Yixianzi didn't stretch out her finger, and Zhou Xuan couldn't open his mouth. His two eyes stared straight at Yuxi's hand, waiting for her to lift one of them up.

  The fairy of Stillness and Elegance hesitated, her right hand's four fingers rising and falling like the holes on a flute, unsure which finger to lift.

  Zhou Xuan's mind was racing, and with a swift movement, he grasped both of Jingyi Xianzi's hands along with the teapot, holding them firmly in place. He chuckled and said, "Let me take a closer look." With a slight nod towards Jingyi Xianzi, he indicated that she didn't need to lift her fingers, as he would do it himself.

  Jingyi Xianzi gently withdrew her hand, and the teapot fell into Zhou Xuan's palm. Because of the veil covering her face, it was impossible to see Jingyi Xianzi's face turning red, but her snow-white neck revealed a hint of rouge color, all the way to the slender shoulder blades.

  The fool said: "What tea is this you say?"

  Zhou Xuan displayed his "deceptive divine skill", shaking his head and laughing: "Old Fourth, don't try to deceive me, this is not some famous tea at all!"

  The four fools were stunned and said: "How can this not be a famous tea? This tea is absolutely no worse than the previous five teas, only higher, not lower. You can't tell the difference anymore, haha."

  Zhou Xuan sniffed the tea in the jar and said, "This tea is indeed not bad, but it's absolutely unknown, can't be called a famous tea. If I'm not mistaken, this must be some kind of tea leaves that you, Fourth Brother, encountered during your travels and thought were good, so you picked them."

  The tongue is stiff and cannot move down, unable to speak.

  San Chi interjected, "The master is right, this is the Longjing tea that our fourth brother found in Yandang Mountain. Its flavor is as good as the top ten famous teas, but few people outside know about it."

  Si Chai nodded and said: "Zhou Xuan, you're impressive. Now it's my turn, bring the tea."

  Jingyi Xianzi had already brought out a tray. On it were five Yue porcelain tea cups, each containing a different type of tea leaves.

  The four fools looked at the five tea cups one by one, sniffed them respectively, and said loudly: "Yuezhou Lanting's March Huawu Tea, April Tiantai Tea, April Yuanzhou Golden Guanyin Tea, March Huzhou Purple Bamboo Shoot Tea, and March Zhou Xieyuan Tea."

  Zhou Xuan listened and said, "It's exactly the same as what Wu Hou Jingyi Xianzi said. It seems that these four fools really have some skills in tea ceremony." He said, "You all guessed correctly..."

  The four fools stared and said: "What did you guess correctly? I distinguished it by looking at the shape of the tea leaves and smelling the fragrance of the tea leaves."

  Zhou Xuan said: "That's also my tea, it's all famous tea, easy to distinguish. Who are you so despicable? From which mountain ditch did you pick some tea leaves and try to stump me? Old Fourth, you're really shameless!"

  His face flushed with excitement, he argued: "You can't tell it apart and I didn't say you lost, besides this Longbiao will definitely be famous within ten years."

  "Enough said, let's just call it a draw for this first round."

  Si Chai was indeed unhappy, the five kinds of tea leaves he had all argued correctly, but Zhou Xuan's tone was as if allowing him to win, this draw was a bit too forced.

  The Second Round —— Identifying the Flavor of Water

  Twenty tea cups. Ten tea cups with rippling water, ten empty tea cups, placed on the table in front of four foolish men.

  Zhou Xuan stood up and walked over to sit opposite Si Chou, saying: "Don't be fooled, I know all ten types of water. As the host, it's only right that I take advantage of this. This is what they call home field advantage. But as for which specific type of water is in which bowl, we'll need to identify them. We'll each choose five bowls, and I'll let you go first."

  The four fools said:

  Zhou Xuan casually moved the five tea cups on the left side over to one side. The remaining five were for the four fools.

  Still, Zhou Xuan came first, and before tasting each cup of water, he poured half of it into an empty cup on the side to verify with the four fools. For each cup of water, Zhou Xuan carefully tasted it, turning the teacup around and around, seemingly very serious and cautious, but actually looking at the changes in the hand-painted patterns on the teacup. Then, he arranged the five teacups in a row from left to right and slowly said: "From left to right, they are Lushan's Snowy Valley Spring water after snowmelt, Lushan's Spring season's Zhao Yin Spring water, Qizhou's Lan Creek Spring water, Guangling's Shu Gang Peak Spring water, and finally our Jiangzhou's Xunyang River water. This water can't be used to brew tea; it tests the ability to distinguish flavors — Old Fourth, it's your turn."

  Si Chai said: "I don't know if you're right or not." He took the five tea cups corresponding to Zhou Xuan and tasted them one by one, nodding his head and saying: "Hmm, close enough."

  It's Four Idiots' turn to identify the taste of water now, which is different from verifying Zhou Xuan's five bowls of water. Zhou Xuan has already said the name of the spring water, he just needs to distinguish whether it is this kind of spring water or not, relatively much easier.

  Only to see the four fools, as if practicing qigong, deeply inhaling and exhaling, then picked up a cup of water, poured out half into an empty cup, tasted it several times, and said: "This is Shinshu 6 feather spring."

  Zhou Xuan took a sip of water from the cup on the side and nodded, saying, "That's right."

  Four fools again tasted a cup and said: "It's just Wuxi Huishan stone spring."

  Zhou Xuan also pretended to taste and look, looked at the figure painted on Si Di's teacup and said: "Old Four has been fooled again, is this Old Four's guesswork?"

