Top Scholar

Chapter 82 Return to the world
After the initial surprise, Su Daji was puzzled: "That's not right. If there really was a secret recipe, why didn't she share it sooner? She didn't even need to give it to anyone else; giving it to her family's distillery would definitely have helped her through this difficult time."

"This just shows how cautious my godmother is; she's afraid of entrusting the wrong person!" This was naturally no challenge for Su Lu, who already had a prepared response in mind:

"Now we can see that it's not difficult for her to pay off her debts—she can simply sell some sweet water and clear her account in about six months. Why would she bring out her precious possession and let others take advantage of her and rip her off?"

"Hmm." Su Daji stroked his beard and nodded, finding some truth in it.

This is the power of history. In just half a year, the success of Sweet Water Restaurant has made everyone forget the plight of the proprietress back then.

"Moreover, cooperation depends on character. If her family had offered to help her, she definitely would have done so. But..." Su Lu paused, then continued, "It was only after spending the last six months with her that we gained her trust, and that's when she told us this secret."

"Why did your godmother tell you this? Does she want to cooperate with us?" Su Daji's heart skipped a beat.

"I don't know then." Su Lu spread his hands and began to push the matter away, saying, "Maybe they want to spread the word and choose a partner... Sweetwater Restaurant is not what it used to be, and it has many business partners now. They can choose the most suitable one."

As he spoke, he picked up his cleaver and bid farewell to Da Zhang, saying, "I've finished speaking. If Seventh Uncle wants to talk to my godmother, I'll let her know when I return to the academy. If not, that's fine too."

"Of course I want to." Seventh Uncle looked Su Lu up and down and asked, "But Qiu-ge'er, what role do you play in it?"

“I’m too busy studying every day, what business could I possibly have? I was just worried about my clan, that’s why I was being nosy… My brother was really looking forward to getting paid this year, but look what happened, he’s worked for free for another six months,” Su Lu said with a wry smile.

Su Daji was embarrassed and said, "I didn't say I wouldn't pay, I just owe you for now. I'll definitely pay you when I have the money."

"Oh, oh." Su Lu nodded perfunctorily, every pore of his face revealing disbelief.

"Then I'll have to trouble Qiu-ge'er." Su Daji finally made up his mind.

"Okay, then I'll tell my godmother." This time, Su Lu was really planning to leave.

"Wait a minute." Su Daji called out to him, wielding a meat cleaver and chopping off the pig's snout with one stroke. He wrapped it, along with most of the pig's tongue, in oil paper. "I can't let you run this errand for nothing. Take it back to Sixth Brother for a drink."

"Thank you very much, Seventh Uncle." Su Lu accepted the gift with a smile and tucked it into his sleeve.

In fact, Su Daji has always been generous... The winery belongs to the clan, and no matter how stingy he is, he can't turn it into his own. It's better to be generous, cultivate good relationships, and secure his position as the head of the winery.

Su Lu understood his mentality well; he was a leader of a collective enterprise, after all. So when he saw the once-fat pig turn into a dried-up pig's head, he knew the distillery was truly at its wit's end...

The time was ripe to discuss cooperation.

~~
Su Lu left home early that night to spend the holiday with her second brother and godmother.

The godmother was overjoyed to see the two brothers arrive together.

The only regret is that my son's father didn't stay to celebrate the holiday with us...

“It’s not raining today, so I have no reason not to go back,” Su Youcai explained in a low voice. “Grandpa knows they came to your place. If I don’t go back soon, he’ll definitely get suspicious.”

"You haven't told the old man yet..." the godmother asked softly, "What did you do here?"

"Yes." Su Youcai nodded and sighed, "There's no way around it, the feud between our two fathers runs too deep. I'm afraid if I tell them, I won't be able to work with you anymore..."

"Sigh, then you should go back." The godmother nodded understandingly, and then put half of the various foods she had just bought into Su Youcai's bamboo basket so that he could take them back to show his respect to the elders.

~~
Although she was busy until dark before closing time, my godmother still managed to prepare a huge feast in the shortest amount of time...

Although most of the dishes are simple, made with ingredients like shredded pig's ear and cucumber, they are made with the heart.

Today is a festival, so of course we need meat-filled rice dumplings and steamed egg dumplings. Well, those were bought from the street...

"I've never been to the kitchen since I was a girl. My sons, just make do with this." The godmother looked apologetically at her two eldest sons.

"Godmother is fine, I just love eating what I buy on the street," Su Tai said憨憨地.

That's not entirely wrong. These days, food bought on the street is far superior to most homemade food in every way, except for hygiene. In fact, most homemade food isn't very hygienic either…

"I'm glad you like it. Xia-ge'er doesn't come often, so he must eat more today." Today, the godmother's focus of attention has shifted to Su Tai, aiming for impartiality.

"Qiu-ge'er is still young and needs to study, while Xia-ge'er has grown up. Would you like to drink a cup of realgar wine with your mother today?" The godmother asked, picking up the small tin wine pot.

"I can only drink a little bit," said Xia Ge'er modestly, despite not getting drunk even after drinking three jin (1.5 kg).

"That's great, let me fill your cup." The godmother happily picked up the wine cup, about to pour the wine.

But then Su Lu took out a black porcelain wine bottle from his sleeve, placed it on the table, and said, "How about we have some of this?"

The godmother recognized the wine bottle and nodded, saying, "Let's do as Qiu-ge'er says."

