Chapter 176: The Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes Are Ready to Be Harvested
Wen Yao did not hide the matter of building a distillery from Qiu Rongrong. After reaching an agreement with her family and marking out the land to begin laying the foundations, Wen Yao sought out Qiu Rongrong to tell her about the plan.
“Really? The spring stops flowing once it’s full? And then it wells back up once the water is gone? Yao’er, to tell you the truth, I’ve never seen such a magical thing in all my years. Take me to see it,” Qiu Rongrong said, showing no interest in the distillery but becoming highly intrigued by the mountain spring instead.
Wen Yao pulled at her sleeve and said hurriedly, “Sister, you can look at it whenever you want. The spring isn’t going anywhere. But this time, you really must save your little sister. You absolutely have to help, please.”
Wen Yao’s pitiful, begging look made Qiu Rongrong burst into laughter.
She pinched Wen Yao’s nose and teased, “Why didn’t you think of this earlier? You clearly don’t know the first thing about it, yet you insisted on grit-teeth brewing liquor. Now that you’ve talked big to everyone, you know what it means to be anxious, huh?”
Wen Yao grinned. “Well, not exactly.” It wasn’t that she didn’t understand it at all; she just wasn’t an expert. She needed a professional artisan, and then she could provide the technical references—hehe, mutual improvement, mutual improvement.
After teasing her enough, Qiu Rongrong finally smiled and said, “It’s true that experienced brewers can be found. My family actually has its own distillery, though business hasn’t been great lately.
“My brother wanted to close it down a few years ago, but since we have so many taverns and restaurants scattered across the country, even though the liquor isn’t as premium as Xianju Brew, it’s cheap and popular with many patrons. So it’s barely scraping by.
“If you truly want to set up a distillery, I’ll mention it to my brother and just transfer all the workers from that distillery over to you. But let’s make one thing clear: if you brew some fine, heavenly nectar in the future, you must think of my Zui Xian Tower and our Qiu family first.”
Ah, wait. She only wanted a professional technical worker, yet she was about to make someone else’s factory go out of business. Wouldn’t that be a bit inappropriate?
“Sister Qiu, there’s no need for that. I just need a single person who knows how to brew so I can understand the current brewing process and some things to watch out for. There’s no need to dismantle Brother Qiu’s distillery over this, definitely no need, haha,” Wen Yao waved her hands repeatedly.
Qiu Rongrong let out a laugh. “Are you sure you don’t want them? The master brewers in my brother’s distillery are seasoned veterans who have spent their entire lives brewing. Once you miss this chance, you won’t find it again.”
Wen Yao replied, “No, no, no. Old artisans like that always possess their own unique pride. They definitely won’t be able to stand my eccentric ideas. If we clash and a rift forms, it’ll be troublesome. Liquor is something that goes down people’s throats; we can’t afford a single mishap.”
Qiu Rongrong’s brows knit together. “They wouldn’t dare.”
Wen Yao silently pouted. She had completely forgotten about that aspect—anyone working in a Qiu family distillery was bound to be a household servant of the Qiu family. A treacherous double-cross was something that simply could not arise in the presence of a deed of sale, unless someone was utterly tired of living.
Sigh.
“Sister, I really just need one person. Please help me look for one. If you can find someone, great; if not, it doesn’t matter,” Wen Yao coaxed, shaking Qiu Rongrong’s hand. Even if she couldn’t find anyone, she could still figure it out herself given enough time.
Qiu Rongrong didn’t force the matter and nodded. “Alright then, I’ll have Shopkeeper Lu ask around the distillery to see who’s willing to come. He’s quite familiar with the manager over there.”
“Then many thanks, Sister.” Wen Yao immediately stood up and gave Qiu Rongrong a formal, proper bow, only to be yanked right back down. The two of them soon dissolved into a playful scuffle on the soft daybed.
“Rest assured, I’ll definitely find you the most suitable master craftsman.”
Upon returning from the Xie residence, Wen Yao threw herself entirely into her pile of brewing books. As for the distillery?
Old Man Wen was currently not only patrolling the hill every day to supervise the land reclamation, but he also had to monitor the digging of the foundations and construction of the distillery buildings. The moment he spared a free minute, he had to dash over to the fields to check on his precious crops. He desperately wished he could split himself into four people.
