Even a Dog Won't Eat It

Su Zang ordered hot pot chicken and three boxes of Taishan 28-Day Unfiltered Beer.

"What kind of wine is this?" Su Ziyang asked, looking at the unfamiliar wine.

"Taishan, it's quite delicious," Su Zang said softly.

"This thing must be expensive! It looks pretty good!"

"It's alright, who cares about the price, just drink it! Haha!" Su Zang opened a bottle of wine and handed it to Su Ziyang.

The two hadn't been eating for five minutes when Su Zang finished a whole bottle of wine.

"Drink slowly!" Su Ziyang urged Su Zang as he chugdled straight from the bottle.

"Haha, you're back! I'm so happy! Drink a little more, it's no big deal! You better catch up with me quickly!!!" After saying that, Su Zang picked up the bottle of wine he had just opened and chug down half of it.

He then put down his beer bottle, wiped his mouth, and asked, "How have you been lately? Over there! If you ask me, you should find a hospital; isn't that much better than a small clinic?"

"Hey... I don't really want to work at a hospital! I don't like the atmosphere there. This clinic is great!" Su Ziyang also took a big gulp of beer.

"Damn, that's true. As long as you like it, it's fine. It's just a pity about your master's degree!" Su Zang said, his mouth full of chicken, his words muffled.

"What's a postgraduate degree these days? Master's degree holders are everywhere. A PhD is nothing special." Su Ziyang waved his hand.

"Haha!" Su Zang, clutching the wine bottle, said, "You intellectuals are really too modest. A PhD is all you need, why don't you get one yourself?"

"I don't have that kind of opportunity anymore, my dad's getting old. It's good that I'm starting out to earn some money earlier!" Su Ziyang said, picking up a chicken foot with his chopsticks and gnawing on it.

"You're just spouting nonsense. Do you think you don't have money for school? You might have trouble borrowing money from others for other jobs, but when it comes to school, which one of us in this compound can't give you some? If you don't have enough for living expenses, I can give you two thousand a month. We can't afford the good stuff, but we can at least afford the average stuff!" Su Zang tilted his head, glanced at Su Ziyang, and picked up the wine bottle again.

"Haha, it's too difficult. You have to write papers when you're in school, I can't do that. I barely graduated with my master's degree, and a doctorate is a long shot. I don't have the brains for it!" Su Ziyang felt a warm current in his heart as he listened to Su Zang's words.

"Haha, whatever makes you happy. I just don't want to go to school. My head hurts when I look at words..." Su Zang chuckled.

"How much do you earn a month now? What's up? You sound pretty well-off!" Su Ziyang spat out chicken Bones as he looked at Su Zang.

"Ugh, 'generous' my foot! This job doesn't even have a guaranteed minimum wage. Before, I was working as an interior designer in the city, and that idiot boss withheld three months' salary from me. I asked him for it several times, and he said he had no money. Then one time I was strolling around the mall, and by sheer coincidence, I ran into him and his mistress! I immediately snapped a video and recorded it all, documenting the old bastard! I told him that if he didn't pay me, I'd give it to his wife, and the old bastard obediently handed over the money to me!"

As Su Zang spoke, he chuckled mischievously, took a bottle of beer from the box and handed it to Su Ziyang, then opened one for himself.

Su Ziyang chuckled upon hearing this, "You're really ruthless, hahaha! How much money are you trying to get back? After all this, do you think he'll have an easy time at the company?"

"Forty-five thousand in three months!" Su Zang raised an eyebrow. "Didn't he take my phone and delete the photos? Now that he's got nothing on me, he keeps making things difficult for me. You know, it's his bad luck. One time, Xiaohu came back—that's my classmate, the one you've seen, the really fair-skinned one—and he invited a few of us high school classmates to karaoke. And there he was, this old bastard with another woman. I recorded it and sent it to our boss! She's got some connections; she went to the karaoke bar and gave the boss a good beating. Later, when the old bastard found out it was me, he even got some thugs to beat me up. I figured I'd better not fight a losing battle, so I just quit! Hahaha!"

"Hahahaha, your story is legendary!" Su Ziyang laughed until his stomach hurt as he listened to Su Zang's tale!

Su Ziyang wiped away the tears of laughter. "So what about you now? I saw a lot of sketches on your desk earlier! Still working as a designer, huh?"

"Yeah! I do everything now, logo design, interior design! A living person can't let themselves die from holding back. I've gone from public to private, and I post short videos to attract fans and clients. I contact clients directly, and I earn more!" Su Zang took out his phone and showed Su Ziyang his followers.

Su Ziyang glanced at Su Zang and saw that he actually had 20,000 followers, and teased, "Did you buy those followers yourself?"

"Get lost! You accumulated them one by one, properly!" Su Zang waved his hand at Su Ziyang.

"Hahaha," Su Ziyang saw Su Zang's displeased expression and changed the subject, "Aren't you and my Aunt Yuyu getting married this year?"

Upon hearing Yuyu, Su Zang's expression instantly changed; his face, which had been flushed from drinking, turned dark.

