african diary

The wine tasting on Saturday was part of Jiahua Hotel's mid-year VIP appreciation meeting, and it was arranged in the evening. Xiao Hang took Xu Qi there in the afternoon to prepare in advance.

Now there are a lot of imported red wines in China, and the quality is completely uncontrollable. The low-quality wines sold abroad for one euro per bottle can be shoddy, and the high-end wines are scarce and hard to find. However, the mid-end wines that should really be the mainstream products However, since wine is a heavily taxed commodity, it costs three or four hundred a bottle to make a profit when it is circulated in the market, and the sales are not good.

When Xiao Hang imported red wine, he considered that the retail prospect was not good, and he only planned to be a major customer such as hotels and clubs. Although the profit was not as good as retail, but the order was stable, and all he imported were mid-end wines. It is best to go for sales.

Jiahua Hotel was the first client that Xiao Hang negotiated with. Tang Jiajie, the marketing director of the hotel, is an alumnus of T University. He studied as a graduate student in Belgium. Belgium is a French-speaking country. See hit it off.

Tang Jiajie likes red wine very much, and built a wine cellar for the hotel. The temperature and ventilation of the wine cellar are very particular. Although his wine cellar is not big, he invested more than 100 million.Speaking of which, this guy is quite knowledgable. He got all the red wines from the five first-tier wineries in France.

In fact, Tang Jiajie's understanding of red wine is better than Xiao Hang's. This wine tasting will be explained more professionally by him. However, the VIP guests of the hotel are not ordinary people. Letting them know Xiao Hang is very important for his future red wine sales. That's why I gave him this opportunity.

The red wine brought by Xiao Hang includes two from Bordeaux and one from Burgundy, both of which are of vindepays (regional red wine) grade. They are mid-range wines in France, but they are considered very good in China. Yes, basically all he saw in China were vindetable (everyday table wine).In addition, he also brought a rose wine specially for women.

However, he thinks that the Chinese way of drinking sea wine is a complete blasphemy against French red wine. The method of barrel fermentation, so the department head always said that in the eyes of the French, red wine is a kind of culture and art, not an ordinary drink.

The posters have been arranged in advance, and there is still about an hour before the wine tasting, Xiao Hang opened the bottle of red wine first and woke up.After instructing Xu Qi to keep an eye on the venue, he went to the garden of the hotel alone and lit a cigarette to relax.Sometimes Xiao Hang felt that his personality was not suitable for showing his face in public, and he would always be nervous when facing many people.

He was smoking a cigarette with his head down, when a few people came in front of him, Xiao Hang heard the people speaking English, they should be foreign guests staying in the hotel.Gently raised his head and glanced, a tall and straight figure in the crowd made his heart twitch violently.How could it be him?These days he was busy putting up wine labels and preparing for the wine tasting. He almost forgot the shock that he saw the news that day, but anyway, he never thought that it would happen so soon and so coincidentally in reality. Meet the person engraved in the bottom of my heart.

Ted is still as handsome as in memory, no, it should be said that he is more mature, so the touch of facing a real person directly and the shock brought by looking at that small picture on the web cannot be compared.Turning his back to the person in a hurry, Xiao Hang was so embarrassed that he forgot that he was still holding half a cigarette in his hand. He didn't throw the cigarette butt to the ground until he felt the tingling pain from his fingers, and let out a low snort.

What to do, the visitor has already walked in front of him, he suddenly has the urge to run away, but - that will attract the attention of the visitor instead.Seeing Ted chatting with others indifferently and about to pass him by, Xiao Hang suddenly realized that he has grown a beard now, and he is a different person from three years ago. I am afraid that Ted...does he recognize it? Come out yourself.

Laughing bitterly at himself, Xiao Hang thought to himself, Xiao Hang, do you think that you are a celestial being and you will never forget it?But that's fine too, it's better to meet the person you love the most as a stranger than to become an enemy, isn't it?

"Ted, he is..." The people around Ted looked at Xiao Hang and shouted in surprise.

Seeing his somewhat similar face to Daniel's, Xiao Hang didn't need to guess that this was Stephen, Ted's partner.Ted looked up at Xiao Hang, without joy, surprise, or sadness, without any emotion, and then said softly "Oh."

What does "Oh" mean, Xiao Hang didn't think about it, he just rushed into the bathroom quickly in embarrassment.That indifferent look made Xiao Hang's heart hurt more than blame or hatred. They were already strangers, the most familiar strangers.

Xiao Hang has paid attention to Ted's news intentionally or unintentionally in the past few years. He hides the silver ring under the pillow and only takes it out to kiss again and again when he is drunk. In fact, he has not forgotten Ted for a minute. The poison in the blood cannot be quit.

