Now Boya Company, through the Anqing tea warehouse, had contracted tea mountains in the interior, directly purchasing raw tea from the tea-producing regions—the withering, rolling, and fermentation processes were all carried out locally, while the subsequent dozen or so export refining procedures that previously required specialized technical personnel to complete by hand could now mostly be handled by machines, with astounding output.
Of course, the specific details of these processing procedures and various parameters were strictly confidential. But Lin Yuchan didn’t mind letting the public see the steam engine’s working process.
Westerners building factories in Shanghai, transporting advanced machinery from thousands of miles away, usually liked to hide everything, fearing that Chinese people would steal their techniques or take the opportunity to pilfer parts and such. While this was safe, it also led to the public increasingly misunderstanding the mysteries within the factory buildings, which in turn gave rise to various terrifying speculations and sometimes even conflicts.
Lin Yuchan felt that a mere steam engine wasn’t worth keeping secret. There would be internal combustion engines in the future, and electric motors too. As the glorious achievement of the first industrial revolution, how much longer could steam engines remain in the spotlight?
Western machinery would become more and more widespread sooner or later. She might be the first to pluck the peach, but she wouldn’t be the only one.
The distant bell chimed eleven o’clock. Mao Shunniang had reached her lunch break time. She beckoned to another master to take over, untied her head scarf herself, washed her hands, and came out with a beaming face.
Seeing a crowd of onlookers, she was startled and retreated inside. She still wasn’t used to showing her face in public.
The crowd exclaimed in amazement: “Wow, shift work, no need to stop production! Just like the Western cotton mills!”
Machines didn’t eat, equivalent to infinite labor. Frequent starting and stopping would waste fuel, too.
Someone tentatively asked: “Hey, boss lady, did you buy this tea-making machine from Westerners? Are Westerners willing to sell it?”
Boya Company had limited fame outside its circle. When strangers saw a young woman supervising factory affairs, their first reaction was “boss lady.”
Before she could answer, someone explained for her: “This lady is Boya’s owner, she’s been in the newspapers, fought a lawsuit with Westerners! Let me tell you…”
For Gao Dewen’s lawsuit, Lin Yuchan had spared no effort in creating public opinion to争取 an early court hearing, whetting the public’s appetite. Now that the lawsuit had settled, the aftereffects still lingered, with people occasionally discussing it.
According to British consulate regulations, the North China Herald published detailed court records, which naturally included truthful accounts of that outstanding Qing citizen female representative. Lin Yuchan had taken a risky approach with this matter. After careful consideration, not daring to be too high-profile, she hadn’t left her name, only her surname and her identity as chairman and manager of a certain foreign trade company.
Those without interest would forget upon reading, while those with interest could easily investigate if they wanted.
Searching all of Shanghai, Western-style companies with women’s names could be counted on one hand.
Within a few days, Lin Yuchan’s “feat” of “fighting a foreign lawsuit” had also quietly spread throughout the business community.
For a woman to enter a Chinese yamen was considered very shameful according to custom, but when it came to Western courts that “valued women over men,” one couldn’t reference Chinese ethical teachings for comparison. Moreover, she was the winning party—to be able to defeat Westerners in court, she must be quite capable.
So this matter didn’t affect her reputation too much. Instead, it brought a small portion of enlightened people out of their comfort zones, making them start to think: women doing business could also do it properly—look, even Westerners acknowledged it!
Lin Yuchan smiled politely, listened to others introduce her for a couple of sentences, then immediately interjected: “…No, no, those are all exaggerated rumors. I’m just an ordinary civilian woman who had a bit of luck… By the way, this machine was also designed by Chinese people…”
Those who came to watch the excitement included not only common people and neighbors, but also several tea merchants who, hearing that someone had introduced a steam engine production line, had to put down their current business, no matter how busy they were, and come investigate.
Lin Yuchan was somewhat familiar with these people’s faces. She saw the chief manager of Yuanheng Tea Warehouse standing side by side with the young master of Da’an Tea Company, whispering privately while pointing at the factory building and frowning in discussion.
