Chapter 23: Bai Xin and Lv E

“Alright, let’s leave it for now. Bai Xin, light an incense stick, and call me when it burns out,” Ye Yaming said, taking a book and sitting on the soft couch by the window to read.

Lv E was a year younger than Bai Xin and had a more lively personality. She followed Bai Xin out the door, walked a bit further, looked around to make sure no one was nearby, and whispered, “Miss’s way of making tea doesn’t seem reliable to me.”

They were not born into the Ye family but were children of the Ye family’s tea garden workers. They had watched their parents make tea since they were young. They had never seen tea made without steaming or baking.

Bai Xin glared at her. “Miss has her reasons for doing it this way. Do you think you’re smarter than Miss?”

Lv E puffed out her cheeks. “I didn’t say that.”

She rolled her eyes. “By the way, have you noticed that Miss has changed a bit these past few days? She doesn’t seem the same as before.”

After Ye Yaming’s transmigration, although she tried to mimic the original owner’s habits, speech patterns, and small actions, she was ultimately not the same person.

These subtle differences could be hidden from Madam Yin and other members of the Ye family, who only saw her once or twice a day, and from the somewhat distant Nanny Xia, who didn’t like to be around the original owner. But they couldn’t be hidden from Bai Xin and Lv E, who served her closely.

The changes were minimal, and although Lv E had doubts, she didn’t dare to tell anyone, thinking it was just her imagination. Now, stimulated by Ye Yaming’s ability to make osmanthus tea, she couldn’t help but voice her doubts.

Bai Xin became even more annoyed when she heard this. “If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll tell Miss.”

Seeing Lv E’s defiant expression, she sighed and said, “Miss was seriously ill recently. When she woke up, she said she had walked through the gates of hell; in a daze, she had a dream where the Ye family fell, she was tortured to death by the Song family, and we both died too.”

Lv E’s face changed dramatically, and she exclaimed, “Ah?”

Bai Xin quickly covered her mouth and glared at her.

Seeing Lv E promise not to make any more noise, she let go and continued, “People say that going through the gates of hell can change one’s personality. It’s normal for Miss to have a different temperament now. Besides, people change as they grow up, especially after experiencing trauma. You shouldn’t talk so much. If others hear, it could cause trouble.”

She was more attentive than Lv E and had long noticed the subtle differences in Ye Yaming. However, with Ye Yaming’s explanation, she quickly accepted these differences after some mental adjustments.

Moreover, she knew that if these differences were known to others, it could cause trouble. The Ye family had enough issues recently, so she kept her doubts to herself and didn’t mention them to anyone. After all, she could feel the young lady’s kindness, and she still trusted her deeply, which was enough.

Lv E quickly said, “Don’t worry, sister. I’ll only whisper this to you and won’t mention it to anyone else. But now that you say it, thinking it over, I think you’re right. Miss fell ill, had an epiphany, and changed her temperament. It’s perfectly normal.”

“Exactly.”

At this point, Lv E felt a bit displeased. “Why does Miss tell you these things but not me?”

“Isn’t it because you’re so carefree and sometimes speak without thinking? That’s why Miss doesn’t want to tell you,” Bai Xin said.

Lv E quickly covered her mouth, her big eyes blinking. Bai Xin couldn’t help but find it amusing and playfully poked her forehead.

Bai Xin went inside to get an embroidery frame, sat on the couch under the corridor, listening to the movements from Ye Yaming’s side, and occasionally glanced at the burning incense inside, stitching flowers intermittently.

Inside, Ye Yaming, hearing the two maids stop talking, felt relieved and returned to the soft couch under the north window, sitting down to read her book seriously.

The original owner, influenced by her maternal grandfather and Madam Yin and engaged to Song Yifeng, believed that poetry and literature were elegant and strove to be close to a great scholar. So she spent a lot of time and energy studying poetry and books.

Ye Yaming had her memories and naturally received the knowledge in her mind. But the dominant knowledge in her mind was still modern knowledge and vernacular. To absorb and digest the poetry and literature of this era, she had to read the books again to consolidate them.

Fortunately, books in this era were expensive and scarce, and the Ye family was not a scholarly family, so their collection was minimal. The original owner had only read about a dozen books. Ye Yaming could read them several times with some effort.

More than an hour later, Bai Xin came to remind her that the time was up.

Ye Yaming got up, went to the tea pile, felt that the temperature was slightly higher than body temperature, and then had Bai Xin and Lv E turn the tea pile to let it cool.

After the temperature dropped a bit, she gathered them into a pile again for a second round of scenting, allowing the tea leaves to absorb the fragrance evenly.

“Like this, when the osmanthus flowers wilt and turn purplish-red, and the tea leaves are soft but not sticky, it’s done,” Ye Yaming said to the two maids.

The two maids would be freed from servitude after she got married, and the osmanthus tea production would still rely on their help. Ye Yaming naturally didn’t hesitate to teach them tea-making skills.

In two or three years, the Ye family could change their fate and establish a foothold with this osmanthus tea. By then, whether the technique would be passed on wouldn’t matter as much.

In modern times, everyone knows how to make various teas, and one can even buy a tea-making machine to make tea. However, the taste of tea made by each family was different, and the price varied greatly due to brand issues.

So teaching the two maids didn’t worry Ye Yaming about them getting married or leaving the Ye family and affecting the Ye family’s tea business.

“Lv E, go to the corridor and add some charcoal to the stove to keep the fire going. Bai Xin, help me sift out these flower residues,” Ye Yaming instructed.

The two maids immediately got to work.

Once all the tea was baked into osmanthus tea and left to cool naturally in the room, the osmanthus tea was considered done. It would be ready to be packed into jars by this time tomorrow, completing the entire osmanthus tea-making process.