Chapter 32 Dionysus 10
The next morning, sunlight slanted into the room through the gauze curtains.
Zhu Yu was still a little dazed when he opened his eyes in bed, and he heard Maggie's gentle greetings.
She sat in front of the dressing mirror and let Maggie put her hair into a bun while she whispered about the bartender last night.
"The lady named Ariella was born in a commoner family. She worked as a waitress in a hotel in a border town in her early years. Later, she learned how to make cocktails in a tavern. She seems to have a good talent. She moved to Ilos three years ago and became famous in the city for her unique cocktails." Maggie paused, her tone a little hesitant, "In short... I can't see anything wrong with her in the current investigation. Miss, are you going to accept this private cocktail invitation?"
After listening to this, Zhu Yu narrowed his eyes and spoke calmly:
"Whether she is a wizard or not, whether she wants to recognize me as a wizard or has other intentions... now is not the time."
The Dionysian Festival was approaching, and she couldn't cause any trouble.
"Just say I declined. Thank her for her kindness."
Maggie nodded and continued to tie her hair.
After a while, she finished dressing up, put on a light dress, and walked downstairs slowly.
Breakfast has been served on the first floor of the hotel. Several guests are gathered around the table taking oatmeal, toast, boiled eggs and some pickled vegetables, but the taste is bland and not very delicious.
Zhu Yu glanced at it and then looked away. Of course she wouldn't eat this.
At this moment, on the small stove in the back kitchen of the hotel, 996 was cooking her own breakfast: a small pot of red dates and lotus seeds hangover porridge, accompanied by a few slices of lightly salted lemons, as well as pan-fried salmon fillets and finely chopped perilla leaves.
Zhu Yu sat down, drank his porridge, and said slowly:
"Have I been drinking too much lately?"
996 looked at her and said, "You woke up so quickly, which means you're not completely drunk yet."
After saying that, he handed her a cup of hangover-relieving water made with tangerine peel, kudzu root and honey.
Zhu Yu smiled, picked up the cup and took a sip. The sour yet sweet taste spread between his lips and teeth, as if dispelling the remaining drunkenness from last night.
***
In the next few days, Zhu Yu attended several wine tastings and dances as planned.
But in her opinion, she had seen, tried and understood almost everything, so when her social engagements were almost over, she declined all subsequent invitations and prepared wholeheartedly for the upcoming Dionysus Festival finals.
The wine selection for the Dionysian Festival is divided into three rounds: bartender evaluation, judges' scoring, and public voting from the common people of Ilos City.
Unlike other participating taverns that invited famous bartenders and sommeliers to come to the stage in a high-profile manner to win over judges and guests, Zhu Yu did not choose to hold a lavish wine tasting banquet, nor did he deliberately cultivate relationships with the upper class. Instead, he took a different approach and found several pharmacists with a high reputation.
She gave her secret beer to the other party for repeated testing, and asked someone to issue several medical certificates - her secret beer, in addition to effectively relieving the symptoms of plague, also has the effects of regulating the stomach and intestines, nourishing qi and blood, and relieving joint inflammation. It is especially suitable for daily drinking by people with weak constitutions.
Zhu Yu put together a complete set of promotional copy overnight. She borrowed a lot from the advertising formats of modern medicinal liquors, and the wording was both easy to understand and catchy.
Within a few days, these slogans quietly appeared at the entrances of hotels, in corners of markets, and between coach stations, and spread like the wind.
Zhu Yu felt that this was not enough, so she asked someone to draw several colorful and humorous cartoon advertisements, showing the therapeutic effects of beer in an exaggerated yet realistic form.
These paintings were then printed into posters, which she sent people to post in major crowded areas of the city. They were extremely eye-catching and attracted people to stop and take a look.
Some people originally disdained this form of publicity, thinking it was just a trick used by the pub to attract attention.
But soon, the facts slapped them in the face - within two days of the advertising, orders for the Golden Cup Tavern came in like snowflakes.
Elderly people with mobility problems and weak women and children from inside and outside the city sent people to buy wine, and long queues formed in front of the door every day.
For a time, the business of the Golden Cup Tavern was booming, and the secret beer won a very high reputation among the people, and the support rate soared like the wine flag hanging high in the city.
***
Time soon arrived at the day of the Dionysian Festival.
On this day, the sun shone all over the city of Iros, and the whole city seemed to be soaked in mead, noisy and mellow.
Zhu Yu arrived at the main venue early in the morning. The square was decorated with lights and colorful decorations, and wine barrels were piled up like a hill. The huge metal statue of the god of wine shone with a warm luster in the morning light, as if even the gods were looking forward to this competition.
The competition consists of three rounds, the first of which is a bartender evaluation.
The wine samples sent in advance by each pub are blindly tasted by a designated team of professional bartenders. They do not look at the wine labels and do not know the sources. They only score based on aroma, taste, layers and aftertaste.
In the first round of competition, many strong opponents emerged.
The most eye-catching one is a winery called "Rose Bone Tavern".
Previously, this winery had hardly held any wine tastings and rarely appeared in public. It was so low-key that it was almost mysterious, but it made a big splash in the competition.
The wine they launched for the competition is a blend of rare flower dew and aged animal bones. It retains the sweetness of fruit wine while adding a hint of the rich and mellow aroma unique to bone wine.
The novel and unique taste quickly conquered the taste buds of bartenders, won numerous praises, and topped the list, becoming a well-deserved dark horse.
However, Zhu Yu's secret beer did not perform well in this round.
