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Shi Wen planned to keep the two cows in the two innermost livestock sheds.

After saying goodbye to Fu Meng and the people who had helped, Shi Wen led the bad-tempered cow from the pasture gate all the way into the shed. The scrawny cow needed no leading and obediently went in on her own.

When they reached the cowshed entrance,

the bad-tempered cow stood at the shed door, refusing to go in no matter what.

Shi Wen pushed her rump. She neither butted nor kicked him, but she was being stubborn, spreading her four hooves wide and refusing to budge.

She really was a bad-tempered cow.

Shi Wen could do nothing about her, so he tied her to the railing beside the shed and went out to get some rapeseed cake, planning to cut some grass as well.

The two cows would have to be kept in the cowshed and could not go out to graze, so Shi Wen could only cut grass and carry it in for them.

The pasture grass changed by the day in May. It had now basically grown to Shi Wen's ankles, making it fairly easy to cut.

Shi Wen took a sickle and soon cut a full load.

As he carried the load past the sheep pen, Black Kid heard the commotion and hurried out. He followed behind Shi Wen, barking at him while his little tail wagged furiously.

With the load on his shoulders, Shi Wen nearly stepped on the puppy darting about beneath his feet. Smiling, he called out, "Stay away from me, Black Kid. No making trouble."

Shi Wen walked on with the load, Black Kid following behind, sniffing left and right and barking now and then. He had clearly caught an unfamiliar scent and was a little excited.

After entering the cowshed, Black Kid immediately spotted the bad-tempered cow tied to the railing.

The bad-tempered cow spotted the tiny thing too. She glared at him and bellowed, "Moo!"

Black Kid refused to back down. "Woof, woof!"

The cow was tied up, but Black Kid could move freely. He marched right up, puffed out his little chest, and barked loudly at her.

The bad-tempered cow immediately lowered her head into a butting stance.

Black Kid clearly disliked this huge cow daring to challenge his authority. He crouched low, ready to charge in and fight.

The dog and cow were about to go at it.

Shi Wen put down his load and hurried over. He pressed Black Kid's back to push him down, then scooped the whole puppy up. "You're so tiny, and you already want to fight?"

Black Kid kicked his legs in the air, clearly unconvinced. "Woof, woof!"

Shi Wen lowered his head and rubbed his chin against the dog's head, smiling. "When you're bigger, you can go fight outside."

As he spoke, Shi Wen looked at the bad-tempered cow again. "And you too. Stop provoking him!"

After subduing the two little animals, Shi Wen carried the freshly cut grass to the trough and crumbled the rapeseed cake into it as well.

The distinctive rich, oily fragrance of the rapeseed cake drifted out.

The scrawny cow walked to the trough, sniffed it, then took a mouthful of grass and began chewing.

Good Temper clearly caught the fresh scent of the fodder too. She completely forgot about the puppy she had been confronting. Her hooves began moving, first left and then right, as she tried to break free. She even opened her mouth and gave Shi Wen a long "Moo!"

After putting down the feed, Shi Wen patted her neck lightly. "Weren't you the one who didn't want to go inside just now?"

The cow could not understand a word Shi Wen was saying. She only kept struggling toward the trough.

Shi Wen untied the rope. This time, he did not need to drive her. She ambled into the cowshed by herself, grabbed some grass, and began chewing heartily.

Shi Wen watched her from outside the pen. "Didn't expect you to be such a glutton. You supposedly have a bad temper, but a little feed won you over. Looks like your temper isn't really that bad."

The cow kept eating without even lifting her head.

Shi Wen reached out and patted her neck. "How about I call you Good Temper? I hope you'll be better tempered from now on. Eat well and grow well."

As he spoke, Shi Wen smiled, then turned to the scrawny cow. "You can be Big One. I hope you really grow into a big one worthy of the name."

The scrawny cow gave Shi Wen a long, "Moo—"

After naming the two cows, Shi Wen fetched his tools and began cleaning the cowshed.

He had only given it a quick cleaning and disinfected it before. If he was going to raise two cows here, a simple cleaning would definitely not be enough. He needed to thoroughly clean and disinfect it.

As Shi Wen scattered quicklime over the floor, he looked at the bare ground and thought that he needed to dry some grass or buy some straw.

Otherwise, once the cows started relieving themselves in a couple of days, the cowshed floor would surely become muddy. A layer of grass would make it better—the ground would not get as dirty and would be easier to clean.

The dirty grass, manure, and urine cleared out later could just be gathered into a pile for composting.

Shi Wen's thoughts gradually drifted away. He did not know how long had passed before Black Kid's frantic barking jolted him back to his senses.

He thought Black Kid and Good Temper were confronting each other again, so he shouted through the fence, "Black Kid, stop barking!"

This time, Black Kid did not obey. He continued barking wildly, even the base of his tail tensed with effort.

Suspicious, Shi Wen draped his rag over the railing. Just as he was about to go out and mediate, he stepped outside and saw Big One with her head down inside the pen, eating voraciously and completely ignoring Black Kid outside.

Black Kid had his head raised. He was not barking at Big One, but at something beyond the cowshed.

Black Kid was barking so fiercely that Shi Wen got goosebumps as he looked out at the pitch-black, empty grassland.

What had the little guy seen? Why was he barking so fiercely?

A stack of horror novels flashed through his mind—on a dark and windy night, in such a remote place, it was not impossible for something to happen.

Black Kid was still barking. Shi Wen tried looking outside, pricking up his ears to listen for movement.

Perhaps it was only his imagination, but he seemed to hear a mournful cry.

Before long, a faint trace of blood drifted to his nose. It was subtle, but his sharp senses caught it.

At that moment, Shi Wen had an intuition that the smell of blood might not have come from a human, but from some animal—perhaps even a large wild animal.

It was too late, and the night outside was too dark.

Shi Wen did not dare take the risk of going out to look. He called the police directly.

After hearing what had happened, the police told him to stay inside the pasture. They would arrive soon.