From Evil Sect Leader to Doctor

Wang Jinwu said, "Even if you haven’t eaten pork, you’ve seen pigs run. With so many doctor friends around, I’ve picked it up just by being around them."

"Why does it sound like you’re cursing?"

Wang Jinwu laughed heartily, "I don’t know how to talk properly, don’t take it the wrong way, I’m not cursing at you."

At this moment, a staff member from the farm knocked and entered the room: "President Wang, everything is arranged. We’ll slaughter the pig early tomorrow morning."

With the New Year approaching, Wang Jinwu arranged to have the wild boars they’ve raised for two years slaughtered.

Slaughtering pigs for the New Year is also a traditional custom. Wang Jinwu explained that pigs raised these days are slaughtered at six to twelve months, eating feed. Their farm’s pigs were raised on bran and leftovers, drinking mountain spring water, with a long growth cycle. These two pigs are both over two years old.

The pig will be slaughtered because Tong Guangsheng’s family is returning for the festival this year. Wang Jinwu asked Xu Chunliang to come over tomorrow for the pig-offering meal, and preferably bring Mei Ru Xue along as well.

Xu Chunliang saw that it was about the right time, so he called Fan Lidada. Fan Lidada had drunk quite a bit around noon, and if he didn’t call to wake him, he would probably sleep until dawn.

After freshening up, Fan Lidada arrived at the waterfront restaurant, and the dinner began. After the meal came the barbecue. The original intention was to come for an inspection, but after arriving, it turned into just drinking.

At eleven o’clock in the evening, Xu Chunliang helped the drunken Fan Lidada back to his room. Excited from drinking, Fan Lidada patted Xu Chunliang vigorously on the shoulder and said, "Brother, you are too hospitable, too grand."

Xu Chunliang laughed, "No need to be polite with me. When you come to Weishan Island in the future, we’ll have revolution drinks every day."

Fan Lidada nodded repeatedly, "Because of what you just said, I will definitely come, I must come. By the way, you haven’t told anyone else about my matter, right?"

Xu Chunliang said, "I haven’t uttered a single word."

Fan Lidada gave him a thumbs up, lowered his voice, and said, "From now on, your matter is my matter. As long as your brother can do it, it’ll be a green light all the way."

Xu Chunliang thought to himself, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Alcohol really is a wonderful thing, for someone like Fan Lidada who loves to drink, you have to drink properly. Once the relationship is opened up with a drink, it’ll be smooth sailing to ask for his help in the future.

Xu Chunliang whispered, "Don’t rush to go back, we’ll slaughter a pig tomorrow, have some pig-offering dishes before you leave."

Fan Lidada said, "No way, I have to go back early tomorrow morning to report to the leader about work, and there’s also the office location matter for which I need to quickly submit a report." Despite having drunk a lot, he hadn’t forgotten these important things.

Xu Chunliang said, "Then you rest first, tomorrow morning I’ll arrange a yacht to send you back."

"Don’t trouble yourself, really, no special treatment please."

Xu Chunliang smiled, "It’s no trouble at all, this farm is just like our own home."

Xu Chunliang came outside, where Wang Jinwu and Zhang Haitao were together helping the completely drunk Xiaowang back to his room.

Wang Jinwu had already prepared a room for Xu Chunliang, but Xu Chunliang indicated that he needed to return to the hospital tonight. Zhang Haitao hadn’t drunk any alcohol this evening and driving posed no problems.

Xu Chunliang called Wang Jinwu aside and arranged for him to send some pork to Fan Lidada after slaughtering the pig tomorrow morning.

Wang Jinwu reassured him not to worry, not just wild boar meat, but also lake fresh produce would be provided, and they’d deliver them directly using a yacht, with vehicles arranged at Ancient Spring Town to ensure delivery to their doorstep.

Although Xu Chunliang hadn’t disclosed Fan Lidada’s identity, Wang Jinwu could tell from Xu Chunliang’s attitude and the special treatment that this person was very important. But actually, no matter the identity, as long as they were Xu Chunliang’s friends, Wang Jinwu would treat them as honored guests.

Zhang Haitao, after accompanying them from noon till evening, had somewhat guessed Fan Lidada’s identity. In the time spent with Xu Chunliang, he’d learned not to say or ask things he shouldn’t. Quietly, snow began to fall again in the night, covering the little island quietly and softly.

Passing by the Weishan Island Winery, Xu Chunliang instinctively glanced towards the entrance and noticed clear tire tracks in the snow. He told Zhang Haitao to park by the roadside. Those tire tracks were obviously left recently, as in his memory, the winery had been shut down for a long time.

Zhang Haitao asked in surprise, "Dean Xu, what’s the matter?"

Xu Chunliang said, "Nothing, I just want to take a walk, you head back first."

Zhang Haitao thought to himself, this isn’t far from the town government, Mei Ru Xue has returned, could it be that he wants to get rid of me to have a private meeting with his girlfriend? Anyway, it’s not something he can question, so he nodded and said, "Okay, just be careful."

After Xu Chunliang got out of the car, he waited until Zhang Haitao had driven far away before he slowly walked back. When he arrived at the front gate of the winery, he saw that the door was locked from the inside. Peeking through the crack in the gate, because of the reflection from the white snow, the scene in the yard was clear, revealing a van parked inside.

