Chapter 109: Two Halloweens (Part 2)

  The next morning, Old Thomas arranged for Du Erzhong and two other Chinese boys to go grazing with Huan and Andrew, while the others went to pick up a new batch of cattle. Ju An took his camera and followed Thomas to pick up the cattle, taking over 10 good photos today. After another busy day, at around 5-6 pm, Thomas and Lawrence drove to pick up cowboys from Chile. Seeing that almost everyone had arrived at the ranch, Ju An prepared to gather everyone for a bonfire party, also inviting Tyler Sandton and Anderson, old friends, to come over and socialize, welcoming new friends. Fortunately, the east house was already habitable, so tonight Lawrence and Andrew would take a group of Chilean cowboys to their new residence, bringing over 10 horses with them.

  Today, the beef prepared in the ranch is a half-grown young bull from the ranch, with Lawrence in charge of slaughtering it. Thomas and Guan helped with the work. Watching Lawrence quickly use a small knife to flip over the hung-up calf, skillfully peeling off the cowhide, Guan couldn't help but exclaim in admiration, guessing that this was probably what "Pao Ding Jie Niu" (a legendary butcher) looked like when he was mentioned in elementary school textbooks. Thomas used a large basin to clean up the cow's internal organs, using a knife to cut open the cow's stomach and intestines for cleaning.

  "Ha! So Thomas, you also love eating these things? You're so skilled at it, you must eat them often!"

  Thomas shrugged and explained, "I'm just going to wash these things casually and then boil them in clear water to feed the cow dog. Who on the ranch would eat this stuff? It's usually used to feed dogs."

  Ju An almost fell over after hearing the difference, this guy is too wasteful. He hastily called Er Zhuang over and asked: "Er Zhuang, do you know how to clean a cow's stomach?"

  Du Er Zhuang nodded and said: "No problem, An Ge, we will all go."

  "Alright, hurry up and lend a hand to clean the tripe in that big basin in front of Thomas. Make sure to handle it cleanly, I plan to stir-fry it tomorrow night and each of you will get a share."

  As Du Er Zhuang happily picked up the cow's stomach from the basin and began to rinse it in a small basin beside him, Thomas waved his hand and said: "An, you can keep my share, just thinking about it makes me feel a bit nauseous. Do you want anything else? There's still plenty here." After finishing speaking, he pulled up a piece of cow intestine to gesture to An.

  An shook his head as he watched, while Lawrence smiled and said: "An, give me a copy, I'll try it too."

  "Alright, don't worry, I'll make sure you're satisfied. Braised beef belly with garlic, get the two strong men to wash it and send it to my fridge, don't let those little thieves steal it."

  Thomas shook his head and said: "If you like, I can leave some for you every time we slaughter a cow. If you like, ask around the nearby pastures and they can get you a few every day."

  "Never mind," said Ju An with a smile. "Even good things can get tiresome if eaten every day. When our own cattle grow up, we'll naturally have meat to eat."

  At this time, Lawrence had already stripped off the whole cowhide and was dividing the beef into a large basin below. When he cut to the cow's spine, he said happily: "An, Thomas come and take a look".

  As they walked up to take a look, Lawrence's knife had sliced open a piece of beef marbled with fat that formed beautiful marble patterns. Thomas said happily: "It looks great now, let's see how it tastes tonight."

  Then he looked at Lawrence, who had made similar cuts in several places, mostly with white fat mixed in, forming beautiful marble patterns. The three people's mood was very comfortable, and Lawrence couldn't help but praise: "Maybe it can be considered top-grade."

  This is Angus, the grading level of American beef. Generally, high-end restaurants are all choice grade, and above that, there's prime grade. The best grade, only about 3% of beef in the US is graded as this level. Angus was pretty happy when Lawrence told him this, this guy is just rich.

  After the whole cow was divided, the cowboys all returned to the ranch. Several old friends also arrived. As soon as Jerry and Emily arrived at the ranch, they were attracted by Teddy. Tyler looked on nervously for a while before putting his mind at ease. After all, Teddy was a good classmate with a bad temper.

  Several tables were filled with vegetables, fruits and beef. The mutton was a whole lamb brought by Tyler, which was well-dressed. The beef won unanimous praise from everyone at the dinner party, saying it was very good beef, some estimating it to be top-grade, others estimating it to be specially selected. Listening to this, Tyler smiled with satisfaction. He also suggested that when selling them later, they should be carefully evaluated so as to get a better price.

  After the dinner party, of course, everyone was happy and satisfied. When it was time for people to leave, Laurence led Andrew and the Chilean cowboys towards the east campsite. The remaining stalls were left for Old Thomas to clean up. Ju An took Teddy and Wu Song back to their room to sleep.

