Ge Xin

"Yexing always looks for bamboo paths and goes to the teahouse in a small way." On the weekend, he and his husband drove to the countryside for a leisurely trip. It was hot and thirsty. He happened to meet a sign of "tea". It was originally a teahouse in the countryside. A skinny old man with a teapot saw us and hurried to greet us into the house.

There is no fancy decoration in the teahouse. There are seven or eight square log tables, several large teapots, several white porcelain cups, and red fruit dishes. The big kitchen stove is "gurgling" with water, and the big ceramic teapot is matched with a big bowl. There are several old people in the teahouse. They are all dressed simply, drinking tea and talking about the past and the present in rural dialect. On the side near the window, there are two old people playing chess. The chessboard pattern is vague, which seems to have been for some years. As the tea went down, the wrinkles on the old people's faces seemed to have eased.

While making tea for us, the skinny old man tried to use the words we could understand: "They are all villagers nearby. They like to sit in the teahouse to relieve fatigue and chatter..." My husband and I picked up a large bowl of tea and tasted it carefully. Each person was two yuan and five yuan. The old man only charged us five yuan for tea. A tea drinker nearby was surprised at us. He said that everyone was two and a half dollars, and you paid for it. From morning to night, no one would be impatient with you.

Time seems to be still in this country teahouse. Looking at the large bowls of tea drinkers in the teahouse, the villagers don't know the year and the month in a trance; Time passed in the country teahouse again. The tea in the teabowl became empty and empty again. At this moment, there was no worry. Drinking tea and eating green beans, an afternoon passed quietly. I can't help thinking of the tea house located in the countryside of Zhuge Town, Lanxi when I first arrived in the south of the Yangtze River in this early summer, more than 20 years ago.

The teahouse doesn't even have a name. The historical wind and rain covered the eaves and feet with moss. However, the signboard with the word "tea" written on it and the tea stove with the sound of "singing" make people feel kind. The square table and high stool have fallen off the original brown paint, but there is no sense of desolation. The tea house faces the street and is a noisy snack street. At the end of the street is the road to Zhuge Bagua Village.

As a northerner, it was the first time I walked into the teahouse. I said I did, but I was actually in the open air, because there would be more leisure outside. At that time, the old farmers who drank tea indoors were also in small groups. Each one had a cup of tea covered with cups of tea, and everyone laughed and laughed. The table top was engraved with marks, and the local tea bowl was old and yellow. A bowl of tea only charged 50 cents.

The simple rural aunt picked up the long beaked earthen pot, put the spout of the pot against the tea bowl, and made a cup of hot "fragrant tea" for each of our friends, pouring out her affection.

In the antique atmosphere, many themes about life and culture are created through the fragrance of tea. The small teahouse is drunk, everything is in harmony with the heart, and it is wet. The rich fragrance and warm words are washing away the tiredness of the long journey. "Village tea is more fragrant than wine". These buds and leaves seem to be the most lyrical. I don't know about tea, but I am intoxicated with the aroma of tea.

Watching the tea rolling in the boiling water, I was filled with emotion: simple villagers plucked the hope of life from the tea tree, and then rubbed out juice from the hope to reproduce generation after generation. The seemingly weak leaves are willing to offer the spring scenery and all kinds of tenderness to the world. Feel pinching, pressing, baking and kneading, and only silently endure without regret. In the depths of suffering, it actually smiled extremely brightly.

That time, we chatted while drinking tea, and the afternoon passed quickly.

After more than 20 years, everything seems to have changed, and everything seems to have remained unchanged. Year after year, the countryside in the south of the Yangtze River is still as silent as a picture; Season after season of rural tea, are also received in this cup after cup of simple tea.