On the sixth day of the New Year, the festive atmosphere had not yet completely faded.
Before dawn had fully broken, a few wisps of pale smoke still drifted above Qing Shui Village.
Inside the Lin family’s main room, Mother-in-law Wang carefully reached into a crack between the bricks beneath the bed and pulled out a heavy coarse-cloth bundle.
It contained all of the family’s savings—the more than thirty taels of silver they had earned from selling the soap.
“When you’re traveling outside, it’s always better to have money on hand. Take all of it with you.”
Wang solemnly stuffed the bundle into Lu Yuan’s arms, her eyes filled with undisguised trust.
“Mother doesn’t understand what kind of business you’re planning, but I know you’re a man who thinks things through. Just go ahead and do what you need to do!”
Lu Yuan held the silver, still warm from her body, and felt a wave of warmth in his heart.
“Don’t worry, Mother. I won’t let this money go to waste.”
He tucked the silver safely against his body, then glanced at Qingyue and the two sleeping children.
Moving quietly, he left the house.
Outside, his second brother-in-law, Lin Erniu, and third brother-in-law, Lin Sanniu, were already waiting with an ox cart.
Lu Yuan had specifically borrowed the cart from Village Chief Zhou the previous evening, offering two jin of millet and several dozen copper coins in exchange.
The three brothers hitched the ox to the cart and slowly departed Qing Shui Village through the morning frost.
The journey from Qing Shui Village to Yuan County was a full thirty li, and they had to pass through Yuanhe Town along the way.
The ox cart moved slowly, while the cold wind whistled straight down their collars.
“Brother-in-law, what expensive thing are we going to buy? Why can’t we get it in town? Why do we have to travel all the way to Yuan County?”
Lin Sanniu whipped the ox as he sniffed from the cold, his face full of confusion.
Lin Erniu rubbed his hands and leaned closer.
“That’s right, brother-in-law. The county is a big place. We don’t know our way around at all…”
Sitting on the jolting ox cart, Lu Yuan pulled his old padded jacket tighter.
“Second Brother, Third Brother, the town is simply too small, and there are too many eyes watching.”
He patiently explained, “Our family already attracted the attention of Jinxiu Fang and those local ruffians when we sold the ‘Ningxiang Jade.’ If we start making large purchases in town again, someone will definitely notice.”
“The county is different. It’s vast, and there are plenty of people coming and going. More importantly, nobody knows us there.”
“Besides, I’m planning to take the county examination next year. I should go to the county ahead of time and get a feel for the place, see what the situation is really like.”
Hearing his careful and logical plan, the Lin brothers exchanged a glance.
Their faces practically screamed one word:
Impressed.
Traveling with their brother-in-law really made them feel secure!
The ox cart creaked and swayed for nearly two hours.
By noon, a tall, imposing city wall made of blue-gray bricks finally appeared before them, far more magnificent than the walls of Yuanhe Town.
They had arrived at Yuan County.
The city gates towered overhead, while the guards stood with sabers hanging from their waists.
Inside the city, the streets were broad, and two- and three-story wooden buildings with sweeping eaves lined both sides.
The sounds of vendors shouting and horse-drawn carriages filled the air.
Lin Sanniu’s mouth fell open. He looked like a country bumpkin seeing a city for the first time, his eyes unable to take everything in.
Lu Yuan, however, remained calm.
In his previous life, he had seen skyscrapers, so these ancient buildings only inspired appreciation rather than intimidation.
“Third Brother, first go to the inn district on the western side of the city and find out which wine shop has the worst business.”
Lu Yuan climbed down from the cart and quietly gave his instructions.
Lin Erniu froze.
“Brother-in-law, we’ve traveled all the way to the county. Why aren’t we looking for a big restaurant? Why are we looking for the wine shop with the worst business?”
“You’ll understand when we get there.”
Lu Yuan gave him a mysterious smile.
Half an hour later, the three of them stopped their ox cart in a secluded alley on the western side of the city.
In front of them stood a rundown wine shop.
The sign read:
Chen’s Aged Wine.
