Staying Overnight (Fifth Update)
Gao Yuanshan said the pigsty had been empty for a day, which was necessary. It seems he had planned to hold this event when he received the news that his son's classmate reunion was to be held at his home.
Perhaps it's out of sentimentality, perhaps it's out of memories, but many older generations tend to go to great lengths to support tradition. This is not the same as some people who like to shout "revive tradition," because people like Gao Yuanshan have a very traditional way of life.
"With great force, blow the pig's leg, with swift hands and quick eyes, pluck the pig's hair, turn the intestines inside out... How stinky! This butcher, Liu, has been entrusted by Master Gao to slaughter this beast. One cut, no more sins!" Liu Chang'an, holding the butcher's knife, first sang a line from the opera "The Butcher Scholar".
"Hehe, that really sounds like it." Gao Yuanshan sang along, shaking his head, and burst into laughter. No wonder his son admired Liu Chang'an the most among his classmates; that kid was indeed extraordinary.
The pig was tied up and carried onto the table. What Liu Chang'an had to do was actually simple: he knelt on one knee on the pig, grabbed its chin with one hand to forcefully expose its throat, and with the other hand he gripped the butcher knife and plunged it straight into the pig's heart. He flipped the knife and pulled it out, and blood gushed out, flowing into the blood basin.
One method is to hang the pig upside down and cut its throat to make it easier to bleed it out, but this method only makes the pig die faster.
Liu Chang'an's knife moved swiftly and cleanly, killing the pig with a single blow. After a few screams, the pig's cries quickly subsided. The girls' screams, however, sounded like an endless slaughter. The boys, though not making any noise, were clearly surprised by what they had witnessed.
Many people are thinking, "Liu Chang'an can even butcher pigs? Is there anything he can't do?"
Of course, a butcher's job isn't just to stab someone. In the past, besides collecting money, butchers would keep the pig's hair, small intestine, and pancreas after slaughtering it, while the kidneys and tenderloin would be stir-fried for them. Now, things are different. Some butchers only slaughter pigs and don't sell them, while others only sell pigs and don't slaughter them. It's all part of a mechanized industrial assembly line.
Liu Chang'an had no interest in playing any games with his classmates, so he simply stayed there with the Gao Family father and son to continue processing the pig. They scraped off the hair, gutted it, turned it inside out, and cleaned up the offal. He was busy all afternoon.
The courtyard of the farmhouse was covered in blood, clearly showing that everyone was just curious about the pig slaughter. Apart from Gao Dewei, no one else was as interested as Liu Chang'an in participating in the whole process. But once Liu Chang'an had processed the whole pig and cut it into various ingredients, everyone felt a sense of familiarity. This is what a pig should be like!
"Little Liu, it's almost Chinese New Year, you must come again! Uncle will take you to slaughter sheep and cows again, that's what Chinese New Year is all about. These days, staying in the city during the New Year is just no fun at all," Gao Yuanshan warmly invited.
"Okay, no problem." Although Liu Chang'an was particularly adept at adapting to life in different eras, it was also quite interesting to reminisce about the past and some things that would inevitably disappear over time.
He can accept anything buried in time, never to shine again, and he can accept any incredible new thing and will try it... He's not some alien professor who only tries to use a cell phone after meeting a female celebrity and uses a pager to show how old-fashioned he is.
"We'll teach our son how to butcher pigs in the future, so we can pass this skill down," Gao Dewei said with great foresight.
"Yes, you need to know how to slaughter a pig." Gao Yuanshan nodded. "That's how you build a tough kid. There are so many sissies these days because they've never even killed a chicken."
Liu Chang'an cupped his hands in a gesture of agreement with the father and son's viewpoint.
Since a whole pig had been slaughtered, a whole pig feast was naturally served that evening. Liu Chang'an also had the opportunity to show off his skills. How many dishes could be made from one pig? This was a number that was absolutely unimaginable for someone who wasn't a professional chef.
