Chapter 14 Buying Cattle and Horses to Increase the Family's Wealth (Part 3)

  After test-driving each of the three selected horses, Thomas was satisfied and so was the owner of the stable. The only one who wasn't satisfied was Qu An's wallet.

  It wasn't until they were loading the horses that they realized the trouble, as the batch of brown ponies they had selected themselves refused to get on the carriage. Old Thomas was so angry that his white beard almost stood up straight. In the end, it took three people stroking them for a long time, whispering in their ears and coaxing them with gentle words before covering their eyes and finally getting the little guys onto the carriage.

  On the way, Thomas was still a bit dissatisfied with the little guy, and then introduced Friesland in detail. It turned out that only black horses could be certified as Friesian horses, and other colors were not recognized. Even if it had a black forehead, at most there could only be small stars, long flowing manes, and white faces were unacceptable.

  It doesn't matter, I'm not looking for a famous bloodline anyway. As long as I like it, that's all that matters. Then he apologized to Thomas, who was also doing it for his own ranch. Old Thomas' serious and responsible attitude made Ju An very respectful.

  The next ranch was still a small family ranch, slightly larger than the first one, located at the foot of Crazy Mountain. When Old Thomas stopped the car with Ju An, the ranch owner came up to greet them, giving Thomas a big hug, and then gave Ju An a big bear hug as well.

  The ranch owner was over fifty years old, with a tall and sturdy build, a prominent belly topped with a golden belt buckle. Following Old Thomas' introduction, the ranch owner Jason was introduced. It turned out that when young Jason was an excellent competitive cowboy, almost every bone had been broken according to Thomas. After getting married, his wife did not want him to engage in such dangerous performances, so he specialized in running the ranch. He still holds the Montana record for riding a wild horse without a saddle.

  Listening to Thomas' praise, Old Jason suddenly beamed with joy. He dragged the two people to visit his honor room, and when they entered the living room of Old Jason's house, Ju An felt a little overwhelmed.

  The entire wall of the living room was lined with belt buckles, and near the fireplace were a dozen or so saddles. These saddles should not be called saddles but works of art, some wrapped in silver ornaments carved with various patterns. Each saddle was extremely luxurious, breathtaking to behold.

  Listening to Old Jason introducing what this competition is, a girl came in with half-long golden hair tied behind her head, wearing a purple flower-patterned long-sleeved shirt on top and loose-fitting jeans on the bottom, with long boots on her feet, and a kind of spur that can't be described as elegant and refreshing.

  Old Jason introduced his daughter Lily to Ju An.

  After shaking hands, Lily heard that Ju An came from China and curiously sized him up before reminding Old Jason that the horses had been chosen, and Jason's partner Isah invited the guests to come over.

  Old Jason led Thomas into the corral to start selecting, while Juan leaned on the fence with both hands watching the horses in the corral.

  "Hey, are you from China?" Lily walked up to Ju An's side, her right hand grasping the railing, her big blue eyes staring at Ju An in surprise.

  "Hmm" Yu An felt a bit nervous for the first time being so close to a blonde beauty.

  Lily looked at Ju An's slightly flushed face and asked with a smile: "Is the Great Wall fun? Is the Forbidden City really big, is it the largest palace in the world?"

  "I haven't been to the Great Wall or the Forbidden City either, so I don't know how to answer your question."

  "If I have time, I must go and take a look. I've only seen the Great Wall in pictures, it's truly magnificent, winding its way up and down mountains, I really don't know how you Chinese people managed to build it thousands of years ago, it's just too great!" Lily's eyes sparkled with excitement.

  Looking at the young girl's excited eyes, Ju An said enthusiastically: "I also want to go see the Great Wall, if you don't reach the Great Wall, you're not a good man." Then he explained to this foreign girl what it means by "if you don't reach the Great Wall, you're not a good man".

  "If you're free, we might be able to go to Beijing together and see the Great Wall," Ju An said with a smile.

  Lily smiled and asked: "Are you asking me out?"

  "Ahem, ahem", Ju An's face turned bright red from being teased by this cheerful girl.

  Lily looked at Ju An and smiled lightly.

  Having gotten past that awkward topic, Ju An and Lily then started talking about the ranch he had bought. He mentioned the new name of his ranch, Brook River Ranch.

  "You don't look like it, but you're the one who bought the Grass Hat Flower Ranch. You really don't look like a billionaire." Lili curiously sized up Ju An.

  "What kind of billionaire" asked with a puzzled expression.

  "You don't know? The most astonishing news during this time is that a young billionaire in the East bought a ranch for $47 million, and everyone's talking about it. They're all saying they have no idea which rich old guy from the East has gone crazy again," said Lily.

  "Oh, I haven't read the newspaper in these few days" Yu An smiled and looked at Lily who was full of surprise.

  "You're really not old and still very young. I can tell my friends that I know a billionaire who isn't an old guy." Lily said with a happy smile.

  Looking at Lily's enthusiastic expression, Ju An was speechless for a moment. It seems that neither domestic nor foreign races can stop women's gossiping hearts.

