Chapter 216: Pig Farm
“That said, where are we going?”
Ainuo suddenly asked.
Ouyang Yating and Liang Gong stopped in their tracks, they looked around, and their expressions gradually became confused.
Right, this place… where is it?
How did they end up walking here? Oh, it was because Xiang Chuan was leading the way ahead.
The three of them abruptly looked toward Xiang Chuan, who was still walking forward slowly, showing no awareness of having taken a wrong turn. Xiang Chuan was still buried in the Geegle page that others couldn’t see, yet her footsteps never paused as she continued advancing along the walkway.
“Xiang Chuan, stop walking!”
Ainuo quickly rushed forward and wrapped an arm around Xiang Chuan’s neck, startling Xiang Chuan so much that she nearly flung the light screen in her hand away.
“Ah? What are you doing?! Wait, don’t pull, I can’t see the path behind, I can walk on my own—!”
Xiang Chuan struggled to balance her body, but Ainuo unceremoniously hooked an arm around her neck and dragged her toward the direction where Liang Gong and Ouyang Yating were. Since Xiang Chuan couldn’t steady herself, she could only walk backward in a reclined posture while Ainuo held her neck.
“Slow down! Slow down! I’m going to fall—don’t let go, you—”
The less than one-hundred-meter distance felt as long as a kilometer to Xiang Chuan. When she saw Ouyang Yating and Liang Gong looking down at her, she nearly burst into tears from excitement. Ainuo stopped tormenting Xiang Chuan at this point; he used his other hand to support her back from behind, released the arm hooked around her neck, then quickly steadied her shoulders with both hands and lifted her whole body, rotating her one hundred eighty degrees to face the two.
The movement was done in one smooth motion, crisp and decisive. If not for Xiang Chuan’s expression that screamed she wanted to punch someone, Liang Gong felt he definitely wouldn’t have been able to resist clapping.
Xiang Chuan patted her chest where her little heart was pounding nonstop, then abruptly looked at Ouyang Yating. The meaning in her eyes couldn’t be clearer: Do something about your childhood friend!
Ouyang Yating shrugged helplessly.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to intervene, but controlling Ainuo physically was usually Nancy’s job. Although Ouyang Yating had received basic physical training, compared to Nancy, who majored in architecture and thus emphasized physical exercise intensely, and Ainuo, who had developed excellent reflexes from childhood antics and Nancy’s “pursuits,” it would truly be like showing off in front of an expert and overestimating her own abilities.
Meanwhile, Ouyang Yating mainly handled controlling Ainuo’s bizarre words and actions in daily life. When she first heard that Ainuo would attend the same high school as her and Nancy, Ouyang Yating had steeled herself, prepared to continue fulfilling the “entrustment” from Ainuo’s mother together with Nancy (Ouyang Yating: I originally didn’t want to do it either, but Aunt Allison offered really generous compensation). As a result, once Ainuo entered high school and joined a club, she hit her and Nancy with a fake confession out of the blue, scaring them badly. At the time, Nancy had even started pondering installing surveillance on Ainuo, and Ouyang Yating hadn’t refused at all throughout.
After all, high school wasn’t like elementary or junior high before, where you could just stay in the class to keep an eye on Ainuo. High school had club activities, and the three of them had chosen different clubs, so Nancy and Ouyang Yating couldn’t spare attention to manage Ainuo.
Fortunately, later Ainuo transferred to A Bite of China Club, which saved the trouble of installing surveillance, though it meant more work for Ouyang Yating. On the day Ainuo officially transferred to A Bite of China Club, Nancy went to the Ouyang home to mooch a meal, and afterward, she quietly gave Ouyang Yating a set of the latest exoskeleton from the Tenth Fleet.
It was to reward Ouyang Yating for the painful three years ahead.
Then, Ouyang Yating discovered that her own club president was another oddball whose brain circuits were no less bizarre than Ainuo’s. This made her consider switching clubs several times at the beginning, since Ouyang Yating wasn’t all that interested in cooking back then—her curiosity was more toward ancient food itself.
