Traveling to another world and becoming a local owner

At this time, the lights were still on in the brewery, and Liu Huaiyuan was instructing two waiters to bottle the fermented beer.

"Uncle, are you still busy so late?" Zhang Ling entered the winery and was the first to greet him.

"Why are you here so late? Did you buy any young men at the dental clinic today?" Liu Huaiyuan asked with a smile, brushing the dust off his clothes.

"Young and strong men are more popular in the pawnbroker's shop, and I only bought people from them. I also bought seventeen working women." Zhang Ling told the whole story, but he did not mention the thirteen women, for fear that he would blame him for wasting money.

"Well, that's not bad. My place is a little small, and I'm worried about the many people there. There's a piece of wasteland along the stream, which belongs to your Wangshan Village. Tomorrow I'll go to the elders of your village to negotiate and see if I can buy it. Then I can build a new winery there, and you can use the people you bought, and you don't have to worry about them leaking the secret."

"Okay uncle, I'll do whatever you say. Anyway, I won't be in charge of anything at that time, so why would you worry about it?"

"What are you talking about, kid? Uncle is like father and son. There's no need to worry about it." Liu Huaiyuan's face turned serious and he pretended to be unhappy and scolded.

"I know, uncle. Is the distillation device I made last time still there? I want to make some distilled liquor. I'm going to the county to do some work tomorrow."

"It's still in the inner room. No one else has been allowed in except me."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Ling didn't act pretentiously. He took Daniu and Liu Jie with him and went straight to make distilled liquor.

Because of the previous experience, the three of them cooperated very well this time. What originally took one or two hours to complete was now completed in less than an hour.

After ten kilograms of fermented wine was distilled, only a little more than two kilograms of distilled wine remained, and the rest was water and residue. After briefly cleaning the earthenware jar containing the wine, Zhang Ling continued to fill it with wine for distillation.

After nearly an hour of work, he successfully made four and a half kilograms of Huangliang Xianjiu. Zhang Ling found a few small wine jars that held one kilogram each and filled them with the wine. After saying hello to Liu Huaiyuan, he took three bottles home.

There was no conversation that night, and the sun rose in the east the next day.

Since he slept late last night, he woke up a little late today. As soon as Zhang Ling walked out of the room, he found Lin Xiner waiting outside.

Seeing him get up, she hurriedly handed him all the things for washing.

"I can do it myself." Zhang Ling looked at her clumsy appearance, took the willow branch and the bowl of water with some amusement, walked to the well in the yard, fetched a basin of water, and began to wash.

Cui'er also came at this time. When she saw Zhang Ling, she simply greeted him and went to work for the old lady.

After washing up, the two went to the living room to eat breakfast together. Zhang Ling went back to his room to get the manuscript of his poetry, picked up the wine and went out.

"Brother Ling, where are you going?" Da Niu and five young men happened to meet him at the door.

"I was just about to look for you. I'm going to the county town and try to get some money back. It's a good idea for you to come with me. I can take care of the housework after I get back." Zhang Ling said with a smile.

"Okay." Da Niu agreed readily and quickly took a few jars of wine. The other people also looked very happy.

Just like yesterday, when passing by Liujia Chong, he called Liu Jie out of bed. The guy looked unhappy, but when he heard that Zhang Ling was going to the county to get money, he immediately became interested.

"Brother Ling, please bring more money with you. I am penniless and I will need money to go to the county town later." Zhang Lingshan smiled, feeling helpless. There was nothing he could do. A penny can make a hero fall.

"Don't worry, I promise you won't go hungry if you follow me. Even though parents are usually mean to me, they always give me plenty of pocket money. Let's go! Let's go to a restaurant in the county!" Upon hearing this, Liu Jie waved his hand, and led the way with his head held high.

Several people set off for the county town in a mighty procession. On the way, the hunter named Li Liulang even hit two pheasants in the bushes with a stone. This move made Zhang Ling very happy, and he felt like he had found a treasure.

