The next day, in the morning!

Ning Chen came out of the courtesans’ quarter in high spirits, glowing.

Two months in the Wu Kingdom had nearly driven him out of his mind.

In the first half of last night, Yudie had lined the road to welcome him.

In the second half, Zisu had come at him with mouth and hand.

Ning Chen was not stingy in return, and gave freely of everything he had.

He rode Diaochan back to the marquis’s residence.

Jin Qingsheng was already waiting.

“Presenting myself to the marquis!”

Seeing Ning Chen, Jin Qingsheng bowed at once.

Ning Chen waved a hand, walked over, and sat down.

When he had left the residence the night before, he had told Gu Yichun to send word to Jin Qingsheng to come and see him today.

Back when he had marched out to take Mangzhou and win back the frontier, he had set Jin Qingsheng to brewing in secret.

Half a year had gone by since.

“Jin Qingsheng. How does the business stand?”

Jin Qingsheng bowed his head and said respectfully, “Everything has been done as the marquis wished. In this half year, this small man has bought up seven breweries.”

“Brewed by the marquis’s method, the wine truly is like nectar of the immortals. The liquor runs clear, it is sweet and strong and full-bodied, and the taste stays with you.”

“Once this wine reaches the world, it will sell and sell.”

Ning Chen smiled. “Where is it?”

“If the marquis will wait a moment!”

Jin Qingsheng and Gu Yichun went out and carried in two jars.

Jin Qingsheng said, “As the marquis instructed, the jars for this wine had the words ten years in the cellar cut into them while they were being made.”

Ning Chen broke the clay seal, and a rich, sweet, strong smell of wine spread through the room at once.

Gu Yichun swallowed in spite of himself.

Ning Chen smiled and poured three bowls.

“Here. All of you try it!”

“Thank you, my lord marquis!”

Gu Yichun liked his drink, and had been holding himself back for some time.

He came forward, picked up his bowl, took a long smell of it, then a small sip, and his eyes lit up at once.

Ning Chen asked, smiling, “Well?”

Gu Yichun swallowed two mouthfuls down, wiped his mouth, and said, “Good. So good… I have never drunk wine this good.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. A coarse soldier through and through, with no words in him.

Still, from Gu Yichun saying good three times over, it was clear the wine would sell hard once it reached the market.

Ning Chen looked at Jin Qingsheng. “Have you tasted it?”

“In answer to the marquis, this small man has… The marquis’s brewing method is nothing short of divine, and it has opened this small man’s eyes. The wine it makes has a scent that leaps at the nose, it is full-bodied and sweet and strong, and the taste stays with you.”

Ning Chen picked up his own bowl, tasted a few mouthfuls, and gave a slight nod.

It went through fewer stages than a modern wine, but it had this in its favor: no clever chemistry and no dirty tricks, honest grain and nothing else… The clarity of the liquor alone put it beyond anything else in this world.

Jin Qingsheng bowed his head and said respectfully, “My lord marquis, will you give this wine a name?”

Ning Chen thought about it. “Call it Immortal Dew.”

“Gu Yichun. Brush, ink, paper and stone.”

Gu Yichun hurried to fetch brush, ink, paper and stone.

The ink ground, the brush loaded… Ning Chen wrote it out fast.

After a little while he handed the sheet to Jin Qingsheng. “From now on this is the advertising copy for our wine.”

Jin Qingsheng looked baffled. “Advertising copy? This small man is slow. Will the marquis make it plain?”

“It means telling the world about it.”

Jin Qingsheng said oh, and lowered his head to look at what Ning Chen had written.

At the top were two large characters.

Forgetting Sorrow

Wine before us, and a song — how many years has a man? Like the dew of morning, and the days gone are the bitter ones. Sing it out full and loud; the grief will not be put away. What is there to drown sorrow? Only Immortal Dew.

Jin Qingsheng finished reading and his face filled with flattery. “The marquis deserves his name as the Great Xuan’s immortal of poetry. Brocade in the belly, poems out of the mouth… This small man admires it from flat on the ground.”

Ning Chen said, “It’s an ode.”

“Owed? Owed to who?”

Jin Qingsheng stood there at a loss.

