A Magic Steeped in Poison

As Ning heads toward the village, she walks through her family’s orchards and the grove of pomelo trees, her mother’s favorite. She sees a single bud blooming and knows that her mother is watching over her.

She reaches the village and hears noise in the dark. A shadow passes over the tea warehouse, and Ning recalls rumors about a mysterious figure called the Shadow, whom some believe to be responsible for poisoned tea supplies throughout the country. She runs after the shadowy figure and tackles them. The two struggle, and the figure, who wears a wood mask with horns escapes Ning’s grasp. The Shadow attacks Ning, incapacitating her, then disappears.

Ning reaches the town of Nanjiang on the Jade River, where she sells a necklace to gain passage on a ferry to the capital city of Jia. She has never before traveled beyond her small village in the rural Su province, and she feels lonely in the crowds as she considers her father’s inevitable disapproval. He always expected her to behave in a more traditional and obedient manner, but she has always been willful.

On the ferry, a woman befriends her, inviting Ning to sit with her family and share their food. The woman’s husband is a government official but is nothing like Governor Yang of Su province, whom Ning fears for his cruelty. The woman remembers her own first trip on the ferry, recalling that she had been newly married and pregnant. Ning thinks about her own parents, who met in Jia and returned to her mother’s home village, pregnant and not yet married.

Ning arrives in Jia with few possessions other than her mother’s prized shennong-shi chest. Ning presents her scroll to an official who allows her entrance. Then another official announces that in order to verify that all in attendance are true shennong-tu, they will need to pass a simple test to continue. Ning fears that her deception will be caught immediately.

Ning befriends a girl called Lian, who, like Ning, is from a rural province. A young man in an elaborately decorated tunic sneers at the two girls, insulting them as poor uneducated girls from a backwater province.

Then an official moves through the crowd, testing each person. Ning lies about being apprenticed to her mother, Wu Yiting, the shennong-shi of Xinyi village. She passes a simple test to identify several herbs, and a guard takes her chest to be labeled and stored with the rest.

Those accepted into the competition are led into the palace grounds. The women are housed together, while the men, of which they are many more, are placed in a separate area. Finally, the competitors are led to another building where two men wait. Lian tells Ning who the men are: Minister Song (the Minister of Rites) and the Esteemed Qian (who was the court shennong-shi to the princess’s grandmother. Ning is surprised that a rural girl like Lian would recognize the officials.

Finally, Princess Ying-Zhen appears to explain the first round of the competition. Each shennong-tu will be assigned a regional dish from their province and tasked with brewing a tea to complement that dish. To keep the contest fair, each person will be allotted the same amount of money and two hours in the local market to purchase ingredients. Some shennong-tu from wealthy families are angry that they cannot use their own funds to buy the most expensive teas.

The head of the servants, Steward Yang, informs each competitor of which local dish they will be working with. Ning is assigned stick rice dumplings, one of her favorites. Then Ning and Lian receive their allotted money and travel to the market together. Soon, she loses sight of Lian and wanders through the crowd alone.

She spots a young boy stealing fruit from a stall. A guard catches him, but Ning intervenes, claiming that the boy is her brother. She uses some of her palace funds to pay for the fruit, and the boy dashes away. Then she turns to see another older boy, about her age, watching her. He looks wealthy and is possibly a local merchant or lower-noble’s son. She ignores him and keeps walking.

She wanders into an alley and sees a shadowy figure ahead of her. Thinking of the Shadow that she encountered in her village, she follows but loses the trail. Then someone grabs her from behind.

She struggles until she realizes that the person who grabbed her is the older boy who was watching her. He apologizes for startling her and explains that he wanted to speak to her. He can tell that she is lost and offers to lead her where she needs to go. Ning is suspicious of him but is charmed by his smile. She explains that she is a shennong-tu and is looking for a teahouse with the best selection. He introduces himself as Bo, though it is clearly a fake name. In return, Ning says her name is Mei.

Bo leads her through the city. He claims that he grew up in a soldier’s household in Jia, but Ning suspects that he is lying. On the street, they watch an entertainer tell the story of the shennong-shi who once saved the emperor’s life and predicted the princess’s birth. Bo shares a rumor that the princess possesses a magical talisman that can cure any illness, gifted to her by the shennong-shi.

Bo leads her into Azalea House, his favorite teahouse, and Ning makes her purchases. Then Bo offers to buy her a cup of tea. He purchases an extremely rare and valuable tea blend called Golden Key. Ning brews and serves the tea just as her mother taught her; she knows that Golden Key is a tea of secrets. Steam rises around Ning and Bo, connecting them. Suddenly, Bo can see snippets of Ning’s mother’s death, and she can see Bo’s memory of being held down and branded on his chest. Bo pulls away, breaking the connection, and flees.

Ning returns to the palace, where Lian apologizes for losing her in the crowd. In the evening, soldiers lead the shennong-tu to a large platform lined with a row of wooden boxes labeled with each competitor’s name. A crowd of onlookers stands nearby. Beyond the platform is another higher platform where the judges sit. The judges include Minister Song; Marquis Kuang; Elder Guo from Hanxia Academy, where shennong-tu train; and Grand Chancellor Zhou. Finally, Princess Zhen enters as well.

Minster Song explains that the judges have already inspected each competitor’s purchases, and some have been eliminated on this basis alone. Each competitor must now lift the box with their name. If their regional dish is there, they will brew their tea and present it to the judges. If the box is empty, they have already lost. The competitors lift their boxes. Ning and Lian may continue.

Now the round truly begins. Each competitor presents the dish and their chosen tea blend to the judges. Chen Shao, the wealthy man who earlier insulted Ning and Lian, goes first. He presents his tea with an elaborate flourish, forming the illusion of dragons rising out of the steam. The judges are impressed. When it is Lian’s turn, she is nervous and awkward but presents her selection with a unique ritual. Elder Guo and the Marquis are unimpressed, but Minister Song seems intrigued, and Zhen is the final vote in Lian’s favor. Then it is Ning’s turn.

Ning tries to recall all her mother’s lessons but realizes that she never witnessed her mother giving a performance before an audience. As she presents her dish and tea, she quotes a renowned poet who once wrote a poem about Su province, reciting a line that corresponds with each movement. Her magic responds, creating an experience that evokes the memory and emotion of being young and making mistakes. She knows that she is succeeding until Marquis Kuang shouts and hits her hand, making her drop the tea. He accuses her of mocking the competition and quoting an infamous revolutionary.

Ning apologizes, explaining that she merely meant to use the poem to suggest that “tea is a drink for both peasants and poets. It can be enjoyed by the lowest farmer and the highest ranks of the court” (65). Internally, she realizes that she forgot that the poet was eventually labeled seditious and beheaded. The chancellor attempts to calm the Marquis. Before a decision can be made, an arrow shoots out of the dark and strikes the table near Zhen. Zhen’s personal handmaiden and bodyguard leaps through the crowd after the assassin. Another figure leaps up to shield Zhen from further attack. Crouching by the table, Ning looks up and realizes that the princess’s rescuer is Bo. Finally, guards take Zhen to safety and grab Bo, dragging him away as well.