After hearing Long Xiaotian’s words, Lu Shengming felt quite displeased. This fellow, having just taken the position of helmsman, dared to start talking back to him?
Would this guy become another arrogant Jiang Feijiao?
“Old Long, are you warning me?” Lu Shengming’s expression clearly soured.
Long Xingyun chuckled and said, “Director Lu, my grandfather is not Jiang Feijiao. He is merely kindly reminding you not to disturb our master so easily!”
“He is a figure who walks among the clouds, not someone everyone can approach!”
After hearing his words, Lu Shengming could only nod and say, “Alright, I understand!”
Though he said so, his curiosity about the master of the Long Xiaotian grandfather-grandson duo grew even more. What kind of person was he, to make Long Xiaotian and Long Xingyun so cautious, even with a hint of fear in their tone?
“Director Lu, it’s getting late. Shall we go for a meal?”
At this moment, Long Xiaotian said with a smile to Lu Shengming.
…
A little past three o’clock that afternoon, the Skybreaker Eagle, carrying Taotiebao, flew back to the rear mountain.
Cheng Xiaofan took out the brocade box from Taotiebao’s arms and opened it. Inside, three ginseng roots, each nearly a foot long, were neatly arranged.
The ginseng was enveloped in a dense spiritual energy, emitting a captivating medicinal fragrance.
He recognized at a glance that all three were over a thousand years old.
They were even a notch above the ginseng that Long Xiaotian had given him last time.
This Jiang Feijiao, serving as the helmsman of a northern branch, had truly reaped a substantial harvest. To have obtained three thousand-year-old ginseng roots, said to exist only in legends, was almost unbelievable.
Immediately, Cheng Xiaofan entered his spatial dimension and planted the three thousand-year-old ginseng roots in three pots.
In the Shennong space, there was no need to water any cultivated plants; they were naturally nourished by spiritual energy, promoting their growth.
As long as these three ginseng roots maintained sufficient spiritual energy, they would surely revive.
After emerging from the space, it was already evening.
Just then, Cheng Xiaofan received a call from Miao Xiuhua: “Xiaofan, the happy wine is fragrant. Hurry home and take a look!”
Generally, once homemade rice wine emitted a fragrance, it indicated that the brewing process was successful.
Of course, this also depended on the purity of the aroma. If a sour note was detected amidst the fragrance, the wine had failed.
Hearing the urgency in his mother’s voice, Cheng Xiaofan’s heart sank slightly. Could the wine have gone bad?
However, he had absolute faith in his mother’s winemaking skills. Among the top brewers in Zhuxi Village, his mother was undoubtedly a master.
To call her the second-ranked民间酿酒师 (folk winemaker) in Zhuxi Village would be a statement no one dared to dispute.
“Mom, I’ll be right back!”
Cheng Xiaofan replied, but he didn’t immediately descend from the attic. Instead, he looked out over the village.
His heaven-defying eyes quickly scanned the village, locating his home. He observed that at the entrance of the neighboring winery, butterflies and bees danced, and various birds circled in the sky.
A large crowd of villagers had gathered at the entrance, pointing and chattering.
Withdrawing his gaze, Cheng Xiaofan finally descended from the attic, got on his motorcycle, and sped home.
As soon as he entered the village, Cheng Xiaofan smelled a rich, mellow wine fragrance!
It turned out that the flying birds and insects were all attracted by the wine aroma.
Arriving at his doorstep, just as Cheng Xiaofan parked his motorcycle, Miao Xiuhua greeted him, her face beaming, “Xiaofan, this wine smells so good! It’s attracted so many people from the village!”
“Mom, that just shows how well you brewed it!”
Smelling the intoxicating aroma, Cheng Xiaofan knew without even tasting it that the wine had been brewed successfully this time.
Cheng Xiaofan walked to the entrance of the winery, and the people gathered there immediately parted to make way.
Entering the house, he went directly to the storage room and found two opened wine vats, from which the potent aroma of wine was gushing forth.
“Xiaofan, have a taste!”
Bai Yiling was inside. She dipped a spoon into a wine vat, scooped out half a spoonful of wine, poured it into a glass, and handed it to Cheng Xiaofan.
The pale red liquid shimmered enchantingly under the light.
Cheng Xiaofan swirled the wine in the glass, observing the tiny bubbles that rose in the transparent liquid.
The aroma emanating from the glass was truly intoxicating.
He brought the glass to his lips and took a gentle sip. An indescribable wine fragrance immediately exploded on his taste buds.
Swallowing that mouthful of wine, he felt an ineffable sense of comfort throughout his body!
“Excellent, good wine!”
Cheng Xiaofan nodded and praised, “Yiling, prepare more cups and let everyone here have a taste!”
In terms of taste, this wine was in no way inferior to the top-grade happy wine brewed by Cheng Xiaofan.
Of course, Cheng Xiaofan could still discern that this kind of wine would have no effect on improving the strength of ancient martial arts cultivation.
The reason was simple: it lacked the spiritual energy contained in Cheng Xiaofan’s happy wine.
That spiritual energy was extremely dense and greatly beneficial for cultivators aiming to increase their strength.
However, it was undoubtedly a genuine health-preserving wine, one that could bring happiness and fill one with confidence about life and the future.
In an adjacent storage room were rows of preserved chickens, all acquired by Cheng Fugui from Miaocun village in the圩区 (polder area).
Cheng Xiaofan briefly inspected the preserved chickens and found their quality to be excellent.
“Mom, tomorrow you can filter this wine and bottle it separately in glass bottles,” he said to Miao Xiuhua. “Use the wine lees to make drunk chicken. Steam it, vacuum-pack it, and put half a catty in each bag!”
Bai Yiling smiled, “My subsidiary company in C City has staff specializing in food testing and product packaging. I’ve already called them, and they can be here tomorrow morning.”
“Then, they can handle these matters!”
Cheng Xiaofan was pleased to hear this, “Yiling, you always think of everything. Although I’ve worked in large companies, I’ve never done food production and really don’t understand some of the details!”
“Especially the technical personnel; they are essential. Once your people arrive, they will solve many problems!”
Bai Yiling smiled, “I’ve already spoken with Mei Xueyun. Once the testing report is out, we want to leverage her father’s connections to obtain the trademark and various certifications as soon as possible, so we can officially launch it on the market!”
Cheng Xiaofan knew that in this regard, Bai Yiling was far more capable than him.
He suddenly thought of a question and asked, “Yiling, when your people arrive, where will they work?”
Bai Yiling heard this and smiled slightly, “When they come, they will bring steel-frame structure fire-resistant wooden modular houses. We’ll assemble one next to this winery, and an office building will be ready!”
“That’s wonderful!”
Cheng Xiaofan said with a smile, “Yiling, with you by my side, I’ve saved myself a lot of worry. Thank you for your hard work!”
Xu Minghui, a friend of Liu Tingshu, was a national-level wine appraisal master. He already had a testing report for happy wine.
However, that report was for Cheng Xiaofan’s top-grade happy wine, and it might not be applicable to the wine brewed by Miao Xiuhua.