Chapter Summaries

Shi Wen, Yan Kexing, and their companions found five lingzhi during a mountain outing, then camped and enjoyed a lively dinner before returning home energized by lingzhi tea. Later, Zhu Ji told Shi Wen that a friend of Yan Kexing had a badly injured horse that might not recover.

• Heiwa found a large lingzhi beneath a pine tree, and Yan Kexing picked it and gave it to him as a reward.
• Shi Wen, Lin Chengqian, and Heiwa found lingzhi, bringing the group's total to five.
• Yan Kexing led everyone to a flat spot, where they cooked dinner, played games, and then drank lingzhi tea before driving home.
• Lin Chengqian and the others remarked on the tea's energizing effects and speculated that the wild lingzhi had stronger medicinal properties.
• Zhu Ji called Shi Wen and explained that Yan Kexing's horse-raising friend had a seriously injured horse that might not be curable.

Shi Wen and Yan Kexing took in Baoye A Sai’s injured racehorse so it could recover on their ranch, and Baoye A Sai gave them the horse. After seeing Yan Kexing’s immense wealth, Shi Wen became more willing to spend on improving the ranch.

• Zhu Ji asked Shi Wen to take in an injured racehorse belonging to Yan Kexing’s friends, and Shi Wen agreed after speaking with Yan Kexing.
• Yan Kexing contacted the owners, and Baoye A Sai brought the injured horse to the ranch and insisted that Shi Wen keep it if it recovered.
• Shi Wen accepted the horse after Yan Kexing agreed, while Yan Kexing reassured him that they could later sell Baoye A Sai one of their own horses.
• Yan Kexing showed Shi Wen his immense assets and gave him access to shared accounts, but Shi Wen declined to spend without limits.
• Shi Wen told Yang Yiqing to choose the best setup for the ranch’s smart system and informed Zhu Ji that they had taken in the horse.

Shi Wen cared for the severely injured horse Baoye A Sai had sent him, feeding it fresh forage and finding that its hoof was improving. Yan Kexing returned after winning a dispute over funding, and the two prepared to take the horse outside for some sun.

• Shi Wen learned from Zhu Ji that Baoye A Sai was an Abilities user and agreed to keep it secret.
• Shi Wen visited the injured horse, which was bound to a frame and so distressed that it tried to bite and kick people.
• Shi Wen brought the horse fresh forage, and it calmed down enough for him to examine its hoof, which showed signs of improvement.
• Yan Kexing returned shortly after eleven and told Shi Wen that they had won their dispute over the year's funding.

Shi Wen and Yan Kexing spent a sunny spring day with their animals before Shi Wen attended a herders’ meeting and checked the livestock in the barn. The four pregnant cows were nearing their calving dates, and Shi Wen ended the chapter by finding Heiwa calmly sniffing the injured horse.

• Shi Wen and Yan Kexing brought the horse outside to bask, and Yan Shi shared grass with it.
• Shi Wen relaxed in the sun with Yan Kexing and their animals, then they strolled around the pasture.
• Shi Wen attended a village herders’ meeting where Sikewell and a member of Zhou Hongzhong’s team discussed spring livestock disease prevention and wildlife protection.
• Shi Wen checked the barn’s livestock and inspected the four cows nearing their calving dates.
• Shi Wen went to check the horse and found Heiwa standing beside it as they sniffed each other.

Shi Wen noticed suspicious white bits in the horse’s dung but found no signs of illness, so he recorded the abnormality and planned to check again. Later, after planting vegetables, he saw Heiwa pass a white object to the horse, revealing a possible explanation for the horse’s dung.

• Shi Wen found tiny white bits in the horse’s dung, examined the horse, and noted the abnormality in his work journal for follow-up.
• Shi Wen reflected on how his growing sensitivity to animals’ pheromones showed that his Variant Beast bloodline was awakening, reassuring Yan Kexing about his lifespan.
• Shi Wen planted vegetables across the backyard to provide for the household’s growing number of animals.
• Shi Wen saw Heiwa spit out a white object and the horse immediately take it into its mouth.

Shi Wen caught the dogs feeding wild bird eggs to the horse and punished them while giving the horse a domestic goose egg instead. That night, a watch alert woke Shi Wen and Yan Kexing because a cow was about to give birth.

