Chapter 575: Soothing Heart Teahouse
Bai Yunfei remembered Zheng Kai saying before the Soothing Heart Teahouse was a rather well-known place in the northern parts of the Capital. He just didn’t think that it’d be such an ordinary looking little teahouse. It looked a little worse for wear actually. Compared to the richly area of the Capital, this teahouse looked like it was an ‘inferior’ place to be.
Noticing the building Bai Yunfei was pointing at, Zheng Kai looked slightly taken aback as well. “Eh? That’s the Soothing Heart? It’s that small?”
“What? You’ve never been here?”
“I haven’t. I only heard about it from other people. You know I don’t care much for drinking tea, I like wine more….”
“Well….now that we’re here, we might as well go in and sit down.” Bai Yunfei laughed. With Zheng Kai, he walked towards the teahouse. He had heard several things about the teahouse before and the mysterious effects of the tea there. He had to admit, he was slightly curious. And with his soul currently in some trouble, Bai Yunfei decided to give it a try to ‘soothe’ his heart.
The two walked into the teahouse, Bai Yunfei looking around the place. The first thing he saw was a rather large hall with several tables there. Four of which were already seated with customers drinking by themselves. In front of their tables sat a tea kettle and cup, each of the patrons taking slow sips from their cups pensively.
It was unnaturally quiet in the hall. No one was saying a thing, and none of the patrons had even spared more than a glance at Bai Yunfei or Zheng Kai when they entered, choosing to drink their tea after a second’s reprieve.
But to Bai Yunfei’s surprise, each of the four people were….soul cultivators! And they weren’t weak! Three of them were Soul Ancestors and the other one was a Soul Exalt!
There was only a single counter in this hall where a young kindly-looking youth in his twenties sat. Seeing Bai Yunfei and Zheng Kai walk in, the youth smiled at him. “Dear customers, welcome to the Soothing Heart. Have you two sires decided on what tea to drink?”
The young man at the counter was a Soul Ancestor like the majority of the patrons there and was clearly weaker than Bai Yunfei or Zheng Kai, but he didn’t seem to fear either of the two. From that, it could be seen that this man was used to having people like Soul Exalts come frequent the place.
Curious, Bai Yunfei asked, “What kind of tea do you sell here?”
The young man was already showing the two to a table to their right when asked, “Is this your first time here?”
“We’ve heard of this place before, but that’s it.”
The man smiled and pointed a finger to the tablets hanging from the wall behind the counter. “We’ve the name and prices of the tea listed on these bamboo tablets. Please take a look and choice whichever tea you wish.”
Following the direction of his finger, Bai Yunfei study the words on the tablets and was surprised as a result.
LESSER HEART SOOTHING TEA — 50 LOW GRADE PRIMAL STONES PER POT
HEART SOOTHING TEA — 80 LOW GRADE PRIMAL STONES PER POT.
GREATER HEART SOOTHING TEA — 1 MID GRADE PRIMAL STONE PER POT
LESSER SOUL SOOTHING TEA — 10 MID GRADE PRIMAL STONES PER POT
SOUL SOOTHING TEA — 50 MID GRADE PRIMAL STONE PER POT
GREATER SOUL SOOTHING TEA — 80 MID GRADE PRIMAL STONES PER POT
The most ridiculous one Bai Yunfei saw was the last bamboo tablet.
SOUL CONSOLIDATING TEA—1 HIGH GRADE PRIMAL STONE PET POT
“……”
For a good ten seconds, Bai Yunfei stared at the tablets in front of him, wondering if he was seeing things right. His lips twitched halfway into a smirk--were they selling tea, or were they just committing robbery?!
Zheng Kai had thoughts equivalent to Bai Yunfei’s. “Dear heavens…..we’re not drinking tea here, we’re drinking primal stones! I can’t even afford to drink some of tea with my current ‘allowance’, isn’t this something else?”
Their surprised looks was nothing strange to the young man attending to them, who only laughed. “Our tea is definitely worth the price. You’ll understand it straight away if you take a sip.”
