Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 659 - 657: Standing Up to Injustice

The success of the Evening Breeze Tavern thickened Lin Wanwan’s wealth once more.

But wealth was secondary; forming connections with the Cheng Family was the greatest benefit. Mere money was of little use.

After the high-proof alcohol began to slowly spread out from Chang’an City, the production of both distilleries was insufficient to meet demand. However, Lin Wanwan and the Cui Family had no desire to continue expanding.

For further expansion would attract too much attention and be exhausting to handle, which did not align with Lin Wanwan’s contented mindset.

The high-quality fine wine available on the market wasn’t exclusively sold at their Evening Breeze Tavern. In just a month, several taverns had emerged in the east and west markets, capable of selling high-proof wines.

The Imperial Medical Bureau was such a large place, and even though the distillation of alcohol was guarded by the Inner Guard, don’t forget that those Inner Guards were mostly scions of noble families!

The power of the noble families was pervasive, and secrets couldn’t be kept.

It’s just that the distilleries of Lin Wanwan and the Cui Family, with the distillation equipment provided by Lin Wanwan, produced wine slightly superior in quality to that on the market, so there was no worry about sales.

This freshly made high-proof wine remained a seller’s market, with demand outweighing supply, allowing everyone to earn handsomely.

Especially the fine wine personally brewed by Lin Wanwan (all brought from modern times), which was practically Yaochi Immortal Wine.

Being personally brewed meant production was inevitably low.

Aside from the first time when Princess Lizhi and Princes Li Tai and Li Zhi came personally to take two jugs, only one jug was tributed to the palace that month, and there were only three or four jugs available at the Evening Breeze Tavern.

While she did give away quite a few, to Empress Xiao, Princess Xiangcheng, Pei Xingjian who had saved Lin Wanwan, Xiao Chong’s cousin Gu Feng, and others who had shown goodwill towards her, she offered a jug to each.

Except for those who got lucky on the first day of the Evening Breeze Tavern’s opening, wanting to buy fine wine after that was futile; there was no stock.

After all, Lin Wanwan had no desire to continually pretend to be a "brewer." She was just trying to quickly gain fame and capture the market by bringing in some modern baijiu.

Her title in the Great Tang was Village Lady of Le’an, and her official position was that of a female imperial physician. Constantly shutting herself in to secretly brew wine wasn’t appropriate!

Therefore, money couldn’t buy the fine wine personally brewed by Lin Wanwan. It required navigating inner channels. And trying to find Lin Wanwan privately by pulling strings was difficult because she declined visitors, using the same excuse as for rejecting banquets—needing to pay reverence to the Buddha.

Lin Wanwan was genuinely grateful for her identity as the Heart Lamp Saintess of Daxingshan Temple, as it was incredibly useful and served as a social blockade.

By name, Lin Wanwan was "paying reverence to Buddha," but naturally, she couldn’t truly spend her time on such ephemeral matters.

Once the manor’s gates were closed, the entire estate became a small, self-sufficient world, with her armed department’s training plan proceeding vigorously.

Lin Wanwan knew she couldn’t stay in Chang’an forever, so she recruited mostly solitary, struggling individuals for her department, occasionally taking in entire families, integrating the whole family into the manor.

Once trained, she planned to take them all back to Mao County, for them to settle, marry, and have children, surrounding Lin Family Manor.

For training the armed department, untrained in military tactics, Lin Wanwan was relying on the time-travel Divine Book "Civilian Military Training Manual," absorbing and training as she went, proving quite effective.

The scientific training paired with ample food supply had turned these initially emaciated and starving troops into a vigorous group in just a month.

Though not elite soldiers yet, they didn’t appear to be a disorganized mob on the surface. As for their actual combat strength, that was uncertain.

To avoid being coveted and to remain low-key, whenever there were unavoidable guests at home (like the clever and persistent little fatty Li Tai), Lin Wanwan dispersed the armed department into the fields, turning them into farm slaves.

By the end of June, the spring wheat planted in the Permanent Land near Lin Wanwan’s manor was bending under its weight, and the corn and potatoes planted in April were nearing their harvest season.

The white-skinned pigs raised in the village had grown plump and would be ready for market in at most two more months, while the sweet potatoes in the fields would be ready for digging by August.

However, Lin Wanwan couldn’t wait for all this.

Empress Zhangsun’s due date was in mid-July, and Lin Wanwan’s days of liberation were near.

As she prepared to return home, to avoid complications, aside from necessary visits to the palace for duty, Lin Wanwan seldom interacted with others. She merely sent back gifts for invitations from Xiao Chong’s stepmother without personal visits.

Sun Simiao no longer resided in Chang’an City but was coaxed by Lin Wanwan into staying at the manor for a while.

As long as it was outside Chang’an City, Lin Wanwan could accompany Old Sun into the mountains and rivers, tasting herbs without complaint. But entering Chang’an City was out of the question; she disliked it.

That majestic city held the most brilliant civilization of the Great Tang, the most open minds, the most beautiful Hu Ji, the most captivating music and dance, but also the most stringent restraints, the most terrifying imperial authority, the most decadent scions, and the most cunning people.

Therefore, Lin Wanwan was reluctant to stay long or make contacts, fearing both entanglement and exposure.

Fortunately, Old Sun enjoyed the free life at the manor and was lenient with Lin Wanwan, his junior disciple.

Aside from the major issue of her time travel, Lin Wanwan didn’t avoid Old Sun in other matters, including training the armed department.

If she had to doubt even someone like Old Sun, a sage known throughout history for his medical ethics, there would be no one she could trust.

This particular day saw Lin Wanwan accompanied by Kun Lun and Old Sun for a medicinal foraging trip into the mountains. As they traversed the lush, tree-covered hills, Lin Wanwan suddenly caught a whiff of smoke.

"Not good, could there be a forest fire?" Lin Wanwan was startled, frantically searching for the source of the smoke.

She soon discovered that a small village at the foot of the mountain was engulfed in a raging fire.

Among the three of them, Old Sun, possessing profound inner strength, though elderly, had keen senses and was the first to hear someone desperately screaming for help.

"Quick, let’s go take a look." Old Sun led the pair in hastening their pace, and before long, Lin Wanwan also heard and witnessed the terrifying truth of the blaze—living people were being pushed into the fire!

Faced with such a horrific sight, Old Sun said nothing, immediately rushing forward to kick over those doing the pushing, untying the bound person, and rescuing them.

Seeing this, Lin Wanwan, of course, followed suit.

But the villagers around Chang’an were not to be trifled with; most were former garrison soldiers, tough and aggressive.

Seeing outsiders charging into the village and daring to interfere, they wasted no time in fighting the trio. Spectating women and children were shouting to burn them all, claiming they were devil incarnates. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Lin Wanwan was inwardly fuming and resented the injustices — what had she done to deserve this, and why were even the women and children so unreasonable here! She wanted to break free and unleash her anger (carrying a modified nail gun), but restrained herself, knowing that Old Sun would be upset.

Old Sun’s martial prowess far exceeded Lin Wanwan’s; after all, as a great physician who roamed all over China since the Northern Zhou, he couldn’t have relied solely on medicine and reasoning in the martial world. His swordsmanship ensured his safety across the lands.

Thus, if he wished, he could absolutely have made an example of a few to stabilize the situation. However, he clearly wouldn’t do so because standing before them now were nothing but a group of ignorant villagers.