Fragrance filled the courtyard

The general's household knew that country folk rarely got to eat meat all year round, so Steward Ding had specially sent several sides of meat to express their thanks.

Cattle and water buffalo were needed to plow the fields and were seldom slaughtered; pork was lowly, dog meat was unfit for a formal table, and chickens and ducks were too small to look impressive. Mutton was therefore the most suitable choice, and it made up the largest share of the meat he had sent.

Wang Qilin set down a chopping board and laid a leg of lamb on it. "Mother, Steward Ding sent sesame seeds. Go toast them, then pound them into a paste with the stone mortar. We'll have hot pot."

Madam Wang née Lu asked, "Why do you need sesame seeds for hot pot?"

"Just do as I say," Wang Qilin said.

Madam Wang née Lu said nothing more. She fetched the sesame seeds she had already washed and put them in a pan to toast.

Wang Qilin picked up the kitchen knife to cut the meat. After trying it out, he felt it was less comfortable to use than the demon saber.

He drew the demon saber and held it over the leg of lamb. The red rust on the blade immediately deepened, and a bloody smell spread.

It did not want to cut meat!

Wang Qilin switched back to the kitchen knife and first stripped off the meat, putting the bones into a pot to make broth. Then his knife danced swiftly, slicing off evenly thick pieces of mutton.

Heidou stood on tiptoe and leaned against the stove to watch, swallowing repeatedly.

Wang Qilin noticed him do something incredible: he actually swallowed five times in a single breath!

An ordinary person could not do that.

He looked at Heidou in surprise, and Heidou scurried away like a puppy.

Dry firewood went into the stove, and a roaring fire blazed up. Flames licked the bottom of the pot, the water came to a boil, and the lamb-bone broth began to release its aroma.

Heidou came running back like a puppy again. Clinging to the doorway, he tipped his head back and sniffed hard.

After a while, he hung his head and said, "Still hungry."

Wang Qilin laughed. He dropped some mutton slices into the pot, fished them out a few breaths later, and offered them to him.

Heidou ran away again.

Xu Da walked in. "Why do you keep scaring the kid? Mmm, that mutton smells good. Let your grandpa have a couple of bites first."

Wang Qilin said, "I cooked it for my nephew."

Xu Da said, "Uncle."

"Damn!"

He was skilled with the kitchen knife. A side of lamb bones went into the pot for broth, while all the meat was sliced up into an impressive heap.

Wang Liuwu winced. "Why did you cut so much?"

"Didn't you say we should eat our fill of meat at noon?" Wang Qilin asked.

"I was only saying it. Why did you take me seriously?" Wang Liuwu said.

Then he turned around and lamented again, "What a waste. Your mother and I haven't eaten this much mutton in our entire lives."

The toasted sesame seeds were ground into a paste with a stone mill. Wang Qilin went over to inspect it and said, "Keep grinding. Does the family have any grain that needs grinding? Hurry up and bring it out. What a waste not to use a beast of burden when we have one."

Xu Da, who was pulling the stone mill, shot him a murderous look.

Xu Da possessed innate divine strength and could do more work than a mule. Before long, he had ground the sesame paste until oil seeped out. Water was then added and slowly mixed in to make sesame sauce.

Wang Qilin's family had an old crock containing a few pieces of fermented bean curd handed down through the generations. He poured out some of the brine, added it to the sesame sauce, and tasted it. It tasted quite good.

This was a way of eating he had learned on Earth.

He suspended a small iron pot in the courtyard, filled it with the cooked lamb-bone broth, and brought out the mutton. "Swish the meat in the broth, then dip it in the sesame sauce."

Steam billowed thickly, and the wind could carry the savory fragrance of mutton across half the village.

Wang Qilin ladled himself a bowl of broth, blew on it, and drank.

It filled his mouth with scalding heat. The aroma swirled around his mouth before flowing into his stomach, leaving it not only full of savory fragrance but warm as well.

Everyone sat around the fire. The weather was still a little chilly, and the heat of the flames warmed them through.

Wang Liuwu came over with a stack of bowls. "What a haphazard seating arrangement. This isn't proper, not proper at all."

"Putting on airs when we're poor," Wang Liuqiao said.

