After finishing his meal, Song Wenqing planned to cart the remaining four jars of Bayberry Brandy to the market to sell. When the village chief left, he had told him that if he did not have a handcart, he could fetch one from his house.
Although Zhao Lin and the others had one as well, Song Wenqing did not want to trouble them; furthermore, winter was approaching, and they were all busy hunting.
Thinking this way, he put on his outer coat and headed toward the village chief’s house.
After fetching the handcart, Song Wenqing and Pei Jinrong lifted the wine jars onto it together. He also took the medical instrument blueprints that he had described and had Pei Jinrong draw a few days ago. After selling the wine today, he needed to make a trip to the bladesmith to get them forged as soon as possible.
It was nearly noon by the time he arrived at the market, but Song Wenqing was in no hurry. He took out a basket of bamboo tubes and poured wine into each one.
Passing pedestrians were drawn by his setup, and a crowd quickly gathered.
At first, no one spoke, but the aroma was truly enticing. A burly man raised his voice and asked, “Young master, what are you doing here?”
Song Wenqing’s pregnancy birthmark was faint, and having grown used to being called young master, he did not offer much explanation, saying, “Brother, would you like a taste? This is wine brewed by my own family.”
The man hesitated slightly, so Song Wenqing added, “It is just a taste; it does not cost any money.”
With those words, not only the man but the surrounding crowd also grew eager to try.
“If any of you are interested, you are all welcome to try. If the taste suits you, it will not be too late to buy,” Song Wenqing said with a smile. Since everyone needed a polite pretext to start, he would provide one.
Sure enough, once he spoke, the others exchanged skeptical glances before picking up the bamboo tubes from the table.
As a cup of the cold liquid went down, it tasted crisp and refreshing upon entry, leaving a slight sweetness after drinking with a long-lasting finish, making one long to drink a few more tubes to fully satisfy the craving.
“Excellent wine!” After finishing, the man’s eyes shone brightly, as if he had discovered some hidden treasure, “Young master, how much does this wine cost?”
Song Wenqing’s eyes crinkled into a smile, and he held up three fingers.
“Three copper coins per jin? That is so cheap!”
He shook his head and said, “Thirty copper coins.”
At this, the crowd watching the scene instantly erupted into a commotion.
“This young master must have lost his mind; how can he raise the price so high?”
“His standards are too high; this path of wine brewing will not last long!”
“Does he truly believe his wine comes from the capital city? Even wine in the capital city does not dare to be so expensive!”
“The young man has poor luck; Liu Wusan just tasted the wine as well, and he is not afraid of having his stall smashed.”
The Liu Wusan they spoke of was precisely one of the people who had stepped forward to taste the wine earlier. This man worked in the largest restaurant in the capital city; what excellent wine had he not tasted? It happened to be around the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the restaurant had granted their long-term laborers a long vacation, so he had returned.
A few years ago, someone at the market sold fake wine, having merely brewed some random mixture at home and brought it out to sell as excellent wine transported from the capital city. Liu Wusan loved wine, and after taking a single taste, he nearly overturned that small stall. He even declared that if he caught anyone selling fake wine at the market in the future, he would overturn their shop.
The matter had caused quite a stir at the time, and their impression of it remained deep.
With that incident as a backdrop, the crowd watching the scene felt on one hand that Song Wenqing’s luck was truly terrible, and on the other hand, they wanted to watch the excitement.
They saw Liu Wusan frown slightly, remaining silent for a long time.
“It looks like Liu Wusan is angry,” a fulang whispered as she pulled her husband to the side.
Song Wenqing pretended not to hear their discussion, continuing to ladle the wine into the bamboo tubes with an unperturbed composure.
Liu Wusan moved, and the surrounding people were all afraid he would directly raise his fists and charge forward. This young man selling wine looked weak and frail; no one knew if he could even survive a single punch.
Unexpectedly, Liu Wusan let out a low laugh and said, “Your expression shows that you are not afraid of me overturning your stall, young master.”
Song Wenqing smiled with pursed lips. From what the people beside him had said, he roughly understood what was going on. He said, “I am not particularly afraid, since I never claimed this wine was transported from the capital city.”
Furthermore, he had absolute confidence in the wine he brewed. If it could not be sold at the market, he would take it to Qingyu County to sell; there would always be someone who recognized its value.
Liu Wusan was stunned upon hearing this, and then burst into a hearty laugh, “Truly interesting.”
