Chapter 572: Wine
It had been several days since the envoys of the Dark Shadow Empire arrived in the capital. What agreement would Empress Catherine and Empress Shea reach and whether both empires would go to war had become the focus of heated discussion. However, even if the public paid more attention to these political events, they could only be concerned and could not partic.i.p.ate. The decision-making power was entirely in the hands of the authority. Compared with the major events in the empire, a recent incident in the capital had attracted the attention of many people.
Demons liked to fight and drink wine. Wine had become an indispensable necessity of life which was suitable for both men and women. Especially in the context of no large-scale war and sufficient food, the tavern was always one of the most popular places for business regardless of the estates.
The Demon Realm had 2 types of wine. 1 was rice wine which was brewed from a crop similar to rice called the “drunk rice”. Due to the simple production process, the rice wine tasted bitter and ordinary. It belonged to low-end wine; the other was fruit wine which was fermented and mixed with various spices. It had a pleasant taste and had many varieties. It was a mid-to-high-end wine. Among them, the purple berry wine of the Dark Shadow Empire and the black grape wine of the Fallen Angel Empire were the most popular.
In the past few days, several places in the city had been filled with people all day long. The reason was simple. From time to time, this place had a peculiar wine fragrance. This wine fragrance was extremely rich which made people feel drunk when smelling it.
“What wine is this?”
“It’s so fragrant!”
“It’s not black grape wine! It’s not purple berry wine!”
“This is not fruit wine or rice wine. I have never smelled such fragrant wine before!”
“…”
These places were precisely the branches of Princess Retail Store scattered in various locations of the capital. Originally, these branches were almost closed down under the crowding out of the nearby shops. Other shops would rather sell the same kind of goods at a loss, so their business was extremely bleak. However, these strange wine fragrances had attracted a large number of customers. No doubt, most of them went for the wine.
The wine fragrance emanated from a small wine gla.s.s in a magic circle. Obviously, this magic circle had the function of spreading and magnifying. It aroused the strong interest of customers. They all wanted to taste it quickly, and they asked the shop a.s.sistants about the price of this wine.
The Princess Retail Store’s answer was this type of wine was called the aromatic millet wine. It was the latest fine wine developed by the Princess Retail Store. The quant.i.ty was limited and was currently not available for sale. The Princess Villa in the southern suburbs, which was originally the Leisure Moon Inn, would be open for business the day after tomorrow. At that time, they could buy this limited supply of fine wine while dining by virtue of the VIP card of the Princess Retail Store.
The higher the VIP level, the greater the discount they could get, and the more wine they could buy. For example, the white crystal VIP could order 1 bottle of millet wine; purple crystal VIP could order 2 bottles and enjoy a 5% discount; black crystal VIP could order 3 bottles and a 10% discount… If they didn’t have a VIP card, the price would not be more expensive, but each person could only order a small gla.s.s.
It turns out to be a newly researched fine wine! Everyone felt impatient as their eyes fell on the alluring beauty of the s.h.i.+ning yellow wine in the small wine gla.s.s. If it weren’t for the magic circle’s strong defensive power, perhaps someone would have rushed up and drunk it.
Princess Retail Store took the opportunity to launch a rare special discount event in celebration of the opening of the Princess Villa the day after tomorrow. By just buying 2, 3, 4 or more bundle products, one could get 3 VIP cards of white crystal, purple crystal, and black crystal; If one acc.u.mulate spending in any of the Demon Realm’s Princess Retail Store to a certain level, the person could also get a special blood crystal VIP card; as for the highest level of gold crystal card, it was generally only given to some of the most distinguished guests which represented a status symbol.
Initially, the products of Princess Retail Store were famous for their high quality and outstanding reputation. They followed the brand route with rare discounts. Now they finally launched a discount campaign, coupled with the excitement of the fine wine, the business suddenly exploded dozens of times whether in the capital’s head office or its branches. The supply of all kinds of products was in short supply, and even many stocks were sold out. The people in the capital were rus.h.i.+ng to tell others that the Princess Villa in the southern suburbs would open the day after tomorrow, then the fine wine called the aromatic millet wine would finally be introduced.
“You are a cunning human financial officer indeed. With a few tricks, the Princess Retail Store and Princess Villa have become the focus of the capital.” Isabella looked at the flow of people in and out of the Princess Retail Store from a distance and lamented.
“You have over-praised, beautiful Ms. Dark Demon.” Chen Rui smiled, “It’s just a little trick. In front of the expert who plays tricks like miss, I am not worthy of accepting the ‘cunning’ praise.”
Isabella’s charming eyes rolled, “This kind of wine never appeared in the Dark Moon. When did you start brewing? How come I don’t know about it?”
Chen Rui chuckled, “There are still many things that you don’t know. It seems that we need to learn more about each other.”
Millet wine was something he had been preparing for a long time. Chen Rui’s previous life’s grandfather was from Shaoxing. He made millet wine every year. Under the unconscious influence of what he constantly heard or saw, he was naturally familiar with these processes. He wanted to make a batch of millet wines when he was developing the Dark Moon, but the wine craftsmans.h.i.+p of the Demon Realm was different from the world of Chen Rui. There was no “brewer’s yeast” necessary for brewing the millet wine.
The raw materials of brewer’s yeast were wheat and beans that grow mycelium at a certain temperature. These processes seemed easy, but they were not so simple to execute. Chen Rui wrote down the process which he could remember and gave it to Tim at Mountain Xilang’s Walan Fortress.
