"Slap! Slap!"
With a few swift and clean cuts, the lamb chop broke in two, revealing the pink and white bone fragments inside.
Lamb chops and lamb legs are simmered in water with ginger slices until cooked through, then removed and used as hand-pulled meat, served with minced garlic and aged vinegar as a side dish.
The cooked lamb chops are tender and delicious, with no trace of gaminess. A bite of meat followed by a sip of wine – that's how you truly experience the joy of eating meat.
When making soup with lamb neck, cut half a large, plump, and delicious radish into the soup and cook it together until the bones are soft and the meat is tender enough that the meat can easily fall off the bone with chopsticks.
—At this moment, ladle out a bowl of soup, sprinkle with chopped coriander and scallions, and take a sip with the flatbread!
Ha!
The hot soup, carrying the aroma of meat, rushes straight to your throat, and the fragrance fills your mouth, making you feel dizzy. Then, take a bite of the half-fat, half-lean hand-pulled mutton, and you'll feel comfortable from the back of your neck to the top of your head!
Who doesn't love eating meat in big chunks?
In particular, the lamb that Xu Milu chose was just right, neither too fat nor too lean, with four parts fat and six parts lean. When you eat it, you feel that it is rich but not greasy, fragrant but not vulgar, and full of the unique aroma of lamb.
Xu Milu stirred the large pot in front of her, and the rising steam made her face glow with a rosy hue.
The mutton in the pot was bubbling and rolling, and many meat scraps floated in the milky white mutton soup. The aroma was so enticing that it made many people secretly swallow their saliva.
Xu Milu didn't plan to sell this soup. She just set up a stove, put the soup pot on it, and anyone passing by could ask for a bowl of soup and a flatbread. On a dewy autumn day, drinking it would warm them up.
It was already broad daylight, and many people were starting to move around on the street, but the Shan Hai Restaurant was still deserted. Only a middle-aged woman dressed in pink was cooking soup, and occasionally a passerby would go up to ask for a bowl of soup.
—Of course, this is how ordinary people see it.
"Here you are, this is your mutton soup. Hold it carefully and keep it warm..."
Xu Milu flipped the large ladle in her hand, and a spoonful of mutton soup fell precisely into the large bowl. In front of her was a long queue.
The line wasn't just made up of people; spirits, ghosts, and underworld officials were all lined up neatly at the entrance, peeking out, seemingly intoxicated by the aroma of the mutton soup.
The ghost, missing half its head and standing at the front of the line, received the soup and happily ran to squat in the corner.
"Thank you, Madam Xu! May you make a fortune every day! May your wealth flow in like a river!"
The next one in line was a squirrel spirit with a human head on its head and a red tail. If you looked closely, you could see two baby squirrels clinging to that red tail.
Seeing that it was a mother squirrel with her baby, Xu Milu added a few more pieces of meat to the bowl and gestured for her to come inside the shop to sit and have a drink.
"If you're still not satisfied, come back for more. In two months, winter will be here. I've added some medicinal herbs to this soup. Drinking it will only do you good, not harm."
This spirit could barely take human form, and its human speech was poor, but it knew how to express gratitude after receiving the soup:
"Thank...thank you...my wife! My wife...is a good person..."
Xu Milu smiled at her, knowing that winter was just around the corner, and with the old dragon in Chang'an returning to the Heavenly Palace to report on his duties, the little demons in the city were probably having a hard time.
Whether human or demon, it is not easy to live in Chang'an for a long time. Why doesn't she follow the example of Huasheng Temple and give away more spiritual porridge and rice on a regular basis?
This way, not only the common people, but also some minor monsters can have an easier time.
—The demons outside the city wanted to enter, but they didn't know that Chang'an was not a good place for demons either.
Fairies are born in the mountains and have the advantage of the land. When they are thirsty, there is mountain spring water, and when they are hungry, there are mountain fruits. As long as they are diligent, they will not starve to death.
The demons who live in Chang'an City are protected by gods and Buddhas above them and governed by the City God, the Underworld and the netherworld below them. They not only have to endure the hardships of cultivation, but also have to experience the bitterness of being human.
Not to mention learning how to live like a human, even in daily life, one must work diligently and learn from others to earn money.
What?
You asked why fairies, who can use magic, don't use magic to conjure up some silver.
As I said before, ordinary transformation techniques can only change something from one place to another, or create an illusion, but in reality, the original thing has not undergone any substantial change.
The story of the White Snake turning into silver is an example of using the Five Ghosts to transport wealth, stealing official silver—in short, theft.
It's one thing for demons to do this in other places, but to do it in Chang'an, under the emperor's nose and the rule of gods and Buddhas, means that the moment you transform, the city god will arrest you and bring you to justice.
—The efficiency is so high that it is comparable to modern technology surveillance and crime solving.
...
Although it was daytime, the underworld doesn't care about the time when it accepts people, so there were still a few underworld officials queuing up for soup.
—At first glance, those two soul-reaping messengers had just brought back a soul. The soul-reaping chains on their hands still held a dead soul, who looked like a young woman, but her long hair covered her face, so her face was not clearly visible.
When it was the turn of the soul-collecting messenger, Xu Milu felt that the female ghost looked familiar, so she asked another question:
"Where have you two just returned from your soul-summoning journey? You must be tired. Have some hot soup to warm yourselves up."
Xu Milu's name was already known in the underworld. Because of her master's prestige, everyone from the Ten Kings of Hell to the underworld ghost messengers knew of her.
She was easygoing and generous. Not only was she an excellent cook, but she also frequently took care of the underworld officials. Many soul-collecting messengers had eaten at the Mountain and Sea Restaurant on their journeys.
Therefore, upon hearing her question, the pale-faced underworld official replied with a smile:
"My brother and I had just captured the soul of the Lu family's daughter from outside the city. We were planning to return as soon as possible to report back, but halfway there we heard that my wife was serving soup, so we rushed over."
"Exactly! Madam Xu's skills are truly unparalleled. Not to mention the entire Chang'an, they are hard to find anywhere else in the world. Madam is kind-hearted and generous with her ingredients. The spiritual herbs inside are of great benefit to us spirits!"
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
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