• Shi Wen discovered that the dogs had been taking bird eggs from nests and feeding them to the horse.
• Wolf King and the other dogs spat out their eggs, and Shi Wen made them balance the eggs on their noses as punishment.
• The horse protested Shi Wen's scolding, but Wolf King and Heiwa barked at it until it quieted down.
• Shi Wen and Yang Yiqing moved the horse into the stable, where Shi Wen gave it a goose egg and fed the dogs their own eggs with dinner.
• A watch alert woke Shi Wen and Yan Kexing, and Yan Kexing told him that a cow was about to give birth.

Shi Wen and Yan Kexing stayed up through a difficult cow birth, using lingzhi honey water to help the exhausted cow deliver a healthy brown bull calf. Afterward, Yan Kexing noticed something seemed unusual about the newborn and began examining him.

• Shi Wen discovered through the ranch app that a cow was in labor and went with Yan Kexing to help her.
• Shi Wen gave the cow injections and corrected the calf's position, but the difficult labor dragged on for hours.
• Yan Kexing brought the cow warm lingzhi honey water, and she drank it before pushing for about twenty minutes.
• The cow gave birth to a healthy brown bull calf weighing eighty-four jin, and Shi Wen and Yan Kexing cared for both mother and calf.
• Yan Kexing noticed something seemed off about the calf and went to check him.

Shi Wen learned that the newborn calf had spiritual awareness and considered how to raise it, while continuing to develop the ranch and care for its livestock. After Yang Yiqing returned to school, Shi Wen shared a photo of the calf with an overseas farmer and joked about how imposing it might look when grown.

• Yan Kexing examined the calf and told Shi Wen it had awakened intelligence and might have emotions, so Shi Wen decided to raise it for now before choosing its future.
• Shi Wen expanded the ranch’s dairy production, renovated the house with Yan Kexing, and had a poultry shed built.
• Shi Wen weaned the lambs to help the ewes recover before breeding season.
• Yang Yiqing completed the ranch’s smart system, handed it over to Shi Wen, and returned to school for her doctoral work.
• Shi Wen browsed international livestock websites, exchanged messages with a farmer about pet animals, and sent her a photo of the calf.

Shi Wen kept the spiritually aware calf, which was growing quickly and learning to herd sheep alongside the dogs. After checking that the livestock had returned safely, Shi Wen was summoned by An Wa, Le Wa, and Fu Wa, leaving him unsure what had happened.

• Shi Wen told the breeder that his spiritually aware calf would grow into a large, muscular bull and refused to sell it despite offers exceeding a hundred thousand Australian dollars.
• Shi Wen raised the calf with the small animals, and it grew quickly, became unusually intelligent, and learned to herd sheep from the dogs.
• Shi Wen and Yan Kexing discussed how the calf differed from ordinary cattle and hoped it would thrive among the animals it had grown up with.
• Shi Wen welcomed the dogs and checked that all the pigs, cattle, and sheep had returned safely to their pens.
• An Wa ran to Shi Wen with Le Wa and Fu Wa barking behind him, then bit Shi Wen's pants to lead him somewhere.

Shi Wen discovered that the tomato plants beside the boiler room had produced a large crop of ripe fruit, and he shared the harvest with Yan Kexing and the ranch’s animals. He and Yan Kexing enjoyed the unusually flavorful tomatoes and discussed how they had grown.

• An Wa, Le Wa, and Fu Wa led Shi Wen to the tomato plants, where he found several ripe tomatoes hidden among the leaves.
• Shi Wen picked more than a basketful of tomatoes and carried them toward the kitchen, where Yan Kexing met him and took the basket.
• The other animals gathered at the kitchen door, and Shi Wen distributed tomatoes among them while giving the little fox a smaller portion.
• Shi Wen shared a tomato with Yan Kexing and explained that he had grown this year’s plants from seeds saved from last year’s local tomatoes.
• Shi Wen and Yan Kexing remarked that the tomatoes tasted especially sweet, tangy, and fragrant, possibly because of the fertilizer.

