"It's spicy and chokes your throat when you first taste it. It's fragrant but... slightly bitter when you taste it."
"What now?"
"It doesn't seem so bitter anymore, and there is still a ray of sweetness lingering in the throat."
The deputy chief took a sip, smiled with an intoxicated expression.
"This wine has its ups and downs just like life. When you first encounter setbacks, you will be angry, heart-burning, and unwilling to give up. You want to give it all up and start over. After a while, all you think about is bitterness and hatred. But how much do you want?
When I tasted it again after the New Year, it was actually a thing of the past. Looking back carefully, the sweetness has already surpassed the suffering."
Wen Shaoyi twirled the wine glass, carefully recalling the meaning of the deputy patriarch's words, and guessing what he meant.
"Here, drink some more."
Wen Shaoyi raised his glass to him and wanted to drink it all, but was stopped again by the deputy chief.
"Don't waste good wine. Let's just take a sip."
Wen Shaoyi said with a smile, "There are still many in the altar."
"Try a little today, and you can taste a little more tomorrow, and you can taste a little day and night in the future. After you taste it, you won't feel bitter anymore."
"Deputy chief, Shaoyi understands your intention, Shaoyi..."
"Just understand. If the clan leader has any good wine from now on, remember me."
The deputy patriarch was informal, bold and capable, and interrupted Wen Shaoyi directly before he could finish his words.
Wen Shaoyi said no more.
He knew that the deputy chief wanted to comfort him, that the Tianfen Clan had been destroyed, and that it would be useless to hate and complain. When something happened, you should not always think about hatred, but also think more about the sweet past.
He also reminded him that although marrying a female tyrant is bitter, there is sweetness in the bitterness, and life will be sweet as long as it is lived.
But if revenge is not avenged, can it be sweet?
Is it sweet to marry someone you don’t love, or even hate extremely?
Thinking of the wedding, Wen Shaoyi picked up the wine glass and wanted to drink it in one gulp.
The deputy patriarch grabbed his wine and said, "How can you taste the wine if you drink it too quickly? Let's divide it into five times."
"Five times..."
It’s just such a small glass of wine and you have to divide it five times?
"I can't taste this wine. Let the deputy chief drink it slowly."
"There are a lot of wines that you have to taste slowly if you can't taste them. This is also a must for growth. The patriarch should taste it slowly."
"…"
Wen Shaoyi didn't want to deal with him, so he directly opened the skylight and spoke frankly.
"The person I want to marry is the empress of the Ice Tribe, or does it have to be her?"
"The Empress of the Ice Clan. No matter who the empress of the Ice Clan is, as long as she is the empress. But... the Tianfen Clan cannot interfere with who becomes the empress, otherwise... the person you want to marry will still be her."
The deputy patriarch took a sip, looked at the bright moonlight, slightly opened the corners of his mouth, and reminded, "Marriage is your promise."
"I have never forgotten my promise. I don't deny that I don't want to get married, especially to her. But I have never understood why I have to marry the Ice Clan's empress. What does the empress have that is worthy of the Tianfen Clan's sacrifice?
We also need to get married."
"That's what I've always wanted to know."
If it could be cancelled, he wouldn't want to see the patriarch suffer so much because he married a woman he didn't love.
"It's getting dark, I'll go back to my room first."
"Clan leader, except for the marriage, no matter what you do in the future, everyone in the Tianfen clan will listen to your orders."
"Shao Yi has taken note of the deputy patriarch's reminder."
"You haven't finished your drink yet."
"I have memorized the sweetness, bitterness, and spicyness in the wine. Let's just throw it away."
"It's such a shame to throw it away. I'll keep it and give it to you when you want to drink it next time."
Wen Shaoyi left step by step. After walking a long way, he came back and asked something that silenced the deputy patriarch.
"I heard that the deputy patriarch and Cainiang were childhood sweethearts and they are very happy with each other. Cainiang has been waiting for you for more than 40 years, from black hair to gray hair. Why doesn't the deputy patriarch marry her?