"The sky’s the limit, where is my home..." Zhuo Feng was sitting in the little Alto, with the windows rolled down, singing a song, unspeakably happy.
They had already discussed it, and as soon as they settled down in Yanqing, Xiao Xian would still come home once a month. On the weekends, it wasn’t too much of a hassle to calculate.
"Auntie, can people live on the farm now?" Xiao Xian did not expect that her uncle and auntie had worked so quickly.
"It’s more or less as good as agreed. We just reinforced the house. Mr. Bai used good materials when building the house, so it’s quite sturdy. I’ve repainted the walls, let them air out for a month or so, and the house is now livable, only there are some minor problems," Feng Xing said hesitantly.
He had been so preoccupied with Zhuo Feng’s affairs these past few days that he had forgotten to report something quite important.
"What kind of problems?" Zhuo Feng was curious, but as they arrived at Bai Juyi’s farm, she didn’t need Feng Xing to explain. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she almost jumped out of her skin.
"Those sheep again," Zhuo Feng got out of the car.
Xiao Xian had never seen so many sheep, hundreds, maybe thousands of them, with several sturdy dairy cows among them, densely packed and crashing into the fences that Feng Xing had repaired not too long ago.
"I need to buy some rat poison, no, I need a barbecue grill. I’m going to roast all those cows and sheep and eat them," Zhuo Feng began to speak incoherently.
The last time she came over, Zhuo Feng had only seen the flock of sheep. Now there were cows mixed in with the flock.
"No, I can’t bear it any longer this time. I have to go and find the people who own these cattle," Zhuo Feng said, having forgotten the pain once the wound was healed, and she walked briskly towards the few houses a kilometer away.
Fearing trouble, Feng Xing hurriedly followed.
In Ge Village, there were not a few cows and sheep in the fields, and Xiao Xian was quite familiar with them. She cleared her throat and barked twice like a dog. The sheep, thinking a dog had come, stopped trampling the fences and grazing on the roots and slowly drifted out of the farm.
However, the sheep did not stray far and loitered around the farm, clearly reluctant to leave the lush, verdant pasture grass of the twenty-odd acres.
Soon enough, Zhuo Feng and Feng Xing returned. Feng Xing’s face was trying to suppress a smile, while Zhuo Feng puffed out her cheeks, red-faced with anger, clearly upset.
"That guy is simply a nouveau riche, flaunting his supply of milk to the city milk factories, allowing free grazing," Zhuo Feng complained about the farmhouse owners she had approached, who were not ordinary cultivators, but from a Milk Feed Factory.
The Milk Feed Factory was quite large, with animal enclosures everywhere, raising thousands of sheep and hundreds of cattle.
It turned out that in previous years, they were exclusively supplied with fodder from outside, but this year, a disaster in Inner Mongolia had affected supply, and without fodder, the livestock was released in batches.
Although Bai Juyi’s farm had been abandoned, the soil was well cared for by Bai and Mei. After abandonment, without crops, birds flying in brought seeds with them. Over the decades, the luxuriant grass grew thickly. Cattle and sheep, recognizing the quality grass, all crowded in this direction.
"Ah Feng, don’t be angry anymore. Just give me a few days to find a mower, and I’ll cut all the grass, then the cattle and sheep won’t bother us anymore," Feng Xing thought it best to calm things down early since they had few neighbors within a kilometer before and after, and in such a wilderness, the adage that distant relatives aren’t as good as close neighbors was very important.
"Cut what cut, why should we suffer a loss and still deliver fodder to their doorstep," Zhuo Feng protested.
Seeing this, Xiao Xian slowly said, "Uncle, we can’t cut this grass, it can be used to fertilize the fields, and it’s good to save it for next year’s spring fertilizer. Besides, the Milk Feed Factory clearly should hire someone to control the cattle and sheep and prevent them from running around, but they deliberately let them roam. The farm was entrusted to us by Mr. Bai to care for, and we cannot let anyone take advantage of us."
Hearing the attitude of the people at the Milk Feed Factory today and listening to Xiao Xian, Zhuo Feng couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
It’s tolerable for cattle and sheep to nibble on wild grass in the spring, but what about in the summer when the farm is planted with vegetables and fruits? And in the autumn harvest season, if those cattle and sheep push through the fences and trample in, what then?
If giving in a step leads to a vast and open world, that’s fine, but if it results in encroachment, it’s unacceptable.
"What should we do?" Feng Xing was out of ideas.
"It’s very simple, just make it so the cattle and sheep dare not come in and graze anymore," Xiao Xian said with a wave of her hand.