Chapter 86: Wine, Meat, and Words to Share

It is said that the ducks exclusively supplied to their establishment are raised on snails and duckweed, and for three days before slaughter, they are fed osmanthus flowers, so that when served on the table, the meat retains the delicate fragrance of the blossoms.

He Lingchuan has been here several times and admits the duck is delicious, though he has never tasted the osmanthus. But that does not matter; having a gimmick means having style, and having style means having class.

And having class means being able to sell at a high price.

Furthermore, the local traditional meat diet in Heishuicheng consists mainly of beef, mutton, chicken, and dog; ducks grow in water-rich areas, so people rarely got to eat them in the past. Xiangsi Tower came here to engage in differentiated management and has successfully gained a huge following.

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

At this time of year, private rooms in the large restaurants of Heishuicheng are hard to book, but that does not stump Liu Baobao.

Zeng Feixiong had not yet arrived, and Liu Baobao leaned out to look: "Did the Second Young Master not come?"

"He is only fourteen; he cannot drink!"

Liu Baobao gave a light cough: "Eldest Young Master, actually, I am hosting two other tables of guests here at Xiangsi Tower; my father gave instructions before he left Heishuicheng..."

He did not want to be negligent, but his other dinner engagements for tonight had been arranged long ago, and He Lingchuan was the guest who had arrived unexpectedly.

"No matter." Today, He Lingchuan was surprisingly easy to talk to. "I will 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 down before asking: "Why is the Eldest Young Master being so polite?"

"Am I not polite usually?"

Liu Baobao laughed heartily.

If this young master had ever been polite, he would not know how to write the words "thick-skinned."

He Lingchuan raised his hand and shooed the waiter serving the room away: "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, is the helmsman of the Liu Family Chamber of Commerce. A few days ago, he was summoned by Governor He, and that same evening, he went to dine at Hongyan Tower with other political and business bigwigs. He returned home beaming, which showed that both host and guest were pleased.

"What did they talk about?"

Liu Baobao thought for a moment: "Nothing of great importance. Governor He said the lease for the White Deer Forest Farm was up, and the original contractor, the Lin family, intended to move away. They hadn't managed it well these past few years, cutting down too much and replanting too little, so Governor He asked if we had any interest in taking it over—which, of course, we do!"

The White Deer Forest Farm is a state-run asset, not private territory. There are many such official enterprises, including mines, forest farms, and even vast tracts of official farmland. In the interior, these would all be contracted out to the local official's brother-in-law, but He Chunhua has always used a bidding process to entrust their management.

He had long seen clearly that if left to the officialdom to manage itself, the efficiency would be as low as it could possibly get, and they would still try to squeeze profit out of a stone; the account books they produced would all be old, rotten records.

Needless to say, these are lucrative positions; how could it have ever been the Liu Family Chamber of Commerce's turn before? "Anything else?"

Liu Baobao is not old, but he has followed his father in learning business since he was a child and has a clear grasp of the routines for dealing with officials. He then said: "There is nothing to hide. My father went to the capital on business, and Governor He asked him to carry a letter to Du Feng, the Junior Minister of the Court of Imperial Treasury—it is said he is an old acquaintance of the He family—and urged him to pay a visit to the Du family's matriarch, that is, the Junior Minister's grandmother, and tell her what happened in the Panlong Desert."

The old lady of the Du family? He Lingchuan did not understand. "Just like that?"

"Just like that, nothing more." Liu Baobao did not want to know why He Lingchuan was asking about his own father's actions. "Simple and straightforward, open and aboveboard."

Afterward, the two drank for a while longer, and Liu Baobao's personal maid came over and kept signaling to him with her eyes.

"Alright, go and attend to your other guests." He Lingchuan was busy gnawing on a duck head; this was also a specialty of the house, first braised and then roasted, especially suitable for drinking, but the supply was limited because not everyone knows how to eat duck heads.

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

Liu Baobao smiled and took his leave.

He Lingchuan had someone clear away the leftovers, tidied the table, and replaced the tableware before pouring a cup of fine wine to drink while he waited.

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

As soon as he arrived, he hurriedly apologized, saying there had been a brawl in the battalion and he had spent some time dealing with it, hence the delay.

He Lingchuan naturally did not mind and called the waiter over to recite the menu, quickly ordering ten dishes.

Zeng Feixiong kept saying: "That's enough, that's enough, how could we eat all that?"

He Lingchuan did not care: "Liu Baobao is paying, are you feeling sorry for him?" He then ordered two more jars of fine wine.

Soon, the delicacies were brought to the table like a flowing stream.

Although Zeng Feixiong had received a generous reward for his trip to Panlong City, he was accustomed to frugality. He would hesitate for days even before buying a small piece of fat to grease his pan before the New Year. Now that his pockets were bulging, the most he would do was go to a tavern to drink a few pots of wine he previously couldn't bear to buy, and his side dishes for the liquor had changed from the original garlic and peanuts to meat snacks like braised pig tails and pickled fish.

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

In the desert, the two were closer in age and on the same side, so Zeng Feixiong and He Lingchuan got along very well; but after returning to Heishuicheng, the disparity in their status invisibly widened the distance between them, making Zeng Feixiong somewhat reserved.

But this was easy to solve; after a dozen cups of yellow wine went down, and they chatted about interesting things in the desert, and most importantly, cursed that vicious-hearted little bastard Nian Songyu together, the atmosphere in the private room became harmonious.

By the time Zeng Feixiong had finished an entire Peking duck with half a pot of wine, the two were already calling each other brothers and chatting happily. If it weren't for the good soundproofing of the private room, their laughter could have been heard downstairs.

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

The series of main dishes at Xiangsi Tower always tries every possible way to relate to ducks. This plate of shrimp consists of the local freshest and sweetest drum-beating shrimp, deep-fried until crispy, then coated with salted duck egg yolk that has been rendered into red oil, resulting in a delicacy that is fragrant and equally explosive in flavor and calories.

Usually, Zeng Feixiong would decline out of modesty, saying "Thank you, Eldest Young Master," which is the minimum official etiquette. But now, with his cheeks flushed red, he took them and crunched away happily, not saying anything at all.

By comparison, He Lingchuan remained clear-headed.

The original body's high alcohol tolerance made it convenient for him to ask questions later.

He steered the topic from Nian Songyu to Sun Fuping, and the two cursed Sun Fuping together for being full of poisonous schemes, actually wanting to kill over 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 him and his father; otherwise, he would have been buried in the yellow sand on this trip and would have had no chance to provide for his father in his old age.

Thus, He Lingchuan naturally asked about one thing:

The scene of Sun Fuping's final moments.

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

(End of chapter)