Chapter 29: The Heroes of Liangshan Want to Eat Meat.
If Wang Wanrou and Xing Yuanzhi are both typical young ladies from prestigious families with educated and refined manners, then Cheng Xinnan is undoubtedly the opposite extreme.
There's a kind of wild and magical charm about her that will never appear on Miss Ah Zhi.
Cheng Jinyang has a feeling that it's cultivated in countless nightclubs, bars, and karaoke bars, a lively and outgoing temperament that loves to have fun and socialize.
If Miss Ah Zhi had this temperament, her image would be completely shattered, wouldn't it?
From a traditional man's perspective, she gives off a bit of a "Bad Girl" vibe.
However, Cheng Jinyang can be certain that Sister Xinnan is not inherently indulgent; at least she should be somewhat conservative in her interactions with the opposite sex.
The reason is simple: yesterday, when they were singing at the nightclub, her younger sister Cheng Nandi kept probing their relationship, and inadvertently whispered to Cheng Nan'an, "Could Sister Xinnan be dating someone?"
According to Cheng Jinyang's speculation, this sentence probably reveals two pieces of information: First, Sister Xinnan doesn't currently have a boyfriend. Second, Sister Xinnan didn't have a boyfriend before, otherwise, the two sisters wouldn't be so surprised.
It's like when children start dating for the first time, parents will go to great lengths to inquire about "who the other person is," "what they do," "their family background," "what you like about them," and so on.
However, if their children have had several partners before finding a new one, the parents would simply respond with a casual "Okay, just have fun. If you're thinking of getting married, then bring them home to meet us." Of course, this is purely speculation by Cheng Jinyang, without much certainty.
But Cheng Xinnan is the kind of person he doesn't really care about that much.
After all, I already have Ah Zhi.
Today, sister Xinnan is not wearing yesterday's high-neck sweater and pleated skirt. Instead, she has changed into a white T-shirt, shorts that barely cover the upper thighs, and sandals that reveal her round toes, with bright nail polish on her toenails.
Unlike Wang Wanrou's hair, Cheng Jinyang actually dares not look at this older sister too much because once he observes carefully, his gaze will be firmly fixed, which would surely infuriate Ah Zhi. Xing Yuanzhi also feels somewhat uncomfortable with her attire.
Although it's already May and there are signs of early summer warming in Jiankang City, most noblewomen only carry parasols when going out.
Only commoners would dress however they feel comfortable, regardless of whether it's appropriate for the occasion.
She herself, due to her cleanliness obsession, would rather wrap her whole body up to avoid getting dust on herself when outside.
Now seeing Cheng Xinnan's cool attire, she naturally couldn't understand it at all, thinking to herself that even if this girl ignores etiquette and is unrestrained, why would she dress like this outside, isn't she afraid of getting dirty?
However, the person in question clearly didn't mind at all. She just smiled and asked the two of them with her hands behind her back, "Jinyang, Yuanzhi, have you had dinner yet?"
"Not yet," Cheng Jinyang replied.
Today was a special circumstance. First, there was an explosion on the way home from school, which forced him to avoid the subway and take a ferry instead.
Originally, he had come home quite late, and then Wang Wanrou suddenly visited... in short, there was no time to cook.
"That's great!" So Cheng Xinnan seemed to perform magic, taking out a gift box from behind her, "Ta-da! Authentic Liangshan beef! It's artificially farmed~"
Cheng Jinyang: !!!
Damn, it's actually a famous brand beef!
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Liangshan, of course, refers to the Liangshan Marsh in the novel Water Margin. In this world, there were originally no Four Great Classical Novels. Later, a certain predecessor thought, why not plagiarize a bit, and thus they came to be.
Good literary works, no matter in which world, can become popular. Coupled with being created by the founding emperor himself... you must understand that in an autocratic society, the tradition is "what the upper class likes, the lower class will also like excessively."
Therefore, at that time, the aristocratic families all rushed to praise it. Whenever beef was mentioned, Liangshan was considered top quality, being the beef that the heroes of Liangshan ate heartily. "Inheriting the spirit of Water Margin" became synonymous with deliciousness.
Although this logic is absurd, the Liangshan beef farming industry did indeed capitalize on this trend, making their first bucket of gold from primitive capital accumulation. Taking advantage of the industrial revolution and capitalism initiated by Sima Yi after becoming emperor, they quickly took the lead in beef cattle farming technology and became a nationally renowned beef cattle production area.
After that came the Chaos of Demons in history, and the entire northern land fell into chaos.
The aristocratic families escorted Sima Rui to the south to rebuild the court, so Liangshan beef became unavailable in the market.
The few Liangshan beef circulated within the aristocratic families were said to be raised sporadically by the people in the fallen northern regions and smuggled in by merchant caravans at great risk of being intercepted by demons.
The quantity was extremely scarce, and the price was said to be comparable to gold.
As for the beef consumed by most people in Jiankang City, it was mainly synthetic meat produced by the meat processing factory in the southern agricultural base of Jiangning District.
Cheng Jinyang commented that it lacked the taste of real beef and was akin to eating dried tofu.
So when sister Xinnan mentioned "Liangshan beef," he immediately became eager and his mouth started to water.
Xing Yuanzhi glanced at him with disdain for his lack of dignity.
It's just Liangshan beef. Our Xing family eats it once a year during ancestral sacrifices.
"Is the Cheng family planning to make ancestral sacrifices recently?" she suddenly asked.
"Yes," Cheng Xinnan nodded, "We prepared a lot of sacrificial offerings for the Five Offerings ceremony, so today the clan leader asked us to distribute the leftovers."
The Five Offerings refer to beef, sheep, pigs, dogs, and chickens. Ancient people ate dog meat, don't ask why.
"Is this Liangshan beef sliced or cut into thin slices?" Cheng Jinyang asked.
"Of course thinly sliced, it's best for brushing in hot pot," Cheng Xinnan said with a smile.
"Wouldn't big chunks get stuck in your teeth?"
Indeed, no matter how much the aristocratic families admire Water Margin, they could never crudely "eat meat with big bites."
So Cheng Jinyang went to the cupboard to find the hot pot, while Cheng Xinnan went to the kitchen to wash the meat.
Xing Yuanzhi, being a germaphobe, couldn't stand raw meat, so she simply went to set the table, arranging bowls, chopsticks, colanders, and serving chopsticks.
Opening the cupboard that hadn't been opened for who knows how long, Cheng Jinyang looked at the pile of pots and pans inside, feeling a familiar sense of déjà vu for a moment.
In the memories of the original host, there weren't many memories before Su Lili's death, but he still vaguely remembered those scenes of eating hot pot with his parents and Su Lili's family on winter days.
Although from Cheng Jinyang's perspective, synthetic meat didn't really have much flavor, the original owner loved eating meat.
Su Lili also knew about this, so she deliberately scooped a large spoonful into the bowl every time, and then pretended to be surprised, saying there was too much meat and used chopsticks to transfer the meat to the original owner's bowl.
.......
Tears, how did they come again? This darn instinct of this body.
While Cheng Xinnan was still unaware beside him, Cheng Jinyang quickly wiped away the tears secretly, then kept telling himself that those were the memories of the original owner, not his own, finally managing to calm his emotions down slowly.