Chapter 14 Lotus Root and Rib Soup

Only after two full days did Fang Senyan finally get to drink Mama He's lotus root and rib soup. To be honest, this He family secret rib soup was truly one of a kind. If anyone tried to casually pass off a pot as the real thing, they would be exposed one hundred percent of the time.

It turned out that Mama He first treated the ribs she used for simmering with salt and spices, creating a flavor similar to cured ribs before using them to make soup. The resulting taste was naturally very different from ordinary lotus root and rib soup. After taking a few sips of the soup, Fang Senyan refilled his bowl and immersed the endless vodka flask in the steaming broth. Strangely enough, the originally dull metallic surface of the flask gradually began to glow with a new luster after being soaked in the lotus root and rib soup. Eventually, the surface of the flask shone brightly like freshly cleaned stainless steel, dazzling the eye, while the lotus root and rib soup mysteriously dwindled and finally disappeared. Mama He and He Xiaojun, having witnessed something unknown, both began to shed tears.

At this moment, Fang Senyan received a notification from the Nightmare Imprint:

"You have completed the soul mission: Lotus Root Soup."

"Your soul mission completion rating is: 85%."

"He Weiguo's soul expresses gratitude to you, leaving behind a portion of his power. Soul equipment: Endless Vodka is enhanced. Renamed: Endless Strong Vodka."

"Endless Strong Vodka"

"Equipment Effect: Excitement (Active): After activation, your running and walking speed is additionally increased by (25% →) 28%. The excitement state disappears after being attacked. The excitement effect can be reactivated 300 seconds after the excitement state disappears--------This effect can now be stacked with other acceleration effects.

"This type of item has a special effect: After drinking a large mouthful of the strong vodka inside, you can instantly restore (20 →) 25 points of health, and the temporary healing speed is increased by 25%. Duration: 60 minutes."

"This type of item has a special effect: In a non-combat state, the vodka inside will automatically refill every fifteen minutes (shortened from the original 24 hours).

"Other restrictions and descriptions remain unchanged."

Looking at the 85% theoretical exploration degree of the soul mission, Fang Senyan nodded slightly, as this was within expectations. In fact, he had guessed the way to achieve 100% completion of this soul mission, which was to cure He Xiaojun's lupus erythematosus. Naturally, He Weiguo's soul would be moved to tears with gratitude. However, Fang Senyan had already researched lupus erythematosus, which is a disease caused by defects in the autoimmune system. Western medicine has almost no effective treatments for it. If he wanted to find a cure in the real world, he could only search for traditional Chinese medicine everywhere and hope for good luck, making the time required for healing unpredictable.

Of course, another treatment plan was direct and fast, which was to seek help from the Nightmare Space. Fang Senyan had initially estimated that this should be directly linked to merit points. It was possible that he would need to reach a certain military rank before being able to purchase similar drugs. Fang Senyan had previously witnessed his Fourth Uncle's hands being crippled, which was an eternal pain in his heart. He was also hoping to increase his merit points as soon as possible to obtain drugs in the space. Therefore, even if he had the ability to treat He Xiaojun's disease, he would not waste it here.

After the Endless Vodka took effect, Fang Senyan activated the acceleration effect on it, and his movement speed increased significantly. Now, every step he took felt like riding an elevator smoothly, allowing him to stride far with ease, yet others remained unaware. Although this increased speed would disappear once attacked by an enemy, and then he would have to wait five minutes before using it again, it was still quite practical.

For this soul equipment, Fang Senyan delayed his departure from Chongqing for nearly four days. Although the time he spent in the real world was still considered ample, he was now racing against the clock to begin his next action and strive for the "Advanced Milestone: Wine Tasting Master."

Based on Fang Senyan's current situation, it was unrealistic to collect the several types of foreign wines he had never even heard of. However, there was still some hope of finding clues about the 1950 Chinese Maotai original brew. This rare treasure, known as the "National Liquor," was undoubtedly precious and scarce. If he were to try to find it, then there were two places in China where he would have the highest chance of finding clues. The first was obviously Maotai Town in Renhuai City, Guizhou Province, and the other place... was naturally Zhongnanhai in Beijing!

Next, Fang Senyan searched a series of materials and obtained two important pieces of information:

In October 1999, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Museum of Chinese History collected a bottle of 1950 vintage Maotai.

On June 19, 2010, Beijing Geode Auction Company pioneered the auction of aged Maotai. At its first national "Chinese Famous Wine" auction, a bottle of 1959 cartwheel-branded Maotai set a new record for Maotai wine auctions with a transaction price of 1.03 million.

