The booming cocktail business of Liu Shichu made many wine sellers see business opportunities, and they began to copy her cocktails. For a while, many wine shops named mixed drinks and cocktails popped up in the capital.
Some customers, not knowing the truth or in order to save some money on wine, go to those copycat wine shops to drink "Colorful" wine. The result is predictable, either the taste is weird and unpalatable or the taste is bland and ordinary, not at all as magical as the legend says.
So they all thought that this cocktail did not live up to its name, but some experienced drinkers laughed at them and said that they were not drinking authentic cocktails. The authentic ones should be from Mrs. Liu's "Zui Xin" liquor shop, which was the founder of cocktails.
Liu Shichu's wine shop became famous, gradually overshadowing the reputation of her divorce. When people talked about her, they no longer referred to her as the ex-wife abandoned by a certain general, but as someone who understood wine and had developed a special blend of wine. This inadvertently helped to improve her reputation.
Liu Shichu struck while the iron was hot and developed many other cocktails. She not only mixed certain types of liquor, but also mixed liquor with fruit juice, milk, and even sugar to create different flavors.
Needless to say, this novel and unique cocktail was naturally very popular. Even many ladies and girls came out of curiosity to drink these new kinds of drinks.
Liu Shichu took the opportunity to expand the wine shop and set aside one-third of the space specifically for entertaining female customers. This reduced the worries of the female customers, and gradually more and more female customers came to the shop.
The backyard of Cui Mansion.
Cui Anhua and several of his concubines gathered in the garden to drink tea and chat.
"Have you heard? Our madam, no, the ex-madam, opened a liquor store and sells cocktails that are very popular! I wonder what kind of liquor is in this cocktail and whether it tastes good..." Aunt Zhou said to the other concubines with a wink.
"What cocktail? Such a weird name, how can it be a good drink? Madam, no, that Liu is really completely depraved now. Even if she is divorced from our master, she is still a daughter of an official family. How can she degenerate into selling alcohol? Aren't you afraid of being laughed at?"
Another concubine, Aunt Chen, said sarcastically that she had an old grudge against Liu Shichu, and was so happy when she knew that Liu Shichu and Cui Anhua had divorced. Naturally, she would step on Liu Shichu whenever she could.
"The wine they sell is not an ordinary wine. I heard that a small cup of wine costs several taels or even dozens of taels of silver. They are really unscrupulous merchants and must have made a lot of money. I don't know why those people are willing to be suckers. It's just wine. Could it be that mixing several kinds of wine together really tastes so good?" Aunt Wang said puzzled. She was most concerned about the money. Knowing that Liu Shichu's wine shop was doing a booming business, she was jealous.
"Who knows if it was wine or not? After all, our ex-madam was a beauty, and only our master was blind and didn't like her. How could other men not be fascinated by her? I heard that she often goes to the wine shop. Those drinkers say they go there to drink, but maybe she has other intentions." Aunt Chen sneered.
"What are you talking about?" Just as the aunts were talking about Liu Shichu in a sarcastic tone, suddenly a familiar male voice sounded from behind them.
When several concubines looked over there, they saw that it was Cui Anhua and Jiang Wenyue who was pregnant, so they hurriedly stood up and greeted them.
"Who were you talking about just now?" Cui Anhua asked the women with a cold face.
"No, I didn't say who..." Aunt Zhou answered hurriedly, knowing that the master and the new lady definitely didn't want to hear about the ex-lady.
However, Cui Anhua already knew who they were talking about, and he was just asking knowingly: "Who didn't they say? Give me an honest answer! You tell me!"
He pointed at Aunt Chen, and Aunt Chen, seeing that she could not escape, replied in a low voice, "I am, I am talking about the former Madam Liu..."
"What did they say about her?" Cui Anhua asked in a deep voice. Although he and Liu Shichu had divorced, he didn't want her to live in too much poverty. After all, she was his original wife. So when he heard these concubines saying that she sold wine, he couldn't help but ask.
"They say the wine shop opened by Liu is very popular." Aunt Chen answered guiltily.
"Why did Sister Liu open a wine shop? She's so pitiful... Didn't her family accept her back? Why did they want her, a woman, to come out and show herself in public?" Jiang Wenyue asked with concern. She frowned slightly, as if she was very worried about the situation of her husband's ex-wife.
"We don't know about that." Aunt Zhou lowered her head and rolled her eyes secretly. This new wife is really good at acting. Wasn't it because of this bitch that the previous wife went to sell wine? Why is she acting now
"Didn't she bring back a dowry and 20% of our family's property? Why does she need to go out and do business on her own?" Cui Anhua asked puzzledly.
"Twenty percent of the family fortune?!" When Jiang Wenyue heard his words, the expression on her face almost broke, but she quickly concealed it. However, she secretly felt pain in her heart for the twenty percent of the family fortune that had passed her by.
"Maybe she is not short of money, but just wants to do something to kill time? I heard that all the cocktails in her wine shop were invented by her, so she must be very interested in wine to have the patience and leisure to study these things..." Another Madam Wen, who was always taciturn, suddenly spoke up.
When Cui Anhua heard her words, he couldn't tell whether he was disappointed or happy. If Liu Shichu invested her energy in the wine shop just because of her interest, then her life must not be as miserable as he thought.
"Sister Liu is really leisurely... But she is a woman after all, how can she focus on business? In my opinion, she still needs a man who cherishes her, just like me now... I hope she can have her own new life." Jiang Wenyue said kindly.
"Yue'er, you are so kind that you even worry about other people's affairs. Now you just need to take good care of your pregnancy and give birth to our child safely. Don't worry about outsiders' affairs." Cui Anhua said gently to his beloved woman.
The concubines present couldn't help but lower their heads and roll their eyes after hearing what he said. These two people were really enough, both men and women were equally shameless.
Cui Anhua's concubines didn't have much affection for him. After all, he was away from home all year round, and he was not a handsome man. He was just a rough guy. They only became his concubines for the sake of wealth and glory.
It is precisely because she has no feelings for him that she can now see their true colors. Looking at the size of Jiang Wenyue's belly, she must have gotten pregnant right after he divorced his ex-wife, or even before they divorced, right
Now he pretends to care about his ex-wife in front of everyone, who can he fool? If he really felt sorry for his ex-wife, he would not have gotten together with her in the first place.