Today is Valentine's Day, and I will excerpt a romantic segment from the book.

First, let's look at the character relationships within the Longjing family. The head of the household is Hang Jiahe, who has a daughter named Hang Pan with his former wife, Fang Xiling.

One day in early winter 1948, the Hangzhou Gymnasium was packed with people for a heated basketball game. Hang Pan, acting on her mother Fang Xiling's request, was in charge of watching over the women's basketball team's belongings.

The match was underway when it suddenly started raining. Hang Pan had to gather up a large pile of clothes and hang various bags on herself as she ran to the stage to take shelter. It was there that she had a chance encounter with Cao Jiayuan.

Although their eyes met only briefly, it felt like an eternity.

Even though Cao Jiayuan was already on the court, his gaze remained fixed on Hang Pan.

Hang Pan felt a little uneasy, suspecting that this person was deliberately playing in her direction, as he kept looking her way whenever he got the chance.

That night, Hang Pan wrote about him in her diary, even if it was just a few words, the feelings of a young girl were evident.

“A Handful of Youth”

Liu Cixin's works have been extremely popular in recent years, but many criticize his writing, particularly his portrayal of romance, finding it cringe-worthy, such as the relationship between Yun Tianming and Cheng Xin in “The Three-Body Problem.”

I think writing good romance is inherently challenging and only literary masters can do it well; we shouldn't be too demanding of other writers.

“A Handful of Youth”

Hang Jiahe's daughter, Hang Pan, was picking camellia flowers in front of Hugong Temple on the tea mountain in the western suburbs.

A group of men in military uniforms appeared on the tea mountain, including a tall officer in a neatly pressed American-style air force uniform, exuding a commanding presence. He was gradually approaching Hang Pan.

Hang Pan, known as the “sick princess” of the Hang family due to her past tuberculosis, lived in Hugong Temple on the tea mountain for its peacefulness and fresh air, which had helped her recover significantly from her frail health.

To keep Hang Pan occupied, the Hang family gave her a nominal position overseeing hundreds of acres of tea fields on the mountain.

Over the years, Hang Pan, who often frowned, blossomed into one of the most attractive girls in Hangzhou. It wasn't surprising that boys would come to see her.

However, Hang Pan recognized the tall officer as the same person she had seen a few days earlier.

“A Handful of Youth”

Tea enthusiasts who enjoy West Lake Dragon Well tea must know about Hugong Temple. It is one of the two major landmarks in the Shifeng Dragon Well production area; the other is the eighteen imperial trees planted by Emperor Qianlong, located next to Hugong Temple.

The best batch of premium Dragon Well tea I sold in recent years was last year's Hugong Temple collective variety, which was stored in lime jars for over two months due to an unusual city lockdown in spring. When the weather warmed up and delivery services resumed, I finally received them. Several tea enthusiasts provided feedback, saying they were very enjoyable.

The traditional flavor of pre-Qingming West Lake Dragon Well tea requires a longer storage process, ideally completed after Qingming Festival. However, under normal circumstances, it is not commercially viable for either tea farmers or me to hold onto high-quality Dragon Well tea until after Qingming Festival and still sell it at a good price.

This is akin to turning top-quality pre-Qingming Biluochun green tea into Black Tea, which increases production costs without yielding a higher selling price, making it economically illogical.

Nine-Curves Red Plum made from Dragon Well tea leaves

This man was none other than Air Force Captain Cao Jiayuan of the Nationalist Party. His infatuation with Hang Pan was a complete case of love at first sight.

When Hang Pan went inside to Brew camellia flower tea for the guests, Cao Jiayuan followed her. After chatting about camellia flowers for a while, the impulsive pilot suddenly confessed his feelings and asked Hang Pan to be his girlfriend.

For a moment, Hang Pan was stunned and sat silently without any reaction. After a while, Cao Jiayuan noticed two clear tears rolling down Hang Pan's face.

Cao Jiayuan thought he must have frightened Hang Pan. After all, they had just met and knew nothing about each other, so asking her to be his girlfriend was indeed absurd.

Cao Jiayuan immediately stood up and said it was fine if Hang Pan didn't agree, as long as she stopped crying. But Hang Pan suddenly mentioned that in previous years, her father would come up the mountain to help her roast the camellia flower tea, but he hadn't arrived yet this year.

Cao Jiayuan sighed in relief, realizing Hang Pan's tears were because of her father. He squatted down, handed her a handkerchief, and comforted her.

Once Hang Pan calmed down, Cao Jiayuan returned to the topic and expressed his feelings again. He explained that his life was precious given his special status, as he could die at any moment in the line of duty. However, since the first time he saw Hang Pan, his heart found a sense of peace.

Cao Jiayuan held Hang Pan's hand and said, “Let's fall in love, even if I die tomorrow, let's fall in love.”

In that moment, Cao Jiayuan heard the gentle breeze passing through the tea fields.

At this point, I realized how similar this was to the Taiwanese TV series “A Handful of Youth,” a story about a young girl and a Nationalist pilot. I'll introduce more about their story in “Looking South of the River” later. In “A Handful of Youth,” the pilot dies fighting against the People's Liberation Army in northeastern China.

“A Handful of Youth”

“Looking South of the River” describes how to drink the camellia flowers from Dragon Well tea plants, a practice rarely seen today. Let me describe it.

Dragon Well tea plants start blooming sporadically in September and October, with the flowering period ending in February or March of the following year. The flowers can compete for nutrients meant for the Spring Tea, so some diligent tea farmers manually remove them. Hang Pan picked the flowers carefully just before the routine pruning of the tea fields.