Li Kun entertained himself tirelessly with a snail he’d found on the osmanthus tree, repeatedly prodding its extended antennae with a small twig.

Shen Zhuxi went on at length about the key points of the tea whisking process. Aside from Li Que occasionally interjecting with a polite murmur of acknowledgment, the other two showed not the slightest interest. And even Li Que, it was plain to see, had no real enthusiasm for the subject. Shen Zhuxi talked herself into silence with no one to talk to, and finally closed her mouth.

Once Li Que had the tea powder prepared, Shen Zhuxi washed her hands, lit the incense burner, and settled herself upright at the square table, her expression shifting into something altogether different.

The three brothers were thrown off by her unusually commanding air, and for a long while no one broke the silence — even Li Kun, uncharacteristically, was perfectly still.

After some time, Li Que lowered his voice and said:

“Sister-in-law looks like a princess when she does that…”

Li Kun snickered. “Nah — more like a pig…”

Li Wu said without particular interest: “What would a princess know about making tea? Someone else would always make it for her… a princess is the sort who lies in bed all day waiting for people to attend to her. Just like—”

“Just like a pig,” said Li Kun.

“Not bad — Diao’er has learned to make associative leaps,” Li Wu said with satisfied approval, giving his back a pat. Li Kun broke into a dopey grin.

Whatever anyone around her was saying, Shen Zhuxi let it go in one ear and out the other.

How often did one get the chance to enjoy good tea? She wasn’t going to waste such an opportunity over a few meaningless words.

She picked up the tea sieve and, with focused, careful movements, sifted the tea powder several times until it was fine and even. By the time she was done, the tea bowl beside her had been warmed, and the water on the brazier had come to a boil.

Shen Zhuxi gently sifted the fine tea powder into the warmed black-glazed tea bowl, poured in water at the second-boil stage, and took up a tea whisk, beating and frothing the liquid in continuous strokes until it yielded a dense, fine foam.

She inclined her head, the nape of her neck pale as jade. Her long lashes, thick as dark feathers, fell half-closed over eyes that rippled gently like clear water, casting a faint triangular shadow below. The movements of her hands were steady and sure, without the faintest tremor.

The evening sun from the front courtyard crept over the threshold of the main room and draped itself in vivid, sweeping color over the young woman’s shoulders — her fine, soft hair, her gentle long lashes, her tea-scented fingertips, her entirety — all of it glowing in the gorgeous, tender light of dusk.

Li Wu sat back in his chair, his posture loose and easy, but his gaze sharp and clear, fixed unwaveringly on Shen Zhuxi.

Foam white as snowflakes gradually formed across the surface of the tea, and an extraordinary fragrance pervaded the humble dwelling, refreshing the spirit and lightening the heart of all who breathed it in.

Shen Zhuxi pushed the three tea bowls forward. Each of the three brothers took one — Li Kun picked his up and immediately poured it directly into his mouth, and the next instant he leapt to his feet.

“Hot hot hot hot — it’s scalding me alive!”

Shen Zhuxi couldn’t help but laugh. “Drink slowly.”

The moment she laughed, the faint aura of noble detachment that had enveloped her dissolved entirely.

Li Wu and Li Que each raised their tea bowls in turn, and Shen Zhuxi took up her own.

She brought it to her lips and took a slow, savoring sip. The long-missed taste of fine tea slipped down her throat, and the pleasure of it was so complete that every pore of her seemed to open — she could barely stop herself from letting out a long, blissful sigh.

For such a moment as this, only a beautiful poem would do.

Moved by the occasion, Shen Zhuxi opened her mouth and recited:

“Why should the rhinoceros horn be long as this? In the realm of sleep, I hardly fear the tea’s sharp tip. The spring breeze teases at the poet’s nose — Neither leaf nor flower, yet only fragrance drifts.”

“‘Neither leaf nor flower, yet only fragrance drifts’ — what a beautiful line.” Li Que spoke up. “Who wrote this?”

“It was composed by Master Chengzhai,” Shen Zhuxi said.

“Is he the one who wrote ‘The tender lotus leaf barely tips above the water, while a dragonfly has long perched upon it’?”

“He is!” Shen Zhuxi said, delighted.

Li Que smiled. “My mother once taught me that poem.”

Li Wu watched the two of them chatting and laughing back and forth, and slowly his brow began to lower.

He smacked his lips. He couldn’t detect anything particularly different about the cup he held in his hand. This flavor — was it really all that far from the three-coin-a-bowl tea sold at the teahouse by the town gate?

“Ahem—” He cleared his throat.

The three people at the table all looked over at him.

Li Wu deliberated for a moment, his gaze dropping to the tea liquor in his bowl.

“This tea of yours — all white and frothy. Looks like a little baked flatbread.”

Shen Zhuxi’s expression shifted. “Li Wu, calm yourself…”

Li Wu paid no attention, and continued to compose aloud:

“Good? Ha — a load of rubbish. A bowl of scalding garbage.”

Shen Zhuxi: “…”

Li Wu, unmoved by his audience, recited on with great feeling:

“This old man crossed mountains and ridges, and brought back this foolish thing. Three hundred taels this tea cost me — I’d sooner have three catties of wine.”

His tea poem concluded, Li Wu fell silent for a long moment. The main room fell silent with him.

At last he raised his head and looked at the stiff-faced Shen Zhuxi:

“What were you just telling me to calm down about?”

“Nothing… nothing…”

“I need to find a piece of paper to write this down.” So saying, Li Wu left the table, and returned shortly carrying her paper and brush. He had barely lifted the brush when something occurred to him, and he pushed the entire set of ink, brush, and paper over to Shen Zhuxi. “Your handwriting is nicer — you write it.”

“…Write what?” Shen Zhuxi asked, full of dread.

The last faint thread of hope in her heart was mercilessly severed by Li Wu.

Li Wu said without a moment’s thought: “Just write down the poem I recited just now! Have you forgotten it? I’ll say it again—”

“I haven’t forgotten, I haven’t forgotten…” Shen Zhuxi said quickly.

“Then write it.” Li Wu nodded. “This poem of mine shall be titled ‘Li Wu Savors Shrimp-Paste Tea.’ What do you think?”

“Heh heh…”

“What are you smiling blankly for? Good or not good?” Li Wu frowned.

Shen Zhuxi smiled dryly. “It’s very good…”

With a touch of compassionate mercy, she dipped her brush and wrote out the characters: Li Wu Savors Yuhua Tea.

“Do you still remember my ‘Lament for the Braised Trotter’? Write that down alongside it…” Li Wu said with great enthusiasm. “I see that those poets all put out their own poetry collections. If I write a few more in the future, I’ll put out a collection of my own—”

“Big Brother’s talent is extraordinary — enough to astound the heavens! Putting out a mere single collection would be a loss to every scholar in the world!” Li Que slapped the table in enthusiastic approval. “With this caliber of skill, Big Brother ought to put out ten, twenty collections! Your name must be immortalized in history!”

“Don’t make such sweeping proclamations — what if someone hears? Won’t I become a laughingstock?” Li Wu said.

“Big Brother means…?”

“To be immortalized in history — that still requires some polish. I need a little more refinement first—”

“Then immortality in history is certain!” Li Que began to clap vigorously.

Li Wu gave a satisfied grunt.