Pei Jinrong drew beautifully, and Song Wenqing was unable to snap back to his senses for a long time. It was only when the youth pursed his lips and smiled, saying, “Does Ah Wen like it?” that Song Wenqing nodded repeatedly. He was highly excited, his eyes shining brightly as he said, “A-Jin, you draw incredibly well.” He could not think of any other words to describe it, stuttering for a moment before adding, “It is better than anything I have ever seen.”
Seeing Song Wenqing act this way, Pei Jinrong’s brow instantly smoothed out as he said, “It is good as long as you like it.”
As long as Ah Wen liked it, that was enough.
He lowered his head to continue, and with every stroke he added, Song Wenqing felt as though the drawing was coming to life. In the drawing, the gazes of the two people intersected, making the prosperous and bustling Chang’an Street seem like a mere background.
Song Wenqing tilted his head, looking at the intensely concentrated youth, and his heart softened.
Because of Pei Jinrong, he also began to look forward to the Lantern Festival next year. He wanted to stroll around Chang’an Street, just as the youth had described, and wanted to hold his hand to appreciate the lanterns and guess riddles together.
After watching by the side for a while, Song Wenqing stood up to brew the wine.
Fearing that he might forget and leave Huiqiu hungry once he became busy, Song Wenqing poured the leftover food from last night to Huiqiu and then went to the cellar. Bringing the bayberries out of the cellar, he fetched a bucket of water to wash the stone vat clean, then found a chair from the inner room to sit in the courtyard and sort through the bayberries.
Discarding the damaged and unfresh ones, Song Wenqing went to the inner room to fetch an iron hammer. There were no juicers in ancient times, so he could only use a hammer to slowly crush them.
This was a chore requiring physical strength, but fortunately, Pei Jinrong possessed great power. The two of them took turns hammering for nearly an hour before the juice was basically extracted, resulting in two full wooden buckets. Once it finished brewing and was mixed with white liquor, it could fill at least six jars.
“Ah Wen, let me massage your hands,” Pei Jinrong said with a smile, seeing Song Wenqing letting his hands hang down, looking completely drained of strength.
Song Wenqing did not decline, immediately leaning forward. It was nearly evening, and the evening breeze of June was not annoying, with the residual glow of the setting sun casting upon Pei Jinrong’s face. His eyelashes were very long, like small fans, casting a faint circle of shadow on his face.
“Does it still hurt?” Pei Jinrong asked.
Song Wenqing shook his head, drawing Pei Jinrong’s hands close without a word to gently knead and massage them for him.
In the past, his grandmother always suffered from a sore back and aching legs, so Song Wenqing had looked up many videos and books to learn massage techniques. Massaging was a commonplace task for him.
The strength applied was neither too light nor too heavy, and the youth tilted his head, saying, “Thank you, brother.”
Song Wenqing’s body stiffened slightly; every time Pei Jinrong called him brother, he felt completely uncomfortable. Pei Jinrong clearly noticed his reaction as well, and the handsome man’s face turned red, the blush slowly spreading from the base of his ears to his neck.
The youth wanted to say something more, but Song Wenqing became slightly annoyed, tilting his head up with a stern face to block his mouth. This caused the youth to laugh even more happily.
He knew that Ah Wen only appeared gentle on the outside, but was actually a small, formidable cat.
Song Wenqing wore a sour face as he poured the wine yeast bought from the street this morning into the bayberry juice. Every time he entered the inner room, the youth, whom he had driven to the doorway to make flower lanterns, would raise his wet, large eyes to look at him, looking exceptionally innocent.
“Brother, do not be angry,” Pei Jinrong said, tugging at the corner of his clothes.
Song Wenqing remained silent for a long moment before saying dryly, “I am not angry.” After saying this, he hurriedly went into the room to fetch the ceramic jars.
Only when he was further away from Pei Jinrong did he relax; he was not angry, he simply felt a bit embarrassed. Yet, the two of them had clearly kissed before.
