When Lingdao Family's Yiqi Ling reached home, the sky had already darkened.
Doctor Qiu asked her why she took so long. Jiang Yuqing said, “I caught that snake charmer, an evil Daoist. He lived deep in the mountains, and it took some effort to find his lair.”
“Did you kill him?”
“He's dead. I only crippled his Dantian. He had captured many fierce beasts in his cave lair, so I set them free, and then the beasts chewed him up skin and bones.”
“Also, I obtained some good stuff that I’ll bring to you later.”
Upon hearing there was good stuff, Doctor Qiu immediately became interested: “What good stuff?”
“Guess?” Jiang Yuqing deliberately tantalized him!
Doctor Qiu shook his head: “This old man can’t guess. Just tell me directly!”
Jiang Yuqing smiled and took out a small jar from her spiritual space, gently lifting the lid to reveal a tiny gap. An exotic and wonderful wine aroma instantly burst out.
With his sensitive nose, Doctor Qiu's spirit immediately lifted. He quickly grabbed the wine jar and exclaimed, “What wine is this? How come it smells so good, it's making me drool!”
Jiang Yuqing said, “Among the animals I rescued was the leader of a tribe of over a thousand golden snub-nosed monkeys. This wine was accidentally brewed by those monkeys.”
Upon hearing it was the legendary monkey wine, Doctor Qiu was shocked speechless. He blurted out, “Monkey wine? Good heavens! My dear, you sure struck gold this time!”
Jiang Yuqing boasted, “Of course, I am Heavenly Dao's dear daughter. Not only did I obtain monkey wine this trip, I also found a gold mine!”
She then recounted how she saw fool's gold inside the monkey's cave, and had the big golden snub-nosed monkey lead her to the gold mine. Doctor Qiu was stunned speechless for a long time.
After a while, he said in a complicated tone, “My dear, regarding the gold mine, just telling your dad is enough. Don't mention it to others. I'm afraid they can't handle it.”
Jiang Yuqing agreed, “I was thinking the same. Grandpa and Grandma are getting on in years. Not as unflappable as you. I'm afraid if they learn about the gold mine, they may not even be able to sleep.”
Doctor Qiu's excuse for her was that she went up the mountain to gather herbs.
Because she returned late, the family had already eaten dinner. They would have to wait until lunch tomorrow for an opportunity to bring out the monkey wine.
The kitchen kept dinner warm for Jiang Yuqing. She casually ate two bowls before going to find her brother, Jiang Yuhu.
Jiang Yuqing knocked on the door, “Third brother, are you asleep yet?”
A voice immediately responded from inside, “Is that my little sister? The door's unlocked, come in yourself!”
Jiang Yuqing pushed open the door and walked in to see her third brother, Jiang Yuhu, sitting at his desk looking over an account book, while his wife, Chen Yingying, played with their son Lin Ye on the couch.
Seeing her arrive, Chen Yingying quickly got up to greet her and invited her to sit.
Jiang Yuqing thanked her third sister-in-law and went forward to play with her little nephew, "Lin Ye, do you miss Auntie?"
"Miss!" Although only one year and two months old, the little guy could already speak very clearly, much better than she was at his age.
Back then, when she was over a year old, her tongue couldn’t make turns well, and it was hard for her to speak.
When annoyed, she would babble strings of incomprehensible baby talk that no one but herself could understand.
Jiang Yuqing heartily kissed the chubby cheeks of the little guy. Creamy, bouncy, the texture felt awesome.
After kissing him, she pretended to use her head to nudge him, making the little guy giggle loudly.
Chen Yingying personally poured her a cup of tea. Jiang Yuqing thanked her and drank it all in one go. She was quite thirsty after just eating dinner.
Jiang Yuhu said, "Little sister, since you came to see me so late, there must be something.”
Jiang Yuqing put down her cup, went to sit across from him at his desk, and took out a branch she had folded from her bag, handing it over to him, “Third brother, do you recognize this?”
