Bi Shenghua was startled and quickly turned around, shouting, "Hey, don't come any closer!"
"Huh? What's wrong?" Qingmu, carrying a bottle of liquor, took a few more steps forward, only realizing what was happening when he was just two or three meters away from the pool. He stopped and responded with "Oh, oh."
Bi Shenghua was both anxious and embarrassed, and helpless with this blockhead. Leaning against the pool wall with only her head sticking out, she asked, "What are you doing in here?"
Qingmu shook the bottle of red wine in his hand and said, "Here, this will help calm your nerves."
Bi Shenghua said, "You came in without even knocking, that's quite a surprise!"
Qingmu chuckled and said, "I got a bottle of '82 Lafite. I heard it's very expensive. You don't have any in your bar, do you?"
Bi Shenghua said, "Really? Let me see it."
Qingmu walked over, bent down, and handed the bottle of red wine to Bi Shenghua. Bi Shenghua reached out to take it, but when she looked up, she met Qingmu's somewhat strange gaze. Then she remembered she was still naked in the pool, and snapped, "What are you looking at? Get lost!"
Qingmu turned his back and muttered to himself, " Apple? Orange? Strawberry? Cherry?..."
Bi Shenghua asked, "What are you muttering about?" Suddenly remembering something, she picked up the wine bottle in her hand and was about to smash it, but stopped halfway through, whether because she couldn't bear to part with the 1982 Lafite or for some other reason.
Qingmu chuckled with his back turned. Bi Shenghua's face flushed red instantly, as if he had just drunk a pound of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor).
"Hey, is the alcohol real?" Qingmu asked.
Bi Shenghua calmed herself down, looked at it carefully, and said, "You can't tell from the packaging. The methods of counterfeiting are too good now. They can even fool museum experts about a few hundred years old, let alone a few-decades-old wine."
Qingmu asked, "Then how do we distinguish them?"
Bi Shenghua said, "You'll know after one sip."
Qingmu stood up, took two glasses and a corkscrew from the wine rack, walked over and placed them by the pool, and then sat down by the pool.
Bi Shenghua quickly shrank into the water, one arm protecting her chest, and the other handing the wine to Qingmu.
Qingmu opened the bottle, poured two glasses, and handed one to Bi Shenghua. Bi Shenghua took it, smelled it, then held it in her hand and swirled it around, smelling it again after a while, before finally taking a small sip.
Qingmu wanted to imitate her by swirling the wine, but Bi Shenghua stopped him, saying, "Don't touch your glass."
As she spoke, she dipped her wine glass into the hot spring, and after soaking for a while, she brought it out. By then, the red wine had warmed up a bit. She smelled it again and then took a small sip.
She moved with gentle, delicate movements, like a musician tuning their beloved instrument. Having soaked in the hot spring for a long time, the skin on her arms and shoulders had a rosy glow, while her face appeared exceptionally fair.
A thin layer of mist rose from the surface of the hot spring pool, and tiny water droplets condensed on her short hair.
Looking at Bi Shenghua, Qingmu suddenly exclaimed, "Just as the Boss Coal said, you only look like a woman when you're not wearing clothes!"
Bi Shenghua was sipping her wine when Qingmu's words made her choke and spit out a mouthful of wine.
Qingmu, thinking the wine tasted bad, asked, "Fake wine?"
Bi Shenghua said irritably, "Really!" Then she cursed, "You damn Crow, just wait until I get back, I'll teach it a lesson!"
Qingmu said, "Is it really a 1982 Lafite?"
Bi Shenghua picked up the glass that had been sitting untouched by the pool, took a sip, and said, "It's Lafite, and it's at least 25 years old. As for whether it's 1982 or 1983, you can't tell by the taste, but no one would repackage an 1983 Lafite to pass it off as an 1982."
"Such good wine shouldn't be wasted." Qingmu picked up the glass that Bi Shenghua had just drunk from, downed it in one gulp, smacked his lips, and said, "It doesn't seem like anything special!"