After thinking about it, he still felt it was all Pei Jinrong’s fault. Remembering how Pei Jinrong had gently licked his lips just now, he instantly felt thoroughly out of sorts.
He thought to himself that Pei Jinrong usually appeared so pitiful, so why did he seem like a completely different person at a time like this, being overbearing and forceful, yet occasionally giving off a sense of distance?
Song Wenqing snapped back to his senses, deliberately ignoring the strange sensation on his neck from earlier when the youth held him and panted softly, casting hot breaths against his skin.
He carried a large jar out, found a long ladle from the stove, and stirred the bayberry juice thoroughly. After a moment, fearing the breeding of bacteria, Song Wenqing passed the rim of the ceramic jar over the fire. Because the fermentation of bayberry juice could not be completely sealed, Song Wenqing covered it with gauze.
The temperature in the cellar was too low, being only a little over ten degrees, whereas the temperature required for fermentation was between twenty and thirty degrees. After pondering for a while, Song Wenqing moved the ceramic jar to the woodshed, where the temperature was just right. The remaining operations were not complicated; he just had to wait for the bayberry juice to ferment and produce a wine fragrance, at which point it would be mixed with white liquor, distilled, and then jarred.
The troublesome part was the distillation apparatus, but Song Wenqing already had a rough blueprint in his mind of how to make it. He breathed a sigh of relief, having finally completed the most crucial tasks.
He busied himself for a long time, and by the time he came out, Pei Jinrong had already prepared the meals, sitting outside and waiting for him eagerly.
Seeing him, the youth waved his hand happily, “Ah Wen!”
Song Wenqing’s heart felt incredibly restless, and his addiction to rubbing the youth’s head flared up again.
The two of them ate rather casually tonight; they were too tired and had no appetite at all, so Pei Jinrong boiled some porridge and stir-fried two side dishes to accompany it. Worrying that Song Wenqing might crave meat, he picked out a few eggs to make stir-fried eggs with green peppers, placing a full bowl right by Song Wenqing’s hand.
After washing up in the evening, before Pei Jinrong could come over himself, Song Wenqing thought about it and proactively wrapped his arms around the youth’s waist.
Pei Jinrong was startled, and upon realizing what was happening, he immediately rubbed his head against Song Wenqing’s chest happily.
The heavy stone hanging in Song Wenqing’s heart finally dropped, and he let out a soft laugh, rubbing the youth’s fluffy head.
Pei Jinrong murmured softly, “Ah Wen, let us go to the county seat to play on the Mid-Autumn Festival.”
Even though the room was pitch black, Song Wenqing could imagine his eyes full of anticipation, so he said with a smile, “All right.”
Calculating carefully, celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival with someone else was something that had happened a very long time ago. Going together with Pei Jinrong would certainly be very interesting.
Since that day, Song Wenqing went all out in figuring out how to construct his distillation apparatus. The concept was simple, but putting it into action was somewhat difficult.
After designing the blueprints for a long time, on a certain day in July, Song Wenqing finally commenced the work.
The villagers did not say it to his face, but privately when they passed by Pei Jinrong’s house, they would peer inside a few times, wanting to see what exactly that pile of large items Song Wenqing possessed was going to be used for.
Because it was necessary to burn a fire beneath the copper vessels, Song Wenqing built a new stove. The copper vessels were very heavy, and the two of them alone could absolutely not lift them, so he asked Lu Hui and his brothers to help lift them up together.
Lu Hui’s body had completely recovered, and he was now thoroughly a small fan of Song Wenqing. Every time he heard the few people he went hunting with discussing Song Wenqing behind his back, he would glare at them resentfully, causing those brothers to gradually not dare to speak of it anymore.
“Brother Wen, is there anything else that needs to be done? I have plenty of strength; feel free to order me around as much as you like,” Lu Hui said with a scratch of his head, smiling.
Song Wenqing was standing on a ladder connecting iron pipes. These iron pipes were primarily used for condensation and reflux, and hearing this, he looked down at him, “Thank you for today.”
