Chapter 82 Camping (Part One)

  Back at the ranch, Ju An and Wang Fan returned home that evening after being away for over a decade. They felt their home was truly comfortable. At the entrance, they teased Tiger Head and Garlic Head before heading upstairs to put away their luggage in the bedroom. Ju An flopped himself onto the large bed, stretched his waist with all his might, let out a long sigh, and loudly shouted: "This is still the best place!" Scaring Wu Song who had followed Ju An upstairs, jumping up high. He clung to the bedside, staring at Ju An as he yelled.

  He easily scooped up Wu Song with one hand and placed him on his belly, stroking his head, and began to hum a little tune.

  Life is but a few autumns

  Drunk till you drop

  My Beauty from the East

  The Yellow River flows in the west

  Come on, let's have a drink!

  Drunk till drop

  Don't worry about troubles and annoyances

  Wang Fan heard a snort outside the door and burst out laughing, saying: "Isn't it just leaving for a few days? Just back and so happy."

  "A golden nest and a silver nest are not as good as one's own dog kennel," said the old man, shaking his head.

  Wang Fan came in and gently kicked Ju An, who was lying on the bed, and said to him: "Hurry up and cook, after eating, call Tyler and ask when we're going camping." After finishing speaking, he pulled Ju An out of bed.

  After settling in, he took out his phone and dialed Old Taylor's number. After a few rings, Taylor's bright voice came on: "An, how was your trip to New York? Was it fun?"

  "Never mind, we had a bit of trouble at the beginning, but it was solved later and it was more enjoyable. By the way, I called to ask you, how's the wild camping route survey going? Wang Fan and I are planning to follow you guys to open our eyes, we've never been wild camping before." Ju An said with a smile.

  Taylor replied, "You guys are back so soon. If you hadn't returned today, I was going to call you tomorrow. We're departing the day after tomorrow afternoon. Now that you're back, we'll depart tomorrow afternoon instead. You can use tonight to pack your things, don't forget to bring sleeping bags or tents and whatnot. Food is all taken care of, just bring your own stuff. Make sure to wear warm clothing, it gets chilly at night on the mountain. If there's anything unclear, ask Old Thomas."

  "Alright then, how about we meet up tomorrow?"

  "We'll be riding through your pasture in the morning," Taylor said. "Just meet us at the gate and we'll be there around eight."

  "Alright then, we'll expect you tomorrow morning, bye-bye." Ju An said before hanging up the phone.

  Wang Fan asked: "Do you have sleeping bags or tents here? If not, we'll need to go buy some."

  "I don't know, probably not, I'll drive to the town tomorrow morning to buy some." Ju An put his phone in the back pocket of his pants and put Wu Song on his shoulder, heading downstairs: "I'll ask Thomas tonight, he knows more about the ranch stuff than me, anyway I've never bought any."

  Wang Fan followed behind and complained: "Damn it, you're just a ranch owner who's good at throwing money around."

  "Clearly, the way of a wise ruler is to let the intelligent ones exhaust their thoughts and then take charge of them. The ruler doesn't need to personally handle everything. As a ranch owner, I've found someone trustworthy like Thomas to manage things, so why do I still need to get involved? Forget it, there's no point in telling you this, you wouldn't understand anyway."

  Wang Fan smiled and said: "Your grandfather is still nitpicking, tell me how you learned those two sentences."

  "Yesterday I just saw it online, a post from a guy who was being annoying," Ju An said.

  Wang Fan patted Ju An's back and said "I told you, you don't have this kind of talent".

  Two people went downstairs, Ju An let Wang Fan go to buy rice, and he himself went to the greenhouse to pick vegetables. He entered the greenhouse and saw that the empty space where the small white cabbage was originally planted had been taken over by Thomas and his group to plant eggplants and lettuce. He casually picked two tomatoes, a few green peppers, and a head of lettuce.

  Carrying a few things back to the kitchen, Wang Fan took one look and said: "Why is it all vegetarian again tonight? Without any oily food, you'll easily get hungry at night."

  "Tomato scrambled eggs, green pepper beef slices, and cabbage stir-fried with green peppers were my favorite dishes back home. Since there's no bean sprouts here, forget it. You go to the greenhouse and pull out a head of lettuce to use as the base, then make a boiled meat slice dish. We have all the seasonings like Sichuan pepper at home, so I won't be accused of mistreating you and ruining my reputation."

  Wang Fan nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, this is good, that's good." After finishing speaking, he went out of the kitchen to prepare the vegetables.

  Then he settled in and started to prepare, cutting the bok choy in half, washing it, and then chopping it up. Before he had even chopped a few times, Wang Fan came running in with a head of celery, dropped it down, and was about to leave.

  "Hey, don't run away! Go wash the vegetables! How can you be so shameless?"

