SLH | Chapter 47

The Wine is Ready!

Song Tingzhu was just about to take a short nap when he saw his husband excitedly push open the door, shouting that a letter had arrived from the prefectural city.

Song Tingzhu was momentarily stunned, but once he came to his senses, he was overwhelmed with excitement. He didn’t even bother to put on his clothes before getting out of bed.

Liu Hu quickly walked to the bedside, handed the letter to his wife, and while Song Tingzhu was reading it, he helped him put on a cotton coat.

“It’s a letter from Granny Liu!”

Song Tingzhu glanced at his husband, his eyes full of delight.

“Granny Liu says they’re doing well and tells me not to worry. Steward Liu is now working under my father. Although he’s facing some pressure, life is still alright. Also, there’s another thing””Song Rui’er got married, and her husband is from the Cui family.”

Song Tingzhu frowned slightly. He wasn’t interested in matters concerning the Song family. He skimmed through the letter quickly, but when he saw that Granny Liu had written a lot about Qing He and Hongmei, he slowed down to read each word carefully.

The thick stack of letters took him nearly half an hour to finish. As he scanned the last line, he couldn’t help but smile.

“Cheng Yue has a baby on the way.”

While carefully storing the letter, Song Tingzhu said to his husband, “Cheng Yue is a young man from Granny Liu’s family, seven years older than me. Although I’ve only met Cheng Yue a few times, we’re quite close.”

“Later, Cheng Yue got married into the Li family, and we saw each other even less. I only heard that shortly after entering the Li family, Cheng Yue had a son. Unfortunately, before the child turned three, he accidentally fell into a pond and passed away. Cheng Yue was devastated and took years to recover.”

He looked at his husband with a smile, “Cheng Yue really loves children, and now he’s finally getting his wish.”

Liu Hu, seeing his wife’s beautiful smile, grinned widely too.

“Now you don’t have to worry about Granny Liu’s family anymore.”

Song Tingzhu beamed, “I have to thank my husband for arranging to send the letter to the prefectural city.”

Liu Hu, dazzled by his wife’s smile, scratched his head a bit awkwardly and said, “You’re my wife, it’s what I should do.”

Hearing this, the smile on Song Tingzhu’s face grew even wider.

That night, the couple lay side by side in bed, chatting about many trivial things, and neither knew when they fell asleep.

The next day, they woke up to bright daylight. After having breakfast with his husband, Song Tingzhu carried the clay they dug up yesterday and headed to Shanghe Village.

“Tiger and Bamboo Ge’er, you’re here! Come in, I’ll go to the kiln to call your uncle back.”

“Thank you, Auntie.”

Hua Er’niang waved her hand, “Oh, it’s no trouble at all. Just a few steps away. My son-in-law happens to be home today too, so if you have any requests, you can talk to him directly.”

“Got it, Auntie.”

Hua Qiaoniang was doing embroidery under the courtyard wall. Hearing this, she turned her head and shouted into the house, “Husband, Bamboo Ge’er and his husband are here.”

“Okay, coming.”

A moment later, Qin Ji came out of the house holding two sheets of paper.

He greeted the two of them warmly, “You came at the right time, it’s my day off today. If you had come a day later, we wouldn’t have been able to meet until the New Year.”

Qin Ji was distantly related to the Ruan family. Although they were distant relatives, by seniority, he should call Liu Hu “cousin.”

Song Tingzhu followed his husband’s lead and called him “cousin,” then noticed the drawing in Qin Ji’s hand. His eyes lit up with surprise, “Cousin, did you redesign the signboard?”

Qin Ji replied, “The one your husband drew before was good, but anyone could easily copy it. We shouldn’t have ill intentions, but we should be cautious. When doing business in town, it’s best to be vigilant.”

Song Tingzhu nodded thoughtfully, “I didn’t consider that.”

Many merchants are profit-driven, especially in a small town like Lianxi, where there are few ways to make money. If someone finds a way to earn money, others will try to get in on it, and if they can’t, they might destroy it. His father-in-law was once imitated by others, and not only did he have nowhere to seek justice, but he also had his leg broken by someone using dirty tricks.

Qin Ji’s new signboard design was so cleverly concealed that even the usually meticulous Song Tingzhu hadn’t noticed anything unusual. It was only after Qin Ji pointed it out that he realized the ingenuity hidden within.

“Thank you, cousin. Now we don’t have to worry about it being copied.”

Liu Hu was also very pleased and discussed with his wife about inviting everyone over for a meal someday.

Song Tingzhu agreed with a smile. Since Qin Ji had helped them greatly, they should properly express their gratitude.

As they were talking, they heard a series of footsteps outside.

“Tiger and Bamboo Ge’er, you’re here.” Ma Guangzhong came into the courtyard holding several clay pots, “Just in time, the hundred clay pots you ordered are out of the kiln. Come and see if you’re satisfied.”

Ma Guangzhong’s pottery skills were well-known in the surrounding villages, though he hadn’t practiced for years, so he was a bit nervous himself. But judging by his wide grin, it was clear that the results exceeded expectations.

Song Tingzhu didn’t know much about pottery, but he could tell that these pots were a bit smoother than the last batch.

“Uncle Ma, as expected of an experienced potter, these pots look almost as good as those made by Master Sun in town.”

