Lin Su had been in this world for several months now and had gained some understanding of it. How should he put it? Some aspects were very advanced. Take tea, for instance—the way tea was made here was no different from the tea-making methods of the twenty-first century. Perhaps because the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was richer here, its tea tasted even better than that of his original world, and the production techniques were remarkably advanced—so advanced that they had almost reached automation.
How automated? It left one utterly speechless.
Tea generally grew deep in the mountains and ancient forests, territories of the Demon Race. Thus, tea was also a flagship product in the Demon Race markets. Once demand rose, handmade production became somewhat difficult, so the Demon Race came up with automation. How did they do it? Take the fixation process, for example. The Demon Race wrapped a Fire Element Demon Snake around a huge iron wok, keeping the wok at a constant high temperature. The tea leaves rolled around inside a few times, and the fixation was done. Wasn't that automation?
Yet some areas were terribly backward, such as liquor.
There was no concept of distillation whatsoever in the liquor here. It was all merely the most primitive fermentation.
For grape wine, they let grapes rot; for fruit wine, they let fruit rot. Just picture it—what kind of flavor was that?
Even cultivation sects that seemed like immortals mixed and added things indiscriminately to their liquor. Whatever was nourishing, they threw it in.
Distillation was only a sheet of paper. Once pierced, its technical difficulty was laughably low, but before it was pierced, it was a barrier—a barrier called the Obstacle of Perception.
The liquor of the twenty-first century came from distillation technology that had broken through during the Song Dynasty. Before the Song Dynasty, over thousands of years of history, there had been countless lovers of fine liquor. But who had truly broken through that Obstacle of Perception?
Li Bai was said to compose a hundred poems after a dou of wine. Let him drink a dou of distilled liquor and see what happened. If he could write even one character, he would be truly formidable.
Bao Shan stared at Lin Su for a long while.
Lin Jialiang stared for just as long.
Lin Su faced them with a smile.
"What rare materials do you need? Speak!" Bao Shan said.
"A thousand jin of White Rice, a thousand jin of white flour, a hundred jin of unhusked rice, a large iron wok, and a... no, a large sheet of thin iron." He had originally wanted to ask for a sealed container, but considering that would make it seem as though his "secret formula" held no secrets at all, he changed his mind. A large sheet of thin iron would do. His strength was more than sufficient now; fashioning the thin iron into a sealed container himself would not be difficult.
"That simple?" Bao Shan could scarcely believe it.
"High-end food often comes from ordinary ingredients." Lin Su answered with a classic line from A Bite of China.
High-end food came from ordinary ingredients... Bao Shan repeated it twice. It made sense! It carried quite the Dao of meaning!
He raised a hand, and the character for wind appeared. With a whoosh, he vanished from the courtyard.
Lin Su watched the direction in which he had disappeared and nodded. There was still some gap between him and Deng Xianchu. With one wind character, Deng Xianchu had filled the entire building with wind and sent him straight into the clouds, vanishing without a trace.
As for Mr. Bao Shan? He had merely sent himself to a point a dozen or so meters above the ground, then darted away like a rabbit...
Lin Jialiang's voice came over. "Third Brother, can you really make liquor?"
"I know a little."
"Do you really only need common ingredients like White Rice, white flour, and rice?"
"The White Rice and flour are for us to eat. That old man came to our door and ate eight buns and three bowls of noodles. Could he just eat for free? Let him bleed a little. Besides, someone like him is hardly short of money..."
Lin Jialiang's eyes bulged, and he could not say a word...
About fifteen minutes later, a violent gale swept through the air, and Bao Shan descended from the sky. He held out a bag before Lin Su. When Lin Su opened it, his eyes went wide. Thirty bags dropped out of the tiny opening. Upon landing, they returned to normal size. There were at least fifteen hundred jin of rice, at least fifteen hundred jin of white flour, two hundred jin of unhusked rice, an enormous wok large enough for a person to bathe in, and a huge sheet of thin iron. No matter how Lin Su looked at it, it resembled a great iron gate that had been forcibly flattened—and flattened only moments ago...
"Are the materials enough? If not, just say so!" Bao Shan said.
"Enough, enough... Thank you, sir!"
Bao Shan had been reassured upon hearing the first few words, but the last four immediately unsettled him. "Boy, why are you thanking me? Could it be... you sense that this matter will fail?"
"Sir, please do not overthink it. This will certainly succeed. It is only that I made you spend so much and run about for this..."
Bao Shan's face broke into a smile. "So that was all. You gave this old man quite a fright. If this succeeds, consider me owing you... Here is some Precious Paper I am giving you. It bears my mark. Write anything you like upon it, and this old man will receive it."
A stack of Precious Paper was handed to Lin Su—there were more than a hundred sheets!
Bao Shan did not linger. Once he had confirmed that none of the materials were lacking, he wrote the character for wind and tore through the air.
