Chapter 15 Quick Project (V)
When the people in front of Grandpa Zhu saw Huo Chong coming out of the workshop, they became even more noisy. "Stealing skills" and "cheating" were words that were fired at Huo Chong like machine guns. It was just that the country folk had a limited vocabulary, and they could only repeat these few words over and over again. It was just that there were many people and the volume was loud, that was all.
After listening for a while, Huo Chong couldn't help laughing. The person who was cursing on the other side was temporarily stunned, probably because he didn't expect Huo Chong to react like this. Huo Chong laughed to himself until he yawned loudly and stopped laughing.
After yawning, Huo Chong suddenly wanted to laugh again. This was not to laugh at the people on the other side. Huo Chong remembered seeing a P2P platform being forced to pay back debts, and the deceived users had such reactions. Huo Chong never thought that he would face such a situation in 1717 instead of 2017.
"Huo Chong, how can you be so shameless! And you're still laughing! What are you laughing at!" Curses came from the other side.
Huo Chong sighed. People are so easily self-indulgent. He was just feeling emotional for a moment and it had nothing to do with other people. He explained at this time. Huo Chong laughed coldly, "Are you saying that I stole your skills?"
"It's you!" "It's you!" Several guys who just wanted to quarrel immediately started to shout angrily.
Huo Chong felt very weak at the moment, so he took a few steps forward and lowered his voice, "Hey! You said I stole someone's skills, so whose skills did I steal?"
"You stole my master!" shouted the guy who was obviously Uncle Zhu's apprentice.
Huo Chong looked at Uncle Zhu and saw that he had the truth in his hands. Huo Chong greeted Uncle Zhu, but when he saw that Uncle Zhu didn't say anything, Huo Chong continued, "Uncle Zhu, do you think you are the only winemaker in the world?"
Uncle Zhu didn't understand what he heard, and a puzzled look appeared on his face. Huo Chong continued, "Uncle Zhu is not the only one who makes wine in this area of dozens of miles. I want to ask, Uncle Zhu, did you learn how to make wine from your master?"
As soon as Master Zhu said this, before he could say anything, one of his disciples rushed over and tried to push Huo Chong. Huo Chong used a small grab to twist the guy's arm and suppress him. Although he was weak, the opponent had too many flaws, so these guys knew that they had no chance of winning.
Sure enough, seeing Huo Chong suppress his companions so neatly, the others did not dare to come up again. Huo Chong was about to speak when he saw the landlord Liu, nicknamed Sanwagang in the village, rushing over and shouting from afar: "Huo Chong, what are you doing!"
Huo Chong pushed the suppressed guy away and shouted, "Brother Liu, are you here to judge for Master Zhu?"
This made San Wagang speechless, and his round face, which looked like a jar, showed a little anger. After a pause, San Wagang said, "Huo Chong, you let someone steal your skills, what else do you have to say?"
"I want to say that if Master Zhu wants to say that all the winemakers in the world were taught by him, then he can talk about stealing the master's skills. Otherwise, there must be a reason to talk about stealing the master's skills!"
Uncle Zhu probably understood at this time and immediately shouted, "As long as you use my wine yeast, it will taste like my wine. You will know if it was stolen from me after drinking it! Huo Chong, bring out the wine and let everyone taste it, do you dare?"
Hearing this, Huo Chong felt more relieved. Uncle Zhu was right. Each type of koji contains its own unique bacteria, and each type of bacteria produces different alcohols after decomposing grain. The taste came out after tasting it.
"Since Master Zhu said so, I will go back and steam the wine." After saying that, Huo Chong wanted to go back. But seeing that the people outside were motionless, Huo Chong turned around and asked, "Are you guys going to wait at the door?"
"Huo Chong, don't try to be clever!" Master Zhu sneered, "Do you think you can fool people by secretly changing the wine? I will guard the door with my apprentice, and you can't go out."
Huo Chong saw that there was no way to resolve the situation peacefully, so he had to return to the workshop. Zhu's brother-in-law, Zhu Erniu, saw Huo Chong coming back and immediately said in a panic: "Huo Chong, let's just say the wine is sour, is that right?"
