Soy Sauce Tech

The two men passed Li Qingxian. The man in official robes turned and glanced at Li Qingxian, looked at the kraft paper bag, his gaze passing over the Deer-and-Crane Jade Pendant at his waist, over the fair back of his hand, then up to the hairpin atop his head. He suddenly stopped.

"You dare come to Ministry of Revenue Street on business without even wearing a crown. You do have some nerve. But standing on the main road like this, you'll be in trouble if you collide with some high official. Which office are you going to? If it's on my way, I'll take you in." A somewhat shrill voice rang out.

Li Qingxian immediately snapped awake and looked toward the speaker.

The man was tall and lean, around thirty, with a smooth, beardless face. A black mole the size of a grain of rice sat at the corner of his upturned left lip. He had a rounded nose, drooping eyes, and a somewhat fierce appearance, though his smile was gentle.

A Gold-trimmed Oriole Badge marked him as Principal Eighth Rank, but one-finger-wide blood-gold brocade had been sewn along the edges of his sleeves, collar, hem, and other parts of his robes, resembling the Blood-Gold Paint on the Ministry of Revenue's black walls.

A Ministry of Revenue official. A believer of an Evil God.

Li Qingxian froze for a moment. It was as though his brain had been struck by lightning; a knot he had failed to unravel suddenly came loose.

Li Qingxian immediately bowed, then lowered his voice. "This subordinate is Li Qingxian of the Night Guard. By order of Zhou Chunfeng, Director of the Night Guard's Divine Capital Office, I have come to discuss a major deal with the Ministry of Revenue and the Evil Sects. However, the Finance Office has been obstructing us. I hope, sir, that we may speak somewhere private."

The two men froze, glanced at the black carriage, then looked back at Li Qingxian.

The Eighth Rank official smiled. "How major a deal?"

Li Qingxian slowly straightened his chest, stared at the Seventh Rank civil official's Oriole Badge, and lowered his voice. "At least several hundred thousand taels a year. At the very least, it will ensure that your path to the Middle Three Ranks is free of all obstacles."

The saber-bearing burly man's face darkened, but the Eighth Rank official studied Li Qingxian from head to toe once more with interest and smiled. "Let's discuss it inside."

"Sir..." his guard said softly.

The Eighth Rank official acted as though he had not heard him. As he walked, he said, "My surname is Luo, given name Jing. I am a mere Eighth Rank official, nothing noteworthy in the Ministry of Revenue. But deceiving me is easy; deceiving the gods is hard. Ministry of Revenue Street is easy to enter, but not easy to leave."

Li Qingxian immediately followed him. "Every word I said is true. There is not a shred of falsehood."

Luo Jing smiled without speaking.

The saber-bearing burly man said coldly, "You're so young, yet you dare boast such extravagant claims. Do you think our Divine Child Lord is easy to fool? You may still have a chance to live while you're out here, but if you enter the office and still dare spout nonsense, watch your head!"

As he walked, Li Qingxian said casually, "My father discovered this business, and only after many days did I successfully verify it. A child like me is naturally nothing, but my father was a dignified Fourth Rank literary cultivator and Fifth Rank censor. He would not make wild boasts."

The saber-bearing burly man's expression stiffened.

Luo Jing said, "No wonder you looked somewhat familiar. Among the Fifth Rank censors of the Censorate, there was indeed one surnamed Li. Yet half a year ago, he died after striking a court pillar. The world called him a model of the Confucian School, a monument of literary cultivation. Who would have thought that today I would happen upon Mr. Gangfeng's son?"

The saber-bearing burly man's face turned red. His lips twitched. After taking several steps, he said in a low voice, "Mr. Gangfeng was a great sage of this age, a heroic martyr of the Human Race. This lowly one should not have wagged his tongue. I hope Young Master Li will forgive me."

"The ignorant are not to blame," Li Qingxian said.

"Let us talk as we walk. How does the Divine Capital Office intend to cooperate? What business are we doing specifically, and how much tribute can it bring our god?" Luo Jing asked.

