Chapter 8: Buying Meat

Selene waited for another two hours before opening WeChat.

She clicked on Rowan's profile and started composing a message.

Ever since she found out what her next-door neighbor really looked like, she couldn't help but feel that the "night-blooming cereus" flower on his profile had a touch of enchantment, like an aloof beauty.

**[Selene: Thank you, Orange seems to really like the food you gave. He almost ate too much.]**

As usual, the reply came promptly.

**[Landlord: You're welcome, he's very cute.]**

...

Selene paused, then sent another message.

**[Selene: Can I ask what you fed him? You seem to have more experience than I do, and I'd like to learn.]**

Instead of relying on others, she wanted to learn how to make delicious cat food herself.

**[Landlord: I feed him homemade cooked food. I'll send you some video links you can refer to for recipes.]**

**[Selene: Great, thank you.]**

Sure enough, a few video links came through. Selene created a new folder: Cat Recipes.

She then spent the entire evening like a diligent student, carefully watching the instructional videos.

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The next day, as soon as dawn broke, Selene crawled out of bed.

She slowly got up, yawned, and opened the curtains, letting the morning sunlight drive away the darkness in the room, which also helped wake her up a bit.

The weather was great, perfect for going out.

After her usual cold-water wash, Selene went downstairs to a restaurant in the community to have breakfast.

She had only one goal for today: buying meat.

From her "serious studying" last night, Selene realized that cats could eat much more than she had thought.

Previously, she had thought cats only needed meat. Now she knew that a purely meat diet wouldn't provide all the necessary nutrients. Organ meats were also essential.

And just meat wasn't enough; cat food required some additives like calcium powder, taurine, vitamin B, and potassium iodide...

Additives could be easily ordered online.

Selene quickly opened a shopping app and placed an order.

As for the meat, she wasn't comfortable buying it online, but going to the market every day wasn't practical either.

Selene thought for a moment and decided to take a middle-ground approach. Like others who chose homemade cat food, she would buy a large quantity of fresh meat, prepare and portion it, and freeze it. When it was time to feed, she could just steam a portion.

To reduce costs and improve meat quality, it was best to go to the farmers' market.

The city's largest farmers' market was in the neighboring district, requiring a subway ride.

Forty minutes later, Selene arrived at the farmers' market.

Just as she was about to head straight to the butcher to quickly buy meat and go back to sleep, she remembered something.

Her new media venture still needed a theme.

Wasn't there a perfect angle right here?

Many new cat owners probably had no idea what cats could eat. Knowing buying commercial cat food was already a step ahead. Many people thought cats could eat hot dogs or meat soup with rice.

Why not start with "scientific cat feeding," documenting the process of buying and preparing homemade cat food, then adding some "cat eating show" videos to see how it went?

Selene was a person of action.

She immediately took out her phone, turned on recording mode, and walked into the farmers' market.

It was 6:30 in the morning, and the market was bustling with noise.

At this hour, most of the shoppers were over forty, so seeing someone as young as Selene with a phone recording the scene drew a lot of attention.

"Young lady, come check out our fresh meat!"

An enthusiastic butcher waved at Selene.

Selene turned and walked over to the beef stall.

The butcher's wife smiled warmly, "This is locally slaughtered beef from early this morning. It's fresh! Want to try some?"

Selene looked down at the bright red beef, which seemed to be steaming. It was very fresh, and she was tempted, but the price of beef...

Seeing her hesitation, the butcher pressed on, "You're recording, so I wouldn't dare cheat you. If it's not fresh or tasty, you can bring it back for a refund!"

"Alright, how much for the beef tenderloin?" Selene looked up at the butcher's wife.

"Which part do you want?"

"Beef tenderloin."

"55 yuan per jin."

Selene thought for a moment, "I'll take three jin."

Too much meat in the freezer would lose its taste. Preparing two months' worth of cat food should be enough.

According to the recipe, she needed just over two jin of beef. The remaining beef could be cooked for her lunch when she was human during the day.

"Alright." The butcher's wife expertly cut off a large piece of meat, bagged it, and weighed it.

Exactly three jin.

Selene looked at her recipe again and asked, "By the way, do you have beef heart?"

The butcher's wife looked at Selene curiously, "Beef heart? Yes, but not many people buy it. Do you want some?"

Selene nodded, "Yes, for feeding my cat. I'll take two jin."

"That's cheap, 8 yuan per jin. I'll throw in some beef liver for you."

The butcher's wife cheerfully cut off a piece of beef liver and added it to the bag.

Selene smiled sweetly, "Thank you, I'll definitely come back."

Just as she was about to leave with her bags, an elderly voice called out.