Tim was very attentive to this and asked his wife, Lysa, to take charge of this matter. This was an accidental luck as the medusa tribe showed an unexpected talent in brewing wine, and they quickly cultivated the brewer’s yeast. Subsequently, in repeated experiments, the diluted Fountain of Vitality and the high-quality drunk rice grown on the improved soil were successfully used to create a millet wine that was more fragrant than Chen Rui imagined. It was named “aromatic millet wine” by Chen Rui.
After the millet wine was brewed, it must be sealed in a cool, dry place for a period of time to make the wine more aromatic and delicate. Just when the first batch of millet wine was produced and started to be stored, Obsidian launched a war against the Dark Moon. The entire Dark Moon was in an emergency state of preparation. Chen Rui also went to the White Feather Estate, so he didn’t have any time for these wines.
Later, Obsidian was defeated and died. Shea took control of the empire, and Chen Rui also remembered this. Initially, he wanted to seal up the wine for a period of time before taking it out, but the situation of the capital was undesirable for Shea, so he needed to alleviate the situation as soon as possible. Therefore, he asked Tim to transport the wine to the Dark Moon through the Rainbow Valley.
To Chen Rui’s surprise, these millet wines that were not sealed for enough time actually tasted surprisingly mellow which was better than the wines from his previous life. After asking, it turned out that the place where Lysa chose to seal the wine was the Earth Realm of the earth elementals. Probably it was miraculously affected by the power of the purest earth element. With the medusas’ brewing skill, the Fountain of Vitality as raw materials, coupled with the power of Earth Elemental King’s Earth Realm, they were already unique in terms of producers and materials.
Isabella’s charming eyes curled up, “If Prince Consort Royal Highness is not afraid of Her Majesty Empress being jealous, you might as well come to the small house in the northern suburbs to meet a sinister and cunning woman the day after tomorrow.”
Chen Rui’s eyes lit up. Since the last time he saw through the death will in Isabella’s mind, she had been hiding from him. Now, she was finally willing to face it. He said joyfully, “The brave warrior will definitely defeat the terrifying dragon to rescue the beautiful princess.”
“Defeat? You mean bribe, right?” Isabella smiled like a flower. “Relax, the miser little dragon is now with the real princess. No one would want a poor girl like me.”
Chen Rui looked into her eyes and said seriously, “I want.”
A thin mist surged in Isabella’s blue eyes, then she avoided his gaze, “By the way, why haven’t I seen Zola these days? There is a little problem with an item that she gave me last time. I want her to take a look.”
If it was a magic item or something, Chen Rui could also solve this problem, but he didn’t want to force Isabella too tightly. So, he said, “In the past 2 days, she took a few lamp spirits to the Rainbow Valley to experiment. She will go back to the palace tonight. You can find her by then.”
“I will go. Your new thing is still debugging, right? You should concentrate on that now. Leave the Princess Villa matters to me. There are only 3 days left before the deadline for the negotiation. We are running out of time.”
The millet wine strategy was planned before the arrival of Catherine’s envoys. It was initially a long-term economic strategy. A letter from Catherine disrupted this plan, especially the 7-day limit, making time extremely urgent. Initially, this strategy could not play its due role in the short term. Nonetheless, Isabella said she had a way, but she couldn’t say it in advance. Shea didn’t ask further and gave Isabella the greatest authority to act before reporting on this crucial matter.
Since the decisive battle of Town Leith, Chen Rui had felt that the relations.h.i.+p between Shea and Isabella seemed a bit subtle or it was a tacit understanding perhaps. Naturally, the more harmonious, the better it was for the crystal harem. He would not be so foolish to ask in front of the 2 women.
“Okay.” Chen Rui nodded. Due to the arrival of the Dark Shadow Empire envoys, a new item needed to be released in advance, so he was very busy these days.
Chen Rui’s marketing strategy was quite successful. Not only the Princess Retail Store business became unprecedentedly well, but the new wine was also advertised for free. The news that the best wine would be launched in Princess Villa in the southern suburbs spread like wildfire, which attracted the attention of many businesses. Especially the famous wine giant, Plinton, of the capital. Plinton was an important member of the Mishan Family and the president of the Night Chamber of Commerce. The Night Chamber of Commerce was a chamber of commerce jointly established by the Mishan Family, Boll Family, Leif Family and other elder families. It almost monopolized the black grape wine of the entire Empire. The emergence of a new wine now had a huge impact on both the Mishan Family, who made its fortune in the wine industry, and the Night Chamber of Commerce as a whole.
In the long run, once the new wine and Princess Villa became popular, the fixed economic structure of the capital would be broken. It was also quite unfavorable for the elder families to control certain aspects of the capital. Their loss would make Shea the biggest beneficiary. At present, Shea’s attention was focused on dealing with the Dark Shadow Empire’s negotiation. It was just right she could take precautions and eliminate the threat in the early stage.
The Night Chamber of Commerce urgently convened an internal meeting for this matter. They unanimously approved to fully adopt a series of measures to resolutely curb the sales of this new wine which even included various insidious tricks.
However, before these tricks were played, Mishan Family’s wine cellar in the eastern suburb suddenly caught fire the night before the opening of the Princess Villa. There was a big explosion. Tens of thousands of fine wines were burned. This bad news made Plinton almost faint.
TL: What is Chen Rui using to negotiate with the Dark Shadow Empire? Will he offer an economic value that changed Catherine’s decision?