Chapter 6

Ma Bingjun clicked his tongue. "Who would dare ask Professor Yan to his face? Fine, since you put it that way, I'll take your word for it."

Ma Bingjun turned to Shi Wen. "All the geese I have available are already spoken for. You're a 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. "As long as they're geese, they'll do."

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

Shi Wen said, "Would thirty be all right? It's my first year raising them, so I'll start with fewer."

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

A path behind the farm led to the pasture.

Ma Bingjun led them along a winding route until they reached a row of poultry sheds.

Outside, Shi Wen caught the distinctive smell of poultry.

They entered one of the sheds, and the owner turned on the light. Startled, a flock of yellowish-gray geese gave a few uneasy honks.

Shi Wen leaned forward for a look. The goslings were quite large and looked sturdy, though their coloring was a little dull.

Ma Bingjun said, "We bred these from local geese. They're omnivores. They're still a little small, so keep them penned up for a couple of days after you take them home and feed them some corn feed. Once they've gotten a little used to the place, you can let them out to graze."

Shi Wen nodded at once. "All right, thanks, Brother Ma."

Ma Bingjun stepped aside and motioned him in. "Pick them yourself."

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

After watching them for a while, he picked out thirty goslings that were larger and livelier than the rest.

Ma Bingjun put the geese in a wicker cage for him.

Once they had picked the geese, they left them in the backyard for the time being and went out to eat.

It was Shi Wen's first taste of the local goose meat. It was indeed tender and delicious. Compared with duck, it had less of a gamey taste and a hint more sweetness.

Even goose boiled in plain water with nothing but salt was exceptionally delicious. It completely changed his impression of goose.

As Shi Wen ate, he found himself looking forward to the goslings a little more.

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

Chapter 6

After Shi Wen brought the geese home, he put them in the livestock shed for the time being.

There was no poultry shed on the ranch, so he would have to build a new one once the geese were a little bigger.

The flock adapted fairly well to the livestock shed. The sheep beside them seemed indifferent to the geese, practically ignoring them.

The puppy, on the other hand, was fascinated by the geese. He kept staring at them and was eager to pounce.

After two days of training from Shi Wen, he could just about hold back his instinctive urges, but he still watched the geese intently every day.

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

To his surprise, as soon as he entered, he saw the puppy staring unblinkingly at the geese, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

Shi Wen bent down and gave the puppy a gentle flick on the head. "These geese are worth a tenth of what you are. They're expensive, so no pouncing on them, understand?"

Whether the puppy understood or not, he turned to Shi Wen. "Woof!"

Shi Wen gave the puppy a rub and laughed. "You've certainly got a loud bark."

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

They had finished the rapeseed cake mixed with hay he had put out the night before. The salt block was still in the salt trough and hadn't been licked away, so there was no need to add more.

A fair amount of rapeseed cake crumbs and hay had fallen into the water trough, so he needed to drain it, scrub it clean, and refill it.

He went about his work methodically while the puppy ran back and forth around his feet.

The puppy was so small, and the sheep were used to him now, that they barely reacted as he darted among them. Instead, they bleated at Shi Wen.

Perhaps because they had grown a little, the sheep's bleats had become rougher and were no longer as sweet and youthful as when they had first arrived, though they looked plumper.

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

The day's feeding had gone smoothly too, and 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 ambled outside.

Shi Wen gave the puppy a hand signal. "Heiwa, front right."

The puppy immediately scampered in a circle toward the front right on his four short legs. "Woof, woof!"

The flock stirred and picked up its pace. With Shi Wen on one side and the puppy on the other, they drove the sheep out onto the great pasture, to a stretch of grassland where they hadn't grazed the day before.

Once he had made sure the flock had reached the grazing spot, Shi Wen called to the puppy, "Heiwa, come here."

The puppy pattered over and sat down at Shi Wen's feet, his tongue hanging out.

Shi Wen pulled a piece of jerky from his pants pocket and held it on his palm for the puppy to eat. "I'm leaving the sheep to you."

The puppy said, "Woof!"

The ranch's irrigation channels had been cleared out, and the water flowed freely. One section ran through the backyard.

With a water source there, growing something in the backyard should be quite convenient.

Shi Wen had checked: the backyard showed signs of cultivation, and the dark soil looked very fertile. It had all been worked before, so once he cleared it again, it would be suitable for growing just about anything.

He wanted to follow the example of the local villagers and grow some vegetables in the backyard. That way, if he got busy and didn't feel like going into town to buy vegetables, he could pick some from the backyard.

There were hoes in the storeroom at home. Shi Wen took one, found a stone to sharpen it on, and went to clear the backyard.

There were actually perennial shrubs on the grassland, but they didn't grow tall, and their leaves had only just begun to emerge, so they weren't very noticeable. Their roots, however, were numerous and deep, making them quite hard to dig up.

In the backyard, Shi Wen dug out shrubs and picked up stones. Before long, he was too hot to keep his coat on and worked in just a short-sleeved shirt and long pants.

When he had cleared a small portion of the backyard, Shi Wen heard the puppy barking out front. His voice was full of warning, and Shi Wen could tell at once that something must have happened.

He immediately abandoned what he was doing and ran out front with the hoe.