Chapter 26 Dionysus Festival 04
George subconsciously shrank his neck and was about to say, "Is this wine cellar haunted?", but when he noticed that the other people around him looked calm, especially Nora, who was walking in the front with a steady pace and a normal look, he immediately swallowed the words.
He cleared his throat silently, straightened his back, and pretended to be calm as he followed the pace, deciding that this time he would never be the first one to make a fool of himself.
As expected, Nora didn't even turn her head, and there was no trace of surprise in her voice:
"It's that girl Sophia singing again."
When everyone reached the bottom floor, Zhu Yu discovered that the wine cellar was not dark at all, and several torches on the stone wall had already been lit.
Obviously, someone had been here before they arrived.
Is that the singing Sophia that Nora just mentioned?
As Zhu Yu's thoughts flashed through his mind, his eyes fell on a quiet figure not far away.
She was a slender young woman with light blonde curly hair tied casually into a bun and hanging behind her shoulders.
She was wearing an old dark blue dress, the hem of which was slightly wet, with some stains of grape juice from winemaking.
At this moment, she was sitting between two rows of tall oak barrels, tapping her knees with her fingertips, humming softly with her eyes closed. Her voice seemed to blend with the aroma of the wine, passing through every inch of air in the wine cellar like the wind.
She had a faint smile on her lips. Even though she noticed someone approaching, she did not open her eyes and was still immersed in her own melody.
The moment he saw this woman, personal information matching this name immediately popped up in Zhu Yu's mind.
The length of this message was much longer than any other message she had seen before.
[Sophia was once a church choir girl in a small border town. She had a clear and moving voice, but because she accidentally sang an ancient chant at the market, she was considered "casting a curse" by a patrolling clergyman. Her parents did not dare to defend her, but instead took the initiative to hand her over to the church in exchange for "family pardon". After she was detained for several days, it was the members of the secret society who rescued her at night.
Although she has not awakened her magic power, she is surprisingly sensitive to sound and rhythm. She is now assigned to the winery to be responsible for the wine fermentation process and sound wave filtration debugging. She can judge the best time for wine fermentation by her hearing, and is the only person in the winery who can "make wine by hearing".
In the few memories that Elena had of her, this girl always liked to sit quietly among the oak barrels, humming those chanting ballads that no one dared to sing anymore, with a peaceful smile on her face.
After checking Sophia's information, Zhu Yu couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
This is a special talent rarely seen in the winemaking industry.
A winemaker who can judge the fermentation status of wine by sound is unique in this world or in reality. Coupled with her almost dramatic past experience and unique personality and habits, it is no wonder that the original owner Elena was deeply impressed even though she met her only a few times.
Everyone stood quietly by without interrupting, waiting for Sophia to finish singing the ancient and melodious ballad.
After the last tail sound gradually echoed and dissipated in the wine cellar, Nora took a step forward and called out in a gentle voice:
"Sophia, the young lady and I are here to check the fermentation of this batch of wine. Can you tell us about the status of this batch of wine?"
Sophia raised her head from the wooden barrel when she heard the sound, and seemed to have just noticed the existence of Zhu Yu and his group.
She bowed to Zhu Yu and replied:
"Miss, barrels 6 and 10 in the fourth row have been soaked in the vanilla-smoked malt. After returning to temperature, the fermentation speed has accelerated. I tasted it yesterday and it will take another three days before the initial filtration. Barrel 7 has signs of bacteria invading, so I have marked it separately and isolated it. The other barrels are very stable."
Zhu Yu paused slightly after hearing this, then calmly walked over to check the numbers mentioned, and they were exactly as Sophia had described.
In her heart, she couldn't help but look up to this winemaker who loved singing.
Next, Zhu Yu personally began to check the inventory and storage of the wine barrels.
Unlike the small wine cellar at the Golden Cup Tavern which is only used for short-term blending, this wine cellar is the true main wine cellar.
The space here is spacious, the ceiling is supported by logs and stone bricks, and the ventilation system is well designed, so it is neither humid nor stuffy.
There are rows of neatly arranged wine barrels as far as the eye can see, all labeled and numbered according to year, type of wine, and fermentation progress. Even the floor is so clean that there is hardly a trace of dust. There are even some vanilla branches for repelling insects dotted in the corners. It is obvious that there are special people cleaning and maintaining the floor every day.
The deeper you go, the stronger the aroma of the naturally fermented wine becomes.
Zhu Yu took a deep breath, his nostrils filled with a mixture of oak barrels, wine, and the slightly tipsy aroma emitted after fermentation, as if he could taste traces of different years and flavors with every breath.