Jiang Yuhu took it and looked it over, “Isn't this a tea tree branch? That whole Tea Mountain area is covered with these things. The branches are hard and heavy, and they give off a lot of smoke when burned. Even as firewood this stuff is too crappy."
Jiang Yuqing chuckled, “While these tea trees seem worthless weeds to you, brother, they are treasures in my eyes.”
“Treasures?” Jiang Yuhu looked left and right at the ordinary branch in his hand, “Go on, what sort of treasures?”
Jiang Yuqing said, “This tea tree’s accurate name should be oil tea tree. The fruits on the trees, the teabags, ripen after the autumn frost each year.
Peel out the seeds inside the bags, dry them in the sun, grind into powder, steam, press into cakes, extract oil through compression, you can produce the most fragrant, most pure, highest grade wonderful oil. Nothing better for stir frying dishes!
Moreover, the oil yield is pretty high, with over three taels of oil produced from one catty of black seeds.”
In her previous life, this tea-seed camellia oil was also known as “Oriental olive oil.” It contained many nutrients essential to the human body.
Genuine camellia oil was expensive, comparable to a luxury in cooking oils.
Jiang Yuqing paused for a moment, then continued, “The crushed remnants left after oil extraction can be used to kill crop pests and act as excellent fertilizer.”
“The discarded tea shells can also be used to smoke cured meat. The cured meat turns a golden yellow, and has a distinctive tea aroma.”
After finishing her explanation, Jiang Yuqing looked at her third brother.
Jiang Yuhu painfully swallowed his saliva. After a long while, he deeply inhaled and said, “Tomorrow, let’s go to the county government and buy Tea Mountain!”
Conversations with smart people were so refreshing. With the matter settled, Jiang Yuqing bid them goodnight and left, her merits deeply hidden.
With her third brother’s capabilities, the family would soon gain another gold goose.
Early next morning, Jiang Yuhu went to the county government, stating his desire to purchase Tea Mountain and redevelop it for other crops.
That mountain was desolate and unproductive land. Given the immense face the Jiang clan had, Jiang Yuhu spent barely any effort to purchase the entire Tea Mountain at market price.
To celebrate this joyous event, Jiang Yuqing specially took out a jar of monkey wine for lunch. As soon as the jar opened, the wine aroma immediately captivated everyone present.
Hearing this was the legendary monkey wine, all were astonished.
Old Man Jiang reacted the quickest. He jumped up, shoved his son aside, grabbed the wine jar, and ran off with it.
But he was blocked by Doctor Qiu, “What do you think you're doing? Quickly put that down! This wine is what my esteemed disciple gifted everyone. What makes you think you can grab it all for yourself?”
Old Man Jiang glared at him, “I can because I'm her dear grandpa! Furthermore, what’s so special that you all can taste from it? I won’t let good stuff get ruined!”
With one sentence, he offended a whole room of people.
Old Lady Hu coldly put down her chopsticks with a loud clank, glaring at him, “You senile coot, say it again! Who ruined what? If you can't explain yourself properly today, this old lady will teach you a lesson!”
Seeing Old Lady Hu get angry, Old Man Jiang instantly cowered, stammering, “No...no, I misspoke, it was a slip of tongue.”
Old Lady Hu didn't care whether he was deliberately taunting or actually slipped up. Still frowning, she ordered, “Put down that jar and return to your original seat!”
Under Old Lady Hu’s enormous pressure, Old Man Jiang reluctantly put down the wine jar, though his eyes kept glued onto it without blinking once.
He was utterly cowardly and incompetent, making the whole room struggle not to laugh.
In the end, it was Jiang Yuqing who stood up and evenly poured everyone a small cup of wine.
“This monkey wine tastes great, but the afterkick is not weak. Drink in moderation, everyone!”
As such, after drinking one cup and experiencing that wonderful fairyland flavor, the women stopped drinking. The remaining half jar of wine went to the men of the family.
