Chapter 628: Hang a Piece of Meat

"Goldie, can you even work this thing? We can’t see a thing," Shane Thorne grumbled, growing impatient.

He had a seat, at least, but the room was packed wall-to-wall. The stuffy air made it hard to breathe. Still, he couldn’t bear to leave, determined to watch the evening news.

Preston Thorne was also sweltering, fanning himself with his hand. He was just as eager to watch the news. People had come to show movies in the village before, but this was the first time anyone had seen a television. He was itching with curiosity, but unfortunately, at over a thousand yuan, it was far too expensive for him to buy.

"I know how to do it! I learned everything. It was working perfectly fine in the city, so why won’t it work here in the village?"

Goldie Thorne wiped the sweat from his brow. With everyone’s eyes on him, he grew increasingly nervous. ’This thing isn’t broken, is it? Maybe I should just wait for Adrian Hawthorne to come back and let him deal with it.’

Sitting on Byron Thorne’s lap, Tang Xiaonan felt like she was boiling. It was late September, and the weather was mild, but with so many people crammed into the room, it would have felt stuffy even in the dead of winter. Seeing that Goldie Thorne was at his wit’s end, she had a flash of inspiration and yelled, "Uncle, hang a piece of meat on it!"

Her clear, childish voice made everyone pause. ’What does she mean, "hang a piece of meat"?’

Goldie Thorne didn’t understand, either. ’Where am I supposed to hang the meat? Adrian Hawthorne never taught me this part.’

Tang Xiaonan pointed to the television antenna. "Just hang a piece of meat up there and it’ll work!"

In her past life, her family’s black-and-white TV also had poor reception when she was a child. Then, someone—she didn’t know who—came up with the idea to hang a piece of meat on the antenna. The effect was miraculous; the picture immediately became clear. After that, whenever they watched TV, her mom would hang meat on the antenna, and the picture was never blurry again.

Goldie Thorne was skeptical, but his little niece was a ’fairy child’ and couldn’t possibly be wrong. He turned to Raina and asked, "Do we have any meat in the house?"

Raina, fuming, turned her head away and ignored him. ’Even if we had meat, I wouldn’t give any to that little rascal.’

"I’ve got a piece of meat! Hold on, I’ll go get it!"

Phoebe Huxley yelled as she pushed her way out. The crowd silently parted to let her through. They were all on pins and needles; who knew watching television would be such an ordeal? But no one left. On the contrary, the crowd was only getting bigger.

Before long, Phoebe Huxley returned, carrying the meat. It was a piece of pork belly, weighing just about a pound, that she had bought earlier today. She had planned on making wontons with it tomorrow morning, but it seemed the television would get the first taste.

Under Tang Xiaonan’s direction, the raw pork was hung on the antenna. Everyone craned their necks in anticipation. As the whole crowd watched, Goldie Thorne fiddled with the tuner again, and a miracle happened. The image was perfectly clear! A puppet cartoon, produced by Tristone Animation Studios, was playing. Most Chinese animated films from the seventies and eighties were made by the two major studios in Aethelgard and Tristone.

Tang Xiaonan hadn’t seen many cartoons from the seventies and wasn’t familiar with them. Besides, from her modern perspective, the animation looked incredibly crude. But to the people of this era, it was as mesmerizing as a magic lantern show. Everyone watched with rapt attention; even the adults’ eyes were glued to the screen.

"It talks! And it sings! HAHA... This is so much fun!"

"So this television likes to eat meat, huh? Not only can I not afford to buy one, I definitely can’t afford to feed it. I barely get to eat meat myself; where would I find any for a TV?"

"Exactly! It needs a pound of meat at a time. This isn’t a television, it’s a Bodhisattva you have to make offerings to. Who could possibly afford that!"

...

Tang Xiaonan couldn’t help but laugh. ’People from this time are just too funny.’ In truth, she had no idea why hanging meat on the antenna improved the signal. All she knew was that the trick worked like a charm, every time. ’Maybe the TV really does crave meat?’

After the cartoon finished, the evening news came on. Despite it being a simple news broadcast, everyone watched with rapt attention. To make sure the people standing outside could see, Goldie Thorne decided to move the television out into the courtyard for everyone to watch.