“So crude… can it produce good tea…”
What did traditional tea-making workshops look like? Masters carefully worked by hand, caring for those tender, fresh, crisp tea leaves like precious babies, with each leaf receiving customized roasting. Because they often stirred woks with both hands and tested by touch, many tea-roasting masters’ hands were chronically burned and blackened—a testament to their professional dedication.
But Xu Jianyin’s designed steam engine was crude and clumsy. Though practical, its appearance was truly aesthetically questionable. Many connection points between parts were exposed, and many components had to be made extra heavy due to steel quality issues. Compared to those exquisite, smooth Western original imported machines, it indeed looked rather rustic.
Moreover, compared to the delicate process of manual tea roasting, the machine components handled everything indiscriminately with mindless output. At first glance, it indeed seemed very simple and brutal, lacking sincerity.
Although the final product might be similar, from the perspective of appearance, “machine production” only sought quantity, and the quality seemed far inferior to handwork.
Lin Yuchan was about to step forward to explain when Shopkeeper Mau had already jumped in to respond.
“Several of you have reasonable concerns. This machine, after all, can’t replace manual work. We’re just trying it out, trying it out, haha…”
Lin Yuchan: “…”
The bald shopkeeper didn’t trust machines—he was undermining his side!
She gathered the shareholders and friendly merchants present, calling out loudly: “Thank you all for coming today. Standing in this hot weather for so long, you must be thirsty. I’ve had people prepare tea and seats—everyone has some tea before leaving.”
She had assistants bring several tin cans.
“Also, I’d like everyone to play a game.” She unsealed the cans on the spot, saying with a beaming face, “Here are four cans of tea, labeled A, B, C, and D, respectively. Two cans are machine-refined, and two cans are hand-roasted using our new secret recipe. There are small paper slips inside the cans indicating each can’s origin.”
People immediately began buzzing with discussion. Those quick-thinking people had already guessed Lin Yuchan’s intention.
“Lady, you don’t want us to guess, do you?”
“Exactly.” Lin Yuchan smiled. “How machine-made tea tastes isn’t for me to say—everyone must evaluate it together. How about this: whoever can correctly guess all four cans’ tea origins, I’ll give you a box of tea, any flavor or variety you choose. How about it? Anyone willing to try?”
Everyone was impressed.
This boss lady—oh no, female boss—was quite playful!
There were thousands of tea merchants under heaven, but those using machines to complete refining steps could be counted on one’s fingers. Even experienced old tea merchants might not have tasted machine-roasted tea.
However, they were all veteran palates who had dealt with tea goods for decades. Could they not distinguish between machine and manual work? This Boss Lin was underestimating them.
Several friendly merchants immediately responded enthusiastically: “Good!”
With tea exports currently booming, these several foreign trading houses were similar in scale and weren’t in life-or-death competition. Therefore, everyone’s attitude was quite friendly, and they exchanged business compliments with Boya: “Boya’s tea quality is good. I won’t be polite today—I’ll take a box back to try a different flavor!”
A group of shareholders also declared: “Let’s taste and see! I don’t believe there’s any difference!”
Although they were all shareholders with only one or two hundred taels of silver, they had a strong sense of ownership. Nodding to Lin Yuchan, they dispersed to sit at tea tables.
The young master of Da’an smiled broadly, lifting his long robe and spreading his legs as he sat down.
“Aiyo, a beauty serving tea—today’s tea is especially fragrant.”
For young women to show their faces and do business, having men take verbal advantage was commonplace. Lin Yuchan had long been immune and pretended not to hear.
Another person sitting across the tea table immediately stood up and took the cup from Lin Yuchan’s hands with both hands.
“How could we trouble the lady to serve personally?” Su Minguan was as polite as if receiving tea bestowed by the Empress Dowager. “Thank you, we don’t deserve such treatment.”
The young master of Da’an’s smile froze, feeling somewhat ashamed, and finally remembered to mumble a thank you.
Lin Yuchan smiled at Su Minguan. Taking advantage of the time for boiling water, she had everyone wash their hands with soap.
Epidemics were rampant year-round in ancient times, and the foreign concessions were no exception. Recently, with hot weather and breeding mosquitoes, people have died of disease daily. Funeral music played constantly, and corpse collection carts were especially busy.
