Farming Games are All About Grinding
Chapter 305 - 296 Brewing Rice Wine

Chapter 305: Chapter 296 Brewing Rice Wine

The spiciness of these pickled peppers is different from the industrial tangy spice of the ones sold outside in packaged products.

Their tangy spice is a direct and straightforward kind.

It’s like two armies clashing—laying their cards on the table, bombarding your palate head-on with sour and spicy flavors.

And it’s a relentless attack, like a rolling assault.

Nonstop.

"This flavor is just too satisfying." Han Qiwu put away the remaining pickled peppers, his face flushed as he fanned his mouth and said, "Good thing we have some bamboo shoots at home. Later, I’ll whip up a dish of pickled pepper bamboo slices."

After taking out all the ingredients, he proceeded to fill three jar bottles with the same materials one by one, preparing for another round of fermentation.

Once the materials were added, Han Qiwu didn’t leave the cool side room. Instead, he walked to a corner and took out the [Slightly Damaged Clay Wine Jar] he had obtained while fishing yesterday.

Originally, he had intended to use this clay wine jar to ferment rice wine last night. But he was worried that the residual seawater inside might impact the quality of the rice wine, so he let it air out overnight before using it today.

The air-dried clay wine jar had a faint yellow earthy tone, which now gave off some semblance of a crafted item.

Han Qiwu touched the top of the clay wine jar, and a prompt popped up.

[Please add the necessary materials for brewing.]

[Due to the jar’s special effects, only rice-based brewing materials can be added.]

[Materials added (0/3)]

"Should I use regular refined rice or dragon rice?" Han Qiwu was a bit torn. Adding three portions of dragon rice outright felt a little wasteful.

"Better stick to refined rice for now," Han Qiwu decided after a moment of thought. From his storage bin, he took out three portions of refined rice and added them in.

[Materials added (3/3)]

[Estimated brewing time: 2 days]

In truth, he faintly suspected that the three types of rice might need to be added in some special proportion.

Perhaps brewing with specific proportions could yield higher-quality wine.

But all of this would require repeated experimentation with the clay wine jar to figure out step by step.

One step at a time.

After setting down the clay wine jar, Han Qiwu glanced around the side room, feeling a great sense of accomplishment.

"Tonight, I can finally pick up the axe. By then, I’ll have to cut down more trees."

Judging by today’s situation, it seemed imperative to craft more of these jar bottles.

To make these things, he’d need wood, stone, and charcoal.

The latter two weren’t too much of a problem.

The biggest shortage right now was wood.

Fortunately, the Little Prince helped bring back some wood daily; otherwise, there really wouldn’t be enough to use.

"Who knows when I’ll gather enough wood for the intermediate chicken coop’s 500-unit requirement," Han Qiwu muttered with some exasperation. At the moment, he wasn’t short on money. Tomorrow was the traveling peddler’s day in town; maybe he could buy some wood from him.

Leaving the side room, Han Qiwu cast a glance at the Little Prince.

Originally, he had planned to con the Little Prince into digging a cellar.

But with no extra honey at hand, even if he tried to coax him, it wouldn’t work.

Better to wait for next time.

Looking up, he noticed that half of the trees covering the barren land in the yard had already been cut down, leaving the bare soil looking somewhat wasted.

"Can’t just leave it empty. Gotta plant something again," Han Qiwu muttered, rummaging through his storage box.

As he searched, he discovered thirty rice seeds and ten spinach seeds lying quietly inside the box.

"When did I buy these?"

Han Qiwu flipped through the log and finally remembered that he had picked them up three days ago at the seed shop. At the time, he was in a rush to complete Zhuan Zhu’s task and ended up forgetting to plant them once he returned home.

What a shame.

Han Qiwu pulled out the water hose and headed to the area where he previously cultivated rice, bending down to grab a handful of soil.

[Current soil condition: Ordinary quality]

[Lacking elements: None]

[Water deficiency level: Moderately dry]

[Requires fallow period: 10 days]

"Looks like it needs a break. Good thing I gained the ability to perceive soil conditions," Han Qiwu chuckled.

