TATLC Chapter 38 — Sweet Potato Wine

The first snow of winter came quietly without anyone noticing.

After it started snowing, Lu Lin wouldn’t let Chen Xiaomi go hunting anymore. Chen Xiaomi used to work hard because life forced him to, but now he was holding onto more than eighty taels of silver, which made him feel like he could just laze around and wait for death from now on. He became pretty lazy.

“This kang bed is such a great thing!” Chen Xiaomi hugged his quilt and rolled around on the bed.

Lu Lin glanced at Chen Xiaomi and wondered if Chen Xiaomi learned this behavior from Xiaomai, who also loved wrapping himself in quilts and rolling around on the kang.

Chen Xiaomi hugged his quilt and rubbed against it with a blissful expression. The quilt was new, and Chen Xiaomi always felt it had a really nice smell.

In the past when it snowed, no matter how many clothes he wore, he would still feel cold. Every year, he used to worry about his little brother getting sick from the cold during this time, but this year he didn’t need to worry about that anymore.

He never knew that winter could be so comfortable.

Lu Lin pushed open the window and looked at the snow outside, murmuring, “This snow is really heavy!”

Chen Xiaomi glanced over. “This isn’t even that heavy. More than ten years ago, there was a year when the snow was especially heavy and a lot of people froze to death. This year, many families have kangs, so things should be better.”

During winter, there wasn’t much to do. Every household stayed inside to wait out the cold season. When there were sunny days, some villagers would gather in groups of two or three to chat.

Chen Xiaomi didn’t have much to talk about with the villagers. In previous years, it was just the three Chen brothers spending winter together. Xiaomai was still a child, and Xiaocai was pretty introverted. Although the three brothers had a good relationship, they didn’t have much to talk about. This year, with Lu Lin around, everything felt different.

Lu Lin turned to him. “That sweet potato wine should be ready soon.”

Chen Xiaomi blinked. “Can it really be turned into wine?”

Lu Lin looked at Chen Xiaomi and said, “We’ll know once we open a jar.”

Chen Xiaomi nodded. “That’s true.”

“If the wine turns out well, we can sell some of it,” Lu Lin suggested.

Chen Xiaomi tilted his head. “But we need to actually brew wine first!”

This spoiled, lazy young master. Can he really know how to brew alcohol? he thought doubtfully.

Lu Lin saw Chen Xiaomi’s expression and felt both amused and exasperated. “We’ll know once we go look…”

After hearing Lu Lin’s words, Chen Xiaomi couldn’t sit still anymore. He followed Lu Lin to the cellar.

They opened a jar of wine. The wine smelled pretty good, but two jars had gone bad and smelled sour.

Lu Lin figured this spoiled wine could be used to make vinegar, which would be putting waste to good use.

“This wine should sell too, but it’ll probably be cheaper,” Chen Xiaomi said.

Lu Lin smiled. “As long as we can sell it.” The manager at Hongyun Restaurant had been complaining about not having enough alcohol. He should be willing to buy this wine from them.

Chen Xiaomi tilted his head. “When we deliver alcohol to him this time, let’s bring a few jars of sweet potato wine as well.”

“In a few days, if the weather is good, we’ll make the trip,” Lu Lin said.

After it snowed, the roads became difficult to travel on. After the snow melted, the roads would be muddy again. If they had several days of good weather in a row, they should be able to make the trip.

Being idle every day was pretty boring anyway.

A few days later.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi loaded the sweet potato wine onto the mule cart, leaving Chen Xiaocai and Xiaomai at home to watch the house.

Before leaving, Xiao Mai stared longingly at Chen Xiaomi. Ever since his first trip to town, the boy had been eager to go back. When he learned Chen Xiaomi was heading there again, he made a fuss about wanting to go too.

Chen Xiaomi promised Chen Xiaomai that he would bring back something delicious for him, and Xiaomai finally gave up.

Chen Xiaomi hid inside the mule cart, munching on spicy strips.

When they first bought the mule cart, Chen Xiaomi was very curious about it. Every time they went out, he had to be the one driving. After a while, he lost interest in driving the mule cart and preferred to be lazy inside the cart instead, so Lu Lin became the driver.

During this time, Lu Lin had been quietly clearing out things from the convenience store.

The bottled water in the convenience store had no value in this place, so Lu Lin used it all up. As for the plastic bottles, Lu Lin secretly burned them.¹

Chen Xiaomi enthusiastically helped Lu Lin with part of the clearing task, by eating a lot of the snacks from the convenience store.

These spicy strips were his recent favorite. After eating the first pack, he couldn’t stop.

When they were at home, Lu Lin was afraid that Xiaocai and Xiaomai would discover them, so he never gave them to Chen Xiaomi to eat. Only when the two of them went into the mountains or went out would he give him a little.

“Give me another pack,” Chen Xiaomi demanded after finishing his snack, poking his head out toward Lu Lin.

Lu Lin glanced back. “No more. They’re all gone.”

Chen Xiaomi frowned. “How can they be gone already?”

Lu Lin explained helplessly, “There weren’t that many to begin with, and besides, this is junk food. Many parents don’t let their kids eat it…”

He was running a small business and couldn’t stock too much inventory. Besides, there were plenty of spicy strips in the convenience store originally, but Chen Xiaomi had eaten them all.

Thinking that he wouldn’t have spicy strips to eat in the future, Chen Xiaomi felt a bit down, but he quickly perked up again. “Are there any others? That chocolate, or those… what were they called? Chewy candies²?”

Lu Lin gave him a look. “None of them are healthy foods. Don’t eat too much.”

Chen Xiaomi waved him off. “Who cares about that? It’s good enough to have something to eat. You people from your place are really strange. You have food to eat but you’re still picky about this and that. It’s really hard to understand.”

Lu Lin: “…”