Xu Chunliang examined the tire tracks and could confirm that the vehicle had entered not long ago.

Trusting his instincts, Xu Chunliang felt something was odd. He went around to the other side, quietly climbed over the wall, and stealthily approached the van. Taking a peek inside, he found it empty. He touched the exhaust pipe, feeling its residual warmth, indicating the engine had been turned off not long ago.

A messy line of footprints led from the van deeper into the winery. Xu Chunliang followed the footprints to the vicinity of the old cellar pool and noticed flickering light through a broken workshop window.

Stooping down, Xu Chunliang made his way to beneath the window, but before he could peek inside, he heard voices and hurriedly hid in the bushes.

Two people came out, one of them lit a cigarette once outside, the flame illuminating his face clearly. It was undoubtedly Yan Zhongmin, the deputy director of the winery.

Actually, Xu Chunliang had already guessed he would be there since the keys to the winery’s entrance were in his possession now.

Yan Zhongmin took a drag of his cigarette, the man beside him was wearing a blue police coat, a Lei Feng hat, his face covered in pockmarks, and said in broken Mandarin with a complaint: "It’s cold here in the south too!"

Yan Zhongmin said, "This isn’t the south, Dongzhou is located north of the river."

The pockmarked man chuckled: "I’m from Inner Mongolia, so to me, you are the south."

Yan Zhongmin shook his head, unable to refute, took another drag and said, "What’s so great about inspecting this lousy winery? Can’t you come during the day? Why must it be at night?"

The pockmarked man said: "Daytime would be too conspicuous."

Yan Zhongmin looked at him, puzzled.

The pockmarked man realized his slip of tongue and quickly explained: "Actually, we’re not the only ones eyeing the winery. Mainly, we don’t want to alert the competitors."

Yan Zhongmin said: "You’re overthinking it. Besides your Qianfan Group, no one else is interested in this wreck."

Xu Chunliang was taken aback, the pockmarked man was actually from Qianfan Group. This Chen Qianfan is not simple. Barely after leaving, he sends someone to inspect. Yet he didn’t contact me, nor the local government, instead reaching out privately to Yan Zhongmin.

If he genuinely wanted to acquire the winery, he wouldn’t do it this way. He could have followed formal channels openly, and surveyed during the day, and choosing to do it in the dead of night, there must be more to it.

Yan Zhongmin also became suspicious: "If you’re really keen on acquiring, why not negotiate with the town to buy it? Once acquired, you can inspect however you want."

The pockmarked man said: "To be honest, we’re mainly interested in the three fermentation pits. We need to assess them completely before proposing an acquisition price to the relevant departments."

Yan Zhongmin said: "Hurry up and get the samples."

The pockmarked man said: "Don’t worry, you won’t lose out."

Yan Zhongmin shook his head, indicating he’d wait in the car; that van was his as well.

The pockmarked man watched Yan Zhongmin’s back, a trace of a cold smile on his face.

Not long after Yan Zhongmin left, a short man emerged and said to the pockmarked man: "Lao Liu, what did you tell him?"

The pockmarked man said: "Second Brother, he seems suspicious."

"Screw him, two bricks can’t shut him up." By two bricks, he meant twenty thousand yuan.

The pockmarked man whispered: "How’s it going?"

The short man called Second Brother looked around and whispered: "There’s fish."

The pockmarked man said in surprise: "Big fish?"

Second Brother nodded: "Big fish!"

Xu Chunliang heard it all clearly from the bushes. He could ascertain that these people weren’t only after the wine cellar, as their conversation hinted at unsavory activities.

Actually, Xu Chunliang already suspected Chen Qianfan’s motives during his last visit. At the time, he thought Chen Qianfan aimed to acquire the winery, but the current situation seemed more complicated.

Old Chen, oh Old Chen, how many crafty tricks have you played behind my back? Xu Chunliang felt frustrated, I treated you as a friend, but you treated me as a fool.

The pockmarked man continued: "Shall we reel it in?"

The short man shook his head: "The fish is too big, and our boat too small."

The pockmarked man glanced around the winery and said: "Buy it?"

The short man nodded.

Before long, the short man announced they had finished, and people started to come out of the workshop. Xu Chunliang counted four people, plus the three from before, making seven in total.

Yan Zhongmin started the van, the group got in, and drove away from the winery.

Xu Chunliang waited for them to lock the doors before he emerged from hiding, entered the workshop, took out his phone, and turned on the flashlight. What lay before him was the old craft workshop of the distillery.

All three of the ancient fermentation pits mentioned by Chen Qianfan were in this craft workshop. Two of the pits had already collapsed, but Xu Chunliang found the more intact pit showed no signs of tampering, while pit number three, severely damaged, had clearly been disturbed.

Surrounding the pit were scattered kiln bricks and many footprints, obviously the main focus of that group from earlier.

Typically, the older the pit, the more beneficial microorganisms and aromatic substances there are in the mud, enhancing the fragrance of the wine. The value of these ancient pits is linked to the microbial communities they contain.

Xu Chunliang bent over pit number three for a closer smell but didn’t detect any wine aroma; the aroma in the workshop was coming from pit number one, which Chen Qianfan had mentioned last time as being usable.