Chapter 18: Killing the Cow

“Why am I a turtle?” Xiao Yan asked.

“How did you guess it?” Lu Qiniang muttered softly, then spoke more casually, “It’s nothing much, just that I found a tortoise with a lame leg, and it just lay there on the kang every day, not moving at all.”

Isn’t this exactly the same?

Xiao Yan: “…Why haven’t I seen it?”

“What’s this? You want to see it and become sworn brothers with it?” Lu Qiniang said.

Xiao Yan: “…”

Just as he was unsure of how to respond, Lu Qiniang added, “That thing, of course, got eaten after I picked it up. Sanya liked it, so I let her play with it for a few days. When she got bored with it, I put it in the pot to stew.”

Who would have the leisure to keep something like that as a pet?

They’re not like the young masters and young ladies of the Zhou family.

Xiao Yan thought to himself, luckily, humans don’t eat their own kind.

A lame tortoise… He never expected it, but here he was.

“Don’t get me wrong, the tortoise isn’t an insult, it’s doing fine!” Lu Qiniang saw that he wasn’t happy and quickly tried to explain.

But when her eyes met Xiao Yan’s, which seemed to see right through her, she felt a bit guilty. Without thinking, she blurted out, “A thousand-year-old turtle, living for ten thousand years, I was saying it’s about your longevity!”

If he doesn’t look, she can pretend it didn’t happen.

He’ll have to take a good look tomorrow during the day and see just how much he and that lame tortoise really have in common!

“Right, hurry up and sleep, we have to get up before dawn tomorrow, and you have to get up too.”

“Are you going to kill the cow, and I’m going too?”

“Of course, you have to come.” Lu Qiniang said confidently, “I need to drag you out for a walk so they know we have another mouth to feed and give us some extra meat.”

“But didn’t we already pay the head tax to Lizheng?”

“Not everyone knows that. Tomorrow, I’ll take you through the right path. Whatever benefits there are in the future, you can’t miss out on your share.”

“Besides paying the head tax, what other benefits are there?” Xiao Yan said with a self-deprecating smile.

He hadn’t expected to become a burden to someone else.

Lu Qiniang thought to herself that, in truth, there didn’t seem to be any real benefits.

Aside from helping her fend off some unwanted suitors.

But now, with her own weight, she had already driven away all the “rotten peaches.”

Well, there were no good peaches left either.

“More people, more power!” After a long pause, she finally squeezed out that line. “Alright, alright, go to sleep. Oh, wait, let me bring in the night pot for you, so you can take care of that first…”

This time, Xiao Yan didn’t object.

It wasn’t because he had a need, but after the forced experience of handling the night pot, he felt that for the sake of avoiding unnecessary words, it was better to just cooperate.

The next day, Xiao Yan was still sound asleep when suddenly, someone slapped him hard on the back, shaking him awake, causing him to cough uncontrollably.

“Wake up, it’s time to get up. If you sleep any longer, there will be too many people around!”

Lu Qiniang got up, hastily put on her clothes, tied her shiny black hair into a messy braid, and then twisted it into a neat bun on top of her head. She was all business, clean and efficient.

“Hair gets in the way when killing the cow. Hurry up and get dressed!”

Seeing that Xiao Yan was moving too slowly, she took matters into her own hands.

“Come on, stretch out your arm—lift your leg—”

In no time at all, she had him dressed and ready to go.

“Mom, are you ready yet?” Erya’s voice came from the next room, urging them.

It turned out that the three daughters were already up early, excited about the prospect of getting beef from the cow slaughter later.

“Alright, alright, coming!” Lu Qiniang answered as she picked up Xiao Yan effortlessly, carrying him horizontally without breaking a sweat.

“No, you’re wearing too little. I see there’s a thick layer of snow outside, and the wind is strong. We can walk around, but you’ll just be sitting there, it’ll definitely be cold.”

With that, she placed Xiao Yan back onto the kang, then unfolded a blanket and draped it over him, wrapping him up snugly.

It was exactly like swaddling a baby…

He had almost convinced himself that he was already dead.

Thinking back to the time he was mistaken for a corpse, he felt that this situation didn’t seem all that different.

Lu Qiniang placed him onto the flatbed cart, then grabbed her bone-cutting knife. Calling her daughters over, she said, “Let’s go!”

The road was covered in thick snow, and each step they took left a sound in the air.

As she pushed the cart forward, Lu Qiniang remarked, “We’re not the first ones here. Just look at how many people have already walked this road.”

Slaughtering the cow and distributing the meat was a major event for the entire Tonghua Lane. The family soon arrived at the open space where the slaughter was taking place, and sure enough, a crowd had already gathered.

“Make way, make way!” Lu Qiniang continued to push the flatbed cart to the front, even though many people were grumbling that she shouldn’t be doing that.

“My husband,” Lu Qiniang cheerfully introduced to the crowd, “has trouble with his legs and spends all day cooped up at home. I brought him out to see the commotion, so he doesn’t get sick from staying inside all the time.”

At her words, everyone turned their attention to Xiao Yan.

He kept his head lowered, allowing everyone to scrutinize him without resistance.

“Mother, that cow is really big. Every family should get a good portion of meat,” Er Ya remarked, her gaze never leaving the large old cow.

“Plenty of meat, but even more people. Yesterday, they said everyone, regardless of age or gender, will get 0.6 jin of meat,” Lu Qiniang had already inquired about it.

“Only that little?” Erya sounded a little disappointed.

“Having meat is good enough. Don’t crowd forward, you girls. Be careful, or you might get kicked by the cow. Stay here and keep your father company,” Lu Qiniang instructed.

The three daughters nodded obediently.

“Not acknowledging him at home is one thing, but once we’re out here, he has to be recognized as the father,” Lu Qiniang thought. After all, if they didn’t acknowledge Xiao Yan as part of the family, they’d lose out on the 0.6 jin of meat. Who would want to miss out on meat?

Lu Qiniang drew her bone-cutting knife and moved forward.

“Lu Qiniang, you dare to slaughter the cow?” butcher Wang spat a mouthful of greasy yellow phlegm onto the snow, revealing half of a pig-slaughtering knife beneath his greasy apron.

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Lu Qiniang walked up to the old cow, patted its head, and pulled a cloth from her sleeve to cover its eyes.

“What are you doing?”butcher Wang asked.

“It’s worked its whole life. I don’t want it to see blood, so I’ll give it a quick end. Come on, come help hold it down,” Lu Qiniang said.

Several men gathered around.

When butcher Wang’s knife tip pressed against the cow’s throat, the few men in front didn’t hold it down properly, and the old cow shook, trying to struggle to its feet.

At this moment, Lu Qiniang suddenly moved. She pressed her left knee firmly against the cow’s neck, and the old cow was forced into the snow, unable to move.

She didn’t wait for butcher Wang. With a swift motion, she raised her knife and brought it down. The warm, bloody stench sprayed onto her face.

“Basin, catch the blood!”

Not a single drop of the cow’s blood was wasted.

The old cow soon stopped moving.

The crowd burst into applause, repeatedly praising Lu Qiniang for her impressive skill, saying she even outshone Wang the butcher.

Butcher Wang’s expression turned sour.

Lu Qiniang, however, said, “I only have this bit of brute strength. Come on, strip the skin!”

Butcher Wang, clearly enraged, threw down his tools in frustration.

This was exactly what Lu Qiniang had hoped for.

“Sorry, Butcher Wang,” she thought to herself. “But today, I have my own plans.”