Soy Sauce Tech

The two men passed Li Qingxian. The one in official robes turned his head and swept a glance over 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 over the hairpin atop his head. Suddenly, he stopped.

"You dared come to Ministry of Revenue Street without even wearing a crown. You have some nerve. But standing in the middle of the main road, you'll cause trouble if you bump into some high official's carriage. Which office are you going to? If it's on my way, I'll take you inside." A somewhat sharp voice rang out.

Li Qingxian immediately snapped awake and looked toward the speaker.

The man was lean and tall, his face pale and beardless, around thirty years old. At the left corner of his mouth was a black mole the size of a grain of rice. He had a round nose tip and drooping eyes. His features were somewhat fierce, but his smile was gentle.

Gold-trimmed Oriole Badge, Principal Eighth Rank. Yet along the edges of his sleeves, collar, hem, and other parts of his robe, strips of blood-gold brocade a finger wide had been sewn on, resembling the Blood-Gold Paint on the Ministry of Revenue's black walls.

A Ministry of Revenue official, a believer in an Evil God.

Li Qingxian froze for a moment. It was as if his brain had been struck by lightning; the snag he had failed to understand was instantly untangled.

Li Qingxian immediately saluted, then lowered his voice. "This subordinate is Night Guard Li Qingxian. By order of Zhou Chunfeng, Director of the Divine Capital Office of the Night Guard, I have come to discuss a major deal with the Ministry of Revenue and the Evil Sects. But the Finance Office has been throwing up obstacles. 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 and asked, "How major a deal?"

Li Qingxian slowly straightened his chest, stared at the Seventh Rank literary official's Oriole Badge, and lowered his voice. "At least several hundred thousand taels a year. At minimum, it can clear the way for sir's journey to the Middle Three Ranks without obstruction."

The saber-wearing burly man's face darkened, but the Eighth Rank official gave Li Qingxian another interested once-over and smiled. "We'll discuss it in detail inside."

"Sir..." his guard said quietly.

The Eighth Rank official seemed not to hear him. As he walked, he said, "My surname is Luo, given name Jing. I'm merely a minor Eighth Rank official, nothing much in the Ministry of Revenue. But while deceiving me may be easy, deceiving the gods is hard. Ministry of Revenue Street is easy to enter, but hard to leave."

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

Luo Jing smiled but said nothing.

The saber-wearing burly man said coldly, "You're so young, yet you dare boast so outrageously. Do you truly think our Divine Son is easy to deal with? You still have a chance to live out here. If you enter the office and continue spouting nonsense, watch your head!"

As he walked, Li Qingxian said casually, "My father discovered this business, and I only succeeded in verifying it after many days. A child like me naturally counts for nothing, but my father is a dignified Fourth Rank literary cultivator and Fifth Rank Censor. He would not make empty boasts."

The saber-wearing 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. But half a year ago, he died after crashing into a court pillar. The world called him a model of the Confucian School, a Literary Cultivation Monument. I never expected that today I would encounter Mr. Gangfeng's son."

The saber-wearing burly man's face flushed red. His lips moved slightly. After walking a few steps, he said in a low voice, "Mr. Gangfeng was a great sage of this age, a hero of the Human Race. This lowly one should not have wagged his tongue carelessly. I hope Little Mister Li can forgive me."

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

"Let us talk as we walk. How does the Divine Capital Office plan to cooperate? What business exactly are we conducting, and how great an offering 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 truly wished to make offerings.

Second, they truly needed money.

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

Li Qingxian took a deep breath and said, "My father kept the emperor's grace and the court close to his heart. As an official, he worked diligently and lived with extreme frugality. But one must know when to tighten and when to loosen; he usually enjoyed a small drink to ease his fatigue. He discovered that the higher a person's rank and strength, the harder they were to intoxicate, and his friends all wanted strong liquor as well. Yet distilling liquor consumed too much grain, and Father could not bear it, so he had no plans to make spirits. He merely mentioned it to me. Wanting to ease Father's burdens, I studied the method of making strong liquor. Now I have achieved a little success."

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

Luo Jing smiled. "I heard that Mr. Gangfeng's son was neither accomplished in letters nor skilled in martial arts, and that he did not get along with his father."

"Fine, I admit it. I just want 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 the profits?"

Li Qingxian thought as he spun his tale. "At present, all liquor on the market is made through pressing and filtering. Ordinary loose yellow wine costs around ten copper coins per jin, but famous wines like Yuhuachun, Qiulubai, and Flower Sea Strong Brew range from five hundred copper coins to several thousand per jin. As for strong liquor, it is all made using crude methods, with very little output and very high costs, easily nearing a thousand copper coins. Even if we sell our strong liquor for only two hundred copper coins per jin, after costs, we can still earn one hundred fifty copper coins per jin. Great Qi's lands are vast and its population immense. Its yearly demand for strong liquor surely exceeds a million jin. By my rough calculation, the net profit from this strong liquor would be no less than two hundred thousand taels a year, and perhaps as much as a million taels."

Luo Jing could not help laughing. "Young and inexperienced, babbling nonsense. The Inner Transport Treasury brings in only a little over a million a year. Your annual income could support an entire Inner Transport Treasury?"

Li Qingxian said, "Yes, strong liquor may not earn that much now, but as more and more people drink it, demand will certainly grow enormously. Besides, I have discovered that strong liquor has other uses and am studying them. Its value is immense."

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

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

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

Although he had no idea how to measure alcohol concentration, he had previously watched a short video that mentioned how alcohol would form an azeotrope at around ninety-five percent concentration.

That meant that once he found a way to make the liquor form an azeotrope, he could be certain the alcohol content was around ninety-five percent. As for how much water to add to dilute ninety-five-percent alcohol to seventy-five percent, for a modern person, that was only a simple math problem. He could easily calculate it in his head...

Mm... Better go back and find paper and a brush.

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

Without so much as a blush or a racing heartbeat, Li Qingxian looked at Luo Jing, who had stopped to think.

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

"Of course!" Li Qingxian declared righteously.

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

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