Chapter 216: Yet Another Yunwu Milk Tea Shop
The rice and flour purchased from the grain and oil shop had all been put into the Space by Wen Yao. What they hauled out and left with from the small courtyard was entirely the wine yeast bought from the Space.
This way, even if someone saw them hauling things away from there, they wouldn’t become suspicious, merely assuming they were purchasing agents who had come to the prefectural city from elsewhere. Furthermore, that courtyard was broken and old, not looking like a permanent residence at all, though using it as a temporary lodging point was perfectly fine.
By the time they returned to Gutong Village, the sky was already pitch-black. The father and daughter hadn’t stopped at all along the way; even when they grew hungry at noon and in the afternoon, it was solved by gnawing on a couple of pieces of bread in the carriage. As soon as they arrived at their destination, the carriage drove straight into the winery.
The moment the carriage came to a steady halt, Wen Yao jumped straight down from it, stretching her muscles.
This journey had truly exhausted her to the limit.
“Uncle Qin, put the items in the warehouse. Dad, I’m heading back to sleep; if there’s anything, we’ll talk about it tomorrow.” After speaking, Wen Yao yawned, turned on her heel, and left without a shred of hesitation.
Uncle Qin stood frozen in place with the six young men.
“Master, this…”
Wen Xiuyi was also exhausted to the limit and waved his hand. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Uncle Qin, arrange it as you see fit. Look after the carriage for tonight; I’m leaving.”
Wen Xiuyi also walked away with a limp. Wen Yao could at least lean against those bags of wine yeast in the carriage to catch a snooze, but he had truly been jolted on the edge of the carriage for an entire day straight. He felt as though his two legs no longer belonged to him.
Uncle Qin wanted to have someone escort Wen Xiuyi, but Wen Xiuyi refused.
“No need to escort me, it’s just a few steps. You guys clean up quickly and go to sleep; if there’s anything, we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
Seeing the father and daughter fade into the darkness, Uncle Qin could only withdraw his gaze and direct the few individuals to move all the wine yeast to the designated warehouse.
Whether this wine would be good or not depended entirely on the wine yeast, the water, and the grain. He had already looked at the grain and water, which were as good as could possibly be; it was just this wine yeast.
Uncle Qin opened a sack, took a piece of wine yeast in his hand, and sniffed it carefully, whereupon his eyes lit up.
This wine yeast was better than any kind he had ever seen before; the wine brewed from it would bound to be highly delicious.
At this moment, Uncle Qin was thrilled—so thrilled his hands were shaking. He could no longer wait to begin.
After settling the wine yeast properly, Uncle Qin checked the hour outside and ultimately held himself back after all. He told everyone to go back and sleep quickly, to start work as soon as they woke up tomorrow.
The remaining six people and Yanyan were all highly thrilled. After preparing for so long, were they finally about to begin?
The next day, before Wen Yao felt she had recovered, she was already awakened from her bed by Old Madam Luo.
“Why are you still sleeping? The winery side is already bustling with activity,” Old Madam Luo said while dressing Wen Yao.
Wen Yao let the old lady fuss over her in a daze.
“Grandma, let me sleep a bit longer.” Wen Yao really wanted to sleep.
Old Madam Luo, however, wouldn’t allow it.
“What hour do you think it is? You were the one who wanted to set up this winery yourself, and now you don’t care about it? Your grandpa and the others have already gone over; you get up quickly and go take a look too.”
Ultimately, Wen Yao was forcibly pulled up by Old Madam Luo. Walking outside, she saw that the sky was barely starting to brighten, with only a hint of dawn visible.
The sleeping schedule of these ancient people was truly deadly sometimes.
Arriving at the winery, Uncle Qin had already led the men to begin bustling about.
This wine brewing was the one thing that could not be rushed; it had to be done step by step. From the initial hour for soaking the sorghum to the final flame control for distilling the wine, not a single thing could go wrong.
