Chapter 47: A Woman's Heart

As mentioned last time, Bu Qi discussed with Lu Mao and was willing to pay a price in exchange for Liu Chan's life. Although Liu Hou in the military camp outside the city did not know Buqi's conspiracy, his cautious personality made him dare not relax his vigilance against Zhou Xue.

After driving away Lu Mao, Liu Hou said to Zhou Xue: "Xiao Xue, don't blame, I was acting for that Lu Mao, and I didn't really suspect that you were an assassin, Nuo, this is your short sword, and I will return it to you." As he spoke, he handed the short sword in his hand to Zhou Xue.

Zhou Xue didn't reach out to pick it up, and said, "I don't want it, it's yours, give it back to you." ”

"Since it's given to you, it's yours, come and take it."

"No, save you from suspecting me of being an assassin."

Liu Hou smiled, retracted his hand, and said, "How can it be, I explained it to you just now, it was to deceive Lu Mao, how could I not believe you." Well, since you don't like daggers, I'll send you something else. Also, it's really not good for girls to play with knives and guns all day long, but I didn't think about it. ”

After speaking, Liu Hou took the opportunity to put the short sword in his arms, and then ordered his subordinates to fetch some jewelry. They fought all the way, captured countless treasures along the way, and indeed caught a lot of various treasures.

Liu Hou invited Zhou Xue to sit down and personally made tea for her. Zhou Xue did not object this time and sat down obediently.

The two sit opposite each other, in the middle is a low table, there is a tea tray on the low table, there is a purple sand pottery pot on the tea plate, 3 small teacups larger than the thumb and index finger circled by the tip of the small circle, a bamboo clip, other than this, there is nothing else.

Next to the low table was a small charcoal stove, on which was a delicate ceramic kettle, the spout of which was emitting a trace of white mist, apparently the water had been boiled.

Liu Hou lifted the kettle, poured the water into the purple sand teapot and the three cups, and then used a bamboo clip to pick up one teacup and turn it in the other teacup to clean the mouth of the teacup. After washing one after another, finally wash all three teacups, and then pour out the water from the purple sand teapot.

Then, I don't know where he got it, he found a bag of tea leaves, put the slightly broken tea under the teapot, and placed a large piece of tea leaves on it.

Then, he lifted the kettle with his right hand, poured the water along the rim, and when the water was full, he closed the lid and poured the tea into each cup.

Zhou Xue looked at Liu Hou's movements, showing a curious look, seeing that the teacup was filled with tea, her hand was raised and put down, obviously wanting to take the teacup and drink tea, but she was embarrassed.

Liu Hou saw her movements, smiled slightly, and said, "This is tea washing, don't drink it, I'll drink it later." ”

As he spoke, he picked up the bamboo clip again, picked up the teacups in turn, and poured out the tea in the cups. Then pick up the kettle with your right hand, open the lid of the teapot that has been emptied with your left hand, flush the water along the edge of the teapot again, fill it and close the lid, and then pour hot water on the lid for a while.

Zhou Xue saw his strange movements and wanted to ask a question again, but when the words came to his mouth, he couldn't help but make no sound. Liu Hou saw her cherry-red lips move, and took the initiative to say: "Pouring the lid with hot water is to make the hot air attack inside and outside, forcing the tea fragrance to volatilize quickly." ”

It didn't take long for the water vapor outside the purple clay pot to evaporate, and Liu Hou said, "Okay." ”

So, picking up the teapot and pouring tea on the three teacups, as if he suddenly remembered something, Liu Hou said with a smile while pouring, this is called "Guan Gong patrolling the city".

Zhou Xue responded with a "hum", obviously not having a good impression of Guan Gong. Liu Hou looked at it and was secretly amused, Guan Gong is not a god yet, and people in this era do not have that special feeling for Guan Gong, especially the people of Eastern Wu who have been fighting with Guan Gong all year round, and I am afraid that Guan Gong is more disgusted.

When there were only a few drops of tea left, Liu Hou clicked the three teacups a few more times, evenly lit these drops of tea into each cup, and said while ordering: "This is called 'Han Xin's soldiers'."

"Hmph, you have a lot of tricks." Zhou Xue finally couldn't help but reply.

"Hehe, talking about allusions can make the boring process of making tea interesting, why not?"

