Wentu/Ying Zhigang

When I first arrived in Suzhou, I gave myself a screen name called "Wumen Yueke", which means a Zhejiang native who was a guest in Suzhou.

Wandering people always look like "guests" when doing things and speaking in a foreign land. For example, if Su Bang's food is sweet and fresh, and local friends say it is delicious, I never dare to refute it with salty and fresh Zhejiang food.

But in Zhenze, Wujiang, an ancient town located at the "Wutou Yue Wei" and bordering Zhejiang, I don't have to "do as the Romans do" when I go to Rome. With a strong local accent,"speaking salty words" can be communicated smoothly. Even the taste when entering the mouth is like a vein, which naturally has a natural affinity.

People in Jiangnan like to drink tea, and Zhenze is no exception.

My hometown of Ningbo is separated from Zhenze by a strait, one is near the sea and the other is close to Taihu Lake, but it is very wonderful. Everyone calls drinking tea "tea".

Zhenze's tea is indeed edible.

Compared with the "delicacies" of Ningbo people with a cup of white sugar water and a few plates of cakes, the ceremony of Zhenze people's reception of the "hairy son-in-law" is much more heroic.

In Zhenze, if tea is not served, it means that the woman does not have a young man in mind, which is equivalent to issuing an order to leave.

Of course, the highest courtesy is to serve four bowls of tea, which are boiled egg tea, rice rice cake tea, tea-smoked green bean tea and a cup of green tea. No matter how anxious I am, boiled egg tea is a must-have.

Among the four bowls of tea, the first three bowls are indeed for eating. Water-soaked egg tea is two soft-boiled eggs lying in white sugar water, which means that the young couple's future life is "sweet and sweet".

Fanmi tea is a glutinous rice crust cooked by firewood stove and brewed with white sugar water. Due to material scarcity in the past, glutinous rice was relatively valuable. It is said in rural areas that it was used to entertain the emperor, so it is also called "waiting for the emperor tea".

Smoked bean tea is green edamame smoked and roasted with charcoal fire. It is made with tea leaves, dried carrots, tangerine peel, and white sesame seeds. It is salty and fragrant in the mouth, the beans are crispy and have endless aftertaste.

Eating tea is a sight in Zhenze. You can have tea in the morning, noon and evening. You can have a comfortable meal of tea in a serious teahouse, a street snack bar, or a table set up in front of the door and a few chairs.

Eat tea, eat tea. Tea is a supporting role. You can choose black tea, green tea, and white tea, but you can't make do with eating.

Tea must be served with cakes or snacks. Dingsheng cake, dried black beans, egg yolk wontons, apo dumplings, as well as pickled duck, stewed goose, and noodles with various toppings. There are all kinds of delicacies paired in the name of "eating tea". If you want to eat them all, you can only "never hesitate to be a person of shock".

Life in Zhenze Ancient Town is neither panic nor slow. People in Zhenze said that it has been like this for thousands of years. What is there to worry about?

Eating tea is the most important thing.

The sky seemed bright or not, but the tiger stove was already burning hot. The water in the stove was churning and the water vapor filled the entire room. Ordinary life begins when the first tea customer walks into the shop.

The old tea customer found a place to sit down in the shop, looked at the opening of the thermos bottle, and made sure that it was freshly brewed tea. He opened the cup calmly, threw a few tea leaves into the cup, and the boiling water washed down. Only then did he greet with determination,"Boss, please have a bowl of fried fish noodles."

Old tea customers each have their own "territory", and the shop also follows the rules and collects the tea cups and tea leaves stored by the old tea customers in the store in fixed cabinets. Even the seat where they sit every day is fixed. The new tea customers "snatch" their seats, but the boss doesn't give them a good face.

The tea customer sitting inside was determined to eat a bowl of noodles, wiped his mouth, picked up the tea he had just brewed, looked up at the scenery outside, and accidentally bumped into the eyes of an acquaintance. He clapped his hands and shouted loudly,"Come in and have a cup of tea before leaving!"

While eating tea, Suzhou Pingtan was playing in the small slightly of people on the river bank. Under the osmanthus tree, three or two old women with silver hair were chatting against old rattan chairs.

The old woman's hair was combed meticulously, wearing soft satin embroidered shoes and a silk short coat with dark patterns. She calmly picked up the teacup and blew away the floating foam, as if blowing away the floating dust of the old year.

That year's clear eyes as water and rosy cheeks like peach blossoms bloomed in the overflowing tea.

This is shocking. Even when you are old, it makes people feel so charming.

I suddenly remembered Shen Fu's writing in "Six Chapters of a Floating Life" that during the Mid-Autumn Festival one year, he and his beautiful wife Yun Niang "set up a pavilion with a blanket, sat around the ground, and watched to cook tea to advance." When a bright moon rose,"The wind blows at the end of the sleeve, the moon reaches the quilt, and the worldly thoughts are suddenly released"...

Strolling on the streets of Zhenze Ancient Town, I feel like this interesting time is engraved in the old white walls and tiles and a bay of flowing water, which has not changed year by year.