Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 23

The sky was clear and bright, with pale clouds high above.

Tangtang hugged Lu Sheng’s neck and shyly called out, “Auntie.”

Lu Sheng lovingly stroked her head and said to Lin Shuqing, “This is my daughter, Lu Qi, her nickname is Tangtang.”

“Tangtang is so well-behaved and looks a lot like her mother,” Lin Shuqing’s eyes were gentle as she smiled faintly.

Apart from her slightly darker eye color, all of the child’s features closely resembled Lu Sheng.

Tangtang pinched the ear of the cloth tiger and whispered, “Auntie is beautiful too.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Tangtang,” Lin Shuqing smiled brightly. “This cloth tiger is very interesting too.”

“My mother bought this for me,” Tangtang said happily, a big smile spreading across her face.

Lin Shuqing glanced at Lu Sheng, her smile deepening, “Darling’s mother is so good!”

“Mm-hm,” Tangtang nodded heavily, completely agreeing with her statement.

Her mother now was especially good, the best mother in the world.

The chicken soup in the pot was bubbling. Lu Sheng put Tangtang down and took the bok choy from Lin Shuqing’s hand, “I’ll take care of the rest.”

Lin Shuqing was a guest after all, and Lu Sheng didn’t feel right having her help all the time.

After saying that, she spoke to the little one at her feet, “Sweetheart, can you keep Auntie company and talk to her for your mother?”

“Okay~” The little one agreed.

After scooping the chicken out of the pot, Lu Sheng proceeded to stir-fry the remaining dishes.

Two quarters of an hour later, Lu Sheng covered the pot and turned to Tangtang, saying, “Sweetheart, go call Mother to come eat.”

“Mm,” the little one replied, then pattered out of the kitchen.

Lin Shuqing stood up and walked over to help her carry the dishes.

“The dining table is next door,” Lu Sheng pointed to a small door beside them.

When Qi Zhenshu entered, Lu Sheng was dishing up the rice.

She walked over to get chopsticks but was stopped by Lu Sheng, “Shuqing has already taken them, you can just go over.”

Qi Zhenshu silently withdrew her hand, looking at the direction of the small door with a complicated expression, then turned around and took the bowl from Lu Sheng’s hand, “I’ll do it.”

“The food Mother makes is the best,” the little one sat in her chair, swinging her little feet, and proudly told Lin Shuqing.

“Then Auntie must properly try your mother’s cooking later,” Lin Shuqing smiled and handed her a small wooden spoon.

“Thank you, Auntie,” Tangtang thanked her obediently.

Lin Shuqing stroked her head, her smile gentle.

“Dinner is served!”

Lu Sheng entered with the rice, placing the small wooden bowl in front of Tangtang and smiling, “Sweetheart, you learned so many characters today, can you also eat lots of rice?”

“Mm, I’m very hungry,” the little one patted her tummy, speaking softly and sweetly.

Lu Sheng smiled and said, “Then you must eat more, Sweetheart.”

Putting the other bowl down on the table in front of Lin Shuqing, Lu Sheng turned to introduce the person behind her to Lin Shuqing, “Ah Shu, this is Lin Shuqing. We met her last time at Baiyun Temple, it was her carriage.”

“This is Qi Zhenshu, my wife.”

The two looked at each other, both nodding slightly and saying in unison, “Pleased to meet you.”

“Sorry for the intrusion,” Lin Shuqing’s smile was slight.

“Shuqing, no need to be so polite, please sit down quickly,” Lu Sheng invited her to sit, smiling generously, “Just treat it like your own home.”

“Alright,” Lin Shuqing smiled gently and handed the bamboo chopsticks at her side to her.

Lu Sheng took the chopsticks, handed a pair to Qi Zhenshu, and sat down next to Tangtang, “Boss Liao went to the winery today. After we eat, I’ll tell you about it.”

“Mm,” Qi Zhenshu glanced at the chopsticks and raised her hand to take them.

Lin Shuqing’s gaze swept over the two of them, then she smiled faintly and put a piece of chicken on Tangtang’s plate, her thoughts stirring.

Their relationship was indeed as she had known, not close.

The four ate in silence at the table, with only the faint clinking of bowls and chopsticks.

After the meal, Lu Sheng recounted what had happened at the winery that day.

“Xiao Sheng is truly clever,” Lin Shuqing praised with a smile, “Boss Liao tried to steal a chicken but ended up losing the rice he brought along. He must be quite frustrated now.”

“It serves him right for intentionally setting up a scam to defraud the winery in the first place, and now he delivered himself to my door. If I didn’t heavily fleece him, I wouldn’t be doing justice to the hard work the winery put in for those consecutive days,” Lu Sheng said, feeling vindicated.

