Chapter 104: Activity House

  When Ju An came out of the space, it was already almost four o'clock in the afternoon. He also pulled out Wukong and Teddy, walked to the bedside, picked up the hat and phone on the bed, just about to put the phone in his pocket, when he saw two unconnected calls, one from Jasmine, and the other from Lu Guangyuan, that old brother who runs a farm in Dabu City.

  She first called back to Jasmine, and after the phone was connected, Ju An asked, "Just busy with work in my hands, didn't see the call, what's up, Jasmine?"

  On the other end of the phone, Jasmine laughed and replied: "Nothing much, just calling to say hello and see what you're up to. Is your ranch busy? I've seen you twice and both times you were too busy to spend time with me. When I got there, I felt very bored by myself."

  Still saying boring? I don't know how much fun you had playing with Teddy and Wu Song at the ranch, but this is what Juzan said without sleeping: "I have nothing to do now, these past few days I've been busy with the ranch and neglected you. If you're free tomorrow, come over, Wu Song and Teddy miss you. You left for two days and didn't eat well." Juzan said insincerely, glancing at Teddy's chubby body playing with Wu Song's tail behind him, while Wu Song blinked his small eyes looking at Juzan, occasionally curling up the corner of his mouth, skin laughing but not sincere, without showing any sign of missing Jasmine.

  "Then I'll go over tomorrow morning, I miss the two little guys too. Don't forget to prepare scrambled eggs with tomatoes for me at noon, haven't had them in a few days," said Molly with a smile.

  After going to China, Jasmine fell in love with this dish. It's easy to make, Chinese people think it's simple but foreigners think it's complicated. Anyway, it made Ju An feel that foreigners are easy to fool around with, then the two of them chatted for a while before hanging up the phone separately.

  He followed Ju Anbei and dialed a phone call to Lu Guangyuan: "Hello! Brother Lu, it's Xiao Ju."

  On the other end of the phone, Lu Guangyuan's thick voice came through: "Have you been busy lately? If not, come to our place for a visit. The pumpkins at home have all been harvested, and Halloween is just around the corner in over 10 days. You don't need to buy any pumpkins, just take a few from home back with you. It's also a good time to visit the farm as they're having an open house event."

  "I just finished dealing with the ranch's affairs, and over 200,000 cows will be arriving at the ranch in succession. I've only just had a chance to relax, and before I knew it, Halloween was already here! This is my first Halloween, so I need to think carefully about how to spend it. If I don't go to your place, that's fine, but during this time, the ranch needs to receive the cows, so I'll have to stay at home and take a look."

  "Wow! This is a big deal, I thought so too. After visiting your place, it's really wasteful. The cattle are good, and the labor force is almost complete, this requires a lot of people. I also heard that you bought over 20,000 heads of cattle at once." Lu Guangyuan said with a smile.

  "This old American is quite fast-talking, it's only been a few days and the news has already spread to your place. Don't even mention finding people, I was originally planning to find all the Americans, but in the end, who knew that the Americans found a few, and they were all over 30 with families, not one young person, so I'm preparing to hire Chileans instead."

  Lu Guangyuan listened to the complaints and said: "These Americans are lazy, unlike us Chinese people. When we first came to America, we did all kinds of dirty and hard work. Now they're just good at gathering to protest. A while ago, they even protested that new immigrants took their jobs away. They're just good with words, but compared to the older generation of Americans, the young people are much worse now."

  "Right, a group of Chileans for $900 a month, with food and lodging included, no weekend work, and only one month's vacation per year. To hire an American, it would cost at least $1,200 a month, also with food and lodging, plus vacations, and all sorts of other expenses, totaling at least $2,000 a month, and still can't find anyone."

  Lu Guangyuan smiled and said: "If you're willing, how about hiring two of your own people?"

  "Hey, I didn't know Chinese people could be shepherds too? I thought they were all either running restaurants or doing scientific research, or starting businesses. But to be honest, I don't dare hire someone who snuck into the country, it's too much trouble if something happens. If you have a green card and are willing to come, we can treat you just like the Americans."

  "There are a few young guys, over 20 years old, who came with work visas. They lost their jobs and were looking for something to do around here the past two days. They used to herd cattle in California too. Their families spent a lot of money to get them to America to make some money. If they can't find work, they'll be deported back home. You know my whole family is busy with no time to spare, so I thought of you." said Lu Guangyuan with a smile.

