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Shi Wen looked at the three of them and said happily, "You've come at the right time. Try the wild cantaloupe from the ranch."

Ge Yue grinned, "We're just here at the teacher's invitation to be bystanders."

Shi Wen, "Eat, eat, eat. While we're at it, let's see what to eat tonight. How about we catch a chicken and eat it?"

The next question is about Yan Kexing.

Yan Kexing nodded in agreement.

Their ranch has bred so many Bress chickens that Shi Wen never stingy with their food; whenever they eat chicken at home, they eat the chickens they raise themselves.

Having grown accustomed to eating chickens raised at home, he no longer finds chickens sold outside appealing, even the most expensive free-range chickens lacking the freshness and sweetness of his own.

Gong Jiang and his two companions never expected to get to eat Bress Chicken, so they immediately raised their hands to go catch and kill the chicken.

They Shi Wen to catch roosters, but not hens, because the hens were meant to lay eggs.

As for the roosters, they have now bred a second generation of breeding roosters, so the first generation of roosters are no longer needed and are now being eaten.

Upon hearing this, the three ran off to catch the rooster.

Shi Wen and Yan Kexing cooking other dishes in the kitchen.

Yan Kexing, Shi Wen would lend a hand; the two of them could chat while standing together.

Shi Wen wasn't a talkative person, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to stand the loneliness and hardship of the ranch.

When he chats with people, he always feels that they are long-winded and wasting his time.

When it comes to Yan Kexing, Shi Wen finds everything he does with Yan Kexing quite interesting, even chatting about meaningless gossip from the pastoral areas.

As the sun set, the sky changed from azure to bluish-purple, and then completely dark.

A delicious aroma wafted from the kitchen—a meal was ready.

Shi Wen and Yan Kexing carried food to feed the little ones, and also prepared fruit for them after their meal.

The little ones rarely get to eat such sweet cantaloupe, and they jumped around happily.

Shi Wen them go back to the restaurant to eat, and after they finished eating, they would sit at the table, eat fruit, and chat.

Gong Jiang took a bite of the cantaloupe. "This cantaloupe is so sweet. It reminds me of an old gentleman. He loved cantaloupe very much. His family was poor when he was young, and he couldn't afford to eat cantaloupe often. So he vowed to come and study cantaloupe when he grew up."

Shi Wen, "Did he succeed?"

"Halfway to success? He got his wish and actually came to the frontier to study Hami melons when he grew up." Gong Jiang's face showed a strange smile. "It's just that he didn't expect that the first year he planted them, the Hami melons were eaten by wild animals. The second year he planted them, the Hami melons were ruined by wasps—"

Ge Yue interrupted, "Wasps can also sting cantaloupes?"

Gong Jiang: "Yes, it will. If you get stung, it'll be bad; the flesh will be bumpy and taste bitter."

Shi Wen: "And then?"

Gong Jiang: "Then in the third year, he took great care of the melons, even putting bags over each one, and guarded them almost day and night. Unexpectedly, one day a meteorite fell from the sky and blew up his melon field."

Shi Wen, incredulous, turned to Yan Kexing, clutching the melon in his hand. "Gong Jiang is lying to me, right? Is this even possible?"

Yan Kexing: "That's true. It made the news at the time, with photos and interviews."

Shi Wen, "Did he change careers? It's obvious that fate didn't want him to do research."

Gong Jiang: "No, he persevered and began his fourth year of research."

Shi Wen pressed further, "Then it should have succeeded by now, right?"

Before he could finish speaking, Shi Wen saw Yan Kexing curl the corners of his mouth and knew that he had guessed wrong again.

Gong Jiang laughed heartily, "No, it still didn't. That year's harvest was very good. His fellow students all grew excellent cantaloupes, but his cantaloupes had thick skin, thin flesh, were small and ugly, and tasted bland and bitter. At the time, his mentor said that it was a skill to be able to grow such cantaloupes, perfectly avoiding all the desirable traits."

Gong Jiang: "Upon receiving this assessment, the old gentleman became enraged and changed careers, eventually becoming a radish grower, and is now the famous 'Radish King' Mr. Fan Jiancheng."

Ge Yue couldn't help but say, "I thought you were talking about someone else. It turns out it's Mr. Fan. I saw him at a conference last month."

Yan Kexing: "He has now moved to Shijia County."

Shi Wen, "That old man has had it so tough. If I knew him, I'd invite him for some melon seeds."

They were just chatting casually after dinner, and no one took those words to heart.

A few days later, Shi Wen he suddenly heard a car horn outside.

He went outside to look and saw a car with an unfamiliar license plate parked outside the ranch.

Shi Wen waved to the car owner from afar, asking, "Who are you looking for?"

The car owner was an elderly man with a full head of white hair. Shi Wen asked this, he smiled and said, "Looking for you, young friend Shi? Didn't you say you'd treat me to cantaloupe?"

Shi Wen immediately realized. "Mr. Fan."

Fan Jiancheng extended his hand to shake hands with Shi Wen: "Hello, I am Fan Jiancheng. I have been wanting to visit you for a long time, but I haven't had the opportunity until recently. I ran into Gong Jiang and the others a couple of days ago and we chatted for a bit, so I took the liberty of coming to visit you."

Shi Wen then understood why he had suddenly come to visit, and quickly said, "Welcome, welcome."

Fan Jiancheng took out a bag from there. "These are radish seeds that we cultivated ourselves. It's my first time visiting, so I didn't bring anything. Here, take them from me."

Shi Wen quickly reached out and took it. "Isn't this the season for planting radishes?"

Fan Jiancheng: "We can plant it here now, but if you're in another area, it's best to wait another two months."

Shi Wen welcomed the guests inside, took out the remaining half of a cantaloupe from the refrigerator, cut it up to serve them, brewed milk tea, and brought out some snacks.

Fan Jiancheng immediately praised Shi Wen's ranch, saying, "I've heard so much about your ranch, and now I see it truly lives up to its reputation."

Shi Wen, "It took a lot of effort to build it to this state."

Fan Jiancheng laughed and said, "That's great too, at least you've achieved something."

Shi Wen that this old man had been growing cantaloupes for four years in a row, only to end in failure, I could only smile.