"Of course I'll go. Why wouldn't I take a chance to make money?"
Qin Qi agreed without hesitation.
"Could it be the City Lord doesn't plan to pay?"
Qin Qi asked.
"He'll definitely pay, and quite generously. It's just that the scene might not be very pleasant."
"The City Lord is celebrating his son becoming a Spirit Master. There'll be quite a few people there."
"And plenty of young people. I'm worried you..."
The butcher looked at Qin Qi and continued, but Qin Qi understood what he meant.
There would be lots of people there, including many young people. The butcher worried Qin Qi might be too self-conscious and embarrassed to be seen doing this kind of work.
"If there's money in it, then I'll do it. What do I care how many people are there? You don't need to worry about it, boss."
Qin Qi smiled. He was long past being a child who cared about saving face. Besides, a pig butcher earned his living with skill. What was there to be ashamed of?
If anyone thought it was funny, they could come see for themselves whether my Pig-Slaughtering Knife was sharp!
"Good, then. You'll definitely get your share."
Seeing Qin Qi's attitude, the butcher breathed a sigh of relief, then said with a hearty laugh.
That afternoon, the butcher took Qin Qi to the City Lord's Mansion. They had barely reached the entrance when someone stopped them.
"Pig butchers?"
A well-dressed, middle-aged man glanced at the butcher haughtily, then asked.
"Yes. These are the helpers from my shop."
The butcher introduced Qin Qi and the other helpers.
"Mm. I'll take you to the back door."
The man nodded, then led Qin Qi and the others to the back door. The front entrance was for guests.
Workers like the butcher had to use the back door to avoid running into the guests.
They entered the backyard and wound their way through several turns before arriving at a small courtyard. There were around a dozen pigs inside.
"Finish slaughtering these pigs before dusk today. Don't fall behind schedule."
After saying this, the middle-aged man left. As the steward, he still had plenty of things to take care of.
"A dozen pigs? How many people are they feeding? Rich people really are something."
Qin Qi couldn't help grumbling.
"He is the City Lord, after all. Whenever he holds a banquet, all the big names in Nuoding City have to show up!"
"All right, enough chatting. Let's get to work."
After speaking, the butcher began arranging his tools. Slaughtering all these pigs would take half the day.
Qin Qi and the butcher got to work. At first, everything went smoothly.
But after they had slaughtered seven or eight pigs, the butcher grew tired and botched the cut when he went to bleed one.
The pig wasn't killed with one stroke. It let out a shrill squeal!
"Go!"
Qin Qi glanced over and immediately threw the Pig-Slaughtering Knife in his hand. From five or six meters away, he sealed the pig's throat with a single strike!
He still hadn't learned Instant Strike, but his technique for throwing Hidden Weapons had improved quite a bit.
"Boss, take a break. I'll slaughter this one."
Qin Qi walked over, pulled out the Pig-Slaughtering Knife, and spoke.
"Phew. I'll leave it to you."
The butcher found a place to sit and wiped the sweat from his brow. He wasn't just tired—he'd also been startled.
Qin Qi's strike had been fast, accurate, and ruthless. Thrown from five or six meters away, it had severed the pig's heart artery.
Anyone who didn't know better might have thought they were training an assassin instead of slaughtering pigs.
"I'm old. Really old."
"If I were a little younger, I wouldn't be this tired."
The butcher was breathing heavily. He wasn't young anymore. Slaughtering pigs usually kept him looking sturdy, but he couldn't match the energy and stamina he'd had in his younger days.
"What were you doing just now? What was that squeal?"
The middle-aged man hurried over, looking displeased.
"Sorry, Steward. I slipped up just now, and the pig squealed."
The butcher hurried forward to apologize. Slaughtering pigs for a wealthy household like this came with rules, and one of them was that the pigs couldn't be allowed to squeal.
For one thing, it was a bad omen on such an auspicious day. For another, the noise was a nuisance.
"The guests haven't arrived yet, so I'll let it go this time. But if it happens again, I'll deduct it from your pay."
After giving the butcher a brief scolding, the steward noticed Qin Qi slaughtering a pig. The smoothness of his movements surprised him a little.
"Is this your new apprentice? He's got good hands."
The steward spoke.
"I'd like to take him on, but I'm not qualified to be his master."
The butcher laughed as he replied.
"But you're one of the top butchers in the city. You..."
"Steward! Steward!"
"Coming!"
The steward had wanted to chat with the butcher, but someone called him before he could finish. He had no choice but to hurry off and take care of things.
With Qin Qi handling the slaughtering, everything went smoothly for the rest of the afternoon. As they neared the end—
"So that's where the squealing came from."
"That sounds so scary!"
"Are they slaughtering pigs? It looks so bloody!"
A group of eleven- and twelve-year-old children followed the sound to the courtyard. They stood at the entrance and peered inside.
When they saw someone slaughtering pigs, they covered their mouths in disgust, as if they could smell the blood and stench.
"It's all bloody. So gross."
"Look, there's a little kid in there, too. He's the one slaughtering the pig."
"Blood's running all over his hands. So gross!"
"If it were me, I definitely wouldn't touch that pig!"
The children watched what was happening in the courtyard and discussed it loudly. They didn't bother to lower their voices, so the butcher and the others heard every word.
Hearing their comments, the butcher couldn't help glancing at Qin Qi. He didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
But Qin Qi was only six, still a child himself. The butcher worried that being called gross by other children might upset him.
Qin Qi, however, didn't care at all about what those children said. What did he care about the opinions of a bunch of brats who'd never even seen blood?
Qin Qi kept slaughtering pigs, his movements still clean and crisp. Outside, the brats gradually fell silent as they watched him work.
Seeing how smooth and practiced his cuts were, they suddenly thought it looked rather fun. They even felt an urge to try it themselves.
"Slaughtering pigs doesn't look that hard. It seems pretty simple."
"Yeah, I feel like I could do it too."
"He's moving too slowly. If I were doing it, I could definitely go faster."
"I don't think he should've cut that way just now. He should've gone around the bone."
The classic case of spectators knowing more than the people doing the work—and the classic "I could do it too." No matter which world they were in, spectators had always been the same.
"What are you doing here? The banquet's about to start. Why are you still playing around?"
"Hurry up and come help me greet the guests."
A somewhat older-looking boy walked over and scolded the children for fooling around.
Then he glanced into the courtyard and froze.
"Junior Qin Qi, what are you doing?"
Seeing Qin Qi slaughtering pigs inside, Xiao Laoda couldn't quite process it. He asked.
"Hey, Senior Xiao! What a coincidence, running into you here."
Qin Qi looked at Xiao Laoda and smiled. The boy before him was the leader of the sixth-year students who were graduating.
He was one of the people Qin Qi had beaten flat on their backs during the Graduation Sparring.