"Are you possessed?" Huo Chong was so angry that he wanted to beat Zhu Erniu. Not long ago, Zhu Erniu scolded Huo Chong like a bereaved mother, saying that Huo Chong had ruined his wine. Unexpectedly, now he thought that the wine was sour and that was an excuse to escape. With the situation outside, it didn't matter whether the wine was sour or not.
Zhu Erniu obviously felt that he had no way out this time, but he still said, "It's just a drink, I admit it and it doesn't matter."
"Stop talking nonsense! Just do what I say!" Huo Chong grabbed Zhu Erniu's collar and shouted.
Zhu Erniu whispered: "Brother Huo, I just took it from someone else..."
"Bullshit! You stole the things I added! You stole the things I asked someone to make for making wine! If you want to admit it, give me my things back first. I spent money on it! Pay me back!"
After hearing that he had to pay back the money and listening to Huo Chong's righteous speech, Zhu Erniu looked like he was about to collapse. He squatted on the ground and held his head in his hands.
Huo Chong didn't want to pay any attention to this coward, and shouted at Zhu Erniu's two workers: "Hurry up and work! Do whatever I tell you to do!"
It is best to steam wine in a ventilated place. Under Huo Chong's order, his junior Liu Shiwang and Zhu Erniu's two workers moved the distillation device built by Huo Chong to the yard. Copper pipes were installed on ordinary wooden barrels for steaming wine.
Huo Chong was filled with . If it wasn't for the purpose of offering incense to his ancestors, Uncle Liu would have taken this copper furnace with him when he ran away.
Li Tongshan can make iron pipes, so he took the opportunity to ask Li Tongshan to make copper pipes. I hope the copper pipes can work this time. There is no need to delay at this time, Huo Chong said: "Shi Wang, just put this into the wine little by little."
"Put this in there?" Liu Shiwang was stunned. He pointed at the wooden barrel filled with quicklime suspiciously and asked tentatively, "Big Brother, do you really want to put this in there?"
Huo Chong did not say much, he went straight to the house and took out a small ladle for wine, scooped half a spoon of quicklime into the wine. Then he started stirring with a wooden stick. When the lime dissolved, Huo Chong scooped some wine and tasted it, it was still sour. Then he ordered Liu Shiwang, "Do it the same way I do. Call me every time the lime dissolves."
Liu Shiwang timidly took the ladle and wooden stick and started to work carefully.
Huo Chong also assigned the same task to Zhu Erniu's two workers. Seeing them working without knowing why, Huo Chong felt regretful. He really didn't have time. If he had enough time, he would do the litmus test.
Although the modern wine industry no longer uses litmus, which is not a very obvious thing, various pH testers have long been popular. However, even without modern tools, litmus paper is more effective than judging by human organs.
The various things mentioned in the winemaking report...
"Brother Huo, who are those people outside?" Xu Youlin's voice came from beside him.
Huo Chong asked back: "What do you mean by following someone's footsteps?"
Xu Youlin sat down next to Huo Chong and asked slowly, "Are they related to Duke Yansheng? Are they from a Jinshi family? Has there ever been a Juren in their family?"
Huo Chong was startled. He felt that Xu Youlin's words were like a revelation to him. Many things that he hadn't figured out suddenly became clear.
In the 21st century, as long as you have money and ideas, you can just do many things. Whether you have a background or not certainly has a huge impact, which is reflected in how big you can do things and how much storms you can withstand.
But in the Qing Dynasty, whether or not you have a background, or what Xu Youlin called "followers", has already determined what you can do. You can't even think about doing anything.
"Big Brother, I've mixed it." Junior brother Liu Shiwang shouted.
Huo Chong stood up and walked to the side of the jar, and tasted a little. It seemed to be a little sour. Based on his previous feeling, Huo Chong directly added several times the amount of quicklime into it. He asked his junior brother to continue stirring.
Outside the wall, the laughter of Grandpa Zhu's gang could be heard. "Hey! The wine is sour! You can't even learn from others, how shameful!" "If it were me, I would be so ashamed! I might as well find a rope and hang myself!"
Huo Chong did not react to these words. He went to the other two jars of wine, put in lime, and asked two workers to stir them.