Li Qingxian secretly let out a breath. He had finally grasped the Ministry of Revenue's two defining traits.

First, these believers truly believed in gods and were genuinely willing to offer tribute.

Second, they truly needed money.

Then he could use high technology to strike them from a higher dimension.

Li Qingxian drew a deep breath. "My father cherished the Emperor's grace and the court. He was diligent and conscientious in office, frugal in his own affairs. Yet one must know when to tighten and when to loosen; in his ordinary days, he enjoyed a small drink to ease his fatigue. He discovered that the higher one's rank and strength, the harder it was to get drunk, and his friends all wanted to drink stronger liquor. But strong liquor consumed too much grain, and Father could not bear it, so he did not intend to make it. He merely mentioned it to me. I wished to ease Father's burdens, so I researched methods of making strong liquor. I have now achieved a little success."

Li Qingxian was brimming with confidence. If Soy Sauce Tech could laugh proudly over Blue Star, it would surely shine brilliantly here as well.

Luo Jing smiled. "I heard that Mr. Gangfeng's son had achieved neither in letters nor martial arts, and that he was not on good terms with his father."

"Fine, I admit it. I just wanted to make more money," Li Qingxian said helplessly.

"How certain are you of this method for strong liquor?" Luo Jing asked.

"One hundred percent!"

"And what profits can it bring?"

Li Qingxian thought as he spun lies. "The wines on the market today are all made through pressing and filtering. Ordinary loose yellow wine costs around ten coins per jin, but famous wines such as Yuhuachun, Qiulubai, and Flower Sea Strong Brew range from five hundred coins to several thousand coins per jin. As for strong liquor, it is all made by crude methods, with extremely little output and high costs, often nearing a thousand coins. Even if we sell our strong liquor for only two hundred coins per jin, after costs, we can still earn one hundred and fifty coins per jin. Great Qi has vast territory and a huge population. Its annual need for strong liquor surely exceeds a million jin. By my rough calculation, the net profit from this strong liquor will be no less than two hundred thousand taels a year, and could reach a million taels."

Luo Jing could not help laughing. "You are young and inexperienced, babbling nonsense out of thin air. The Inner Transport Treasury brings in only a little over a million a year. Your yearly income could support an entire Inner Transport Treasury?"

Li Qingxian said, "Yes, strong liquor may not make that much money now, but as more and more people drink it in the future, demand will inevitably rise sharply. Besides, I have discovered that strong liquor has other uses and am currently researching them. Its value is immense."

Li Qingxian calculated inwardly. Strong liquor was only for making money, but the true use of distilled liquor was to prepare seventy-five-percent medical alcohol for disinfection.

Alcohol that was too weak had poor disinfecting and sterilizing effects, but alcohol that was too strong, because... Li Qingxian thought about it, but could not remember. In any case, it would also reduce the sterilizing effect.

Seventy-five percent was best. He remembered that number clearly because during that period, everyone used alcohol of that strength.

Although he had no idea how to measure alcohol concentration, he had seen a short video mentioning that when alcohol concentration reached around ninety-five percent, an azeotropic phenomenon would occur.

That meant that once he found a way to make the liquor azeotropic, he could determine that the alcohol content was around ninety-five percent. As for how much water had to be added to dilute ninety-five-percent alcohol to seventy-five percent, for a modern person, it was merely a simple math problem. He could easily calculate it mentally...

Hmm... he should probably go back and find paper and a brush.

The important thing was that it did not need to be exactly seventy-five percent. Anywhere from seventy to eighty percent would have powerful disinfecting and sterilizing effects.

Li Qingxian's face did not redden and his heart did not race as he looked at Luo Jing, who had stopped to think.

The saber-bearing burly man muttered quietly, "Mr. Gangfeng's child probably wouldn't lie."

"Of course not!" Li Qingxian declared righteously.

Li Qingxian had not expected that, aside from leaving him enemies throughout half the court, his father had also left him a tiny bit of useful inheritance.