Bi Shenghua Qingmu took the wine glass she had used to drink from, he felt a sudden tremor in his heart, as if something had struck him.
She laughed and said, "I warmed the wine in water just now for tasting, so it doesn't taste good anymore. Pour me a fresh glass. Besides, you don't drink red wine like that; you have to savor it slowly. You're not drinking it like beer!"
Qingmu pouted and said, "Why are the things humans enjoy always so troublesome?"
Bi Shenghua said, "Only a blockhead like you would find this troublesome."
Qingmu nonchalantly poured himself another glass, swirled it around for a while, took a sip, rolled his eyes, and said, "It seems pretty good, but it's not that expensive, is it?"
Bi Shenghua said, "Everyone says the 1982 Lafite is good because the weather in France was good that year, resulting in a bumper harvest of fruits and vegetables, so the wine production that year was particularly large, leaving a large amount for cellars to be stored for future generations. It's not that the wine produced in 1982 is any better than the 1995 one. Other years also produce wines of very high quality, it's just that the quantity is smaller."
"Then why is it so expensive?"
"Smart people hype it up, fools pay the bill—basically, it's all about rich, gullible people!" Bi Shenghua said. "If everyone drank like you, and then just spoke the truth afterward, there would be no luxury goods in the world."
"How about we get a few bottles of this kind of liquor in our bar?" Qingmu suggested.
"Are you trying to call me a rich idiot?" Bi Shenghua said.
Qingmu scratched his head and chuckled.
The deep darkness of night poured in through the glass windows, and the creamy yellow light in the room, warmed by the misty spring air, resembled melting chocolate. The aroma of 1982 Lafite permeated the air by the spring, blending with the mist to create a rich and languid ambiance.
The two people, one sitting by the pool and the other leaning against it, sipped red wine and chatted idly.
Bi Shenghua felt that such moments were like Lafite in a bottle—beautiful and worth cherishing, but difficult to retrieve once lost. She had completely let go, no longer caring whether the spring water had leaked out the spring light, only wanting to enjoy this intoxicating time. As for Qingmu, whether a gentleman or a fool, apart from muttering "strawberry and cherry" at the beginning, he never looked at her again, appearing as virtuous as Liu Xiahui.
"Idiot!" Bi Shenghua cursed inwardly, then couldn't help but recall Crow's words: should she go to South Korea? Thinking of this, her face flushed, and she spat several times, thinking, "I don't want to go!"
Qingmu, however, was still pondering the wine. "Should we save some for the Boss Coal? That bird can't hold his liquor, but he loves it."
Bi Shenghua said absentmindedly, "Then let's keep some."
Qingmu asked her, "Shall we sleep here tonight or go home?"
Bi Shenghua's heart pounded. "Is... this place... okay? You... you decide."
Qingmu thought for a moment and said, "Let's go back. I'm afraid the Boss Coal will be worried if he can't find us."
As he was talking, he suddenly saw a dark shadow fly past the window, then land on the windowsill, where it quacked a few times and tapped on the glass with its Guagua.
Qingmu quickly went over and opened the door, letting the Boss Coal in, and asked, "How did you find us?"
"I went to help you chase after someone, and you're here enjoying yourself, oh dear..." The Crow saw the Bi Shenghua in the pond, "Did I come at the wrong time?"
Bi Shenghua said, "Don't talk nonsense, you dead Crow. It's not what you think."
The Crow said, " Guagua, caw, a lone man and woman, alone in a room, soaking in a hot spring, that's how it is in neon-lit cinemas. Who would believe you if you said it wasn't what I think!"
Bi Shenghua asked Qingmu, puzzled, "What is your bird saying?"
Qingmu chuckled and said, "It's nothing, he's just talking nonsense."
The Crow suddenly spotted a wine bottle by the pond. "Wow, there's red wine! Guagua!"
He jumped up and down, ready to drink, but Qingmu grabbed him. "You get drunk so easily, tell me the important matter first, where did Jiang Deguan go?"