Me and my Jianghu Tavern

"I'm sorry, guest officer, I won't be selling alcohol recently."

"Is that so..."

A caravan passed by on the official road and wanted to stop for a glass of wine in the thatched hut, presumably they were guests who had had a drink here before, but unfortunately there was no more wine now, so Zhang Ming sent them away.

"Oh." He sighed, looking at the dilapidated thatched hut behind him, feeling a little helpless.

The tables and stools are all in short supply, and it is impossible to repair them. It would take too much time, so I have to buy new ones, but where can I get the money.

"It seems that the only opportunity is to look at the system's restaurant renovation."

Zhang Ming is looking forward to the renovation of the restaurant in the task reward, which can save him a lot of trouble.

In the afternoon, Zhang Ming started to make fermented glutinous rice wine.

Fermented glutinous rice, also known as glutinous rice wine, is a traditional snack in the Jiangnan area. It is a kind of sweet rice wine fermented with steamed glutinous rice.

To be precise, fermented glutinous rice does not completely belong to wine, but it has the direction of wine. Because it is made of glutinous rice, it has a moist and pure rice fragrance. It is a very famous snack in the south of the Yangtze River.

In the middle of winter and the twelfth lunar month in ancient times, people liked to brew and drink by themselves to enjoy the joy of the farmhouse. In the Tang Dynasty, there were poems such as "drink the wine in your voice" and "the wine in the bottle is poor, but only the old grains". People at that time had the custom of serving guests with rice wine.

Take fifty or sixty catties of first-grade glutinous rice and wash it with mountain spring water to remove surface impurities. The glutinous rice becomes more crystal clear under the soaking of mountain spring water.

"Meow."

The lazy civet cat was lying on the corner of the wall, and the sunlight passed through its fur and printed on the ground. It quietly watched Zhang Ming bustle around without disturbing him.

"Xiao Qi." After finishing his work, Zhang Ming sat next to Xiao Qi, and he smiled and flirted with his forehead, "It will be different soon, I think you are looking forward to it too, right?"

"Meow." Xiaoqi responded, closing her eyes and continuing to bask in the sun.

Zhang Ming didn't expect it to understand, he shared his inner joy and expectation with Xiaoqi, nothing more than having one more person who could talk.

Soak the glutinous rice overnight, and take out the soaked glutinous rice at noon the next day.

The mountain spring water had become turbid and beige, so Zhang Mingyao took a bowl and tasted it.

"Sweet and delicious, pure rice fragrance, it seems that there is no need to worry about not meeting the standard."

Zhang Ming nodded and said, brewing fermented glutinous rice wine is extremely simple, and it is not easy to do simple things well, so he is inevitably a little worried.

"Well, go on."

Wash it again, dry the washed glutinous rice for more than ten minutes, and then steam it in a steamer.

Then pour the glutinous rice into the jar, add appropriate amount of water and medicinal wine, and then stir well with a wooden stick.

"Let me think about..."

Zhang Ming rubbed his chin, all the preparations have been done, and the next step is to seal the altar.

"By the way, I have to get some straw."

This is not prepared by the system, and Zhang Ming has to prepare it himself. These things are not difficult to find. Jiangnan is a land of fish and rice, and things like straw can be seen everywhere, and there is a large pile of straw behind the thatched hut.

Wrap a thick layer of straw on the outside of the rice jar, and cover it with grass lianzi. It can be scooped out and drunk in four to five days.

"It's done."

Zhang Ming patted the dust off his hands, and it was finally finished. I believe that time will bring him a pleasant surprise.

"Meow~"

The place where Xiao Qi was lying on her stomach was no longer sunny, her beard moved, her eyes slowly opened, and she stretched herself.

Zhang Ming wiped his sweat, walked up to Xiaoqi and knelt down, and touched his forehead.

Seeing that it was still early, he planned to go out for a stroll and go to the mountain to find some fruit to eat.

"I'm going up the mountain, do you want to come with me?"

"Meow."

Xiaoqi yelled, Zhang Ming smiled slightly and took it as approval, and hugged it directly.

"Meow?" Xiaoqi was taken aback, did I say anything?