"What's wrong?" Su Ziyang noticed that Su Zang's expression was a bit off.

"Damn, let's not talk about her, we broke up!" Su Zang said softly.

"What's wrong? When I left home last year, we had dinner together and didn't we talk about getting engaged this year? And doesn't my Ninth Grandmother really like her?" Su Ziyang asked, puzzled.

"Hiss~" Su Zang frowned upon hearing Su Ziyang's words. "What's the use of liking someone? I liked her a lot too, and she cheated on me... Let me tell you! Ziyang, there's no such thing as love in this world. You should focus on making money!"

"..." Su Ziyang fell silent after hearing Su Zang's words, feeling somewhat uneasy.

"I hope this year ends soon, it's been so unlucky for me! Ugh! My mom took me to a fortune teller, and he said I'm having a really bad year. It really is bad, I lost my job, I lost my wife, nothing but bad things happen! I guess I'll go to a temple and pray." Su Zang picked up the bottle in frustration and chugged down a bottle of beer in a few gulps. After letting out a burp, he opened another bottle.

"Sigh, it'll be alright in the future." Su Ziyang didn't know how to comfort him, so he could only say softly.

Su Zang leaned back in his chair and remained silent for a moment before raising his eyelids to look at Su Ziyang: "You've graduated now, what about your boyfriend? You should be getting ready to get married soon!"

"Me?" Su Ziyang pointed to himself. "Mine cheated on me too!"

Su Zang was taken aback by Su Ziyang's words at first, but then, seeing that Su Ziyang didn't seem to be joking, he grabbed a bottle and clinked it with Su Ziyang's. The two of them downed the bottle in one gulp, looked at each other, and the two who had just been depressed suddenly burst into laughter.

"Good job! Good job!" Su Ziyang muttered to himself after laughing.

By this time, the two had each drunk six bottles of beer. Su Ziyang hadn't used his True Qi to purify the alcohol in his body, and his head was starting to feel dizzy.

"I heard from Dad that you got into a fight recently and had to pay a lot of money in compensation?"

Su Ziyang, who originally didn't want to bring this up, couldn't help but ask because he was a little tipsy.

"Huh?" Su Zang exclaimed in surprise when Su Ziyang asked him, "Your information network is quite impressive."

"Sigh, I lost 150,000!"

"So many? Did you smash someone's head?" Su Ziyang was so shocked he almost jumped up from his chair.

"Damaged my ass, he's just trying to extort money from me. I only punched him once, and his nose bled a little. He got involved with other people, so I guess I'll just have to pay him back." Su Zang's tone was full of resentment and helplessness as he recounted the incident.

"Why?" Su Ziyang asked, puzzled.

"What else could it be? It's because of a woman!" Su Zang said, dipping a pancake in the hot pot chicken sauce with his chopsticks.

"Didn't I tell you that Yuyu cheated on me? We had a fight the other day. She's an accountant, but she doesn't earn much money. My idea is that since we're getting married, she shouldn't work anymore and should stay home as a full-time housewife. I can support her."

"Isn't this a good thing?" Su Ziyang put down his chopsticks and listened carefully to what Su Zang was saying.

"I thought it was a good thing. But she didn't think so. She said I was a chauvinist, that I was a male chauvinist, and that I restricted her personal freedom! She said she wanted to be a modern, strong woman, and that she wanted to be childless. I'd never even heard of the term 'childless,' I looked it up online; it means not having children. I got a little angry when she said that, and I said, 'Why get married if you're not going to have children?' She immediately exploded at me. She won't answer my calls, and I can't reach her!"

When Su Ziyang heard Su Zang say this, his head was spinning. He suddenly felt that his traditional thinking was somewhat out of touch with the ideas of young girls these days. In that instant, Su Ziyang felt deeply out of touch. In Su Ziyang's view, marriage and having children were things that should be done...

"And then what happened?" Su Ziyang continued to ask.

"At first, I thought she was just being sulky and it would be over. But then I couldn't contact her for three or four days, so I went to her factory to look for her! I didn't see her, and then I got really annoyed and wanted to find a place to have a drink! You know what, I'm just unlucky..."

"Holy crap, you didn't run into Yuyu cheating on you at this barbecue place, did you? The guy you hit is the one she cheated on her with!" Su Ziyang interrupted Su Zang before he could finish speaking.

After listening to Su Ziyang's words, Su Zang remained silent for a moment and then nodded.

"It's like writing a novel..." Su Ziyang was completely speechless.

"After losing this money, my dad almost beat me to death. When I saw that the old man was going to start fighting, I ran away. Then I secretly rented a place here, and thankfully I took on a few jobs last month and earned 20,000 yuan. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been unable to pay the rent! What bad luck!"

Before they knew it, the two had drunk a case and a half of beer.

Su Zang was upset and drank very quickly; he was now leaning back in his chair, barely moving. Su Ziyang looked at the drunk Su Zang and sighed. He pulled Su Zang Su Zang to the bed and covered him with a blanket.

I tidied up the table and put the empty wine bottles into the box.