That included her two brothers and two uncles. Restricted by Old Man Jiang’s coercive might, even they didn’t dare drink more than two small cups each.
Doctor Qiu had no such qualms. For every cup you drink, I must also drink one. Don’t even think about keeping it all to yourself. In the tussle over the last drops, the two almost started fighting.
In the end, both got drunk. In his intoxicated state, Doctor Qiu muttered, “Don’ think... think ya won... won over me. Lemme... lemme tell ya... I still... still got...whole ‘nother full jar... all gifted by my... li’l disciple.”
Hearing that made Old Man Jiang jealous, “Yer disciple’s so... so nice. I ain’t... ain’t gonna fight you. Share some... some with me too, ‘kay?”
Then realizing it wasn’t right, he suddenly yelled loudly, “You wily coot! Yer tryin’a trick me! That disciple... she’s none other... other than my precious... gran’daughter! You black-hearted ingrate!”
After scolding him, he blearily looked at Jiang Yuqing, “My dear, have you... have you stopped lovin’ Gramps? Now that you... you hav’a Master you forgot... forgot Gramps. So unfilial!”
Jiang Yuqing's head was pounding. She patted the old man on the shoulder and said, "Who said that? I love both my master and grandfather. I have also prepared a separate jar for you, I just haven't had a chance to give it to you yet."
"Really?"
"Really!" The old man was finally satisfied upon receiving an affirmative answer. He tilted his head and passed out drunk.
As soon as Doctor Qiu saw Old Man Jiang collapse, he followed suit and keeled over as well.
Jiang Yuqing speechlessly lifted her head, directly meeting a deep, profound gaze. Her uncle Jiang Wenkang said lightly, "Good girl, do you only love your master and grandfather?"
Jiang Yuqing broke out in a cold sweat, smiled awkwardly and said, "No, I love everyone, really!"
"Then what about the wine...?"
"Everyone has their own jar, really! I'll deliver them to everyone after we finish eating!"
"Hm, now that's more like it!"
Jiang Yuqing called for someone to come and take the two old men back to their rooms separately. Afterwards, she wolfed down her meal in three or two bites, then went to prepare the wine.
Five jin per jar of monkey wine. One jar per person. Plus the jar from this afternoon and the one she sent to Doctor Qiu last night, that was already nine jars gone.
She had to set some aside for the family members at home. Naturally she couldn't play favorites with the other close relatives either, so she had to set aside a jar for each of them as well.
She would also need to pay respects to her maternal grandfather and uncle, so she set aside some jars to bring back to the capital for her parents and elder brother.
She would also need to send some to the Emperor and Empress, as well as Jing Yan. She couldn't forget to send some to Li Deshun either.
She also needed to send a jar to Old General Qin and one to Old Duke each.
The two old generals had helped her tremendously and had not mistreated her. Especially Old General Qin, with whom she had a special bond from when they ate from the same big pot.
She heard that when they were building the monument to her heroic deeds, these two had spoken up for her and even personally beat up some critical Confucian scholars.
She had obtained a total of a thousand jin of monkey wine, which sounded like a lot. But after dividing it up this way, she was afraid there wouldn't be much left for herself.
Oh well, if there was none left then so be it. She didn't care much for drinking anyway, just tasting it was enough. She had obtained the wine for them in the first place.
With the big family affairs settled, there were still two urgent matters that demanded her attention.
One was the newspaper business, the other was the gold mine. Especially the latter - it was a hugely important matter, so she had to handle it cautiously. She didn't even dare send any letters by carrier pigeon. If someone malicious shot down the pigeon, it would definitely cause tremendous chaos.
Aside from those two things, there was another big happening coming up in the capital.
Her father had sent word that envoys from Japan would soon arrive in the capital regarding their captured countryman, Kamezo Kikuchi.
She had kept Kikuchi alive all this time instead of feeding him to the sharks precisely so that they could demand a ransom from Japan - no, war reparations!
Now that the fat sheep was on its way, she certainly couldn't miss out on the spectacle of slaughtering it.
