Chapter 86: With Wine, Meat, and Things to Say

It was said that the ducks specially supplied to their house were raised on snails and duckweed, and had to eat osmanthus flowers for three days before being slaughtered, so that the meat would have the fragrance of osmanthus flowers after being served on the table.

He Lingchuan had been here several times and admitted that the duck here was delicious, but he hadn't tasted the osmanthus flowers. But that didn't matter; having a gimmick meant having style, and having style meant having class.

Having class meant being able to sell at a high price.

Moreover, the traditional meat food in Heishuicheng was mainly beef, mutton, chicken, and dog; ducks grew in places with a lot of water, and everyone rarely ate them before. The Acacia Tower came here to engage in differentiated management and gained a large wave of fans.

As soon as He Lingchuan arrived at the Acacia Tower, he was welcomed by Liu Baobao into the innermost private room.

At this time of year, private rooms in large restaurants in Heishuicheng were hard to book, but that didn't stump Liu Baobao.

Zeng Feixiong hadn't arrived yet, and Liu Baobao poked his head out. "Didn't the Second Young Master come?"

"He's only fourteen; he can't drink!"

Liu Baobao coughed lightly. "Young Master, actually, I'm hosting two tables of guests in the Acacia Tower; it was something my father instructed before leaving Heishuicheng..."

He didn't want to be negligent, but other dinner parties tonight had already been arranged, and He Lingchuan was the sudden guest.

"No matter." Today's He Lingchuan was surprisingly easy to talk to. "I'll let you go in a while."

Before the waiter in the private room came over, he grabbed the wine pot, filled the cups for both of them himself, and then toasted Liu Baobao.

Liu Baobao was flattered and hurriedly drank it before asking, "Why is Young Master so polite?"

"Am I usually not polite?"

Liu Baobao laughed "hehehehe."

If this young master had ever been polite, he wouldn't know how to write the three words "thick-skinned."

He Lingchuan raised his hand and chased the waiter serving the private room out. "I have something to ask you. Do you remember a few days ago, when my old man met your old man?"

Liu Baobao nodded.

His father, Liu Yang, was the helmsman of the Liu Merchant Association. He had been summoned by County Magistrate He a few days ago and had gone to the Hongyan Tower to eat with other political and business bigwigs that night. He was radiant when he returned home, showing that both host and guest were happy.

"What did they talk about?"

Liu Baobao thought for a while. "Nothing important. County Magistrate He said the contract period for the White Deer Forest Farm was up, and the original contractor, the Lin family, planned to move away. They hadn't managed it well in the past few years, cutting too much and replanting too little, so County Magistrate He asked if we were interested in taking it over—of course we were!"

The White Deer Forest Farm was a government-run asset, not private territory. There were many such government businesses, including mines, forest farms, and even large tracts of government fields. In the interior, these were all contracted by the local official's brother-in-law, but He Chunhua had always entrusted management through bidding.

He had long seen clearly that if it were left to the government to manage itself, the efficiency would be as low as it could be, and oil would have to be squeezed out of the cracks in the stones, and the account books presented would all be old, rotten accounts.

Needless to say, this was a fat job; when had it ever been the Liu Merchant Association's turn before? "Anything else?"

Liu Baobao wasn't old, but he had learned business from his father since he was young, and he knew the routines of dealing with officials very well. At this time, he said, "There's nothing to hide. My father went to the capital to handle affairs, and County Magistrate He asked him to bring a letter to Du Feng, the Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Treasury—it is said that this is an old acquaintance of the He family—and urged him to pay a visit to the Du family's ancestor, that is, Vice Minister Du's grandmother, and tell her what happened in the Panlong Desert."

The Du family's old lady? He Lingchuan didn't understand. "Just like that?"

"Just like that, nothing else." Liu Baobao didn't want to know why He Lingchuan would ask about his own father's actions. "Simple and straightforward, open and aboveboard."

Next, the two of them drank for a while, and Liu Baobao's personal maid came over and kept winking at him.

"Alright, go entertain the other guests." He Lingchuan was busy gnawing on a duck head, which was also a specialty of the shop, braised and then roasted, especially suitable for drinking, but the supply was limited because not everyone would touch a duck head.

He Lingchuan loved gnawing on them in the other world, and eating them now was truly full of the taste of memories.

Liu Baobao smiled and took his leave.

He Lingchuan had someone clear away the leftovers, tidy up the table, and change the tableware before pouring a cup of good wine, drinking while waiting.

About a quarter of an hour later, Zeng Feixiong arrived.

As soon as he arrived, he hurriedly apologized; there had been a fight in the camp, and he had spent some time dealing with it, so he was late.

He Lingchuan naturally wouldn't mind and called the waiter over to report the dishes, quickly ordering ten dishes.

Zeng Feixiong kept saying, "Enough, enough, how can we eat so much?"

He Lingchuan was indifferent. "Liu Baobao is paying; are you feeling sorry for him?" He also ordered two jars of fine wine.

Soon, delicacies were served to the table like flowing water.

Although Zeng Feixiong had received a generous reward because of the Panlong City trip, he was used to being frugal, hesitating for days even when buying a small piece of fat meat to wipe the pot before the New Year. Now that his purse was bulging, at most he would go to a tavern to drink a few pots of wine he couldn't bear to buy before, and the side dishes for the liquor had changed from the original garlic and peanuts to meat snacks like braised pig tails and pickled miscellaneous fish.

The Acacia Tower was a place he had always wanted to come to but never dared to.

In the desert, the two were not far apart in age and were in the same camp, so Zeng Feixiong and He Lingchuan got along very well; but after returning to Heishuicheng, the gap in their status invisibly widened the relationship, making Zeng Feixiong a bit reserved.

But this was easy to solve. After a dozen cups of yellow soup went down, and they chatted about the interesting things in the desert, and most importantly, cursed Nian Songyu, that vicious little brat, the atmosphere in the private room became harmonious.

By the time Zeng Feixiong finished a whole sliced duck with half a pot of wine, the two were already calling each other brothers and talking and laughing. If it weren't for the good soundproofing of the private room, the laughter could have reached the floor below.

"Here, try this." He Lingchuan personally used serving chopsticks to pick two drum shrimp for him.

The series of main dishes at the Acacia Tower always tried every means to relate to duck. This plate of shrimp was made by deep-frying the local freshest and sweetest drum shrimp in oil, and then coating the shrimp with salted duck egg yolk crumbs that had been boiled into red oil, becoming a delicacy with an explosive fragrance, taste, and calories.

Usually, Zeng Feixiong would decline modestly, saying "Sorry to trouble you, Young Master," which was the most basic official etiquette. But now his cheeks were flushed, and he took it and crunched it very deliciously, not saying anything at all.

In contrast, He Lingchuan was still clear-headed.

The original body's alcohol tolerance was so high, which made it convenient for him to ask questions next.

He guided the topic from Nian Songyu to Sun Fuping, and the two of them cursed Sun Fuping together for his belly full of poisonous schemes, actually wanting to kill more than two hundred Heishuicheng government soldiers as human sacrifices.

Under the influence of alcohol, Zeng Feixiong cursed until his face was red and his neck was thick, but in the end, he still grabbed He Lingchuan to express his gratitude to his father and son; otherwise, he would have been buried in the yellow sand on this trip, and wouldn't have had the chance to provide for his father in his old age.

So He Lingchuan naturally asked about one thing:

The final scene of Sun Fuping.

As a resident of the southeast coast, I need to go out and buy more food and daily necessities to store at home today, in case of need.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 87 =====