Ning Chen shook his head and laughed in spite of himself. “Never mind!”

The Short Song Style ran long, and this was as much of it as he could remember. (TL Note: the poem’s real closing line names Du Kang, a legendary brewer whose name long ago became a word for wine itself. Ning Chen has quietly swapped in his own label.)

He had studied plenty of poems, but most of them had gone back to his teachers once he was out in the world.

Jin Qingsheng said excitedly, “With nectar like this, and the marquis’s poem on top of it… our wine will never keep up with the demand.”

The thing was that the poem was signed the Idle Marquis. If the Great Xuan’s own immortal of poetry drank it and called it good, how could the wine not sell out everywhere?

Ning Chen waved a hand. “Our wine is going to use hunger marketing.”

Jin Qingsheng felt like an idiot. Why was it that he could not understand a single thing the marquis said?

“How many shops do we have now?”

Jin Qingsheng said, “As the marquis instructed, this small man has bought ten shops in prime positions.”

Ning Chen nodded slightly. “From tomorrow the wine may be sold… But remember this. Only the ten-year cellar is sold, and each shop sells a hundred jars a day and no more.”

“And it is sold in the morning only. The shops close in the afternoon. Whether the wine has sold out or not, the word outside is that it has sold out, and the doors shut when the hour comes.”

Jin Qingsheng was stunned. “But, but… My lord marquis, this wine is certain to sell very well. We have put so much silver into it already. Surely the more we sell—”

Gu Yichun coughed suddenly and said in a low voice, “The marquis says it, you do it. Where does all this talk come from?”

He had seen Ning Chen’s face darken.

Jin Qingsheng was a clever man and understood at once. His face filled with alarm. “Yes. I will follow the marquis’s instructions to the letter!”

Ning Chen said flatly, “Enough. Go and see to it.”

“One more thing. If anyone asks, I simply like the wine you brew, and there is nothing else between us.”

Jin Qingsheng realized he had talked too much and overstepped, and had displeased Ning Chen. His face went a little pale and cold sweat came out on his forehead. “Yes. This small man understands!”

“My lord marquis… what price is the wine to be? Will you make it plain?”

Only then did Ning Chen remember that the wine had no price yet.

“Ten taels of silver a jar. Not one copper less.”

Jin Qingsheng’s heart jumped. The price was outrageous.

A jar like this went for a few hundred coppers on the market as things stood… Good wine did not reach a full tael.

And their jars were smaller than the ones on the market, and were to go at ten taels each. It was outrageous… The common people could not begin to afford it.

In fact Ning Chen was not selling this wine to the common people. The money he was after belonged to the great officials and the noble houses.

Those bastards were rolling in it, and if anyone was going to be harvested, let it be them.

For now each shop sold a hundred jars a day, and once the demand outran the supply the number could be raised a little.

Later there would be a twenty-year cellar, a thirty-year cellar, wines of different years.

In fact it was all brewed together. Only the year cut into the jar was different.

What Ning Chen had his hand on was the great officials’ need to outdo one another.

In time he would bring out a classic edition, a commemorative edition, and harvest the rich men hard.

Ning Chen could almost see a fortune falling out of the sky straight down on his head, more than he could dodge.

Ning Chen looked at Jin Qingsheng. “How much wine did you bring?”

“As the marquis instructed, thirty jars in all. Apart from these two, the rest are on the cart outside.”

Ning Chen made a sound of assent. “Enough. Go and get on with it!”

“This small man takes his leave!”

Gu Yichun saw Jin Qingsheng out.

Gu Yichun frowned. “Qingsheng. You and I are brothers to the death, so there is something I have to say to you… From now on, whatever the marquis tells you to do, you do it. Don’t talk so much.”

“The marquis was plainly displeased just now. Do you think a man like him needs you to point out how a thing should be done?”

Jin Qingsheng said quickly, “I understand! I was in too much of a hurry. We have put so much silver in up front, and I wanted to earn it back for the marquis as fast as I could.”

Gu Yichun said, “I know you are anxious to prove yourself. But don’t forget what we are. There are rules to how a thing is done, and overstepping is the one thing we can never do.”

Jin Qingsheng nodded. “I understand! It will never happen again.”

(End of Chapter 366)