Wine-scented Beauty

Chapter Twenty: Falling Ill

It was finally over. Lu Yu patted her shoulder and woke her up.

Ji Meiqing, whose face was covered in marks, suddenly looked up. "What's wrong? Are you out of school?"

"What do you mean 'school's over'?" He smiled. "It's almost over. What you asked me to recite, I just finished reciting."

"Oh, so how did it go?" She flicked her bangs, a hint of nonchalance in her voice. "If you're good at understanding their thought process, you can make things simple. So, did we succeed?"

"We'll have to wait until the accounts are ready tomorrow to get the specifics," Lu Yu said thoughtfully.

Ji Meiqing nodded and followed him back to the room. As agreed beforehand, it was her turn to sleep in the bed tonight.

She fell asleep immediately without even washing up. Lu Yu turned around and saw her fast asleep, and for a moment he was both amused and exasperated.

Tomorrow I need to go back and start preparing for the brewing; what I've made so far is far from enough to supply the three locations.

Lu Yu lay on the chaise longue, but for some reason the chaise longue seemed much smaller when he lay down. He didn't know where to put his arms, and he could only curl up his legs. After lying there for a while, he had no choice but to get up and make a makeshift bed on the floor.

They got up and left early the next morning.

Ji Meiqing walked ahead, looking refreshed, while Lu Yu followed behind her, looking somewhat tired. The two of them walked through the market and streets, leaving the city.

When she got home, she boiled water for him.

"You rest first, I'll get some things done." That's all she said, and then she went to the study to start designing the brewing tools.

In her previous life, she was in the medicinal wine business, so she was somewhat related to the wine industry. The materials she used were roughly the same, except that she made her own raw materials and the wine itself. It was considered a pure product. Ji Meiqing planned to replicate those tools, although they couldn't be 100% identical, as long as the functions were the same, it would be fine.

She had wasted countless blueprints, and couldn't even recreate the most basic one, which was quite discouraging. Lu Yu walked in from outside, picked up a crumpled piece of paper from the ground, and unfolded it.

He had never seen or recognized the items on them before, so he took them and walked over, asking her, "What's this?"

"It's a pity that the brewing tools can't be replicated. Otherwise, we could have just sat back and enjoyed the fruits of their labor." She said this with a hint of regret. Lu Yu looked at it several times, somewhat unable to follow her train of thought.

"As for brewing materials, I usually brew my own wine. Although the process is complicated, it's always the same few things. Why would I need this kind of thing?"

"Although manual labor is possible, it's too slow."

"We can hire people. We'll provide compensation."

She suddenly looked blankly at him. "I know, but right now we don't even have the money to hire people. We can only rely on ourselves for everything."

Lu Yu pursed his lips. If there were a better way, perhaps he wouldn't have to worry about this.

While brainstorming solutions, Ji Meiqing began making the alcohol. There were several types of alcohol: white, red, yellow, and beer. Unfortunately, beer couldn't be made, so the two had to find another way. They categorized the white liquor by type, and then the red wine by type. Lu Yu was in charge of the white liquor, and Ji Meiqing was in charge of the red wine.

After the two reached an agreement, Ji Meiqing began searching for grapes from India. Red wine naturally requires grapes, especially the kind that are shiny, large, and sweet.

After her forty-second failure, she finally managed to recreate a wine she had tasted from memory.

She had just raised her head when everything went black, and she passed out. When she woke up, Lu Yu was watching over her by the window. She struggled to sit up, finding it difficult even to speak.

"What's wrong with me?"

"You've been overworked. Take a good rest these next few days. I'll figure out what to do about the alcohol." Lu Yu said with a sullen face, "Why didn't you tell me you weren't feeling well?"

She shook her head and guessed, "She was probably too nervous. By the way, I've reconstituted the wine. Just follow the ingredients listed on it. Cough cough..." Her throat felt like it was being torn apart, so Lu Yu quickly handed her a glass of water.

She drank it all, and then she felt a little better.

"In addition, we can also make fruit wine. It's a wine with fruit flavor and low alcohol content, the kind that won't make you drunk unless you drink a lot."

"You should rest first." Lu Yu ignored her thoughts and instead urged her to rest. Ji Meiqing stared at him steadily until he gave in.

"Okay, I get it."

She then smiled and said, "Thank you, Brother Lu."

If it weren't for Lu Yu's constant support and help, she might have been sold to some unknown brothel long ago to suffer. Fortunately, she met Lu Yu.

He lay down again and took a nap. Lu Yu got up and continued brewing wine. Several ceramic jars were placed in front of him, all of them crudely made and lacking in aesthetic appeal.

After selecting some medicinal herbs, he went to cook dinner. Ji Meiqing was ill, so the responsibility of cooking fell on his shoulders.

There wasn't much to eat in the kitchen, so he could only cook some porridge and then go outside to pick some wild vegetables to stir-fry.

After he finished cooking, he went back to the room and woke her up. He helped the drowsy Ji Meiqing up and then brought the porridge to her.

"Eat your porridge before you sleep," he coaxed her softly. Ji Meiqing then took the porridge and ate it slowly. In fact, once she finished eating, it was impossible for her to fall asleep again.

She sat on the bed, with no phone or TV to pass the time. The only thing she had was to lie there, quietly listening to the sounds outside.

Lu Yu then cooked her a bowl of licorice soup and diligently cleaned the house.

Ji Meiqing leaned against his eye, saying nothing, and finally whispered "goodnight" as he turned off the light.

During the days she was ill, Lu Yu took over her job. Neither of them relied on the land for a proper living, so their income was unstable, especially after Ji Meiqing arrived.

Lu Yu needed to sell his treasured wines, which he had kept for many years, just to have enough money to make ends meet for a few days. Ji Meiqing suggested the path of business, and the two could only move forward with hope in their hearts.

Having no money or power, Ji Meiqing lay in the courtyard, quietly enjoying herself, while Lu Yu went hunting in the mountains early in the morning. She was sixteen, and Lu Yu was only in his early twenties. The two people, both inexperienced in life, had come together. Fortunately, Ji Meiqing was actually over forty, so none of this could stump her.

The sunlight in the courtyard was just right, and she couldn't help but squint. Someone passed by outside the courtyard wall, and she overheard the two people gossiping.