Chapter 112 Liehuo Spirits!
“Does Ms. Li finally ask you do something?”
Mei Ruohan stood up after Fang Yuan left. She walked closer to Luo Yichen and wanted to see the content of the scrip. Luo Yichen immediately put it away and said with a severe countenance, “Ms. Li says it is a secret. You can’t read it. I will immediately start off before it’s too late.”
“I see.” Mei Ruohan moved her eyes away from the scrip after hearing what he said. She nodded obediently and said, “Go ahead and be careful on the road.”
Luo Yichen responded with a simple “hum” and left without saying a word. He felt slightly angry and thought that Ms. Li must do this on purpose. Fortunately, he was quick on the trigger. Or else how would Ruohan think of him?
Su Li naturally couldn’t know that Luo Yichen had once again misunderstood the actual intention of her unintentional order. At the moment, she was holding the Ao Sword Skills from Jin Cheng’ao and carefully studying it in the attic.
She naturally would practice the Ao Sword Skills, a peerless classic in the martial arts circle. Jin Cheng’ao practiced it from right to left step by step while she started from the last hurdle from left to right.
She had heard countless rumors related to the Ao Sword Skills in her previous life. The secret had been thoroughly found out in the martial arts circle. So to say that the classic was like a circle without an overview and any marking words about the sequence of realm.
It seemed that it could be started from right to left, vice versa or even the middle.
In previous life, the beggar confusedly practiced the sword skills after he got the classic from Jin Cheng’ao. Fortunately, he chose a way completely different from Jin Cheng’ao to practice, only to find that the excellence of Ao Sword Skills came into play completely. Thus there was the reputation of “Sword Lord” in the later generations.
By contrast, Jin Cheng’ao was out of luck. The incorrect practicing method led to imperfection of his state of mind. The deeper he practiced, the larger the imperfection would be. He eventually lost humanity and brought his own destruction in madness.
Su Li, however, merely brought Jin Cheng’ao’s death a little forward and incidentally prevented the little beggar from becoming the “Sword Lord” in the previous life. Therefore, the destiny of the beggar remained unknown.
“Sister Li, are you there?”
Su Li heard Fang Ling’s clear voice when she immersed herself in reminiscence, “The underground wine cellar is too small to load the rice wine. What should we do?”
Squeak —
Fang Ling saw Su Li dressed as Ms. Li walk out of the room when she just finished the words. The latter told her, “Call Xuetong and Heidan. Let them go to the wine cellar with me.”
Fang Ling’s twinkling big eyes suddenly brightened up. She immediately went downstairs to call them together.
Mei Ruohan poked her head out of a cabinet when she heard the movements. She saw Su Li and others but didn’t know where they are going. Although she couldn’t help feeling curious, she didn’t dare to leave without the permission of Ms. Li.
They came to the wine cellar after opening the secret door of the underground adytum. Su Li immediately smelt full-bodied aroma of wine. It could be seen that the place with an area of sixty square meters space was full of shelves. Jars of wine were neatly put on them.
“There is one more thing.”
Fang Ling said with a worried look while counting her fingers, “There is not enough dry osmanthus in the warehouse and what we have can only support our production in one or two months at most. We will have nothing to sell if the new wine is not ready in the next month.”
Su Li slightly nodded and said in a gentle voice, “Today is the seventh day of March. The osmanthus will bloom in more than four months. It was not strange that we didn’t have enough osmanthus due to lack of hands last year. This year, we have enough hands, so we can collect sufficient osmanthus. Now, let me teach you how to make new wine with bronze brass!”
All people were astonished after hearing what she said. The message about spirits had been spread out by them for nearly a month. There was criticism for the Linli Building because it failed to launch the new wine.
Some people even said that only sissies would drink the osmanthus wine!
Yin Xuetong was very angry. She knew well that the criticism was spread from other wine workshop owners who envied their new wine. But Su Li had a lot on her plate recently, so the launch of the new wine was delayed. Yin Xuetong had no choice but to see drinkers be pulled over by other workshops.
With so many thoughts on her mind, Yin Xuetong followed Su Li to the enormous bronze brass with the same height as an adult. She was busy with the business of a shopkeeper at ordinary times and had no time to carefully measure it until today.
It could be seen that the utensil was composed of the upper part and lower part. There was a bamboo basket on the bottom of the upper part and a groove near the basket. On the bottom of the groove, a drainage tube was casted to connect with the other big wine jar.
“Big Brother, how should we use it?” Heidan was deeply confused and asked.
Besides Heidan, Yin Xuetong and Fang Ling also knew strange utensil for the first time. They didn’t know how Su Li would make wine with it at all.
Su Li smiled and said while waving her hand to Heidan, “Fetch a few jars of wine to here and pour them into the utensil. Yin Xu, come here and heat the utensil. The fire should be large and shouldn’t be stopped.”
The temperature in the room quickly increased, but they could still bear it. Yin Xu wiped away the sweat on his head and turned around. He instantly saw numerous ventilation openings in the wall and his admiration for Su Li was further improved.
“Ms. Li is incredibly wise. She may have thought of the ventilation of the room when she designed the building. Or else the temperature in the room will be far higher.”
Clattered…
Without Yin Xuetong and Fang Ling’s help, Heidan and others poured jars of thick rice wine into the utensil one after another. Before long, a stack of empty jars appeared in the corner of the wall.
Su Li stopped Heidan when the utensil was eighty per cent filled.
“What do we do next?”
Heidan still remembered that the process of making osmanthus wine was complicated. Since it was the new wine of the Linli Building, the steps should be more complicated.