"Let me pour the wine." Although Su Lu couldn't drink, he was very enthusiastic about urging people to drink. He poured a cup for his godmother and said with a smile, "Godmother, try it quickly, is it the right taste?" Now the godmother knew where the wine came from. Without making a sound, she picked up the cup, smelled it, and tasted it. She closed her eyes slightly and described it: "The first taste is a fierce, rough spiciness, like sand scraping across the tip of the tongue. The kick of the new wine rushes straight to the nasal cavity, with an untamed wildness—this is the first brew, undiluted."

After savoring it for a while, he continued to taste it: "It goes down smoothly, but the aftertaste is not sweet enough, and there is a raw and astringent feeling at the back of the tongue..."

“It’s not Fengqu wine.” As she spoke, her voice trailed off, and she lowered her head, choking back tears, “It’s definitely Erlang wine…”

But the proprietress quickly broke free from the vortex of the past and once again beamed a bright smile at her two godsons:

"You guys actually managed to figure it out? You're like a savior sent from heaven to your mother!"

"Mother, don't say that. We saved each other," Su Lu said with a smile.

"Hmm." Su Tai nodded, glancing at Su Lu without realizing when he had omitted the word "do," and wondering if he should have omitted it too...

"Since we can really recreate Erlang Wine, let's go all out!" the godmother said excitedly. "My son, what do you suggest?"

"Of course I'll listen to Mother," Su Lu said obediently.

"Come on." The proprietress gently poked Su Lu's forehead with her index finger and laughed, "Does your mother not know you? You're full of ideas, but you always like to use people as pawns."

"Mother, you've misunderstood me. I was just prioritizing my studies," Su Lu cried out, feeling wronged. "I understand the principle that one should not meddle in matters outside one's jurisdiction."

"I don't care, my son needs to be given a direction first, otherwise I'll panic." The proprietress waved her hand, not allowing him to explain.

“Alright.” Su Lu had no choice but to nod and slowly said, “In my opinion, we definitely can’t do it ourselves. Baijiu is a big business, and we don’t have the capability.”

“Yes, it’s not just about brewing; there are many intricacies involved, from transportation to sales,” my godmother said, deeply agreeing.

"Why has Mother never even considered making this wine? Besides the fact that I don't know how to brew wine, she's also still afraid of it..."

She sighed deeply and said, "Since we're going to brew wine, I won't hide it from you anymore—Tian Tian's father first took some wine to the county to invite his colleagues and restaurant owners to taste it."

"The result was very good, but it also made some people unhappy. That night, someone threw a dead chicken into his house. In the middle of the night, someone knocked on his window and warned him not to sell Erlang wine in the county town, or else he would be killed without a burial place."

The proprietress, her eyes red, said, "In the end, he really did die in the belly of a fish, and his body was never found."

"Huh? There's such a thing?" Su Tai was horrified and hurriedly asked, "Wasn't it an accident back then?"

"I don't know." The proprietress picked up her wine cup, took a sip of strong liquor to suppress the turmoil in her heart. "The entire He family is dead. How can a widow like me investigate?"

"Report to the authorities!"

"Who should we sue?" The godmother said with a bitter smile, "Tian Tian's father has never even met the other party. Am I supposed to sue every wine seller in Hejiang County? Besides, I was almost driven crazy by my creditors at the time, how could I have the energy to care about those things?"

“Yes.” Su Lu nodded and said softly, “The truth is already hard to find out, but we must take precautions to avoid repeating the same mistakes.”

He paused for a moment and then said, "So we still have to cooperate with the big wineries. They are already involved in this business, and they have ways to deal with everything."

"Yes." The godmother nodded in agreement. "Then which company will you cooperate with?"

“Now we have two choices, Chengji Distillery and Suji Winery.” Su Lu then said reasonably, “The advantage of cooperating with the former is that it is strong and has a solid brand, so there is almost no risk of failure. Of course, Chengji is already doing very well, and Erlang Wine is just icing on the cake. Even if we cooperate, we will not have much say, and we will not get much profit.”

"What about Su Ji?" the godmother asked again.

"The good thing about Su's family is that they're in dire straits right now, and we're offering them a helping hand. We can negotiate the terms; anything is possible." Of course, Su Lu couldn't just talk about the benefits, so he reminded his godmother:

"However, Su Ji's situation is not good. Its products are not selling well, it is heavily in debt, and it has not paid wages even after the New Year. It is definitely not as good as Cheng Ji... You can choose any godmother. Let's be business and not let emotions get in the way."

His godmother couldn't help but tease him, "Is there even a choice? You've already called her 'Mom,' so of course Mom will follow her son. Would a son betray his mother?"

"Of course not. Filial piety is the most important virtue." Even Su Lu's face couldn't help but turn slightly red with embarrassment.

As the saying goes, you can't catch a wolf without risking your cub; he really made up his mind before changing his mind.

Although he himself is that child, he can also drag his father into it...

“But how will Liang explain this to the Cheng family?” Su Tai also wanted to change his address to “Mother”, but his integrity was too high and he simply couldn’t do it.

So he just mumbled it. Anyway, he already had a bit of a speech impediment, so who could tell if it was "mother" or "good"?

"Don't worry about the Cheng family, I'm no longer a member of the Cheng family!" the godmother said calmly.

Being able to love and hate intensely is always two sides of the same coin...

(End of this chapter)