Tea ceremony

Fu Lin wakes up from the servants quarters, and sees Fei already up and was brooming the main courtyard.

Fu Lin : "Your up early."

Aide Fei : "We at the military camp, wake up at the break of dawn for military drills and training. I have chopped wood for fire and have already kept the water to boil. You can fetch that."

Fu Lin : "Thank you aide Fei."

Fu Lin fills the brass bowl with hot water, for her Madame to wash up. Wei was sleeping in the left wing room, General's room now the bridal chamber. Aide Fei helps open the door for Lin, who held a bowl full of water.

Fu Lin : "Madame are you awake?"

Madame Wei : "Yes."

Fu Lin : " Did you sleep well?"

Madame Wei : "Took me a while for shut eyes... (drowsy) It was good thing you gave me a massage yesterday, otherwise I'd be wide awake."

Fu Lin : "You will adjust to this new place soon. Here, Madame." Fu Lin gave Wei a cup of water to rinse her mouth. And went on to put away the silk red threads and other materials in the boxes, used for making General a small gift. Madame and Fu Lin stayed up late in the night making the sword tassel for General. Although Madame is good with brushes and can paint creatively. But she has no talent for embroidery or stitching or anything related. Her mother, Lu Lian was excellent weaver, she specialised in silk brocade, but Wei did not inherit the talent. Fu Lin showed her how to make longevity knot last night. It took Wei four trials to finally get it right in the fifth attempt.

Fu Lin handed over a full robe for Madame to wear for the time being. As she set the attire for the tea ceremony. Brides will give tea to their in-laws the day after marriage. After Wei freshened up she went over to the luggage she had brought as her dowry. To pick a tea set to serve tea to her in-laws. It was common for dowry to have ceramics, tea, silk, gold and jade items. Therefore, Madame Rong had prepared several ceramics, for any given occasion, it may come handy. Wei picked the tray of longyuan celadon tea cup with saucer and lid. It has a nice green hue to it. It was also the most popular craftsmen of time, and had quite the reputation, since it was first made in the imperial workshops. Meanwhile Fu Lin kept aside the tea making kit and the stoneware tea pot. Wei picked Qilan oolong tea for her in-laws. The name of the tea Qilan means rare orchid, has a sweet nutty taste and was an exclusive choice.

Fu Lin : "Madame shall we start getting ready?"

Madame Wei : "Yes."

The clothes, that Fu Lin had prepared for today consisted of lavender and red hues, it also contained delicate embroidered brocade of gold. It was lovely to look at and rich in taste and elegant. After putting on clothes and shoes, Madame Wei sat in front of the mirror were the jewellery box and the make up box was placed. Fu Lin added soft pink tones to Wei's eyes lips and cheeks; and drew a thin long soft line on her eyes with kohl, to give the eyes a soft almond shape.

Fu Lin : "How shall I do your hair, Madame?"

Madame Wei : "Tie a bun at the nape of the neck."

Fu Lin : "Not top high?"

Madame Wei : "No, I'll leave the rest to you."

Most women tied their hair high up, making their hair taller then the lady's actual height. On the reserve Wei wanted a low bun at the nape of the neck. Fu Lin did as her madame wished. She parted Wei's hair and braided from front running to the back of head and then clipping it with a gold clip. Then she gathers all of the hair and twists it into a neat bun and ties it with a long silk ribbon of the same colour as the dress. The ribbon is left loose to it's full length. Wei hands her the hair accessories as Fu Lin pins them in place. The hair pins used were gold lotus, with pearl in the lotus centre, and dangling pearls. It was two symmetrical hair pins that went on each side of the head. A comb bejewelled accessory to neatly tie everything in place. Wei wore gold drop earring with white jade shaped in tear drop. And a delicate gold chain with a small jade pendant on it. The bangles were white jade bangles with see-through gold design on them. And Wei was ready to greet her in-laws.

The two were about to began preparing for the tea when Fei interrupted.

Aide Fei : "Madame, your sister is here to greet you."

'My sister!?' Wei thought it was strange because her sister never visited Wei. She despised her. Fu Lin opened the door of the room and Wei stepped out to the main hall where Mei was seated.

Mei : "Sister!"

Mei : "I wanted to see, how you were doing?"

Phoney was the first word came to Wei's mind.

Mei : "I was worried about you. So I thought I'd come to see you. After all we are sisters married into the same household, we must look after each other… Your doing well?

...

Wei gave no response.

"Look at your... place, it is slightly bigger than where you used to stay. It's an upgrade! However…" Mei inched closer to Wei as she gloats about herself in softer tone, "Fate is on my side. I would have married in this house, had I not been witty. Karma knows I'm good, so gave me the better husband and a better mansion to live. This is the size of the bathroom at my mansion. Serves you right, why would an orphan have something more then she could afford."

Mei steps back and speaks loudly, "I wish you all the happiness… For the tea ceremony, I thought of you. You won't be able to get a good ceramic for the ceremony therefore I brought a set for you, my dear sister." Her maid opens a box of stoneware ordinary black tea cup set and pot.