Of course, today's focus is on eating, not on culinary skills. Liu Chang'an only chose dishes like pig's trotters, ribs, pork, and stir-fried pork intestines, liver, and kidneys. The pig will be slaughtered in the afternoon, and the head chef will be in the evening.
An Nuan couldn't get involved in the pig slaughtering, but An Nuan finally found a chance to help when preparing dinner. She could chop vegetables and prepare the side dishes.
"You don't have to worry about me not being able to support you anymore." Liu Chang'an stirred the food in the iron wok. The farmhouse restaurant gave him a feeling of being sent to the countryside decades ago. The last two or three hundred years, every ten or twenty years, have been a period of great change, keeping people busy. The novelties encountered in life are far more numerous than in the previous hundreds or thousands of years. Liu Chang'an felt that his mentality was becoming healthier and more lively. For example, he was now planning to live a good life.
"Who needs you to support them?" An Nuan said proudly, glancing at Bai Hui not far away. "I'm not the kind of person who picks and chooses her boyfriend or has any high expectations of him."
An Nuan is actually becoming more and more supportive of Lin Xinhuai. Although, according to Liu Chang'an, there is no right or wrong between Miao Yingying and Lin Xinhuai, An Nuan can choose who she prefers to support.
"That's so disheartening," Liu Chang'an said regretfully. "Your standards for choosing a boyfriend are so casual; it's so unfulfilling. If your choices were always exceptional individuals, the cream of the crop, I'd be so satisfied."
"You perfectly fit my criteria for choosing a butcher as a boyfriend." An Nuan chuckled, put down the cleaver and chili peppers in her hand, ran over, jumped onto Liu Chang'an's back, and hugged his neck.
This is something An Nuan has always loved to do: she hugs his neck and sways him back and forth.
"I'm cooking, go play somewhere else," Liu Chang'an said helplessly, his body remaining perfectly still as he wielded the ladle. If it were anyone else, he would have shoved them away long ago.
An Nuan chuckled twice and came downstairs. What girls love to do most is to leave boys helpless, yet they have no choice but to spoil them.
An Nuan didn't go off to play; she stayed with Liu Chang'an while he cooked. She had been waiting all afternoon, worried that people would say she was too clingy to Liu Chang'an. Now that it was evening, who would dare say she was only good at being clingy?
Gao Dewei tallied the students who would be staying overnight and finally arranged a double room for An Nuan Liu Chang'an.
An Nuan and Liu Chang'an had no idea that Gao Dewei had just arranged the rooms randomly, trying to pair male students with male students and female students with female students. In the end, there was only one double room left, which meant that only Liu Chang'an and An Nuan were left. It didn't matter, as it was too much trouble to keep switching them.
Another couple in the class had a male classmate secretly ask Gao Dewei to arrange a single room for them. After all, when boyfriends and girlfriends go out together, how can the boy not have some kind of arrangement for them?
So Gao Dewei was naturally inspired. Although there was no deliberate arrangement, since only Liu Chang'an and An Nuan were left, wasn't that the obvious thing to do? Gao Dewei was worried that Miao Yingying would commit suicide, so he arranged for Miao Yingying and Bai Hui to stay in the room next to Liu Chang'an and An Nuan. He told Liu Chang'an not to sleep too soundly and to keep an eye on things.
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Completed, monthly pass
For Xia Hua, it's already quite an achievement that this book has continued without any breaks in updates. Saying I'm going to have a "burst of updates" basically means I'm working overtime. I say I'll work overtime tomorrow, and then someone always says, "Then you have to finish before midnight tomorrow, otherwise it doesn't count as overtime." That's really pointless. Saying I'm going to have a "burst of updates" is basically putting pressure on myself; otherwise, if I don't say it, I'll just be lazy and feel justified in updating even a single chapter... So, if you're really concerned about Xia Hua finishing before midnight, just pretend you didn't see my "burst of updates" comment. Thank you for understanding.