I called home, and my mother answered and asked her how she was. She said that she had just come back from picking tea from the wall, and there was a mountain separated by a wall at home. Mother smiled and said that the tea forests contracted by other countries have all been retired, and there is not much tea at home. After picking tea at someone else's house, I will split it 50-50. I'm not worried, it's easier than contracting tea forests. If you want to pick more, slow down if you don't want to be tired. You can earn more than 100 a day. Pick tea in good weather and play cards in bad weather. I am used to picking tea in spring, and I am not tired at all. I am in good health. My mother is almost seventy years old. Liao Jia Bay, her mother's family, is a high mountain. She didn't grow tea at first, but it has been improved and popularized in the past ten years. I think my mother has been picking tea for fifty years and is really used to it.

Maoba tea planting in Lichuan, Hubei has a long history. When I was a child, I went up the mountain to cut wood, and I could still see wild tea trees on the mountain. Tea trees grow slowly and strongly, and are not easy to cut. Besides, they are crooked, so we usually don't cut them. At that time, tea trees were planted in rows in the field, and the distance between rows was wide. Potatoes, corn, cucumbers, radishes and other crops could also be planted. Some tea trees are tall, with scattered branches and leaves, which are not neat. The yield is not too high because there is less sunlight on the branches and leaves below and inside. Handmade the collected tea leaves into black tea, green tea and white tea, and then sold them on the street. The price is one or two yuan a catty, which is not much, but it is the main source of income at home. Whenever you need money, or borrow money from others, you will always hear your parents say, "It's good to have tea." It was just too late when the tea came out. At the most difficult time of the year, it is like a timely rain, bringing hope to a difficult life.

Every winter, my uncle will fertilize tea trees. Pick the cow dung into the ground, dig a shallow ditch at the root of the tea tree and bury the cow dung in it. The ditch should not be too deep, so as not to hurt the roots. It is also necessary to prune the tea trees, cut off those branches that grow fast, make the tea trees round, and let the branches and leaves everywhere get the sun evenly. With the cold wind gradually leaving, after a spring rain, there will be many buds on the tea tree. At first, it was only the size of a grain of rice, so I couldn't see it clearly nearby, but further away, I could see that the whole tea tree seemed to be covered with a thin layer of green smoke. Once the tea leaves come out, they grow quickly, the rice grains grow tall and split from the top, and the two young leaves are no longer so tightly hugged. The young leaves are as green as grease, radiant and spotless. The green one is a little yellow, which makes people want to take a closer look, but they are afraid to touch it too close, as if it were tender and broken with a light touch. Tea leaves grow up gradually, and a thick layer of green is spread on the tea tree. Tea trees are like green mushrooms, neatly arranged in the ground.

This first kind of tea is called the first kind of tea, which is the best tea in a year. All tea trees germinate and grow at the same time, and need to be picked at the same time. It was the busiest time to pick tea. Delayed by one day, the tea grows and its quality declines. At this time, primary schools often take a few days off, which is called busy farming holiday, so that students can go home to pick tea, and teachers should also go home to pick tea. Adults and children go into battle together. Mother carries the biggest basket, and we carry the small basket, or the smaller eight buckets, and all come to the tea tree to pick tea. Everyone will put aside other things, focus on tea, and even the time for cooking, eating and sleeping will be squeezed again, saving again. That little tender tea bud attracts everyone's time and is a hope that cannot be missed. Although I am busy, I don't feel tired.

It's really a race against time. Every day when I get up, my mother has picked out a basket of tea. My father spread the tea on the ground or dried it on the mat. My mother was busy making a fire and cooking. We also had to herd cattle and cut pig grass. There was basically no time to cook pig food in those days, so I had to pour raw potatoes and pig grass into the trough and let them eat raw. The food is also very simple. Stir-fry two dishes casually, grab a few mouthfuls of rice, carry a basket, put on a straw hat and bring water, and run to the tea forest. We will go to the sunny field to pick tea first, where the tea grows faster, and then go to the sunny place to pick tea after picking. At this time, the tea tree is a bit dazzling green, and the green eyes make people really happy to see it. Tea bud sticks its head out, you squeeze me and I cling to you, vying to see the outside world.

Although my mother didn't learn to pick tea until she got married, she moves very fast. Hold the second knuckle of the index finger with your thumb, put the root of the tea bud in the middle, and with a gentle force, the tea bud will decompose. Then push the tea bud into the palm of other fingers and pick the next bud. My hand kept clicking on the tea tree, just like a chicken pecking rice, and Aauto Quicker filled a handful of tea leaves. Put your hand on your shoulder. When your hand is loose, the tea leaves will be scattered in the basket behind you, and you can pick another one. Because the tea tree is not tall, I have to bend over most of the time. On the surface, it looks quite relaxed, and it doesn't take much effort. In fact, it is very uncomfortable. Coupled with the constant baking of the sun, it is actually very easy to get tired. We always like to linger in the shade of trees. We can avoid the sun, drink water for a while and look around for a while.

