After taking their order, the waiter withdrew from the private room.
“Mother, you can read!” Lu Yiyi looked at her mother with eyes full of worship.
She used to think that Eldest Brother was well-educated and the most amazing person in the world, but now she added her mother to that list!
Yun Zhu stroked her daughter’s hair and asked, “Yiyi, would you like to learn how to read?”
In this dynasty, starting a girl’s education at her age was no longer considered early.
Although almost no women attended school in this era, as long as her daughter was willing, she could teach her herself.
When her daughter grew a bit older and the situation stabilized, she even had learning materials in her pocket dimension for her daughter to study.
“Mother, I already know more than a dozen characters!” Lu Yiyi said with a touch of proud little arrogance. “Eldest Brother taught me all of them.”
“Oh?” Yun Zhu was unaware of this. “When was this?”
“Eldest Brother started teaching me after he suspended his studies. It’s just that he’s usually busy with farm work, and in his free time, he has to go to the bookstore to copy books and revise his lessons, so I didn’t dare bother him.” As Lu Yiyi reached the end, her voice grew quieter.
A thought stirred in Yun Zhu’s mind.
Lu Zimo possessed good scholarship and was a native of the Kingdom of Tianqi. If he could tutor her daughter, it would be much more suitable than an outsider like herself.
After all, though she recognized the traditional characters here, if she actually had to write them, she would likely miss a stroke or two.
Lu Zimo went to the bookstore to copy books merely to earn silver, so she could simply pay him tuition fees!
She would discuss it with Lu Zimo after returning to the village to see if he was willing.
“It’s alright. Mother will hire a private tutor just for you later!” Yun Zhu comforted her disappointed daughter.
The dishes were served very quickly. The waiter said, “Madam, Young Lady, please enjoy your meal,” and turned to leave, but Yun Zhu called him back.
“Does Madam have any other instructions?” the waiter asked respectfully.
Yun Zhu retrieved a five-hundred-milliliter bottle of white wine, handed it to the waiter, and said with a smile, “Give this bottle of wine to your manager.”
She had stocked up on quite a few of these modern glass wine bottles, which were filled with wine she had brewed herself.
There were far too many grapes in her pocket dimension, taking up space, so she had no choice but to turn them into wine.
Back then, she had downloaded numerous videos covering essential time-travel survival skills, which included the brewing methods for various wines, making them effortless to learn.
It was the waiter’s first time encountering a customer who presented gifts to the manager while coming to eat. He originally wanted to decline, yet this exquisite glass bottle made him hesitant to act on his own authority. What if the manager liked it?
The waiter hesitated for a moment, then accepted it with both hands: “I thank Madam on behalf of the manager!”
After the waiter left, little Lu Yiyi looked at the table laden with fine delicacies and said, “Mother, there are so many dishes. Can we finish them all?”
It would have been wonderful if Uncle, Aunt, and her cousins had come along.
“Whatever we can’t finish, we’ll pack up and take back for your Aunt and the others to eat.” Yun Zhu scooped a spoonful of braised perch for her daughter. “Eat up! See which dish you like best.”
Yun Zhu picked a bite of every dish for her daughter to taste. The little girl had a small appetite, so sampling one bite of each was enough to fill her up.
Perhaps owing to its proximity to the coast, the restaurant’s seafood was exceptionally well-prepared. As Yun Zhu picked food for her daughter, she enjoyed a generous portion herself.
“Mother, my belly is so full it could be played like a drum,” Lu Yiyi said, rubbing her round stomach. “Except for Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, I like all the other dishes!”
Yun Zhu couldn’t help but laugh softly.
Out of this entire table of food, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall involved the most complex preparation and was also the most expensive!
Of course, to her, whatever her daughter liked was the very best!
Downstairs, the manager finished entertaining a few distinguished guests before remembering the bottle of wine the waiter had brought over earlier.
Had it been ordinary wine, he certainly would have tossed it aside long ago. However, he couldn’t bear to throw away that glass bottle.
All colored glass in the Kingdom of Tianqi came from foreign lands, yet the glass bottle in his hands possessed a level of transparency far higher than any glass he had seen before—its value was beyond measure.
A guest had simply gifted such a precious treasure to him?
What on earth was their objective?
Uncorking the bottle, he took a sniff, feeling that this wine was quite similar to the fruit wines of their restaurant, carrying a sweet scent.
After some thought, he retrieved a silver needle to test it. Once he verified it was untainted, he poured out half a cup and took a small sip.
After one sip, he took another, and then another.
Having taken three consecutive sips, the manager couldn’t help but murmur to himself, “I actually can’t tell what kind of wine this is!”
Their establishment was named “Zuixiao Restaurant” precisely because it stocked various famous, high-quality wines. Moreover, as the manager, he possessed exceptional expertise in wine tasting. Generally, after tasting a wine, two sips were enough for him to guess its raw ingredients with great accuracy!
Yet this wine tasted like a fruit wine, yet he couldn’t pinpoint what fruit it was made from.
The manager summoned the waiter who had served Yun Zhu and her daughter earlier: “Which private room is the lady who gifted the wine staying in? Lead me there.”
Inside the private room, Yun Zhu was growing somewhat anxious from waiting.
*That shouldn’t be!*
She didn’t believe the restaurant manager would be uninterested in the origins of that bottle of wine.
Not only because of the bottle itself—this dynasty did not produce grapes in abundance, so that white wine ought to be a novel experience for anyone who appreciated fine drink…
Just as she was thinking this, a knock sounded at the door. Shortly after, the waiter led a man in his fifties—with an agreeable face and sharp, shrewd eyes—into the room.
Yun Zhu’s expression relaxed, and she stood up with a smile.
“Madam, this is Manager Qin of our restaurant,” the waiter introduced to Yun Zhu. “Manager Qin, the bottle of wine earlier was gifted by this lady.”
Manager Qin gestured for Yun Zhu to sit and talk, taking a seat across from her as well: “Madam, I shall get straight to the point! May I ask what kind of wine was in that bottle you gave me?”
“White grape wine!” Yun Zhu made no attempt to conceal it.
Manager Qin was clearly disbelieving: “Madam, please do not tease me. I am merely curious and have no intention of stealing your brewing technique. Please tell me truthfully, Madam—what raw ingredient was used to brew this wine?”
“Manager Qin, it truly is white grape wine.” Yun Zhu opened her palm, and two Longyan grapes appeared in her hand. “That wine was brewed from this exact kind of grape.”
“These grapes… are somewhat different from the ones usually seen!” Manager Qin picked up one grape and examined it closely.
“This is a new variety of grape called Longyan grape, and the wine earlier was brewed from it.”
Enlightenment dawned upon Manager Qin, and he placed the Longyan grape back in front of Yun Zhu.
Since it was a new variety, its yield was likely low, and its price undoubtedly steep, right?
“Madam,” Manager Qin said with a serious expression, “I dislike beating around the bush. Did you come to our restaurant today to discuss business with me?”
“To be frank with Manager Qin, I indeed came today to discuss business,” Yun Zhu did not deny it.
Manager Qin offered a shrewd smile: “This grape wine of yours is quite a novelty. If put on sale in our Zuixiao Restaurant, it would certainly sell! However, business is business. Our Zuixiao Restaurant lacks no shortage of famous or fine wines, and we are not reliant on this single variety of yours.”
Yun Zhu gave a gentle smile: “Manager Qin, the business I wish to discuss with you today is not about grape wine.”
Manager Qin was taken aback: “Then the business Madam wishes to discuss is…”