Acai's Sky

Chapter 875 The Little Nun Going Down the Mountain 17

In the lobby of the inn, everyone took their seats. Ah Da hurriedly asked the waiter to serve the dishes, and he swiftly took out a jar of fruit wine from the space button and prepared to pour wine for everyone.

Seeing this, everyone joined in the fun and wanted to taste this jar of fine wine.

"Hiss, what kind of wine is this? It tastes so sweet. Just smelling it makes me feel relaxed all over!" A middle-aged businessman dressed in silk and satin exclaimed while wiping the saliva from the corner of his mouth.

The uncle next to him couldn't help but laugh when he saw this, and teased, "Haha, you really haven't seen the world! I heard that a few days ago, the city lord even asked several Taoist priests from Xu Ming Temple for a gourd of high-proof white wine. The taste, wow, it's so intoxicating!"

After hearing this, the businessman's eyes lit up, and he immediately looked at Acai, who was sitting in the center of the crowd like a star surrounded by others.

I saw Ah Cai wearing a small Taoist robe, like a fairy who was not of this world.

The businessman secretly wondered in his heart, could this Acai be from Xu Ming Temple?

At this moment, Ah Da poured Xiao Shun another small cup of mulberry wine and introduced it with a smile: "Come, Xiao Shun, try this wine. This is brewed by our young lady herself, it has amazing effects!"

The "miracle effect" that Ah Da mentioned was actually because Ah Cai used her unique cooking skills when brewing this wine.

This skill not only makes the wine taste more mellow, but also randomly adds some attributes to the drinker.

Ah Da thought that if he gave Xiao Shun this glass of wine, maybe it would randomly add some useful attributes to him.

When Ah Cai heard the merchants at the next table mention the Taoist priest of Xu Ming Temple, she pouted. These old Taoist priests would have one-fifth of the wine they brewed taken away every time. If she hadn't hidden it quickly, they would have taken it all away.

She squinted her eyes at the businessman and immediately made some calculations.

Her fingertips stroked the mulberry paper sealing the wine jar, but her ears were perked up to listen to the conversation between the merchant and the uncle - the sweet aroma of fruit wine mixed with the aroma of peppery mutton bone soup wafting from the kitchen, swirling around her nose, reminding her of the old mulberry tree behind the Sutra Pavilion in the temple, whose fruits were stolen by the old Taoists.

"This guest is well-informed."

She suddenly tilted her head and continued, tapping the wine jar lightly with her fingertips. The aroma of mulberry wine sealed in the jar immediately wafted out. "But it's Xu Ming Monastery's wine. Nine of the ten jars will be exchanged for blue bricks for the temple. The remaining one..."

She raised her eyes slightly and looked at the agate abacus hanging from the merchant's waist. "I'm afraid it's not enough to fill the gaps in the City Lord's Mansion's teeth."

Before he could finish his words, the waiter at the next table who was wiping his sweat passed by with a celadon bowl in his hand. A few drops of pickled fish soup spilled out of the bowl and splashed onto the merchant's shiny soap boots.

The businessman hurriedly stood up to wipe it, but Ah Cai caught a glimpse of half a drawing slipping out from his sleeve. The corners were painted with overlapping cargo boxes and a fleet, and in the lower right corner was circled with cinnabar pen "Tomorrow at 5 pm, Pier No. 3".

She had an idea and quietly performed a clearing eyes technique with her fingertips - and sure enough, she saw a faint green aura floating on the businessman's forehead, like a crumpled ginkgo leaf, which was exactly the sign of "water disaster coming" in the proverb.

"Xiao Shun, watch your step after drinking."

Ah Cai turned to look at the young man who was holding a wine glass in a daze. His clothes were still stained with the sugar painting residue he had touched when he entered the city during the day. "Last month, Hunter Wang drank the hawthorn wine I brewed, and the pheasants he hunted were twice as fat as usual."

Before he finished speaking, Xiao Shun's eyes suddenly widened - the palm of his hand holding the cup was emitting a faint fluorescent light, and when his fingertips touched the wooden table, they left a translucent palm print on the table, with fine golden light flowing between the lines.

"It's the 'wind-walking pattern'!"

Ah Da whispered beside him, and the copper bell given by the young lady on his sleeve rang softly with his movements, "The wine that the young lady brewed in the peach forest last year really contained the essence of Chunyan."

Before he finished speaking, Xiao Shun suddenly stumbled to his feet. His right leg, which had been a little lame, was surprisingly steady. He tried to jump twice on the spot, and the wooden floor creaked under his feet. "I, I think I can catch up with the pigeons on the city wall!"

