Chapter 122

Chapter 122: Making Rice Wine

When he anxiously returned to the restaurant, Yuan Zhou was only one step away from missing the opening hours. Luckily, he barely made it.

Early next morning, Yuan Zhou rushed towards the comparatively nearer Xinglong Temple after the one-hour breakfast time. It was closest to his restaurant among the three temples and Yuan Zhou decided to go over there in the morning.

Yuan Zhou hurriedly got to the place and immediately bought another joss stick before he could even catch his breath. Then he entered the temple halls to pray for the blessings of the damn system.

“The system is the most powerful; the system is the most…”

Of course, Yuan Zhou was still doing this mission fairly diligently as he knew that there wouldn’t be any reward without endeavors. Luckily, he rushed back just in time before lunch, preparing to open the restaurant.

In the afternoon, however, he encountered a problem. The Fuyun Temple was partly in repair and he couldn’t get into it.

“Can I change another temple?” standing at the entrance of Fuyun Temple, Yuan Zhou said helplessly.

The system displayed, “The mission can’t be altered.”

“But I am unable to get inside,” Yuan Zhou said disappointedly while looking at the closed temple.

The system displayed, “Host, please complete the mission as soon as possible.”

“Ho Ho”

“Excuse me, may I go inside to worship the Buddha?” he went up and asked the monk that was cleaning at the entrance.

“I’m really sorry. We are preparing to temporarily shut the temple and get it repaired. Starting from tomorrow, it won’t be open,” the monk turned his head and devoutly put his palms together and then said politely.

“But I have a very important thing to do,” Yuan Zhou maintained his solemn expression and revealed an anxious look.

“Please read the bulletin board over there. You can come over here again when the temple is to be open,” the monk remained mild and said that.

“I only want to worship the Buddha with a burning joss stick, for a single blessing. It won’t be long. Please help,” Yuan Zhou requested earnestly.

With only one main hall inside, the Fuyun Temple didn’t have many believers that came to worship Buddha and hence chose to repair the building.

“I’m sorry but I really can’t. Please go back, sir,” the monk devoutly put his hands together again and still refused Yuan Zhou.

Finally, Yuan Zhou experienced the awkward feelings of his customers that were refused.

“Let’s do this. As a matter of fact, I want to donate some money to the temple for the repair work. Could I pay a formal visit to the master?” Yuan Zhou suddenly remembered that he was now also sort of a rich person.

“Do you have an appointment with him?” without any change in his expression, the monk directly asked.

“I just want to donate some money to the temple. I don’t think it requires an appointment,” Yuan Zhou answered straightforwardly

“Yeah, so it is. You are right,” After thinking for a while, the monk couldn’t think of any regulation which required appointments to donate money to the temple.

“I want to donate 100 thousand RMB to the temple. But I don’t have enough cash with me, only a bank card. Could you help?” Yuan Zhou bluntly brought out the donation number.

The temple was not large and naturally didn’t have other property. It depended on only some small subsidiary businesses to maintain the life of all the monks. Hundred thousand RMB wasn’t a small amount, therefore he could enter the temple with the donation and naturally have a good reason to go to the main hall and worship the Buddha for gratitude.

Yuan Zhou had a very explicit intention.

In the end, Yuan Zhou eventually completed the mission with the pretext that he wanted to donate and thank the Buddha.

[2nd Mission of Dignity] Go to these three places tomorrow to pray for blessings of this system and finish the mission within one day.

(Mission tips, now that your customer has sincerely requested the rice wine, you must master the skill and manage to prove yourself, young man.)

[Mission Reward] Skill of Wine-Making and junior title of Master of Wine-Making (available to be received)

Being anxious to head back to the restaurant for business, Yuan Zhou didn’t actually receive it immediately and only did it that after he finished all the work at night.

The title nevertheless made Yuan Zhou quite troubled.

It reminded him of the title of Master of Cooked Wheaten Food, with the familiar smell of a conspiracy.

“System, does the title require any additional condition?” thinking for a while, Yuan Zhou asked explicitly.

The system displayed, “This title doesn’t require any additional conditions.”

