Chapter 175 of "New Urban Farmers" (10130): Vintage Monkey Wine! (Two chapters completed)
The wine was a cloudy, yellowish-brown, like liquid gold! Zhang Guodong stared at the legendary wine on the small stone before him, his mouth agape in astonishment. He had actually found something so rare and legendary! If Elder Yi and the others saw this, they would probably be utterly shocked and confused. How could this be?
Zhang Guodong's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
"Now I understand why this monkey troop is much larger and has many more members than usual. And why they absolutely refuse to leave. They've actually brewed monkey wine in the cave!"
He just wondered how old this monkey wine was. Legend has it that some monkey wines are over a thousand years old, and some are eight hundred years old—even celestial beings would find them extremely rare. But Zhang Guodong had never believed it. Yet now he had no choice but to.
There is a documented record that monkeys love wine.
However, records indicate that monkey wine was extremely rare and its production period was not very long because it was something that "the king needed to enjoy."
The golden liquid before us, though small in size, could be estimated to contain seven or eight stones, though it wasn't particularly viscous. Clearly, it wasn't very old.
Zhang Guodong glanced inside, put his finger in his mouth, and tasted it. The flavor was unique, even slightly sweet. The deliciousness was indescribable, and the spiritual energy it contained was considerable, comparable to the concentration of a low-grade elixir.
Delicious! Fine wine!
Zhang Guodong could also taste some precious medicinal herbs in it; it seemed that some medicinal juice had been added!
A small fire quickly rose in my stomach! It's also a very nourishing food!
Zhang Guodong took a sip and immediately decided to pack up all the monkey wine! He emptied the water from some water bottles in Taoyuan.
Zhang Guodong filled six containers with this stone, and there was still some left. He thought that if he didn't collect all the hard-earned wine, the monkeys might brew some more.
Leave some for later! Maybe you can brew it again.
Excitedly, they opened the second stone. The golden, murky liquid was less than the first and much thicker, indicating it had been there for three years!
Zhang Guodong didn't collect the second stone, which weighed over three jin, and only collected five and a half jin!
Then came the third one, a six-year-old stone! Zhang Guodong collected even less, four and a half jin.
The fourth tenth portion weighs three and a half jin.
Zhang Guodong only collected a little over a pound of the eleventh stone! This part was so sticky, like sugar paste, that it couldn't be stirred at all. But it was very different from the previous ten stone directions. Zhang Guodong estimated that the monkey wine in this stone direction was at least two hundred years old! It was the most precious among these eleven stone directions! You should know that the monkey wine in the tenth stone direction was only fifty years old. This year, however, it suddenly jumped to the last year.
It's utterly baffling.
After collecting most of the monkey wine, Zhang Guodong's heart was pounding in his throat. These were all treasures! The recipe for monkey wine was unique, generally known only to monkeys, a legendary liquor that humans could hardly brew. Yet he had collected several kilograms of monkey wine! Zhang Guodong knew that a hundred bottles of twenty-year-old Moutai couldn't be exchanged for even one kilogram of genuine two-year-old monkey wine!
This wine is a rare treasure of heaven and earth!
Suddenly, Zhang Guodong stared intently at the last stone, as if there was something at the bottom. A flash of white light appeared.
He was certain it wasn't an eye problem.
"A jade piece?" Zhang Guodong reached down and indeed found something—a square, smooth, white stalactite piece that he pulled out.
He recognized it immediately as jade! And a rather rare type of mutton-fat jade. Although the shape was irregular, it was definitely a jade piece. He wondered if it had been ground from a rough jade stone and then picked up by the monkeys and thrown in as a treasure.
Strangely enough, this cave not only has stone tools and monkey wine, but now it has even produced a piece of top-quality mutton fat jade!
"No, top-grade mutton fat jade is formed by nature. It contains spiritual energy fluctuations, but this angular piece of jade has no spiritual energy fluctuations at all. Why is that?"
This is very abnormal!
"Furthermore, this last stone has been sealed for two hundred years, and the jade piece seems to have been there for a very long time as well. It couldn't have been done by these monkeys!"
Zhang Guodong wasted a lot of brain cells but still couldn't see anything different about the jade piece.
"Roar!" Big Black suddenly roared outside. Then came the warnings from Erhei, Daqing, and Erqing when they encountered a threat!
Zhang Guodong couldn't continue observing; it was time to leave after restoring the stone fragments. He didn't take the stone tools; these were likely weapons commonly used by golden monkeys, not very old, since brewing monkey wine required crushing the fruit into juice. Their purpose was clear!
This haul far exceeded his expectations. It was so big that his face flushed with excitement, as if he had been drinking.
Zhang Guodong thought to himself that this place must not be known to outsiders, otherwise everything here might be destroyed.
When Zhang Guodong came out of the cave, he saw that the group of monkeys had returned. The monkey king, who was leading them, was anxiously shouting, but they dared not come down to approach Dahei and the others.
Upon seeing Zhang Guodong emerge from the cave, the monkey king roared even more urgently, clearly enraged. Zhang Guodong had dared to invade their dwelling place, where they held what they considered their most precious possessions.
"Let's gather some Dionysus first, then get out of here immediately. Old Man Yi is getting impatient down there; he might be coming up soon!"
Ignoring the provocations and anger of the Monkey King and his people, Zhang Guodong dug up more than twenty Dionysus plants before stopping. There were still about forty plants left around, not counting them.
