Sweet like Wine: Love Your Dimples Even More-Chapter 77 - 49: I Don’t Think I Can Handle This Alone. (Part 2)

After Sean Lowell and Elder Ford said their goodbyes, he didn’t have any time to brace himself, The Jilted went straight to Scotland.

Speaking of farewells, Sean could have just called Elder Ford.

No need to make such a long trip back and forth.

But the weight of his mentor in Sean’s heart was just as significant.

He had to say farewell in person, firstly to check on Elder Ford’s health in recent days, and secondly to put Elder Ford’s mind at ease.

Too many young people, having learned their craft, forget about their mentors.

They go to "higher" and more "promising" places to start becoming mentors themselves.

Sean Lowell was definitely not one of these young people.

Even though Elder Ford would often tell Sean, "You’ve already mastered the craft, you don’t need to be tied to an old man like me anymore."

But Sean never felt that being by Elder Ford’s side all these years was a burden.

Wanting what you don’t have is perhaps the most common mindset in the world.

Sean never received any encouragement or warmth of home from Finn Lowell.

How could he not be particularly fond of the time spent with Elder Ford?

Elder Ford treated his apprentices with utmost fairness, neither indulging nor showing favoritism, and for genuine talent and ability, he was never stingy with praise.

This kind of "favor" was something Sean never had, or to put it another way, besides his sister Summer Lowell, he never had it.

When Elder Ford heard that Sean was going to Scotland, his first question was, "Do you have enough money? Any British Pounds? Your mentor can prepare some."

"Gordon Sterling will handle the pounds, I’m just going there to take a look. It won’t cost much, and I’ll be back soon," Sean tried to reassure Elder Ford as much as possible.

"Is Gordo going with you?" Elder Ford was particularly concerned about this issue.

"Master, this time, I want to go by myself," Sean said hesitantly, fearing that his mentor would object out of concern.

"That’s fine too, I know a few friends on Islay, I’ll give them a call. You can stay at their distilleries, or if you find distillery matters bothersome, I also have a friend whose family has run a hotel for four generations, called the Lochindaal. If you want more freedom and less disturbance, you can stay directly at the hotel. Let me know when you’re leaving, and I’ll help arrange it," Elder Ford said.

The ninety-year-old Ethan Ford was sharp-eared and clear-minded.

Even when recommending the Lochindaal Hotel, his English was exceptional for someone of his generation.

In fact, much of Sean’s knowledge about whiskey and vodka came from Elder Ford.

Speaking of which, English was only Elder Ford’s third language, with his Russian being even better than his English.

If Sean’s palate was considered national treasure level, Elder Ford was the true national treasure.

When Summer Fairmont opened the letter left to her by Hieronymus, Sean was sifting through old newspapers in a warehouse beside the Port Aelen Distillery. (Note)

In many parts of Europe, community newspapers have been preserved to this day.

Many people rely on the news and advertisements in these newspapers to understand the community they live in.

As soon as Sean arrived in Scotland, he went near the Brunschwig Distillery, asking many local elders about events that happened nineteen years ago when the Brunschwig Distillery was about to restart.

He asked several people, but no one knew the name of the mysterious Asian woman whom Hieronymus was about to marry at that time.

However, most of the local elders clearly remembered that this event indeed took place.

It’s just that everyone’s version of the story was slightly different.

Years without mention had caused many people’s memories to become a bit distorted.

It was Hieronymus’ passing last month that caused many to sigh with emotion.

No one expected Hieronymus to live to such an age.

Finally, another elder told Sean that although he couldn’t remember very clearly, the event back then was very sensational and made it into several local newspapers.

At that time, Islay didn’t have widespread internet access, and all information came in paper form.

Therefore, finding the community newspapers from nineteen years ago was not so easy.

Fortunately, despite their age, all the newspapers were archived.

Sean calculated from the time Quinn Fairmont left home and found a whole year’s worth of newspapers.

Sean was headed in the right direction.

In less than a day, he found the news from nineteen years ago about the Brunschwig Distillery’s planned restart.