  Following the two people, they started talking about the peaceful pasture of Ju'an.

  "Lily, your phone," said a girl who was slightly older than Lily as she walked over.

  Her eyebrows and eyes resemble Lily's, but her face is thinner than Lily's. She is much taller than Lily, almost as tall as Ju An. On her head is a white cowboy hat, a blue shirt, and high-top riding boots.

  "This is my sister, Ruthie. Sister, this is the boring old man from the East they've been talking about these past few days," Lily said with a smile.

  "Don't be so rude, Lily, go find your friend" Ruth said apologetically to Ju An.

  Lily stuck out her tongue and ran away laughing.

  "Sorry, Lily didn't mean it," said Reth as she held out her hand to Ju An.

  "It's all right, Lily is cheerful." Yu An and Rui Ci shook hands.

  Accompanied by Ju An for a few words, Rui Ci then said sorry and went to busy with her own affairs.

  They continued watching Thomas and Jason choose horses.

  Old Jason led the horse's head, while Thomas lifted up a chestnut horse's hind leg. The two old men were chatting about something. These days, Ju'an felt that the people here were enthusiastic and open-minded, working with meticulous care, just like Old Thomas, who had won Ju'an's trust in just a few days.

  Basking in the warm sunshine, surrounded by beautiful scenery, feeling an indescribable sense of serenity, without the hustle and bustle of the city, only the cheerful chirping of unknown birds, no constraints of punching in and out of work, the whole person feels relaxed and carefree.

  It was some time before Gideon recovered from the scene before his eyes, and by then old Thomas had also chosen a horse.

  "Alright, I've chosen six horses, four Quarters and two Mustangs. Come take a look." Old Thomas beckoned to Ju An with his hand, and Ju An collected his thoughts and walked over to them.

  Six horses with shiny coats have been rounded up, this time the colors are much better than in the morning, there is a big green horse and a black horse with white markings, the rest are still the usual chestnut color, these horses are all around six or seven years old, they are well-trained ranch horses.

  Ju An nodded after taking a look and said frankly that he only looked at the appearance of the horse, not knowing anything about its injuries or physique.

  It was almost sunset when they finally got the six big guys onto the trailer and headed back to their own pasture.

  Wayne and Nancy had rounded up the cattle and sheep, leaving the three guys with tiger heads to watch them, before leading the ten big fellows into the stable, adding fodder, and by the time they finished, it was already pitch black.

  After a simple dinner, I gave Tiger Head a few big bones, and then sat down in the corridor, poured myself a cup of tea, sat in a rocking chair, looked at the starry sky, took a sip of tea, and occasionally heard the sound of cows and sheep bleating, followed by the barking of Tiger Head and the others, feeling extremely comfortable.

  At this time old Thomas walked over, Ju An poured a cup of tea for old Thomas and asked him to sit down.

  "Why don't Wayne and Nancy come out for a spin?" asked Ju An.

  "Nancy has gone to the stable to take care of the horses, Wayne is in the warehouse checking the machinery, and in a few days they will start preparing for winter pasture, no time to slack off." Old Thomas replied: "Tomorrow they'll have to get up at 5:30, first drive the cattle and sheep to their respective pastures, then clean the stable, brush the horses, there's a lot of work to do."

  "What's my task tomorrow?" Ju An asked.

  "Boss, there's no schedule, you can sleep till dawn, but if you're willing, tomorrow you can also get up at 5:30 to help clean the stables, sweep horse dung. By the way, An, how's your riding skill?" Thomas said with a smile.

  Ju An smiled and said: "I've ridden for about 20 or 30 hours, riding a horse is no problem".

  "Tomorrow, after I've groomed them, I'll pick out a gentle one for you to try in the arena," Old Thomas nodded.

  "Ah, well, I'll be counting on you tomorrow then." Yu said with a nod of thanks towards Thomas.

  "God bless, the ranch is getting better and better. I just took a look, the pasture is growing extremely well. I've been a cowboy for most of my life and I've never seen such good pasture. It's much thicker than usual, and the leaves are twice as wide. We have a saying here: 'A ranch doesn't raise cattle, it raises grass.' Only with lush and nutritious grass can you raise good cattle." Old Thomas gets excited whenever he talks about the pasture.

  That's the water from the pond that my brother didn't dare to add more soil around, if two more buckets of water were added, I reckon after the cow finished eating, the grass would grow overnight, wouldn't that scare you guys to death? Feeling content and at ease in his heart.

  He then chatted with Thomas for a few more sentences, and Thomas got up, saying he was going to take a look at the cattle. As he stood up, he reminded Ju'an that if possible, he should bring over a few more dogs like Tiger Head, and he praised Tiger Head several times, saying it was too smart and was almost surpassing the old cowherding dog in driving cattle.

  Got it, next time I return to the country, I'll get a few Chinese rural dogs, first raise them in space for a while, then release them, and watch the stars twinkling in the sky while quickly thinking.

  ;