  "Damn it, I'm a guest, okay? What kind of rule is this that guests do chores?" After saying that, he put the lettuce into the sink, and also took the green peppers and tomatoes in.

  Chopping the cabbage in his hand, Ju An said: "With a guest like you, it's only a matter of writing 'permanent resident' on the household registration book."

  After a while, several dishes were chopped and cooked over the fire. Wang Fan stood by and said, "Anzi, I suggest you find a Chinese girl instead. If not, this culinary skill would be wasted. These foreigners only like to eat sour and sweet Chinese food."

  "Hey, you foodie, how did you set your sights on Cola, that Western horse who also eats Western food?" Ju An said.

  Wang Fan said: "I'm fine as long as I have meat to eat, the taste doesn't matter, you'll be in trouble if you find one."

  Jū ān smiled and continued to stir-fry, after a few dishes were done, the rice was also ready. The two of them finished eating, mixed the leftover dishes and rice together, and poured it into a bowl for Hǔ Tóu and Suàn Tóu. Watching the two good comrades happily eating from the bowl, Jū ān sighed: "It's still easier to raise Hǔ Tóu and the others."

  Wang Fan said, "If you're referring to Sang Rui's, I'll poke you to death with my finger. Stop nagging, take down the book while Thomas and the others haven't returned yet, let's play a couple of rounds."

  Before the two of them had even finished one round, Thomas and his group returned.

  Looking at Ju An returning home, Thomas went into the house, hung his cowboy hat on the wall at the door, sat down on the sofa, and said to Ju An: "An, how is it? Have you played all the famous places? This time is not short, it's been more than ten days."

  He continued, "There are also several new calves in the pasture. Most of the ones born recently are female, so we're pretty lucky. The sheep have also given birth to lambs, and two of the cow dogs are about to give birth too. In a couple of days, Hu Tou and Suan Tou will go to take care of them for a while."

  "Uh-huh, that's right. I was going to ask you, have there ever been any wild bison in our pasture? There are a lot of them around here, what if some of them run into our pasture?"

  "Let them in! Generally, they are driven away, no pasture is willing to raise them. If other cows run in, someone will definitely come looking for them. Ownerless cows on your pasture belong to you, what's there to say? Every blade of grass and every tree on this pasture belongs to you, what do you have to doubt?" Thomas replied strangely.

  After listening to Thomas, Ju An felt at ease and planned to release the space cattle when they grew a bit bigger, saying that wild cattle had run in. Then he changed the subject, pointing at Wang Fan and saying: "Almost got me into trouble and made me a criminal." He then recounted everything that had happened from start to finish.

  Thomas laughed and said: "Actually I am in favor of legalization. If one sells their own body without bothering others, what's wrong with that?"

  "Wang Fan exclaimed in surprise: 'I didn't expect your mind to be so open, Thomas.'"

  "Now which country doesn't have prostitutes, it's a social phenomenon, being open doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, just like the Netherlands hasn't been ruined or anything, and next time you can call me," Thomas said.

  Yu An said with a gloomy face: "We didn't prepare to look for it at all. By the way, I want to ask you, do we have any camping tents or something here? We plan to go camping with Old Taylor and his group tomorrow."

  Thomas said, "There are no ranches there, you have to buy them. Don't forget to buy moisture-proof mats and lay them on the ground when you arrive. Actually, we usually bring sleeping bags with us when we go out, it's convenient. Tomorrow, you guys take the tiger head and garlic head and go, there are many wild animals in the mountains, wolves, bears, and even American lions."

  "Let's bring the tent just in case, we can go buy some tomorrow morning. And let's also bring some garlic, at least we'll have peace of mind at night."

  Thomas nodded and said, "This period of time the calves on the ranch have been born very smoothly, the little guys are all healthy, and also in the poultry house, a nest of chicks has hatched."

  Introduced a bit about the ranch, and then suggested that something should be added. After considering it for a while, Leto decided to let Thomas handle it himself, so Thomas took his leave.

  The next morning, Ju An and Wang Fan went to the town's outdoor gear store, also known as the gun shop, where they bought some camping gear and also got 200 rounds of ammunition for their rifles, which they would bring along on this trip.

  By noon, Old Thomas had finished lunch and stayed for a while to help Ju An and Wang Fan check their equipment. Then he helped the two of them pack everything they needed into soft bags and tied them onto Xue Hua's back. Personal belongings were tied behind each person's horse. This showed the practicality of Western saddles, with several buckles on either side of the seat cushion that could easily tie things to the horse's back using leather straps.

  Everything was packed and tied to the horse's back, Old Thomas finally left with a peace of mind. Ju An and Wang Fan stayed under the corridor waiting for Tyler and the others to arrive. Hu Tou and Suan Tou were obediently lying at Ju An's feet. Wu Song was happily eating the grapes that Ju An had taken out from space, several times Wang Fan tried to tease it and steal its grapes but the little guy dodged each time.