Huo Chong then slowly paced back and forth, feeling the direction Xu Youlin pointed out. The more he thought about it, the clearer it became, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that he had grasped the essence of the era of 1717.
After thinking for an unknown amount of time, Xu Youlin walked over to Huo Chong and asked, "Brother Huo, do you remember where these people came from?"
Huo Chong didn't want to deceive his partner, so he answered straightforwardly: "I'm not a local either, so I don't know what the outsiders have to say."
Xu Youlin looked Huo Chong up and down for a moment, and said in a voice that was not surprised: "That's right, Brother Huo... you don't look like someone from this place at all." After saying that, Xu Youlin was a little emotional, "If it wasn't your senior brother, but Brother Huo, you and I met before, things would definitely not turn out like this."
Huo Chong also felt a little emotional and sighed: "Brother Xu, there are some things you don't know and can't think of."
"Tell me about it." Xu Youlin became more interested.
Huo Chong no longer concealed his experiences and told Xu Youlin in Jiangzhe dialect. Of course, he would not tell Xu Youlin about the time travel, but he told Xu Youlin everything about how he was saved by Uncle Liu and arranged by Uncle Liu, as well as everything that happened afterwards.
Xu Youlin listened, and his expression became more and more strange. It seemed like he was surprised, but also like he was mocking himself. He couldn't help but interrupt Huo Chong in the middle to ask for some details. After Huo Chong's confirmation, he couldn't help but mutter "So that's it."
The whole process took less than a month, and Huo Chong didn't spend too much time to explain the matter clearly. After listening to the whole process, Xu Youlin nodded heavily, but suddenly remembered something and asked: "Brother Huo, you know such a high-ranking person, why are you willing to suffer here?"
"That master didn't accept me as his disciple. He just told me that I would definitely encounter some misfortunes in my life. He told me to take things as they come. I came here from the east and fainted unexpectedly. My master, Uncle Liu, saved me. I think this is probably what the master said about misfortunes. If you don't accept your fate, you will anger the will of heaven. God knows if you will encounter something worse next time."
After saying that, Huo Chong added with a wry smile, "Haha, this time it's already so miserable. If I encounter something else, I'm afraid I'll have no other choice but to die."
"I know! I know!" Xu Youlin nodded vigorously.
As they were talking, the newly added quicklime in the three large jars of wine had already dissolved. Huo Chong tasted it again and could no longer detect the sour taste.
He then ordered people to pour the wine from which the sour taste had been removed into the wine distiller made by Huo Chong, and to add fire to start distillation.
In addition to the copper pipes used for distilling wine, Huo Chong also made several spiral torquers as torque thermometers to control the distillation temperature. The pipes for distilling wine were connected to the condensation jar soaked in cold water. Not long after, a slight sound of water dripping was heard from the jar.
The sound of water dripping became clearer and clearer, and it was obvious that the distillate in the urn that could not be seen by the naked eye was increasing. The smell coming out of the other end of the distillation tube also became stronger.
I thought the smell of alcohol would be strong, but unexpectedly, the smell was not strong in alcohol, but rather the smell of various miscellaneous alcohols.
Smelling these smells, Huo Chong just felt that he was so lucky. Fractional distillation is not a simple condensation. Fractional distillation needs to discharge the gas that cannot be condensed, so the structure is more complicated. Under the same raw materials, the condensate collected by the condensation straight tube is more than that collected by the distillation tube. If he had been smart before and used a simple condensation straight tube, who knows what would have happened.
After a while, the sound of water in the pipe used for fractional distillation began to become inaudible again. Huo Chong did not dare to steam desperately, so he dismantled the device. He opened the jar that collected the first batch of wine, and a strong smell of wine rushed out of it. Huo Chong had not touched strong liquor for a month, but just this smell made him feel a little dizzy.
Huo Chong scooped out a glass of wine with a clean spoon and tasted it. There was no sour taste in the wine. In Huo Chong's opinion, this wine already had the feeling of 40% alcohol.
I took a burning branch from the burning stove candy and put it on the surface of the wine. Although it was not as strong as pure alcohol, a small flame still slowly ignited on the surface of the wine, and then gradually spread to the surroundings. After several seconds, the surface of the wine in the small cup was covered with light blue flames.
