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Sikewell helped translate. "He says cows that aren't pregnant can sell for three thousand each. His two are carrying calves, so they should fetch at least four thousand each. Breeding and care cost money too, so offer a little more."

Clearly, this family had already asked around about Shi Wen and knew what he had paid for other people's cows.

Shi Wen didn't agree.

The cows were pregnant, so it looked as though he was getting the better deal.

But pregnant cows were weaker and harder to care for. Even with his experience, he couldn't guarantee that both would survive.

Besides, this family raised cattle professionally and was among the wealthiest in the whole town.

If they were poor, Shi Wen wouldn't have minded taking a small loss and quietly giving them a little extra.

But this family was much richer than he was, while he was the one living on a tight budget. He certainly couldn't pay the extra money.

The two sides haggled and finally agreed that the family would sell the cows to Shi Wen for 3,300 each, or 6,600 for the pair.

As before, the family invited a respected local elder to serve as a witness and drew up a written agreement. Both sides completed the exchange, and neither would go back on the deal, no matter what happened afterward.

After the deal was done, the cows' owners also gave Sikewell a red envelope as a fee for bringing them together.

Shi Wen spent the day going around with Sikewell and bought another three sick cows.

Those three were also pregnant dairy cows, and all of them were lactating.

Sikewell said this was normal. The three cows Shi Wen had bought earlier, which were old enough to breed but hadn't been bred, were relatively uncommon.

In the end, Shi Wen bought five pregnant dairy cows that day.

He brought all five back and, as before, kept them in the old warehouse on the ranch.

He had already disinfected the old warehouse, so it was ready to be used again.

The cattle and sheep at home had also been vaccinated against mucosal disease, so they were relatively safe.

Shi Wen was fairly confident he could care for the five sick cows.

Early in the morning, Shi Wen got up with a yawn, took a coat from beside the bed, threw it on, and headed outside.

All was silent, and the morning star hung on the horizon. When he opened the door, it creaked, as though waking the ranch's morning.

Shi Wen headed straight for the warehouse.

As he walked, he heard soft footsteps behind him.

He turned and saw that Heiwa had followed him at some point. When their eyes met, Heiwa wagged his tail and trotted up to him.

Shi Wen bent down, rubbed Heiwa's neck, and pressed his face against the dog's head. "You rascal, why didn't you sleep a little longer?"

Heiwa didn't answer. He just stuck out his pink tongue and affectionately licked Shi Wen's palm.

Shi Wen rubbed Heiwa again. "Come on, then. Let's go milk the cows."

When Shi Wen reached the warehouse, he took the rubber gloves hanging on the window and put them on, then carried an iron bucket inside.

The cows inside were sick, and Heiwa was still a young dog with a relatively weak immune system. Shi Wen wouldn't let him in and shut him outside.

It was a little dark in the warehouse, so Shi Wen turned on the light.

The light woke the five cows.

The five cows mooed weakly, their calls rising and falling. At least they all made a sound, which showed they weren't too weak.

Shi Wen checked on the cows one by one, washed them, and applied medicine.

The five grown cows he had bought this time had cost him 16,500 in total, no small sum for him. He hoped they would all survive.

After tending to the cows, Shi Wen placed the iron bucket beneath the belly of the cow at the end, sat on a small folding stool, and milked her with a somewhat unpracticed hand.

The cow might have grown used to his scent, as she didn't resist.

The local brown cattle didn't produce much milk. It was probably the low-yield period now, and each cow produced less than ten kilograms, far less than dairy cows that routinely produced thirty or forty kilograms.

However, the milk from the local brown cattle was richer, mellower, and more delicately sweet, with higher levels of various nutrients. The fresh milk smelled a little like concentrated milk, with the distinctive aroma of dairy, and was of better quality.

Milk was an important food source for local herders. They didn't focus entirely on yield; they also had high standards for quality. As a result, milk quality had always been an important criterion for evaluating the local dairy cattle.

While Shi Wen was looking down and concentrating on milking, he heard a rustling sound outside.

He turned and saw a long black nose poking through the crack in the door, pushing back and forth as though trying to nudge it open.

"An Wa! Stop causing trouble!" Shi Wen identified the dog outside by the nose and called out a warning.

The dog's nose swiftly disappeared.

Shi Wen turned back and continued milking.

Before long, the rustling started again.

Shi Wen put up with it for a moment, then took off his gloves, stood up, and strode toward the door. Reaching it in a few steps, he pulled it open.

An Wa and Le Wa were there with their rear ends in the air, desperately squeezing their way inside. Caught off guard when Shi Wen opened the door, they nearly tumbled in, but he caught them with his legs.

Seeing that they had been caught, An Wa immediately rolled over and lay on the ground with her front paws curled up and her soft belly exposed, whimpering coquettishly at Shi Wen.

Le Wa was a beat behind the other dog. She too lay down, curled up her front paws, and tilted her head to look at Shi Wen. "Woof!"

Heiwa, meanwhile, lay sleeping calmly to one side, ignoring the two of them.

Shi Wen was both exasperated and amused. "You two aren't dogs, you're greedy cats, aren't you?"

Le Wa: "Woof!"

Shi Wen said, "Acting cute won't work. The cows are still sick, so how could there be any milk for you to drink? Besides, puppies like you aren't really supposed to drink much milk anyway, so give it a rest."

An Wa: "Whimper."

Hardening his heart, Shi Wen shut all three dogs outside, locked the door, and went back to milking.

An Wa pawed at the door for a while, but she couldn't get it open, so she had to stop.

Milking was rather tedious, and after a while, Shi Wen felt his hands starting to cramp.

It looked like he really did need to get an electric milker soon.

After Shi Wen finished milking, he gave the sick cows some fresh, tender grass. He had the dogs drive the other, healthy cattle and sheep out to graze, while he drove the manure scraper to clean the livestock shed.