Tang Dynasty: Starting at Xuanwu Gate, this prince is better off not being one.

"real?"

Dugu Jin looked at Li Yu suspiciously; her woman's intuition told her that nothing good was going on here.

"Would I deceive you?"

To dispel his mother's doubts, Li Yu had no choice but to take her to a courtyard that had been empty for a long time.

Several guards stood watch outside the courtyard. When they saw the princess and the young prince approaching, they bowed and helped open the courtyard gate.

As the courtyard gate was pushed open, everyone in the courtyard looked over. Upon seeing that it was the Princess and the young prince who had entered, everyone put down what they were doing and hurriedly stepped forward to pay their respects.

However, Dugu Jin did not react at this moment, but stared wide-eyed at her own courtyard, which had been empty for who knows how many years.

In the courtyard, a dozen or so workers were bustling around several large wooden tubs. A long, thin bamboo tube was attached to the center of each tub. From the bamboo tube, streams of clear water gathered and flowed into an even larger tub.

"Third Aunt! What brings you here?" Li Chengqian, reeking of alcohol, saw that Dugu Jin was also there, so he rubbed his hands together and came over.

"what?"

Startled back to reality by the call, Dugu Jin saw Li Chengqian dressed in coarse linen clothes.

"Godson, what are you doing here...?"

wrong!

Dugu Jin suddenly woke up.

She leaned in and sniffed, catching the smell of alcohol on Li Chengqian. She immediately glared at him and said angrily, "You brat! At such a young age, instead of learning good things, you've chosen to be a heavy drinker! I'll teach you a lesson on behalf of your mother!"

After saying that, she made a move to hit him, but Li Yu stopped her in time and explained, "Mother, you've misunderstood Chengqian. Look at him, he's not drunk at all!"

Dugu Jin was slightly taken aback, then glanced at him.

Sure enough, although Li Chengqian reeked of alcohol, his expression was perfectly normal, and his complexion was completely clear.

"What on earth are you guys messing around with? And what are all these things in the yard?"

To prevent his mother from continuing to misunderstand, Li Yu had no choice but to lead her into the wine storage room.

Inside the storeroom, several rows of wine jars that Liu had previously carelessly tossed on the ground were now laid out. Furthermore, numerous servants were continuously transporting them inside.

Li Yu picked up a jar from the pile, deftly unsealed it, and presented it to Dugu Jin, explaining, "This is wine I brewed myself. Would you like to try some?"

Looking at the dark jar in front of him, Dugu Jin dipped his index finger into it with some skepticism, then sniffed it. A rich, fragrant aroma, characteristic of fine wine, filled his nostrils.

She put her fingertips in her mouth again, and the next moment, her cheeks turned bright red from the spiciness, even though she never liked drinking alcohol.

"This is actually alcohol? How can there be such strong alcohol?" He stared at Li Yu with curiosity, forgetting even to ask where the alcohol came from.

Li Yu had anticipated his mother's reaction, so he introduced, "Mother, this is the property I've secured for our household."

"Mhm!" Li Chengqian, who almost got beaten up, nodded repeatedly, indicating that he had also participated.

Seeing that Dugu Jin still looked surprised, Li Yu continued, "This wine is brewed using a method called 'distillation'."

It would have been better if Li Yu hadn't explained; Dugu Jin was even more confused after hearing his explanation: "Grain? Where did you get so much grain?"

Looking at the several wooden barrels outside, each a full five feet wide, she knew that a considerable amount of food would be needed in the process.

Mentioning this, Li Chengqian perked up considerably and eagerly explained, "Auntie, this grain is all old grain collected from farmers."

"Stale grain? Even the people of Chang'an aren't getting enough to eat right now, where would they get stale grain?"

Seeing that Dugu Jin still didn't believe him, Li Chengqian continued to explain, "Auntie, Xiaoyuer said that using new grains to brew wine is a bit wasteful, so it's better to use some old grains that don't taste good. As long as they're not moldy or smelly, they can be used to brew wine."

He added, "With the war still raging and harvests uncertain, farmers dare not consume all their stored grain and must keep some. If the grain is stored for too long, the cooked rice becomes inedible."

"So we exchanged the new grain from Chang'an City with the farmers for their stored old grain, so that their grain could be stored for another year."

"..."

"Really?" After hearing Li Chengqian's words, all of Dugu Jin's worries disappeared, and she looked at her son with relief.

"Mother, what Chengqian said is absolutely true," Li Yu replied at the opportune moment.

"Hmm!" Dugu Jin nodded in satisfaction, showing her support for her son's good deed. She then asked with concern, "My silly son, do you have enough money? If not, I will order the Ministry of Finance to allocate more to you."

"That's enough!" Li Yu hurriedly refused. "I harvested a total of 3000 shi of grain this time, and I've only used less than 60 shi in the past few days. The rest is enough for me to last for half a year."

"That's good……"

Halfway through her sentence, Dugu Jin suddenly realized something, and her recently calmed heart surged with turmoil again: "How much did you say? 3000 shi?"

"That's right!"

"How many strings of cash were used?" As the matriarch of the household, Dugu Jin's mind was so confused that she couldn't even count them.

When asked about this, Li Yu's face was filled with anguish: "These 3000 shi of grain cost me 1000 guan! Those rice merchants in Chang'an are truly heartless!"

"1000 strings of cash!"

Upon hearing this number, Dugu Jin felt a wave of dizziness and swayed for a long time before finally managing to stand up with the help of Li Yu and Li Chengqian.

Seeing that his mother was emotional, Li Yu quickly asked Green Robe to fetch water.

Dugu Jin slowly drank the water, catching his breath. His voice still trembled slightly as he said, "Foolish child, do you know that our family's fiefdom only brings in 3000 strings of cash a year, and 30% of that goes to the salaries of our officials and the monthly wages of our servants!"

Knowing what his mother meant, Li Yu, being a dutiful son, immediately reassured her, "Mother, don't worry. It's all my fault for not explaining clearly. The money for collecting the grain wasn't our family's money."

"Isn't it our family's money?" Dugu Jin asked with some concern. "My son! I'd rather you use our family's money than do something despicable. At worst, our household can tighten its belt and we'll have enough."

Li Chengqian looked on with envy upon hearing Dugu Jin's words. Thinking of his own mother, if he had embezzled 1000 strings of cash without her knowledge, he would probably be in deep trouble once she found out...

Li Yu was also somewhat flattered, thinking to himself that he had been spoiled rotten. He explained, "I didn't do anything despicable. The money I used was all investment money. My second uncle's family contributed three thousand strings of cash, accounting for 30% of the shares; the Cheng family, the Niu family, and the Changsun family each contributed one thousand strings of cash, each accounting for 10%; as for our family, we naturally accounted for the remaining 40%."

It has to be said that Li Er was inexplicably convinced of Li Yu's methods. When he heard that his three foolish sons wanted to invest, he generously gave them three thousand strings of cash.

The Cheng family was the same. Old Cheng was very pleased that his son had learned fifty characters in just three days. He didn't ask Li Yu what he needed the money for, and had already instructed the steward to send a cartload over before the expedition.

Needless to say, the Niu family, with Old Niu even taking out his life savings to support Li Yu.

As for Changsun Wuji, having tasted the exquisite beauty of tea-frying, he was unwilling to miss the opportunity to brew wine, and directly had his son invest in it...

.........