Mother has been basking in the sun, not looking up, picking tea. At this time, my mother will sing some folk songs. Of course, singing didn't stop her from picking tea, and her hands never stopped. As soon as the song rings, someone else sings, and the song keeps floating. Singing is the sound of refueling, which makes people feel refreshed. The sun seems to be out of the sun, and my mouth is not thirsty and my waist is not sour. Between the green hills, under the blue sky and beside the green tea trees, there are people bending over everywhere, and the singing never stops. That picture has always been in my mind. Tea pickers are like bees, and tea trees are green flowers with honey hidden. Singing is a signal to encourage communication. People are cheering for themselves and others. They have their own tea forest, but they are a whole. They seem to be separated, but they are not. They are all moving towards the same goal.

Tea grows very fast. As soon as the first piece of tea was picked, the first piece of tea forest sprouted again, and the second piece of tea was to be picked again. I won't relax until June of the lunar calendar. The weather, like other farm work, has a great influence on tea picking. After all, the sunny days in spring are limited. If the weather is bad and it rains repeatedly, it will worry my mother. Take the tea back in the rain, there is no place to pile it up, and there is no place to disperse the water vapor. Covered for a long time will turn yellow and rot. Don't pick it. It's really distressing to watch the tea buds grow crazily day by day, getting taller and older. Not only will the output of this tea be reduced, but the output of the subsequent tea ceremony will also be greatly reduced. Only pick less, and dry the kneaded tea with charcoal fire. The quality of dry tea leaves is often lower than that of dry tea leaves, and the price is much lower.

Later, when I was studying on campus, I seldom picked tea. When we grow up, we go our separate ways, and the task of picking tea falls to mom alone. After the improvement, the tea leaves are planted more densely, called dense planting tea, and the tea trees are next to each other without gaps. Tea trees are neatly trimmed, leaving only a half-meter-wide tea-picking passage between each ridge, and other crops cannot be planted. There is no sun under the tea tree, which is a good place for small animals to rest. Rabbits, bamboo chickens and, of course, snakes. Mom said that picking tea often meets snakes. Once, a green snake was put on a tea tree There is no green snake in the tea, and my mother almost picked it as tea. Later, the government vigorously promoted the cultivation of tea, and the original dry land and paddy fields were planted with dense tea. There are so many Chata, it's too late to make your own tea. The collected raw tea leaves will be sold to the tea factory on the same day, and the tea factory will make it into finished products. I always call back after dark, thinking that my mother will rest at home, but often she is still selling tea or on her way home. Everyone has a lot of tea, but my mother also contracted many other people's tea forests. She always said that she was fine and could be busy. Last winter, she finally stopped contracting tea forests. There are many tea forests at home. I didn't expect her to pick tea everywhere.

Tea has undoubtedly brought great support to the family economy. Selling seeds, fertilizers, grain, oil, salt, food, clothing and other daily necessities depends entirely on selling tea. The tuition fee for my study is not so scarce because of tea. Tea tree is an inexhaustible source of wealth. Every spring, green hopes pour out on time. There are more and more kinds of tea trees, which are more and more dense. Now, except for some vegetables, all kinds of tea are planted. Everything depends on buying, and the money comes from tea trees. The mountains are covered with tea forests, which are flat and lush, like a thick green quilt, and the tea pickers are the flowers dotted on them. Every time I ask my mother if she is short of money, she always says she is. With tea, you all have your expenses. You can still move, so don't worry.

Tea is wonderful, ordinary and unremarkable, without gorgeous flowers and rich fruits. Tea trees are not tall, and tender buds are produced by old branches. The more frequent picking, the more buds there will be. After withering, squeezing out water, fermenting and drying in the sun, the bud becomes black and brittle, and has no light green appearance. Can be soaked in boiling water, spread out, restore the original color, still so green, still so tender. It not only makes the water green, but also has a faint taste, which is a bit astringent, but it can also make the tongue root produce endless saliva. It left the branch when it was young, and after hard work, it made life longer and had a unique charm.

My mother is short, round face and always smiles. Every spring is her busiest time. Spring passed year after year, tea trees kept sprouting, and their mother was always by their side. The tea tree doesn't seem to have changed much, but my mother has changed slowly. She stopped singing loudly, but sang in a low voice, with wrinkles on her face and no Bao Qing handkerchief on her head. She is like a tea tree, with no towering height and gorgeous flowers, and it can't be more ordinary. But she always supports us year after year. She is the strongest pillar behind us and holds up a blue sky for us. She is also like a piece of tea. As time goes by, she looks old under the wind and rain, but she is always born green.

The next time I call my mother, maybe my mother is still on her way home. On that endless road, there are still dense tea forests around her.