Having lived in the Qing Dynasty for a long time, she had developed basic tolerance for such natural and man-made disasters occurring around her.
Though Lin Yuchan wasn’t a professional doctor, from her observations, many disease transmissions stemmed from terrible sanitary conditions.
She couldn’t control others, but she would remind all people she knew and had contact with to pay attention to hygiene. The company and factory kept soap available everywhere, and toilets were cleaned daily by specialists, ensuring absolutely no standing water or odors.
Within her capabilities, she tried to create a safe environment.
Several cups of clear, refined black tea were arranged in a row. Dozens of friendly merchants and shareholders crowded into the small hall, with clean hands picking up small cups, seriously savoring the flavors.
“Mmm, this cup is manually refined. It has spirit! It’s an old master’s handiwork.”
“The grassy astringent taste hasn’t even been removed—this can is undoubtedly machine-made tea.”
“Hmm… smoky and fruity flavors, rich and fragrant, truly superior… but there’s a metallic taste, I guess it’s machine-made.”
“I can taste it! From best to worst: C, A, B, D—so A and C are handmade, B and D are machine-made…”
………..
Lin Yuchan conducted this “blind guessing game” quite professionally, having people prepare paper and pens. Those willing to participate in the challenge all left their names and guessing results, which were collected uniformly.
Gradually, people outside also came to watch the excitement.
Lin Yuchan took a cup of tea herself and sat in a corner, slowly sipping while enjoying the lively scene throughout the room.
Su Minguan openly sat beside her, also holding a small cup.
Although this was export tea brewed according to Western habits, he still maintained the stubbornness of Guangdong people drinking gongfu tea—appreciating color, smelling fragrance, drinking from shallow cups in small sips, his posture was quite elegant.
Lin Yuchan deliberately provoked: “Can you figure it out?”
Su Minguan didn’t speak. After a long while, he carefully asked: “Those four cans of tea labeled A, B, C, D—are they really two machine-made and two handmade?”
Lin Yuchan smiled and nodded.
With so many shareholders and financiers present, she wouldn’t play that kind of face-slapping game of “all four cans are machine-made, you’re all wrong haha.” When she said half and half, it was true, fair, and square.
Su Minguan smiled slightly and took another sip, looking at his reflection in the tea.
Presently, that reflection included a delicate girl’s face. She first smiled slightly, then her eyes gradually filled with eagerness, patiently waiting for him to speak.
“Honestly,” Su Minguan finally spoke, “Defeng Company’s secret tea is indeed slightly better than the Boya refined tea you sell.”
Lin Yuchan suddenly realized he was very knowledgeable about tea. The Thirteen Factories merchant officials mostly made their fortunes in tea. Though he hadn’t inherited the family business, having been influenced from childhood, his taste couldn’t be too poor.
It was just that his rebellious spirit drove him to be self-reliant. After becoming independent, he rarely handled tea goods, and in recent years had directly changed careers, focusing on the transportation business. So much so that Lin Yuchan had almost forgotten that among all these tea drinkers present, this one had the most authentic scholarly lineage.
She was a bit nervous and asked: “Can you still taste the difference?”
Su Minguan tasted all four cups of tea, then gently pushed with his fingers, moving two cups to the left and placing two on the right.
Lin Yuchan’s eyes widened, cold sweat covering her back, thinking: It’s over…
Su Minguan couldn’t help but smile. In front of so many people, it wasn’t appropriate to pat her head.
“Don’t panic,” he quickly shuffled the four cups of tea again, bragging in a low voice: “I have my tricks.”
At this time, other guests had also finished drinking their tea. Some were confident, others were hesitant, all writing their judgment results on paper.
The young master of Da’an smiled confidently: “A and C are handmade—trust me, I’m right!”
The tea cans were empty. Boya’s tea manager, Zhao Huaisheng, pulled out small paper slips from them and announced: “Cans A and B are machine-made, cans C and D are hand-roasted. Thank you all for your efforts, haha…”
Everyone was shocked and quickly grabbed the empty cups, trying to verify again with the few drops of tea at the bottom.
After a brief tally, two people had guessed the correct answers. Lin Yuchan immediately announced generously: “Each gets a box of tea—machine or handmade, your choice!”