Ma Guangzhong chuckled, “Can’t compare to Master Sun; he’s been at it his whole life and is quite skilled. But if my father were still around, that would be another story. Not to boast, but twenty years ago, the line of people ordering pottery from the Ma family would stretch from one end of the village to the other!”

“That’s old news, no need to brag about it.” Hua Er’niang didn’t like her husband’s idle chatter and cut him off, “Bamboo Ge’er and his husband are here for business.”

She turned to the couple, “You two chat, I’ll go make some tea.”

Once inside the main room, Ma Guangzhong asked, “I heard from your aunt that you brought some clay?”

Song Tingzhu nodded, “Uncle Ma, could you take a look at this basket of clay and see if it can be used to make good pots?”

Liu Hu set the basket down on the ground.

The man was tall and broad-shouldered, with long legs, so much so that he hadn’t even noticed the basket on his back earlier.

Ma Guangzhong first praised Liu Hu’s sturdy build before examining the clay closely.

“Not bad, this clay is finer than any I’ve seen before. It should make excellent pottery!”

Having good materials made Ma Guangzhong, the potter, genuinely happy.

“I’ve searched all over the nearby villages for clay, and it’s hard to find any that’s both cheap and good quality. I thought it was impossible, but you two managed to find some. It must have taken a lot of effort.”

Song Tingzhu said, “This clay was given to us for free by an old lady from the village.”

“Then you really met a good person.”

Song Tingzhu nodded with a smile.

Granny Chen was indeed a good person; the problem lay with her two children. They fought over land, turning against each other and leaving their mother behind to live in town with their own children.

These stories were told to him by Granny Zheng, who knew the truth from back then.

Granny Chen’s husband passed away early, and the couple had a deep bond. Despite others urging Granny Chen to remarry, she refused, raising her two children without ever scolding them.

The Chen family had a bamboo grove at the foot of the back mountain. Villagers often went there to cut bamboo to make chairs and stools. Initially, Granny Chen didn’t stop them, but then someone, while passing by her husband’s grave, not only took the wine she had left but also trampled the area, cutting down the bamboo used for shade.

Granny Chen got angry and no longer allowed people to cut bamboo on the mountain, but as a young widow, few in the village feared her, and men continued to enter the bamboo grove. This led to the incident witnessed by Ruan Xiulian.

She didn’t know the backstory and believed the gossip she heard from village women. Though she never joined in the gossip, she didn’t have a good impression of Granny Chen and often told her children to stay away from the Chen family’s courtyard.

Seeing his wife lost in thought, Liu Hu called out worriedly, “Wife?”

Song Tingzhu snapped back to reality and signaled to his husband that he was fine.

Ma Guangzhong, full of joy, said, “Alright, then I’ll get a few men to help haul the clay from the village another day.”

After finishing their business, the couple didn’t stay long and returned home before noon.

Three days later, Ma Guangzhong brought two men to haul the clay back.

－

In mid-winter, after a heavy snowfall, the snow melted away, and the mash in the courtyard had finally fermented.

Early that morning, the Liu family courtyard was filled with people.

The two Ruan uncles brought Jinning and Wen Ping over early, the Tian brothers were there too, and Liu Meng had taken a few days off work. The men, eager to put their strength to use, worked up a sweat under Song Tingzhu’s direction, finally getting the grain ready for distillation. All that was left was to start the fire and steam the wine.

“Big Uncle, Little Uncle, you take a break. Husband, you and Big Brother fill the pots with water, and we can start the fire.”

“Alright.”

The brothers fetched water and filled the two pots. Sister-in-law Tang Chunxing and Little Sister each tended a stove, and after half an hour of burning, they heard bubbling from the ground pot. Only then did Song Tingzhu call for them to stop and switch to medium heat.

Tang Chunxing turned her head, “That’s it? I don’t see any wine coming out.”

A clay pot was placed under the wine spout, and everyone stared at it without blinking.

“The wine’s coming out!”

The first drop of wine fell, and Liu Xiaomei exclaimed excitedly.

“It really is! I can smell it!”

Everyone in the courtyard was thrilled.

Seeing the wine flow, Song Tingzhu finally felt relieved.

Afraid of any issues with the wine press, he had tested with grain multiple times before, making adjustments along the way. Though he was confident, the high cost of winemaking made him anxious despite half a year of preparation.

Now, seeing the wine with his own eyes, his furrowed brow finally relaxed.

The first batch of wine contains too many impurities and can’t be drunk directly. Once enough wine had accumulated in the jar, Song Tingzhu called for Little Sister to bring a pair of long chopsticks, dipped them in the wine, and tasted it on the tip of his tongue.

He didn’t know how much of the first batch to discard, only that from books, the first batch smelled pungent and tasted harsh and bitter. So he used a simple method, tasting a drop every few moments.

Half an hour later, Liu Hu tested the water temperature and said, “Wife, the water in the pot is getting hot.”

Song Tingzhu had his results too. He smiled at everyone and said, “Change the water and prepare the jars for the wine.”

The next moment, cheers erupted from the Liu family courtyard.

Villagers passing by stopped to watch, and upon learning that the Liu family’s son-in-law from the prefectural city had indeed brewed wine, they were all astonished.

———————–

Author’s Note: Oh wow, time to start making money~ Throwing flowers, throwing flowers [flowers] [flowers]