After the tea was poured, Liu Houyi stretched out his hand, and after saying "please", he also picked up a cup. However, he picked up the teacup and did not drink it immediately, but first smelled the tea, and then slowly took a sip and savored it.

When Zhou Xue saw his appearance, she also picked up a teacup, and when the teacup came to her mouth, a fragrance came to her nose, making her can't help but take a deep breath.

"Huh? What is it? Zhou Xue asked in surprise before she could drink it.

"It's tea, hehe, you haven't drunk it."

"Nonsense, I've drunk too much tea, but I don't have this fragrance." As she spoke, she took a sip carefully, "Bitter!" As soon as she said a word, she paused again, for although the mouth was a little bitter, it quickly became sweet, and a floral scent rushed to the end of her nose, with a long aftertaste and a fragrant fragrance on her cheeks.

"Hehe, the boiled tea you usually drink is no different from pig food, and you can drink this flavor there." Liu Houdao.

Tea in this era is not something that ordinary people can afford to drink, and it is basically only spread among the big families. However, the method of drinking tea in these families is not to drink it by brewing, but to drink it by boiling.

Liu Hou once drank tea from this era, they first crushed the tea leaves into minced pieces to make tea balls, mashed the tea when drinking, and decocted together with spices such as green onions, ginger, orange peel, mint, dates and salt.

Such a thing is not so much tea as soup, or even medicine, anyway, Liu Hou doesn't like to drink it very much, and the taste is so strange that I can't describe it.

Later, when Liu Hou was conquering Nanzhong, he found some tea trees, and on a whim, he ordered someone to pick some tea leaves. He was not very familiar with the tea-making process of later generations, and only stayed at the process of understanding.

He ordered the tea leaves to be dried first, then shaken them with a sieve, and then dried them after shaking, and then fried them in a pot. After frying, twist it into a ball and put it away for preservation.

Liu Hou once traveled to Fujian and visited a Hakka Wailong House scenic spot, where he saw the introduction of some tea-making technology, the time was long, and he really couldn't remember much of the content, but at least he remembered that tea was to be fried.

So he told the researchers of the Agricultural Research Institute who accompanied him about these tea-making ideas, and asked them to study and further improve the tea-making process.

Now their tea-making process is not very mature, so the bitter and astringent taste of the tea is still relatively heavy, but it has already had a bit of charm of Tieguanyin tea in later generations, at least the aroma is well preserved.

"What kind of pig food, it's so vulgar."

Seeing that Zhou Xue was a little dissatisfied with what he said, Liu Hou said again:

"This tea is a little bitter at first, but then it becomes sweet, and the aftertaste is long, it's not bad, if you don't like this bitter taste, there is no problem, just put this tea for two more years, and then it will become Pu'er tea."

At that time, there was no such bitter taste, but the floral fragrance was gone. Now I don't have that kind of fully fermented tea, because these teas are all newly made when I attacked Nanzhong, and the time is still very short, and I am afraid that I will have to wait another two years to drink that kind of Pu'er tea. ”

Zhou Xue was noncommittal, picked up the teacup and took another sip, and tasted it slowly, maybe she didn't understand what Liu Hou was saying at all, but it didn't prevent her from liking the taste of this tea, this kind of tea was indeed much better than the sencha she drank before.

"Okay, let's not talk about tea, if you like to drink it, you can drink it every day in the future, I have a lot of tea here, you can drink it. Now that there are no outsiders around, I ask you, would you like to stay with me? ”

Zhou Xue looked at the soldiers who were standing not far away on both sides, and did not speak, but lowered his head, and his cheeks were already flushed. I don't know what she means by looking at the soldiers is because someone is there, embarrassed to answer Liu Hou's embarrassing question, or thinking about the success rate of the assassination now.

Liu Hou saw Zhou Xue's movements watching the pro-soldiers, but his wariness of Zhou Xue had not been removed, so he didn't dare to withdraw the pro-soldiers, so he had to pretend not to know Zhou Xue's thoughts and said:

"Xiaoxue, you don't have to worry about them, they are like brothers to me, and I usually eat, drink, and sleep with them. No matter how confidential it is, I will say it to their faces, and I will never shy away from them. ”

Zhou Xue thought to herself, can our affairs be compared with ordinary confidential matters? But he didn't speak, he just lowered his head, looking like a quail. When she heard Liu Hou say that she ate, drank, and slept with her own soldiers, she was secretly anxious, in this case, where could she find the opportunity to assassinate?

