Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 21.2

Seeing that the time was right, Lu Sheng didn’t go home but carried the cat directly to the winery.

It was still early, and the pier was sparsely populated.

Yesterday’s wine sales were good, and Lu Hualin was happy, so today he hired an extra ox cart and brought nearly a thousand jin of wine to the pier.

Lu Hualin led the helpers to quickly set up the stall. Seeing that there weren’t many customers yet, Lu Sheng carried the sack to the riverside.

Binhe County is located in the central plain of Liang Country, with a suitable climate and abundant resources. The largest river in Liang Country, the Guangtong River, flows through the county.

Liang Country has a dense river network, and water transport is busy. The circulation of goods between the north and south relies mainly on canal transport.

The Guangtong River runs through the north and south, connecting to Yanzhou Prefecture in the Northeast Province, passing through Jingdu Prefecture in the Upper Capital Province, and reaching Xichuan Prefecture in the Lingnan Province in the south. The number of vessels traveling on the river daily is countless.

It was just past the Mao hour (5-7 AM), and the pier was already full of boats. In the distance, the river was misty and vast, and the ships coming and going were faintly visible.

Sailors hoisting sails and steering the rudder, porters moving cargo, and teams of trackers pulling large ships that were about to dock, from far to near, the high-pitched and clear boatmen’s chants echoed one after another, incessantly.

Lu Sheng loosened the opening of the sack, found a cargo ship that was about to weigh anchor and set sail, and threw the sack onto it.

The wild cat scrambled out of the bag in a few moves. It clung to the railing, trying to escape, but upon seeing the river water, it let out a howl and retreated.

As the cargo ship sailed further away, Lu Sheng waved at it, smiling brightly, “Have a safe journey!”

Immediately after, a white shadow flashed by, heading straight for the cargo ship, staying above the hull, flying up and down, circling for a long time.

Every loud chirp revealed the endless pride of the sound’s owner.

When Lu Sheng returned, the stall was already crowded with people.

“Boss, one jin of wine!”

“I want two liang.”

“Give me two liang too!”

“Boss, I want ten jin!”

“Give me one jin!”

“Give me ten jin too!”

After about two hours of selling, the wine stall had sold nearly four hundred jin of wine, and the number of customers buying wine began to decrease.

Just then, a visiting merchant from out of town came to the stall. After tasting two liang, he immediately asked for five hundred jin to be loaded onto his ship and taken away.

Seeing that the thousand jin of wine they brought were about to be sold out, Lu Hualin called out to Qi Nan to go back and bring a new batch.

Lu Sheng reached out and stopped him, pulling him aside, “Uncle, we’re only selling this thousand jin today.”

“W-why?” Lu Hualin was puzzled. “W-we still have nearly t-two thousand jin of wine, why d-don’t we s-sell it all?”

“If we sell these two thousand jin of wine, will the winery have any stock left?”

Lu Hualin shook his head. Once this batch of wine was sold out, they would have to wait until the next batch had finished fermenting before they could distill new spirits.

That would take nearly seven or eight days.

“Sheng’er means…” Lu Hualin’s eyes brightened, “W-we are using th-this opportunity to m-make a name for our winery.”

Lu Hualin was honest and straightforward, but not a fool. With just a slight hint from Lu Sheng, he fully understood.

The new wine launching was the best time to promote the winery’s reputation.

“We sell out today, and starting tomorrow, we’ll only sell two hundred jin daily, and each person can buy a maximum of one jin of wine.”

After two mornings of selling, Lu Sheng roughly calculated that the amount of wine sold in small quantities of less than ten jin per day was around three hundred jin.

If they sold two hundred jin daily, with a limit of one jin per person, it would basically satisfy the demand from retail customers.

Restricting sales while ensuring the limited supply of wine reached more people would prevent most customers from being upset.

The scarcer and more limited something is, the more it stimulates people’s desire to buy.

Selling only 200 jin a day allows the winery to have wine to sell until the new batch is ready, and it also maintains the customers’ eagerness and enthusiasm for buying the spirits.

Lu Sheng smiled, “Compared to selling the wine we have, Uncle should be brewing more wine!”

“But, but the day after tomorrow, w-we w-won’t even have a-hundred taels in our hands.”