Madame Wei : "Lin." Wei only asked Lin to take the the box from her maid, and made no other comment about the tea cup. So discontent towards the cups no gratitude either.

Madame Wei : "Mei, I hope we continue the way we did at the Lu mansion. Without interfering in each other's path. I liked it more when I didn't start my day seeing you."

Mei : "YOU!"

Madame Wei : "We are no longer in 'your!' Lu mansion. The house has changed, the status has changed." Wei was no longer a powerless, orphan, living in the poor hut of the Lu residence. She was the Madame of the General's house, while Mei was Lady Xu. Because there was already a Madame Xu in the family, Xu Jin, her mother-in-law. Since, Wei married to someone older than Mei's husband that means Wei was her older sister-in-law. This status gave an upper hand to Wei. It was also customary for younger ones to come and greet elders first thing in the morning.

Madame Wei : "Since you've done your greetings to your sister-in-law, I'll free you from this customary. You don't have to make a long trip from your mansion to my small house. I'm being thoughtful, what should my little sister tell me?"

Mei : "Thank you Sister-in-law! for your thoughtfulness."

Madame Wei : "Good girl you learn fast. Since I have received your gift you may return."

Mei was not someone to leave quietly but she underestimated the circumstances. One, she was in her groom's place not the Lu family house and second, marrying General made Wei the elder and higher in status as the Madame. So with bitter feelings she went back, but it wasn't a defeat Wei knew it clearly. She will try and get even, Wei just hoped that she can have a peaceful slow uninterrupted living at the General's mansion.

Fu Lin : "Madame you were amazing!"

Aide Fei : "Madame, I don't know what your relations was like with your sister. But I did not like one bit of what she whispered to you."

Fu Lin : "You could hear her?"

Aide Fei : "We are trained to have sharp hearing and sight. Madame you did well. Spoken like a true leader, you have my loyalty." For militants loyalty was earned and here Lu Wei earned Fei's loyalty as a master, which means she got General's closest aide's acceptance.

Madame Wei : "Well I am now the General's wife. I need to put my weight around. Let's go prepare the tea for the ceremony. You want to help Fei?"

Aide Fei : "Sure madame."

The trio proceed back to General's chambers to prepare tea. Lin pours water in the kettle and places it on the hearth for making tea. Once the water boils, the tea cups placed in a big bowl and the water is run over it. To temp the tea cups. Picked up with help tongs and set aside. The tea is scooped from the canister and put in the pot and the water is poured at the right temperature. The first round of tea is discarded to rinse the tea leaves. And the second time water is poured to steep the tea. After the intended steep time, the tea is poured in the tea cups placed on the saucer and then lid is placed. Two comes were poured for Fei and Lin to taste. They gave a quick taste.

Fu Lin : "Madame, it tastes nice sweet and nutty."

Aide Fei : "It's something I had never before! When general comes you should serve him this tea."

Madame Wei : "I have a different tea leaves for him."

Aide Fei : "Is it expensive?"

Madame Wei : "Yes but it's more time-oriented. The tea leaves were picked eighteen years ago"

Aide Fei : "Well-aged tea, it is special tea for general."

Madame Wei : "So shall we leave for the main house?"

At the main hall, matron, mother-in-law and father-in-law had been seated at their respected places. Xu Da along with his wife were also present. Madame Wei enters, followed by aide Fei and her personal maid Lin.

Madame Wei : "Greeting to matron, mother and father." Wei bows to greet her in-laws.

Matron : "Since your here let us begin."

Wei was the first to serve tea. She handed it to matron, grandmother of Xu Da and prime minister's mother. Then to prime minister and then to his wife. They took a sip of the tea and mother-in-law Xu Jin, immediately recognised the tea from the smell itself.

Xu Jin : "Qilan?"

Madame Wei : "Yes."

Matron : "It's good tea nutty and sweet, not too strong and bitter. Good."

Madame Wei : "Thank you, matron."

Prime Minister Xu who did speak much, made a remark about the tea cup, "The cup, is this from the imperial manufacture of the previous dynastic ruler?" This was a trap. Since the previous emperor was dethrone, anything denoting his influence was boycotted from court. It was only in words, because the actions could not be practiced among people as he was people favourite. But prime minister is court so he would not tolerate anything relating to previous emperor, under him Xu was simply a drafter of decree, removed from court in the most humiliating manner for forgery of royal decree. And now he ascends as prime minister to the present emperor, everyone could see that they staged the coup, but no one told out loud.

Madame Wei : "It is a type that was first crafted in the imperial manufacture of the previous ruler. But longyuan is now a luxury commodity with higher export demand and flourishing in the Hangzhou perferture." Wei knew how to respond and evade a lapse. Nonetheless, this style of ceramic became a status of luxury due to sits green colour.

Prime Minister Xu : "Very well."

Mei saw that the tea was served in green celadon, a high class commodity. She could not fathom from where could Wei could get so much money to buy a decent set of cups. Meanwhile the cups she had were white ding ware, they were not ordinary either they were class. But when compared to longyuan, it is not in the same group. This made her tea cup and oolong tea look ordinary.

Matron : "Since the tea ceremony is over, let us proceed for breakfast."