Old Madam Luo’s first and second batches of bean paste had already cleared the storehouse. The staff from the roast duck restaurant had come to cart them away, paying in ready silver on the spot.
Ever since her eldest grandson mentioned that she shouldn’t overexert herself, Old Madam Luo and the younger Old Madam Luo stopped doing the physical labor themselves. They hired clean, capable, and efficient women from the village to handle all the miscellaneous chores. The two of them only retained control over the core technical steps, while the hired help was left under the management of the younger Old Madam Luo’s daughter-in-law, Jiang Yueniang.
The two old ladies now spent their days cracking melon seeds and chatting while watching the others work, effectively becoming the two most leisurely people in the entire Wen family household.
Seeing Old Man Wen spinning like a top all day out of sheer busyness, Old Madam Luo simply turned a blind eye and pretended not to notice.
“Sister, aren’t you worried that Brother-in-law will work himself to exhaustion like this?” the younger Old Madam Luo asked curiously, seeing the amused look on her sister’s face.
Old Madam Luo laughed. “He deserves it, he brought it on himself. I warned them a long time ago to pay less heed to that little slip of a girl, but they just wouldn’t listen. Now they’ve trapped themselves inside it. Serves them right.”
The younger Old Madam Luo watched her sister laugh. Though the words coming out of her mouth called the girl a “slip of a girl,” the sheer indulgence and affection in her eyes was practically overflowing.
The two had barely finished speaking when a voice rang out, “Does that little slip of a girl want to take you two out to play? Are you coming or not?”
Old Madam Luo jolted in surprise, only then noticing Wen Yao secretly peeking around the doorframe, giggling at the two of them.
“You wretched girl, sneaking in without making a sound,” Old Madam Luo chided affectionately. The younger Old Madam Luo also smiled and gestured for Wen Yao to come over.
“You must be tired. Your great-aunt made green bean soup, let me fetch a bowl for you,” the younger Old Madam Luo said, about to rise.
Wen Yao quickly pressed her back down into her seat, ran to the kitchen herself to ladle a bowl of green bean soup, and gulped it all down in one go.
“Slow down, don’t choke.” Seeing her like this, the two old ladies felt both fond and worried. For a young girl, she truly lacked any ladylike decorum.
Once she finished drinking, Wen Yao smiled and said, “My father and the others are all in the fields. My father says the potatoes and sweet potatoes are ready to be dug up, but my granddad is digging his heels in, insisting they should let them grow a bit longer. Right now, the two of them are arguing in the field until their faces are red as beets.”
The two elders exchanged a glance. “They’re ready to be dug up?”
“Ah, yes. My father says if they keep growing, they’ll rot in the ground. My granddad doesn’t believe him, claiming that letting them stay longer might make them grow even bigger. They’ve probably finished arguing by now, and my father definitely won’t lose,” Wen Yao said with a bright grin. Could Professor Wen’s words ever be wrong?
Besides, she had secretly dug a few up earlier, and they were indeed quite large already, just about ready for harvest.
“Come on, let’s go have a look.” Old Madam Luo stood up, smoothed down her clothes, and walked out. The younger Old Madam Luo lagged a step behind, instructing Jiang Yueniang to keep a good eye on the house before following after them.
By the time the three of them reached the fields, they could see a throng of people in the distance from a long way off. Everyone was crouching on the ground, clawing at the earth. Old Man Wen was hovering by the side, frantic with worry, shouting every few moments for everyone to slow down, be gentle, and avoid damaging them.
Coming closer, they discovered that several gunny sacks by the side were already crammed full. Old Madam Luo stepped up and picked one potato up. Compared to the small potatoes they had eaten previously, the current potato sitting in her hand was larger than her palm, easily weighing over a catty.
“These… they’ve grown this big? Big Sister, is this that ‘something bean’ you said can be eaten as a staple food?” The younger Old Madam Luo was filled with astonishment. She picked up an even larger one and weighed it with one hand; it was at least nearly two catties.
Old Madam Luo’s grip on the potato gradually tightened. Looking out over the field where less than a tenth had been harvested so far, she suddenly realized that the things her eldest son had said might truly not have been a boast.
These things could genuinely save lives.
