Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
That’s right. The first person to notice the smell was Chen Wei. After all, in terms of smelling liquor, Chen Wei was even better than Wu Hai, who had the nose of a dog.
“Um, it smells good,” nodded the novelist in agreement.
The foam remained and the aroma of the beer became more and more intense. The combination of the aroma and the cold temperature gave one an intoxicating feeling.
Gulp. The novelist directly took a large chug of the beer.
When the beer entered his mouth, it was cold but the moment the beer flowed into his throat, it warmed up before flooding his entire throat with the fragrance of the golden wheat.
“Hu, not bad,” said the novelist with a faint smile.
Then, the novelist took another chug.
This time, the beer felt even smoother. It was as if a certain switch had been switched on in his body. The moment the beer entered his mouth, a pleasant aroma emitted out his mouth.
The beer was cold while his body was warm. Before long, the novelist’s face was flushed red and he felt a warm sensation in his skull, a warmth that spread all over his body.
This was a mild and gentle warmth, a warmth that spread from the inside to the outside.
“It’s good, and is unlike the lager beers where the acerbic taste lingers on unceasingly,” Chen Wei nodded and remarked as he drank. With a single breath, he finished half the beer in his mug.
For Chen Wei, when the beer entered his mouth, a slightly bitter taste would spread out starting from the tip of his tongue. Yet before the bitterness felt overwhelming, the fragrance of the alcohol appeared and flooded his mouth. And when he swallowed the beer down, it felt extremely smooth and refreshing.
“Worthy of being Boss Yuan’s liquor. It’s good,” Chen Wei said before taking another chug. This time, he finished nearly half the mug again, leaving only a tiny portion of the beer.
“Ahhh…” Chen Wei couldn’t help himself but moan in satisfaction.
“The beer is refreshing and does not feel bitter at all. The aroma of the beer is thick, and the fragrance of the wheat is pleasant. This is an excellent draught beer,” Chen Wei remarked as he laid the mug down.
“It is indeed good. In the past, I have always thought that beers are bitter and tart. Although this beer is bitter as well, it was not tart, and the bitterness feels good in a way,” Yin Ya remarked as she drank.
“Yes, the beer is good,” even Jiang Changxi, the alcoholic, nodded her head in acknowledgment.
“Sigh, defeated again,” Fang Heng lamented while frowning even as he drank without a stop.
“Haha, don’t worry. You will never be able to surpass Boss Yuan,” Chen Wei said with a laugh.
“Why are you being so honest?” Fang Heng glared at Chen Wei.
“I can’t be bothered with you. Shen Min, one more mug. In the future, this will be my personal mug,” Chen Wei said as he lifted his mug without a single drop of beer within.
“That’s right. Boss Yuan had mentioned that the mugs will belong to those whose names are carved on it,” Shen Min nodded.
She had forgotten to tell them this before.
“That sounds good. It feels better to have a personal mug here,” Jiang Changxi said, somewhat jealous.
“That’s really good,” Yin Ya blushed when she thought of the fact that a mug with her name carved on it was now residing in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.
“This is a good idea. I need to learn from it and custom-make some glasses for my customers,” Fang Heng said honestly.
“Tsk tsk, what a businessman,” said the novelist.
“Don’t worry, I will get Boss Yuan’s permission before I do that. After all, I am learning from Boss Yuan,” Fang Heng said.
“Alright, continue drinking. One more glass for me,” Jiang Changxi pointed at the mug and said.
That’s right. Fang Heng was not directly drinking from the mug. Rather, he was drinking from the glass he got from the novelist. That way, the beer in the mug could be shared with others.
“Come, a toast for the beer!” Chen Wei raised his mug and said cheerfully.
“Cheers,” they said and started drinking.
With the introduction of beer, Yuan Zhou’s pub became even more lively. In the past, everyone would always be fighting over liquor. But now, everyone was competing to see who could drink more instead.
This was the charm of beer. It would allow the people to relax themselves, allowing the mood to be even more lively.
…
The night passed. Returning back to Wu Hai, he was starting another round of being picky with his food.
“No, I refuse to eat this. I reject this,” Wu Hai said.
“Little Hai, you need to eat some food,” Zheng Jiawei advised. “It has been one entire day since you last ate anything.”
Previously, Wu Hai would still eat the meat jerkies and candied fruits. But ever since he finished painting This Is Life, he stopped eating even those two.
To Zheng Jiawei’s persuasions, Wu Hai turned a deaf ear. People would usually act according to their emotions, and emotions could be affected by paintings. Often times, a painting would greatly affect the emotions of a painter.
Of course, that was only applicable to other painters. This was not the case for Wu Hai. He was only not eating because he was being picky and did not feel like eating the food here.
“Come, Little Hai,” Zheng Jiawei continued untiringly.
Zheng Jiawei was in fact very capable in his job. When he first tried persuaded Wu Hai to eat, Wu Hai got angry, before erupting in rage, and finally, he was now feeling helpless against Zheng Jiawei.
“Apart from Compass’s food, I refuse to eat anything else,” Wu Hai said as he lay beside a tree, pretending to be a dead fish.
“Let’s go back, then.” Zheng Jiawei said, “I will gather our belongings and we can return tomorrow.”
He thought that Wu Hai would be very happy to hear that. Surprisingly, Wu Hai rubbed his waning stomach and shook his head, “No, my art excursion is not over.”
“Your initial plan is to stay here for a week. But we have already been here for half a month.” Zheng Jiawei started tossing out numbers in hope of convincing Wu Hai, “Furthermore, including This Is Life, you have finished seven paintings here. Regardless of whether it was time spent or the output of your painting, this art excursion should be over.”
“So is this your art excursion or my art excursion?” Wu Hai raised his voice, “If I say it’s not over, then it’s not over.”
“How much longer do you intend to stay?” Zheng Jiawei asked.
Wu Hai grabbed at his greasy hair. He got very jittery when he heard this question. He had a feeling that he was still missing something from the mountains here.
He had a feeling that there was something extremely important that he had not painted. This was why despite his hunger, he had insisted on staying.
Meanwhile, everything was progressing smoothly at Yuan Zhou’s side. After the video of his ice sculpture was uploaded online, he gained another burst of popularity.
Several videos were uploaded on Weibo, with the following titles: [The legendary chef of Folk Talent], [Boss Yuan is acting cool again], [The expert I caught on video this afternoon]…
After all, not many people could sculpt the Twin Dragons Fighting Over A Pearl, especially since Yuan Zhou was using a kitchen knife for his sculpting.
Therefore, even those not well versed on ice sculptures could see that Yuan Zhou had great sculpting skills.
“Sculpting with a kitchen knife, am I seeing things?”, “If it isn’t for the fact that this video is so shaky and lack any interruptions, I will find this hard to believe”, “As an apprentice that has learned ice sculpting for two years, I am stunned by this. May I ask which great master of ice sculpting is it that’s being featured in the video?”…
The final question was asked by someone with the username Borrow A Book. Of course, this person’s IP address was from somewhere out of Chengdu.