Most of the paint had already peeled off.
The wine shop was deserted. There wasn’t a single customer in sight, and a sharp, sour, rancid smell wafted from inside.
Yet Lu Yuan’s eyes lit up as though he had just smelled the finest fragrance in the world.
He strode inside.
“Shopkeeper, are you here?”
A fat old man with a worried expression raised his head from behind the counter.
Seeing three countrymen dressed in patched clothing, he immediately looked impatient.
“What kind of wine do you want? I’ll tell you now, if you don’t have money, I don’t sell on credit!”
Lu Yuan smiled and pointed toward the source of the sour smell coming from the back courtyard.
“Shopkeeper, I don’t want good wine.”
“I want all that fermented-too-long sour wine you’ve got sitting in the back—the stuff you can’t sell. I’ll take as much as you have.”
The shopkeeper and the assistant, who had been dozing nearby, both froze.
“You… you want to buy sour water?”
The assistant looked at Lu Yuan as if he were an idiot, then burst out laughing.
“Boss, this must be some poor scholar from somewhere. He’s so poor he’s gone crazy and wants to drink sour water to satisfy his craving!”
“Get lost! Where did you beggars come from? Even pigs won’t drink that sour water. It’ll give you diarrhea!”
Hearing the assistant’s insults, Lin Erniu’s face turned red with anger. He clenched his fists and was about to argue.
“Who are you calling a beggar? We have plenty of money!”
Lu Yuan immediately stopped his second brother.
His smile remained unchanged as he took a small string of copper coins from his sleeve and lightly tapped them against the counter.
“Shopkeeper, you’re only wasting space by keeping this sour wine. If you pour it away, you’ll still have to pay someone to haul it off.”
“I’ll take all of it. One copper coin per jin. How does that sound?”
The shopkeeper’s eyes immediately lit up at the sight of the shining copper coins.
Those dozens of vats of sour wine were already a failed batch.
He had been desperately trying to figure out how to dispose of them.
This was practically free money falling from heaven!
“Sold! Sold! Young master, you certainly know good stuff!”
The shopkeeper instantly changed into an ingratiating smile.
In the end, Lu Yuan spent only three hundred copper coins.
For that price, the shop workers happily helped load an entire ten large vats—fully one hundred jin of sour wine—onto the ox cart.
The cart groaned heavily beneath the weight.
As they left the wine shop, the assistant muttered behind them:
“What a bunch of idiots. They spent three hundred copper coins on a cartload of sour swill.”
Lin Erniu sat on the front of the cart, grinding his teeth in anger.
“Brother-in-law! Why did you stop me? They were laughing at us!”
“Let them laugh.”
Lu Yuan looked at the cartload of sour wine as though he were looking at a cart full of liquid gold.
“Others laugh because they think I’m crazy. I laugh because they can’t see what I see.”
“Second Brother, just wait. When this cart of sour water becomes heavenly liquor, it’ll be too late for them to cry.”
Now that they had obtained the raw material, the “heavenly pot” for distillation was the most important part.
In ancient times, salt and iron were controlled by the government. Even forging an iron pot had to be registered, let alone manufacturing a large and complicated metal apparatus.
Lu Yuan had Sanniu stay at the inn’s rear courtyard to watch the ox cart and the wine.
He then took Erniu and searched throughout the county.
Finally, deep inside a filthy and chaotic blacksmith alley in the southern part of the city, they found a workshop that didn’t even have a signboard.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Inside, a bare-chested old man with a huge beard was listlessly hammering a piece of scrap iron.
Everyone called him Old Iron.
His craftsmanship was considered second to none throughout Yuan County.
But his temper was extremely peculiar.
Several years earlier, he had refused to make jewelry for the county magistrate’s wife’s concubine, offending the authorities. As a result, he had been suppressed so badly that he could barely sell even a single iron nail.
Nowadays, he could only survive by taking odd jobs repairing farm tools.
“Old sir, excuse me for disturbing you.”
Lu Yuan entered the shop and cupped his hands.
