Chapter 72: Sima Guang Smashes the Vat

  After Si Xin came down, he was still a bit excited and couldn't hide it. He said: "Qiang Ge, where are we going to install it next?"

  "This is a problem, I asked him: 'Are our barrels for making Zaoliang enough?'"

  "...this doesn't seem quite right, and where are we going to put the beer?"

  Zhang Qing chuckled and said, "Of course, wine is put into a wine jar or a wine cellar."

  As soon as I heard that, it dawned on me and I said to Sun Sixin: "Tomorrow you go to Erli Yao to buy several large wine jars, and also buy more vats and small bowls. From now on, our wine will be sold by the bowl."

  Sun Sixin scratched her scalp and said, "Where should I put it after buying it back?"

  "Let's set up the front desk first." I noticed that Sun Sixin was a bit worried, a bar that often organizes street dance performances, setting up a world-class wine cellar, is indeed a bit incongruous. Actually, I had this concern too: Chen Kejiao's only condition when she signed the contract was that her bar structure couldn't be changed - but to tell the truth, I didn't change her structure, I just added some decorations inside.

  Yang Zhi received over 3,000 yuan tonight, he...

  Li Jing-shui and Wei Tie-zhu sat in the corner, as if they had entered a world of monsters. One after another, sexy women came up to chat with them, but the two men couldn't say a word, holding each other's hands and trembling. Those women, without exception, cursed "dead glass" and walked away.

  Li Jing Shui found me and said in a cold tone: "Xiao Ge, you'd better send us back."

  I had no choice but to agree to send them back to the barracks tomorrow.

  I returned to the pawnshop and saw Xiang Yu washing a basin of water and wiping down the car. The front of the car was surprisingly facing the direction we came from, indicating that someone had helped turn it around, and the driving skills were excellent. The tire tracks were all aligned with the edge of the road, very neat.

  Xiang Yu used a towel to gently wipe the car body, his face filled with affection, as if he had just finished a great battle and was now exchanging feelings with his beloved dark horse.

  I curiously asked him: "Feather brother, is this car parked by Baozi?"

  "No." Xiang Yu obviously didn't have time for me.

  "Who is that?"

  "It was Old Wang, the old man who guards the door, who drove it back and parked it."

  I laughed and said, "Can't tell that old man can drive a car."

  Xiang Yu glared at me and said: "Others have done much better than you, he told me that he used to drive a large cargo truck - what kind of car is a large cargo truck?"

  No wonder, the old driver from before, his skills were really solid, having driven big trucks for half a lifetime, and now driving this small van is like playing with toys, didn't expect the old guy to still be a god-level driver.

  Xiang Yu wiped his car while saying: "From now on, I don't need you to teach me anymore. Old Wang said he will teach me every day after school."

  I said: "Can't tell Old Wang is still a kind-hearted person."

  "Uh-huh, and I gave him the cardboard box."

  I didn't pay attention, and I just hummed as I walked home. It wasn't until then that I felt something was off, and I suddenly turned my head and said, "What cardboard box?"

  "That thing on your car."

  "...even what's inside was given to him?"

  "That's for sure."

  "Brother Fei! That half box of Zhonghua cigarettes is worth several thousand yuan!" I'm heartbroken, that's enough money to go to driving school. Didn't the book say that Xiang Yu could share hardships with his soldiers, but was stingy and had a woman's kindness? How come I didn't see any of these good points?

  Xiang Yu bowed his head and fiddled with his handkerchief, saying: "I heard from the semiconductor that smoking is bad for your health, you'd better cut down a bit."

  I: “……”

  Alas, just give it up then. A person who wants to turn left but often turns right doesn't need me to teach them personally.

  I walked in and saw Liu Bang sitting with Li Shishi, both staring at the computer screen. When did they become buddies? I walked up behind them and found that they were focused on a bunch of numbers, Li Shishi was helping him calculate non-stop with a calculator, while Liu Bang was writing down notes and thinking deeply. I asked them what they were doing, and Liu Bang said seriously for once: "Don't disturb me, I'm calculating some data."

