Chapter 108 Endless life
The refreshing tea aroma and the rich egg fragrance completely stimulated the appetite of the three people. Their stomachs rumbled and their saliva kept secreting, urging them to put more delicious food into their mouths.

The next bite is the red oil salted egg yolk, which represents the southern red bird. Different from the fresh and smooth tea eggs, the salted egg yolk has a thick and dense taste with a strong oil aroma. After being pickled, the salt and fat inside the egg yolk are fully integrated together, forming a slightly moist feeling like bean paste. With a light sip on the tip of the tongue, the soft sandy texture melts on the tip of the tongue like silk, delicately and gently wrapping the taste buds.

Salted egg yolks are not just salty. What’s more amazing is that after being pickled with salt, they develop a light sweetness. The salty taste gives rise to the sweetness, and the sweet taste makes the salty taste heavier and richer. The two are combined through fat, and the taste goes beyond the ordinary salty and sweet, presenting a wonderful feeling of being salty but not astringent, and sweet in the mouth.

Salty taste is the king of all tastes, because its existence can thoroughly stimulate all tastes, making sour more sour, sweet more sweet, fresh and fragrant more intense, and making a simple dish colorful. It is like an emperor raising his arm and calling, and the world responds, so it is called the king of all tastes.

At this moment, the taste of salted egg yolk makes all the flavors in the mouth more complex and rich, and the appetite that has long been aroused is dug deeper. Although I have eaten a lot of food, the feeling of dissatisfaction in my heart is getting stronger and stronger.

The next bite is the distiller's lees egg, which represents the Western White Tiger. The egg white of the distiller's lees egg is semi-solidified like jelly, and the yolk is orange-red. After the duck egg is fully fermented in the distiller's lees, its egg white is soaked with a strong wine aroma, and with a delicate and smooth taste like jelly, it feels extremely light in the mouth when you take a bite, and the semi-solidified egg white melts gently in the mouth, leaving behind a sweet wine aroma, just like drinking a sip of solidified fine wine, the rich aroma makes people intoxicated.

The last one is the preserved egg, which represents the Northern Black Tortoise. The preserved egg is pickled with wood ash. Unlike the other three types of eggs, the egg white of the preserved egg is very elastic, more elastic than ordinary boiled eggs. Its texture is clear, with some light gold in the black, and the outside has pine flower-like patterns, which is simple and elegant.

The egg yolk is semi-solid green, delicate and tender in the mouth, with a cool and silky texture that melts on the tip of the tongue, bringing the unique aroma of preserved eggs. Different from the ordinary salty taste, it is a slightly stimulating fragrance with a special alkaline taste. It blends with the salty and fragrant taste, adding to the rich texture and mellow aroma of the egg yolk itself, bringing a wonderful experience to the taste buds.

After eating the preserved eggs, the three of them kept reaching out for the tea eggs in the shape of an Oriental Green Dragon, starting a new cycle.

The unique aroma of various pickled eggs still lingers in the mouth. Now, after being baptized by the fragrance of tea again, the complex taste in the mouth becomes extremely refreshing. The rich tea fragrance allows the taste in the mouth to settle down and turn into a mellow aftertaste.

Attracted by the fragrance of tea, the three people seemed to have returned to early spring. Before the first spring rain came, they gently picked the newly grown buds of the tea tree. The tender green buds were fragrant. This was the fragrance stored in the tea tree for a winter, and it bloomed unreservedly at this moment.

Looking around, all you can see are green branches. After being gently caressed by the spring breeze, the tiny buds can't wait to bloom, swaying in the warm spring breeze, absorbing the long-lost sunshine.

Not only the tea trees, but every tree and every blade of grass showed vigorous vitality, as if all sleeping things were awakened and released their own brilliance of life.

Afterwards, the sunlight became stronger and stronger. The trees were lush and leafy, and the broad leaves blocked the sunlight, leaving a slight shade under the shade.

This is not the tree's kindness. It just wants to enjoy the sunshine alone and is unwilling to share it with other living things.

Spring brings life and summer brings growth. The summer sun makes everything sprout and grow desperately. It makes everything in the world dance with it with its passion and unrestrainedness. Only by growing taller and stronger, with leaves becoming wider and thicker, can we receive more of its love, and let this warm and selfless sun pay more attention to us, so that we can win the final victory in this competition of life.

Then the sun gradually faded away, and the cool autumn arrived. After the intense growth in the summer, the plants began to bear fruits, sweet fruits with rich juice, or full grains of food, hanging heavily on the branches.

Hardworking people harvested the grain and stored it for the winter, or put it in jars to make fragrant wine.

This is the harvest of a year's hard work, the essence of food, and this mouthful of spicy and fragrant food is the best reward for the countless sweats put in this year. Finally, the cold winter arrives as expected.

The branches and leaves withered, all things fell asleep, and the fallen branches and leaves piled up under the tree trunks and turned into dry firewood, which people picked up to keep warm.

The raging fire burned the dry wood, and the remaining ashes flew in the air. The warmth brought by the flames made the stiff body stretch, and made the cold and hopeless heart warm and full of hope.

The cold winter will always pass, and the only thing we need to do is wait, wait for spring to come and flowers to bloom.

This small fire guards hope and helps people get through the cold winter.

Finally, the wind no longer hurt my face. The cold wind like a knife suddenly became gentler. It brushed softly across my face, bringing a faint scent of flowers.

Small buds appeared on the dry tree trunks. As if they had made an agreement, they emerged from the dry branches at the same time.

Even though the weather was still cold, people knew that the difficult days were over.

Spring is here.

The Eastern Green Dragon, representing spring, roared like thunder, and the first spring rain fell on the tender buds.

The southern red bird, representing summer, spreads its flaming wings and calls to all living things with its warm warmth. This moment is the time for growth, this moment is the time for bursting out, releasing the passion and warmth of life without reservation.

The Western White Tiger, representing autumn, walks with steady steps. Every time it passes a tree, it bears abundant fruits. This is the moment of harvest.

The northern Xuanwu, representing winter, exhales a cold breath, making all things sleep and remain silent in its breath, storing energy in the cold, waiting for the next spring.

Spring brings birth, summer brings growth, autumn brings harvest, winter brings storage; this is the cycle of life, without beginning or end, without rest.

In the cycle of reincarnation, life sprouts, grows, harvests, and sleeps, waiting for the next growth and thriving.

Life continues to multiply in the cycle of reincarnation.

(End of this chapter)