Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 788 Good Tea
The next morning, there was a lot of knocking on the door.

Chen Shu rubbed his eyes and opened the door, only to see two people standing outside, both with dark circles under their eyes, clearly having stayed up all night.

For grassroots police officers, staying up all night is a very normal thing, especially for front-line criminal investigators, it's almost the same as eating and drinking for ordinary people.

"Chen Da".

When the blond-haired man standing at the door saw Chen Shu, his face immediately lit up with a big smile.

Standing next to him was a middle-aged man, who, judging from his attire, was probably a colleague from his workplace.

He was about forty years old, with slightly curly hair, bright eyes, dark skin, and a thin build. He looked like a local, with a somewhat minority ethnic feel.

Upon hearing that the surname was "He," Chen Shu, who had been tutored by Jiang Hai on the way there, knew that it was a common surname in the area and that Huang Mao was the deputy captain in charge of homicide cases in his police team. He quickly ushered the two into the house.

After entering the room, the man got straight to the point with the deputy captain, saying that he had brought Huang Mao to the hotel so early because he had something to ask of him.

"Don't ask for anything. We're all in the same uniform. Just ask if you need anything. Don't be shy."

Chen Shu picked up the hotel's tea bag, intending to brew some for the two guests, but paused for a moment and put it down. Then he took the Pu'er tea cake that Chen Chuan had brought over the night before from the table next to him.

Using a ring of tissues as a base, Chen Shu carefully pried apart some tea leaves, but due to his clumsy technique, he accidentally scattered crumbs all over the table.

Much of it rolled onto the ground in places that were not visible.

This assembly-line work looked very unprofessional, and incidentally, even the high-end tea cakes that Chen Chuan brought didn't look particularly high-end.

Although Chen Shu wasn't quite sure how much the tea cake was worth, he remembered the popular saying among the Zhengming Special Police: "Anything produced by Chen Chuan is bound to be of the highest quality."

He could still feel the heartache.

After fiddling around for a while, I finally managed to brew three cups of hot tea. I took a few sips myself, but I couldn't discern any special value in it. Perhaps it's more effective at refreshing the mind?
Or something healthier?

This is too subjective; it's impossible to weigh the pros and cons.

Chen Shu pondered that it would have been better to just throw three tea bags into the cup of boiling water directly, which would have been much easier and less troublesome.

For a rough man like him, efficiency is always the top priority.

On the other hand, the situation is quite different.

Boom!
hiss!
The deputy captain, who had been watching Chen Shu make tea with a tense expression, felt a surge of emotions after taking a small sip of the tea that the other man had casually brewed.

Although not of Chinese descent, He Chengfeng, a member of the Naxi ethnic group, has adopted the Chinese habit of drinking tea.

He was known in the criminal investigation team for his love of tea, and he had his own unique insights and principles regarding tea tasting.

For example, before drinking, you must first heat the cup, prepare the water and other tea utensils, and then judge the water temperature, check the color of the tea soup, and smell the aroma of the tea. There are a lot of steps to go through, and you can't be careless in any of them.

Previously, I had looked down on this police officer from another province, who seemed no different from the other rough guys in the team, casually fiddling with the Pu'er tea.

In the blink of an eye, he had already mentally prepared his criticisms several times, just waiting to lightly touch the rim of the teacup with his lips. Yes, he had no intention of drinking the tea brewed by this layman; he only planned to go through the motions before launching into his tirade.

No, I meant to offer some pointers.

Young people today generally lack respect for traditional Chinese tea culture.

When Ke Zhen and Cheng Feng brought the teacup to their noses, they immediately smelled a unique and refreshing fragrance, as if their souls had been struck by lightning.

For a brief moment, He Chengfeng felt as if he were in a deep forest that had never been set foot in by humans, walking slowly along the green grass and muddy ground, following the gently flowing stream.

The sound of the waterfall cascading down in the distance continued to drift over, and a rich fragrance of forest air naturally welled up in my heart.

He Chengfeng savored the infinite wonder between his lips and teeth. The frustration he had felt due to the stagnation in the case investigation was instantly released, as if his whole body had been washed clean from head to toe by a mountain spring.

rinse!
Swish swish!

