Chapter 105: Three Good Buddies

  In the morning, I practiced boxing in my room for a while, then brought out two little guys who had eaten their fill from the room and let them play freely at the door. I saddled up my bean grass and ran around the pasture, exercising my bean grass, and greeted several busy cowboys along the way before returning home. I carried a large basket of clothes down from upstairs and put it in the washing machine to start doing laundry. I usually only do laundry once every two weeks, and that's when I have no clean clothes left to wear. I poured myself a cup of tea using my purple sand pot and sat on the couch in the living room, sipping my tea while watching TV news.

  At first, I wasn't used to it, Americans dry their clothes directly without sun drying, and some states even consider it illegal to hang clothes outside. At the beginning, I felt that wearing dried clothes was a bit strange, and they didn't feel as comfortable as sun-dried clothes. However, now I've slowly gotten used to it, this thing is really convenient, wash and dry for a while and you can wear them right away. Since having a closet, my clothes have never been folded, after washing, I just hang them up, very suitable for a lazy person like me.

  Just watching the news, some people are advocating for a low-carbon lifestyle, and some places have started encouraging everyone to hang their clothes out to dry, saying it's both environmentally friendly and energy-saving, and sunlight can even naturally disinfect clothes. What the...? How come you guys didn't know this before? Good habits of hanging clothes were messed up by you guys, now you want to go back to that again? Aren't you tired of this? Of course, there are also people holding signs opposing it, thinking it's uncivilized to hang underwear outside. Anyway, Americans have gotten used to it, if they don't hold a rally or parade for three days, five days, they'll get bored out of their minds. Especially in some big cities, even hanging clothes is suspected by some guys just making a living from parades, otherwise where would they get the money to support themselves?

  After reading the news that makes my head ache, I washed the clothes and just wanted to take them upstairs to hang them up. Suddenly, I heard the sound of a car horn outside. Putting down the clothes in my hand, I walked out the door and saw a pickup truck parked in the yard. Seeing the white farm logo on the pickup truck, I knew that Lu Guangyuan had arrived. Ju An hastily went to greet him.

  "How so early? I thought you guys wouldn't arrive until noon. You got up really early to come here." Ju An said with a smile, speaking loudly.

  Lu Guangyuan got off the car, closed the door and said: "There are still many things to do on the farm, I'll come back early, I have to hurry back now, there are too many people coming to play in the farm recently, it's busy at home."

  Several young men also got out of the car, and upon closer inspection, they were all robust and sturdy, with skin that was slightly darkened from being in the sun, clearly indicating that they worked outdoors. They wore ordinary cowboy attire - shirts, jeans, and high leather boots. The tallest one was over 1.9 meters tall, a full head taller than Jianan. The other two were around 1.7 meters tall, with goofy smiles on their faces. At first glance, Jianan couldn't help but feel drawn to these young men, at least in terms of appearance, they didn't seem shifty.

  "The tall one is called Du Er Zhuang, the one with a blue hat is called Li Da Jun, and the other one is called Du Hu. My dad was sent to that village for re-education during the Cultural Revolution, so they can also be considered as my fellow villagers." Lu Guangyuan introduced while waving his hand to invite them over.

  When several young men, including Ju An, came over and patted Du Er Zhuang's arm, laughing and saying: "Good guy, this momentum is really giving us Chinese people a boost. Your arms are so thick, how's your English? Can you understand it?"

  Du Er Zhuang scratched the back of his head with a silly smile, not knowing what to say. It was Du Hu who spoke up and said: "Boss, we all understand, we've been working on ranches in California for a few years now."

  Lu Guangyuan watched from the side, smiling and said: "This guy is big and tall, but not very good at talking. The original boss of their ranch sold the ranch, and the new boss has a bit of racial discrimination, doesn't like to hire colored people, only likes to hire white people, so he found an excuse to drive them away."