Looking back at Su Zang Su Zang, who was fast asleep, he didn't disturb him. He took out the trash, locked the door, and strolled home.

The weather in the north was already quite cold at this time, and I kept breathing out my breath as I walked down the street.

Because of the cold weather, the neon lights on the road were damaged, but there were no pedestrians.

Su Ziyang slowly walked home, and his internal True Qi began to circulate to digest the alcohol in his body.

By the time Su Ziyang got home, he was no longer smelling of alcohol. He checked his phone and it was already ten o'clock.

After pushing open the front door, Su Ziyang locked it from the inside and noticed that the kitchen light was still on.

"Oh no... Mom's definitely angry..."

Thinking to himself, Su Ziyang quickly walked towards the kitchen. When he opened the door, he saw his parents sitting at the dining table, looking at the bowl in front of him and comparing its contents. His mother was even laughing as she watched.

"What's wrong?" Su Ziyang asked softly, sensing that the atmosphere wasn't one to scold him.

"Hahaha! You're back!" Su Ziyang's mother was still laughing.

Su Ziyang looked at his father, puzzled, only to have his father grin and secretly roll his eyes at his still-smiling wife.

"What are you laughing at, Mom?" Su Ziyang asked.

"Son, you're lucky you ate out tonight. The ribs I made were awful... Hahaha, I can't take it anymore. I'll let Heizi eat them! They're too bad!" Su Ziyang Ziyang's mother wasn't actually angry; she patted Su Ziyang on the shoulder.

"This is meat, how bad can it taste?" Su Ziyang wasn't just saying this to please his mother; he genuinely thought so.

After saying that, Su Ziyang picked up the chopsticks on the table, took a small piece of rib from his father's bowl, and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Hmm~" Su Ziyang's expression changed the moment the rib entered his mouth. Clang~ Su Ziyang spat the rib out as soon as he opened his mouth, picked up his cup, took a big gulp of water, rinsed his mouth, and quickly spat it out again.

"Mom~ how much salt did you put in! This stuff is so salty it'll make me sick!" Su Ziyang took another sip of water before finally saying this.

"Hahaha~" Su Ziyang's mother almost laughed until tears streamed down her face. "I~I~Hahaha! When I was stewing the ribs, I saw a bowl of old broth in the refrigerator. I thought it was the broth your dad had made before, and I thought it would be good to put it in to enhance the flavor. So I put half a bowl in, but it wasn't broth. That bowl was the old broth your grandma used to pickle vegetables at home~ Your dad brought it back from his hometown to pickle vegetables. This old broth is already quite salty, and I added a handful of salt! Hahaha!"

Su Ziyang looked at his mother speechlessly...

Su Ziyang's father snorted coldly, "You've wasted such good spare ribs! What a spendthrift! You can eat them yourself!"

After saying that, Su Ziyang's father got up and went to his study.

"Mom, no, don't eat this anymore. Throw it away, this stuff can make you sick from being so salty!" Su Ziyang said speechlessly.

"I soaked it in water to dilute it a bit. Let Heizi eat it! Heizi, come here! Bring me your eating bowl!" Su Ziyang's mother said as she picked up a few pieces of ribs with her chopsticks and started rinsing them in warm water.

Heizi was playing ball in his cozy little nest when he heard his mother calling him and telling him to bring his food bowl. He jumped up, grabbed his bowl, and ran to the kitchen.

As soon as it saw some delicious food, Heizi's tail practically flew off its tail; it shook its head and wagged its rear end with such joy.

"Put the basin down, Heizi!" Su Ziyang's mother commanded.

Heizi Zi clattered the rice bowl to the ground, looking at Su Ziyang's mother with expectant eyes.

Su Ziyang's mother put the cooked ribs into Heizi's bowl. Heizi happily plunged his head into the bowl, and just as he picked up a rib and put it in his mouth, Heizi body seemed to be frozen in place; his bottom stopped wagging, and his tail stopped wagging...

Five seconds later, Heizi spat the rib he had put in his mouth back into his rice bowl.

Then he squatted down on the ground, looked at the ribs in his rice bowl, then looked at Su Ziyang Su Ziyang's mother, and barked "Woof~" at her.

While barking, it pointed with its paw at the ribs in its bowl. The meaning was so obvious that Su Ziyang was stunned!

"You... I'm ordering you now, eat it!" Su Ziyang's mother said, pointing at Heizi with her hands on her hips, when she saw that Heizi wouldn't eat the ribs she had stewed.

Hearing his mother command him, Heizi jumped up from the ground with a "Woof!" and knocked over his food bowl with one paw. The ribs inside fell to the ground, and Heizi grabbed his bowl and ran away in a flash...

"Haha ...

"Mom, even the dog wouldn't eat the ribs you made! Hahaha!"

Seeing Su Ziyang laughing so happily, Su Ziyang's mother's face darkened, and she shoved the bowl into Su Ziyang's hands. "Wash the bowl!"

After saying that, she slammed the kitchen door shut and stomped back to the bedroom.