It was just a game anyway. Lin Yuchan had designed this segment for publicity and entertainment, not to compete with everyone. If no one had guessed correctly, that would have been embarrassing for her.
However, these two winners weren’t tea merchants but shareholders who knew nothing about tea goods: one was Chang Baoluo’s aunt, one was Lin Yuchan’s original widow landlady, which was quite surprising.
The young master of Da’an was unconvinced: “Hey, we tea sellers all failed completely, not one got it right? Boss lady, look again—did you write the slips wrong?”
The two old ladies were modest instead: “We can’t read, we were just guessing randomly, haha…”
Carrying their tea, they left happily.
Someone unwillingly commented: “Actually, I tasted it, but you all said A was handmade tea, which led me astray…”
However, after this round of tasting, even the most conservative tea merchants had to admit that the machines introduced by Boya Company were at least acceptable in quality and could compete with handmade tea.
Boya’s steam engine debut temporarily concluded. People sighed and left one after another. The crowd of onlookers also dispersed with cheerful chatter. They could vaguely hear several tea merchants discussing getting small roasting machines to try themselves if there was a chance.
Lin Yuchan called out from behind: “For designing machinery, I have connections! Reasonable prices, absolutely reliable!”
The buzzing sounds continued as machines in the factory were still operating. Lin Yuchan had assistants clean up while she looked around hurriedly and caught up.
“Hey, Boss Su, don’t rush off.”
She smiled as she tried to keep him.
Su Minguan saw through her intention at a glance: “I saved you a box of tea—what more do you want?”
Though his words were harsh, he still allowed himself to be half-pushed, half-pulled back to the shop’s accounting room.
“Please don’t hesitate to enlighten me.” Lin Yuchan placed the four empty tea cans on the table. “How exactly did you taste the difference?”
Four choose two—even blind guessing had a certain probability of success. But Su Minguan wasn’t guessing blindly. When he made his choice, he was almost without hesitation.
With so many people and eyes earlier, Lin Yuchan couldn’t ask much. Now with quiet surroundings, she had to get to the bottom of it to have a direction for improvement.
Su Minguan looked at her eager-for-knowledge expression and felt it would be unconscionable to keep playing mysterious.
“If you only gave me two cans of tea, not looking at appearance but only tasting flavor,” he said, “I might not be able to distinguish quality.”
Lin Yuchan was slightly startled. She pondered his words and slowly said: “So… you mean there’s no obvious distinction in quality?”
“Machine-produced goods, whether tea or yarn or anything else, excel in uniform, stable quality.” Su Minguan slowly poured out the tea dregs from the four cans, rubbing them with his fingertips to release fragrance. “While handmade tea—not to mention if the master’s skills are poor and quality varies greatly—even the most capable old masters will have subtle differences in each batch they roast. These differences, in the eyes of some literary scholars, are instead precious and rare, a pleasure when tasting tea.”
Lin Yuchan listened carefully, then suddenly interjected: “But Westerners are different. They don’t taste tea. They value stable tea quality more, pursuing something that won’t be unpalatable no matter how it’s treated—with sugar or milk, hot or iced.”
Su Minguan finally couldn’t resist and patted her head.
The little girl had only been dealing with tea goods for how long, yet she clearly understood the difference between export tea and traditional Chinese tea appreciation. Many veteran tea merchants found it harder to change their thinking patterns.
“In the past, when the Thirteen Factories trained tea-roasting masters, much energy was spent on ensuring stable output quality. In today’s terms, it was training people to become machines, making their every operation—heat, portions—the same without the slightest difference.”
Su Minguan spoke while rearranging the four tea cans.
“Many tea merchants tasted it correctly earlier. Can C was the best. Cans A and B had similar quality, and can D was the worst. At the same time, they believed handmade tea must be superior to machine-made tea, so naturally they identified cans A and C, or B and C, as handmade tea.”
Lin Yuchan excitedly drew in a breath, completely understanding.
“While you just tasted that cans A and B had similar flavors, so you identified them as machine-made—I see. When explained, there’s no mystery to it, haha.”
Su Minguan lightly glanced at her.