Though he didn’t yet fully understand the rules of soil resting, he knew planting crops in overworked land would likely affect the harvest.

"Ten days isn’t long. Let it rest," Han Qiwu said, moving to an area in the south. While tilling and watering, he swiftly prepared thirty paddy fields, fertilized them, and planted the rice seeds one by one.

After planting the rice, he left two empty rows before sowing the spinach seeds.

Taking out a copper watering can he hadn’t used in a while, Han Qiwu began watering while mapping out the planting layout.

Currently, his storage bin held [Copper Ingot] ×9 and [Iron Ingot] ×17.

These were enough to craft nine basic sprinklers, which could water 36 plots of land.

Once the layout was set, Han Qiwu decided to plant some rapeseed and potatoes next.

Rapeseed could be used to harvest honey and produce oil.

Potatoes could be gifted to Tu Tou or made into Stargazy Pie, which also fetched decent selling prices.

Let’s plant!

Soon, Han Qiwu rode his bike straight to the town’s seed shop, spending 6,200 gold to purchase 40 rapeseed and 40 potato seeds.

For now, this would suffice. Once the number of crafted sprinklers increased, he could consider expanding the range further.

In Han Qiwu’s mind, the number of plots he could currently manage within the limits of his stamina and time was around 300.

Slow and steady wins the race.

After buying the seeds, he glanced at the nearby job board but didn’t see any new tasks posted.

Back to planting.

When he got home, Han Qiwu happened to bump into the Little Prince and Little Shui, who were about to head out. He specifically reminded them: "Don’t wander too far with Little Shui. Come back early."

"Roar!"

The Little Prince obediently nodded, holding a guai wood axe over his shoulder as he carried Little Shui and walked off.

At the vegetable patch, Han Qiwu found a patch of fertile land. Taking out a hoe, he dug 80 plots of tillable soil.

To optimize the use of sprinklers, he dug in a 4×20 rectangular layout.

When he finished, he went to the fertilizer bin he hadn’t used in a while, retrieving 80 bags of fertilizer and spreading them evenly across the soil.

Thanks to the spider marionette extracting fertilizer materials from nearby trees, the fertilizer bin had maintained a solid output; otherwise, production wouldn’t have kept up.

"Speaking of which, there’s still an unparalleled marionette with Master Shuzi. How I wish I could get it," Han Qiwu sighed wistfully.

There just wasn’t enough wood.

Hopefully, the axe he picks up tonight would have good attributes.

After planting the rapeseed and potatoes, Han Qiwu went over to the storage box, taking out nine copper ingots and nine iron ingots to start crafting basic sprinklers.

Half an hour later, Han Qiwu placed the nine crafted basic sprinklers around the vegetable patch.

"Still need 11 more sprinklers."

After resting for a while, Han Qiwu decided to head to the mines, where he could gather some metal ores and stockpile jade for crafting a mayonnaise machine.

After all, the mayonnaise machine had to keep up with egg production at home.

While he was at it, he planned to swing by Sister Jin Tu’s place to try mixing another batch of strength potions and test its effects.

Grabbing three giant mushroom spawns, Han Qiwu casually picked up Little Dian and Xiao Lai, tossing them into the bike basket as he pedaled leisurely toward the mining area.

Inside the basket, the chubby Xiao Lai unintentionally pressed onto Little Dian’s wings. Oblivious, Xiao Lai smugly scooted closer to Little Dian, snorting contentedly.

Little Dian, visibly irritated, flapped his wings to shove Xiao Lai away, sulking in a corner as his mind drifted to how he could defeat that transparent jellyfish that could emit electricity.

In their last battle, Little Dian had gotten the short end of the stick.

This was to be expected; after all, the Electric Jellyfish had been cultivating in the river for who knows how long.

Little Dian, on the other hand, had only just hatched a few days ago.

Still, Little Dian refused to accept defeat and was constantly thinking about how to turn the tables.

In his own words, which he had picked up from eavesdropping around town:

"I’m gonna fry that silly jellyfish into oblivion!"