  The next few days, the ranch cowboys were busy receiving cattle, putting ear tags on them, branding the ranch's mark on them. After all the cattle had been received, it was also around Halloween.

  In the evening, it was Halloween. Actually, Halloween is on November 1st, and All Hallows' Eve is on October 31st. Many people in the country celebrate All Hallows' Eve, not Halloween. In the afternoon, I started decorating, moving a big jar of chocolate to the entrance. A spider web was also set up and hung on the front door, and two small skulls were hung under the eaves, hanging like a person being hanged. A large lantern was lit in front of the house, indicating that we are ready to celebrate Halloween and welcome children to come trick-or-treating.

  Everything was ready, Ju An turned around and went back to the house. As soon as he walked to the door, he found Wu Song squatting beside the candy box, peeling chocolates with his two small black hands. Teddy was squatting on the ground, stretching his neck, chewing something in his mouth, and looking at the ten or so sugar papers under his feet. Ju An understood that the two guys were eating chocolate. When Wu Song saw Ju An coming in, he grinned and called out to Ju An with a smile, peeled off a piece of chocolate, broke it in half, and sent the larger half into Teddy's mouth, while he himself ate the smaller piece, showing friendly affection.

  Moved the jar to the gun cabinet, found something to press down on the mouth of the jar, and then returned to the kitchen to start making dinner for himself and the two guys. For himself, it was scrambled eggs with rice, for Wu Song it was shredded meat with some fruit added, but Teddy's was much more luxurious - he had caught a fish weighing several kilograms, removed the scales and innards, put it in the oven to roast, and when it was about 70-80% cooked, it suited Teddy's taste buds perfectly.

  After finishing dinner, as the sky darkened, Ju An put on her traveling attire, a wide robe and a pale mask, sat down on the sofa below, waiting for the little ones to come over and ask for candy.

  Wu Song and Teddy were still thinking about the candies on top of the gun cabinet. Wu Song could climb up to the cabinet, but didn't have enough strength to lift the lid off the jar. Teddy had the strength to lift the lid, but couldn't climb up to the cabinet. The two little guys looked at each other for a long time and finally gave up, honestly squatting down beside Ju An on the sofa and watching TV together.

  After waiting for a while, I heard someone knocking on the door outside, and then a childish voice rang out: "No candy, make trouble!"

  As soon as the door opened, two foreigners in their fifties were seen standing beside a car at the back. Two little ones, a boy and a girl, carried small buckets, with the boy dressed up as Superman and the girl wearing a snow-white dress and having two snow-white wings on her back, looking like an angel. An hastily took down the jar from the cabinet and let the two little ones grab some sugar. Seeing them happily grabbing the sugar, An smiled and said: "Now they won't make any more trouble."

  Little angel girl smiled happily, showing a small gap between her teeth, and said: "Thank you, sir! I won't bother anymore". The two little guys grabbed some sugar and were about to leave when they suddenly saw Teddy and Wu Song stop at the door and ask Ju An: "Sir, are this bear and monkey raised by you?"

  A small bear came out of the house, and the two old men walked up to stand behind the children, smiling at them: "Don't worry, they were raised from a young age and won't hurt people." Hearing this, and seeing that Teddy wasn't too big, they finally felt at ease.

  Looking at the eyes of the two little guys, Ju An pulled Teddy and Wu Song over and said: "You can touch them, don't worry they won't bite, Teddy and Wu Song are very well-behaved".

  Two little guys just went forward and touched two little guys, happily touching and laughing while calling out names.

  The grandparents of the two children also saw this scene and smiled at Ju An: "Happy holidays!"

  "Happy holidays! You're the first batch of people who came to ask for sugar, I've been waiting for half a day!"

  The old man smiled and said, "Everyone here lives far away, usually they take their children to the town to ask for sugar. Our family stays behind with our son and daughter-in-law to give out sugar, we bring our grandsons out to ask for sugar, and happened to see your place lit up on the way, usually at night it's just a few groups of kids coming to ask for sugar, you bought too much sugar, one-third of it will go to waste."

  "Let the kids take a bit more then, anyway I don't eat much of what's left over."

  The two old men smiled and said: "It's just for the kids to be happy, we won't give them too much sugar, just one or two pieces a day."

  After finishing, he pulled up two little guys who were reluctant to part with Teddy and Wu Song, said goodbye to Ju An, and got on the car. When the car started, the two little guys still stuck out their heads, waving goodbye to Teddy and Wu Song. Looking at the two small heads sticking out, I guess in the hearts of these two little guys, Teddy and Wu Song are much more interesting than asking for candy.