Later she found that Ainuo and Xiang Chuan, these two with their miraculous brain circuits, often failed to sync up. Whenever Xiang Chuan had one of her overly horrifying “flashes of inspiration,” Ainuo’s gaze would instantly sharpen, and he would usually pin her in place with hands and feet, while Ouyang Yating just needed to help out with Liang Gong by doing some auxiliary tasks.
The scenario Ouyang Yating had originally envisioned of “having to manage two Ainuo’s at once” never happened. The one she truly needed to handle was just Ainuo; as for her own club president, with Ainuo around, keeping her from going off the rails was naturally something that required no extra thought.
Just like the current situation: Xiang Chuan had walked past because she was focused on browsing information, so they just needed to wait for Ainuo to drag her back.
——
“So, where exactly is this place?”
The four of them looked around.
Judging from the style of the fences, this was still within the jurisdiction of the Animal Husbandry Production Department, but compared to the bustling activity at the cattle farm and chicken farm, this place was eerily quiet.
“There’s a sign over there.”
Liang Gong had sharp eyes and spotted the signpost facility ahead.
The four of them leaned in for a closer look, and their expressions instantly became very complicated.
The sign had only four words—【Pig Farm】.
And nearby the sign, there was indeed a building similar to the cattle farm headquarters; that was probably the pig farm management facility.
Logically speaking, as part of the visit activity, checking out the pig farm would be a decent choice, but Ouyang Yating, Ainuo, and Liang Gong all showed reluctant expressions.
Mainly because pork was so unpalatable—who would like something like that?
After the baptism of Yue Xiang Restaurant, modern people’s fondness for agricultural products had thoroughly linked to “whether this thing can be made delicious.”
Xiang Chuan, however, looked fully interested: Maybe they’d find some rare pigs suitable for cooking at the farm? Modern people held the fixed notion that “this thing isn’t tasty at all” toward pigs, so even if new breeds were developed, it wouldn’t draw others’ attention.
If they just sent all the raised pigs to feed the animals in the nature reserve, that would be too much of a waste!
“Let’s go check it out!”/”Let’s go back.”
Xiang Chuan, full of excitement, and Ainuo, with a sour face, said simultaneously.
The two abruptly looked at each other; Xiang Chuan showed disapproving eyes, while Ainuo was full of disgust.
“Why go there? You clearly know that thing doesn’t taste good no matter how it’s cooked.”
Ainuo crossed his arms and posed the soul-searching question.
“Who says it doesn’t taste good? 21st century people made pork into all sorts of wonders!” Original 21st century person Xiang Chuan couldn’t stand hearing bad things about pork. “Think about it: since so many ancient recipes suit our tastes, and even when we use their processing techniques on modern river fresh, it tastes so good, there’s no reason we can’t eat the most widely used pork from the 21st century!”
“But last week, you threw up right after eating that roasted pork.”
Liang Gong shrank his neck and delivered the heaviest blow to Xiang Chuan in the most humble tone.
“That… that must have been the pork’s own problem! The pork must not have been fresh!” Xiang Chuan said stubbornly. “I processed that pork exactly according to 21st century methods, yet it still had such a strong gamey smell, which proves the pork was definitely problematic. It must be that the pork circulating in the market wasn’t from good breeds.”
The more Xiang Chuan spoke, the more convinced she was of her idea. Her mind flashed to the most famous black pigs of the 21st century and the Guangxi Province specialty Bama fragrant pigs, then to ham made from black pigs and roast suckling pig from fragrant pigs. As she spoke, she nearly started drooling.
“Hiss… Anyway, like cattle and chickens, pigs also have many breeds. If the varieties selected by the agricultural scientists back then were wrong, or if our Agriculture Bureau leaders chose the wrong varieties for breeding, then it’s no wonder they couldn’t produce good pork! No, I need to go argue with their leaders right now! I want to eat pig feet rice noodles! I want to eat braised pork—!”
Xiang Chuan grew more agitated as she spoke, increasingly convinced she had a duty to let ignorant modern people truly appreciate the deliciousness of pork. With that, she turned and charged toward the pig farm management facility.
Her momentum carried a strong obsession with pork, stunning Ainuo and the other two in place. By the time they came to their senses, Xiang Chuan had already reached the door of the management facility.
Lately on a diet, the only edible pork is that bit of minced meat when stir-frying. These past few chapters are probably going to make me hungry…