Xiao Hang sat on the toilet seat and took a deep breath, trying to relieve the pain in his heart. This is the result he wants, isn't it?Ted was doing fine without him, what more could he ask for.

The phone rang in an ignorant manner, it was Xu Qi calling——

"Manager, where did you go, the wine tasting is about to start!"

"I'll be right over." Xiao Hang tremblingly lit a cigarette, calmed down a bit after smoking, and then walked out of the bathroom.

Looking at the guests seated below, Xiao Hang unconsciously thought of the dinner party where he met Ted for the first time in Niamey, so he calmed down and walked onto the rostrum.

"Thank you for coming to today's VIP appreciation meeting, and I will present to you some new French red wines in the hotel."

A brief introduction to several red wines. When it comes to French red wine, Bordeaux is the most familiar place of origin, but Xiao Hang prefers Burgundy red wine. Compared with the clear taste of Bordeaux red wine in the south, Burgundy in the north is The climate is colder, the fermentation time of red wine is longer, the taste is mellow and has stamina, which is similar to the mainstream Chinese baijiu.This time he focused on introducing a Burgundy red wine that the company will promote.

Halfway through the wine tasting, Tang Jiajie walked in with a few people, it turned out to be Ted and the others, Tang Jiajie gave Xiao Hang a wink, and then sat in the corner with the visitors.

Xiao Hang quietly pinched himself on the waist to stabilize his mind. He continued to explain details such as how to sober up, observe beauty, hang cups, taste, etc., and glanced over Ted's position indistinctly. , Seeing Ted shaking the red wine glass lightly, and then bringing it to his mouth, this ordinary movement made Xiao Hang's heartbeat stall.

"Generally speaking, if it is a naturally fermented red wine, the longer the age, the better the taste, but the age factor must also be considered. The vintage of the following one is 2005. Although it is less than 10 years old, 2005 is sunny A good year, so the quality of red wine is obviously better than 2003 and 2004.

For red wines that are more than 10 years old, you should pay attention to the taste and do not shake the wine bottle, because the upper layer of red wine tastes very good, but due to the precipitation of the age, the lower layer of red wine may have a rusty taste, which is no longer suitable for drinking.

Next, I will not talk nonsense, please enjoy the wine tour to the fullest. "

Xiao Hang didn't know how much willpower he had used to calmly finish his prepared speech. He only felt that his mouth was extremely parched after he finally finished the tormenting process, and the glass of red wine in his hand was like drinking water. Drank it down.

"Master Xiao, that's not how you drink red wine. Didn't you just say that?" Ted's lazy voice sounded behind Xiao Hang.

Xiao Hang was shocked as if struck by lightning, and turned to look at his former lover.In this case, what should I say?what can i sayIt turned out that he still remembered himself.

"You still remember me." When these words blurted out, Xiao Hang almost wanted to bite off his own tongue. What the hell is this opening line?

With a chuckle, Ted said, "I'm only 32 years old, and I'm not too old to be forgetful."

"How have you been these past few years?" Xiao Hang has buried this sentence in his heart for a long time, but he has been following the news related to him, so he doesn't need to ask specifically if he is doing well.

"On the surface it looks fine."

What does it mean?Xiao Hang really didn't know how to understand this sentence, did he think too much?

"I'll go first, let's talk another day." Xu Qi had almost packed her things, Xiao Hang called her, left the venue hastily, and ran away again, as if in front of Ted, he had been running away.

"Wait, why are you leaving in such a hurry, that person is... Ted, right?" Xu Qi looked back at the person standing beside Xiao Hang just now.

"Stop talking nonsense, I still have something to do."

Seeing Xiao Hang's gloomy face, Xu Qi didn't dare to ask any more questions. She didn't know what happened between him and Ted. Anyway, when Ted was mentioned, Xiao Hang had this expression.

"Is brother Daniel not here?"

"I don't know." Xu Qi still missed Daniel occasionally in recent years, but she had no contact with him for a long time.

"Oh." Concentrate on driving the car, forget it, Xiao Hang's matter can only be resolved by himself, since he doesn't want to talk about it, Xu Qi doesn't bother to ask.

Back home that night, Xiao Hang took out the ring under the pillow, looked at it again and again, then kissed it and put it back.

In fact, today he brushed Ted's finger intentionally or unintentionally, and there was no trace of the ring.That’s right, such a cheap thing doesn’t fit Ted’s current status. I feel very conflicted. I’m afraid that thinking of Ted will make my heart hurt, and I’m afraid that I’ll forget that feeling so that I can’t even find the motivation to live.

The ring itself has been placed under the pillow, in such a place that is close at hand but will not be seen at any time.And what about Ted?Maybe just throw it away?There is really no need to miss such a lover who can't be firm with him anymore.