Reborn in a small mountain village in 1991

Chapter 101 Something Happened at the Distillery

Two months after its opening, Xu Family Winery gradually retained most of the town's customers thanks to its previous marketing strategy of giving away gifts with the purchase of wine, as well as the high quality, mellow taste, and fair price of its own wine.

Every morning, Xu Chunsheng would help feed the pigs at home before driving to town to open his shop for business.

Occasionally, Xu Yaomei would come with Xu Chunsheng. Xu Chunsheng would guard the shop door and clean, while she would take her homework and write it on the counter.

So people coming and going would always see a young man wiping the wine jars one by one with a rag in Xu's wine shop, and a little girl doing her homework by the counter.

The little girl had carelessly spread her workbook out on the table. She would write a couple of lines and then drift off, her eyes glancing at the intersection every now and then.

Whenever she sees a guest enter with a wine jug, Xu Yaomei immediately puts down her pen excitedly, pushes her notebook forward, and skips to greet them.

Before Xu Chunsheng could speak, Xu Yaomei began soliciting customers: "Uncle, what kind of wine do you want to buy? How much do you want?"

She took the wine jug from the guest, helped Xu Chunsheng pass the funnel, sealed the lid, and then handed the wine jug back to the guest, running around with great energy.

Some regular customers would jokingly say to her, "Starting a business at such a young age? You should study hard; it takes you two days to figure out how to do the accounts!"

Xu Yaomei stuck out her tongue. After helping out and watching the guests leave, she had nothing left to do, so she awkwardly went back to continue doing her homework.

She bit her pen, frowning at her workbook, and every now and then she would look towards the intersection, hoping for the next customer to come.

On market days, business is much better, so much so that sometimes Xu Chunsheng and Cheng Runshu are too busy to keep up, unlike the usual few customers who come here sporadically.

Every week, Cheng Runshu would choose a market day to come and help out, and she would also summarize the accounts for the week.

Cheng Runshu would find a corner of the counter, spread out the account books, and place an abacus beside him to carefully sort out the income and expenditure for the week.

He meticulously recorded everything, including the expenses for purchasing grain, the quantity of bulk and bottled wine sold, and the large-volume wine orders for weddings and funerals. Then, he picked up the abacus and began frantically counting the beads. Before long, he had compiled and summarized the accounts for the entire week.

At first, Xu Chunsheng felt a little embarrassed and wanted to settle Cheng Runshu's wages.

But Cheng Runshu refused every time: "Brother, we already agreed that I would come here to learn and gain experience. Besides you, I can't find any other boss who would be willing to hire a novice like me to do accounting."

"Besides, I'm happy to be able to help my brother."

After several attempts to shirk responsibility, Xu Chunsheng stopped mentioning the payment for the work. Instead, he would always buy Cheng Runshu some fruit and biscuits and leave them there. Occasionally, he would also bring her some fried pork from his own home as a thank you gift.

The Xu family's winery was thriving, and no one expected that its business would plummet in just a few days.

On market days, the usual stream of people coming to buy wine from morning till noon has vanished. Regular customers only glance at the door briefly before hurrying on their way. Even the restaurants that had worked so hard to secure deals with, as well as several families hosting weddings and funerals, have all cancelled their orders at the last minute.

On this day, Xu Chunsheng checked the date and delivered wine to the town's restaurant, but it was refused.

Mr. Zhang, who usually picks up his own wine, sent a waiter out today: "Mr. Xu, I'm sorry, we still have plenty of wine in our store, so we won't be taking any this time."

Xu Chunsheng didn't take the matter to heart, assuming that the restaurant still had a lot of wine left over.

But then one after another, people came to the shop to cancel the orders they had previously negotiated.

Some people even came to my door with bottles of liquor, angrily demanding, "Boss Xu! I bought your liquor because I heard it was good, but it's bitter and weak, completely undrinkable! Give me my money back!"

On a busy market day, there were many people coming and going at the intersection. This man shouted at the top of his lungs, attracting everyone around to look into the shop. Even the customers who were already in the shop turned to look at them.

Faced with this situation, Cheng Runshu, who came to help today, also panicked. She had been involved in the entire process of assessing the quality of the Xu family's wine, and she simply did not believe that there was anything wrong with the wine sold by the Xu family.

Faced with the people who came to demand an explanation, Xu Chunsheng frowned and said calmly, "Brother, can I see the wine?"