Everyone in the room was shocked, and a few beads on the merchant's abacus fell with a clatter. He stared at the jade pendant swaying on Acai's waist, and suddenly remembered the scene he saw at the west dock of the city three days ago - several cargo ship workers were sighing at the overturned wine jars, saying that a strange wind suddenly blew on the river last night, blowing the entire ship's cargo into pieces.

Looking at the movement of Ah Cai's fingertips unconsciously sliding across the wine jar at this moment, it was somewhat similar to the gesture of the old boatman on the dock when he was offering sacrifices to the river.

"I'm afraid your boots need to be aired out for a while."

Ah Cai suddenly pulled out a brocade bag embroidered with water ripples from her sleeve and gently tossed it to the merchant. "If you go to the dock tomorrow, remember to keep the cargo box three feet away from the side of the ship."

Seeing the merchant's puzzled expression, she added, "Last night, the Qingluan Mirror reflected that the old Dragon King at the bottom of the river has been drinking too much osmanthus wine lately and always likes to sweep passing ships with his tail."

Everyone in the hall burst into laughter, except for the merchant who tightened his grip on the brocade bag.

He suddenly noticed that half of a red rope was exposed at the collar of Acai's Taoist robe, and tied to the rope was the "wind chime" unique to the disciples of Xu Ming Temple - it was made of the resin of the ancient pine in front of the temple mixed with morning dew, and it would make a light sound similar to the sound of the tide when it came into contact with water.

The crisp sound of frying in an iron pan came from the kitchen. The waiter walked across the lobby carrying freshly-cooked scallion pancakes. The heat made the candlelight flicker.

Ah Cai took the opportunity to add another spoonful of wine to Xiao Shun's bowl. The fluorescent light condensed into silver threads as thin as hair in the wine, and gradually gathered into the shape of a flapping swallow - this was the result of her secretly incorporating the remaining pages of the "Wind God Talisman" in the temple into the wine yeast. Ordinary people would only feel the clear aroma of the wine after drinking it, and only those with a compatible physique could stimulate a short period of wind-attribute energy.

"Ada, put away the remaining wine," Ah Cai suddenly whispered, her eyes sweeping over the drawings the merchant was gradually putting away. "If there's a heavy rain tomorrow, remember to remind the innkeeper to secure the window frames on the second floor with chains."

As she spoke, she stood up. When the hem of her Taoist robe brushed against the wooden stool, the carvings on the corner of the stool suddenly flashed with light - that was the warning mark left by the "Earth and Wood Curse" just now. If water approached, it would turn into blue water ripples.

...

The merchant looked at Ah Cai's back as she walked towards the stairs, and suddenly found that with each step she took, a fleeting cloud pattern would appear on the wooden floor, which looked very much like the "Moving Clouds and Raining Picture" on the Yuanyang City Gate that had been eroded by wind and rain.

He touched the brocade bag at his waist and suddenly felt as if there was something alive vibrating gently inside. He leaned in to listen carefully and it sounded like the sound of the tide coming from the distant river.

When Ah Cai's figure disappeared around the corner of the stairs, Xiao Shun suddenly pointed at the palm print he had just left and exclaimed - the translucent mark had turned light blue at some point, and the outline of the dock was faintly reflected between the lines, and countless tiny water droplets were converging in a certain direction.

The shopkeeper quietly took out his abacus, pinched the "water" character on the beads, and suddenly laughed softly: "Our little fairy lady, I'm afraid she has even calculated the Dragon King's wine bill."

The candlelight grew brighter, illuminating a few strings of small bells woven from mugwort that had appeared on the beams of the lobby, swaying gently in the breeze.

The merchant stared at the undried soup stains on his boots, and suddenly remembered what Ah Cai said, "three feet away from the side of the ship." He hurriedly called the servant and ordered him to move the cargo box containing Shu brocade to the center of the cabin when unloading the cargo tomorrow.

At this time, in the private room on the second floor, Ah Cai was using the moonlight to check the blueprints she had "taken" from the merchant's sleeve. She pointed her fingertips at "Pier No. 3" and a sly smile appeared at the corner of her lips - the old Dragon King's wine cellar needed to be restocked, and it was just right to exchange the merchant's Shu brocade for a few jars of century-old wine, so that the old Taoists in the temple would not always worry about the illegal liquor she hid under the ginkgo tree.

The sound of Xiaoshun's running footsteps could be heard downstairs, mixed with Ada's voice reminding him to "don't drop the wine jar."

Ah Cai looked out the window. The lanterns on the city wall formed a string of pearls in the night. She suddenly thought of the dandelions she saw during the day. It turned out that the disasters in this world are like whispers in the wind. They seem scattered, but they have already been woven into a web by the fingertips of those who care.

She touched the wind chime at her waist. The faint whisper of the river breeze came from the chime, with a hint of the impending rain. It was as if the old Dragon King was muttering in the distance, "The little girl's mulberry wine is sweeter than last year's."