Originally, selling all four thousand jin of wine they had would be enough to gather the one hundred taels for the grain merchant, but if they sold the wine according to Lu Sheng’s suggestion, the money wouldn’t be enough.

“The wine we have now is limited to one jin per person at most, but we can take advance orders for the new wine, starting from ten jin and with no limit. This way, we can receive the payment in advance, and we won’t have to worry about the money for the grain.”

Lu Hualin clapped his hands hard and laughed, “G-good idea!”

The next day, before the stall was even set up, many customers were already waiting to buy wine.

“Miss Lu, why are there only a few jars of wine on the ox cart today?”

Some sharp-eyed people immediately noticed only ten jars of wine scattered on the cart.

“Apologies, everyone. We don’t have much wine left. We only have these two hundred jin today.”

“Just this much, I’m afraid it won’t be enough to sell.”

Many people were repeat customers at the wine stall. They saw the winery bring two carts of wine and sell it all in the previous two days, so a quick glance today told them that these ten jars wouldn’t be enough.

“There is indeed less wine today, but to ensure everyone can have a drink, we will limit sales to one jin per person today.”

“One jin?!”

The person who spoke was the first man who bought wine. The one jin he bought the day before yesterday was almost finished, and he specifically came back today hoping to buy more.

“If you sell out today, will you have more tomorrow?”

This time, it was a porter who spoke. He had been buying two liang of wine every day to warm himself up before work, and he was most concerned about whether the wine would still be available in the future.

“Yes, there will still be two hundred jin tomorrow. Our winery doesn’t have much stock left, so it will remain two hundred jin per day until the new wine comes out at the end of the month.”

“However, if anyone wants to buy more than ten jin of wine, you can place an advance order with us. When our winery releases the new wine in a few days, we will supply you first!”

“For customers who pre-order, we will offer a discount of ten wen per ten jin of wine, making it two hundred and fifty wen per jar.”

As soon as this was announced, those who were initially unhappy about the quantity limit became cheerful again.

The spirits are strong, and one jin is not something one drinks in a day. The reason they wanted to buy more was for the discount. Now, pre-ordering offers an even better discount, so whether they can buy it immediately becomes less important.

Another day passed.

After three days of air-drying, the qū (fermentation starter) was completely dry.

Lu Sheng ground the qū into powder, mixed it with the steamed grains that had been cooled to a warm temperature, and finally filled the jars for saccharification and fermentation.

The qū is the bone of the wine, and the grain is the flesh of the wine. Different grains have different starch contents, resulting in different amounts of alcohol produced after saccharification and fermentation.

This time, she made five types of wine: sorghum wine, corn wine, rice wine, glutinous rice wine, and a mixed grain wine (sorghum, rice, wheat, glutinous rice, corn) to test their alcohol yield.

A small gray sparrow landed on the eaves of the Lu house.

Chirp! Chirp~ Chirp chirp~

‘Sister, Ding Laizi has left home.’

Lu Sheng wiped her hands, preparing to go out.

Yu Ling fluttered its wings, landed on her shoulder, and cried out excitedly, ‘I’m coming too! I’m coming too! Sister, take me to catch the bad guy!’

Since dealing with the cat yesterday, Yu Ling had been bouncing excitedly all day. It had also become a drama enthusiast, developing a fondness for being a hero, vowing to accompany Lu Sheng in upholding justice and eradicating evil from now on.

“You are too flashy; I can’t take you today.” Lu Sheng grabbed it from her shoulder and placed it on the window lattice.

Taking Yu Ling out would inevitably attract onlookers, and she wouldn’t be able to do anything then.

“Sister~ Sister, take me along~” The parrot waddled over to her hand, saying human words in a dramatically affected way.

“Don’t speak human words!”

Lu Sheng pushed it away in disgust but then, remembering the bird’s tiny, needle-sized temper, she softened her voice a little and stroked its little head, “You stay at home obediently. I’ll bring you your favorite melon seeds when I return.”

“Okay~~ Then Sister, remember to come back early~~”

The voice was sweet and sugary, so cloying it could kill, giving Lu Sheng goosebumps.

What a disaster!