At the time, to prevent the sour wine from over-fermenting, the winery had to add three extra stoves and work through the night to recover the losses.

Compared to their cheerful relief, Qi Zhenshu’s delicate brows were tightly furrowed. She warned, “Boss Liao is a very calculating person. What happened today might provoke him to hold a grudge and seek revenge.”

Lu Sheng’s action certainly felt satisfying, but it was too direct and obvious. She was afraid that Boss Liao wouldn’t easily let go and swallow his anger.

It would have been more appropriate to do it more discreetly, letting Boss Liao suffer the setback without being able to find the real cause.

“We’ll just be cautious in the future and not do business with him,” Lu Sheng said with a frown of distaste.

She didn’t want to do business with such a morally corrupt petty person anymore.

Qi Zhenshu frowned and said softly, “A petty person is hard to guard against, and cunning and treacherous people have plenty of sinister and despicable tricks.”

Hearing her say that, a sense of apprehension also rose in Lu Sheng’s heart.

In the treacherous end-of-days world, mutual deception and insidious calculation were common. Coming to this clear and bright foreign world had actually made her lower her guard.

She should have acted more discreetly.

“I didn’t think it through enough.”

Lu Sheng mused to herself: Qi Zhenshu’s consideration is much more thorough than her own. In the future, she should consult with her more often about matters.

Lin Shuqing refilled Lu Sheng’s tea and gently comforted her, “Xiao Sheng, don’t worry too much, leave this matter to me.”

“Shuqing has a plan?” Lu Sheng’s eyes flashed with surprise.

“I have heard things about him; he hasn’t done a few underhanded things. If we have someone investigate carefully, we can always find some leverage,” Lin Shuqing said calmly.

“Then I’ll have to trouble Shuqing.”

Lu Sheng considered her a friend and didn’t hold back in being polite.

Looking at the two who were smiling at each other, Qi Zhenshu’s eyes darkened. She picked up Tangtang who was playing with the cloth tiger nearby and said, “It’s getting late, I’ll go and put her down for her afternoon nap.”

The little one, who was still lively playing with the cloth tiger, was picked up by her mother before she could even react. After blinking innocently, she cooperated by giving a yawn.

Lin Shuqing’s gaze darkened, but the smile on her eyebrows remained unchanged, and she said softly, “I’ve been a bother today, I should take my leave too.”

Lu Sheng got up to see her off. Only when she saw the carriage outside the door did she realize that the coachman today was a burly man.

Not long after Lin Shuqing left, Lu Hualin and Qi Nan arrived.

“Ah Sheng, Qi Nan said you, you have a new way to brew, to brew wine?” Lu Hualin couldn’t suppress the surprise in his heart and spoke loudly as soon as he entered the door.

Qi Nan was also full of curiosity, wondering what new wine Lu Sheng had managed to brew this time.

Qi Zhenshu happened to close the door and come out of the east room. Seeing them, she went forward to greet them, “Eldest Uncle, Qi Nan.”

Lu Hualin nodded to her, then turned to Lu Sheng and asked, “Hey, Ah Sheng, quickly, quickly tell me, what, what method did you, you think, think of this time?”

Lu Hualin loved brewing. Although he knew that selling the recipe for spirits was more beneficial than harmful and had earned a lot of silver, he still felt a sense of regret and reluctance deep down.

He grew up in the winery and had always dreamed of raising the winery to a higher level one day, but he was willing but lacked the ability.

Lu Sheng led them to the kitchen. To speed up the fermentation of the wine, she had placed the wine directly next to the stove.

She didn’t brew much wine, with each batch of wine mash only weighing about three catties (approx. 1.5 kg).

She moved the wine jars onto the table and opened them one by one for them to inspect.

The five types of wine from last time each had its own unique characteristic.

The sticky rice and regular rice had a rich rice aroma, the sorghum wine had a heavier alcoholic body, the corn wine had a sweet and mellow aroma, and the five-grain wine had the most rich and lingering fragrance.

After looking over them one by one, Lu Hualin was full of wonder and asked the most confusing question in his heart.

“Ah Sheng, how, how can your, this wine, produce so much wine, wine liquid?”

People in Liang State use solid-state fermentation (only adding a small amount of water) to make wine. One catty of rice brewed and fermented produces at most one and a half catties of rice wine.

Lu Sheng used semi-solid state fermentation (adding two and a half times the amount of water). These few jars of wine, after removing the wine mash, would have about three catties of wine liquid.

Of course, this was only the initial fermentation. The final actual wine yield would depend on the specific amount of spirits after distillation.