Bai Yunfei hadn’t even heard of ‘tea’ that was this expensive before, let alone tasted one. He had definitely not thought the Soothing Heart would offer such expensive tea.
But he had to admit, he was curious now. This teahouse was still here, after all, and was quite well known in the Capital. Both of those factors combined must’ve meant there was something that gave this teahouse substance behind its reputation. If the teas were so outrageously priced, then they must’ve had some sort of value to them. So Bai Yunfei might as well give them a try.
It wasn’t as though these prices were even much for him. Even the most expensive tea there, the ‘Soul Consolidating Tea’, was well within buyable parameters.
Bai Yunfei nodded. “Very well then. I’ll take two pots of the Soul Consolidating Tea.”
“Soul Consolidating Tea--two of them?!”
The young man repeated in a quiet disbelieving tone, but loud enough for the other patrons to look over. Like him, the four patrons were quite surprised that someone was ordering a Soul Consolidating Tea, and two of them. This wasn’t a drink any normal person would order.
“Yes, two of them please.” Bai Yunfei nodded. “Also, is your boss here?”
“What? You know our boss?”
A person came down from the stairs then. When he saw Bai Yunfei on the first floor, he paused briefly before breaking out into a smile and hurrying on over.
“Little brother Bai? Haha, I knew I felt the aura of someone familiar. Welcome to my teahouse, welcome….”
This person was the person Bai Yunfei met back in Casino Jin, uncle Dan Teng.
Bai Yunfei’s lips twitched. “Could you drop the ‘little’ part? It’s awkward…..”
He cupped his hands in greeting to Dan Teng, “Hello uncle Dan Teng. The two of us were in passing when we saw your teahouse, so we decided to take a look. Little did we know about the….uniqueness of your teahouse.”
“Haha, the uniqueness, is it?” Dan Teng laughed at the implications behind Bai Yunfei’s words. Any time a person came here for the first time, they probably had the same reaction as Bai Yunfei.
“It really does amaze me, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it, won’t it? I’ve called for two pots of tea to be brought out.”
“Haha, if little brother Bai and lord Zheng are interested, then I’ve no problems with that. I’ve said it before that if you two came to my teahouse, I’d offer you the best tea I had. Please follow me up to the second floor, it’s much more tranquil up there--very suitable for drinking tea.”
He turned his head to the young man still there, “Yi Shu, bring up a pot or two of the Soul Consolidating Tea.”
Yi Shu stiffened at the attention in surprise, but he replied with an affirmative before heading for the kitchens behind to go prepare the tea.
Bai Yunfei and Zheng Kai both followed Dan Teng to the second floor and then into a room where the entire place was refine in atmosphere and had the faint smell of tea to it. Bai Yunfei felt at ease with himself when he entered this room and was seated next to the table-for-four near the window. Dan Teng opened the windows, revealing a patch of verdant green grass growing right outside it. With the wind blowing inwards into the room, the smell of tea and grass mixed together for an especially relaxing smell.
“I had nearly thought you two forgot about my teahouse. But the fact that you visited today has brought my humble teahouse a great deal of honor.” Dan Teng smiled. “I even went back to Casino Jin, but I never saw you guys there again. You must’ve been busy, right little brother Bai?”
Politely, Bai Yunfei responded, “Please…just call me Yunfei. Indeed, I’ve been busy as of late and rarely stepped out from my place. I came here today to look at a house and decided to come pay a visit. Haha, my new place is actually not too far away from here.”
“Oh?” Dan Teng replied, “Is that so? How coincidental. Then you simply must come visit my teahouse more often. As an instructor, I’m sure teaching must be exhausting. Come visit and let your spirit relax. It’s really a nice experience.”
“Yes, of course. I’ll be coming here more frequently in the future.”
“Haha, well, I’m not trying to brag, but the tea I have here is rather quite special. You two will understand after a few sips. We soul cultivators cultivate the soul, but that is a process in which many people tend to have problems with and become stressed or jittery about. The tea here has the capabilities of—”
In the middle of his spiel about the tea he sold, Dan Teng suddenly paused to look at Bai Yunfei for two seconds. “Yunfei, you’re injured?!” He cried out.