Chapter 126

Chapter 126: Rice Wine

Time passed fast. After cooking breakfast, Yuan Zhou began to prepare the rice wine ordered three days ago at noontime by Chen Wei.

As the fermentation time became longer and the sweetness slowly spread out, the flavor of wine also became heavier and the aroma became mellower. Yuan Zhou didn’t intend for the wine to be distilled, so the alcoholic percentage was not high, basically no more than 20%.

Yuan Zhou carefully filtered the translucent wine in the middle of the rice. Unlike last time, he didn’t leave any rice grains inside and tried to filter the wine as cleanly as possible. After that, the wine was directly filled in a cup with about 100ml.

“Boss Yuan, Boss Yuan, can I drink the rice wine today?” Ten minutes before the opening hours started, Chen Wei arrived at the restaurant.

“You have to wait ten minutes more.” Yuan Zhou took a look at the time and refused him.

“Alright. The time is almost up, so I’ll wait,” Acting like he wasn’t an outsider, Chen Wei just sat down on the chair and started to wait to drink the wine.

After a nod signaling ‘do whatever you want’, Yuan Zhou began to do his own work. He scooped up just 100ml of the wine and filled it into the small cup.

After a while, Chen Wei started to get antsy, as he felt the aroma of the wine constantly rushing into his nose.

“Is this the rice wine that I will drink shortly?” Chen Wei asked straightway.

“Yes,” Yuan Zhou nodded and put the cup away before storing the fermented rice which he was prepared to use for other purposes.

Then, Chen Wei got stuck and didn’t know what to say next. He took pride in himself for following the rules all along and was naturally ashamed to ask again for the wine now. He could only endure the temptation and look at other things to divert his attention.

Meanwhile, Yuan Zhou was just preparing the food ingredients and had basically finished, thus the two people started to stare at each other, doing nothing.

“Boss?” the arrival of Mu Xiaoyun lessened the embarrassment of the two adult men.

“Humm, come over here,” Yuan Zhou nodded. Then he took out the wine cup and signaled her to carry it to Chen Wei.

“Thank you,” Chen Wei first thanked the little loli with a mild expression and then said to Yuan Zhou, “Boss Yuan, please offer me a serving of Phoenix-Tail Prawns as well.”

“Ok, wait a moment,” Yuan Zhou agreed immediately.

At this time, other customers walked into the restaurant one after another.

“Everybody, please take your seats and tell me what you want to eat,” Mu Xiaoyun greeted earnestly.

“No problem. Have you had your meal, Xiaoyun?” these customers liked this girl very much, hence asked her with a smile.

“I come here after the meals every time,” Mu Xiaoyun nodded and said seriously.

“Ha Ha, yeah, right. If not, you would have probably starved to death while smelling such great aromas,” a man seated beside Chen Wei said while laughing.

“Absolutely. I haven’t gone shopping for a long time ever since I ate here for the first time,” a pretty girl complained while pouting.

“Then why don’t you ask Boss Yuan to treat you to dinner?” immediately, someone horsed around.

“Stop it. Who of you guys have ever seen Boss Yuan treat others to dinner?” The pretty girl curled her lip, not believing that at all.

“You are right. I believe when Boss Yuan gets a girlfriend, he will become easier to talk with,” the man beside Chen Wei suddenly said that.

“But do you think Boss Yuan can find a girlfriend?” Wu Hai whispered.

“I would volunteer to be his girlfriend,” the pretty girl immediately disappointed him.

“Ho Ho, actions speak louder than words. According to my careful observation, Boss Yuan seems to do business only and study the dishes all day long, and then nothing else. He doesn’t have any other pleasures in life,” touching his mustache, Wu Hai said with an affirmative look.

“Eh…” thinking of such life for a little while, the pretty girl immediately stopped talking. However, she immediately felt something was wrong.

“Wait! Don’t quarrel anymore. Look at Boss Yuan,” Chen Wei suddenly said.