“No need for thanks, no need for thanks; in the future, if there is anything else Brother Wen needs me for, just order me around.”
Seeing how enthusiastic he was, Song Wenqing thought for a moment and said, “Is your body feeling any better?”
Lu Hui said excitedly, “With Brother Wen taking action, I have my life back.”
Song Wenqing, Zhao Lin, and the others were left speechless.
The words were so dramatic that they felt they might develop rheumatism from the sentiment.
Zhao Lin and the others felt incredibly awkward, hurriedly pulling Lu Hui outside and bidding farewell to Song Wenqing, “Brother Wen, see you next time!”
Song Wenqing smiled, continuing to fiddle with the apparatus. However, he did not expect that Zhao Lin, who had just left not long ago, would turn back, saying after some consideration, “Brother Wen, there is something I forgot to tell you last time.”
Song Wenqing looked at him in confusion, and Zhao Lin continued, “The medical prescription you wrote for Lu Hui last time was missing a few herbs at Doctor Li’s place, so I went to the county seat. The doctor there said your prescription was written brilliantly. He then asked me for your name, but fearing it might cause you trouble, I did not tell him. However, seeing him like that, it looked as though he intends to cooperate with you.”
Song Wenqing nodded; if Zhao Lin could bridge the connection with a doctor in the county seat, that would naturally be best, since the medicinal herbs in the village were still too scarce. He asked, “Which medical clinic is it?”
“Jishi Hall.”
After Zhao Lin left, Song Wenqing thought about it in detail again, feeling that going to the county seat was highly necessary. He was relatively busy these few days, and he hoped Zhao Lin could pass a word along for him first when going to the county seat, and once he finished his busy work in a few days, he would pay a visit in person.
Song Wenqing busied himself for more than ten days before barely putting together a finished product that he considered somewhat satisfactory. The villagers also spread the word increasingly miraculously, saying that for some unknown reason, Song Wenqing had constructed a large object at home using a pile of copper vessels and iron, and looking at that appearance, it seemed he was going to perform sacrificial rites at home.
He did not defend himself either, thinking to himself that it was better for the rumors to spread even more fiercely; when the time came and he succeeded, people outside who could grasp business opportunities would naturally come looking for him, and his future purification of alcohol would also appear more reasonable.
After brewing for about a month, the bayberry juice in the woodshed grew increasingly fragrant, and Song Wenqing knew the timing was ripe. He and Pei Jinrong carried the ceramic jar out, used gauze to filter out the residue in the wine, and added the white liquor.
To prevent the possibility of failure, Song Wenqing did not dare to put all the bayberry wine into the distillation apparatus at once, pouring in only a small half.
Seeing that there was water flowing inside the iron pipe, Song Wenqing then told Pei Jinrong to light the fire. The youth had never seen this before, watching curiously as the wine in the wooden bucket grew more and more abundant.
“Ah Wen, what is the principle behind this?” Pei Jinrong had held it in for several days and could finally contain himself no longer.
Seeing that the effect was quite good, Song Wenqing was in an extremely pleasant mood, saying with a smile, “This is just like using a rice steamer to steam rice; water goes up and drips down again, except there is additional condensation. The rice steamer emphasizes the item being steamed, whereas distillation emphasizes the liquid collected after condensation.”
Pei Jinrong listened until his mind felt dizzy, merely feeling that Ah Wen was incredibly powerful.
“Then is the liquid in this wooden bucket still wine?”
“Naturally it is wine, but the purity is much higher than before. This wine also has a highly grand name called Bayberry Brandy,” Song Wenqing said as he switched to another wooden bucket, pouring the collected Bayberry Brandy into a ceramic jar.
He turned his head, looking toward the youth’s clean eyes with a bright smile, and said, “When it is sold for money later, I can support you.”
Hearing this, Pei Jinrong’s heart pounded wildly, and his entire body felt as though it had been struck by electricity, freezing stiff on the spot. After a long pause, he pursed his lips and smiled as he stepped forward, hugging Song Wenqing tightly. He said, “Brother, you are truly wonderful.”