He had kindly answered her questions, but ended up pulling himself down from the pedestal and being laughed at by her.
Lin Yuchan quickly scribbled in her work diary.
No matter what, Boya’s steam engine production line had achieved “stable quality.” Today’s “blind tasting” has also built some reputation in the industry and should smoothly obtain export qualifications.
However, it still needed to be distinguished from handmade Boya refined tea. It would be best to create its own brand to avoid discrimination from buyers who worshipped pure handwork.
“Still call it Defeng?” she murmured to herself.
Although the steam engine production line’s procedures copied the content of Defeng Company’s secret recipes, she had no good feelings toward those three characters, “Defeng Company.” Too many stains—better to abandon it.
But… Defeng Company was after all an old brand of decades, a leader that quickly occupied the foreign trade market after the collapse of Guangzhou’s Thirteen Factories, with excellent reputation among foreign firms.
If she continued the “Defeng” brand, foreign firms wouldn’t care who had acquired and merged Defeng Company. As long as the tea quality wasn’t inferior, they would give her the green light without worrying about orders.
Lin Yuchan was quite petty in her struggle—was it worth abandoning such a solid brand…
Su Minguan smiled as he watched her torn between alternatives, suddenly drawing in a breath but saying nothing.
Lin Yuchan immediately noticed: “Speak.”
He hesitated briefly, then turned to lock the door and picked through the brushes and ink on the table.
“I can give you a brand name.” Su Minguan said quietly. “It shouldn’t be inferior to Defeng.”
He spread out rice paper, picked up a thick, hard wolf-hair brush, closed his eyes to think briefly, then very slowly began writing.
Heavy and solid, vigorous and powerful, as if from an old man’s hand, not his usual gentle, nimble style.
—”Xingrui.”
The final dot and hook, moist with bright ink, like brilliant black pearls, pierced straight to the heart.
Lin Yuchan stared at the undried ink, her two distinct eyebrows jumping up, pupils trembling, her mind momentarily freezing.
“This is…”
A completely unfamiliar name. Yet not entirely strange. She recalled long ago—the oil-smoke-filled streets of Guangzhou City, scorching sunlight spraying on her neck. She and a mysterious young man were walking side by side. Bustling shops crowded around them, selling cooling drinks, snacks, jewelry, calligraphy, and paintings…
“Have you heard of Xingrui Company?” The tall young man carried faint pride, saying softly, “I didn’t expect anyone still remembered.”
………..
Lin Yuchan cried out, rushing to the white paper to look left and right, then suddenly raised her head to meet Su Minguan’s carefree smile.
“This is… this is your family’s former… from the Thirteen Factories…”
Lin Yuchan froze like a statue, her heart unable to believe it.
“Export volume in the millions of taels.” The grown-up young man spoke lazily, using his fan to lightly dry the paper. “But it hasn’t been seen in the market for a long time. No guarantee of reputation, risk at your discretion.”
For a moment, she forgot how to speak, waves of wild excitement rolling through her heart. Her body stiffened while her three souls and seven spirits had already leaped out from above her head, tumbling and jumping in the air, dancing a “Rolling and Crawling Waltz.”
She suddenly looked up, half-jokingly questioning: “Why didn’t you mention this before? I wasted so much effort building Boya’s foundation step by step, starting from nothing…”
Su Minguan answered matter-of-factly: “Boya refined tea is good, but quality isn’t stable—it doesn’t meet Thirteen Factories export standards. Today’s batch barely qualifies and won’t disgrace my family’s reputation.”
Lin Yuchan: “…”
He was quite strict!
Hadn’t his family’s reputation already been thoroughly ruined by him!
“Okay?” Finally, she carefully confirmed: “You don’t want to charge a usage fee or something…”
She was afraid he was just dangling a carrot, arousing her appetite, then finally saying “you can’t afford it,” playing with her little heart in his palm and making her willingly let him fleece her…
Thinking this way and looking at his elusive smile, she felt even more suspicious of his motives.
Su Minguan couldn’t help laughing. He put down his fan, gathered her head to rest against his chest, his fingers gently threading through her hair, his sleeve wiping away sweat from that flushed face.
“Not expensive.” He whispered in her ear.