"Don't you want to go?" Zhang Ming raised his eyebrows. He felt that holding Xiao Qi was a bit difficult, and said, "No, I have to go. Look at you, how fat you are, I can hardly hold you is you."

"..."

Chapter 3: The Oiran Competition in Jian'an City

The birds wake up and fly, and the mountain is filled with rosin and a faint scent of osmanthus. This is the unique smell of this mountain, and only the pine forests have such a special scent.

Zhang Ming came to a clump of sweet-scented osmanthus trees, and the strong fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus hit his face.

Xiao Qi unhurriedly jumped in front of an osmanthus tree, lowered his head and sniffed it, and sneezed, presumably because he was not used to the aroma.

"Meow." Xiaoqi waved his paws and slapped the branches as if in revenge.

"If you get used to it, you won't hate it anymore." Zhang Ming laughed.

As he said that, he stretched out his hand to pick a bunch of sweet-scented osmanthus. He found the sweet-scented osmanthus tree here when he was looking for fruit a few days ago. When he thought of making wine, he thought of the sweet-scented osmanthus tree here.

Osmanthus fragrans is a good material for wine making. The wine brewed with osmanthus fragrans will have a little floral fragrance and taste special.

After wasting some time, Zhang Ming took about half a catty of sweet-scented osmanthus.

It was still early, and the sun had not yet set, so he put the picked osmanthus flowers aside and found a place to make them.

Xiaoqi didn't want to smell the scent of sweet-scented osmanthus, so he hid far away, and simply found a tree trunk to lie on and take a nap.

In the past, Zhang Ming worked from morning to night, never had such an experience, and only now has the leisure time to think about his own life.

When he calmed down, he discovered that this world also has a beautiful side.

The unique smell in the mountain stream, Xiaoqi taking a nap in the distance, and the clean sky all made his spirit relax.

"Maybe, I like the life I have now."

Zhang Ming said to himself, at least he could have some hope in his life now, instead of living aimlessly like before.

Flying birds fly overhead, and the flock of swallows going south will return to the north. They are always in groups and never alone.

In fact, there is no beautiful thing in this world, only people think it is beautiful, and that is beauty.

After sitting for a while, Zhang Ming patted his clothes and stuffed the sweet-scented osmanthus in his arms.

"Leave Xiao Qi."

"Meow."

The boy in sackcloth was holding sweet-scented osmanthus in his arms, and a white civet cat followed behind him.

One person and one cat walking in the mountains, such a combination is really strange.

…………

Wash the sweet-scented osmanthus and put it into the rice jar. There is still a pleasant smell of sweet-scented osmanthus on the linen clothes, which makes people smell very comfortable.

Xiao Qi went to Zhang Ming's side and sniffed, and smelled the nasty smell again, and ran away in a blink of an eye, not daring to approach him.

Zhang Ming looked at Xiao Qi who was running away and shook his head, "This smells so good, you really don't know how to enjoy it."

Looking in Xiaoqi's direction, the thatched shed was dilapidated, and seeing such a scene gave him a headache again.

He pursed his lips, looked at the rice vat soaked in fermented glutinous rice, and muttered: "Rice vat, rice vat, my tavern depends entirely on you."

Jian'an City is quite famous all over the world, and there are constant people coming and going on the official road.

Some people were doing business, some were visiting relatives, or coming to Beijing to catch exams. Zhang Ming met a lot of people of all kinds.

He just sat in front of the thatched hut, looked at the people coming and going, asked a few questions from time to time, learned about the situation of Jian'an City, chatted a few words, and got a general idea of ​​some related situations.

The past two days are a bit different. The number of people coming from the direction of Jian'an City has decreased a lot, but more and more people are entering the city. They are not locals in terms of their clothes, and they all carry swords. They should be from the Jianghu. Presumably something happened in Jian'an City.

Knowing that this world is a world of martial arts, Zhang Ming no longer has any cold feelings for these Jianghu people, but he is a little curious about the martial arts secret books practiced by these Jianghu people.

Walking along the official road came a handsome man with a black sheathed long sword pinned to his waist, with a high hair crown and two strands of hair hanging on both sides, with warm eyes, red lips and white teeth, he looked very chic.

