Chapter Thirty-Seven: Date

  Through these days of understanding, Ju An knows that running a ranch is really hard work for the rancher. Basically, there's something to do every day, and there are no holidays throughout the year because cows and sheep won't stop eating grass just because you're celebrating a holiday. Take Old Taylor as an example, his sheep and cattle cost tens of thousands of dollars per month.

  If it weren't for the help of Zhu Zhi, the pasture could have formed an underground water supply system through the dozens of vines on the edge of the ranch pond. Otherwise, Jiu An would have had to hire at least ten people to ensure that the entire pasture gets enough water. Of course, you can also use a modern irrigation system, which only requires you to press a button, and it will automatically water the grass, just like our domestic automated greenhouse cultivation. A pipe is connected to a sprinkler pipe, so let's calculate how much funding is needed for several thousand acres, with one acre equivalent to a standard American football field. That would be thousands of football fields that you need to invest in. This kind of initial investment is not something that just anyone can afford.

  So the western farm and ranch owners are all millionaires or multimillionaires, but that's just the value of their real estate. They don't have much cash on hand. For even moderately large expenses, they basically have to take out a bank loan. Fortunately, over the past decade or so, the value of these farms and ranches has consistently risen, making it easy to get a bank loan. If there were no bank loans, a large number of small and medium-sized farms and ranches would go bankrupt.

  And the price of hay and feed has been getting higher and higher over the past two years, which has put a lot of pressure on small ranches. As a result, many small ranch owners have had to cut costs, with one direct consequence being that they replace high-wage American workers with lower-wage South Americans who don't require health insurance.

  Shook my head, drove out these thoughts, thinking about those brothers' nonsense, brothers are happy, switched to another channel, just playing a TV series, took a look at the boring TV series, watched for a while and got bored, took out my laptop and went online.

  In order to cope with the battle tonight, Ju An decided to improve his theoretical level. To say that this old American's internet speed is really fast, the only thing that makes Ju An unhappy is some videos, Ju An has to enter credit card information, damn it, in China, he never uses a card to watch these, and with a download speed of 200k per second, he's satisfied.

  Your download speed is several hundred megabytes per second, and your mother still needs a credit card. After venting for a while, you can only log in to your own QQ to see if there are any friends who haven't fallen asleep yet, and ask them what tricks they have to deal with women.

  It's true what they say: when good things happen, your spirits lift. And sure enough, a quick scan of the room revealed Old Big Brother, Ji Qing, online.

  "Hey boss, are you asleep?"

  Ji Qing quickly responded with a smile: "Nope, they're still talking about you on WeChat up ahead."

  "They stabbed me in the back again and told me to listen," Ju An asked.

  "There's nothing, just saying you're doing well within the imperialist system, Wang Fan said that every day he eats meat and drinks wine in large bowls, living a life like Water Margin" Ji Qing quickly responded with an angry expression.

  "If you often eat foreigners' steak, you'll understand my pain. Luckily, my mom came over recently and I had a good meal for once." He then gave a gloomy expression.

  "You're the one, why not eat meat porridge?" Ji Qing replied with a picture of a big hammer hitting his head "I didn't believe this allusion before, now whether you believe it or not, I do."

  "Never mind, by the way, you have time to come over and play, right?" Ju An said.

  Ji Qing replied, "This sentence is still human-like, brother remembers it. When your sister-in-law Zhang Ning's vacation comes down, we'll go over there, but the earliest estimate will be in October. At that time, we can combine National Day holiday and stay at your place for half a month, so we can at least get back the cost of air tickets."

  "That's good," said Ju An, "if you think a woman is okay, how can you maintain the relationship?"

  "Have you gone to bed?" Ji Qing directly asked with a big question mark.

  "For crying out loud, can't you be more subtle?" Ju An was left speechless.

  "Alright, let's change the subject, have you guys done it?" Ji Qing replied.

  "This is what you call changing the subject? Alright, we've done it," Ju An said.

  "Thirty-five percent, that woman can't escape your palm now," Ji Qing replied.

  "Where did this thirty-five percent come from, and where did the other sixty-five percent go?" Ju An asked.

  "That other sixty-five percent is women who find out you don't have a house and run off with those who do, I reckon this one doesn't apply to you, the ninety percent of women can't escape your clutches" Ji Qing replied.

  "What about the other 10%?"

  "That ten percent is, the woman watched brainless dramas and became stupid, pursuing a love that shocked heaven and earth, and in the end either killed others or herself." Ji Qing continued to say: "The above is my summary of experience with women over the past twenty years. The error rate for Chinese women does not exceed three percent. I'll teach you since your bones are clear and unusual."

  "What I'm asking is not about domestic women," said Ju An.

