The door opened, and Madam Lin entered accompanied by Yu Lou and Mei Niang. She raised a hand and gently touched Lin Su's forehead. "San Lang, you decide the matters of the Household yourself. Whatever you decide to do, do it. You don't need to ask Mother for permission."
"How could that do?" Lin Su directly hugged her arm. "Mother should still be the one calling the shots in the Household. I'll charge into battle for you and earn heaps and heaps of money for you to spend for fun..."
Did this child still resemble a famed scholar for the ages? Madam Lin tapped his head, shot him a fond glare, and left the room.
After eating the noodles and tidying himself up, Lin Su took a deep breath and felt that he had returned to his peak.
When he walked into the courtyard, he saw Ding Hai.
Ding Hai rose to his feet, his eyes brimming with excitement...
"Boss Ding, I know you came for the wine. When the Lin Family was at its hardest, we got through the crisis thanks to your chickens and sheep. Regardless of what caused it, a fact was still a fact. Therefore, it is only right that I cooperate with you on this wine."
The wrinkles on Ding Hai's face instantly smoothed out. "Third Young Master truly speaks with refreshing frankness. Tell me, then. How shall we cooperate?"
"Starting next month, the Lin Family will begin producing this wine in batches. One shipment every ten days, with three thousand jin supplied each time. Per jin..."
Lin Su paused slightly here.
Everyone focused intently.
Ding Hai's target price was one hundred taels! One hundred taels per jin!
Anything higher than that would put immense pressure on him, but this wine was so miraculous that it could not possibly sell for less than fifty taels. In truth, there was not much room for negotiation.
Xiao Tao was also watching with utmost attention. Three hundred jin a day—the price that followed would determine the Lin Manor's daily income from now on.
"One tael of silver per jin!"
"One tael?" Ding Hai nearly leaped eight feet into the air.
"What? Boss Ding thinks the price is unsuitable?"
Of course it was unsuitable. It was too low, absurdly low...
Ding Hai drew a deep breath. "Can you maintain this quality?"
"Of course! As the technique improves, the quality will only get better and better."
"Good!" Ding Hai agreed, his heartbeat quickening.
One tael of silver per jin. Good heavens, this bargain was simply too enormous.
"I have one condition!"
Ding Hai's heart rose into his throat again. "Say it!"
"This wine is exceedingly unusual and will surely draw covetous eyes from all directions. The Lin Family's defenses are insufficient, so I need Boss Lin to send experts to protect the Lin Family's winery."
"That will not be a problem. I will dispatch our strongest experts to reside in this rear courtyard."
In truth, even if Lin Su had not raised this request, Boss Ding would have raised it himself. Why? This wine had already become the hottest wine on the market. It was certain that restaurants everywhere, forces from every side, and even cultivation sects would covet it. If they did not firmly control the source, how could they ensure that the wine would flow endlessly into Haining Tower in the end? Otherwise, someone would surely cut in and snatch it away midway!
Lin Su nodded. "Boss Ding is a cultivation expert himself, so naturally I am at ease with whoever you send. It is just that... there are many female relatives in the manor, and this winery is in the rear courtyard. It would be best if the people you send are women!"
Good!
Lin Jialiang signed the agreement with Ding Hai on behalf of the Lin Family. Thus, the Lin Family's first business partnership was concluded.
Every cell in Ding Hai's body was singing. He gripped the signed agreement tightly, then suddenly stopped before leaving. "What shall this wine be called? Third Young Master possesses astonishing talent. Why not give it a name..."
Lin Su looked up at the sky and pondered for a moment. "Let it be called 'Baiyunbian.'"
"Baiyunbian?" Ding Hai recited the name. "Is there some meaning behind it?"
"Paper!" Lin Su waved a hand. Xiao Tao was so excited that she ran to the desk, brought over a sheet of golden Precious Paper, and presented the Precious Brush.
The paper was spread out. Lin Su said, "You and I are running this wine business together, so it counts as one of our own ventures. Therefore, I'll give you this poem for free!"
He lifted the brush and began to write:
"South Lake autumn waters, a smokeless night..."
Three beams of white light!
Light flickered in Boss Ding's eyes as he gazed toward the small lake behind Lin Manor. That was South Lake.
"How could one ride the current straight up to heaven..."
Silver light blazed brilliantly.
"Let Us Borrow Moonlight From The Heavenly Court, and buy wine at Baiyunbian with the boat!"
Seven-colored Rosy Clouds tore through the night curtain. Above the golden paper, colored clouds drifted and fluttered, as though immortals had descended on the wind, raising cups and drinking deeply beneath South Lake's moonlight...
"With such wine, with such a poem, Baiyunbian Wine will leave its name through the ages, and the moon over South Lake will be without equal under heaven!"
At this moment, Ding Hai was like a child, dancing with joy. Where was even a trace of a cultivation master's bearing?
Yu Lou tightly clasped Lin Jialiang's hand, her heart filled with excitement. When she had stepped into the declining Lin Family, so many people had waited to laugh at them, yet she had personally witnessed the Lin Family soaring higher step by step...
