A conical transparent glass bottle was carried to the dining table by the servants. The bottle contained clear water, apple juice, distilled liquor, milk, and even several deep-blue ice cubes. Beneath it sat a small golden bowl filled with coal and tobacco, with a long, thin hose inserted into the bottle's mouth.
A servant lit the coal in the golden bowl. Thick gray smoke rose, passed through the mixture in the glass bottle, and was filtered into milky-white smoke that continued rising under the coal's residual heat.
Jing Qingfu clenched the hose between his teeth and turned the little steel ball in its adjustment hole. At last, he found a comfortable rhythm and began sitting in his wheelchair, swallowing clouds and breathing mist.
This complicated arrangement of vessels was the "Cloud-Feasting" health pastime that had been popular among the rich of Profound Candle Prefecture for many years. But compared with the "immortal" name of Cloud-Feasting and smoke, ordinary people who hated the rich showing off preferred to call it what it was: smoking a hookah.
The tobacco industry was a pillar and top-tier industry of the Silver Blood Society, and no single merchant association could swallow it on its own. At present, all three major tobacco firms in Profound Candle Prefecture had various merchant associations investing and cooperating with them. Their products were not only exported overseas—even throughout Radiance, "East Sun Tobacco" was a renowned major brand.
Of course, the wealthy knew that smoking and drinking were bad for the body. But one still had to enjoy oneself—otherwise, what was the point of earning so much money? To train in battle arts?
Thus, they had invented a wealthy man's "method of smoking": first, they passed the smoke from burning tobacco through a "water base" mixed with apple juice, milk, and