Chapter 175: Old Man Wen Regrets Agreeing Too Fast
It did not take long for Old Man Wen to pay the price for his grandfather-granddaughter bonding moment.
“Granddad, right here on this plot, I want to build a distillery. I’ve already drawn up the layout blueprints for the distillery. Look, isn’t it beautiful?”
“Granddad, this side is closest to the mountain spring, so diverting water down from here will be the most convenient. Look, if we use bamboo to make conduits to channel the water down from the top, wouldn’t that be incredibly handy?”
“Granddad, this is the cellar, this is the area for drying grain, and this place right here is the brewing workshop.”
“Granddad, take a look, what do you think?”
“Granddad, why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Granddad…”
Old Man Wen felt as though his head was ringing loudly. Looking at the massive plot of land his granddaughter had cordoned off, his entire body turned to stone.
He had assumed she was just playing around and wanted a small brewing corner, messing around in some random nook at home. Who could have guessed that this girl actually intended to build a whole distillery?
“Yao’er…” Old Man Wen began in a deep, earnest tone.
Wen Yao didn’t give the old man a single chance to get a word in edgewise.
“Granddad, you also think my ideas are great, right? Granddad, you truly are the best grandfather ever. Look, once the distillery is built, our family will never lack for liquor to drink in the future. You can drink as much as you want, however you want! If the granddads in the village want a drink, they’ll all have to come buy it from you. Won’t that make you happy?”
“And Granddad, just think about it—down the line, when we brew excellent liquor, with Sister Qiu’s help, it will definitely be sold all across the country. By then, won’t everyone know about the Wen Family Distillery? Our old Wen family will become more and more famous! Our ancestors down in the underworld will surely be ecstatic that a descendant like you brought the Wen family into such a prosperous life.”
“Granddad…”
Wen Yao could be said to have pulled out all the stops to coax him, sparing no effort whatsoever, throwing flattery around so intensely that the old man was thoroughly dazed.
Old Man Wen was indeed overwhelmed, completely losing his bearings amidst Wen Yao’s repeated, sweet refrains of “Granddad.”
“Build it!!!”
“Awesome! Granddad is the best, Granddad is the absolute best grandfather in the whole wide world.” Wen Yao grinned like a sly old fox, silently apologizing to Old Man Wen in her heart, but for the sake of a grand future, this was the only way.
When they learned that Old Man Wen intended to help Wen Yao build a distillery even before their own barren hill had been properly cleared, the three Wen brothers nearly slipped right out of their chairs.
“Father?” The three of them looked toward Old Man Wen in unison.
Old Man Wen turned his face away awkwardly, doing his best to ignore his sons’ pained and aggrieved expressions. He muttered, “Well, what Yao’er said makes sense. If this liquor is brewed well, the reputation of our old Wen family’s liquor will spread further and further in the future.”
By the time he finished speaking, even Old Man Wen felt his own confidence wavering.
Old Madam Luo watched the men of the family get thoroughly manipulated by Wen Yao, letting out a chuckle.
“I just have one question. Yao’er, do you even know how to brew liquor?”
Old Madam Luo had managed to ask the ultimate, crucial question. Old Man Wen had been completely swept up by Wen Yao’s coaxing for so long, yet he had never once thought to ask her this.
Hearing his old wife ask, Old Man Wen finally snapped out of it and looked at Wen Yao. “That’s right, Yao’er, do you know how to brew liquor?”
Wen Yao desperately wanted to give a resounding, definitive “yes,” but in reality, she had only watched a few videos in her past life. To say she knew how wasn’t quite accurate, but to say she didn’t know how wasn’t true either, as she did understand a fair bit.
Thus, meeting everyone’s expectant gazes, Wen Yao cautiously let out a few words: “Well… I know a little bit?”
Old Man Wen nearly dropped the pipe in his hand. He truly wished he could crack this girl’s head open to see exactly what was packed inside.
