Red wine was gradually accepted by the people of Ping'an Town, but not many people drank it, and the tavern's business gradually returned to normal. Of course, this was within Yuan Doudou's expectations.
The emergence of something new will more or less cause a surge of waves, but how long these waves will last is unknown. It may be a month, or it may be a few days. And for red wine, after only two months, fewer and fewer people came to the store to try it.
Those who can accept it continue to drink it, while those who can't won't order it again, or even come back.
Yuan Doudou sat behind the counter, holding Tangtang in her arms, looking at the few people scattered in the store, and fell into deep thought.
It's unavoidable that red wine tastes sour and astringent. She's not a world-renowned winemaker, nor does she have the same advanced equipment as them. It's normal that she can't make a wine with a wonderful taste. Besides, the cost of red wine is too high. The raw grapes need to be transported from Xinjiang, thousands of miles away. The cost of transportation and labor alone is considerable. Moreover, she also needs to hire people to complete the entire winemaking process.
Ordinary people really couldn't bear to spend thirty coins on a glass of red wine, so they could only stand outside and watch.
She also wanted to reduce costs so that more people could enjoy the unique taste of the red wine, but she only made a net profit of ten coins per glass. If she lowered the price further, she would probably lose money.
Yuan Doudou thought about it all night. Red wine could only be a niche product. It was not as strong as the five-cent bowl of strong liquor, nor as sweet as the ten-cent bowl of rice wine.
What kind of wine can satisfy the needs of the masses while also giving customers a unique taste experience?
This problem continued to bother her until night. She lay in bed, her stomach growling with hunger. Perhaps because she was thinking about things at night, she didn't have much of an appetite and ate less. It was really hard to fall asleep in the middle of the night with an empty stomach.
An Rong was fast asleep beside her. She looked at An Rong and suddenly thought that if he could cook a barbecue, she might not be so hungry.
She couldn't bear to call out to him, and just watched silently.
Barbecue? The image of a barbecue restaurant flashed through her mind again: all kinds of skewers, ice-cold beer, three or five friends, eating and drinking, how satisfying!
Yeah, why not beer?
Beer has a mild taste, smoother than regular liquor, and it has some carbonation. After drinking it, you feel refreshed. Many men don't like liquor, but they love beer.
However, she had never made beer before. Apart from drinking beer and knowing that it was fermented from malt, she knew nothing else.
She desperately wanted a cell phone so she could research the beer-making process. As she thought about it, her head started buzzing, and soon she was so sleepy that she fell asleep.
Yuan Doudou had a dream in which she walked into a beer workshop and toured their entire production process. She listened to the guide's explanation as she watched and took careful notes.
Just when she was worrying about how to make beer, this wonderful dream came to her.
The next day, Yuan Doudou woke up and realized that she had been dreaming, but for the first time ever, she did not forget the scene in her dream.
She excitedly jumped out of bed, found paper and pen, and wrote down every single step.
An Rong came in from outside and saw that she wasn't wearing an outer coat and was barefoot, standing by the desk writing something. He quickly took her shoes and went over, saying, "Put your shoes on quickly."
Yuan Doudou was focused and didn't have time to pay attention to what An Rong was saying. She wanted to finish the task in one go and was afraid of forgetting any part of it.
She wrote furiously for a while, finally managing to completely replicate the process.
"Anrong, I did it!" Even though the beer hadn't been made, she was already cheering like a child, hugging Anrong's neck and pressing her face against his with joy.
This sudden intimacy was hard not to make An Rong feel flattered. He stretched out his arms and hugged Dou Dou, happy for her happiness.
"Okay, it's chilly in the morning, be careful not to catch a cold." An Rong picked her up and carried her to the bedside, gently put her down, got her clothes and helped her put them on, then bent down to help her put on her shoes and socks.
Yuan Doudou wasn't embarrassed at all. She was used to An Rong's behavior. In his eyes, she was a treasure that needed to be carefully protected.
"Are you hungry? The food is ready, let's eat." An Rong looked at her gently, his tender eyes seeming to melt everything, and Yuan Doudou was deeply captivated, unable to extricate herself.
While eating the crispy potstickers, Yuan Doudou watched An Rong bustling around, bringing over a plate of potstickers and a bowl of porridge every now and then.
An Rong likes to cook porridge for breakfast. He knows that Dou Dou likes thick porridge, so he gets up before dawn, boils it over high heat, then simmers it over low heat until the rice grains have opened up and the water has evaporated, so that the porridge will naturally be very thick.
"Okay, stop sending over, I'm full." Yuan Doudou ate three potstickers and drank a bowl of rice porridge; her stomach was so full it felt like it was about to burst.
Seeing her languidly reaching out to touch her stomach, An Rong laughed and said, "Don't touch your stomach after eating, or you'll end up with a big belly."
Yuan Doudou laughed, but then she started crying again.
Her mother said the exact same thing: you're not allowed to touch your stomach after eating, or you'll end up with a big, poopy belly.
"DouDou, what's wrong?" An Rong asked anxiously when he saw that she was in a daze.
Yuan Doudou only came to her senses and realized that she was crying. She felt so embarrassed that she didn't know whether she should wipe away her tears.
"I'm so touched. Thank you for cooking for me every day."
She had prepared herself to be a cook for life, always cooking or on her way to cook, and over time, she would become a haggard housewife. Who could have imagined that her husband, who had died on the battlefield, would come back alive and treat her so well?
Yuan Doudou thought about the status of men in ancient times. Even ordinary people were like gods in their own homes and in front of their wives. No one in the family dared to defy them. At least as a wife, it was common for her to do laundry, cook, serve tea and water to her husband.
She had never experienced that. On the contrary, her husband took meticulous care of her, treating her like a precious gem, as if he were afraid to drop her, hold her in his arms, or lift her above his head.
For the first time ever, she began to live a life where everything was done for her; happiness came quite suddenly.
An Rong looked at her with affection. He felt that he hadn't done enough and owed Dou Dou a lot. He never expected Dou Dou to think this way. He was so lucky to have met her in this life and to have married her.
He is the one who should be grateful.
Yuan Doudou felt a scorching light and dared not look up, afraid of burning her eyes. An Rong's love was overflowing.
There's always a sense of unreality to it.
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