The moment the courtyard gate closed, Qi Zhenshu withdrew her gaze from the eaves and took Tangtang to Aunt Niu’s house.

Ding Laizi hummed a little tune on his way to the county, unaware that a person was following him from a distance, guided by the small sparrow on his head, a li away, where he couldn’t see.

Tian Yin Pavilion, the largest theater in Binhe County.

It had a carved dome, white jade walls and pillars. In the center of the hall was a circular stage, half a person high, surrounded by tables and chairs. Colorful glazed lamps hung from the roof, shimmering with light.

The performers on stage sang their melodies, and the audience below nodded their heads.

Ding Laizi’s thieving eyes roved over the entertainers on the stage, and with a wicked smile, he went up to the private room on the second floor.

The theater was bustling with people coming and going. Lu Sheng followed the little sparrow’s guidance and found the doorway to Ding Laizi’s private room.

The door was slightly ajar, with a beaded curtain partially obscuring the view.

“Boss Liao, what fine taste you have!”

“Stop the nonsense. Take these two hundred taels of silver and keep your mouth shut.”

“Naturally.”

“I have one more thing. If you handle it properly, I’ll give you another two hundred taels!”

“Oh? Boss Liao, tell me about it! The Lu family’s winery recently…”

The sound of a pipa (lute) suddenly rose on the stage, covering the sound of their conversation. Lu Sheng quietly leaned closer, trying to hear more clearly.

Suddenly, her wrist was clamped by a strong grip and yanked into a private room beside them.

Lu Sheng reacted swiftly, raising her hand to strike the person, but the next moment, seeing the person’s face, she froze stiff.

The woman’s features were cold, and her phoenix eyes were calm as a deep pool, carrying a penetrating chill.

“You, how did you get here?” Lu Sheng stammered the question.

Qi Zhenshu’s thin lips parted, and her voice was deep, “Have you forgotten what you promised me that day?”

“I, I…” Lu Sheng opened her mouth to explain but had absolutely no idea what to say.

Lu Sheng wasn’t afraid of mutated behemoths in the apocalypse, so she didn’t consider following Ding Laizi to be dangerous, but she couldn’t tell Qi Zhenshu that.

“Since you can’t do it, don’t agree to it.”

With that, Qi Zhenshu released her hand and turned to leave the room.

Qi Zhenshu’s tone was still mild, but Lu Sheng still heard a hint of disappointment.

The sharp pipa music abruptly stopped, and the sorrowful sound of the hujia (a flute-like instrument) gradually began, mournful and melancholic.

People were moving inside the Tian Yin Pavilion. By the time Lu Sheng left, Qi Zhenshu’s figure was nowhere to be found.

Lu Sheng finally saw Qi Zhenshu only after leaving the building. She quickened her pace, grabbed Qi Zhenshu’s arm, and apologized softly, “I was wrong, I was wrong.”

Qi Zhenshu turned her head, looking at her quietly, her voice flat, “Where were you wrong?”

“I should have kept my promise to you,” Lu Sheng said hastily.

The corner of Qi Zhenshu’s mouth lifted into a faint smile, but her gaze remained deep and cold. She gently brushed Lu Sheng’s hand away.

Lu Sheng’s heart trembled, and she quickly added, “I shouldn’t, shouldn’t have followed Ding Laizi.”

“Who is Ding Laizi? Murder, arson, what hasn’t he done?”

“How dare you follow such a person alone?”

“Did you ever consider what would happen if you were discovered?”

“Did you ever consider what would happen to Tangtang if something happened to you?”

“Would Auntie-in-law be sad?”

“Would Eldest Sister be heartbroken?”

Her voice was unhurried, with no harsh scolding or accusation, just one question after another, which left Lu Sheng utterly stunned in place, unsure how to answer.

Qi Zhenshu looked into her eyes, her voice growing even flatter, “Lu Sheng, do you remember who you are?”

The setting sun melted like gold, the glow like a burning fireball, igniting the layers of clouds across the sky.

The slender, long figure walked further and further away, gradually merging into the twilight.

Lu Sheng stood there in a daze, unable to recover for a long time.

After the apocalypse, Lu Sheng’s family members died one after another, leaving her alone to wander between different camps.

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