  "Hey——" I leaned forward on the back of Li's chair, asking: "What data?"

  Liu Bang said: "F**king poker, I was calculating the probability of getting a leopard, a straight, and a same-flush, today I lost 500 playing with others, yesterday I won 1200 at blackjack..."

  I'm sweating, I just casually played a game of "Exploding Flowers" with someone and didn't think much of the probability. I told him: "The main thing about playing Exploding Flowers is psychological warfare, these numbers aren't very useful."

  "Of course I know, but if everyone is particularly good at pretending, they can remember what card was played and how many were played, and then according to the ratio, you think one more step ahead of others, that's when you have a greater chance of winning."

  I've sweated again. It turns out that Liu Bang's world was calculated like this. I seriously suspect that when he appointed Han Xin as a general, he had already started plotting how to kill him after gaining the world.

  I scolded Li Shishi: "You just help the tyrant to bully others."

  ……

  The next day, I slept until after 10 o'clock, which is also the most relaxing ride to the bar on my motorcycle. From a distance, I saw a group of people at the entrance moving a large water tank that was about 1.9 meters high, shouting and chanting as they tried to load it onto a truck.

  I walked over and saw Sun Sixin directing, I asked him: "What are you doing?"

  Sun Sixin saw me coming and said unnaturally: "Qiang Ge, I'm sorry, I messed up the deal. I called the porcelain kiln this morning to...

  Customized large mouth vase, but they brought me this thing, can't even get it through the door.

  I saw a group of porters struggling to carry their loads and said, "Since you've managed to get them here, just leave them."

  "Where should I put it?"

  "Right at the entrance - I said you have nothing better to do with such a big vat, let alone children, even adults can't get out if they fall in."

  The workers heard that there would be no layoffs and were overjoyed. An old worker, panting with excitement, said: "If you don't deliberately seek death, it's generally impossible to get in."

  I couldn't help but laugh: this vat is almost as tall as Xiang Yu, and if you want to walk around it without falling in, you'd have to be as tall as a giraffe.

  The old worker said: "Congratulations to the boss, you've really stumbled upon a treasure. This vat has been here since I was young and started working at the factory. Even the factory director can't tell its age. It seems like it was prepared for large households in the past as a water storage tank to prevent fires. Sometimes during droughts, with several vats of water like this, you could have enough food for a year."

  I walked around the vat a few times, and its exterior was black and oily, emitting a cold air. It looked quite extraordinary. I thought to myself: Could it be a treasure basin? Why not throw someone in first and see if we can pull out a bunch of people?

  I shooed away the workers and caught sight of a vendor selling water on an electric tricycle on the road. I quickly called him over and asked, "Do you have any water?"

  The old fellow looked at me and said: "Full, how come now even bars are adding water to the wine?"

  "I said: 'Cut the nonsense, how much can you sell this car of water for?'"

  "What do you want to do?"

  "Pour all the water out and come with me for a drink, I'll give you 300."

  The fellow villager said with difficulty: "The money is indeed suitable, but where can I pour this water?"

  "Watering flowers, scattering on the road, whatever."

  "This is genuine spring water! I fetched it with great difficulty from the mountain."

  "First pour the water into this vat, then after you've sold all the wine, fill it up again and continue selling from your cart. How about that?"

  Old fellow, this is a delight, put the pipe to the mouth of the vat and start pouring water, I went in to call Li Jing Shui and Wei Tiezhu, only then did I see that the stage was filled with jars and shallow green ceramic bowls, my heart also had doubts, if Chen Kejiao saw this, what would be her reaction? This woman is proud of her own bar, seeing me turn it into such a mess, will she fight to the death with me?

  Looking at Li Jing and Shui again, they didn't eat or sleep well in the bar, and they looked haggard. I felt a bit guilty and pitied them, saying: "Why don't I book a room for you two, go into town for a trip, at least sleep on a Simmons mattress, and watch 'Soldiers Sortie'?" The two of them shook their heads straight away, and I couldn't do anything about it.

