Inspection

"Come on, let's go home and sleep!" Ye Huan tossed Jingjing up and caught her again, making her giggle.

Back home, he handed Jingjing to Bai Jie, then went upstairs, showered, and got into bed. His soul entered the space, and before cultivating, he sorted through the treasures his grandfather had given him and laid them out separately on the wooden table. Only then did he drink a cup of spirit spring water and begin cultivating.

Although cultivation was tedious, Ye Huan enjoyed it. Every time his strength improved, he felt grateful for all the tedious cultivation he had done before. Especially now that he had obtained so many treasures, he craved strength even more. Without strength, protecting his family and his treasures was nothing but wishful thinking. Who else could he count on?

His grandfather was already in his seventies, nearly eighty, and his parents were over fifty. They were all gradually growing old. It was time for him to shoulder this family.

Then there was his grandmother. When he was little, he had heard his grandfather say that she should still be alive. It was just that, back in those days, her family had a bad class background, so the entire family had emigrated.

But he did not know what had happened afterward. All these years, his grandfather had never mentioned his grandmother again, and no one had asked. All he knew was that she had been the pampered young lady of a wealthy household.

His great-grandfather had saved his grandmother's family, and by a chance coincidence, his grandfather had saved his grandmother once too. The two had married just like that. Unfortunately, they had only enjoyed a few peaceful years before the turmoil forced them to flee.

He had heard the village elders say that his grandfather had been so furious back then that he had nearly killed everyone in the county's Revolutionary Committee.

But since his grandfather did not talk about it, he could hardly ask. He believed his grandfather would tell him if the opportunity arose in the future.

The night passed. Although Ye Huan had not broken through again, he knew he was close. He knew that this was the foundation stage, so his progress should not be slow. He reckoned that after level ten, it might become much slower compared with now.

When he came downstairs, Jingjing was watching television quietly. His mother and Bai Jie were working in the fields, tidying up the vegetable plots. His grandfather was smoking his pipe by the door, with Xiaobai and Saihu lying at his feet.

"Good morning, Uncle. Your breakfast is in the pot," Jingjing told Ye Huan when she saw him.

"Mhm, Jingjing's such a good girl." Ye Huan stepped outside. "Grandpa." "You're up."

"I'll eat first." Having washed up, Ye Huan filled a bowl with rice porridge, peeled two eggs and put them in the bowl, added some side dishes, then squatted down and began eating.

The construction crew came that day too. Lu Huan had asked about the road at the village entrance. It was passable, and driving slowly would be fine, which put his mind at ease. He reminded the workers to stay safe, then headed to the mountain behind the house.

He would look around that day and choose a place to build new chicken coops and pigpens. He could also check the path of the recent flash flood and avoid it.

"Saihu, stop running all over the place. You're covered in mud. Jump into the river and wash yourself off later," Ye Huan told the exuberant Saihu.

The moment this fellow entered the mountains, he let himself loose and went completely wild.

After looking around, he found that, sure enough, half the chicken coop they had built before had been washed down by the flash flood, which was why a small portion of the chickens and ducks had been swept away. Although this spot was at a bend, it was still in the flood's path.

Ye Huan nodded. He still lacked experience. But who could have expected such a fierce storm? He examined the surroundings and terrain again and picked out another spot with excellent feng shui. He would build it here later.

As for wild animals coming out of the mountain woods to steal a meal, Ye Huan admitted that he had no way to guard against them. Although there was wire fencing around the perimeter, that stuff could only keep out small creatures. Against something like the big wild boar from before, or a wild wolf like Disco, it was just decoration.

Ye Huan had already factored losses into raising free-range chickens in the mountains. Having ten or twenty percent eaten was acceptable, but if the losses went any higher, he would have to go looking for the culprit. He might have to kill it.

Having chosen the site, he wandered through his family's orchard. The peaches were no longer an option, so he needed to choose a few other fruit trees to water with spirit spring water.

There were a few pear trees, which Ye Huan knew were snow pears. As for the ten kiwifruit trees, he did not know, but he could see that they had borne fruit. So he took a bucket out of the space, fetched a bucketful of water from a pool, poured in a large cup of spirit spring water, and watered those dozen or so fruit trees.

Although he knew that his Spirit Spring Water could make many fruits and vegetables grow and ripen out of season, there was no need for him to take that risk. His fruit and vegetable prices were already high. Doing that as well, taking all those risks just to earn a little more money, was not worth it.

Everything would follow the seasons. With the quality of his fruits and vegetables, he had no fear of competition. Although he could not call it a monopoly, it was still scorpion droppings-a one-of-a-kind business. There was no need to bother with those special out-of-season crops.

A dozen or so fruit trees were enough. Even ordinary kiwifruit fetched a decent price, let alone ones he grew with spirit spring water.

Why had he not chosen something large, like pomelos? It was because he felt he had lost out on the watermelons before. Over a thousand yuan for a watermelon looked expensive, but they were huge. In the end, they only worked out to around fifty yuan per jin. For eco-friendly organic fruit, that was a high price, but for his fruit, it was a loss.

Just because the spirit spring water came free did not mean its cost should be ignored. It was something precious that even a thousand pieces of gold could hardly buy.

Once he had finished, Ye Huan went home with Saihu. His father only returned at lunchtime.

"Business at Gu Family Cuisine is getting better and better. After delivering the vegetables, I went to order greenhouse frames and find a crew to build the pigpens. On my way back, I saw that the parking outside her place was completely full. You couldn't even get in. Cars were parked along the roadside."

"That's normal. These days, lots of people like the name 'private kitchen.' Add a head chef with some skill, and it's easy to make a name for yourself. Besides, they're using our vegetables," Ye Huan said with a smile.

"Manager Du was there when I went over today. She asked if we had any more fruit at home. A lot of regular customers don't just eat it at the restaurant. They want to buy some to take home for their children too," his father said.

"Give it a few days. The strawberries will be ready soon, and so will the snow pears and kiwifruit on the back mountain." Ye Huan was in no hurry.

"All right. There are chicks, ducklings, and goslings in the truck. I looked at pigs and sheep too. Once the pens are finished, I'll call and have them delivered. I ordered fifty of each."

"Let's leave it at that for now. I've thought about it, and these things aren't that easy to handle. A pig weighs three or four hundred jin. How much am I supposed to charge them? If it's too low, I won't agree. If it's too high, they won't agree," Ye Huan said.

Everyone nodded. Pork was already expensive, with ribs selling for twenty or thirty yuan and more, and baby back ribs costing even more.

How should he sell pigs like his? He certainly would not accept ten or twenty yuan per jin for live pigs. After all, only he knew what the pigs he raised ate and drank. Other people did not know...

So he had thought of this problem just after his inspection. Chickens and ducks did not matter. At three hundred or five hundred yuan each, he only needed to let them try one. If that really did not work, keeping them for his own family to eat was fine too.

But pigs, cattle, and sheep-how long would it take his family to eat them all? There were still at least a dozen of each now, and they were already half-grown.