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Ma Bingjun turned to look at Shi Wen in surprise. "You're Professor Yan's friend? Then I have to give you some face."

Shi Wen and Ma Bingjun looked at each other, eyes wide.

Ma Bingjun was clearly waiting for Shi Wen's answer.

After holding it in for a long while, Shi Wen finally said, "We know each other."

Ma Bingjun burst out laughing and put the cigarette back between his lips. "Why are you so honest? If you'd nodded and admitted it, I'd have sold you these geese."

Shi Wen looked up at him awkwardly. But he couldn't lie. Yan Kexing was nearby, and a lie would be so easy to expose.

Gong Jiang laughed from the side. "He really is my advisor's friend. If you don't believe me, ask him next time."

Ma Bingjun clicked his tongue. "Who would dare ask Professor Yan to his face? Fine. Since you say so, I'll reluctantly believe it."

Ma Bingjun turned to Shi Wen. "All the geese I can sell have already been reserved. You're local, right? If you're confident, I can give you a batch of newly hatched goslings that haven't been sorted yet."

Shi Wen agreed at once. "Any geese will do."

With a cigarette between his lips, Ma Bingjun gestured for them to follow. "I'll take you to see the geese. How many do you want?"

Shi Wen said, "Would thirty be okay? It's my first year raising them, so I want to start with fewer."

Ma Bingjun said, "Of course. You're not raising many, so I'll charge you cost price—eighty yuan each."

A small path behind the farm led to the pasture.

Ma Bingjun led them through several twists and turns before they finally arrived outside a row of poultry sheds.

Outside, Shi Wen caught the distinctive smell of poultry.

They entered one of the sheds. The owner turned on the lights, startling a flock of yellowish-gray geese into a few uneasy honks.

Shi Wen leaned in for a look and found that these young geese were quite large and looked sturdy, though their coloring was somewhat dull and gray.

Ma Bingjun said, "We bred these from local geese. They're omnivorous. They're still a little small now, so keep them penned up for two days after you take them home and feed them corn feed. Once they've adjusted to the environment a little, you can let them out to graze."

Shi Wen nodded repeatedly. "All right. Thank you, Brother Ma."

Ma Bingjun stepped aside and gestured for him to go over. "Pick them yourself."

Shi Wen entered the goose pen and watched the honking geese desperately avoid him. For a moment, he had no particular idea how to choose.

After observing them for a while, he selected thirty goslings that were bigger and more energetic.

Ma Bingjun packed the geese into a wicker cage for him.

After picking out the geese, they left them temporarily in the backyard before going out for a meal.

It was Shi Wen's first time tasting local goose meat. It truly was tender and delicious. Compared with duck, it had less gaminess and a faint extra sweetness.

Even geese boiled in plain water with nothing but salt were exceptionally delicious, completely changing his impression of goose meat.

As Shi Wen ate the goose, he found himself looking forward to the goslings even more.

Once the goslings grew up, they should be delicious too, right?

Chapter 6

After bringing the geese home, Shi Wen kept them temporarily in the livestock shed.

There was no ready-made poultry shed on the ranch. Once the geese grew a little bigger, he would need to build a new one.

The flock adapted well to the livestock shed, while the sheep barely reacted to them and essentially ignored them.

The puppy, however, was intensely curious about the geese. It kept staring at them and was eager to pounce on them.

After two days of training, it could barely restrain its primal urge, though it still watched the geese every day with bright eyes.

That day, after the sun came up, Shi Wen went to the livestock shed, intending to inspect the sheep and then let the geese out.

To his surprise, the moment he entered, he saw the puppy staring at the geese without blinking, its eyes gleaming with excitement.

Shi Wen bent down and lightly flicked the puppy on the forehead. "These geese are worth one-tenth of your value. They're expensive, so no pouncing on them, understand?"

Whether the puppy understood or not, it turned and barked at Shi Wen. "Woof!"

Shi Wen gave the puppy a rub and laughed. "You sure bark loudly."

Shi Wen first checked the sheep's feed trough and water trough.

The rapeseed cake mixed with hay he had put out the previous evening had already been eaten. The salt block in the salt trough was still there and had not been licked clean, so there was no need to add more.

Quite a bit of rapeseed cake residue and hay had fallen into the water trough. He needed to drain it, scrub it clean, and refill it.

As he worked methodically, the puppy ran back and forth around his feet.

The dog was so small, and the sheep had grown used to it. It darted in and out among the flock without drawing any reaction, while the sheep instead bleated at Shi Wen.

Perhaps because they had grown a little, the sheep's bleats had become rougher. They were no longer as soft and adorable as when they had first arrived, but they looked plumper.

There was nothing wrong with the sheep's condition, nor with their droppings.

Everything had gone smoothly today, so he could drive them outside to graze.

Shi Wen opened the main door of the livestock shed, then opened the gate to the sheep pen.

Led by the lead sheep, the flock slowly headed outside.

Shi Wen made a gesture at the puppy. "Black Kid, front right."

The puppy immediately toddled in circles toward the front right on its four short legs. "Woof woof!"

The flock stirred and quickened its pace, herded by Shi Wen and the puppy from either side toward the large pasture outside, where they went to grassland that had not been grazed yesterday.

Once he was sure the flock had reached the grazing spot, Shi Wen called to the puppy, "Black Kid, come here."

The puppy pattered over, stuck out its tongue, and sat by Shi Wen's feet.

Shi Wen took out a piece of jerky from his pocket and placed it in his palm for the puppy to eat. "I'm leaving the flock to you."

Black Kid said, "Woof!"

The ranch's ditches had been cleaned out, and the water flowed smoothly. One stretch ran through the backyard.

With a water source, it should be quite convenient to grow something in the backyard.

Shi Wen had checked before. There were signs that the backyard had once been cultivated, and the dark soil looked very fertile. It had already been thoroughly tilled, so after clearing it out again, it would be suitable for planting just about anything.

He wanted to follow the local villagers' example and plant some vegetables in the backyard. That way, when he got busy and did not want to go into town to buy groceries, he could simply pick some from the backyard.