After the system made the pledge, Yuan Zhou still thought for a while before receiving the reward hesitantly.

Rarely did the system not set any other constraints for awarding the title after getting the blessings of Yuan Zhou. It was merely a title now and hence had no attached reward.

Having obtained the new recipe, Yuan Zhou immediately got to work on making the rice wine.

As expected, there appeared another cabinet filled with rice next to the former one.

With a sound of “Pa”, he opened the rice cabinet and took out a handful of rice. The grains were big and slim, with the shape like a shuttle, and the color was like the jade. With a slight pinch, he could feel the rice grains that were as smooth and warm as the small-sized jade, devoid of any cold feeling.

“System, is this the rice used for the wine?” Yuan Zhou asked curiously.

The wine-making skills obtained by Yuan Zhou were basically all about simple rice wine and didn’t cover any other variants. Of course, Yuan Zhou didn’t actually care about that as he could experiment by himself. It was merely that the skills were basically for glutinous rice wine.

There were only several kinds of rice wine that required white rice, and moreover, required particular rice grains.

Yuan Zhou took the rice grains near him and checked carefully. He suddenly asked, “Oh, holy sh*t. Is this the unexpected Ten-Thousand-Year Tribute Rice?”

Speaking of wine-making, the brewing process definitely needed to be well introduced. It is the selection of ingredients which mattered the most when making wine along with the rice. Among the recipes that he had gotten, there was one that was about a wine made from the white rice and its major ingredient was the Ten-Thousand-Year Tribute Rice.

Nowadays, there was still this breed of the rice being sold on the market but it was already quite different from the original one.

The Ten-Thousand-Year Tribute Rice got its name as it was planted and grown for generations and delivered for tribute every single year. It had a history of over 1000 years. It absorbed the limpid spring water of all four seasons and was planted in distinctive soil, hence its protein content was a few times higher than that of the ordinary rice and, moreover, had abundant vitamin B and rich minor elements. It was classified as a rare treasure among the rice breeds.

“System, if you provide such good rice, what kind of water would you provide?” Yuan Zhou curiously looked at the transparent glass container popping up in front of him and guessed that the water inside wouldn’t be as little as it appeared to be. Then he began to wonder about the water quality.

The system displayed, “The limpid spring water absorbed by the Ten-Thousand-Year Tribute Rice and required by wine-making was both taken from the springs during all four seasons. It was only taken from the springs on the first day of each season, so if used properly, the rice wine would have the special flavor of all the four seasons.

The introduction was truly explicit. It was definitely not gaudy and was totally different from the fake ones outside this restaurant.

Yuan Zhou had already known that the system would never provide them unless the ingredients were genuinely precious ones.

After removing his doubts, Yuan Zhou started the process of making the rice wine.

The white rice was washed clean and then soaked in the limpid spring water. In order to give the best taste from the ingredients, Yuan Zhou used the limpid spring water of all four seasons even when washing the rice and didn’t use any special technique to accelerate the process of soaking the rice.

He stayed in the kitchen for four hours to watch the real-time change of the rice grains and feel the whole process intuitively. After that, Yuan Zhou slightly adjusted the time accordingly until it could be broken into smaller particles with a gentle pinch, to achieve the best texture of the rice grains.

Only then did Yuan Zhou begin to prepare the steamer to cook the rice. During the process of wine-making, all the kitchenware used must be free from the contamination of grease in order to guarantee the mellow fragrance of the rice grains.

Yuan Zhou put on a pair of gloves that wouldn’t affect his touch and wrapped his head to prevent any tiny things from dropping into the ingredients.

Yuan Zhou chose the bamboo steamer this time. After the steaming process, the rice grains would carry a faint bamboo fragrance apart from the mellow fragrance of the rice.

After the rice was cooked and cooled, Yuan Zhou added the distiller’s yeast and limpid spring water into the rice and began to make the wine. Having done all these work, it was already 3:00 in the morning. He carefully set the container to fermentation accelerating and constant temperature mode.

“Si La”, Yuan Zhou tore off the protective suit on his body and then went upstairs to sleep.