Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

After organizing her thoughts, Song Ming said, “Let’s put it this way. Tea leaves were like porcelain. In ancient times, Europeans had to import tea from China. In 1610, the East India Company in the Netherlands imported a large quantity of tea leaves from China. However, due to the limited freight volume back then, the so-called large quantity was limited.

“Back then, the Netherlands imported tea leaves without understanding what they were used for. Most of them were placed into drugstores and sold as herbs from the mysterious orient.

“There were even two theories that they came up with: one, tea was poison, and second, tea was a precious beverage. This was incessantly debated by both sides.

“Even so, because the quantity of tea leaves was low, the price reached 80 Dutch guilders per pound. One had to know that this was a price that was exempted from tariffs. If the tariffs were added, the price would definitely be higher than gold.

“Later, a university professor published a book called “Tea, Coffee & Chocolate.” This book taught Europeans tea culture. Immediately, tea leaves became popular all across Europe.

“The nobles posed as lovers of culture by drinking tea, while the nouveau riche mimicked the nobles. The poor could only look up…

“At that time, tea was so fashionable in Europe that they couldn’t be bought. One had to attend auctions to buy them.

“Even so, tea leaves were in extremely high demand. The supply couldn’t keep up with demand and the prices kept rising.

“With profits to be made, all the big companies and fleets came to China to purchase tea leaves.

“Even so, tea leaves remained extremely expensive.

“As tea culture spread, America and Russia also came to purchase tea leaves.

“At that time, England had risen. It was an empire on which the sun never sets. It monopolized all the black tea in China.

“Meanwhile, America could only ask for second best by buying green tea.

“Russia, which couldn’t be supplied with black and green tea, even took compressed tea. They swept away everything to sell back in their countries.

“Even so, as tea leaves spread, more and more people joined the tea-drinking army. England soon discovered that just importing black tea was not enough to satisfy the country’s demands. Hence, they raised their imports of green tea. Towards the end, they even imported compressed tea as well.

“At that time, there was a saying that the westerners used opium to steal treasures, while China used tea leaves and porcelain to steal treasures.

“Until one day, when America opened up Japan, the Americans suddenly realized that this inconspicuous place actually had a large tea industry!

“Hence, the tea leaves in Japan entered the market.

“Japan’s tea started from the Tang dynasty. Every year when they came to China to offer tributes, they would get some tea species which they went to great efforts to nurture. In other words, Japan’s tea had its roots in Chinese tea. The difference isn’t that huge. Even the tea frying and brewing methods were learned from China.

“With the appearance of Japan, the monopoly China had on tea leaves was destroyed. Moreover, the Chinese were disappointing back then. Because of the popularity of tea leaves, they started to sell shoddy tea leaves to earn more money.

“As a result, its reputation in Europe waned by the day.

“The Japanese sent people to travel Europe for research. After they were done with their research, they used their honesty and high-quality tea leaves to enter the European market.

“The Europeans immediately threw themselves into Japan’s embrace and abandoned Chinese tea leaves.

“From then on, Japanese tea leaves entered the high-end aristocratic market and the price was higher than gold.

“From then on, Chinese tea was reduced to low-end markets and could not be sold at high prices.

“It wasn’t a big deal to begin with. We were disappointing, so we can’t blame others for being smart.

“We Chinese aren’t sore losers either. We can just climb up from where we fell.

“Up till now, Chinese tea merchants have been working hard to return to the high-end market. In fact, they have already achieved a lot of results.

“We are working hard and using our strength to fight for what originally belonged to us.

“But just as we are working hard, there are people who would rather be dogs than humans!”

Tang Chen subconsciously glanced at Boss Qian.

Song Ming said, “That’s right, he’s the leader. Eight years ago, the Japanese came to China to open a tea merchant meet. Everyone went. The atmosphere was very tense. The biggest tea merchant in Japan, the Hiei family, even arrogantly claimed China will have no tea in the next ten years!

“At that time, my father was infuriated and started arguing with him, teaching him what tea was.

“Both sides competed in the Way of Tea and competed in the tea leaves. In the end, we lost on the Way of Tea, but we won at tea leaves.

“To Chinese tea merchants, this was a very good outcome.

“After all, even though the Way of Tea is important, what’s most important are good tea leaves.

“After all, they were selling tea leaves instead of the Way of Tea.

“With the tea leaves winning, it meant that the high-end market was waving to us.

“The people from the Hiei family left dejectedly. We thought that this would be the end.

“Who would have thought that, eight years later, the Hieis are back again. This time, it wasn’t at a tea merchant meet, but a challenge! It was like the challenge from eight years ago, a challenge between the Way of Tea and tea quality.”

Tang Chen was puzzled. “What does this have to do with Boss Qian?”

Song Ming said angrily, “Just yesterday, I heard that the reason why the Hiei family dares to come back is because they bought the tea seeds which defeated them from Boss Qian at a high price eight years ago! For the sake of money, he stole our precious tea seeds and sold them to Japan! At the same time, he is also the biggest agent for Hiei in China. Don’t you think this kind of person is hateful?”

Tang Chen’s eyes widened when he heard that. He said angrily, “Isn’t this a traitor?”

Song Ming nodded and said, “Back then, traitors could claim that they did it for survival, because they were afraid of death, or had no choice but to do so. But he… he is a dog deep down!”

Tang Chen looked at Muddle Tang and asked, “Master, you know about this too?”

Muddle Tang chuckled and said, “I know about the competition. I’m not sure about the matter of selling tea. Speaking of which, the competition between Hiei and China should be held three days later, right?”

Song Ming nodded. “Yes.”

With this said, Song Ming sighed and said, “This time round, the Hiei family came prepared. I heard that they used the tea seeds that we had painstakingly cultivated. They did genetic modification in a targeted manner to develop Hiei Premium Tea. It’s much better than the Seven-Inch Fragrance tea that we used eight years ago. The best tea we have now is only slightly better than the Seven-Inch Fragrance tea. I’m afraid we will lose this competition.”

Tang Chen frowned and said, “Genetic modification? That Hiei Premium Tea isn’t natural, but artificial?”

Song Ming said, “Yes.”

Tang Chen said, “This… Master, didn’t you say that the best tea comes from nature? No one can be sure that the genetically modified tea leaves will have side effects, right?”

Muddle Tan said, “The best tea obviously comes from nature. In fact, I won’t comment on it being genetically modified, but the high-end markets do not acknowledge such things. Mdm. Song, is your information reliable?”