  "Ocean Horse? Ocean Horse doesn't know." Ji Qing made a helpless expression: "Aren't you messing with me, you're not unaware that I haven't even said hello to Ocean Horse, this is asking the blind for directions."

  "Sun your grandfather, asked for half a day you don't have a single idea." Ju An replied.

  Ji Qing forwarded a message saying "Little Sixth classmate, be civilized online, elegant chat, your eight honors and eight shames are not profound enough, hurry back and don't lose face abroad, let me go instead, try the big ocean horse, bring glory to our alma mater, add color to our nation".

  " I'll copy this sentence for Zhang Ning right away," said Ju An.

  "No, no! Brother, I was wrong. Actually, I've been thinking, whether it's a local horse or an ocean horse, if you add some romance, like having a Western meal with atmosphere, that's what I used to do on my first date with your sister-in-law, and it cost over 1,000 yuan, which still hurts now. I guess you don't need this, since you're always eating Western food there, just set up a candlelight dinner or something like a French meal... anyway, make it romantic, then observe what the girl likes and give her some gifts, that's basically it." Ji Qing said.

  "This does make some sense." Ju An thought for a moment "Alright, you can go now."

  "Damn it, typical dormitory style, those who use it face forward, and those who don't use it face backward." Ji Qing replied.

  "Hey old classmate, please be civilized online and elegant in chat." She casually replied with a sentence, then closed QQ.

  Then I went online to check if there were any characteristic restaurants nearby, planning to take Joanna out for a romantic evening.

  Just found a great restaurant, Jean-Georges, located southwest of Central Park. Called them up and was told there were no seats available. Thought for a moment and then dialed Mike's number to ask him to help choose another restaurant that is close to Central Park and has some character. Told him I had already chosen one but they said there were no seats left.

  "Which restaurant?" asked Mike curiously.

  "Jean-Gees" said with a sigh of relief.

  "Who did you want to take out for dinner, going to Jean-Georges? Not the woman from last night?"

  He said with a gloomy face: "No, it's a female police officer I just met, and I think she's pretty good."

  "Looks like that policewoman is really something, alright I'll help you book a spot at Jean-Gees."

  He said thank you and hung up the phone comfortably.

  Before long, Mike called over and told Ju An that he had already booked a spot, and asked him to go there directly.

  It wasn't until I searched for the restaurant online that I found out what Jean-Georges was all about. It turned out to be one of New York's best French restaurants, and its regular customers included movie stars and successful businessmen. It even said that if you want to know whether a man has any power in New York, just take him to Jean-Georges and see if he needs to make a reservation or not.

  It's not necessary to go to such a high-end place, Ju'an even thought of changing restaurants. No wonder Mai Ke asked himself who he wanted to invite. After thinking about it, Ju'an gave up the idea of changing restaurants. Come what may, I'm not afraid, my brother can afford it anyway.

  She thought about it and sent a text message to Joanne, telling her that she had booked a seat at Jean-Gees and would have dinner together tonight. Not long after, she received a text message from Joanne: Are you sure?

  "Uh-huh, I'm sure."

  It wasn't until evening that Ju An washed up, changed into a suit, and heard the knock on the door. As soon as he opened it, he saw Joanna dragging a suitcase walking in.

  "Are you preparing to move house, with boxes and all?"

  "Today, I was discovered by my partner that I didn't change clothes and was still wearing yesterday's clothes," Joanna said: "So I brought a few sets of clothes over, by the way, are we really going to Jean-Geese for dinner?"

  "Of course, I didn't see you change into a suit," Ju An said.

  Joanna said "Fortunately I brought a decent set of clothes, next I'll go change into them" and then headed towards the bedroom.

  After waiting for more than half an hour, Joanna finally came out, changed into a skirt, a evening dress-like skirt, which looked very good on her.

  Following Ju An, Joanna went downstairs. This time, Ju An didn't need to call a car and drove Joanna's car to the restaurant.

  Under the guidance of the waiter, they sat down at the table and Joanna whispered to Ju An: "I saw McMillan and Shawn Connery".

  Ju An knew Sean Connery, but MacMurray's Ju An was indeed unclear.

  The dishes were served in the usual order, cold dish, soup, main course, dessert and so on. Joanna had a charming smile on her face all along. If you ask what Joanna thought of the restaurant, she would only say it was luxurious. As for whether she enjoyed the meal, forget about it, it really wasn't Joanna's cup of tea, eating was tiring and complicated.

  If it weren't for Joanna's fondness, Ju An would rather grab a handful of quick-fried beef and pick up a bottle of beer, squatting on the steps at the entrance to drink, which makes him feel more comfortable than sitting here.

  After finishing dinner and settling the bill, Ju An let out a sigh of relief as he walked out the door, loosened the buttons on his shirt, and headed back to the hotel with Joanne.