  When we went out, the old fellow had also settled down. A car of water was just enough to fill the water tank to 4/5, and the ripples of water sparkled brightly, shining directly on the sign of the bar, which unexpectedly had a few touches of elegance. The biggest advantage of this kind of place is that it can accommodate all kinds of elements. Ordinary people come here to have fun, they don't care if you have cultural connotation or not, whether your decoration style is consistent or not. You can stick mechanical era symbols on one wall and hang a double-barreled shotgun and animal skin on the other wall.

  So, a successful bar is like taking a dump in the local area and making people feel particularly harmonious.

  There is now a large wine barrel at the entrance of the bar, which looks much cooler than before.

  I was quite hesitant about whether to prepare a stone or not - what if someone really fell in? Who would play the role of Sima Guang? Later, when Sun Sixin said that several foreign wine bottles could be used as substitutes, I gave up.

  I arrived at the village of Ya, I let Li Jing Shui and others return by themselves, then went to find Song Qing. Li Jing Shui and Wei Tiezhu ran towards the camp with cheers and excitement, it seems that the convenience and novelty of the city did not make them feel a little nostalgic.

  Song Qing took me to the place where Du Xing brewed wine. We sat on a tricycle and arrived in less than 5 minutes. As we got closer, the slightly sour smell of wine became stronger. When we arrived, I saw steam rising from a spacious courtyard, and at the entrance, someone had two plastic cups tied together with a rope over their eyes, covering their mouth and nose with a large handkerchief. At that moment, they were lifting the handkerchief to breathe. I waved my hand and shouted: " Ultraman!"

  He removed the plastic cup from his eyes, and with a tug, tore off the towel - looking more like Ultraman now, it was indeed Ghost Face Du Xing. Seeing me, he smiled and said: "How did you come?"

  "Shall I get some wine? Is there any left over?"

  Du Xing said: "That's great, this yeast will go bad if it's not used for three days, so we have to start work every day. My brothers can't drink that much, and I'm worried about where to put the leftover."

  I took a glance inside the courtyard and immediately smelled an even thicker smell of wine. Several workers were wearing masks, exposing their arms as they sifted through the wine lees. On the wooden boards of a small room, there were blocks that looked like tofu. It wasn't until I walked a few more steps forward that I understood why Du Xing was dressed in that attire. The wine smelled fragrant from afar, but the smell became unbearably pungent up close, especially in that "tofu room", which was impossible to approach without even being able to open one's eyes.

  Du Xing covered his eyes and mouth with a handkerchief, and went in to instruct several workers to move the finished wine out bucket by bucket. He pointed to the few jars of wine in the corner of the yard and said, "Those are the ones I deliberately left behind, wait three months before drinking, the flavor will be just right."

  "Alright, those will be six-star Douglas fir, we'll package them in bottles and sell them."

  I saw that all the goods had been loaded, and when I heard the sound, it was already more than half full of water. I told Du Xing that we can brew a bit more next time.

  A fellow villager who overheard our conversation leaned in and asked, "Will you be driving a wine delivery truck from now on?"

  "Then you can't sell water anymore."

  "What's it to you whether I sell water or not? As long as I'm not bothering you, that's all that matters."

  "What I'm afraid of is that you won't be convenient. Think about it, what if someone who's allergic to alcohol drinks the water you sell and gets sick? Won't they come bother you?"

  The fellow villager nodded silently: "That's right."

  "I said: 'Alright, from now on you'll be in charge of pulling wine, and each trip will give you 200.'"

  The fellow villager happily said: "If it can be done, then it's settled."

  When we come back again, Jin Dajian handed me the box with the wind bottle in it. Because there was something else to do, I didn't chat with him in detail. He just said that he had made up for it.

  200! This time, we can't just throw it into the car again. I was worried about this, when I suddenly saw Li Jing-shui and Wei Tie-zhu standing at attention next to my motorcycle in the sun. I walked over to ask them what's going on, Li Jing-shui said with a sad face: "Xu Xiao-wei is blaming us for losing people, he wants to expel us from the team!" Wei Tie-zhu didn't say anything, his eyes were welling up with tears.