  The four foolish ones said: "What's the point of guessing and covering?"

  "You haven't seen me not eating meat for the past few days, have you? Normally, one can't drink or eat meat for seven days to avoid damaging their sense of taste. But look at you, drinking and eating meat every day, yet still able to discern the taste of water - it's truly strange!"

  Zhou Xuan smiled and said: "Some people have to rely on hard practice, while others are naturally gifted, like me."

  The fourth fool hummed and took the third cup of water, savoring it for a while before raising his head, furrowing his brow and saying: "What's going on? This is also Lushan Guchuangquan water!"

  Zhou Xuan savored the tea and said, "It's indeed Gu Zhuquan water, but my cup is Lushan snowfall Gu Zhuquan water, which is even colder. Your cup is spring season Gu Zhuquan water, savor it carefully, there are still subtle differences."

  The four fools brought over the water from the Snowy Brook Spring again and tasted it. Their faces showed a hint of shame, but they didn't say anything.

  Zhou Xuan said: "Alright, we didn't say that the same spring water would be divided by season either. You're right, come and taste the fourth cup."

  The fourth cup, the four fools went back and forth, tasting for half a day without being able to say why, shook their heads and said: "This cup can't be tasted, I'm sure I've never had this kind of water before, it's not among the top ten famous springs in the world."

  Zhou Xuan sipped and savored, seeing the figure on the teacup had its right little finger raised, and chuckled: "Old Fourth, you're really muddled. What's far away in the sky is actually right before your eyes - this is just the water from the small stream in front of Baiyun Temple."

  The four fools did not admit defeat: "This is also a small stream, isn't it? Isn't this the same as cheating people with the Dragon Well tea of Yandang Mountain?"

  Zhou Xuan said: "It's you who is fooling people, I didn't fool anyone. I've never been to Yan Dang Mountain, and this Ba Yun Guan stream water, you just crossed the bridge, a true tea enthusiast, wherever he goes, whenever he sees river water, stream water, spring water, he must go and drink two mouthfuls to taste, to know the flavor of the world's waters, not just limited to some famous springs. That stream water is clear and lovely, how could you not think of drinking two mouthfuls to taste? Can this be blamed on me fooling you?"

  The four fools were so angry that they hummed, saying: "This round counts as my loss, let's have a third round - see who can brew tea the fastest? You use the snow-covered Lushan valley curtain spring water to brew Beiyuan tea, and I'll use Huishan stone spring water to brew Longbiao tea. Let's start."

  On both sides of the small room, Si Chou and Zhou Xuan each occupied one room. The beautiful maid, Yun Yi, naturally had to help Zhou Xuan stir the fire, but in fact, it was Zhou Xuan who helped her with the stove, grinding tea leaves with a mortar, filtering water with a strainer... They cooperated quite tacitly.

  The four fools were too busy to care about this side and didn't even think that the maid was a master of tea ceremony!

  In a short time, Zhou Xuan lifted the curtain and came out. Almost at the same time, Si Chai also came out with a teapot, and a wisp of hot air rose from the spout.

  Zhou Xuan is a purple sand pot and black bowl, pouring tea into the bowl, with a light fragrance.

  Zhou Xuan said: "It seems that we are evenly matched, and this third round is also a tie. Next, let's compare the color of the tea. Look at my cup, it's greenish-white in color, and there's no stain on the cup. But Lao Si's cup has a slightly lighter yellow color, and when you shake it, there's a faint tea stain on the edge of the cup. The difference is obvious, isn't it?"

  The four fools just now in pursuit of the degree, the fire was not well grasped, and at this time they could only admit defeat and say: "There is one last game - tasting tea flavor, I must win you."

  Zhou Xuan smiled and said, "Fourth brother, what's the point of comparing? You've already lost and are still in a daze. In the previous four rounds, you drew two and lost two. Even if you win this last round, so what?"

  "Ah!" exclaimed Si Chai, "I've already lost?" as if still disbelieving.

  "Are you trying to play dumb? Dare to do but not dare to admit?" Zhou Xuan asked.

  The four fools' faces turned red, looking at San Chou and then at Zhou Xuan, gritting his teeth, he knelt down and said: "Master is above, please accept the insect slave, tea slave, chess slave's one bow, no matter what slave, call it whatever you want."

  Zhou Xuan smiled and said, "Old Fourth, calm down. If you don't like being called Bug Slave or Chess Slave, I won't call you that. Let's just go back to calling you Old Fourth, how about that? Sword Slave can also be called Old Third, so it'll be Old Third and Old Fourth, sounds good, sounds good."

  Si Chai was still not convinced, and immediately gave Zhou Xuan a difficult problem: "Master, since I am already under your command, then I must participate in next year's Top Ten Guardian Chess War. My third brother will naturally also participate, Master, you handle it." Thinking to himself: "I'll squeeze you out so you can't participate, humph!"

  Zhou Xuan said: "Everyone has to participate, this won't be a problem for me. Lao San will replace Fu Yannian, and Lao Si will be on standby as a substitute for Gu Liuquan at any time."

  Four fools asked: "What does 'candidate' mean?"

  Zhou Xuan said: "That is to say, if Old Master has a headache and can't make it, you'll take his place."

  "Alright then, before the match starts, I'll give Gu Liuquan a punch to the chest and make him spit blood. That way, I'll naturally be able to participate in the competition."

  Zhou Xuan was completely speechless.