Start to be a martial arts hero from the famous people of Hengshan

Chapter 451: Meeting an Old Friend at the Book Fair

Zu Qianqiu brought Linghu Chong, Lan Fenghuang and others into Chongnanfang. After turning around several times, they entered an ordinary restaurant.

Linghu Chong twitched his nose and said in surprise, "It smells so good, I guess the wine must be mellow and good!"

"Hahaha, Brother Linghu is indeed a wine lover!"

Zu Qianqiu laughed and said, "I found this shop after searching for a long time. The boss took five dou of lees and mixed it with two and a half dou of rice bran, and poured it into the steamer. Then, he covered the pot with a tin lid, which was tightly sealed to prevent any steam from leaking out. He lit a fire to heat it, so that the steam would gather and drip from a specific outlet. The collected liquid was the mellow liquor."

"Cold water must be stored in the tin pot lid to prevent the pot lid from overheating, which would cause loss of liquor and quality loss. Therefore, when the water in the pot lid is overheated, it must be immediately poured out and replaced with new water. This process must be continued until the liquor dripping down is observed to be gradually diluted, and then the distillation work is completed."

“That’s how we got this wonderful wine!”

After hearing this, Linghu Chong was even more delighted: "The complexity of the craftsmanship is truly jaw-dropping!"

"So, not everyone can drink the wine here." Zu Qianqiu walked to the counter happily and said a few words to the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper took out an account book, flipped through it, and said with a smile, "It's you, Mr. Zu. The wine you ordered two years ago has been prepared. Wait a moment, I will bring it up for you."

"Go quickly!" Zu Qianqiu added, "Also, can you give me some stewed pork, fried tripe, lamb head, and braised beef in soy sauce?"

The shopkeeper smiled and said, "Yes, yes. Didn't the imperial court defeat the Mongolian Tartars a few days ago? The prices of beef and mutton have been driven down, and our shop has also taken over the market. We have plenty of mutton and beef."

Zu Qianqiu was even happier when he heard this, and said decisively: "Then give me another five pounds of braised beef!"

"Okay!" the shopkeeper responded, then called the busy waiter and asked him to go to the kitchen to take the order.

Linghu Chong and his companions leisurely sat down in a corner of the hall, their eyes sweeping across the increasingly crowded and bustling lobby. The three waiters were almost running out of time, yet still seemed stretched to the limit and unable to cope.

The dishes ordered by the guests were dazzling, ranging from tender beef, mutton, horse meat, and pork to flavorful chicken, duck, and fish, all of which reflected the diners' picky nature.

Such a situation couldn't help but make them feel emotional. This capital city was indeed prosperous and there were wealthy people everywhere.

As their delicious food was served, the special wine was also brought up, and Zu Qianqiu poured a glass for Linghu Chong.

Linghu Chong looked down and saw that its color was translucent and crystal clear, looking very refreshing.

He couldn't wait to pick up the wine glass and drink it in one gulp. The taste was mellow, sweet, and pure. After swallowing it, he felt a burning sensation in his chest. The aroma of the wine was rich and pure, without a trace of impurities.

“Great wine!!!”

Linghu Chong was overjoyed and said to Zu Qianqiu, "Just for this sip of wine, my trip to the capital was not in vain!"

"Haha, Brother Linghu, have a drink and then eat some food, it will have a unique flavor." Zu Qianqiu pointed to several dishes on the table and said with a smile.

"it is good!"

Zu Qianqiu ordered five jars of wine from the restaurant, but in front of a drunkard like Linghu Chong, the whole meal was ruined.

Once the alcohol took effect, everyone except Lan Fenghuang was drunk.

In desperation, Lan Fenghuang could only transfer these smelly men to an inn not far away and throw them all into the same room.

Seeing this, the innkeeper reminded her with a wry smile, "Lady, the temperature in our capital is very low at night. If these guests sleep like this, they will probably get frozen!"

"You're the one who's talking too much? Don't I know them better than you?" Lan Fenghuang rolled her eyes at the waiter, and as she turned to enter the next room, she paused and added, "Give each of them a quilt."

"Okay!" The next morning, Lan Fenghuang walked down the stairs and saw Linghu Chong and his companions sitting listlessly in the lobby, holding steaming ginger soup in their hands, with runny noses and sneezing from time to time.

Seeing this, Lan Fenghuang smiled and said jokingly, "You are all famous masters in the martial arts world, how could you have thought that you couldn't withstand a single night of cold wind?"

Linghu Chong smiled bitterly and said, "Sister, please stop making fun of us brothers. After getting drunk, how can we have the energy to circulate our internal energy to keep warm?"

"Ah chirp!"

Zu Qianqiu sneezed and said listlessly, "I can't leave today. I'm sorry to trouble you, Master Lan, for your hard work in the capital. I'll help you when I recover a little."

"Hahaha, alright!" Lan Fenghuang laughed a few times but didn't embarrass anyone.

She walked out of the inn alone and wandered around the capital.

If she were somewhere else, her foreign attire would have naturally attracted a crowd of onlookers, but in the capital, people were no longer surprised by this.

After all, the envoys from the vassal states who came out of the Honglu Temple wore a variety of clothes and all kinds of strange costumes were common, which had long been commonplace for the people in the capital.

As Lan Fenghuang wandered around, she arrived at Baoguo Temple, where she discovered that there were many bookshops and scholars walking around, making the place lively yet not too noisy.

This strange atmosphere made her curious, so she went over to check it out.

At this moment, a familiar voice sounded in my ears: "You claim that this is a version printed in the 14th year of Chenghua, but there is no record of this in the book. Moreover, if you look closely at the texture and grain of the paper, it is clearly a feature of the Hongzhi period!"

"Girl, this is what you don't understand!"

The bookseller smiled and said, "This copy of the Four Books with Annotations is indeed a copy printed in the 14th year of Chenghua. However, it was not printed in our dynasty, but overseas in Japan. I bought it from the Japanese envoy at a high price, and it was not printed again in the capital until the 16th year of Hongzhi."

"It's the original version, from the fourteenth year of Chenghua."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?!"

The bookseller spread his hands and said in a mean way, "The girl didn't ask! Our store is small, and we will not accept returns once you buy something."

Qu Feiyan was so angry that she laughed. She had never been treated like this since she followed the young master.

However, under the influence of her own son, she was no longer as willful as before. Instead, she nodded and said, "Okay, I will go find the abbot and let him judge the matter."

"Go ahead, girl. I'll be waiting here." The bookseller was not afraid. He would just move to another place after each transaction and come back in two months. Who would remember what happened today?
At this moment, the bookseller suddenly felt a sharp pain in his neck. He slapped it with his hand and felt like he touched a bug. He was so scared that he almost jumped up.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't touch the bug on his back. He even felt a burning pain where the bug had crawled past, as if he had been whipped.

"Hahaha"

Lan Fenghuang came out, looked at Qu Feiyan and said, "I haven't seen you for a few years. Feiyan has become more sensible and reasonable. But to deal with such a scoundrel, it's not enough to just talk about reason!"

Qu Feiyan was slightly stunned when she saw Lan Fenghuang, and asked in surprise: "Master Lan, why are you here?"

"As for me! Of course I came here for something, but why is Feiyan here?" Lan Fenghuang asked curiously.

Without waiting for Qu Feiyan to answer, the bookseller burst into tears and said, "Girl, girl, I will return your money and I don't want the books anymore. Please, take the bugs out of my clothes!"

(End of this chapter)