What a pity!

Throughout his long life spanning decades, whether busy or not, at home or at work, He Chengfeng always managed to squeeze in a few sips of tea. When he had plenty of time, he would invite a few close friends to savor the tea and discuss it with each other; when he was short on time, he would quickly pick up a few tea leaves and go through the process, though of course, his speed was much slower than Chen Shu's.

Even so, he had never tasted such wonderful tea.

Surprise and shock flashed in He Chengfeng's eyes.

He quickly recalled Chen Shu's tea-making movements, which were indeed not the simple and unpretentious manner of a reclusive master who had discarded all worldly formalities. The tea dregs on the table in front of him would be disgusting even to someone who didn't know tea.

Thinking about it this way, the key point should be the tea leaves.

But looking at this young man who drinks tea like it's plain water, tilting his head back to finish a cup, he doesn't seem like a person of taste at all.

Logically speaking, such a person shouldn't have such refreshing tea.

But this tea is undeniably right in front of you; there's no way to fake it.

Despite his many doubts, He Chengfeng, who visited today, offered some new insights into the art of tea.

That is, in the face of the finest quality tea, all formalities are worthless.

All those three-finger tea-washing techniques and five-step tea-brewing methods are utter nonsense, or rather, utterly worthless, when faced with high-quality raw materials.

Good tea is simply good; it's straightforward and direct.

He Chengfeng couldn't help but glance at the small table with the tea cake on it. It was a small cake, weighing about two or three hundred grams.

Looking more closely at the remaining cotton paper packaging on the small cake, it looked more and more like Banzhang tea produced by Menghai Tea Factory in their province. Judging from the taste just now, it must be from the first spring batch.

For He Chengfeng, a local, this level of tea cake is not unaffordable. He can still satisfy his craving by tightening his belt for a few months occasionally.

The problem is that this police officer Chen from another province seemed quite indifferent to the tea cake, judging from the tea leaves scattered all over the table and the boiling water he had casually brewed with a kettle.

waste everything
He Chengfeng felt a little conflicted, thinking that it was a real waste for such good tea to fall into this person's hands.

It is speculated that the other party may have obtained this extraordinary tea by chance from a friend or a victim.

He himself was simply unaware of it.

Chen Shu could sense that the local deputy captain of the criminal investigation team, whom Huang Mao had brought, had been scrutinizing him ever since he entered the room. The gaze intensified after he sat down, to the point that it made Chen Shu feel uncomfortable.

At this moment, Chen Shu suddenly felt a bit more empathetic towards the feeling of being scrutinized that his relatives and friends had expressed during past gatherings.

Thinking about it this way, it really doesn't feel very comfortable.

Chen Shu assumed it was just a common problem for criminal investigators. Since it was their first meeting and his good brother Zhu Yiba had previously served under him, he decided to create something to help them get closer.

For men, there are only three things that can quickly bring them closer together: cigarettes, alcohol, and tea.

He couldn't drink alcohol in broad daylight, and he had just ruined the tea.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Shu took out a pack of yellow cigarettes from his suitcase. These were cigarettes that Chen Chuan had forced Jiang Hai to smoke. That guy always thought everyone was like him, smoking and drinking every day in college.

Chen Shu had initially stopped Jiang Hai from smoking because he was still a student and shouldn't develop a smoking habit too early. He never expected it would come in handy now.

However, because Chen Chuan, Jiang Hai and others had been handling and messing with this cigarette for a long time, its appearance was truly an eyesore.

Chen Shu, who had originally planned everything perfectly, looked at the damaged packaging that looked like it had been hit by a bomb when he took out the cigarettes, and chuckled a few times with some embarrassment.

Having just recovered from the effects of the top-grade tea, He Chengfeng wasn't surprised to see the dilapidated cigarette packaging, which looked like a war-damaged version.

After all, police officers' salaries are only so-so. Officer Chen has already spent a lot on tea, so it's understandable that he would be a little more frugal with cigarettes.

He straightened his back slightly, which had been hunched over from being so shocked by the tea.

(End of this chapter)