Shi Wen and Yan Kexing cooked a meal featuring tomato and scrambled goose eggs, then Shi Wen checked the flock and prepared to castrate most of the young rams. He had selected six lambs as potential breeding rams and planned to raise the other seventy-five for meat.

• Yan Kexing deep-fried beaten goose eggs before stir-frying them with tomatoes, and Shi Wen praised their flavor.
• Shi Wen and Yan Kexing fed the dogs, then ate the tomato and scrambled goose eggs with rice.
• Shi Wen preserved surplus tomatoes as sauce and paste and used them for hot-pot broth.
• Shi Wen selected six young rams as potential breeding stock and designated the remaining seventy-five lambs for meat.
• Shi Wen planned to castrate the seventy-five lambs with rubber bands.

Shi Wen hired Old Man Ma and Zhang Deyuan to teach him how to castrate the ranch’s ram lambs, then invited them to lunch. The chapter left them at the table as Zhang Deyuan admired the aroma of Shi Wen’s tomato hot pot.

• Shi Wen asked Old Man Ma and Zhang Deyuan to help castrate his ram lambs and show him how to do it.
• Zhang Deyuan and Old Man Ma praised the lambs’ quality, but Shi Wen chose to raise them as meat sheep rather than breeding rams.
• The three men castrated the lambs together, and Shi Wen took over after watching them work on twenty or thirty.
• Shi Wen castrated all seventy-odd ram lambs by noon and invited Old Man Ma and Zhang Deyuan to stay for hot pot and liquor.
• Shi Wen served a divided hot pot with tomato broth and clear broth, and Zhang Deyuan said the tomato broth smelled wonderful.

Shi Wen shared his unusually flavorful tomatoes with villagers, who soon came asking for seeds. Yan Kexing took a bag of the tomatoes to Zhu Ji at the Abnormal Affairs Bureau for testing.

• Shi Wen served Zhang Deyuan and Old Man Ma hot pot and sugared tomatoes, then drove them home with bags of tomatoes.
• Xin Xianghong praised Shi Wen’s tomatoes, and Chang Qingqing later visited to ask for seeds after tasting one.
• Shi Wen gave Chang Qingqing tomatoes to eat and plant, and two more villagers came by for seeds that evening.
• Yan Kexing decided to have the tomatoes tested and brought a bag to Zhu Ji the next day.
• Zhu Ji tasted a tomato, agreed to arrange testing through Duan Kuo, and asked Yan Kexing whether anything unusual had happened at the ranch.

Zhu Ji brought Shi Wen the test results for his tomatoes, which had an Ability value of 41 and were not Variant Ingredients, and praised the ranch’s produce. As the ranch’s garden yielded more fruits and vegetables, Shi Wen’s friends increasingly came by to share meals; the chapter ended with an all-day rain.

• Zhu Ji delivered the tomato test results to Shi Wen while Shi Wen groomed the injured racehorse, and the results showed an Ability value of 41.
• Zhu Ji suggested the ranch might improve the tomatoes and asked to see the little fox, which had gone herding with the dogs.
• Zhu Ji picked tomatoes and cucumbers, then stayed to share food and urged Shi Wen to consider contacting an agricultural research institute.
• As the weather warmed, Shi Wen and the others enjoyed produce, eggs, milk, fish, and shrimp from the ranch, while Gong Jiang and the others came over more often to help in exchange for meals.
• One day, rain fell all day.

Shi Wen and the others planned a spring outing to gather Ninglan Valley ground ear after Ge Yue praised the local seasonal dish. They reached a rocky river valley, where Shi Wen found the ground ear unusually fresh and fragrant, and continued searching with Yan Kexing.

• Shi Wen returned from checking the beehives and heard Ge Yue describe a local stuffed stomach and aspic at dinner.
• Ge Yue told everyone about Ninglan Valley ground ear, and the group agreed to pick some on Saturday.
• Shi Wen finished the ranch chores with everyone's help, and the group drove to a river valley with the dogs.
• The tiger cubs jumped into the river to play while Shi Wen and Yan Kexing searched among the rocks.
• Shi Wen found small, plump pieces of ground ear and discussed their distinctive scent with Yan Kexing.

Shi Wen, Yan Kexing, and their companions gathered earth ear and wild onions, then Yan Kexing cooked them with chicken soup and rice. Less than two days later, Yan Kexing found more earth ear after rain and cooked it again for Shi Wen.