Old Iron didn’t even raise his eyelids.
His hoarse voice sounded like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.
“Five coins to repair a hoe. Ten to patch an iron pot. Pay first.”
“I’m not here to repair farm tools.”
Lu Yuan took the blueprint he had drawn the previous day from his clothes and gently spread it across the blacksmith’s anvil.
“I’d like to ask you to use the finest purple copper to make this.”
Old Iron impatiently glanced at the blueprint.
“A copper vessel? The government strictly prohibits private minting of copper coins. Large copper vessels require official authorization!”
“You want to get me executed? Get out! Get out!”
He didn’t even bother looking again. He grabbed the blueprint and was about to throw it outside.
“Old sir, wait!”
Lu Yuan quickly pressed down on the blueprint.
His expression remained calm as he took out his tongsheng certificate.
“I am a scholar who has already passed the county examination. This item is neither a weapon nor a mold for minting illegal coins.”
Lu Yuan looked directly into Old Iron’s eyes and began spinning his story with complete seriousness.
“This is an ancient Daoist alchemy furnace I happened to discover in an old classical text.”
“The upper chamber holds ice water and represents Kan. The lower chamber is heated by fierce fire and represents Li. It embodies the principle of water and fire reaching harmony and is specifically used to refine medicinal essences for noblemen seeking to preserve their health.”
Hearing that it was a Daoist apparatus commissioned by a scholar, and not some prohibited weapon, Old Iron’s resistance weakened somewhat.
Reluctantly, he lowered his head and examined the blueprint properly.
But after only one glance—
The cloudy old man’s eyes suddenly erupted with an intense, almost fanatical light.
“This… this funnel-shaped inner chamber, this returning water channel…”
“Magnificent! Absolutely magnificent!”
Old Iron trembled with excitement as his rough hands caressed the blueprint.
He had spent his entire life working with iron and copper, yet he had never seen such ingenious internal construction.
“Was this blueprint truly left behind in an ancient text?”
Old Iron stared intensely at Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan smiled mysteriously.
“A blueprint is merely a blueprint. Craftsmanship is another matter.”
“Throughout Yuan County, I’ve made inquiries. In the entire county, only your craftsmanship, Old Sir, is good enough to perfectly produce this ‘Water-Fire Harmony Furnace.’”
The compliment was immensely satisfying to Old Iron.
As a master craftsman, he simply couldn’t resist the opportunity to challenge the peak of his abilities with such a miraculous design.
“Fine! I’ll make it!”
“Even if I have to stake my life on it, I’ll make it for you!”
Old Iron slapped his thigh enthusiastically, but then frowned.
“But this thing is huge. If it’s made entirely from purple copper, the cost of the copper alone, not to mention my labor, will be astronomical.”
“You’re just a poor scholar. Can you afford it?”
Lu Yuan didn’t waste words.
He immediately untied the coarse-cloth bundle around his waist.
Clang!
Two hefty ten-tael silver ingots landed on the counter, their gleaming surfaces reflecting the dim light of the blacksmith shop.
“Twenty taels of silver. Is that enough?”
Lu Yuan spoke with the confidence of someone who had money to spend, yet his tone was cold and firm.
“But there’s one more condition.”
“You must sign a binding contract with me.”
“You cannot reveal a single word about the blueprint or the construction of this apparatus—not even to your own son.”
“If you leak it, I have plenty of ways to make you wish you were dead.”
Lin Erniu, standing nearby, stared at the twenty shining taels of silver with a painful twitch in his heart. He felt as though he could barely breathe.
Old Iron, however, nodded repeatedly.
“Don’t worry! I know the rules of our trade.”
“If anyone dares ask about this furnace, I’ll smash his dog head with my hammer!”
After the contract was signed, Lu Yuan carefully explained several details regarding the welding of the condenser pipes.
Old Iron listened as though entranced, repeatedly marveling at the ingenious design.
“Half a month from now, I’ll send someone to collect the equipment.”
“Old Sir, don’t disappoint me.”
After leaving the blacksmith alley, there was still plenty of daylight left.