Uncle Qin inspected almost every large basin used for soaking the sorghum to confirm the amount of water.
All this water had been carried down from the mountain spring, shoulder-pole load by shoulder-pole load every day, after they had tidied up the winery during these past few days.
The rest of the Wen family stood by the side watching curiously, lending a hand to help out every now and then.
The moment Wen Yao arrived, Uncle Qin hurried over with an excited smile on his face.
“Young Mistress, you’ve come.”
Wen Yao nodded. “Uncle Qin, sorry to trouble you. Have you looked at that wine yeast? What do you think? Can it be used?”
Uncle Qin nodded repeatedly. “It can be used, it can be used, Young Mistress. That wine yeast can absolutely be called top-grade wine yeast. Just rest assured, Young Mistress; I will certainly brew the most delicious wine for you.”
Wen Yao could feel Uncle Qin’s excitement. It was true; for a wine brewer, what matter could possibly match the happiness of brewing good wine?
“Uncle Qin, we’ll just look around on our own; you go about your business.” Wen Yao couldn’t go delaying people’s work.
Uncle Qin responded with a “yes” and went back to keep a close eye on their labor.
The duration for soaking the grain had to be precise down to the minute. They had prepared early, so it didn’t take long before this first batch of soaked sorghum could be taken out to be steamed.
During this process of steaming the grain, the intensity of the flame was also quite important, because the slightest inattention would easily cause the grain to be steamed to varying degrees, so one had to be careful.
For such fine work, in an era without an accurate timer, it was truly difficult to master without decades of solid foundation.
It truly relied entirely on Uncle Qin’s experience.
But she couldn’t very well bring out a timer herself either. However, she could consider figuring out a way to make an hourglass.
Soaking, steaming, sprinkling the powdered wine yeast, tossing and mixing, and finally putting it into large vats to begin fermentation. What went into the large vats along with it was also the mountain spring water. In the end, it only needed to be sealed up to ferment for a month.
Over the course of the entire day, a dozen or so vats were already placed in the warehouse used to store the fermentation vats.
Although Uncle Qin was very excited, he also knew his boundaries and didn’t make too much at one time. This was also his first time using this wine yeast, so now he only had to wait for a month before distilling the wine to see how the resulting wine turned out.
The Wen family’s winery had finally started production. This news spread like wildfire through the village, and who didn’t envy the Wen family nowadays?
First the duck coop, then the fish pond, and the crops in the fields grew better than anyone else’s. Madam Wen’s soybean paste was frequently hauled out carriage load by carriage load. It was rumored that the soybean paste used in the most prosperous Yunwu Roast Duck Shop in town was all made by Madam Wen.
Aside from these, the Wen family also had a barren mountain. Although the barren mountain was still empty, those who were well-informed had already learned from Old Man Wen that they planned to plant fruit trees on this mountain.
Looking back now, the Wen family seemed to have suddenly struck great luck this year, suddenly becoming someone they could no longer catch up to.
Once the winery started production, Qiu Rongrong couldn’t wait and began dispatching people to fetch Wen Yao every day, requiring her to go train the employees of the milk tea shop daily.
She taught them hand-in-hand how to make all kinds of cold drinks.
The rest of the Wen family didn’t sit idle either. Busy and bustling like this, half a month passed by. Before the wine had even left the warehouse, the second shop Wen Yao and Qiu Rongrong cooperated on, Yunwu Milk Tea, opened for business.
People didn’t know what milk tea was, but since it carried the word “tea,” it was probably just like other teahouses—a place to taste tea and chat.
Only when they walked into this milk tea shop did they discover that whether it was the waiters running the floor or the so-called preparation room built directly next to the main hall, everything was different from the teahouses they usually frequented.
The waiters wore uniform attire, moving among the various guests. On the very first day of opening, it was instantly packed to capacity. There was no helping it; with Yunwu Roast Duck preceding it, many people were afraid they wouldn’t even be able to snag a seat if they arrived late.