It was already 9:00 PM when we arrived at the county. As it was a cold market day, the streets were a little deserted. Except for Zhang Ling, the others hadn't had breakfast yet. Liu Jie seemed particularly generous today for some reason, and didn't even want to go to the roadside stalls, but went straight to a restaurant.

After they ate a lot, Zhang Ling took Da Niu and the others to a clothing store and changed each of them into clean and tidy clothes, which made Liu Jie feel painful.

Zhang Ling smiled, ignored him, and went straight to the famous bookstore in the county.

There were two types of bookstores in the Great Yi Dynasty, government-run and privately-run, which specialized in printing books.

Official bookstores are more formal and cheaper, but they need official permission to print woodblocks, so the threshold is higher. Private bookstores have no threshold. The bosses are almost all bookstore owners. As long as they can afford it, they can print anything except some banned books. Many literati are also willing to pay to have their masterpieces or favorite poems and songs made into books.

They all went to the largest Fuxue Bookstore in the county. When the manager saw that they were there to print poems, he immediately greeted them with a smile.

"Sir, you have come to the right place if you want to publish a collection of poems. Our Fuxue Bookstore is the largest bookstore in the entire Yingyang County, and our bookstores are spread all over Anyang County. Whether you want to collect the poems for yourself or sell them, we are the best choice." The manager of the bookstore was a skinny old man with a mustache. The first time Zhang Ling saw him, he thought he looked very similar to Prime Minister Turtle in Journey to the West.

"Um, uncle, you didn't understand what I meant. I'm here to make money, not to spend money." Zhang Ling stated his purpose with a little embarrassment.

The manager was a little confused and didn't understand what was going on. He asked quickly, "What do you mean, sir?"

"Oh, I have some poems here. I would like to cooperate with your bookstore to make a collection of poems for sale." Zhang Ling took out a stack of written poems from his sleeve and handed it to the other party with a smile.

"You can sell it, but no matter how many copies you print, you have to pay for it yourself, and it's based on the selling price. Of course, you have to pay for the engraving as well." The manager saw that Zhang Ling was a young man who was shamelessly saying that he was here to make money, and his face suddenly became displeased. He didn't even bother to look at him, and his tone was very rude.

"Doesn't it mean that I spend my own money to buy my own poetry collection as a deposit, and then the money is returned to me after others buy it? In this case, what's the point?" Zhang Ling laughed out of anger when he heard this.

"What do you want? Of course it's fame. If your poetry collection is sold throughout Anyang County, then countless scholars and officials will know your name." The manager looked proud with his nose in the air.

"I'm not sick, but I'm spending money to buy fame. How could you come up with such an idea?" Zhang Ling was speechless and angrily put the poem into his sleeves.

"How dare you be so unreasonable, you boy? If you are willing, pay up. If you are not willing, please leave and don't delay our business." The manager with a mustache became furious when he heard this, and pointed outside the door and scolded.

"You are so unreasonable, old man. You didn't even read my poems and have such an attitude. It's outrageous." Zhang Ling was also furious at this time and argued with him angrily.

"You little brat, not to mention that you are unknown, even if the scholar from the county came, it would be the same. There is no point in saying more. Sorry, I won't see you off." The old man said with disdain and arrogance with a look of contempt on his face.

"You old bastard, believe it or not, I will beat you up. You act so arrogant. My brother is extremely talented and has extraordinary literary talent. How can you say that?" Liu Jie, who was standing aside, had long been fed up with it. Seeing the manager's attitude, he jumped up and scolded him.

"You bastards! How dare you humiliate me? Come on, kick them out." The manager was so angry that he quickly called a few men to take action.

How could Daniu and his companions be afraid of them? They immediately picked up tables, chairs and benches, looking fearless.

"Alright, stop it! Let's just go, there's no need to resort to violence." Zhang Ling's face turned pale. He was afraid that things would get out of hand and hurt someone, so he shouted sternly, then he flicked his sleeves and walked out of the bookstore directly.

"You old bastard, just wait for me, hum!" Liu Jie said this viciously, turned around and followed, and Daniu and others followed closely behind him.

The steward glanced at him with contempt and shouted outside the door, "I'll be waiting here. Come on if you have the guts! You ignorant boy!"