"Feeding a cat with such good meat. Young people these days care more for their pets than their parents."

Selene turned and saw an elderly man with gray hair staring at her with cloudy, unfriendly eyes.

Selene was puzzled. She didn't want to argue with an elder out of respect, but she noticed the old man didn't know when to stop.

Seeing she didn't respond, the old man continued to scrutinize her, his gaze lingering on her fingers, "Tsk, especially young women nowadays, not getting married, not having kids, treating cats and dogs like treasures. It's unfilial."

The butcher's wife laughed while cutting meat, trying to smooth things over, "Uncle Lin, times have changed. Young people have their own ways of living."

Uncle Lin spat on the ground, shaking his head, "Regardless of the era, continuing the family line is the priority. Our ancestors would be furious."

Hearing this, Selene couldn't help but laugh. She looked at Uncle Lin with interest. "Uncle Lin, how do you know I don't care for my parents?"

Uncle Lin was adamant, "Isn't it obvious? If you didn't have a cat, you'd have more time for your parents."

Selene showed a curious expression and asked, "Then do your children have pets?"

Uncle Lin rolled his eyes, "Of course not."

"Oh, I see. So your son doesn't have pets and should have plenty of time, right? Why doesn't he have time to accompany you? It's unfilial for you to be buying groceries at your age."

Uncle Lin's face turned red, and his voice rose, "My son is busy making money to support his family. He doesn't have time for this nonsense. You're the one wasting time with pets!"

Uncle Lin's shout drew a lot of attention from the passersby, attracting other elderly shoppers.

Facing Uncle Lin's stern reprimand, Selene remained unfazed and smiled even more gently, "So, your son making money is proper work, but me raising a pet is nonsense? Who decided that? You? Or the ancestors you mentioned? I've never heard of such a rule."

"And, whether young women choose to get married, have children, or keep pets, it's their freedom. What does it have to do with you?"

Selene spoke rapidly, giving Uncle Lin no chance to retort, "And don't say it's for our good. True kindness doesn't need to be preached; people will naturally follow it. If buying a lottery ticket guaranteed a win, no one would refuse to buy one, right?"

Uncle Lin's face turned bright red, his mouth opening and closing without a word. He looked around for support from his peers, but all he found were a few mocking looks.

One of them was his downstairs neighbor, Mrs. Liu, who usually didn't get along with him.

Mrs. Liu, holding a vegetable basket, smiled broadly, "The young lady is right. Uncle Lin, why do you care so much? Even if the young lady wanted to get married, she wouldn't choose her son. She wouldn't spend your son's money raising a cat..."

"Oh, I see."

"This old man is really unreasonable..."

Uncle Lin, seeing the taunting look at Mrs. Liu's eyes and hearing the surrounding whispers, almost fainted from anger. He stormed off, muttering about nonsense, his retreat almost comical.

Selene turned to the elderly woman who had defended her and sincerely thanked her.

The little incident had delayed her significantly, and wanting to get home quickly to sleep, Selene abandoned her plan to narrate her shopping process and quickly bought everything on her list.

Pork tenderloin, chicken legs, duck breast, chicken liver, chicken gizzards, eggs.

Selene had also planned to buy some fish and shellfish, but after asking around, she found there were no seafood stalls at this market. She would have to go to the seafood market.

Selene gave up on that idea, remembering that fish oil could be a substitute for fish.

Car

rying twenty jin of meat, Selene decisively called a cab home.

On the way, she opened the online shopping app for the nearby mall and added a bunch of snacks and frozen foods to her cart, along with the most crucial item—a meat grinder and several dozen freezer storage boxes.

Selene calculated the timing; by the time she got back to her apartment, her delivery should be at the locker. She could collect everything at once.

The plan was perfect, except for the major hit on her wallet. Everything else was fine.

When Selene got home, she was exhausted and panting. Without the elevator, she had no idea how she would have managed to carry everything upstairs.

Looking at the items spread out on the floor, Selene realized something alarming.

The snacks were easy to store in the pantry, but the frozen foods could only go into the freezer...

Selene rushed to the fridge and saw it was a single-door fridge with just three freezer drawers. The frozen food she bought filled one drawer completely.

She had made a mistake. When Rowan had asked about the fridge size, she had been embarrassed to let him spend too much and had said...

"I'm alone; a small single-door fridge will do."

She had thought the mall next door would make it easy to buy meat daily and hadn't considered the fridge's storage capacity.

After some thought, Selene decided to stop worrying. She stuffed the meat and organs into the upper section of the fridge's cooler.

She just wanted to sleep now. Handling and storing the meat could wait until she woke up.

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