Zhang Ming saw this young man in fine clothes from a distance, and the aura on that man was completely different from the grassy rivers and lakes he had seen before.

"Is this also a quack?"

Most of the people in the Jianghu that I have seen before are full of hostility, but this handsome young man is a little different. He has a Confucian temperament, and a pair of sword eyebrows expresses a sense of arrogance.

Gu Qingshan saluted Zhang Ming and said: "Little brother, Jian'an City is ahead, right?"

Zhang Ming also saluted back and said, "Well, if you walk along this official road, you will be able to see Jian'an City Gate in half an hour."

"Thank you." Gu Qingshan nodded, it seemed that he didn't go the wrong way.

"Hmm." Zhang Ming saw that the handsome young man was not in a hurry, so he chatted, "Did something happen in Jian'an City? I see a lot of people have come outside recently."

Gu Qingshan smiled and said: "It's nothing, it's just that the oiran competition in Jian'an City is about to start, I think it's because of this."

"Oiran?"

"That's right, Jian'an City will choose the oiran at this time every year, and Qingyulou will take the lead to choose the most beautiful woman this year."

"Is... like this?"

Zhang Ming was a little speechless. He thought it was a big deal, but it was actually the selection of the oiran. After all, so many people from the rivers and lakes came to see what the oiran was, no wonder they were all men.

Gu Qingshan was a little puzzled that this person didn't know about Qingyu Tower's oiran contest.

The Oiran Grand Competition in Jian'an City is well-known throughout the world, and the annual rouge list is drawn from here. This person must be a bit ignorant.

Gu Qingshan saw the thatched hut on the side of the official road, and said: "Little brother is the store here?"

"Well, it should be...forget it, but it hasn't opened recently."

"Does the store still have drinks? I've been walking for a long time, so I'm a little thirsty."

Zhang Ming glanced at him and said, "The wine hasn't been brewed yet, do you want water?"

"Then I would like to thank the store owner, next time, Gu Qingshan." Gu Qingshan thanked.

"No, my name is Zhang Ming."

"Then I'll call you Brother Zhang."

Zhang Ming patted his clothes, walked into the thatched hut, there was still a lot of first-grade mountain spring water in the water tank, all distributed by the system, scooped a bowl of water from the water tank, and brought it to Gu Qingshan.

This man looked polite, and his words made Zhang Ming feel weird, but being well-behaved made him feel a little stressed.

"Thank you, Brother Zhang." Gu Qingshan took the porcelain bowl and took a sip.

"Sweet water." Gu Qingshan drank it fiercely as he spoke.

Mountain spring water overflowed from the corner of his mouth, the current Gu Qingshan has a bit of a Jianghu atmosphere, but this is water, not wine, and he is not heroic.

Gu Qingshan wiped the corners of his mouth and said with a smile: "Brother Zhang, this water should be mountain spring water, it's much sweeter than the ones I've tasted before."

Zhang Ming was a little surprised, "You can drink all of this?"

"I've drank mountain spring water from a Taoist priest a few times before, but Brother Zhang's water is much better than the Taoist priest's. The Taoist priest is really bluffing."

"Taoist? What did he lie to you?"

"He said that the sweetest water in the world is with him, but brother Zhang's water..."

"Uh... maybe you are too thirsty, it's an illusion."

"Maybe."

Returning the porcelain bowl to Zhang Ming, Gu Qingshan said his farewell and continued towards Jian'an City.

The gates of the city will be closed every day. After the time passes, you will not be able to enter the city. You have to enter the city in advance.

Gu Qingshan's back gradually disappeared on the official road, and the bright sun in the sky is almost setting.

Zhang Ming shook his head and muttered, "This person... always feels weird."

Xiaoqi, who just woke up, walked in front of Zhang Ming with enchanting steps. Seeing his sleepy eyes, he might fall asleep again soon.

"Xiaoqi, do you think this person is very strange?"

"Meow?"

Gu Qingshan walked slowly, he babbled and babbled, the sweetness of the mountain spring water still had some aftertaste in his mouth.

He raised his brows and said triumphantly: "Smelly Taoist priest, there is something wrong with you at last, I have to talk to you when I go back, hahahaha."