Seeing them fall into a heavy silence, Wen Yao knew that if she didn’t produce something concrete today, this distillery plan would ten to one fall through.
This was her grand ambition; it absolutely couldn’t fall through.
“Just you wait.” Finished speaking, Wen Yao dashed back into her room. Before long, she jogged back out clutching a stack of books, dropping them onto the table in front of everyone with a loud thud.
“What is this?”
“Are these books? Sister, how come these look a bit different from the books we read?”
“Wow, this paper feels so smooth to touch.”
“Wow, this paper is so thin, yet the ink doesn’t bleed through at all when you write.”
Watching Wen Yao boldly bring out these books with completely open swagger, both Wen Xiuyi and Wen Jun broke out in a cold sweat from sheer fright.
“Yao’er, what are these?” Old Man Wen had never seen such books either, his face filled with curiosity.
Datou stood by the table. Because he was studying traditional characters, many of the simplified characters printed on the covers looked familiar, but he couldn’t be entirely certain. He attempted to read out loud: “This one is called… Practical Production Technology for Baijiu.”
“This one is… Grain Liquor, Fruit Liquor… Sister, fruit can actually be brewed into liquor?”
“This is Production Craft for Jiang-Flavor Baijiu.”
Datou silently flipped through the stack, finally raising his head to look at Old Man Wen. “Granddad, these all seem to be books teaching how to brew liquor.”
Although the layout and formatting were rather peculiar, they were undeniably books. Furthermore, the explanations written inside were incredibly easy to comprehend, far easier to understand than the texts provided by his teacher and godfather.
Wen Yao patted the stack of books and declared, “With these, we won’t have to worry about being unable to brew good liquor.”
She had already planned it out: she would hire specialists who genuinely knew how to brew to handle the labor, while she would provide the technical knowledge, the structural improvements, and the liquor starter cultures. One must understand that the absolute most vital key to brewing liquor, aside from the water, was the starter culture. The quality of the culture directly determined the quality of the liquor.
With a cheating device like her space, she had no fear of being unable to brew premium liquor.
Didn’t the female protagonist do something similar in the original plot? If she could do it, why couldn’t she? What a joke—otherwise, how was she supposed to block the female lead’s path completely?
However, Wen Yao was acutely aware that they couldn’t rely entirely on the space. They had to establish their own distinct edge to secure a firm foothold in this world. What if, just as Wen Xiuyi warned, the female lead was born in another two years and the space returned to her?
Therefore, one must always make two separate preparations for everything. She had also fetched a whole pile of books on how to manufacture liquor starter cultures from scratch. Two years’ time was more than enough for her to research it thoroughly.
The members of the Wen family—both those who were literate and those who were not—all fell silent.
Only Datou quietly kept reading the books, occasionally asking Wen Xiuyi next to him what a certain character meant, as the differences between traditional and simplified characters were still substantial.
Wen Xiuyi and Wen Jun exchanged a glance, stealthily observing the reactions of everyone in the family. Their minds were racing, trying to figure out how they would explain away this lie if anyone pressed for details.
Yet, right until the meeting concluded, and right until Old Man Wen firmly slammed his hand down to finalize the decision to build the distillery, not a single person asked a single question about where these books had come from.
At this very moment, Wen Xiuyi suddenly felt a profound realization strike him. Perhaps the Wen family members had long since noticed their anomalies; it was simply that everyone chose never to break the silence.
A distinct wave of emotion suddenly welled up deep within his chest. Wen Xiuyi sniffled, turning his gaze toward the two elders.
“Father, Mother, since Yao’er wants to do this, let’s just go ahead and do it. Our old Wen family ought to have something distinctively our own as well.”
Old Madam Luo shot him a sideways glance but didn’t argue. She merely stated, “If you’re going to do it, do it properly. Don’t go fishing for three days and drying the nets for two, letting some new whim pop into your head every few days.”
Finished speaking, she shot Wen Yao a stern, warning glare.
Wen Yao playfully stuck her tongue out.
