Once upon a time, on the outskirt of a European country, there was a moderately-sized town. Its dwellers had been living on the export of beer for centuries and there was a prestigious family who had taken a monopoly on the production for decades. Both locals and travellers spoke highly of their products.
Mia Winston, who was the daughter of the owner of Winston’s Workshop, was a 20-year-old girl. Her existence in the town was quite an unconformity. When girls of her age were all going to county fairs and picking their beloved headwear, she unexpectedly had a favour for all kinds of books, especially those about science. She had always had a dream, which was to go to France to study chemistry, for this country had got one of the most advanced education systems on the subject.
However, her father took a hard stand on this. In his opinion, girls only need to be elegant and behave decently. These “qualities” are sufficient for them to be married to a respectable man and their life afterwards can be guaranteed. In fact, most of the town dwellers held the same opinion.
Even the girls themselves, the “victims” of these opinions, started to accept their fate as being arranged.
One day, when Mia was sitting on the windowsill reading a book on chemistry in the luminous sunlight, there was old Winston calling. “Mia, come to me for a moment. I have something to tell you.” Mia put a dried leaf, which she used as a bookmark, between the pages and called back, “Comin’ dad!”. When she stepped into her father’s room, he was chatting with another man, looking a similar age, with black and white whiskers surrounding his jaw.
He looked so much like a well-educated gentleman that Mia mistook him for a university professor and felt relieved and thrilled at the same time because she thought that her dad had introduced her to a renowned professor, which meant she finally got the chance to receive an elite education since few schools at that time enrolled female students.
However, what her dad said next was like a flash of lightning struck on nobody else but her. “You’ll soon be married to Robert Nolan, who is the son of this Mr. Nolan. Now say hello to Mr. Nolan, the renowned owner of a fabric workshop.”
“But dad! I don’t want to get married at all. I haven’t even seen Robert before. It’s just too ridiculous. Why?!”. Mia was stunned in her place, not able to move. She was quite aware that women had scarcely any chance at an education after marriage.
“You’ve gone too far, Mia! How dare you be so rude before Mr. Nolan!”. The expression of Mr. Winston switched from an obsequious smile to a totally reddened face, just like a balloon about to explode. Her father then turned to Mr. Nolan, saying, “I feel really sorry for my child’s rash words. I’m really grateful to have my daughter admired by your son. I will definitely applaud for their marriage”.
During the next few days, Mia looked really downcast. She ended with complying to her father’s decision for he threatened to throw away all of her beloved books where her knowledge came from if she insisted on rejecting the proposal.
On the day of the wedding ceremony, almost all the dwellers of the town were present. They all sent congratulations to both families, not aware of the disappointed look on the bride’s face.
There had always been a ritual during the wedding ceremony in this town; to let the bride and bridegroom each hold a burning candle and then use the flames to ignite a letter in a pot, the so called “pot of true love”. Then a woman who called herself a witch put her hand into the pot. If she could successfully take the letter out without burning her hand, then the love between the bride and the bridegroom was said to be genuine.
Now that this mysterious ritual had begun. Mia and Robert, each holding a candle, were approaching the pot. The witch was standing right next to the pot, with a proud smile on her face. By the second she put her hand into the flame, everyone held their breath, eyes all focusing on the pot, as if their gaze could set the paper on fire. They were just about to witness the extraordinary power of the witch.
However, at the same time, Mia herself put her own hand into the flame. Everyone thought she was going to hurt herself and all started to panic. They frowned and buzzed around, accusing the bride of being mad. But a moment later, Mia’s voice broke the clamoring under the stage, like a magnet attracting the scattered noise.
“Attention everybody! This is no magic at all! Do not be taken in by them. The ritual is superstition in the essence. Let’s take a look at the fire. It is produced by mixing boric acid together with ethyl alcohol. The ‘flame’ that we see has a temperature of about 20-75C, which means it cannot cause harm to our skin. After we’ve learned something about science, many things that seem mysterious can be fully explained.”
Not until her voice was done was there a burst of private discussion among the guests. Old Winston and Nolan felt their faces were burning. They didn’t expect that their honour and authority to threatened as such one day. In order that the whole scenario not get out of control, they dismissed the ceremony at once. The seats became empty in a few minutes. Everyone else left, either murmuring something on their own or whispering into others’ ears, leaving only the bridegroom and the once cocky witch at the spot, staring at each other with embarrassment. Mia left the church feeling like she might eventually breathe again.
The Winston’s were renowned for making beer. On most occasions, their products were in active demand in both the local market and those in neighbouring towns. However, there came a time when consumers complained about the flavour of the beer. They fed back comments like, “There is scarcely any foam in the beer”, or, “The beer tastes too watery instead of rich and fruity”.
The news soon spread across the town. People all reckoned that there must be something wrong with the quality of the ingredients or the ratio of the ingredients. Thus, they checked the wheat and rye which they used as the raw materials for fermentation. However, no matter how many kinds of wheats they tried, the flavour remained the same.
When Mia was notified of the dilemma her father was facing, she directly pointed out there might be a leak on the fermentation container, for the reason that the key element in the fermentation of the beer is the activity of the yeast. Once there is a leak, oxygen will come into the container, turning some of the anaerobic respiration aerobic, having thus an influence on the production of alcohol.
This Mia had learned from the piles of science-related books. When she initially told others her idea, no one believed her, because for years, they had always been convinced that once the ratio and quality of the ingredients were proper, the product must be good.
They even had a formula for the ratio of the ingredients when fermenting wheats. But now, after so many trials, they started to suspect that what Mia said was correct.
After a thorough examination of the container, they found, to their embarrassment, a small crack in the container. Now that Mia had helped them through the commercial crisis, the town dwellers began to change their opinions about Mia. Mr. Winston even began to read books on science together with his daughter and gradually switched his attitude to girls receiving higher education.
Several years later, Mia successfully graduated from a renowned institute with a degree in chemistry and took over her father’s business, always endeavouring to produce world-class beer with the help of her knowledge of chemistry.
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