20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3747 A kind reminder

"The valley below this tea plantation has a warm climate, and there are some hot springs in the rock caves. The water vapor from the waterfalls nourishes the tea garden all year round. In spring, the mountains near the brick and tile factory to the north block the cold north wind from blowing directly over. The tea is of good quality and yield. This is the best-located contiguous tea garden in the entire Qiaojiashan Town."

Qiao Yan said with a sigh, "It took some effort to contract out this tea garden. There were quite a few people who wanted to take it over. Several big tea merchants in Pengzhou and Chen Fanping, the owner of Fanpin Tea House, all had this idea, and their prices were definitely higher, at least higher than mine. After taking it over, we also had to repair and replace the equipment in the tea plantation that had been losing money year after year and had not been properly managed. This was another considerable expense."

“At that time, we had only been in the hotel for less than a year and were heavily in debt. Moreover, if we were to take over the tea plantation, it wouldn’t just be a matter of the contract fee. Xiang Yong and his sister were against it, and my uncle also disagreed. They felt that the hotel was enough for us to eat, and there was no need to hoard so much. But my major was tea science. Sometimes I could see that huge tea plantation from the roof of the hotel. I was never satisfied until I got my hands on it.”

"To be honest, you've leased such a large, high-quality tea plantation for only 30,000 yuan a year, which is practically free. Even so, considering the sluggish tea market last year, the fact that you managed to lose over 100,000 yuan is quite remarkable."

Zhao Chang'an didn't think Xiang Yong was lying. He wasn't the kind of person who was scheming and prone to talking nonsense. He just found it strange that they hadn't done any cost accounting.

"The loss of over 100,000 yuan refers to the total amount of money invested and income earned in the tea plantation throughout the year. Haha, although he spends a lot, he is, after all, a math teacher. He keeps a clear record of every single expense, and his accounts are neatly and systematically organized, making them easy to understand at a glance."

Qiao Yan's voice carried a hint of sarcasm: "If Xiang Yong weren't so stubborn, concerned about saving face, and a chauvinist, I could have easily made a profit of 600,000 yuan this year, based on your purchase price, while ensuring the quality of the tea. I still owe the town and the bank more than 500,000 yuan in principal and interest, which would be perfect for paying off the debts. In fact, if he hadn't been so reckless these past few years, I would have paid off all the money long ago, instead of being so worried all the time now."

"Xiang Yong is a chauvinist. I don't think he's even as timid as you've made him."

Zhao Chang'an laughed: "If you say that to others, they won't believe you!"

“Yes, that’s how outsiders see me, including Xiang Yong. They say I’m domineering, snobbish, and good with words. But what can I do? Whenever we disagree, he always uses the moral cudgel to attack me. My uncle expects me to give in to him, because in his eyes, the little conflicts between my husband and me are nothing compared to his close cooperation with Xiang Juan. My uncle is like a god in our family. If he thinks that way, my parents might come all the way from the village to slap me if I don’t listen.”

When Qiao Yan brought this up, she was also full of complaints and grievances, and poured them out to Zhao Chang'an.

"There's no need to go all the way to Runing to find tea pickers; there are plenty in Pengzhou. Many of them already own tea gardens and are quick and efficient pickers, but they refuse to listen, and they pay them high wages. His father's relatives, his mother's relatives, his sister-in-law's relatives—they're divided into three factions, constantly fighting amongst themselves, it's like the Three Kingdoms period. If I weren't so shrewd, I would have been bullied and starved long ago."

“Every August when we repair the tea garden, I don’t know how many times I’ve told him not to bring a bunch of people from his hometown, including his father, his brother, his uncle, his cousin, and his distant cousins. There are seventeen or eighteen of them, and they’re provided with food and lodging, three meals a day with wine and meat. They can’t drink grain liquor, they have to drink Penghu Spring. They also have to smoke three or four packs of cigarettes a day, and they can’t smoke cheap cigarettes. They have to smoke at least four yuan a pack of Yu cigarettes. In fact, every time they leave, each of them has two or three packs of cigarettes that they’ve secretly hidden in their bags.”

"Six hundred acres of tea plantation, and it's taking a month and a half to finish. He's just wasting time. Xiang Yong is nowhere to be seen except when he's eating. He insists on going to work. I told him that if he really didn't want to hire people from the town, he could use his relatives. He could stay at the hotel and help out, but he said they were all relatives. If he stayed at home enjoying the air conditioning while they were working on the mountain, he would be scolded behind his back!"

As Zhao Chang'an listened to Qiao Yan's complaints, although every family has its own troubles, at least in Pengzhou, she really didn't have the right to complain.

As a beneficiary of the local Brahman community, and having married Xiang Yong, achieving a powerful alliance, if she were to complain, how would others cope? At this moment, Zhao Chang'an suddenly thought of something and said to Qiao Yan, "When your husband and the others are tending the tea garden in the summer, they need to be careful of ticks and take good personal protective measures."

The reason we don't mention the need to be careful when picking tea in March and April is because the Qiaojiashan Town tea plantation is located at a high altitude with low temperatures and a large temperature difference between day and night. When picking pre-Qingming tea, ticks cannot reach this high-altitude tea garden to cause trouble.

After May or June, these insects will continue to spread towards the mountain peaks and easily reach the tea plantation.

"Huh, skin bugs? What kind of bugs are those?"

In this era, people knew very little about the power of this insect, and Qiao Yan didn't understand.

"It's a grasshopper."

Zhao Chang'an wasn't sure if it was this particular insect, but the gist was clear enough. As long as proper precautions were taken, it would have some effect.

"What's there to be afraid of? They're everywhere in the countryside. Big yellow dogs have them. They suck blood until they're shiny and glistening. If you squeeze one, 'splat,' your hand will be covered in blood. It's so much fun."

Qiao Yan said with a smile, "You city people are so precious, you're afraid of all kinds of insects. When I was a child, I slept on a straw bed. In the middle of the night, rats and snakes would fight on the roof beams and would often fall onto the bed with a squeaking sound. Once, I went to catch a rat and my hand was bitten. I put some wood ash on it and it was healed. I still have the teeth marks to this day."

"It's best to take precautions; those things can bite people to death."

Zhao Chang'an still kindly reminded Qiao Yan: "Most ticks are harmless, but some carry viruses. If a person is bitten, they will experience symptoms like dysentery. We call it 'skin sweating' here. If you don't get timely and effective treatment, you'll die."

"Pfft~"

Qiao Yan clearly didn't believe it: "It's not as scary as you say! My big yellow dog is almost ten years old, and it's had them on it since it was a puppy, and it's perfectly fine. Those things are everywhere in the countryside. Don't even mention picking tea leaves, you can find them everywhere—on cutting down trees in the mountains, digging up orchids and medicinal herbs, picking vegetables in the garden, and on our cattle, sheep, pigs, donkeys, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and dogs. If you're talking about being careful, leeches are really scary, especially mountain leeches, and poisonous snakes too. Aren't those more frightening than these?"

Seeing that he couldn't convince this stubborn person, Zhao Chang'an had no choice but to stop talking. Besides, this was a low-probability event, and there weren't many people in the mountains catching centipedes and scorpions these days, which were the habitat of ticks, as they specifically ate ticks.

(End of this chapter)