The beer has a mellow taste and a light aroma, but it is a bit "plain" compared to those works that have been meticulously crafted in terms of fruity flavor and fermentation techniques.
In the end, "Secret Ale" ranked seventh and qualified for the next round of selection.
The second round of evaluation was scored by a panel of five judges, including wine connoisseurs of aristocratic origin and professional representatives sent by the Royal City Wine Merchants Association.
This round is no longer a simple competition of taste, but a comprehensive scoring based on five dimensions: raw material selection, process innovation, health and safety, functional value, and cultural heritage.
Take the "Rose Bone Tavern", which temporarily topped the list in the first round, as an example. Although their entry wine has a unique flavor and a long aftertaste, it is suspected to have a strong irritation to the gastrointestinal tract because it uses new animal bones that have not been widely verified. The judges only gave it an average score in the "health and safety" item, resulting in the total score being overtaken by other wineries and the ranking dropping accordingly.
In comparison, although Zhu Yu did not invite famous bartenders to endorse her products, nor did she hold lavish wine tasting parties, the pharmacological analysis reports and efficacy verification materials she prepared in advance received the highest scores in the two dimensions of "health and safety" and "functional value".
Finally, as everyone was eagerly waiting, the competition entered the most crucial third round - the civilian voting stage.
According to the tradition of the Dionysian Festival in Iros, one hundred people will be randomly selected from the onlookers on the scene as representatives in this round.
They will be guided to a special tasting seat and taste all the shortlisted wines one by one without knowing the name of the wine or the pub it belongs to.
Afterwards, each person will receive a ballot with the competition number written on it, write the number of their favorite wine, and personally put it into the voting box set up in the central square.
Finally, the deacon team will open the vote box and count the votes in front of everyone. The counting results will determine the final champion of this Dionysus Festival.
Zhu Yu's eyes kept sweeping over the undecided voters, and his mood gradually grew nervous.
When the vote counting officially began, her brows furrowed slightly.
"The Rosebone Tavern—one ticket."
"The Rosebone Tavern—one ticket."
"The Rosebone Tavern—one ticket."
In a series of repeated sounds, the Dark Horse Tavern, which had no local reputation and had hardly done any public publicity, actually received a large number of votes in succession, and even surpassed the old famous restaurant "Sunny Breeze Winery" in Ilos City.
Zhu Yu felt a little uneasy.
Although the opponent's performance in the first two rounds was remarkable, it was too strange that they could beat the local tavern in the last round without any local mass base. She herself did not have enough confidence to beat Sunny Breeze Winery, let alone a foreign dark horse.
Fortunately, the time and energy she spent on promotion in the past few days were not wasted, and the influence of the secret beer has already penetrated people's hearts.
After the series of tickets for the "Rose Bone Tavern", a familiar name finally sounded -
"The Golden Cup—one ticket."
Then came the second vote, the third vote... Gradually, the gap was narrowed in a steady and powerful rhythm.
Maggie, who was standing on the sidelines, clenched her hands, and even Zhu Yu himself couldn't help but cough lightly, as if he was suppressing his nervousness.
The last ticket was drawn and the whole audience fell into silence.
"The Golden Cup Tavern—one ticket!"
As the last vote was finalized, cheers suddenly swept through the entire venue like a tide.
With only one vote difference, Zhu Yu's secret beer successfully counterattacked and won the first place in this Dionysus Festival.
Amid the excitement of the crowd, Zhu Yu was stunned for a moment, then shook his head with a smile, temporarily putting aside his earlier doubts.
She picked up the wine glass in her hand and drank it all.
Afterwards, the trophy symbolizing the glory of Dionysus was presented solemnly.
Zhu Yu took over the heavy trophy and saw that the body of the cup was inlaid with light golden vine patterns and amber gems. The shape of the cup was exactly the same as the "golden cup" in her tavern. It was simply an enlarged commemorative version of that alchemical relic.
After the award ceremony, the final curtain of the Dionysian Festival slowly opened.
The bells rang melodiously in the sky, and the solemn and ancient melody resounded throughout the square.
According to custom, the wine of the final winner will be poured into the "Dionysus's Pot" by the high priest himself.
After pouring the wine into the "Dionysus's Jug", it will resonate and continuously produce the same wine, which will be sprinkled on the streets and alleys of Ilos to be shared by all people.
Zhu Yu personally handed a well-sealed barrel of secret beer to a young priest beside the high priest, and then stood aside, waiting for the sacred moment of "resonance" to come.
At this time, the priests and attendants around the high priest retreated one after another, leaving him alone standing on the high platform to open the ancient altar mechanism.
As the altar rotated, a huge wine jug as tall as a person appeared on the altar.
The high priest took the wine barrel from the officiating priest below the stage, untied the wax seal, leaned over and scooped up a spoonful of clear wine, ready to pour it into the wine jug.
"etc."
At this moment, a low reminder from 996 suddenly sounded in Zhu Yu's mind:
"Zhu Yu, there is something wrong with this barrel of wine."
Zhu Yu frowned: "What do you mean?"
"I detected an abnormal component in the liquor, which is inconsistent with the composition of ale. This barrel is not filled with our tavern's secret ale."
Zhu Yu: "That is——?"
"Although it's disguised, its structure is more similar to the black market bootleg liquor you once seized in the West End."
996 paused, "In other words, this barrel of wine is very likely to contain the plague virus."
Zhu Yu's face suddenly changed.
Her wine was swapped!
And this barrel of wine containing the plague virus will soon be distributed to tens of thousands of people in the city of Ilos for tasting!
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