Translator: ChuRen/ YuQiChen
Tuanzi was angry.
How did Su Shaobai know it was angry? It was simple — the little cat who usually liked to curl up on his belly decided to sleep in a separate room tonight. It sat alone on the swing, refusing to move.
Su Shaobai was used to the comfort of having Tuanzi nearby. Yesterday, having the cat by his side helped ease his unease, making him feel less alone in this strange time and space. This was his second night here, and he didn’t want to be alone.
Unfortunately, the little white kitten showed no sympathy. It turned away and refused to look at the boy who was nearby.
“Tuanzi, aren’t you cold sleeping here?” Su Shaobai coaxed softly. “Tuanzi, how about I make you meatballs tomorrow? Or braised fish? Or do you want some seafood?”
All those foods were quite expensive, but Su Shaobai was ready to spend all his remaining credit points tomorrow just to buy food for Tuanzi.
“Tuanzi, Tuanzi, look at me, Tua…ah!” Su Shaobai suddenly got scratched on the face by Tuanzi’s sharp claws that appeared unexpectedly. A thin red line with a trace of blood showed up.
Both Su Shaobai and the kitten froze, staring at each other without moving.
After a moment, Su Shaobai stood up, feeling wronged and angry, and said, “Fine, then you stay by yourself.”
With that, he turned and left.
Night fell, and the boy and cat slept separated by a wall. The summer wind was strong, rustling leaves and flowers outside. Su Shaobai groggily opened his eyes, checked the time—it was past midnight. Habitually, he reached to touch the little white kitten who usually liked to lie on his belly, but the kitten was gone.
“Tuanzi?” Su Shaobai got up to check if he had accidentally kicked the cat from the bed. Looking around by the moonlight, he suddenly remembered Tuanzi was sleeping in a separate room tonight.
“Why am I getting mad at a cat!” Su Shaobai muttered as he scratched his fluffy hair and walked barefoot out of the room.
From afar, he saw Tuanzi curled up on the swing frame, tiny and looking pitiful.
Su Shaobai approached, crouched down, and gently petted Tuanzi. Feeling the fur was a bit cold, he quickly picked it up and hurried back to his room. Getting sick would be troublesome — he had no money to treat it.
Tuanzi the Tyrant: You’re smart.
The little white kitten curled in Su Shaobai’s arms, a smile tugging at the corner of its mouth that even it wasn’t aware of.
Successfully holding the kitten again, Su Shaobai could now sleep soundly despite the strong wind and rustling trees outside. Even when Tuanzi got up from his arms, he didn’t notice a thing.
People with higher spiritual power also possessed strong night vision. The thin red scratch on Su Shaobai’s face was especially striking. Tuanzi stepped on his face, lowered its head, and licked the wound twice. Then it nestled back against Su Shaobai’s chest and fell asleep.
The next day, still dreaming, Su Shaobai saw himself carrying a heavy stone as he walked. As he went on, the stone suddenly pressed down. Su Shaobai let out a loud shout and jolted awake, realizing it was just a dream.
Feeling his wildly beating heart, Su Shaobai exhaled deeply and looked around. Where was Tuanzi?
“Could he have gone out so early?” Su Shaobai wondered—usually, Tuanzi woke later than him.
Thinking this over, he got out of bed barefoot and stepped onto something soft…
“Meow!”
“Tuanzi, you’ve scratched me again.”
The kitten’s miserable cries and Su Shaobai’s voice rang out simultaneously, followed by a commotion downstairs. Mother Tang laughed; ever since Xiao Su came to live there, the household had grown livelier.
Today, Su Shaobai didn’t have much to do. Grandpa Tang’s health wasn’t good, so he stayed indoors, and Tang Xinghe went to work at school. Their school library was open to the public during summer vacation, where she served as a librarian. Tang Xingchen went to collect electronic waste. Clearly, what had happened yesterday was making the family feel the weight of financial pressure once again.
If Grandpa Tang could take better special medicine, maybe his spiritual storm wouldn’t have happened so quickly.
Su Shaobai took the little kitten to weed the orchard and picked the already ripe fruit. He sighed once more, wishing he had white liquor to make fruit wine. After harvesting the fruit, he started pulling weeds in the orchard.
That evening’s meal was made by Su Shaobai, yet he didn’t know that his winemaking video from yesterday had been sent to the Imperial Military Academy Research Institute.
“Professor Ouyang, what do you think?” A young man stood next to the senior professor, watching the video of the young boy stomping grapes while narrating, feeling slightly excited.
“The possibility is very high. His method should be the oldest winemaking technique, and he seems very skilled.” Professor Ouyang specialized in researching special medicines for treating ‘spiritual storms’.
Since humans first acquired spiritual power, spiritual storms had occurred alongside it. Yet no one expected that over time, this mental illness would worsen and even threaten the empire’s survival.
It was discovered over four thousand years ago that wine could treat spiritual storms—about a thousand years after spiritual power first appeared. But it was also found that producing high-purity wine was not easy, especially after machines completely replaced manual winemaking.
Though the taste improved, tests showed a substance in the wine was disappearing. This substance, now called ‘wine quality’, effectively soothed and treated spiritual storms.
Since then, the empire’s wine industry was revived. Many families plunged into winemaking. Through semi-handcrafted winemaking, several families controlled half of the empire’s lifeblood after thousands of years.
