The fact that Yunbian Winery sent the news so early must mean it's not bad news.

After all, no one would send bad news first thing in the morning, and even if a cooperation fails, no one would be foolish enough to offend someone.

Offending Physician Ren and the nominal head of the village might not be a good thing for the distillery.

"What did the distillery say?"

Ren Yuan could no longer hide the smile on his face and said smugly, "I will be waiting for Physician Ren and the Township Head of Kangle at any time."

Therefore, this matter is a foregone conclusion.

Hearing the good news early in the morning, Lu Qiqi was in a good mood. She asked, "Does Imperial Physician Ren know anything about this? Where is he now?"

Ren Yuan had already guessed that Lu Qiqi would ask this question. "My father went to approve the order and asked me to come and find you. Let's go to the winery today to settle this matter."

That would be great; it would be good to finalize things and sign a contract as soon as possible.

Lu Qiqi looked down at her clothes, which were stained with blood. Wearing this to sign the cooperation agreement with the winery was really unsightly.

So she said to Ren Yuandao, "I'll go back to the camp first, and we'll meet at the exit."

"Okay, I'll go first."

Going against Ren Yuan's wishes, Lu Qiqi went straight back to her tent and quickly changed into clean clothes.

She saw the light blue dress she was wearing and changed into a misty blue one without thinking. Since it was a contract signing, she naturally wanted to look more mature and composed to avoid people worrying that she was too young and might cause trouble.

Throughout history, there have been many instances where people judged a book by its skirt before judging the person.

To her surprise, not only did her worries not come true, but things went exceptionally smoothly.

At that time, Lu Qiqi, along with Physician Ren and Ren Yuan, arrived at Yunbian Winery. The person leading them on a tour of the winery was Steward Yan.

The head steward pointed to the distilling equipment in front of him and said, "I suppose this is what the village head is referring to."

Looking at the steamer in front of her, Lu Qiqi couldn't help but marvel at the wisdom of this era.

The process of distilling and purifying the liquor in a still produces a richer liquor, further increasing its alcohol content. Achieving this step already saves a lot of time and effort.

It took about an hour and a half to tour the entire distillery.

Now Lu Qiqi truly believed that the people of the border town were addicted to alcohol and that without a good capacity for drinking, they couldn't afford to support a distillery that could accommodate hundreds of people.

After touring the winery, it's time to prepare to sign the contract.

The group arrived at the main hall to welcome guests. After the main guests and guests were seated, Lu Qiqi began to discuss the contract with the head steward of the banquet.

Beside them was a scribe who wrote down the details of the contract between the two.

The contract is divided into two parts: one is the cooperation agreement between Lu Qiqi and the winery.

Another item is the alcohol needed by the military, with priority given to Yunbian Winery, and contracts for the quantity ordered.

The two contracts seem unrelated, but they complement each other, serving as both a bond for cooperation and a means to strengthen the supply and demand relationship, achieving two goals at once.

Originally, military supplies should not have been managed by Imperial Physician Ren, but last night he sent someone to inform the Crown Prince, and the reply he received was one of agreement.

Since that was the case, he carefully examined the contract written by the scribe, and after confirming that it was correct, he rolled up his sleeves, wrote his name on it, and stamped it with his seal.

Since Lu Qiqi had neither an official seal nor a private seal, she used the red clay next to her to make a fingerprint of her thumb.

The person who writes the contract is also a witness, and they both write and leave their fingerprints on the contract.

Two copies of the contract were made. After Lu Qiqi took the contract, she handed over the distillation and purification method that she had written earlier to Steward Yan.

She said, "The craftsmanship of glassmaking in the Jin Dynasty was mature, so it should not be difficult to make a curved-neck steamer using this design."

If you really don't understand, you can ask a glass artisan to learn from a sugar figurine maker.

The head steward unfolded the folded paper and saw a strange object in the picture. Its shape was distorted and odd, and the spout was stretched out. The size and dimensions were also marked in small print next to it.

He looked on with curiosity, "Is this the curved-neck steamer that the village chief mentioned?"

“Yes,” Lu Qiqi said, “I will have my cousin come to the distillery to help out later, since he has experience in distillation.”

Previously, when Lu Qiqi made face cream for the Lu and Li families in the veterans' village, she used distillation to purify alcohol. This served two purposes: firstly, to improve the skin feel, and secondly, to inhibit fermentation bacteria, thus extending the shelf life.

Li Changlong had lent a hand to her, and even though he didn't make it himself, he knew more than the inexperienced winery worker.

When she extracted alcohol before, she used a bamboo jar with a small bamboo tube. Although the usage was similar, the bamboo tube was definitely not as easy to use as the curved-neck still.

Therefore, she was certain that Li Changlong could extract the alcohol.

The head steward was initially in a bit of a dilemma, even though the method written by the village head of Kangle Township seemed easy to understand, even simple and straightforward.

But nobody has ever touched this thing before, so who knows what a curved-neck steamer is?

Hearing that she had arranged for someone to teach, he immediately felt relieved.

Steward Yan grinned from ear to ear, revealing a smile that showed all eight teeth, and said, “That’s excellent. I will have someone make a glass curved-neck steamer right away. I hope the village head will send someone to help as soon as possible.”

Lu Qiqi nodded, "Of course."

After the contract was signed, both parties still had things to do. Steward Yan saw the three of them out of the wine shop and immediately ordered someone to take the blueprints to the glass shop.

Lu Qiqi parted ways with Ren Yuan and the others. Ren Yuan drove the carriage back to the camp, while she went back to find Li Changlong.

There was a knock on the wooden door outside the courtyard. When Li Changlong saw the smiling face in front of him, he thought he was seeing things.

After rubbing his eyes twice, he opened them again, his smiling face unchanged.

He happily opened the door and asked loudly, "Come in quickly, your second brother will make you something delicious."

"Okay." Lu Qiqi flashed her big white teeth, her eyes crinkling with laughter.

As soon as Lu Qiqi entered the room, she poured herself a bowl of water, gulped it down, and let out a hearty sigh.

Without the smell of blood and medicine, I felt much easier to breathe.

She took a deep breath, feeling that she hadn't felt this relaxed in a long time.

There were a few chickens and ducks in the yard. Lu Qiqi guessed that Li Changlong had added them later, so she didn't hesitate to ask for stir-fried ginger duck.

Li Changlong had finally waited for her to leave the military camp. Even if she wanted to eat dragon meat, he would probably have to find a way to do so.

Not to mention being able to have a meal served on the spot.

He rolled up his sleeves, walked straight to the duck pen, reached into the bamboo cage, and grabbed the fat duck by the throat, sealing its fate.

They boiled water and plucked feathers at breakneck speed, afraid that Lu Qiqi would get impatient.

A pot of stir-fried ginger duck was successfully cooked, and Lu Qiqi's stomach rumbled as soon as she smelled the aroma.

Li Changlong took out a bowl and chopsticks from the kitchen and handed them to Lu Qiqi, saying, "Try your second brother's cooking and see if it has deteriorated."

Lu Qiqi took the bowl and chopsticks, and before even tasting the food, she praised it, "Second Brother's cooking skills have never deteriorated."

Since she had been studying at the Feng residence on Mondays, Li Changlong told her to eat first.

Thinking that she would have to return to the military camp later, Lu Qiqi picked up her bowl and chopsticks and began to eat heartily.