[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies":3,"chapter-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-88":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Notes on Kraft Anomalous Studies",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2283566,4467,"Chapter 88: Quitting Alcohol Breaks the Heart","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-88",88,"\u003Cp>“Is it serious?” William asked the question the priest most feared. The fat priest was already sweating, having realized his belly now held half a basin of fluid—it was hard not to think this was the Father’s supernatural punishment for sin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Adrian’s expression as he looked at Kraft did not suggest good news. Sure enough, a terrifying suggestion emerged from his lips, already painted with illness, leaving Adrian’s vision dark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“To be blunt, for the sake of your life, you must quit drinking, Father Adrian.” As Adrian gasped heavily, his diaphragmatic breathing labored, Kraft pressed his palm against the lower ribs, adding a palpation of liver and spleen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A normal liver should be soft and smooth; his hand felt something hard and slightly unevenly textured beneath the right rib cage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The spleen beneath the left ribs was already palpable below the costal arch, swollen and congested from excess blood stasis. This was an early sign of portal hypertension due to portal vein obstruction; Adrian’s condition was worse, likely moderately to severely enlarged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft dared not probe further—a congested spleen was as fragile as a water balloon; any external impact could rupture it, causing fatal hemorrhage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And you must be careful not to bump or fall. I suspect you’d bleed profusely and struggle to stop it.” Kraft ended the brief physical exam, smoothed his white robe back into place, and covered the priest’s distended belly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The situation was dire—with no solution at all. To be honest, even if Adrian quit drinking now, it might not significantly improve his condition. His name was already on the schedule to meet the Father; it was merely a matter of whether the checkmark came sooner or later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Given the liver’s texture, the risk of liver cancer was extremely high. He briefly considered using his spiritual senses to generate an imaging report for the priest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But even if he produced such a report, it would be useless—current medical methods could not extend Adrian’s life until liver cancer took him. Other complications would claim him first, or he might die from a minor injury due to lack of liver-synthesized clotting factors.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As part of his professional duty, Kraft still had to emphasize the only viable option: “The faithful do not resist returning to the Father’s embrace. But if you still cling to this world, I advise you to quit drinking.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ve tried before. But once I stop, my limbs tremble, I become uncontrollably agitated, I can’t sleep at night, and… I mutter nonsense. They say something’s clinging to me—I can’t stop.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He clutched his head, where only a thin ring of hair remained, questioning himself—had he truly been bewitched by the Devil to lose control?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Withdrawal symptoms]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not surprising. Like most addictive substances, alcohol causes withdrawal symptoms: trembling limbs, agitation, incoherent speech, mental confusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Someone who couldn’t resist taking a sip even during confession consumed massive amounts daily—dependence wasn’t accidental, but inevitable. Severe withdrawal could even be fatal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t worry too much. These are normal withdrawal symptoms. If you reduce intake gradually, the effects will ease significantly.” Kraft took Adrian’s hand, roles reversed—he now became the priest urging the man to turn back from the brink.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh, I don’t know how to thank you. I’ll try.” The priest returned to the table, grimacing as he pushed the glass bottle toward William, then instinctively lifted the half-empty cup, “To celebrate meeting such a skilled physician today, let’s—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft slapped the cup back onto the table. “That’s enough for today. If you truly wish to thank me, show me your distilling equipment—I’m quite curious.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After much effort, they finally succeeded in dragging the reluctant Adrian away from his cup and into the mysterious second-floor room thick with the scent of alcohol.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Kraft stepped inside, he thought he’d entered a miniature chapel. Unlike the casual clutter downstairs, this room was spotlessly clean. A heavy wooden table stood centered against the wall, above which hung a gleaming small double-winged holy emblem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The glass ring encircling the wings was perfectly smooth and round, with nearly invisible seams where it joined the wings—remarkable craftsmanship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the alcohol scent were replaced with incense, it would be perfect. But on the table lay not scripture or carved idols, but the priest’s distilling tools.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A long-tailed, droplet-shaped still with a streamlined body narrowing near the mouth, extending into a twisted, slender neck sloping downward into a small bottle submerged in water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Made of highly transparent white glass, similar to the church’s stained-glass wings. The cheap tuber-based brews common in taverns were stored within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I must introduce you to this invention. If I hadn’t accidentally poured wine into the pot instead of water, I’d never have thought to do this.” Adrian lit a candle and held it close to the bottle’s base. “Fire drives out the purest essence of the wine.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So I wondered—could we collect it? I asked Vechum to make this for me. You may not know him, but you’ve seen his work—the stained-glass wings on the church’s front doors are his masterpiece.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching Adrian directly heat the bottle’s base with flame, Kraft was speechless. No water bath, no condensation except through the long neck, ambient air, and the water-submerged collection vessel—purely manual control. It was absurd beyond reason.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But this alone won’t achieve that kind of strength, will it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“True. I have to carefully control the heat—not too hot—and repeat the process several times before I get just a small bottle.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Poor condensation, erratic temperature control—most of the product evaporated into the air. The scent wafting outside the alley wasn’t from the final product, but from what was wasted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I have an idea. Since you already put the collection bottle in water, why not cool the long curved neck? Or connect a tube that runs through water?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Huh?” As an amateur alchemist driven purely by curiosity, the priest had never considered further improvements. He understood cooling mattered, but his thinking remained stuck on cooling only the collection part.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And perhaps heating the still with hot water would give us better control?” The alien soul’s pitiful knowledge of chemistry finally proved useful—honoring the earnest efforts of his middle school chemistry teacher.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking it through, they immediately set to work. With water bath and condensation added, distillation improved dramatically—even with crude conditions limiting them to pouring water over the long neck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A clear path now lay before them: a scalable, high-yield alcohol purification device. Kraft now had hope for a new disinfection method—and startup capital.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brilliant! Let’s find Vechum and have him make us several more. In a few years, we can build our own church!” Father Adrian cheered, though he wouldn’t drink more than a few sips of the output. “But it won’t be as clear as this one. To get bottles this good again, we’d have to dismantle the church.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I heard it was because of that alchemical reagent?” Kraft remembered his original reason for coming here: to obtain transparent glass instruments.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes. He often complains—he can’t make glass anymore without that acid.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Acid?”\u003C\u002Fp>",1171,"2026-06-20T02:15:55.761Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","99ec3b3be15ffc62171647d3e233201ec4467ed9ca6bc7e13de34c721dbca068","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-89","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-87",406,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fnotes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-cover.jpg"]