Tea Merchants of the Song Dynasty

Jiang Yin's throat tightened slightly, and he said in a hoarse voice: "But, this is not my fate. Aunt, my fate is in my own hands."

She didn't want to be so passive anymore, and didn't want the people close to her to leave her one by one.

I don't want to see myself being so cowardly and incompetent anymore, and just hiding away and burning myself to death.

What my aunt said made sense. She was just an orphan who had just come of age, helpless and simple-minded. If she relied on herself alone, she really had no way out.

If you want to live a stable life, you can only stay behind the scenes. Or, marry a powerful person.

Marrying a powerful man, the thought of this made her heart beat fast.

Could it be that in her previous life, her aunt had never paid any attention to her or interfered with her because she felt that following Li Ji was the best outcome for her?

She was lost in thought and didn't notice Mrs. Feng's shocked and inquiring eyes. When she came to her senses, she saw a booklet in front of her.

Jiang Yin looked up, looking surprised and asked, "Aunt?"

If she was not mistaken, the booklet in front of her was her family's household registration card.

I didn't expect it to be at my aunt's house. No wonder she couldn't find it after searching for it for so long at home.

Madam Feng said with emotion: "Your mother left this with me. She was worried that something unexpected would happen to you, and you were young and ignorant, so you were deceived. But now it seems that your mother's worries were unnecessary."

"Take it. Auntie believes you can do this well." She handed the household card to Jiang Yin and continued, "If you really hid behind the second master of the Zhang family, I really can't give it to you."

Jiang Yin had a complicated expression, then smiled with relief.

Yes, in her previous life, she was hiding behind Zhang Yuan. So, from beginning to end, she didn't know about the household registration.

Afterwards, she hid behind Li Ji again. Whatever happened in the outside world had nothing to do with her, and she had no way of knowing.

In her previous life, she was like a canary in a cage. Even until her death, she didn't know these things.

She took the household registration card, bowed deeply to Madam Feng and said, "Yin'er thanks you, auntie."

You reap what you sow. No matter what Aunt Feng did in her previous life or why she did it, she had no idea.

All the things in her past life had disappeared in the fire. In this life, she just had to walk the path of this life well and not ask about the past.

After his last concern in the city was resolved, Jiang Yin said goodbye to Mrs. Feng and prepared to leave for Yazhou.

However, just as she was about to step out of the door, a breeze blew by and she smelled the familiar scent of ambergris.

She suddenly turned around and looked towards the yard. The wind was blowing from the yard, which meant that the fragrance was most likely coming from the yard or even the house.

And she will never forget this ambergris, which was the scent that Li Ji loved very much in his previous life.

This fragrance has been with Li Ji ever since she met him, never disappearing.

Ambergris is extremely precious, and its preciousness is no less than the tribute tea produced in the imperial tea garden every year.

Therefore, ambergris was only used by the royal family.

Among the people she knew, only Li Ji could use, knew how to use, and liked to use this kind of incense.

Therefore, she had reason to suspect that the scent came from Li Ji. In other words, Li Ji was nearby.

However, Li Ji, who was an inspector in his previous life, did not stay in Chengdu Prefecture, but went directly to the Tea and Horse Bureau in Yazhou.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, with some confusion in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Madam Feng asked in confusion. "If you can't bear to leave, just go a few days later. After all, the situation in Yazhou cannot be resolved in a short time. A few days earlier or later will not make much difference."

Jiang Yin came back to his senses and shook his head slightly, saying, "It's okay, I just thought the fragrance just now was quite pleasant, I wonder what it was?"

"The wintersweets are lightly dyed yellow before spring, and I regard a foreign land as my hometown." Madam Feng chuckled and said, "Is the wintersweets fragrant? The wintersweets are blooming recently, and the fragrance is indeed fragrant. Wait, I'll pick one for you to take with you."

Jiang Yin paused after hearing this, then smiled and said, "In that case, thank you very much, aunt."

She was actually a little nervous and didn't dare to ask her aunt directly whether she knew Li Ji.

Moreover, if it was really Li Ji, given his personality, he might have noticed something and came here to investigate secretly.

She didn't dare to reveal anything. After taking the wintersweet handed to her by Mrs. Feng, she left as if nothing had happened.

"My dear." Xiao Luo, who had just returned to guard the door, endured it again and again, and finally, when he was about to leave the alley, he couldn't help but said, "The fragrance just now was clearly not..."

"Shh!" Jiang Yin raised his hand and pressed Xiao Luo's lips to stop her from continuing.

She handed the wintersweet to Xiao Luo and said, "Look how beautifully it blooms. It won't be too late for us to go back and find a vase to put it in before we set off again."

Xiao Luo opened her mouth, but in the end she couldn't say anything. She could only bow and agree, "Yes."

Jiang Yin asked the carriage to wait at the intersection. She held the wintersweet in her hand and went back to the Jiang Mansion first, as if she had just returned from an outing.

While Xiao Luo was looking for a vase to put the wintersweet in, she called out the secret guard who had been following her secretly, and chattered about some arrangements.

Because, she thought of every little detail of her past life, and she was still worried. She was worried about Aunt Feng's safety, and also worried that something she didn't want to see would happen.

Therefore, she could only send the secret guards her father left for her to secretly observe the Feng Mansion.

In addition, she also sent another group of people to act separately, first to the Tea and Horse Bureau in Yazhou, focusing on observing Li Ji.

As the official supervisor, Li Ji was mainly responsible for supervising the Tea and Horse Department. Therefore, in public, Li Ji should be in the Tea and Horse Department of Yazhou.

If he wasn't here, then something would be really wrong.

After arranging these things, Jiang Yin finally took the vase with the wintersweet and set off for Yazhou.

As a result, the time she set out was a full half hour later than the team ahead of her.

It takes three hours to get from the city to Yazhou by horse carriage.

If Wang Heng rode a horse at full speed, it would take two hours.

In this way, no matter what, Jiang Yin could not catch up with the people in front.

Since she was not in a hurry, she asked the driver to go slowly.

Yazhou is located between the mountains to the west of Chengdu Prefecture, more than 120 miles away from Chengdu Prefecture, and is also a fortress for entering Tubo.

Since Yazhou became an important place for tea-horse trade, there has been an endless stream of carriages and horses traveling between the capital and Yazhou every day.

There are not only businessmen from all over the place, but also many ordinary people looking for work.

As the tea picking season is approaching, many businessmen go to Yazhou in advance just to be the first to reserve Mengshan tea.

Although the imperial court issued a decree this year that all Mengshan tea must be owned by the government, many merchants still wanted to try their luck and see what would happen.

After all, the profits of Mengshan tea are extremely attractive.

Most of the people who were looking for work wanted to be porters.

Mengshan tea was transported to Tubo via the ancient Tea-Horse Road, during which time it had to cross many rugged mountain roads and dangerous roads that were inaccessible to vehicles.

In such places, tea bricks can only be transported by porters, so the profession of porters came into being.