Zhang Guodong chuckled, then suddenly vanished with the Dionysian Herb in his hand. The Monkey King and his people were stunned into silence as Zhang Guodong disappeared into thin air.
After a while, the monkey king cautiously called out, as if they were communicating with each other.
When Zhang Guodong reappeared, the Monkey King roared in fright and jumped over several trees, as did his subjects.
"Haha, Big Black, Second Black, Big Green, Second Green, let's go!" Zhang Guodong teased them. Then he led Big Black and the others away.
However, Zhang Guodong didn't know that monkeys are very vengeful; they will recognize you even after a long time if you invade their territory.
There have been reports that golden monkeys have exceptional memories. An incident occurred at a zoo where a alpha male monkey had a terrible temper, scratching and biting its keeper. The keeper, angered, punished the alpha male by spanking its rump. Later, the keeper was transferred to another facility. Six months later, when he returned to visit the golden monkeys, the alpha male immediately recognized him among the crowd. Seeking revenge, it hastily found a clod of dirt as a "weapon" and threw it at the keeper's head, leaving the keeper both amused and exasperated.
As Zhang Guodong and the four big guys disappeared, the Monkey King roared. He then quickly jumped down and ran into the cave. Soon after, the Monkey King's angry roar echoed from inside!
Although Zhang Guodong restored the stone slab, it was easily discovered since it had been opened before. Furthermore, the brown, damp mud needed to be resealed, otherwise the remaining monkey wine would dry out.
Zhang Guodong quickly descended the mountain and encountered Elder Yi and his group on the way. They were preparing to come up to look for Zhang Guodong.
"Is everything alright up there, Guodong? Is everything going smoothly?" Old Yi asked with concern.
They couldn't hear any movement from the mountain. Worried about Zhang Guodong's safety, they all came up. But just as they were about to reach the summit, they were stopped by a troop of monkeys.
These guys actually split into two groups, one targeting Zhang Guodong and the other targeting the police and the old men in police uniforms.
Thus, Elder Yi and his companions were no match for these agile monkeys and could only watch helplessly. They also couldn't kill Jin Sige!
Fortunately, Zhang Guodong came down at that moment.
Zhang Guodong smiled mysteriously and changed the subject, saying, "I'm very happy. I think we should find a place to rest. I have to leave the mountain first thing tomorrow morning!"
Old Yi gave Zhang Guodong a meaningful look and nodded in agreement.
Xiao Hu, the most curious, kept asking Zhang Guodong what he had encountered and whether he had dug up the Dionysus herb. But Zhang Guodong didn't answer, only saying, "It's very dangerous up there!"
It's very dangerous!
Zhang Guodong thought that if it weren't for Dahei and the other three monkeys keeping those guys in check, the troop of monkeys would probably come down and attack him. But the monkeys weren't so afraid of humans.
Therefore, if there are too few people, it is easy for accidents to happen.
With fewer ties, Zhang Guodong and his group retraced their steps and made their way to Qianlonggou and Qianlongtan in the dark. They pitched their tents on the pebble beach.
Zhang Chengzhu, Zhang Daniu, Dunsong, and Xiaohu were responsible for collecting firewood and starting a fire. They brought Dahei along, and even if there were wild animals, they dared not approach.
Zhang Guodong, however, secretly took out three bottles of monkey wine with Old Yi. Each of these three bottles contained only about half a jin (250ml) of wine, representing two-year, three-year, and six-year vintages respectively. He dared not take out the more precious ones, lest it cause unnecessary trouble. After all, the golden monkey population there needed to be protected as much as possible so that no one would disturb them in the future.
"Although this trip up the mountain was dangerous, you would never guess what treasures I encountered, hehe!" Zhang Guodong mysteriously took out three bottles of golden, murky liquid and showed them off to Elder Yi.
"What is this?" Old Yi looked at it in surprise. A faint aroma of alcohol emanating from the bottle cap invigorated him; he had never smelled alcohol like this before!
This is absolutely the best wine I've ever tasted!
"Monkey wine, wine brewed by monkeys! What a pity. There's too little of it!" Zhang Guodong said.
"What did you say? Monkey wine?" Old Yi was indeed surprised. He had never encountered this legendary wine in his entire life in the mountains. Was this the murky, golden liquid in the bottle?
You really can't judge a book by its cover!
"Old Yi, it's no wonder you're surprised. I was just as surprised as I was. I never expected to find such a legendary wine there! No wonder they didn't want to leave! Having the Dionysus Herb readily available to brew such delicious wine makes perfect sense!" Zhang Guodong laughed.
"However, Elder Yi, we shouldn't disturb the monkeys up there anymore, otherwise we'll cut off the source. It's such a pity; I've collected most of the monkey wine there, and it won't be able to be brewed again for several years."
"You're right! Don't worry, this old man knows what's important, it's really amazing! I'm in for a treat this time, haha!" Old Yi nodded solemnly and laughed happily.
After all, this legendary wine was brewed by monkeys.
"How old are these three bottles, Guodong?" Old Yi asked.
“I estimate the next bottle will be two years old. One bottle is three years old and the other is six years old,” Zhang Guodong said.
"Where would you find so many things like this?" Old Man Yi said with amusement. "To encounter something like this is a stroke of luck! You should be content!"
“You’re right!” Zhang Guodong nodded in agreement.
Note: Second update. I've made up for the 1000 chapters I missed yesterday, hehe.
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