Heizi only woke up when the sun was high in the sky.
He started when he opened the door, "Xiao Fei, when did you get back? Why didn’t you let me know? You look tired."
Yan Fei was lying in the chair outside the door, with two big dogs lounging by his feet. He seemed to have been back for a while. Seeing Heizi come out, he weakly waved his hand, "Don’t ask. I missed the ride last night and had to ride my bike back. Hurry up and get some food! You’ve been doing a good job these past few days! You even remembered to water everything."
Heizi was fearless, except when someone praised him. He couldn’t help it, he would float up to the clouds upon hearing praise, at any moment at risk of being swept away by wind! Just one word from Yan Fei made him overly happy, "Absolutely, I get uncomfortable if I’m not working when I have free time!"
Yan Fei had only returned in the early morning and had already checked the cattle farm and the two large sheds. Judging by the water marks at the base of the seedlings, the water had clearly been added yesterday, making Heizi’s boast of watering it every day seem exaggerated. He even threw his rattan chair outside and left the dog’s food tray clean. He probably didn’t feed them last night either.
However, Yan Fei was too lazy to expose him: "Alright, hurry up and cook something! It’s already late. After eating, go back and inform Aunt Yu Mei. Have her ask around, how is the son of the old lady who swapped Yuan coins for alcohol? And tell her I’ll be over for lunch. Have there been no issues at the cattle farm these past few days?"
Heizi confidently said, "Rest assured, nothing could go wrong with me around! We also have the issue with the earthworms, how do we change their dung? We’ve got fresh cow dung but we don’t know how to handle it, we’re afraid we won’t be able to separate it if it all piles up."
"I’ll handle that later! Let’s wait until you’ve eaten, then you’ll get a chance to learn how it’s done. It’s pretty simple!" Yan Fei had to prod him to get breakfast ready.
"Not necessary!" Heizi was straightforward. "What do I need to eat for? Can’t I save a meal for you? People like me who work a lot and eat a little, you won’t find us easily even with a flashlight!"
"Alright then!" Hearing this from Heizi, Yan Fei simply stood up. He couldn’t indulge Heizi’s self-praise anymore. Give him an inch, and he’ll take a mile. One rebuttal and he would go off on a tangent with endless odd theories, refusing to stop unless you were left speechless with both amusement and despair.
Actually, changing the ’feed’ for the earthworms was quite simple. All they had to do was move the earthworm droppings and remaining cow dung to one side, then put fresh cow dung on the other.
Heizi was puzzled, "Will the earthworms crawl over on their own?"
Yan Fei continued his work without pause, "Don’t worry, you’ll see soon enough. All living creatures know how to seek comfort for themselves. If fresh cow dung is available, and the current section is full of earthworm droppings, they’ll definitely crawl over."
Indeed, before they could finish with the rest, Heizi, who had been keeping an eye on the freshly maintained earthworm pit, was wonderstruck, "I can’t believe these creatures, which can’t see or hear, know how to find fresh cow dung! Is this what you learn in the Provincial City?"
Nonsense! If I hadn’t learned, how would I know they can be raised in this way?
Yan Fei didn’t answer Heizi, but urged him, "Hurry up! It’s just a little work, let’s finish up quickly."
Whilst working, he asked him, "So, how many people are there at the cattle farm now, including yourself? If we were to raise another dozen or so calves, and a few more for fattening, could you handle it?"
"Are you planning to buy more cattle? And so many?" Heizi was clearly perplexed. "Did you pick up money on the road while you were in the Provincial City?"
"It didn’t drop from the sky, it fell from above!" Yan Fei couldn’t help feeling a bit smug and also a bit vexed when talking about this.
He was happy that he had more money to buy cattle, but upset that he had worked hard for so long and hadn’t earned much money. Instead, luck played a part, and he made a lot of money from selling Yuan’s coins and ’scraps’.
"Anyway, you don’t have to worry about it, I’m just asking you. Let’s keep it between us for now. We’ll gradually add more cattle in the future, and make a fortune quietly!"
"Oh, don’t worry, I never blabber." Heizi nodded excitedly. "We can handle it, if we’re raising calves, their feed requirements are even less, a dozen or so is nothing compared to full grown cattle. With the number of people we have now, it’ll definitely not be an issue. When do you plan to buy? Take me with you! Let me learn how to buy cattle from you?"
"You want to learn something?" Yan Fei was surprised. "That will have to wait until after the autumn harvest. We will be busy soon, and no one will have the time. When I have spare time, I’ll go to the Cattle Market in the county or somewhere else to look. I’ll try to pick some good calves that we can raise as breeding cattle."
Seeing that Heizi seemed a little disappointed when he mentioned the county’s Cattle Market, Yan Fei comforted him, "Don’t worry, we’ll mainly be buying from our own Cattle Market. If you want to learn, we can’t not call you, right?"
Heizi perked up again at this, although he looked a little bashful, "I just think, we take care of these guys every day, isn’t it all for that one day when they are sold? Getting a lot of money all at once, makes one full of energy! Buying is also thrilling, spotting a good cattle, and then a big swing of the hand, a lot of money is splashed out. Who wouldn’t look at us with admiration? Just thinking about it makes me happy!"
It seems that he had gotten addicted from just one trip to sell the cattle!
Yan Fei nodded, reminded of his experience selling ’scrap’ in the Provincial City a few days ago, "That’s true, isn’t everyone trying to be rich and improve their living standards now? The feeling of counting a lot of money is really cool!"
Heizi began to daydream, "When can we, like the people on TV, fill a small leather suitcase with money for business? With so much money, we would even need a bodyguard. Then, with a loud thump, put down the suitcase, slap it hard in a lofty manner, and say, the money is here, where are the goods? Another open box, and inside are stacks upon stacks of neat big bills. Just thinking about it makes me feel great!"
However hard he tried, Yan Fei felt familiar with the scene that Heizi described. He watched less television and video, and had to think hard to realize what Heizi’s depiction resembled. He immediately retorted, annoyed, "You think you’re a drug dealer?"
Heizi looked sheepish, "I was just making an analogy! Don’t you feel that’s very cool?"
That is true. Who wouldn’t want to have their house full of treasures and fields?
Yan Fei nodded, "Then let’s work quickly. Who would have thought we could regard cow dung as a treasure and make money from these earthworms? When we can really make money someday, think about how others will look at us! In fact, we can also make money from this earthworm feces, it’s just that we are too far away from the Provincial City, and it’s not cost-effective to transport it there."
Heizi also thought so, "When other people find out that we can make money from cow dung, they’ll be flabbergasted!"
The two of them chatted and worked quickly. Once the work was done in three or two strokes, the earthworms in the earliest prepared pit had climbed onto the fresh cow dung. Yan Fei then led Heizi to put a new layer of fresh cow dung onto the old earthworm feces and remaining cow dung.
As Yan Fei worked, he explained to Heizi, "There are earthworm eggs here that are waiting to hatch. After they have hatched, we can collect these and use them as fertilizer."
Heizi really became interested, imagining how to boast about making money out of cow dung, making him full of energy.
He no longer considered cow dung dirty and even seriously researched it for a while - in actuality, half-dried cow dung didn’t smell that bad, otherwise people wouldn’t use it as fuel!