Lu Sheng explained the semi-solid state fermentation method to them.

“Then, then let’s take the wine to the, to the winery now to distill, and see what, what the taste is like,” Lu Hualin saw that the wine had fermented almost enough and couldn’t wait to distill it and see.

In the past, the winery had tried brewing with coarse grains, but the wine liquid produced by coarse grains was not much, and the taste was not as good as rice wine.

Excitedly, he carried the jars of wine mash back to the winery. Lu Hualin directly set up five pots to distill the wine simultaneously.

After discarding the “wine head,” Lu Hualin was again the first to taste them one by one.

The sticky rice and regular rice were clear and light, the sorghum wine was strong, the corn wine was mellow and sweet, and the five-grain wine was long and lingering.

The taste of these several wines was all better than the original spirits. The rice wine produced the most, more than double the original amount, and the corn wine produced the least, but it was still more than the original amount.

“This new fermentation method actually, actually brewed so much, so much wine!”

From morning until now, Lu Hualin had been constantly surprised and delighted, his emotions rising and falling, unable to calm down.

“Besides the brewing method, there’s also the effect of the Jiuqu (fermentation starter),” Lu Sheng said, pointing to the new Jiuqu that was brought to the winery with them.

“Good, good, good, this is great!” Lu Hualin was overjoyed and immediately got ready to go out, “I, I’ll go buy grain now.”

“Eldest Uncle, wait a moment,” Lu Sheng quickly called out to stop him.

“What is it?” Lu Hualin asked, puzzled.

“Eldest Uncle, have you calculated how much grain you want to buy? Are you planning to brew all five types of wine?” Lu Sheng asked with a smile.

Lu Hualin slapped his head, suppressing his excitement, and said, “I need to, I need to calculate.”

Making five types of wine simultaneously would be too cumbersome for the winery. It would be better to consider and choose one or two of the best.

Lu Sheng was about to look for some paper to calculate the alcohol yield and compare the advantages and disadvantages of these few wines, when she heard Qi Zhenshu speak from the side, “The five-grain wine is the best.”

Everyone looked at her in confusion, not knowing how she had come to that conclusion.

“Although corn has a lot of moisture, it produces the least wine liquid, so it’s the least suitable.”

“Sticky rice and regular rice produce the most wine, but the price of rice is relatively high. One catty of wine requires eighteen wen (cash) for the grain.”

“Sorghum is the cheapest, and the yield of wine liquid is in the middle, but sorghum is not good to eat, and the land in Qingzhou is fertile, so people don’t plant much sorghum. The winery cannot buy it in large quantities long-term.”

“The five-grain wine produces a little less wine liquid than rice wine, but coarse grain prices are low. One catty of wine only requires thirteen wen for the grain.”

Lu Sheng hadn’t even remembered the price of grain, yet this person had not only calculated the cost of making the wine but also combined it with the crop yield in Liang State to make the optimal judgment.

Qi Zhenshu is truly a genius!

While marveling, the smile in Lu Sheng’s eyes grew wider, tinged with a little pride.

Such a clever person is her wife!

Lu Hualin was stunned for a moment and said, “Then, then we will, will make the five-grain wine.”

Lu Sheng pondered for a moment and said, “Rice wine can also be made. After all, people are used to drinking rice wine, and now that our rice wine has a higher yield, we can also sell it at a lower price.”

Lu Sheng pulled Qi Zhenshu closer, looking at her with a beaming smile, and told her the ratio of the five types of grain, “Then help me calculate again, if we make five thousand catties of wine, how many catties of each grain will we need?”

It would truly be a waste not to use such a good human calculator.

As soon as she finished speaking, Qi Zhenshu gave the answer.

Lu Sheng was instantly dumbfounded and praised her with a smile, “Qi Zhenshu, you are truly amazing!”

This is a speed-calculating master!

A true treasure wife!

The person in front of her had eyes that curved into crescents, a pair of bright eyes that were lively and clear, a fair and flawless face tinged with faint pink, and a delicate, straight nose. She was beautiful, elegant, charming, and radiant.

The autumn air was cool, and the sunlight was as gentle as cotton.

But at this moment, Qi Zhenshu only felt that the red sun above was scorching, making her feel a bit hot, and thin sweat was seeping into her palms.

“This is bad! Eldest Uncle Lu! This is bad!”

A young man wearing a short gray jacket ran hurriedly into the winery, shouting.

“Xiao Shun? What’s, what’s wrong with you?” Lu Hualin quickly stepped forward to ask.

This young man was Lu Hualin’s neighbor, Wang Xiaoshun.

The young man leaned on his knees, panting heavily, and pointed in the direction behind him, “Something, something happened at home!”

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