He reached out and took the bottle from the man, touched the bottom of the bottle with his fingertips, and immediately knew what it was.

The bottle looks the same as the bottled wine bottles from my own winery, but there are subtle differences in the details compared to the bottles I had previously customized.

Xu Chunsheng opened the lid and took a sniff: it smelled of sour and bland liquor, lacking the rich aroma of pure grain brewing, and was full of the pungent smell of inferior liquor.

After confirming that the wine wasn't from his store, Xu Chunsheng looked around at the people and turned to the man, saying, "Brother, you didn't buy this wine from my store."

Although Cheng Runshu knew perfectly well that there was nothing wrong with the Xu family's wine, he still breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Xu Chunsheng's affirmative answer.

Upon hearing this, the troublemaking man immediately glared at him: "I bought the wine on the street, and it's clearly from your Xu Family Winery. Are you trying to renege on your debt?"

The onlookers around were buzzing with discussion, and their eyes were filled with curiosity as they looked at Xu Chunsheng.

Xu Chunsheng wasn't in a hurry and calmly said, "Brother, the bottles for my bottled wine are all custom-made. Your bottle is different from mine. You've probably been tricked into buying fake wine."

After Xu Chunsheng finished speaking, he picked up a bottle of wine from the wine rack, pointed to the patterns on the bottle, and explained the differences to the people around him.

The man still refused to believe it and stubbornly insisted that Xu Chunsheng return the money.

Xu Chunsheng then said, "Okay, I'll open this bottle now, and you can smell and taste it right here. If my wine tastes the same as this one, I'll pay you ten times the price."

In front of everyone, Xu Chunsheng opened the bottle of wine in his hand, poured some into a small teacup, and handed it to the person in front of him.

After doing all that, Xu Chunsheng took the two bottles of wine in his hands and walked into the crowd of onlookers: "Could you uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters please help me judge whether the two bottles of wine taste different? It can't be just me who decides, right?"

After he finished speaking, a regular customer stepped forward and said, "Let me smell it. I've bought Mr. Xu's wine so many times, and it's always been delicious. I'm sure your wine is fine."

The man smelled the bottle of inferior wine and immediately said, "I don't even need to (disdain) take another sip. This wine is obviously adulterated."

After he finished speaking, he handed the bottle in his hand to the people next to him: "My dears, you all come and smell it, so you won't say I'm siding with Boss Xu."

After everyone around came over to smell it, they also smelled the bottle of wine that Xu Chunsheng had just opened.

Even those who don't drink could smell that the wine from Xu Chunsheng's bottle was significantly stronger than the other bottle.

"Indeed, Mr. Xu's wine smells stronger."

"You can still smell the aroma of grain, but that bottle of substandard liquor has nothing but a slight smell of alcohol."

After gaining the approval of those present, Xu Chunsheng returned to the shop and asked, "Brother, how is it? It tastes different from my family's wine, doesn't it?"

After drinking Xu Chunsheng's wine, the man originally wanted to insist that it tasted the same, but unexpectedly, Xu Chunsheng took the wine and let the people around him smell and taste it.

He dared not say that the taste was the same again, nor did he dare to make a fuss about demanding compensation from Xu Chunsheng. He could only awkwardly say, "It's definitely not from your family. That bastard who sold me fake liquor, I'll definitely teach him a lesson when I catch him."

After saying that, he took the bottle of wine he had brought and slunk away.

Everyone just thought he was a pitiful person who had been tricked, and didn't think much of it. Those who were going to attend the events continued to attend, and those who wanted to buy wine continued to buy wine.

After this incident, Xu Chunsheng realized that something had happened to his distillery.

He sat in front of the counter, pondering what to do. Judging from the situation, it was possible that someone was trying to sabotage his business because they couldn't stand seeing it doing well.

In the town, including myself, there are only three wineries selling wine. I am not familiar with the other two wineries, and there have been no disputes between them.

That's how business is. There are only so many people in a town, and the market is only so big. If your own distillery takes away most of the customers, it will inevitably cause great losses to the other two distilleries.

It's obvious to anyone with a brain that the only one trying to sabotage their own distillery could be one of these two distilleries.

Someone came to the store and caused trouble today. Although it was resolved on the spot, and we clarified in front of everyone that there was nothing wrong with our drinks, and even got some small business, business was still visibly slower than on a typical market day.

