Chapter 803: Otherwise You Won't Be Delicious

Ruyi left, heading straight for the Fiend Blood Path.

It was the most chaotic place in the world today, more turbulent than the Northwest, and far more unpredictable than Shangjing.

Ruyi had no idea what she would encounter, but she firmly believed that her luck wouldn't be too bad in the end.

...

...

As the morning sun rose, the sky brightened.

The cat grew sleepy. It slipped into Chen Changsheng's room and sprawled out on his bed to sleep.

Chen Changsheng didn't disturb it, simply letting it rest.

Lihua slept all the way until the afternoon.

Eyes still heavy with sleep, it wandered out of the room, bounding over to Chen Changsheng's side in a few quick steps.

"Morning, Chen the Good Man."

Chen Changsheng glanced at the sky and replied, "Morning, Lihua. Though at this hour, it looks like it's about to get dark."

Lihua looked up, only just realizing it had slept for quite a while.

It smacked its lips and asked, "Ruyi didn't come back?"

Chen Changsheng nodded.

Accepting this fact, Lihua muttered, "If she isn't coming back, she isn't coming back..."

Chen Changsheng gave a slight nod. "So for the next while, you will have to follow This Chen."

Lihua nodded. "Following Chen the Good Man means I get full meals. That's much better than Ruyi. Plus, I'm way more familiar with Qingshan City."

It spoke with stubborn pride.

Chen Changsheng didn't expose its bluff. Instead, he said, "Tomorrow we will be leaving for elsewhere. We won't be staying in Qingshan City anymore."

Lihua froze at his words. "Go where?"

"Yan Land."

Lihua blinked, trying to figure out where that place was.

"Is it on the way to where Ruyi is going?" it asked.

Chen Changsheng shook his head. "It is not."

"Oh..."

Lihua didn't ask anything else.

"But the journey shouldn't be boring for you," Chen Changsheng said. "Miss Yun and Yu Hongjin will be traveling with us. Afterward, we'll head to Jindi, and finally straight to Shangjing."

Hearing this, Lihua tilted its head up. "Yu Hongjin? Ah! That fish!"

"Yes."

"I really want to eat her." Lihua smacked its lips. "She just smells better and better."

Chen Changsheng turned to look at it. "That is a very strange thing to say."

"Is it?" Lihua asked.

Over in the courtyard across the street.

Yu Hongjin had already started packing. She looked here and there, grabbing whatever she could, but the thing she was most reluctant to part with was her wine.

Over the years, she couldn't even remember how much wine she had hidden in the courtyard.

Every so often, she would unearth another couple of jars.

"Little Miss, just how much wine did you hide?"

Zhishu stared at the jars lined up across the yard, struck with momentary shock.

She couldn't help but wonder how the Little Miss had managed to stash so much alcohol in the house without anyone noticing.

Counting on her fingers, Yu Hongjin tallied up the wine jars sitting in front of her. Some were big, some were small, and a few were still caked with dirt, looking like they had just been dug out of the ground.

"One, two, three, four, five, six..."

Yu Hongjin muttered, racking her brain.

"That should be all of it."

Or so she thought, but in reality, even she couldn't remember exactly how much wine she had hidden.

Yunxiang watched this spectacle with utter helplessness. Sighing, she said, "With this much wine, there's no way you can bring it all."

Yu Hongjin paused. "Mister Chen had a Gourd before. It could hold a whole lot."

"Then go find Mister Chen," Yunxiang said.

Yu Hongjin paused for a second before declaring, "I'll go find him!"

With that, she went and brought Chen Changsheng back.

When Chen Changsheng arrived in the courtyard and saw the neatly arranged rows of wine jars, he couldn't help but freeze for a moment.

"Where did all this wine come from?"

"These are all the jars Hongjin has been hiding in the courtyard over the years," Yunxiang said. "Even I had no idea there was this much."

Looking at the assortment of bottles and jars, big and small, Chen Changsheng stepped forward and crouched down, reaching out to open one.

But Yu Hongjin suddenly threw herself in front of the pile of alcohol.

"Mine, mine, mine."

Spreading her arms wide to keep Chen Changsheng away, she announced, "These are my treasures."

Chen Changsheng gave a helpless smile. "You have enough wine here to open a Wine Tavern. This Chen just wants to take a sniff. I'm not going to take yours."

"No!"

Yu Hongjin mumbled, "They haven't aged long enough yet. If you open them... if you open them, they won't taste good anymore."

Hearing this, Chen Changsheng asked, "Did you buy this wine yourself just to stash it?"

"What do you mean 'bought'? I brewed it my—"

She caught herself halfway through the sentence, suddenly realizing what she had just exposed.

"Hmm?"

"Hmm?"

All eyes in the courtyard locked onto Yu Hongjin.

Zhishu and Yunxiang took a moment to process what she had just said.

Recovering her wits, Yu Hongjin frantically backpedaled. "No, no, I went and bought it! I fetched the wine, yeah..."

Yunxiang walked over and pinched Yu Hongjin's cheek. "Tell the truth," she demanded.

Yu Hongjin struggled at first, but seeing that there was no way to hide it anymore, she finally confessed.

Some of the wine had indeed been bought and saved because she couldn't bear to drink it. But the rest was wine she had brewed herself. She had bought her own distiller's yeast, boiled the ingredients, and fermented them on her own. She had hidden some in the attic and buried others in the ground, leaving a dizzying variety scattered all over.

"Little Miss, you couldn't possibly have brewed all this in the courtyard, could you?" Zhishu asked.

Yu Hongjin confessed, "It was... it was Uncle Li who ran the wine shop down the street."

She spilled the whole story.

She had picked up her brewing skills a few years ago from Uncle Li at the wine shop. She used to frequent his shop to buy wine. Because she never grew any older, she eventually studied transformation spells so she could change her appearance to buy drinks. As they grew more familiar with each other, she would often drink with Uncle Li. By some stroke of luck, she picked up a few tricks of the trade and started brewing her own batches.

After hearing her explanation, everything finally clicked into place for the group.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Yunxiang asked.

Yu Hongjin stared back with wide eyes. "I didn't dare..."

Sister Yun didn't even want her drinking in the first place. If she found out that Yu Hongjin had been brewing her own alcohol, she would probably break her legs.

Yunxiang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. In the end, she merely sighed, "You really have grown capable, haven't you?"

Chen Changsheng also found it amusing. Yu Hongjin had truly taken her love for good wine to the absolute extreme, going so far as to learn the craft herself.

Lihua had followed them over from the other courtyard. The moment it trotted inside, it spotted the sprawling display of bottles and jars.

Its eyes widened in awe. "So many bottles and jars!"

Chen Changsheng scooped it up into his arms.

"What are all these?" Lihua asked.

"Yu Hongjin's wine," Chen Changsheng replied.

Lihua looked at Yu Hongjin, blinking in confusion. "Fish can drink wine?"

Yu Hongjin and Lihua never got along to begin with. Hearing this, the girl shot back, "Stupid cat, what's it to you?"

Lihua thought about it for a moment before suddenly adopting a serious tone.

"Fish shouldn't drink wine."

It paused, then added, "Otherwise you won't be delicious."

Yu Hongjin froze, a sudden chill racing down her spine.