"You guys have done a great job keeping the wine cellar going. Thank you for your hard work."
Hearing Zhu Yu praising the hygiene and management of the wine cellar, Nora replied casually: "We have a fixed cleaning and inspection day every week, not only to maintain hygiene, but also to prevent some little mice from sneaking in."
Zhu Yu was about to open the lid of a wine barrel, but stopped when he heard this.
"Little mouse?" she repeated softly, her tone unchanged.
She heard the other party's hidden meaning.
Obviously, the "rats" here do not just refer to the kind of rodents that gnaw on wine barrels.
She looked up at Nora, then lowered her eyes, wondering whether she should ask another question, but considering that Elena herself should already know about this, she gave up the idea.
So Zhu Yu silently withdrew his hand and motioned Nora to continue.
However, the next person to speak was Sophia, who had been following them quietly.
"There were indeed signs of suspected theft in the wine cellar last month."
She spoke slowly, "I was mixing experimental wine during those days and stayed out late for several nights in a row. One night when I came out of the wine cellar, I smelled a hint of residual sealing wax in the corridor. But we never use that kind of lamp oil here."
Nora took over the conversation and said, "Later, we checked the door locks and barrel seals together and found that the wax seals on some of the seals were slightly shifted. But there was no mistake in the warehouse records, and no wine was missing. At the time, we thought it might be a drunk who broke in, or someone walked in by mistake."
She paused and looked at Zhu Yu: "We would have reported to you according to the rules, but you were injured in an assassination attempt at that time and have not been seen since. But this is not the first time this has happened. We occasionally encountered drunks breaking in, or thieves and vagrants who specifically targeted the winery to steal wine and wanted to steal a few barrels of wine to exchange for some silver coins. But they were basically caught by the sisters on night patrol, beaten up and chased away. So we suppressed this matter for the time being."
"The intruder left without touching anything? It really sounds like they walked in here by mistake."
After listening to the conversation between the two, Zhu Yu spoke thoughtfully.
Nora: "At least on the surface. We took turns to patrol several times in the following days, but found nothing unusual."
Zhu Yu knocked on the oak barrel, his eyes slightly gloomy.
She vaguely felt that this matter might not be as simple as it seemed.
Seeing Zhu Yu frown, Sophia and Nora looked at each other, and Nora spoke first:
"Miss, are you worried about the safety of the golden cup? Don't worry, we have been following the highest level of security measures since you placed it in that secret room. The mechanism in that secret room is extremely complicated and it cannot be opened without correct operation."
"And every time someone breaks into the winery, we check the trigger marks of the mechanism. So far, there are no signs of any abnormal tampering."
"Golden Cup?" George, who was standing by, was confused. He finally couldn't help but interrupt out of curiosity and asked, "Isn't this the name of my sister's tavern? What does it have to do with the secret room?"
Nora: "'Golden Cup' is indeed the name of the tavern, but the original name came from the alchemical tool itself - it was a real 'golden cup'. It is the 'treasure of the town' of the Golden Cup Tavern."
"The young lady was afraid that this alchemical tool would attract the covetousness of outsiders, so she hid it here."
George's eyes lit up when he heard this. Just as he was about to ask another question, he heard Nora turn around and ask Zhu Yu:
"Miss, do you want to go in and take a look? It will also help you feel at ease."
Zhu Yu was equally shocked. She knew that "Golden Cup" was the name of the tavern assigned by the system, but she didn't expect that the original owner, Elena, actually owned an alchemical artifact called "Golden Cup" and it was sealed in a secret room.
She maintained her elegant expression and nodded gently: "Okay, let's go and take a look."
Nora led them around the innermost row of wine racks and came to a seemingly ordinary stone wall.
"The mechanism is right here."
She raised her hand and pointed at the wine barrels on both sides, and explained to George who was confused:
“But it requires the collaboration of multiple people.”
Nora said as she walked to an old wine barrel marked "Miscellaneous Wine", reached out and grabbed the rusty brass stopper, and turned it clockwise three times.
The barrel shook slightly with a sound of friction between oak and metal.
Then she squatted down and turned the drain valve counterclockwise one and a half turns at the bottom of another wine barrel labeled "Spare Cleaning Water". The accumulated water in the barrel slowly dripped out along the tiny drain port.
At the same time, Sophia came to the other side and stepped on a floor tile with a "cup-shaped" pattern. The floor tile looked the same as the surrounding ones, but when she stepped on it, it sank slightly by a finger's width, making a slight "click" sound.
The next second, one side of the wall slid open silently, revealing a stone staircase passage about one person wide and bottomless.