• Shi Wen and the others spent more than three hours gathering half a basket of earth ear and a basket of wild onions.
• Shi Wen and Yan Kexing collected a Bresse chicken from Fu Boxiu while Ge Yue and the others returned to the ranch to wash the vegetables.
• Shi Wen slaughtered and plucked the chicken, and Yan Kexing made chicken soup and stir-fried the earth ear with wild onions and pickled chilies.
• Everyone ate the meal together, and Shi Wen relished the earth ear with rice soaked in chicken soup.
• After rain less than two days later, Yan Kexing brought back another basket of earth ear, cleaned it with an ultrasonic fruit and vegetable cleaner, and cooked it again for Shi Wen.

Shi Wen learned that his tomatoes had impressed a top chef and sparked interest among well-connected buyers, though he had no plans to sell them. Qile Moge predicted the ranch’s reputation would raise its livestock prices, and Shi Wen agreed to send him tomatoes and tomato sauce.

• Yan Kexing spoiled Shi Wen with seasonal foods, and Shi Wen secretly exercised to keep fit.
• Shi Wen took the little tigers through training, then answered Duan Haoying’s call and refused to sell tomatoes or work with him.
• Shi Wen and Lin Chengqian speculated that someone who received their tomatoes had spread word of them.
• Zhu Ji told Shi Wen that he and Yan Kexing were well known among Ability users and that the Abnormal Affairs Bureau would protect them.
• Qile Moge revealed that a top chef in City B had praised Shi Wen’s tomato sauce and predicted the ranch’s livestock would command higher prices.
• Shi Wen promised to send Qile Moge tomatoes and two jars of tomato sauce.

Shi Wen expanded his crops and prepared to shear his flock of over three thousand sheep, but Zhang Deyuan discovered their wool was unusually fine and valuable. Zhang arranged for designer He Chengzhang to inspect it, and Shi Wen took him to the sheepfold.

• Shi Wen planted more tomatoes, soybeans, and purple potatoes, explaining that the crops could feed the livestock or be used to make food.
• In May, Shi Wen planned to hire Fu Meng, Zhang Deyuan, Old Man Ma, and others to shear his sheep.
• Zhang Deyuan examined the flock's wool, judged it far better than ordinary wool, and took a sample to seek a buyer.
• Shi Wen postponed shearing, while Yan Kexing offered to help find a buyer if Zhang Deyuan could not.
• Zhang Deyuan brought designer He Chengzhang to inspect the sheep, and Shi Wen led him into the clean sheepfold.

He Chengzhang inspected Shi Wen’s wool, identified a finer batch from the smaller sheep, and signed a high-priced contract to buy the flock’s best wool. Later, Shi Wen went for a walk and met Mole tending his family’s sheep.

• He Chengzhang found that the smaller sheep had wool that was finer, whiter, longer, and more lustrous than the larger sheep’s wool.
• He Chengzhang offered 1,600 yuan per jin for the larger batch’s wool and proposed discussing the smaller batch’s price later.
• Shi Wen reviewed He Chengzhang’s restrictive contract, agreed to its terms, and signed it.
• Zhang Deyuan received a 20,000-yuan referral fee and wondered if Shi Wen could have negotiated a higher price, but Shi Wen said they could not afford to challenge the company.
• Shi Wen went for a walk and found Mole tending his family’s flock, which stayed near the village and needed extra hay and grain at home.

Shi Wen noticed signs of tetanus in Mole’s sheep and accompanied him home to help treat them. Sikewell gave the sick sheep penicillin, and Shi Wen stayed to help disinfect their wounds.

• Shi Wen examined Mole’s flock and identified signs of tetanus in several sheep.
• Shi Wen reassured Mole and offered to accompany him home, then messaged Yan Kexing that he would return late.
• Mole brought Shi Wen to his village, where his father Moyasiqin confirmed that nine sheep were likely infected.
• Moyasiqin called Sikewell, who treated the sheep with penicillin and instructed the family to disinfect their wounds.
• Shi Wen helped Mole, Moyasiqin, and Sikewell tend to the sheep, and they finished after a little over an hour.