In the past, on market days, as soon as the store opened, people would come to buy wine, asking how many kilograms they were short of to match the items they wanted to exchange, or urging them to exchange for gifts.

Because if people don't come early, once the Xu Family Wine Shop gets busy, they'll have to queue to buy wine or exchange items. So, unless they're buying a small amount, people prefer to come early and buy first rather than wait around in the heat.

But today was different. After the onlookers left, the store's business basically dried up.

Occasionally, someone would pass by, point and whisper about it, and then leave.

As Xu Chunsheng was still pondering what to do about this matter, someone interrupted him: "Boss Xu, you might have been set up by someone."

Xu Chunsheng looked up and saw the same familiar customer who had been the first to smell the wine. He smiled at him, stood up, and brought him a bamboo chair: "Brother Niu, what do you say?"

Brother Niu sat down and patted his thigh twice: "Hey, I'm sure your wine is fine. I just went to the market and heard someone saying that someone in the village is selling bulk wine and is using your brand name without permission."

"They also said that your wine doesn't taste as good as others say. Some say it tastes bitter, and others say it's diluted with water."

"I trust your character. What else could it be but a setup?"

Xu Chunsheng frowned, poured a bowl of cold tea for Brother Niu and handed it to him: "Thank you for your trust, Brother Niu. I have a general idea of ​​what's going on in this matter. I'm sorry to have troubled you to come all this way to let me know."

Brother Niu took a sip of tea and sighed, "I think you, Boss Xu, are honest in business. Your wine tastes good, and you always give the correct weight. Sometimes you might pour out a little too much, but you won't spill it. I don't want to see your wine being wronged like this."

Xu Chunsheng thanked Brother Niu profusely again. Having such a customer who trusted him had greatly eased his earlier frustration. "I do business with a clear conscience," he said. "Now that there are people impersonating Xu's Winery and selling counterfeit wine, I will definitely investigate thoroughly. Then I'll treat Brother Niu to drinks again."

Brother Niu happily agreed, then slapped his thigh: "Boss Xu, don't worry, we're brothers. If anyone sells counterfeit alcohol in our village, I'll definitely keep an eye out for them and arrest them!"

Xu Chunsheng laughed and said, "Haha, then I'll have to trouble you, Brother Niu. From now on, when you come to buy wine, I'll give you extra. But this is between the two of us brothers, so don't tell anyone else. If I give you too much, I'll lose money, haha."

The Xu family's winery business improved, while the winery that had been operating in town for more than ten years naturally saw its business decline.

Seeing his income significantly less than before, Wang Dongcai became increasingly anxious. He knew the reason for all these changes was that Xu's Winery had opened at the intersection near "Xingoukou".

At first, when Xu Chunsheng set up a stall in town to sell bulk liquor, he didn't take it seriously.

In Wang Dongcai's view, Xu Chunsheng's stall was simple and he only came once a year on market days, so he did not pose any threat to him.

Moreover, he had been running a winery in town for over a decade, establishing a firm foothold and attracting many regular customers. Even if Xu Chunsheng offered extras when selling wine later, he didn't care.

Wang Dongcai felt that sending these things would incur costs, and Xu Chunsheng certainly couldn't keep doing it for long, as he couldn't afford the expenses.

-

Little did he know that the things he sent were all made by Uncle Xu himself; it only took some effort and cost almost nothing extra.

It wasn't until Xu Chunsheng relied on affordable extras to gradually accumulate a stable customer base, transforming his roadside stall, which only came once a year during market days, into a formally opened liquor store.

Wang Dongcai's customer base was gradually siphoned off, and he began to get anxious. He wanted to do what Xu Chunsheng did and offer some extras, but doing so would squeeze his profits too much, and he would be busy for half a day but still not earn much money.

Reluctant to spend his own money, Wang Dongcai casually picked out some small trinkets as extras. Compared to the two, people who came to buy wine were more willing to walk a few more steps to Xu's house to get wine.

Not only were the free gifts from Wang Dongcai stingy, but the taste of the drinks was also not as good as before. Not only did he fail to retain old customers, but he also made himself seem stingier, and his business suffered an even greater decline.

Looking at the empty shop, he sat inside, sighing incessantly, and his resentment towards Xu Chunsheng grew even stronger.