Wang Liuwu glared at his youngest daughter, ladled sesame sauce and fermented bean curd brine into the bowls, then handed them out one by one.

Wang Qilin took his bowl. "Thank you, Father."

Wang Liuqiao took her bowl. "Thank you, Father."

Heidou took his bowl. "Thank you, Father."

Wang Liuwu answered before realizing what he had said. "What did you call me?"

Everyone burst out laughing. Heidou hurriedly said, "Sorry, Grandpa. Thank you, Grandpa."

Wang Qilin patted his shoulder. "It's all right, brother. We're all family."

Heidou blinked, frightened almost to tears.

The mutton slices went into the pot. Wang Qilin grabbed some overwintered scallions and chopped cilantro and tossed them in. "It'll cook right away. Dig in."

He picked up two slices and put them in Heidou's bowl. Heidou dipped them in sesame sauce and stuffed them into his mouth, then went, "Ha, ha."

"Why are you laughing while you eat?" Wang Qilin asked.

Heidou's eyes suddenly reddened, and tears began to flow.

Wang Qilin was baffled. "Why are you crying now?"

"You scared him into crying. Hss, hss, delicious. Hss, hss, tsk, tsk." Xu Da fished out meat at lightning speed.

Heidou said through his tears, "No, it's because this tastes so good. How can anything taste this good? It's so delicious!"

"So when your uncle sends you to school, you must study hard and become a high official," Wang Qilin said. "Once you're a high official, govern the realm properly so all the common people can eat meat. All right?"

Heidou nodded. His mouth was too full to speak, and he chewed with all his might.

Wang Liuwu raised his cup and took a sip of wine, narrowing his eyes as he savored it. "Mutton from the general's household really is different. Mmm, this flavor is absolutely superb. Hey, stop just eating meat, all of you. Listen to me-damn it!"

The chopsticks churned through the pot like oars in a dragon boat race.

He hurriedly put down his cup and started churning away too.

After eating for a while, Xu Da grew a little dejected. "I can't unleash my full combat power at all like this."

Wang Qilin comforted him. "My father, mother, and sister all have strong combat power too."

No one spoke. Everyone was working hard to fish out meat.

The general's household had sent fat goats weighing seventy or eighty catties each. A side was half a goat, yielding twenty catties of meat once stripped from the bones. All of it ended up in their stomachs, yet they still were not full. At the end, Wang Liuqiao searched fruitlessly through the pot with her chopsticks.

Wang Liuwu said disapprovingly, "Why don't you roll up your trouser legs and climb in to fish around? Shall I get you a strainer too?"

Wang Qilin laughed. "Wait a moment, Sixth Sister. There's more."

He went to fetch another side of mutton and kept slicing.

Madam Wang née Lu looked at her husband. "Why aren't you fretting over it anymore? Why aren't you telling him to make it last?"

Wang Liuwu said awkwardly, "I was going to stop him, but this mutton is just too delicious."

Madam Wang née Lu wiped her hands and went to help her son. Finding a spare moment, she said, "Your eldest sister's husband is no good. He has no money, yet he still fools around. Who knows where he found some disreputable woman, but he actually brought her home."

Wang Qilin nodded. "That's why Eldest Sister came back, isn't it?"

Madam Wang née Lu sighed. "Now that you've made something of yourself, your eldest sister has someone to count on. If you hadn't, she wouldn't even dare come back and tell us when she was mistreated."

Wang Qilin said nothing. Madam Wang née Lu could hardly say anything more and could only sigh again.

Another large basin of meat went into the pot, and Heidou was still working hard with his chopsticks.

"Does it taste good?" Wang Qilin asked.

"It's good, really good. Even better than Mother's flatbread."

"Then how about giving up your father and keeping your uncle instead? Stay with your uncle and eat meat every day."

Heidou thought for a moment, then looked at him cautiously and asked, "Can I give up both Father and Uncle? And still eat meat every day?"

Wang Qilin laughed. "You can, but then the meat you get every day will be stir-fried."

Heidou was overjoyed. "I like stir-fried meat too..."

"Meat stir-fried with a bamboo paddle, a broom handle, or a feather duster. Which do you like?"

"I... I like Uncle." Heidou squeezed a little smile onto his dark face.

Life has finally come for me!