  I'm also not comfortable with "losing people". What kind of loss is this? Is it because they didn't protect me well? Or are they ashamed that they got hurt and tarnished the reputation of the Yue Family Army? Xu DeLong seems simple and honest, but I feel he has a deep understanding of the situation. A military unit that traveled through time to a new environment nearly a thousand years later, not one person deserted or showed any signs of rebellion, except for their loyalty to Yue Fei, Xu DeLong's command art is also not to be underestimated.

  He punished these two little warriors, probably from an angle that we "common people" will never understand. However, Li Jingui and Wei Tiezhu were indeed a bit careless when dealing with others at first, and almost got into big trouble due to temporary anger.

  Thinking of this, I felt relieved and said to them: "Let's go, follow me back." After getting in the car, I handed the box to Li Jing Shui to hold, which unknowingly solved a problem for me.

  I brought a car full of wine back to the bar, called Zhu Gui and Zhang Qing out to help, and poured all the wine into the pre-prepared jars. The jars were still not enough in the end, and there was still a lot of wine left in the car. I said helplessly: "There's no way, let's pour it into the vat."

  The water seller poured wine into a vat while saying: "Others dilute their liquor with water, but you are diluting your water with liquor."

  I said: "We're not selling anything here, what's the point of talking nonsense?"

  Old fellow sneered: "Those are all good things, you just wait for them to rot?"

  It really gets me angry, how can a peasant's mouth be so sharp?

  This mountain spring water is mixed with wine, filled a full vat. Drinking it as water is a bit spicy, selling it as wine will definitely be reported by people. Waiting for it to grow worms would be a real pity. I was forced to have no choice but to say to Sun Sixin: "You go get a small ladder, whoever wants to drink this stuff in the vat can do so for free!"

  Sun Sixin had no choice but to move a ladder in front of the water tank, and put a stack of disposable cups next to it. On the water tank, he posted a note that read "Free tasting".

  I stood back with my hands behind me and took a look: this is too damn performance art!

  No one had expected that this unintentional mistake would eventually become the biggest feature of "Time Reversal" bar.

  I put down Li Jing Shui and Wei Tiezhu, took a taxi to Gu Ye's place with the box in my arms. This wind bottle really had to be sold - I've been a bit short on money lately.

  I arrived at the Wind Listening Pavilion, where there were only a few customers. What made me laugh and cry was that Gu Ye was wearing sunglasses again, sitting in the blind man's seat, holding an erhu, and playing it with abandon. Occasionally, someone would even put a few coins in front of him. When he saw me arrive, he pointed to the private room with one hand and continued to play "Reflections of the Moon on Two Springs". Only after finishing the piece did he wipe his hands with a damp towel and come to greet me.

  The old man came in and asked me with a smile: "What's good stuff?"

  "As I said yesterday, the wind bottle matches well with the name of your tea house."

  The old man's eyes lit up, he took the box, placed it upright, slowly opened it, and then froze. After a long time, he spoke in a low voice: "This thing..." Then he fell silent.

  I stood up in surprise and walked behind him, only to take a glance at the box where almost all of his blood had coagulated!

  In that box, it was indeed the Wind Listening Bottle. However, on its originally delicate and smooth body, there were countless scars!

  In other words, it's clear at a glance that this bottle has been supplemented.

  This antique, the wind bottle, is named for its delicate and elegant meaning, which cannot withstand the wind. If it breaks, that would be a devastating blow to the scenery. A broken bowl or wine cup can still be repaired, but if this breaks, it immediately becomes worthless.

  Now, in this luxurious box lies such a thing, it's simply an insult to Master Gu. Jin Dajian has really gotten me killed this time. I truly don't want to offend someone like Master Gu at all.

  I took a deep breath and closed the box, I didn't even know if I could still leave Gu Ye's land safely.

  Grandpa "slapped" the box shut and glared at me fiercely, I smiled awkwardly at him and said: "Uh...I..."

  The old man still stared at me for a long time before saying in an unquestionable tone:

  "Three hundred, will you sell?"