After hearing the words, Su Li shook her head and said with a smile, “The only thing we should do is to wait.”
Heidan was slightly dumbfounded and couldn’t help scratching his head. Meanwhile, he stopped talking and stood aside to watch Yin Xu heat the utensil.
Before long, Fang Ling who had stared at the drainage tube shouted suddenly, “Look! Look! It is wine!”
All people turned their eyes after hearing what she said. They indeed saw a clear and crystal liquid outflowing from the drainage tube. The liquid was completely different from the thick rice wine in the first place.
“Is this wine?”
“It doesn’t look like wine. Is it water?”
All people whispered with confusion. Su Li walked to the big wine jar and took a full cup of wine. Then she put it on the desk. Yin Xuetong and others immediately gathered around it.
“It turns out that it is the amber wine. How beautiful it is!”
Yin Xuetong’s eyes brightened up. She couldn’t help but lift up the wine cup to smell. Instantly a strong aroma of wine filled her nose.
“It smells good. The aroma is unadulterated and different from osmanthus wine!”
At this moment, Su Li took two cups of wine and put them on the table. She looked at Heidan and others who were trying to restrain the desire to drink the new wine with a faint smile and then she said, “Have a try. I will not deduct your wages if you can remain sober after drinking the whole cup of wine.”
“Are you serious?”
Heidan beamed with happiness and asked. He could drink a lot. It was impossible for him to get intoxicated after he only tried one cup of wine.
But Yin Xuetong was immediately alarmed and lightly put down the wine cup. She had already gained experience from her former mistakes. She should never be too confident about her ability whenever Su Li showed such an expression.
“When did I ever eat my words?” Su Li gave Heidan and others a sign with her eyes and said, “Drink if you want! Grasp the good opportunity today.”
“Thanks for your reward!”
Heidan didn’t suspect that there were other motives and immediately picked up the wine cup. Then Yin Xuetong and Fang Ling could see his face flushing after he drank the wine.
“Cough… So hot!”
Heidan clutched his throat and violently coughed.
It seemed that he had drunk off a cup of powder instead of wine.
After he drank, the cup of wine immediately burst forth a force beyond his imagination. It seemed that there was a glowing knife directly stabbed at his heart or a fireball burning in his heart. Although he felt extremely painful, he still felt very great!
“So great!”
Heidan flushed. He burped while laughing foolishly and exclaimed dizzily. Then he toppled down onto the ground with a flop and lost his consciousness. Fang Ling was so scared that she jumped back and nearly bumped Yin Xu who just climbed out of the stove.
Yin Xuetong stepped aside and stared at Heidan who was lying and snoring on the ground. The smile on her face seemed to say that she had already known what would happen. Then she said, “He is truly drunk after drinking one cup of the wine…”
The rest immediately put down wine cups and didn’t dare to drink. However, they couldn’t help but wonder the taste of the wine when they saw Heidan beaming with happiness.
Su Li lightly kicked Heidan who was sleeping on the ground. She shook her head and said, “Bear in mind that whoever prefers to take advantage of others will eventually end up like this. Xuetong, remember that he will have no wage this month.”
Yin Xuetong stuck her tongue out after hearing the words and quietly wrote it down. She could imagine the scene that Heidan felt like weeping but had no tears when he woke up.
At the moment, Su Li had already filled a cup with wine. She shook it with a smile and said, “The name of the wine is Liehuo Spirits! It will have three classes as osmanthus wine does. We will not sell the raw wine because common people may die after drinking it. It will get the Linli Building in trouble. The concentration of the first-class Liehuo Spirits should be fifty percent. Xuetong, determine the concentration and price of the rest classes.”
Yin Xuetong immediately wrote it on a notebook for fear that she may forget something. She was no longer worried.
The Liehuo Spirits was extremely strong as its name had suggested. Even Heidan got drunk after only drinking a cup of the new wine. Those common wine workshops made many irresponsible remarks. They said that only sissies would drink the wine of the Linli Building. Tomorrow, she would let them know who on earth was a sissy!
Before long, someone lifted up Heidan to have a rest while Yin Xu came back to the stove to heat the wine. Since they would sell the new wine tomorrow, they naturally needed to make more wine. Yin Xuetong scribbled on paper and thought about the suitable price of the new wine. She suddenly remembered something when she saw that Su Li was wearing the veil again and was about to leave the wine cellar. She hurriedly called Su Li to stop and said, “Su Li, wait. There is still something that I don’t understand.”
Well?
Yin Xuetong immediately held Su Li’s hand when the latter just turned around. She asked after they walked into an adytum, “Su Li, how should we deal with Mei Ruohan? Since you are unwilling to show her your true features, you do not believe in her. Therefore, we can’t tell her the secrets of our winery. What is the use of cultivating her?”
Su Li’s eyes slightly narrowed and she said, “It is not true to say that I don’t trust her. She is different from us.”
“Different? What do you mean?”
Yin Xuetong asked subconsciously. Her eyes turned less bright when something suddenly flashed through her mind and then she became silent.
Su Li smiled and said in a way beyond Yin Xuetong’s apprehension, “I will give her another chance to choose when she grows older. She doesn’t have much experience. It is too early for her to make a right decision…”
Watching Su Li leave with a wine cup in her hands, Yin Xuetong was stunned and didn’t know how she should feel for the time being.
She didn’t know the reason why Su Li who came from a simple and clean family could master so many skills of the medical circle and the poison circle. Sometimes, the sorrow in Su Li’s eyes was far more complicated compared with a group of fugitives like them…