The Time Vat?

Liu Dong simply opened the system and clicked "Enter Wine Cellar".

In a flash, he found himself standing in a spacious, shady wine cellar.

Ten new large tanks have been added.

The so-called "time vat" was particularly eye-catching, much larger than the other vats.

It is two meters in diameter and two meters in height, a straight cylindrical shape, with the same thickness from top to bottom.

Roughly estimated, each vat can hold about 12,000 jin (6,000 kg).

It was entirely black except for a ring of gold discs around its abdomen, with a pointer inserted in the center.

The scale ranges from 0 to 359, a full circle of 360 divisions.

Liu Dong stared at it for a long time, somewhat bewildered.

what does this mean?

A vat of time?

Is it related to time?

As if sensing his question, the system immediately responded:

"Report to host: The dial on the time vat is used to adjust the internal time flow rate. You can freely set the value, and the number the pointer points to is the time ratio between the outside world and the inside of the vat."

"hiss--"

Liu Dong immediately understood.

For example, I set the pointer to 100.

That means one year inside the jar is equivalent to one hundred years outside.

Put a bottle of wine in, take it out a year later, and it becomes a century-old vintage?

That's outrageous! Of course, wine gets better with age!

But then again, everything should be done in moderation, and alcohol doesn't necessarily get better the longer it's stored.

For most bottled high-proof liquor, about fifteen years is the maximum shelf life. If it is sealed well and stored properly, it can last for a few more years at most.

But if it's the kind of old wine that's been aged in large vats, then it's a different story.

It'll last thirty or fifty years without any problems; the longer it's stored, the better it becomes.

If you let it sit for a longer period, it's not that you can't let it sit, but the flavor of the alcohol will gradually dissipate, and it will taste a bit "weak," not strong or full-bodied enough.

slam-la-

Liu Dong swiftly poured the remaining 900 jin of wine from the ordinary wine vat into a time-based wine vat.

He raised his hand and turned the pointer outside all the way to the top in one go.

359!

The fact that this number appears indicates that time acceleration is approaching 360 times.

A day spent outside is equivalent to almost a year spent inside.

Thirty days is equivalent to thirty years of aged wine.

That's it!

In this way, once this batch of wine is taken out of the vat, its appearance will definitely be impressive, and the price will be able to jump up.

However, when he looked down, his heart sank: the wine in the vat only took up less than 10% of the space.

Well, I'll have to buy some more finished wine to fill it up later.

buzzing...

After the time flow rate was set, the golden turntable above the wine jar flashed and disappeared.

The whole vat looked no different from an ordinary earthenware vat, grayish and inconspicuous.

But Liu Dong still had a question stuck in his mind.

"System, what will happen if I turn the pointer to '0'?"

He was very curious about it himself.

The system immediately replied: "Ding-dong—If the pointer reaches zero, time inside the cylinder will stand still completely."

Time has stopped?

Hey, this is interesting!

Liu Dong took a breath, his mind racing.

If time stops in the tank, it's as if no time is moving at all.

Even if you put a bowl of boiling soup in it, and it's been 100,000 years outside, it will still be hot when you take it out, with steam still rising.

This is a brilliant move! It solves everything: freshness, quality, and temperature control.

It's practically a portable refrigerator!

Forget about whether it's a refrigerator or not, the key thing is that it's not picky about what you put; it can store anything.

These are no ordinary times now; it's already 1954.

In three months, in September, the nationwide public-private partnership will be implemented, and the unified purchase and sales system will be rolled out immediately, officially ushering in the era of ration coupons.

At that time, every household will have to use coupons to buy anything, with grain, cloth, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar rationed per person, and everything will be strictly controlled.

Take food as an example—people who do heavy labor get at most 40 jin a month; ordinary people get at least 27 jin.

Without meat and oil, this amount of food is simply not enough to keep us from starving.

What?

It relies on intelligence and foresight.

Knowing the course of history, Liu Dong was able to stockpile food in advance.

But simply buying them isn't enough; the key is whether they can be stored for a long time.

From 1954 onwards, until the reforms and opening up in the early 1980s, this rule applied for over twenty years.

Buying a lot of things is useless if they break; it's all for nothing.

But things are different now!

With this "Time Jar" that can reset time to zero, everything is no problem.

This vat has a capacity of over six cubic meters and can hold 13,000 jin (approximately 6,500 kg) of water.

If it were rice, it could easily hold 20,000 jin (10,000 kg).

Two vats weigh 40,000 jin.

If spread over thirty years, it amounts to more than 1,300 jin per year, or a little over 100 jin per month.

More than 100 kilograms of rice a month is more than enough for one person!

It's more than enough for one person, or even for three or five family members to eat together.

If there are five or six people in a family, there will be leftovers every day.

After all, in addition to what you save yourself, the government also provides a monthly ration!

If we can really save up two jars of rice, we won't have to worry about food for ten people.

More importantly, Liu Dong has ten such time-limited wine jars.

Keep one specifically for aging the wine, and use the remaining nine as warehouses.

But he has to get it done within the next three months.

This is a big task!

Moreover, this pile of supplies is backed by a huge sum of money.

Take it slow, start with the most important thing – stockpiling grain.

Once he made up his mind, Liu Dong closed the system interface, finished all his work, and looked up at the sky. The sun was already setting, it was almost two o'clock in the afternoon.

There's still plenty of time before the guests come for drinks tonight.

"Sister Xu!" He walked up to Xu Huizhen. "I've finished tidying up the tavern, and I'm free now. I want to go out and buy some things, I promise I'll be back before six!"

Xu Huizhen nodded: "Okay, go ahead, and come back early."

Liu Dong took off his apron, hopped on his tricycle, and pedaled off, heading straight for the grain station.

At that time, the rationing system had not yet been implemented; grain could be purchased without ration coupons, and identity was not checked.

"How much does rice cost per pound?"

"One thousand yuan."

"Where's the flour?"

"Seven hundred."

That's how the market price is; it's clearly marked.

"Rice it is then," Liu Dong decided. "Give me a thousand catties!"

"So many?" Ma Yongli, the grain station clerk, looked up, pushed up her glasses, and sized him up.

Liu Dong immediately explained, "I own a restaurant in Dashilan. Business has been booming lately, and the demand is huge, so there's nothing I can do about it."

"Oh..." Ma Yongli didn't ask any more questions, picked up his pen and wrote out the invoice, "Pay up, one million."

He handed over one million in cash and received a thousand kilograms of rice in return.

Liu Dong loaded the rice onto a tricycle, found a secluded corner, and quietly stored the entire batch of rice in a wine vat.

These rice were not sold in bulk, but packaged in bags, each weighing 100 jin (50 kg). The bags were printed with the words "Yongdingmen Grain Station" and the production date was 1953.

Ten bags were thrown into the jar, but it didn't even fill one-tenth of the jar.

He turned his bike around and went to another place to buy more.

Although it is still possible to buy and sell freely now, grain stations are all state-owned enterprises. If you buy one or two thousand catties, no one will care. But if you really want to take tens of thousands of catties at once, someone will definitely be watching you.