Lin Jialiang's face was flushed red, as though he had drunk another three hundred cups.
Xiao Tao stared blankly at the Third Young Master. At that moment, it seemed as though she had taken one step beyond the ignorant years of girlhood and entered the season of longing... of maidenly love...
Only Lin Su gazed toward the horizon, silently murmuring in his heart...
My hometown, my Hubei, my world. Perhaps I will never return home in this lifetime. I only hope that after drinking this cup of hometown wine, I can still touch my homeland in my dreams.
Ding Hai returned to Haining Tower, turned, and arrived in the basement.
The basement resembled a vast natural cavern, its lights shifting in a dreamlike haze. He raised a hand, and a ray of light shot toward the cave wall. The wall suddenly lit up.
An aged voice came from within. "Ding Hai, what urgent matter is it?"
"Sect Master, our grand plan to do business across the world can be put into action."
The Sect Master's voice seemed to grow ten years younger at once. "Has some extraordinary treasure appeared?"
"Yes! An extraordinary wine has just been born. Its fragrance is supremely rich, its strength fierce as fire. Compared with the Holy Land of the Demon Race's Blazing Jade Nectar, its quality is tenfold, a hundredfold greater."
"Such marvelous wine truly exists?" The Sect Master's voice became urgent.
"I tasted it with my own mouth just now. It exceeded all imagination! A Great Confucian, Fu Bao Shan, used this wine to break through the Literary Heart Extreme Realm in one stroke. Moreover, the wine has just been paired with a Seven-Colored Poem..."
"Recite the poem..."
"South Lake autumn waters, a smokeless night; how could one ride the current straight up to heaven? Let Us Borrow Moonlight From The Heavenly Court, and buy wine at Baiyunbian with the boat!"
"Let Us Borrow Moonlight From The Heavenly Court, and buy wine at Baiyunbian with the boat!" The Sect Master laughed loudly. "What a bold and lofty poem! With this poem and this wine, would not all the heroes under heaven flock into our tower? Where could we not open a restaurant? This wine must be firmly secured and become the exclusive product of our Hundred Fragrances Tower!"
"This disciple thinks the same, which is why I need the best experts to guard the source!"
"The source? The source is not the winery, but that boy! Who can take responsibility for binding him?"
What binding? Was that not simply a Beauty Trap?
Send the most beautiful woman, use seduction arts to make the boy lose himself, and turn him into a puppet on strings.
Who could take on the task?
She had to meet two conditions. First, absolute loyalty to the sect. Second, the ability to leave that boy utterly bewitched.
The Sect Master pondered for a long time. "What about Tian Yao?"
Ding Hai shuddered violently. "Tian Yao is still in the Southwest Buddhist Kingdom, and she cultivates Buddhism. I fear she cannot take this step."
"She cultivates with her hair unshorn, so she cannot be considered a Buddhist disciple. That boy's poetic talent is peerless, and he does not lack women around him at all. Who among ordinary people could possibly control him? I fear only an extraordinary woman like Tian Yao could truly enter his heart."
"Tian Yao... probably will not do either!" Ding Hai said. "I know my own daughter best. That girl may be calm as still water, but once she falls in love, it will surely be a landslide and earth-shattering catastrophe. That boy... that boy absolutely has the ability to stir her heartstrings. If Tian Yao falls, would she not instead become a chess piece in his hand?"
The Sect Master was troubled. Ding Hai was right as well. The less easily a woman fell in love, the more stubbornly she clung to it once she did. As the saying went, once an old house caught fire, it burned all the faster. That was the logic.
Ding Hai also thought of another issue. When they had discussed sending guards, Lin Su had proactively requested a woman!
Why had he made that request?
Before they had even begun, he had specifically asked for a woman. His motives were highly suspicious...
Could it be that this was precisely his scheme? Did he intend to launch a grand seduction campaign against the expert they sent, ensuring that the chain connecting Lin Manor and Haining Tower was entirely under his control?
Once this was said, the Sect Master was shaken. In business, they judged others by themselves. They hoped the chain linking them with their partner would obey them, and Lin Su naturally hoped that chain would obey him.
He would definitely seduce this expert and turn her into his own person!
If so, the Beauty Trap carried enormous risks, because it worked both ways. The beauty would seduce him, but he would also seduce the beauty. The outcome was entirely fifty-fifty: either the beauty made him bow beneath her pomegranate skirt, or he made the beauty marry him and follow her husband...
That boy was far too formidable. He could casually produce a Seven-Colored Poem, casually toss out an idea that set the business world trembling, and he was especially skilled at flirting. What woman could withstand that? The chances of the Beauty Trap succeeding were exceedingly low. More likely, the chickens would scatter and the eggs would break—they would lose both the beauty and their money...
The Sect Master pondered for a long while. "If he is so difficult to chew, then do not chew him. Send someone he cannot possibly flirt with. Just act according to the agreement..."
The next morning, Ding Hai suddenly felt that the room was very cold. He opened his eyes and saw a figure standing before the window. Ding Hai was greatly startled. Sect Master, you were too ruthless. Why did you send her?