Divine Tang Era

Some lamb has a gamey smell, so you need a little trick when cooking it.

For example, you can wash away the blood on the surface; or when rinsing, you can add some ginger, white vinegar, or lemon to the water to remove the smell to a limited extent.

If that doesn't work, soak the vegetables in ginger, scallions, vinegar, and lemon before blanching. You can also add radishes while cooking. The radishes remove the gamey smell; don't eat them after cooking, discard them as they have a muttony odor. If you want to eat them, just add the radishes back in and cook.

If this process is repeated, even the most gamey mutton will lose its flavor.

If that doesn't work, then we'll have to put in horse hooves and sugarcane.

However, this will result in the cooked mutton having a sweet taste.

The lamb from Jingning doesn't have such a strong gamey smell. After cleaning, rinsing it with vinegar removes the odor. Chinese yam and goji berries disintegrate quickly when cooked, so they weren't added at the beginning. Instead, ginger is added first to cook the lamb, and the Chinese yam and goji berries are added last.

Since Yunniang came to the house, Xu Dan has never set foot in the kitchen again.

Yun Niang wouldn't allow it; she would get upset if anyone even had the slightest thought of cooking it.

She always felt that she came to the house to do chores. If the host was doing chores and she was just standing by, then what was the point of hiring her?

So when cooking mutton, Xu Dan would stand by and say, "Yun Niang, do it." Unexpectedly, she was quite good at cooking mutton; she not only added the ingredients according to his request but also sprinkled pepper on top.

The soup that was cooked was milky white, with a faint fragrance, but no taste at all.

Xu Dan picked up a piece of mutton and put it in his mouth. It melted in his mouth with one bite and tasted delicious.

The little magpie, like a little piglet, finished the mutton in its bowl and then held the bowl, making "tsk tsk" sounds as it drank, which was quite amusing. The black bear also got some meat and bones, and lay down in its special bowl below, burying its head in eating.

"Yunniang, you should eat too, so it doesn't get cold later," Xu Dan reminded her when he saw that she hadn't touched her chopsticks.

"it is good."

Yunniang then picked up a piece of mutton and put it in her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes, which she quickly wiped away. Since her husband's passing, she and her son hadn't eaten mutton in a long time. If she hadn't met the young man, she didn't know how she would have survived.

All of this is thanks to the young man.

The market lasted for three days, so after breakfast the next morning, Xu Dan went to the market again. This time he went alone, without anyone else. Black Bear was held tightly in Little Magpie's arms, watching his departing figure with a slightly resentful look in its eyes.

Yesterday, Xu Dan took Yun Niang and her daughter out, but didn't get a good look around the market. Today, he's determined to explore it thoroughly.

On his way back yesterday, he heard that in addition to the ordinary market where people buy and sell things, there was also a special market for cultivators and martial artists, where all kinds of demonic beasts and spirit talismans could be found.

Xu Dan entered the market and came to the back alley, which was a market specifically for cultivators and martial artists.

Upon entering, instead of seeing anyone selling monsters, I saw a row of random things dug out of the ground.

These are treasure hunters who make a living by digging up ancient artifacts in remote, undeveloped areas. Just like the "earth-digging gangs" I heard about in my past life, they dig in the same way as tomb raiders, except that tomb raiding is illegal and unethical, while their digging is legal.

The items displayed on these people's stalls were either dug up by themselves or purchased from others.

Because he was dissatisfied with the low prices offered by outside shops, he decided to sell them himself.

Of course, some people inevitably try to cheat and deceive, but when they are discovered, their fate in this desolate place is uncertain.

Xu Dan walked past the stalls, which mostly displayed weapons and armor, as well as some agate, jade, and ancient books, and later some herbs, elixirs, and talismans. He didn't rush to the back, but just strolled around and looked at them slowly.

After visiting several stalls, a long arrow on one stall caught his attention.

The arrowhead is an ancient bronze color, the shaft is ebony, and the fletching is fiery red.

Xu Dan squatted down, picked it up, and weighed it in his hand. It felt quite heavy, which was good. He then asked the stall owner, "Did you dig this out of the ground?"

"Hmm," the stall owner replied casually.

"Then why is it so new?" Xu Dan asked doubtfully.

"How should I know?" the stall owner said in a muffled voice. If it didn't look brand new, this arrow would have been sold long ago.

