Chương 18: The Wine Shop

Yuan Min's death was quite useful; it helped Fang Cheng narrow down the demon's hiding place. Now all he had to do was question everyone who'd interacted with Yuan Min yesterday, and he'd find the real mastermind.

"You two reflect on yourselves. I'll come back for you once I've dealt with the real killer." Fang Cheng left those words, used his Divine Energy, and shot out of Heavenly Blessing Teahouse, leaving Li Sanshui flustered and He Chunhua bewildered. At the noodle shop yesterday, Yuan Min had mentioned he was going to Harmony Wine Shop. Fang Cheng asked around on the way, taking a while to get the address. Harmony Wine Shop sat in the southeastern corner of the western district, a secluded spot.

Two large red lanterns hung at the entrance, looking quite festive. He pushed the door open and was greeted by a strong aroma of wine. He scanned the room. It was empty, no customers at all. Only an old man lay slumped over the counter, half-asleep. The demon sword inside Fang Cheng remained still, meaning the old man wasn't a demon. Fang Cheng walked over and knocked on the counter.

"Are you the wine shop owner, Xu Yongchang?"

"Who's that?" The old man lifted his head groggily, hiccuped, squinted for a moment, and decided the visitor was a stranger.

"If you want wine, go to the back and scoop it yourself. Pay whatever you want. Or don't." With that, he put his head back down. Fang Cheng was speechless. He'd never seen a business run like this. He shook the old man awake and got straight to the point.

"Owner Xu, I'm the new City God. I'm here to ask about Yuan Min."

"Oh! The new City God! Please, sit down. What would you like to drink?" Xu Yongchang jolted awake and gestured for Fang Cheng to sit. But soon, his head drooped again, and he began to snore. Fang Cheng shook him awake again.

"What did Yuan Min do here yesterday? Which of your staff did he meet?"

"Yuan Min? I know him. He comes here often." Xu Yongchang seemed sober now. As he spoke, he pulled out a tobacco pouch, lit his pipe, and took a drag.

"That fool likes cheap White Knife wine. Haha, what an idiot. I water it down, and he can't even tell. Easy to fool. His boss was different; he only drank aged yellow wine. Can't water that down. By the way, City God, do you know what White Knife is?" Xu Yongchang asked casually, but Fang Cheng's face darkened. He let out a cold laugh, as if recalling some unpleasant memory.

"Sweet potatoes, white-fleshed ones, fermented into wine. Sour and sharp. Goes down your throat like a knife. They make it because white sweet potatoes produce a lot. Even during droughts they grow. The more of this you eat, the more you'll be shitting out. Whatever's left over goes to the pigs. But pigs work the same way: the more they eat, the more they shit, and they just keep getting skinnier. In the end, the only thing to do is ferment it into liquor."

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Xu Yongchang's face lit up with surprise.

"Oh? You know about that? Rare. First time I've met a great cultivator who knows the history of White Knife." He rubbed his hands together, clearly impressed. Fang Cheng's lips curled slightly.

"Twenty years ago, there was a famine along the Great Sheng border. That's when I started remembering things."

"Oh, a survivor. No wonder the immortals chose you; you made it through." Xu Yongchang took another drag from his pipe.

"I heard people were so hungry they swapped children with other families. Why? Because they couldn't stomach eating their own. Hahaha, parental love runs deep, you can only watch someone else's child in the pot, never your own."

"Xu Yongchang, you're talking too much." Fang Cheng warned.

"Sorry, City God. Back to Yuan Min." Xu Yongchang smiled apologetically.

"He came at noon and took a jar of yellow wine for Zhang Ruilin. I didn't charge him, taking money from a dead man is bad luck."

"Then what?" Fang Cheng asked.

"Then he left. Oh, and this morning I heard you killed him. Good riddance. Living is tiring anyway. You're a kind man, City God, you sent that tired fool to his rest."Xu Yongchang said.

"City God, since you have time on your hands, you might as well kill Zhang Ruilin's wife too. She's a fine woman, pity she married a cultivator. Now he's dead, she'll never marry again, who'd marry a woman who can kill a cultivator? A woman alone in this world is just suffering, with no one to lean on. You're kind, City God. Send her off. Let her reincarnate into a better life." Fang Cheng frowned. He stared at the wine shop owner. Something felt wrong.

"When you said 'taking money from a dead man,' were you talking about Yuan Min or Zhang Ruilin?"

"What's the difference? They're both dead." Xu Yongchang hiccuped and grinned foolishly.

"City God, your tenure here has been too quiet. Everyone in White Flower City has heard there's a new City God, but few have seen you. If you ask me, you should get a band, wear red clothes, sit in a red sedan chair, like a bridegroom, and parade down the main street. Then everyone in town will know you."

"Why red?" Fang Cheng asked.

"Red's festive, of course." Xu Yongchang grinned.

"Look at your predecessor, Zhang Ruilin wore red burial clothes, lay in a red coffin. So lively, so festive. If the people see you in red, they'll feel like they're seeing their beloved City God again. They'll be overjoyed."

"Did you kill Yuan Min?" Fang Cheng suddenly asked. Xu Yongchang laughed heartily.

"Yes! Yuan Min deserved it. That ungrateful bastard was going to resign as temple keeper and leave White Flower City. Could I let him go? If he leaves, who's going to drink my White Knife? I've got hundreds of jars buried in the cellar. So I strangled him. Strangled him hard, snapped his neck clean off. Hahaha..." Xu Yongchang laughed low, his yellow teeth and eerie chuckle making him look particularly sinister. Fang Cheng watched him quietly. When the laughter stopped, he said, "Yuan Min was stabbed to death.

Not strangled." Xu Yongchang nodded.

"Of course. I stabbed him. If I'd broken his neck, he couldn't drink anymore. I took a big stick and stabbed him in the belly. But be careful, don't puncture the stomach. That's where the wine goes. Hahaha, Yuan Min had a big stomach. Bigger than my wine jars, big enough to hold a whole cow. A big stomach is good. They say a prime minister's belly can hold a boat. Yuan Min will be a great official in his next life. So he should thank us, City God. We're both kind, we sent him to a better reincarnation."

Fang Cheng's frown deepened. The man looked drunk, sounded drunk, but every word was strange.

"Did Zhang Ruilin come to your shop often?"

"Not often. His wife came more, to buy wine for him."

"But I feel like you knew him well."

"We did. He and Yuan Min were my only two customers."

"So you advised him to use red for his burial?"

"Of course. Red's festive. Look at the red lanterns outside, so festive. Too bad no one comes."

"Did you also give him the plans for the red coffin?" Fang Cheng shot the question suddenly. Xu Yongchang paused, took a slow drag from his pipe, and replied.

"City God, I'm in the wine business. Not the coffin business. Coffins... bad luck."