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Chapter 28: 酿酒 (Brew Wine)
Translator : LittleYen
After leaving Jin Hua, Zhong Ziqi remembered his plan to brew wine so he changed his route to another shop which specialised in household utensils.
Zhong Ziqi wanted to buy jars for making wine. Some of the jars were a man’s height, some others were the size of a palm, and many kinds of size. Zhong Ziqi carefully chose four jars that were almost knee-length and paid 12 wen for it.
When he returned home, Zhong Ziqi lay down on his bed and rested for a while. He had been moving here and moving there for the past two days.Fortunately, his body was much better after all this time of physical work,otherwise he would have fallen down.
Zhao Zheng’an was in the yard, secretly giving food to the family’s small animals, muttering and talking to the animals as he fed them, occasionally giggling a little.
Zhong Ziqi felt that this life was very good and very fulfilling.In his previous life, because almost all of his family members were teachers,there were so many rules.He was not allowed to do this or that. Therefore whenever he and his brother came home, they were very depressed, but they still loved their family. Yet now he can only entrust it to his brother. He was wondering how they were doing right now.
Zhong Ziqi was in a blurry state as he realized that he hadn’t thought about his old life for a long time.Perhaps, those memories will slowly be covered in dust as time goes on in his life now.
After resting for a while, Zhong Ziqi got up and went to the kitchen. Seeing the sun, it was just around ten o’clock, so Zhong Ziqi mixed the dough and made some pies. After eating at the restaurant, they weren’t too hungry yet so the two of them ate one pie each. Zhong Ziqi wrapped the rest in greaseproof paper before he went up to the mountain again with Zhao Zheng’an, carrying the three bamboo baskets from home.
The direction in which Zhong Ziqi entered the mountain was a little to the left due to its location, while the village people entered the mountain from the right. This is why they rarely encounter other people. This is not least because Zhong Ziqi has done it deliberately.
Over here the plants are growing well because no one pays interest to it. There are plenty of other ingredients too but Zhong Ziqi’s primary objective now was to pick the fruit.
Zhong Ziqi’s hand was pulled by Zhao Zheng’an as they walked across a hill where the fruit looked even plump and bigger.
Zhong Ziqi pointed to a wild peach tree and said, “Zheng’an you pick the peaches, pick the red ones, not the green ones.”
Zhao Zheng’an nodded his head. Zhong Ziqi went to pick grapes not far from him, there was a grape vine. It was a small grape so Zhong Ziqi picked one and tasted it. It was a little sour but also a little sweet. That’s it!
Zhong Ziqi stood on tiptoe as he carefully plucked a bunch and put it in the middle of the well-padded back basket.As soon as he looked, he saw a green fat worm ?, the size of a thumb, lying on the leaf. He shuddered,goose bumps all over his body. He was afraid of these molluscs and soft, which you can’t get a grip of. He used to play with this when he was a child, but when he grew up he had to walk around because he didn’t want to see them at all.
But at the moment there was no way out, so Zhong Ziqi glanced at Zhao Zheng’an who was not far away, gritted his teeth, hypnotised himself that he see nothing, nothing at all, and then,to be fully concentrated, without looking away, just looked at the grapes without looking at the leaves. The grapes were easy to pick, it immediately took up a lot of space making the basket full.
Zhong Ziqi wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, even though the trees in the forest blocked much of the sunlight, it was still hot. Zhong Ziqi walked to Zhao Zheng’an with the basket on his back. Zhao Zheng’an had already picked most of the peaches.He reached out his hand to take the basket off from his wife’s back,then his eyes were suddenly drawn to something: “Wife, don’t move!”
Zhong Ziqi immediately stopped moving and asked nervously, “What’s wrong?” He had a bad premonition.
He saw Zhao Zheng’an move a little around his collar,one body which full of hair in annoying grey color caterpillar was cupped in Zhao Zheng’an’s hand. He held it up in front of his eyes like a treasure.
“Ah!!! Get it away!!!” Zhong Ziqi cried out in shock and anger,as he took a big step backwards with a tense body.
Zhao Zheng’an stood in place, his hands still raised, looking dumbly at his wife who was reacting violently.
Zhong Ziqi slowed down his thumping heart, glare at the dumb standing man: “What are you still holding it for, do you want to eat it?”
Zhao Zheng’an hurriedly threw away the struggling object. He looked at him uneasily, like a child making a mistake before he called out in a mumbling voice: “Wife…”
Zhong Ziqi also did not hide his fear: “I’m afraid of that thing. Don’t scare me with it!”
Only then did Zhao Zheng’an realize what he had done, he had bullied his wife ⊙▽⊙, simply unforgivable. Well! He remembered it now, so his wife is afraid of this ah, in fact …… is not scary at all.
“Wife, you go back! I can pick it.”
He took a look at the trees where certain things were scattered here and there. He can’t let his wife get scared.
Zhong Ziqi, who was still a bit weak in the legs, hesitated and asked him, “Can you do it by yourself?” Although Zhao Zheng’an was also a bit scared, he still patted his chest bravely.
Zhong Ziqi nodded, “Then be careful! Come back when you’re done! Don’t go far! ”
“Got it.”
Zhong Ziqi handed the pie he had brought along to Zhao Zheng’an before put the basket he had packed with grapes on his back again and went down the hill. Their house was not very far away as he could see his house at a glance from where they stood. This was the reason why Zhong Ziqi was relieved because he could look out at him from the yard as he sat there.
When he got home, Zhong Ziqi drank a big bowl of cold water before he started to pick up the grapes. He found a large basin, sprinkled some salt on it, soaked the grapes, washed it briefly, rinsed it several times with water before putting it all in the sun to dry.
After hammering his back, Zhong Ziqi looked up to see that the figure was still there, so he put his mind at ease. Sitting in the courtyard, he turned the grapes every now and then to let them dry as quickly as possible.
On this side, Zhao Zheng’an picked a basket of peaches and a basket of plums, as his wife had instructed. He carried one in front of him,another one behind him and carefully went down the hill.
Zhong Ziqi saw him coming down from afar so he hurriedly got up to pick him up.
“Silly! carry them one by one!” Zhong Ziqi took the basket in front of him.
“I’m not tired.” Zhao Zheng’an touched his head and laughed ‘he he’.
When he entered the courtyard, Zhong Ziqi put down the basket, went inside and poured a bowl of water, handing it out to Zhao Zheng’an.
Zhao Zheng’an drank it in one gulp. After that he sat in the courtyard while eating the cold pie. When Zhong Ziqi saw that the grapes had dried, he went inside and took the jar out in order to put the grapes inside. He washed his hands and arms carefully, then put his hand into the jar and crushed the grapes.
Zhao Zheng’an watched with amusement before he also made a fuss about trying.
“Wash your hands well.”
“Oh,” Zhao Zheng’an ran to the kitchen and washed his hands.
“Just crush the grapes!”
Zhao Zheng’an was so excited that he put his hand inside and grabbed the grapes.
Zhong Ziqi ignored him as he went to collect the plums and peaches. It’s hard to clean it up, you have to get the cores out, while the rest of the brewing process is similar to making wine from grapes.
After Zhao Zheng’an had basically crushed all the grapes, Zhong Ziqi sprinkled half a bag of sugar on it. After sealing it with yellow clay, he instructed Zhao Zheng’an to put the sealed wine in a cool place.
As the day grew darker, Zhong Ziqi and Zhao Zheng’an worked together to finish the peaches and plums, seal it then put it in the empty room with the grapes wine.