“Register an account for me—I want to follow him,” Professor Ouyang said, his heart stirred. The mission given to him by His Majesty finally had hope of fulfillment.
…
Tonight, only Tang Xingchen came back for dinner, joined by Grandpa Tang in his room—three people in total.
“Xingchen, was tonight’s meal made by Xiao Su?” Grandpa Tang took a sip of soup, and the sharp pain from the fierce clashes in his spiritual valve eased a little.
“Ah, Grandpa, how did you know? I know, because Su-gege cooks well, right?” Tang Xingchen also thought Su-gege’s food was special, especially delicious, though she couldn’t explain exactly how it was special.
Grandpa Tang smiled but said nothing. He thought of the cat in Xiao Su’s mouth—since he stayed here, maybe he sensed Xiao Su’s uniqueness?
He hoped meeting Xiao Su was a good thing. Looking across the empire, only he could truly protect Xiao Su.
After finishing dinner, Su Shaobai took a shower, changed into new clothes, and started the livestream.
His small support group had been waiting eagerly. Once the stream started, they wanted to throw virtual flowers but froze.
The boy sitting at the wooden table wore a white shirt, unbuttoned at the collar to reveal a sexy collarbone. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, looking casual, relaxed, yet polite.
[Wanna touch? Doesn’t matter, I’ll touch! Haha, I’m the first!]
[Touch the air, then!]
Someone muttered in disbelief. The holographic five senses could materialize objects, but people could set up shielding. Otherwise, how many good-looking streamers would get creeped on?
[Air is still something to touch!]
[Cut it out, don’t cause trouble for young master. You’re dead meat.]
[Yeah, the platform monitors everything. If the stream gets shut down, you’re toast.]
There weren’t many viewers—just a few hundred. Besides the small support group members, some came for the looks, others came after hearing Su Shaobai’s words about winemaking and finding he had some expertise.
On the table were five bottles of wine, five empty cups, and a glass of chilled water. Su Shaobai smiled at the camera:
“Hello everyone, there are nine days left until the first fermentation of grape wine is opened. Today we start the first livestream wine tasting. I bought five bottles from StarNet, all machine-brewed from wineries. Today, we’ll taste them and see which shop’s wine has the best value and taste.”
[Here it is! Hey, why only five cups? What about us?]
[Am I the only one wondering why the wine is pixelated?]
“If I think the wine is okay, I’ll reveal the shop; if it doesn’t meet my minimum standard, I won’t,” Su Shaobai explained.
[Ah, why? Streamer, are you afraid people will hit you?]
“You’re really smart,” Su Shaobai smiled.
The livestream chat burst into laughter at Su Shaobai, with many joking that if anyone tried to hit him, his frail little frame would probably go flying with a single punch.
Su Shaobai: …
He opened all five bottles of red wine and poured them into glasses. From one to five, each glass had a different color. The viewers were stunned by Su Shaobai’s straightforward and rough approach.
[Wait, streamer, aren’t you going to aerate the wine?]
[Tasting wine isn’t just about the year, winery, or grape variety, right? Streamer, did you skip steps? Usually, someone else pours, you close your eyes, taste, then guess the wine and vintage, right?]
[Yeah, that’s how wine tasting videos usually go!]
[Pfft, finally exposed! Hahaha.]
[Throwing that noble son persona out the window, today’s stream is spot on.]
Listening to these comments, Su Shaobai glanced at the viewer count—over 700—and saw half the chat mocking him. After a moment’s thought, he said, “Thanks for coming. Without you, the traffic might’ve been even lower!”
Troll: …Do I leave or stay here?
Passerby: Haha, this streamer is really entertaining.
Seeing the confusion, Su Shaobai replied, “I’m just here to see which wine tastes good or not. The year, winery, grape type—forget that. I don’t know.”
Viewers: …
Perfect wine tasting requires deep familiarity with grape varieties used for winemaking and comprehensive knowledge of local climates. Su Shaobai had just arrived a couple days ago and really had no idea how many kinds of grapes the empire had, where each grew, or what climate was like over the years. So, all he could do was judge if it tasted good.
“Wine is meant to be drunk, not overanalyzed. As long as it tastes good, it doesn’t matter the year or origin. I just judge how good it tastes and who it suits,” Su Shaobai said seriously, looking directly at the viewers.
[Pfft, simple and blunt—I like it.]
[Hahaha, that’s right. Wine is meant to be enjoyed.]
[Pfft, only low-level people would drink it like bulls chewing on peonies1basically being unable to enjoy fineries and only doing it for the taste.]
[Wait, did I see that right? The person who said ‘meant to be drunk’—is that the Du family’s elder’s account?]
[The Du family, one of the four great winemaking families?]
[Hahaha, the one who said ‘pfft’, you’re finished!]
[Whoa, what’s going on? Only one day in, and such an important figure appears?]
[This streamer’s gonna blow up. When that happens, remember to call me a half-immortal.]
The chat exploded as a user unknown to Su Shaobai suddenly appeared. Word spread quickly, and within just over ten minutes, the viewer count shot up dramatically.
Su Shaobai watched the soaring online numbers and nodded approvingly. Good. In the future, I want to be an amazing winemaker like this too.
No reuploading anywhere else.
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I’m currently translating these novels as well~
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