"Don't tell me that even the arrow feathers were dug out from underground."

"If it wasn't dug out, where did it come from? Did I stick it on myself?"

"Do I look like an idiot to you?" Xu Dan said, pointing to himself.

Upon hearing his words, the stall owner examined it carefully and shook his head, saying, "It doesn't look like it."

Xu Dan was almost laughing in exasperation. "If it doesn't look like one, do you think an arrow dug out of the ground would still have feathers and no signs of age, looking brand new? Do you think that's possible?"

To be honest, Kuang Kui also doubted that this thing was an antique.

After all, it lacked spiritual energy, and the material was ordinary; it looked like it had just been buried. But since I was selling something, I certainly couldn't say that, so I insisted, "Anyway, I dug it out of the ground."

Seeing his flustered expression, Xu Dan smiled slightly and asked, "How much for this arrow?"

"One hundred taels of silver."

"Brother, let's name a price. If it's acceptable, I'll buy it."

"If you really want it, I'll give you eighty taels."

"A tiger fallen into the plains is bullied by dogs!" Kuang Kui sighed. If this arrow didn't look like an antique, would he have lowered the price again and again? You know, he used to sell it for ten spirit stones, then he lowered it to one stone because no one wanted to buy it, then it was ten taels of gold, and now it's one hundred taels of silver.

He's tired of selling this junk and just wants to get rid of it quickly.

"Brother, look at this arrowhead. It's obviously a newly made fake, corroded in a cesspool. It even smells weird. And the shaft is just ordinary hardwood coated with tung oil. The fletching is some random junk woven into it; it doesn't even look like bird feathers. You're selling it for eighty taels? Don't you have a conscience?"

"Are you going to buy it or not? If not, get out of here."

Kuang Kui felt his dignity had been insulted after hearing his words and shouted angrily.

"Brother, even if the deal falls through, we can still be on good terms. Why make things so complicated? Don't you think so? How about this: let's not talk about one hundred or eighty taels of silver. Let's each compromise and settle for one tael. What do you say?"

Kuang Kui felt his blood rush to his head and his eyes turned red. How could anyone haggle like that?

Seeing his expression, Xu Dan quickly said, "One ounce isn't enough, how about two ounces? Three ounces, four ounces, five ounces..."

Xu Dan added the tael by tael, and Kuang Kui's complexion gradually improved, and his mood calmed down considerably. When he reached ten taels, Xu Dan stopped adding, saying, "Brother, you see, twenty taels is enough. Any more and I'll be losing money."

The price was ten times different from what he had said, far from the amount Kuang Kui had in mind.

But if I didn't sell, it would definitely be stuck in my hands. After thinking about it, I nodded and sold it.

Xu Dan paid the money, picked up the long arrow, and liked it very much. However, holding it plain felt a bit strange, so he asked Kuang Kui, "Do you have anything here to wrap it up for me?"

"I don't have anything to pack, but I have a quiver that can hold it. Do you want it?" The stall owner pulled out a quiver from beside him.

A quiver, also known as a quiver or arrow pod, is a container used to hold arrows.

The quiver was dug up from the ground, and he had hoped to sell it for a high price, but unfortunately, it looked brand new. There were no spirit patterns on it, and injecting true energy into it had no effect; it was just an ordinary quiver. Kuang Kui originally intended to sell it for spirit stones, but no one bought it. As a result, like the long arrow, its price kept dropping, making it a truly disappointing item.

Seeing that the little guy wanted to buy it, I simply sold it to avoid the hassle of keeping it.

Xu Dan looked at the quiver; it was jet black on the outside and inside, and it didn't look like it had been dug up from the ground, but rather like it had been made.

However, since it was just the right size for holding long arrows, I asked, "How much is your quiver?"

"I'll sell it to you cheap, eighty taels of silver."

"Thirty taels. I'll buy it if you want it; otherwise, you can keep it for yourself."

"Thirty taels it is then, pay up!"

Seeing how readily he agreed, Xu Dan felt like he'd been ripped off. But having already promised, he couldn't go back on his word, so he had no choice but to obediently hand over the silver. Kuang Kui, after receiving the silver, tossed it around in his hand with a wry smile.

Xu Dan didn't want to see his smug face, so he turned around and left with his things.