Wanjin Lady

Chapter 100 Wine

The lights were still on in Yao Shizhen's thatched cottage.

The night was as cold as water, and the tea had gone cold after the guests left. Madam Yao had the servants tidy up the house, but when she turned back, she saw that Old Man Yao was still laying out paper and grinding. She walked over, took a quick glance, and said with a smile, "Are you really going to ask for credit for Miss Wen?"

Yao Shizhen pushed aside a small piece of ink and said to his wife with a smile, "This girl is just trying to cling to my connections. I'm just a dead tree, there's nothing left for me to cling to. Why not point her to a higher branch? Whether she can reach it or not depends entirely on her own ability."

Madam Yao asked curiously, "Don't you always hate people trying to get close to you?"

"Well, it's not easy for a little girl to be out in the open and do business. Besides, she sends me things every now and then. It's not right for an old man like me to take advantage of a little girl."

Madam Yao laughed, "You, you clearly like this girl."

Yao Shizhen asked in return: "Don't you, Madam, like this little girl?"

Madam Yao pursed her lips and smiled, "Of course I like it."

"Don't you think this girl is cunning and shrewd?"

"This girl was able to save the family property from her clan members and even dared to marry into the family. It's clear that beneath her well-behaved appearance, she has a rebellious nature. She's different from those shrewd young ladies in Kyoto. I like young ladies who are scheming and tenacious. It's not easy for a woman to survive in this world. Without some means and strength, she's just a lamb to be slaughtered."

Yao Shizhen hugged his wife. "So, I wrote a letter to Wei Zheng explaining that the Bingzhou famine was Wen Wan's idea. That guy knows his limits and won't make things difficult for Manager Wen. But..."

Yao Shizhen frowned slightly, "It's just that the guy hasn't replied to my last letter."

"He is now the governor of Tianshui Prefecture and is very busy. Perhaps he is too tied up in official duties to spare the time."

"No. He never fails to answer my letters."

Tianshui Prefecture has always been an important military base of the Great Chen Dynasty. Japanese pirates often disturb the people in the coastal areas, and various powerful families fight for power and profit. The forces in the entire Tianshui Prefecture are complicated and anyone who comes here will be skinned alive.

What’s more, the previous two governors died under unclear circumstances, and Bingzhou suffered a severe famine this year, leaving countless refugees.

It is said that no one in the entire court dared to take on this hot potato.

Wei Zheng was personally chosen by His Majesty as the governor of Tianshui Prefecture. It sounds like he is favored by the powerful, but in fact, he is in danger at every step and his life is in danger if he is not careful.

Your Majesty... you don't trust the Wei family after all.

Yao Shizhen felt vaguely uneasy, but he couldn't tell his wife, so he had to change the subject.

Mrs. Yao ground the silk for him, with a candlelight and red sleeves adding fragrance, the years were peaceful.

Thinking of the bet between Yao Shizhen and Wen Wan, Madam Yao asked him with a smile, "Husband, are you really planning to take Miss Wen as your female disciple?"

"How could that be?" Yao Shizhen stroked his beard, a smug look in his eyes, "Of course I was trying to coax her."

"what?"

Before leaving, Miss Wen took away Cheng Yunzhang's policy paper, saying that she would study it carefully when she got back and vowed to write an article better than Cheng Yunzhang's.

"What I'm saying is... if she writes better than Cheng Yunzhang, I'll consider taking her in as my female disciple. I'm just considering... not agreeing."

Madam Yao held her forehead and smiled bitterly, "You are old, why bother teasing a young girl? Then Miss Wen can rub her hands and act like she is ready for a big fight when she leaves."

"Hmph, she was the one who teased this old man first!" Yao Shizhen told his wife about how Wen Wan had pretended not to know how to fish that afternoon and even made a bet with him to lure him into a trap. Madam Yao laughed so hard she almost fell over. "You, you're really mischievous! No wonder Miss Wen asked me to keep watch; she was just wary of you, old man!" "Hmph, in war, all's fair in love and war. People can be treacherous; that girl still has a lot to learn!"

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Wen Wan was not in a hurry to write the policy paper.

There are a lot of things to do in the winery, and the winemaking has reached the critical stage of fermentation.

Wen Wan and Master Ma kept an eye on it the whole time. Taking advantage of a break, he took Wen Wan to the wine cellar and pulled out a small jar from a dry and ventilated corner. "Young Master, this fermentation has used at least half of the koji in stock. The remaining koji is not enough to last a year. We have to make plans in advance."

Feng Shuigen also reminded her of this.

Wen Wan had no experience, so she could only ask Master Ma for advice, "Is there any way to bypass the Cheng family's Quyuan?"

Others might not know, but Master Ma knew full well that the Wen family winery had been the target of Yuan Liulang's wrath due to the Bingzhou grain collection. Regardless, the fact that he had been severely damaged while the rival winery had reaped a rich harvest was a difficult situation for anyone.

Master Ma, tell me, what does this have to do with their winery?

It was God's will and the young master was lucky. Why was Yuan Liulang going crazy in their winery?

It simply doesn't make sense!

"These musical houses are all imperial merchants, and they keep in touch with each other. If the Cheng family intends to embarrass us, they only need to send someone to deliver a letter."

"What if we can create a time difference? While the Cheng family hasn't noticed yet, let's go to the nearest Quyuan and buy a batch."

Wen Wan had a headache again, thinking of the hundreds of taels of silver she had spent on buying grain. Now the winery was in dire straits and was almost robbing Peter to pay Paul. There was also the bad debt from Xinlong Money House. How could she have extra money to buy koji?

The cost of yeast is not a small amount, plus the round-trip fare, it would cost at least several hundred taels of silver.

So the key now is that no matter whether the Cheng family has the yeast they need, they have no money in their hands.

Wen Wan's plan to play a trick in the dark failed in the womb.

Wen Wan recalled something she had been thinking about for a long time. "Master Ma, do we have to use yeast to make wine? I remember... fruit wine doesn't need yeast and can ferment naturally. For example, grape wine?"

Grapes were introduced to China during the Han Dynasty and have a long history in China. Although the Chen Dynasty was a parallel time and space, the general trend of history is the same.

Moreover, the people of this continent have been making wine from fruit since the primitive times. This technique has been passed down from generation to generation, so it is unlikely that they have lost it.

This question clearly touched upon a blind spot in Master Ma's knowledge. He looked bewildered. "Wine? Fruit wine? I've never heard of this kind of grain-based wine. I have heard of medicinal wine, though. Isn't the most famous one the Cheng family's Changchun wine?"

Wen Wan shook her head. "No. It's just using fruit instead of grain to make wine. It ferments naturally and doesn't require yeast."

"I've never heard of it." Master Ma laughed again, "But the wine-making recipe is always kept secret. Perhaps this method really exists in the world, hidden in someone's home, or it may have been lost over time."

Wen Wan's eyes lit up, and she began to gesture: "What about grapes? They are round, black, about the size of a fingernail, like little black balls, hanging on the branches in bunches."

Wen Wan wasn't very familiar with the history of the Great Chen Dynasty, so she didn't know whether grapes had been introduced into the territory of the Chen Dynasty. If this land already had a history of growing grapes—

(End of this chapter)