He pulled out one tael of silver from his chest, slapped it onto the table, and said heroically, “Give me one tael’s worth!”
The moment he said this, the surrounding people gasped.
“One tael’s worth of wine! Has Liu Wusan lost his mind?”
“But does this not also prove that this young master’s wine tastes truly extraordinary?”
Liu Wusan said, “If you were to open a shop in the capital city with this wine, young master, it would certainly command a place. The flavor is mellow and pure; it truly makes one’s heart itch with desire.”
Only after he left did the surrounding people snap out of it, hurriedly competing to buy the wine.
The wine sold quickly, and Song Wenqing looked up to check the time, estimating it was probably only the hour of Shen; the remaining time was more than enough to find the bladesmith.
After packing up his stall, he pulled the handcart toward another street.
The blacksmith shop was far away. After walking for a long time, Song Wenqing finally heard the clanging sounds coming from the deep alley.
He stopped to wipe off his sweat, pulled the handcart into a shaded area, and carefully retrieved the blueprints from the bottom of his back basket.
As he drew near, a loud sizzling sound echoed, steam billowed up, and the bladesmith retrieved a shaped blade from the cold water with tongs.
After finishing the quenching process, the bladesmith placed the blade back into the furnace for tempering to adjust its hardness.
This entire series of procedures took a considerable amount of time.
Seeing the bladesmith sit down to rest, Song Wenqing finally stepped forward and asked, “Master, what kind of instruments can you forge here?”
The bladesmith raised his eyes to glance at Song Wenqing and said slowly, “As long as you can describe it, I can forge it here.”
Hearing this, Song Wenqing felt a surge of joy in his heart, hurriedly unfolding the blueprints, “Take a look; can this be forged?”
The bladesmith took the blueprints from his hand, stood up, and glanced at them by the light from outside. He raised his eyebrows, staring at him for a long time before saying, “These blueprints are well made.”
Song Wenqing breathed a sigh of relief, only to hear the bladesmith continue, “The dimensions are rather small; it will take some days to make.”
“As long as it can be made,” he said with a smile.
The bladesmith nodded, “Pay the deposit first; come to collect it in ten days and pay the remainder.”
After completing the payment, Song Wenqing finally set his mind at ease.
Now that he had silver on him, preparing winter clothes and provisions naturally rose to the forefront of his priorities, so he pulled the handcart toward the place selling winter grains. Actually, calculating carefully, the items to be bought were not too many, as many things could not be stored for too long. What Song Wenqing wanted to buy was merely rice, cured meat, and pig skin to be used for practicing stitches.
There was no rush for the clothing; it would be enough to buy three sets each for himself and Pei Jinrong. The key lay in adding more cotton stuffing inside the quilts. The winters in ancient times were terrifyingly cold and difficult to endure, and with nothing to do during winter, warmer quilts meant he could snuggle under the covers with Pei Jinrong to read storybooks.
He also needed to buy a few hot water hand-warmers; hands and feet easily grew cold in the winter, and holding a hand-warmer was more useful than sitting by a fire.
Furthermore, although Pei Jinrong’s left foot received a massage every day, Song Wenqing was still worried in his heart. He had not been idle during these past months, and his previous suspicion grew increasingly firm. Pei Jinrong’s left foot likely had shattered bone fragments compressing the nerves, and because they were not removed for a long time, he lost sensation. He planned to perform surgery on him when the winter weather turned very cold to remove the shattered bones inside.
At that time, since recovering from bone injuries required a hundred days, his body would certainly need to be well-nourished; it would be terrible if he suffered from frostbite. No matter how he looked at it, buying these items to keep the body warm was highly important.
Thinking this way, Song Wenqing had already arrived at the shop selling rice. He bought several bags in one go, threw the rice onto the handcart, and headed toward the adjacent clothing shop.
Browsing back and forth for a whole hour, Song Wenqing finally prepared all the necessities.
The items were too numerous and he found them heavy, so he hired a horse, fitted the reins properly, and told the shopkeeper that he would lead it back tomorrow.
The shopkeeper’s face blossomed into a wide smile; after all, this was a transaction for a full six sets of winter clothes, so he immediately led the horse over to him.
By the time he returned home, the sky had already darkened. As Song Wenqing guided the horse, the small cluster of candlelight at the head of the village was reflected on the window paper. He knew that it was what Pei Jinrong had left for him, and the exhaustion of a grueling day only caught up with him after the fact.