There were lights on both sides of the stone staircase, emitting an orange-yellow light, illuminating an enclosed circular room at the bottom.
The secret room is not big, with a long curved table in the middle. Notes, account books and bottles and jars are spread on the table, and more than ten bottles of experimental wine are neatly placed on the wine rack against the wall.
The most eye-catching thing is the object covered with velvet cloth placed in the center of the stone platform.
Nora walked forward and carefully lifted the flannel.
——It was a golden wine glass with a Latin inscription of a bunch of entwined grape vines embossed on the cup. There seemed to be alchemical patterns on the bottom of the cup that glowed faintly, and it flowed slowly as if it were a living thing.
"Is this... the 'golden cup'?"
George came over curiously and walked around the unique wine glass. "Isn't it too small? It looks like a unique pure gold wine glass..."
"Yes." Sophia stood aside, her tone was particularly solemn, "But its value does not lie in its appearance."
Zhu Yu took a step forward and stared at the cup placed in the center of the stone platform.
At the moment when she was concentrating, a detailed introduction to the wine glass in front of her suddenly appeared in her mind:
[The "Golden Cup" is one of the three rare alchemical relics left by the legendary god of wine, Iros. It is said that it can sense the emotional fluctuations of the holder and provide "guidance" during the winemaking process to produce the wine that best suits the heart and current state.
Because it has a certain degree of "will projection" function, this cup has been mentioned many times in the classics of major alchemical schools, and is called the "silent waiter" and the "silent apostle of Dionysus."
The original owner, Elena, received this golden cup on her fifteenth birthday. It was a personal gift from her aunt Helena.
She once accidentally poured her love for Rocosa roses into the cup, and she actually got a complete, unprecedented secret recipe for rose wine. Later, that secret wine was named "Rocosa" and became the signature wine of the Golden Cup Tavern.
Now Zhu Yu finally understood why the Golden Cup Tavern had become one of the most popular taverns in the town of Arce and even in several neighboring towns in a short period of time.
It’s not just the publicity or the brewing process - this “golden cup” containing the mysterious alchemical power is the soul of the tavern.
As long as it is still there, it is equivalent to having the "winemaking talent" of infinite inspiration and a very high success rate.
This is not something that can be easily replicated by ordinary pubs.
Zhu Yu walked forward and carefully stretched out his fingers to hold the wine glass.
After a moment...no movement.
Just when she was a little disappointed and was about to let go, suddenly——
“Tick-tock.”
A very light sound fell into my ears.
The next moment, amber wine gushed out from the empty cup like spring water, and the rich malt aroma and slightly herbal bitter aroma came to the face. The surface of the wine was faintly shiny, as if the stars at night were trembling slightly in the cup.
"The golden cup...it moved?" Sophia opened her eyes wide, her voice full of shock, "It's been three years, and it actually responded again!"
The wine was flowing faster and faster, and was about to overflow from the cup. 996, who was standing nearby, was quick to take down a few spare silver cups from the wine rack and collect the excess wine in them.
Not until the fifth silver cup was full did the gurgling flow of wine finally stop.
Zhu Yu took a step back and looked at the cups full of freshly brewed wine in front of him, feeling an indescribable throbbing in his heart.
"Come on, let's all try it together," she said softly.
996 handed the wine glasses to the people present.
Nora, Sophia, Betty, and George all held up their wine glasses and leaned in to take a smell. They all took a sip and then exclaimed in amazement.
"What kind of wine is this? The aroma is so special..."
"It's a bit like ale, but smoother and mellower than regular ale."
George smacked his lips, his eyes lit up: "Sister, this wine is really good! After drinking it, I feel that the magic in my body flows more smoothly."
After he finished speaking, he found that Zhu Yu did not respond at all.
"Sister?" George leaned forward and waved his hand in front of her.
It was not until Betty called her twice that Zhu Yu came to her senses.
She stared blankly at the golden cup in her hand and said:
"…This new wine has the effect of curing plague."
"What?" George asked in surprise, "How did you know?"
Zhu Yu raised his hand and pointed at his head. "At the moment when the liquor came out, a complete recipe for secret beer appeared in my mind."
[Secret beer: roasted rye as the base, add chopped snakeroot, purple mint, crushed lemon husk, and introduce silver needle leaf distillate during the third day of fermentation. Effect: can relieve plague symptoms, enhance physical strength and immunity, and has a mild detoxification effect. When to take: drink no more than three cups a day, and the best effect is to drink before meals. ]
Zhu Yu murmured, "This recipe for 'secret ale' might be a Dionysian gift from the golden cup to us."
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