  "That's alright, after all we're all on the same side. But let me tell you upfront, if anyone slacks off or plays around, Thomas won't think twice about firing them. I've delegated my authority to hire and fire to Thomas," Ju An said.

  Lu Guangyuan laughed loudly and said, "No problem, if they are lazy, I won't introduce them to you. These three diligent young men are from inland China, their families spent a lot of money to get them overseas jobs that can earn big money. They just paid off the agency fees for going abroad and now they've lost their jobs. In two days, I'll take the boys over to have a look?"

  "Let's go earlier then, it'll be a good chance to get familiar with things."

  Lu Guangyuan smiled and said: "Then tomorrow I'll take the three kids over, and at that time I'll bring you a few big pumpkins."

  "Alright! That's it, Lu Ge. I'm hanging up!" Ju An heard the other party say "alright" and hung up the phone.

  If Wang Fan or Wu Ming, and Liu Chao heard the conversation above, they would definitely laugh their guts out. The biggest lazybones in the pasture is obviously Zhai An himself. Apart from sleeping, he's always wandering around aimlessly. He joined forces to start a company but only went there once, and probably can't even figure out what software the company produces. And yet he still has the nerve to call others lazy. But who let Zhai An have good luck and get a pearl? That's why it's said that lazy people also have their own blessings.

  As soon as they went out the door, a whistle brought Beanblossom over, and by the time Snowflake caught up, Quinlan didn't saddle her like usual - she had a foal now, and just recently Quinlan had instructed Nancy to pay extra attention to Snowflake's care. After saddling Beanblossom, he went to look for Old Thomas, but it wasn't until he ran into Wayne and Andrew's cattle herd that he found out Old Thomas was busy at the new house on the east side. He had no choice but to turn his horse around and head east.

  Letting the horse run freely for a while, I greeted two people operating large tractors to harvest grass on the road. Looking at the cut grass and the large piles of rolled-up grass, although the pasture was not as quiet as usual, it had an extra vitality. After arriving at the new place, I saw a bustling scene - about ten people were laying wooden planks under the house foundation, one piece of grass had been shoveled away, revealing yellow mud. In the mud, twenty or thirty large pits had been dug, each pit filled with concrete and a square wooden plank fixed on top. On the ground, more than ten wooden grids had taken shape, completing the overall framework of the building's base. Now they were installing horizontal connecting bars to secure the floor, most of the grids already having their horizontal bars in place, I estimated that the remaining work would be completed by tonight.

  As Guan rode up, Thomas and Lawrence were laughing and loudly greeting him from the sawhorses where they were drawing lines to guide the installation of the horizontal beams. Guan also exchanged greetings with everyone whose names he remembered and those he didn't, before walking over to Thomas and praising him saying: "Everyone's working so fast, this basic house is already half finished!"

  Thomas shook his head: "It's just a small half, tomorrow when the housing company sends over the walls, roof and windows of the house, after installation, everyone will connect the pipes, lay the floor and then contact the water supply company and power company to turn on the water and electricity and heating."

  He nodded, the old American houses were built like building blocks, modular assembly, don't look at this house as if it's very simple, the sound insulation and warmth are better than some brick-concrete walls, and if you want to move away, just take a few components, then find a large flatbed trailer, a few thousand tons of jack-up, and you can pull it around, so on the western roads of the old American, if you're lucky, you'll see a whole small house being pulled by a car.

  "About when can it be completed? The first batch of cattle from the ranch is almost here, and I've also found three more people to help out. They'll come over tomorrow, so you arrange it then," said Ju An.

  Thomas nodded slightly and said, "The main body is basically done, it will be fully operational in about three days. However, if you want to move in, it will take another ten days or so. We still need to connect the pipes, lay down the flooring, install toilets and sinks, and wait for the paint to dry completely. When you arrive, you can temporarily stay in that house over there first, there are a few empty rooms available."

  "Anyway, you arrange it." Ju'an also helped everyone lift up the wood. When the wide wood was connected to the large square wood, Ju'an discovered that the middle of the wooden strip was still connected with short wood, forming a grid about 15 cm wide and 30 cm long. Looking at the grid connection, Ju'an sighed, "No wonder this house can be moved around, it's really solid at the bottom." All the wood was treated when purchased, and it's said that it won't rot for decades. On top of that, a layer of thick wooden boards will be laid, and after partitioning the rooms, flooring will be installed. It's much better than where I used to live before.

  Everyone worked until six o'clock before packing up and heading home. The cowboys, however, still had to round up the cattle and bring them closer to the house for the night.