Chapter 22: Home-brewed Alcohol

Chen Xiao Mi spent two hundred pennies on twenty wine jars the next day.

Lu Lin started to pour beer into the jars, he filled eleven jars with a box of beer.

"All righty, let's seal the jars now and try out luck in the big restaurants tomorrow." Chen Xiao Mi was excited and he was sure they could sell the beer for good money.

Chen Xiao Mi now had made up his mind about the mule, he decided to listen to Lu Lin and buy a mule. He could even build a cart, so they didn't have to worry about carrying stuff to town any more.

Lu Lin wasn't as optimistic as Chen Xiao Mi. He had confidence about the beer, but they hadn't done any marketing before, people in this time and space hadn't heard about their product before.

"It's fine if we can't sell them, we can enjoy them by ourselves." Chen Xiao Mi comforted Lu Lin.

"We can send one jar to that Young Master Yang who has bought the glass marbles." Suggested Lu Lin.

Lu Lin had inquired about that Young Master Yang the last time they were in town, it seemed that the Young Master was a reputable man in town. Lu Lin hoped he could recommend the beer to his friends, word of mouth could be very powerful, especially in that time and space.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded, "Sounds like a good plan."

The two went to town together the next day, Lu Lin had put the wine jars in his store, but Chen Xiao Mi still carried a big basket in case people got suspicious.

Chen Xiao Mi was confident about selling their product, but soon his enthusiasm was dampened.

The two visited Fu Yuan Restaurant first, but the busboy was such a snob, he had driven the two away when Lu Lin asked him whether they could meet the owner.

"Meet our owner? Who do you think you are!" the busboy turned them down in an arrogant manner.

The two had to leave. Chen Xiao Mi felt very bitter.

"What a snob!" Chen Xiao Mi pulled a long face.

Lu Lin, however, looked unbothered. "No need to lower ourselves to his level."

Lu Lin disliked the busboy's attitude, but he had seen that coming. So he comforted Chen Xiao Mi, "That little busboy is just relying on his master's might to bully us, he is a nobody and he will always be a nobody. But we, with our intelligence and work ethics, we will make it one day! No need to pay him any attention, okay?"

Chen Xiao Mi was impressed by Lu Lin's words.

Lu Lin took Chen Xiao Mi to the second restaurant, the busboy took them to the owner right away. The owner was intrigued when he heard that they were here to sell alcohol.

"Alcohol, what kind of alcohol?"

"Home-brewed." Chen Xiao Mi replied.

"Hmm, home-brewed, I'm afraid I can't offer you a good price for that."

"Just try some, I'm sure you will change your mind."

The owner looked unconvinced, he doubted how good a villager's home-brewed alcohol could be.

'These villagers, green and inexperienced, they think they have the best stuff.' The owner snorted.

"Xiao Mi, what are you doing here?"

Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin turned their heads only to find it was Young Master Yang.

"Young Master Yang! How are you! We are just here selling our home-brewed alcohol!" Chen Xiao Mi was happy to see Young Master Yang here for they going to visit him next, "And we have prepared a jar for you."

With that Chen Xiao Mi handed a jar to him.

Young Master Yang wasn't interested in Chen Xiao Mi's home-brewed alcohol for he only drank the best alcohol from the best restaurants, but he was a well-mannered man, so he took the jar and thanked Chen Xiao Mi.

The owner of the restaurant was surprised to see Chen Xiao Mi and Yang Heng Zhi know each other, so he started to regard Chen Xiao Mi with special respect.

"Let's have a look at the texture of your alcohol please." Suggested the owner.

Chen Xiao Mi took two bowls and filled them with the alcohol from the jar.

Yang Heng Zhi who was not interested in Chen Xiao Mi's product was now surprised to see such a rich texture.

"That looks amazing! That looks top quality!" Yang Heng Zhi opened his fan and exclaimed.

The restaurant owner took a sip and asked, "Are the rest of the jars the same batch as this jar?"

Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said, "Correct. They are the same batch."

Yang Heng Zhi took a sip as well, and he was shocked, "Chen Xiao Mi, this is mind-blowing, hmm, let me see how many jars you have here... ..."

The restaurant owner said anxiously, "Young Master Yang, please, not so fast, I was about to make my offer."

Yang Heng Zhi laughed, "I'm sorry, Mr. Wang, please give Xiao Mi a reasonable price for his remarkable product!"

"Don't worry, I will." Mr. Wang was a bit displease that Yang Heng Zhi was here because he couldn't get the product with a low price now.

Mr. Wang hesitated for a while and he offered Chen Xiao Mi eight taels for ten jars, and he said he was interested to buy more from them.

Chen Xiao Mi was stoked to hear that, eight taels of silver, that was a small fortune to them! He was even more stoked to think Lu Lin had more alcohol in the store!

The two went to the fair to look for a mule, but they didn't find any, the mules were either too old or too sickly, they didn't have many options, so they decided to buy some groceries instead.

Lu Lin bought some flour, rice and six chooks, he wanted to raise their own chooks for eggs. Chen Xiao Mi bought six geese, geese could lay eggs as well, and they could guard the house.

Lu Lin looked at the geese and squinted his eyes, he decided to let Chen Xiao Cai look after the geese, he knew Chen Xiao Cai was a responsible kid who was going to do an excellent job in taking care of the geese, plus Chen Xiao Cai would be too occupied to bother him if he had six geese to look after.