After another conversation, a soldier brought a tray with all kinds of jewelry. Liu Hou asked Zhou Xue to choose, but Zhou Xue refused, so he just cared about where to sit with his head down, and he didn't make a sound.

Liu Hou was a little puzzled, how could this Xiaoxue say that she had also been a killer, why was her personality so dull? Isn't someone like her supposed to be spicy and hot, like Sun Shangxiang?

Actually, this Zhou Xue's usual personality is really a bit like Sun Shangxiang, she grew up in the barracks, where can she be quiet, but unlike Sun Shangxiang, Zhou Xue is a little more indifferent and a little less cheerful, which may be related to the fact that she has no father since she was a child. Today's table is definitely not the embodiment of her usual true character.

Liu Hou saw that she refused to choose, so he helped her pick two things and helped her put them on. Liu Hou picked a jade plaque carved with a dragon and phoenix pattern, and a golden step inlaid with pearls and gemstones.

In this era, most of the jade popular in the Central Plains was nephrite, such as Hetian jade, mutton fat white jade, etc., while jadeite belonged to jadeite, which was more precious and rare.

Needless to say, this piece of jade is also the trophy of Liu Hou's expedition to Nanzhong. Liu Hou estimated that it was something from Myanmar, which was close to Nanzhong, and he didn't know how to get it by Meng, and finally cheapened Liu Hou.

The gold step shake is not simple, the whole step shake is made of gold as the main material into a phoenix shape, the phoenix eye is two pearls, the most complex is 9 tail feathers, which are carved into a complex pattern with gold, and each tail feather is also inlaid with a sapphire to make the eye.

These nine sapphires alone are already worth a lot of money, and the price of the entire golden step is even more difficult to estimate. This is a treasure flowing out of the palace, and I don't know how Jian Yong got it. After Liu Hou killed Jian Yong, he got it from his house when he raided his house. Liu Hou estimated that this may be something that only the queen level is qualified to use.

Zhou Xue didn't say yes, didn't say no, continued to pretend to be quails, Liu Hou personally hung the jade jade plate around her neck, and then put the golden step on her head.

The jade and jade card is not enough, Zhou Xue is wearing a strong suit, but a graceful and luxurious golden step used by the nobles in the palace is inserted on her head, which looks as strange as it is. After Liu Hou interjected, he glanced at Zhou Xue, and he couldn't help but laugh.

Zhou Xue didn't know why, when she heard Liu Hou laughing alone, she raised her head and glared at him, and lowered her head again.

"Report! Master Fei is back and is asking to see him outside the tent. "At this time, a pro-soldier came in to report.

"Okay, we'll have a lot of time to talk in the future, let's talk about anything later, you go to rest first, I'll come to see you when I'm free." After that, Liu Hou called a personal soldier and asked him to arrange Zhou Xue's accommodation.

Although he really wanted to stay with Zhou Xue for a while, even if he risked being assassinated, he was willing to talk to her more, but Fei Yi came all the way back from Yulin County, and he had to meet her. So, he no longer cared about Zhou Xue and asked Xuan Feiyi to come in.

Naturally, someone arranged a military tent for Zhou Xue to live in, and Zhou Xue returned to his military tent and began to prepare for the assassination of Liu Hou. She didn't care about Liu Hou taking away the short sword, she was already a top-level killer, she could use it as a murder weapon, some things that were usually used, things that looked inconspicuous, and she could kill a person lightly in her hands.

Now in her hand is a belt, a soft thing that can be turned into a deadly noose at any moment. She was imagining that if Liu Hou dared to violate her tonight, she could strangle this belt around his neck and strangle him to death.

Jin Buyao was another option she had at hand, she could take advantage of Liu Hou's deep sleep, and stab the long hairpin that was originally used to insert his hair into his throat, ensuring that he would die again. If Liu Houzhen dies in this way, I don't know if he will regret sending Jin Buyan to her.

ps. Since the fee is charged, you have to be kind, more than 3700 words today, which is kind enough. Ask for collections, ask for recommendations, ask for monthly passes.