Obviously, the first piece of news included clear time, place, and event, and even the mission item Fang Senyan was looking for was a perfect match. But what kind of place was the Museum of Chinese History! It was an important building on the east side of Tiananmen Square, containing important cultural relics representing the five thousand years of the Chinese nation. Any item taken out was a national treasure. Even if Fang Senyan was strong at this time, he would definitely not be able to directly challenge the authority of the state! The terror of the huge national machine composed of billions of people was despairing to even think about.

Therefore, Fang Senyan simply bought a plane ticket to Guizhou. Fortunately, Chongqing was not too far from Guizhou, and the discounted ticket only cost 300 yuan. Fang Senyan bought the nearest flight. When checking his ID card at the boarding gate, he carefully checked the authenticity of the ID card. Before departing, Fang Senyan made a special trip to a barber shop to tidy himself up, trying to make himself look as close as possible to the photo on the stolen ID card. Therefore, boarding the plane was uneventful and without any suspense. After flying to Guiyang in the evening, he stayed at the airport hotel. Early the next morning, he chartered a car directly to Maotai Town in Renhuai, which would only take about four or five hours.

Here, the mountains were high and the emperor was far away. Fang Senyan didn't have the time to play power struggles or set up schemes. He casually found a hotel to stay in and threw a hundred yuan to the front desk. He said that he was the human resources department manager of a brewery in the north and was here to hire a senior master craftsman as a technical consultant. The front desk, who was bare-chested and watching the news, immediately jumped up and excitedly said that his old man was the overlord of wine, the best of wine, the Chitu horse of wine, the Lu Bu of wine. Listening to the meaning in his words, if Fang Senyan did not hire his old man as a consultant, it would simply be a disservice to the motherland, the people, and the party.

Fang Senyan was too lazy to talk to him any further and said directly:

"Has your old man ever drunk 1950 Maotai original brew?"

The front desk's words immediately stopped. After a while, he said sullenly:

"What does hiring a consultant have to do with 1950 Maotai original brew?"

Fang Senyan shrugged and said:

"You don't even know the relationship between them, so what are you doing as a consultant?"

This sentence made the front desk roll his eyes. He had no choice but to shut up. In the next two days, Fang Senyan investigated everywhere under the guise of "recruiting consultants" and immediately had a headache. It turned out that the information he had obtained about the 1950 Maotai original brew was not too little, but too much! Renhuai was known as the wine capital of China, with nearly 300 breweries of considerable size! The output of white wine alone was 111,000 tons! The output of Maotai wine was 23,000 tons!

Under such circumstances, it was conceivable what kind of information Fang Senyan would receive when he was unfamiliar with the place. News such as Little Confused Immortal, Jinshili, Wine in Wine, Maohe, etc. came overwhelmingly, and in this Maotai Town, the "1950 Maotai original brew" had almost become a must-have treasure for every household. Moreover, the workmanship was indeed quite similar. Even if national special-grade experts came, they would be guaranteed not to be able to distinguish the real from the fake from the appearance. Naturally, the asking price was also astronomical, making people dumbfounded.

If Fang Senyan were to buy it with money, he would probably have to spend two or three hundred million to get a genuine product. But if he dared to act violently, then it would not take many times before everyone in the town would know that there was a robber who specialized in targeting the 1950 Maotai original brew. Under the guise of alarming the snake, it would be even more impossible to obtain the genuine product, and he, who had previously inquired about relevant news many times, would inevitably be included in the sequence of chief suspects.

Just when he was in a dilemma, Fang Senyan suddenly saw a local television news program that night:

"Congratulations to Maotai National Liquor for being selected into the 'Singapore Timeless Treasures Exhibition of Rare Treasures.' In order to support this event and help develop bilateral relations, the Renhuai Municipal Government has specially provided two bottles of national treasure-level collections: the 1950 Maotai original brew, to participate in this exposition."

This news immediately made Fang Senyan concentrate. Obviously, at such an international conference, the official would definitely not take out fakes to make a fool of themselves, as this involved the height of a country's reputation. And he simply checked online and confirmed that this exposition would not be held until ten days later, giving Fang Senyan ample buffer time. Although Fang Senyan could not obtain a passport to go abroad, it was not difficult for him, who had been running ships for a long time, to find a way to go to Singapore. It was always better than being bombarded by those overwhelming false information here.

With this thought in mind, Fang Senyan immediately flew to the Chaozhou-Shantou area of Guangdong, where smuggling was rampant, and it was commonplace to carry a few people along for illegal immigration. Fang Senyan had been running ships since he was fourteen years old, and he had personally done this kind of thing so skillfully that he could recite all the processes backwards with his eyes closed.