He truly did not dare stay any longer. He feared Lin Su would change his mind.
This concerned the love of his life—liquor.
It concerned the lifelong goal he sought—the Literary Heart Extreme Realm.
Such low-grade materials were truly not worth mentioning to him.
But to Lin Su, they were a joy beyond all expectations.
With these three thousand jin of grain, the Lin Family's grain crisis had finally truly passed.
Once Bao Shan had left, Madam Lin, who had long been waiting anxiously but could not come over, immediately arrived. The moment she came, she saw the pile of rice and flour on the ground, stacked into a small mountain.
She was utterly stunned. What was going on?
Mr. Bao Shan had sent them!
Ah? Madam Lin's mind was filled with wild joy. Heaven bore witness—she was truly not rejoicing over the rice and flour. Her joy was that her son had finally succeeded in taking a master. Only a master-disciple relationship could make Bao Shan care so much for the Lin Family.
Thank heaven and earth!
Xiao Tao, bring out the incense and candles. We must worship the ancestors...
Lin Su entered the Ancestral Hall with his head lowered. Mom, if you kept this up, he was going to lie flat again. Every time he did something proper, she worshipped the ancestors once. Was she not afraid of giving the ancestors the "three highs"?
By the time they had finished worshipping the ancestors, the sun was already high in the sky.
Then his mother spoke again:
"Take a bag of rice and a bag of flour, and deliver them to... Little Xue!"
What? Was she going to help the whole world again?
Lin Su glanced at his second brother. Lin Jialiang did not seem to react much, but Xiao Tao's reaction was enormous. "Madam, if you were sending them to anyone else, I would not say a word. But Xiao Xue... she deserved to starve to death!"
Why did she hate her so much?
Because Xiao Xue had once been one of the two maidservants attending Madam Lin, alongside her. They had been quite close, the sort of best friends one would find in Modern Society.
When the Marquis's Estate underwent its great upheaval, all the servants fled. Xiao Xue had fled as well.
Xiao Tao had no issue with others seeking higher branches to climb, but Xiao Xue's flight had left a resentment lodged in her heart for a long time. In her mind, Xiao Xue should have endured hardship alongside the Marquis's Estate. She could accept others fleeing, but Xiao Xue fleeing made her, in Xiao Tao's eyes, a traitor through and through. She could not accept it.
Madam Lin sighed. "Xiao Xue had no choice. Her father was close to death, and she went back to care for him. She did not want me to worry about her, so she hid it from me. Do you remember that bundle of vegetables left outside the door half a month ago? She was the one who delivered it. At that time, her father had just passed away, yet the Lin Family was still on her mind..."
Xiao Tao froze.
Lin Su froze as well. When the Marquis's Estate had fallen into hardship, they had seen all too much of the world's coldness and the warmth and chill of human feelings. Yet there were still some people, some things, that warmed the heart.
"Mother, I did not know about Xiao Xue either..." Lin Jialiang said. "I will personally take this bag of rice to her."
"Find someone else to deliver it!" Madam Lin said. "Second Son, Third Son, from now on, stay indoors and study. If you need anything, have Xiao Tao bring it to you."
What? That could not be right. This was confinement! Lin Su immediately set every thought in his mind racing and quickly found a reason. "Mother, where is Second Brother supposed to find someone at a time like this? Second Brother and I will take this rice and flour to Xiao Xue together."
Madam Lin's face abruptly darkened.
Lin Su immediately added, "Your son's learning differs from that of ordinary people. Being shut in a room and studying will not bring much progress. Walking about instead will make progress faster. As they say, reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand li."
Madam Lin fell silent. When it came to household rules, she was the authority, but when it came to learning, how could a woman like her dare speak?
Thus, she had a good habit: whenever anyone spoke before her with the manner of discussing learning, she agreed without exception. Her own learning was not profound, but she especially respected those with learning.
Lin Jialiang murmured, "Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand li. Third Brother's words possess boundless, far-reaching artistic conception. Mother, let him go. I will go with him."
"Very well. You two must be careful. The Zhang Family's influence is no small matter. Yesterday, Zhang Xiu's Literary Altar was destroyed. He will surely retaliate."
"Mother, you can rest assured about that. I have the Precious Paper Mr. Bao Shan gave me on me. If anything happens, Mr. Bao Shan will appear in but a moment."
Madam Lin's worried brow suddenly smoothed, and she beamed. How had she forgotten that her child was already Mr. Bao Shan's disciple? Today truly brought joy the moment the door opened! Xiao Tao...
Xiao Tao stepped forward.
Madam Lin hesitated for a moment. "Oh, we just worshipped the ancestors. I had forgotten."
Damn! She had been planning to worship again? Lin Su grabbed his brother, each of them hoisted a bag over a shoulder, and they fled at top speed.