"Is this wine...burnt?" Xu Youlin murmured.
"Can it still be called strong liquor if it's not hot?" Huo Chong said with a smile. However, before Huo Chong could brag for long, the flame on the liquor went out. It seemed that the alcohol content of this liquor was not as high as that of the 21st century liquor.
He picked up another spoonful and poured it into the wine bowl, then Huo Chong entered the room with the wine cup. He saw Zhu Erniu sitting in the room in a daze, his eyes dull, and he didn't know what he was thinking about, or whether his mind was blank or dull.
He slapped Zhu Erniu on the shoulder, and Zhu Erniu shuddered and raised his head woodenly. Huo Chong handed the wine cup to Zhu Erniu, "Drink this wine."
Zhu Erniu took the wine cup slowly, drank it down in one gulp with a dull look, and then he became motionless.
"Fuck!" Huo Chong was stunned by this guy's reaction. Even in the 21st century, he wouldn't be fine after drinking just one or two drinks. Could it be that Zhu Erniu actually had a rare physique that was insensitive to alcohol? This kind of physique would not get drunk or feel uncomfortable no matter how much he drank. If...
"Ah!!!" Zhu Erniu suddenly jumped up and howled, covering his throat.
Huo Chong finally felt relieved, because it turned out that Zhu Erniu was a normal person.
"Uh...uh..." Perhaps because his throat was injured by the strong liquor, Zhu Erniu could no longer howl. He was seen jumping and hopping around, holding his throat, trying to recover from the strong stimulation as soon as possible.
After a long struggle, he finally recovered and began to pant while holding onto the wine trough.
As Huo Chong approached, he heard Zhu Erniu ask with difficulty: "What...what is this!"
"Wine. We brewed it. Haha." Huo Chong said with a smile.
As if to echo Huo Chong, Xu Youlin outside also gasped. After a moment, Xu Youlin also rushed in and asked with difficulty: "What is this?"
Huo Chong finally felt relieved. Although many things had happened, at least the wine was made. Patting Xu Youlin on the shoulder, Huo Chong replied, "Wine. This is our wine."
Xu Youlin covered his stomach, his face wrinkled into a bun, "I have never drunk such a strong drink."
"They are all packed in that kind of bottles. If they are not special, no one will recognize them." Huo Chong sighed.
After that, he turned to Zhu Erniu and asked, "Do you think this wine tastes the same as Uncle Zhu's wine?"
"How can this taste the same! How can this taste the same!" Zhu Erniu, whose cheeks had already begun to turn red, shouted loudly: "Even if I drink ten cups of his, it won't be as good as this one! Ugh..."
The wine had already steamed, but Huo Chong didn't dare to be arrogant. "Brother Zhu, I heard there is a kind of old wine that is very strong. It is said that three bowls are enough."
"What old wine... um... it's placed in the corner of the room." Zhu Erniu sounded a little drunk.
Huo Chong thought that this was probably because Zhu Erniu had not eaten anything for a long time and drank on an empty stomach, which caused him to get drunk quickly. He no longer cared about the guy who started to sway from side to side, and called Zhu Erniu's servant to search the so-called corner of the house. There were a few small wine jars there, but they were unlabeled. Huo Chong opened them one by one and tasted them, and immediately felt relieved.
Compared to each other, these wines are indeed different. Even the strongest wines are like the difference between spring rain and typhoon rain compared to distilled spirits. They are all rain, yes. That's where the similarities end.
If Uncle Zhu had still had a little shame, Huo Chong would have been able to get away with it this time.
Just as he was thinking about what to say after he got out, Xu Youlin had already recovered from his discomfort. He walked up to Huo Chong and said, "Brother Huo, I have to go out and do something. You don't have to wait for me to eat."
"Ah?" Huo Chong was confused by this nonsense. It was such a late hour now, how could he care about Xu Youlin's meal?
However, Xu Youlin actually went straight out of the door and no one knew where he went.
Huo Chong felt that he had seen the unknown side of this temporary partner. Xu Youlin also pursued mystery in his work.