Having been carefully listening to them bullshitting , Chen Wei uttered right away when he turned his head and saw the manner of Yuan Zhou cooking the Phoenix-Tail Prawns.

“What’s the matter?” Wu Hai first reacted before others, looking at Chen Wei curiously.

“Don’t you guys feel the manner of Yuan Zhou cooking the Phoenix-Tail Prawns seems to be a bit weird?” It was the first time that Chen Wei had ordered this dish. The intention was obviously to eat while drinking the wine.

However, he suddenly found the way Yuan Zhou caught and dealt with the prawns seem to be terribly odd.

“It seems to be true,” the pretty girl also nodded and said as if thinking of something.

“Yeah, pretty sure now.” All the several customers stared at Yuan Zhou processing Phoenix-Tail Prawns.

However, at this time, they all maintained silent as if to be agreed upon collectively and didn’t asked Yuan Zhou at all. Judging from the mask on Yuan Zhou’s face and his earnest wink, they got to know it was not a good time to ask.

Customers in the restaurant held their breath and waited there quietly.

It was when Yuan Zhou carried the dish to him did Chen Wei eagerly asked, “Boss Yuan, why is your posture of dealing with the Phoenix-Tail Prawns so odd?”

“Pardon?” Yuan Zhou didn’t react immediately. Fortunately he hadn’t taken off the mask; otherwise, his ever-solemn profile would probably be greatly ruined.

“The prawns should not be contaminated with anyone’s presence before entering one’s mouth, including mine,” after a small pause, Yuan Zhou finally reacted and then said seriously at once.

“So it’s true that what Boss Yuan did yesterday wasn’t because of money, right?” a little fellow suddenly said.

“Yesterday?” customers not knowing of this event started to surround the little fellow and asked about that.

Then the little fellow clearly told about the happening of yesterday. During the narration, the customers looked at Yuan Zhou with a complicated gaze for a moment and then again at the prawns laid out there.

“No wonder the prawns are so delicious. Unexpectedly, he really managed to ensure, before the dish was carried to the customers to eat, the prawn meat would not be touched by his hand. He even has such strict requirements on dealing with the ingredients,” almost everyone was thinking about the same thing about Yuan Zhou.

Now, it seemed obvious that the food prepared was so delicious. Just from the way the ingredients were dealt with, one could see that.

It made sense that the dish was appetizing.

“Please enjoy,” Yuan Zhou gestured towards the Phoenix-Tail Prawns and Rice Wine in front of Chen Wei.

“Ok, good,” Chen Wei also admired Yuan Zhou a lot now, even though the portion of the food was still so small that it could only feed a cat.

100ml of Rice Wine and eight clear prawns.

The cup looked pretty good. The dark green surface was like that of bamboo joints and the drawing of the cluster of bamboo matched it pretty well. Even Chen Wei, who didn’t usually care about these things, felt it was nice.

Of course, it was the taste of the wine that mattered the most.

Having taken up the wine cup, Chen Wei sipped a little bit of the rice wine. With his brawny figure and a seemingly rough and impatient manner, Chen Wei nevertheless acted quite elegantly while drinking the wine.

Once a mouthful of the rice wine entered his throat, the cool taste immediately melted in his mouth. It was ice-cold and refreshing, soft and smooth, and carried a fragrance of the rice grains. What’s more, another kind of unknown fragrance was constantly lingering around in his mouth before flowing into his stomach along with the wine.

“Gu Dong”, being anxious to capture this unknown flavor, Chen Wei drank another mouthful of the rice wine.

Suddenly a different taste appeared this time. It brought about a slight scorching feeling, making people feel a little hot but not harmful to them. The wine once again flowed into his throat.

Chen Wei carried up the wine cup again and began to look forward to the taste.

To Chen Wei, the clear and translucent liquid of the wine that was swaying in the milky cup was as attractive as hard liquor despite the alcohol content in the wine not being above 20%.