"So what's happened to our Beauty An, drinking alone and brooding? Su Cheng, do you know why? Oh, and who's this elegantly dressed young gentleman? Aren't you going to introduce him, Su Cheng?"
At a booth in the Jasmine Bar, the proprietress, Yan Susu, glanced at An Jing, who was drinking her troubles away, then shifted her gaze to Chen Zheng's face, studying him curiously.
"Sister Susu, Sister An's upset about something at school. This is Chen Zheng... he's my bodyguard for now, I suppose."
Su Cheng spoke.
"A bodyguard? I thought he was the young master of some fabulously wealthy family. I never imagined he was just Su Cheng's bodyguard. Has the day finally come when even I misjudge someone?" Yan Susu's eyes shifted as she gave Chen Zheng a few more looks, a teasing smile appearing on her pretty face. "Chen Zheng, you're not some family's young master who's come specifically to be our Su Cheng's bodyguard, hoping to court her this way, are you?"
"Chen Zheng... drink with me..."
Just then, An Jing suddenly called out to Chen Zheng. Her eyes were hazy, and she was already a little drunk.
"These wines don't taste very good. If you want a drink, I'll brew you some when we get home."
Chen Zheng said with a smile.
"Okay..."
An Jing answered hazily, but before she could finish speaking, she passed out drunk.
"Almost every time An Jing comes here to drink, it's about her family. This time should be about her family too, shouldn't it?"
Looking at the drunken An Jing, Yan Susu spoke with a slight frown.
"I don't know much about Sister An's family affairs either, or exactly what's going on..."
Su Cheng shook her head.
"I see. Then let her sleep, just like before. She'll be fine when she wakes up." Yan Susu nodded, then shifted her gaze back to Chen Zheng's face. With a lilting laugh, she looked at him and said, "Chen Zheng, you just said the wine here doesn't taste very good, and that you can brew wine. Do you happen to have any finished wine I could taste?"
"Yes."
Chen Zheng nodded and casually reached out and grasped the air. Like a magic trick, a small bottle resembling white jade appeared in his hand out of thin air.
"...A magic trick?"
A clear flash of surprise crossed Yan Susu's eyes, and only afterward did her foxishly alluring face freeze.
"Please."
Chen Zheng set the little white-jade-like bottle on the table and smiled faintly at Yan Susu.
"This bottle... looks like an antique..." Yan Susu picked up the little white jade bottle, her hand trembling almost imperceptibly, then pulled out its stopper. The instant the stopper came out, an unbelievably mellow aroma of wine wafted from the little white jade bottle.
"This..."
At the scent of that mellow fragrance, Yan Susu couldn't help trembling. She gave Chen Zheng a long look, then closed her eyes, breathing in the mellow fragrance with an intoxicated expression.
"..."
A flash of surprise crossed Su Cheng's eyes too. She seldom drank, but the moment she caught the mellow fragrance drifting from the white jade bottle, she felt as though the world had suddenly become pure, as though everything around her had vanished, leaving only a world like a sea of flowers!
Strange!
Very strange!
But Su Cheng knew Chen Zheng's origins, so she also understood that this wine must have been brewed by Chen Zheng himself, something like the meals that increased one's internal energy just by eating them!
This man had merely shown a little of his skill!
"What's that smell?"
"That mellow fragrance? This... how could a fragrance like this exist? My God! I've never smelled wine like this!"
"How could there be a wine fragrance like this in the world? Heavens! Let me have a sip, and I feel like I could become an immortal!"
"The wine fragrance is coming from that table! Isn't that Miss Yan? What's that white jade bottle in Miss Yan's hand? Could it be the wine inside that bottle?"
"Miss Yan, could you let me have a sip? I'll pay any price!"
An even stranger scene unfolded. In less than a minute, a mellow fragrance enveloped the entire Jasmine Bar. The patrons all turned to look, staring at the little white jade bottle in Yan Susu's hand with expressions of astonishment and infatuation!
Yan Susu ignored them, for she was already utterly intoxicated by that mellow fragrance. She opened her eyes, and nothing else remained in them now, only the little white jade bottle. Her red lips parted slightly, and she tilted her lovely head back, taking the little white jade bottle between her lips. Almost the very next second, she closed her eyes again, and nothing but rapture remained on her pretty face, as though she had become an immortal!
"She's become an immortal! She's become an immortal! Miss Yan has become an immortal!"
"My God! Miss Yan is so beautiful! How can she be so beautiful? She's just like a fairy descended to earth!"
"That wine must be immortal wine!"
Seeing this, the patrons in the bar couldn't help crying out one after another. In their eyes at that moment, Yan Susu was like a fairy banished to the mortal world, and now that fairy was drunk!
"..."
Su Cheng's little mouth fell slightly open. Her impression was now exactly the same as that of the other patrons. How could the wine in a little white jade bottle Chen Zheng had casually pulled out have such an effect?
Just... what kind of wine was this?
"My beloved Chen..."
Suddenly, Yan Susu opened her eyes and called out something very strange. She looked at Chen Zheng, tear tracks actually marking her cheeks. Only after gazing at him for a long time did she speak. "Young Master Chen, may I ask what wine this is?"
"Drunken Life, Dreaming Death."
Chen Zheng smiled faintly.
"Drunken Life, Dreaming Death..." Yan Susu froze again at the name, then murmured, "So what I just experienced really was only a dream, an incredibly real dream. It turned out to be nothing but a dream..."
"Drunken Life, Dreaming Death? What a name!"
"Buddy, do you have any more of that wine? Any price is fine!"
"Yes! Give me a bottle! Money's no object!"
The patrons in the bar understood at once that this young man had given Miss Yan the wine she had drunk. All sorts of gazes immediately focused on Chen Zheng, and some people even pulled out their wallets and took out all their money!
All they wanted now was a bottle of Drunken Life, Dreaming Death. Even though they had only smelled its fragrance, all the wine in the bar had already become utterly tasteless to them!
All they wanted now was a bottle of Drunken Life, Dreaming Death!
"Young man, I happen to need a winemaker. An annual salary of ten million. Come with me."
Just then, an old man wearing a hat suddenly spoke from a corner. The moment he spoke, the bar fell silent, because he took off his hat and stood up, and almost instantly, everyone recognized him!
This old man could often be seen in financial news and gossip reports on television and online!