  It's actually understandable, racial discrimination is something many people don't talk about, but it does exist, and the older white people get, the more severe it becomes. The reality in America is that when companies are hiring, if everything else is equal, most of the time they'll choose a white person over a black person. Black people tend to hire other black people, and Chinese people like me would naturally lean towards hiring other Chinese people. This deep-seated sense of closeness isn't something that can be easily eliminated. Don't be fooled by American politicians shouting about equality; very few people are truly free from prejudice. Take us Chinese people for example - if a black girl and a white girl both wanted to marry you, which one would you choose? I reckon most people would choose the white girl. Let's not talk about others, even I myself am not too fond of black girls. Isn't it an old joke that if you marry a black girl, once the lights are off, all you can see is her white teeth?

  "Hey, drop the 'boss' stuff. When I hear 'Chinese boss', I feel like some nouveau riche. Just call me An Ge, okay? Since you guys have worked on a ranch before, riding horses shouldn't be a problem for you. Let's go settle your luggage first, and you three can share one room for now. Once the other rooms are ready and others move out, each of you will get your own room. Then I'll take you to the horse farm to pick out a few horses. There are also some saddles there for you to try on, see if they fit okay. If not, we can find time later to buy some."

  Li Dajun said, "An Ge, we brought our own saddles." The three young men then went to the back of the pickup truck and took out their saddles. An Ge looked at them and saw that they were all beautifully crafted handmade saddles with eagles or running horses carved on them, shiny silver decorative buckles, and large stirrups - absolutely top-notch ranch saddles. "Wow! These are great saddles! You must have spent a lot of money on them when you bought them." Just by looking at the wear marks on the saddles, he could tell that they were frequently used.

  Du Er Zhuang nodded and smiled: "We just arrived in California, except for the money we sent home, we saved for several months to buy a saddle each, which has been used for several years." After finishing speaking, the young man took out two large canvas bags from the back of the car, each bag was almost as tall as half a person.

  Seeing Ju An stepping on the accelerator, he was about to take three young men to arrange their accommodation. Lu Guangyuan was anxious: "I said you three rabbits, don't rush to leave, get the pumpkins off the car for me".

  Three guys happily put down the big bag on their shoulders and the saddle under their arms, walked back to Pika with a smile, Li Dajun smiled and said: "Uncle Xiaoqi, don't get angry, we'll move it for you right away!"

  Lu Guangyuan laughed and scolded: "You little rascal, what's with the 'little' in front of Seventh Uncle?!" He then pretended to kick Li Dajun's butt.

  As soon as he poked his head into the car, wow, there were twenty or thirty big yellow pumpkins, each weighing three to four kilograms, and they all looked very nice and round. In addition, there were also winter melons, some mushrooms, celery, and a large pile of other things, even dozens of corn stalks with their skins peeled off, tied together in threes and fives, making An's eyes almost pop out.

  "Take a few, I'm alone now, and even if I eat one every meal, it'll probably last until Christmas."

  "Your two old folks haven't come back yet? I was planning to see them this time. These big pumpkins aren't just for you to eat, are they? Isn't Halloween coming soon? You can carve a few pumpkin lanterns then, and put some in front of the door, it'll look good. Otherwise, you'd have to go buy some. The celery is also from our own field, you like eating celery dumplings, don't you? Your sister-in-law specifically asked me to bring some. These corn cobs are all tender, just boil them and they're ready to eat." He said with a smile, while continuously urging the three young men to work.

  Jū ān shook his head, thinking to himself, "It's enough to put two meanings at the door. Who can stand eating pumpkin and corn every day? It seems that these things will have to be given away."

  Directed a few sturdy young men to put the pumpkins under the porch of the house, and then put the celery, corn stalks and other things in the kitchen, took the key, and then brought three young men to the door of a room, opened the door, basically no different from Old Thomas's room, a bedroom, a shower room, and a small living room.

  Looking at the three young men putting down their things, Ju An said, "For now, you three just make do for a few days."

  Yesterday, Ju An mentioned to Old Thomas that it would be better not to arrange the three young men from inland to go east, but instead have them come directly to his side, as this side is slightly more convenient. Old Thomas nodded in agreement, so these young men won't have to mix with the Chileans who speak Spanish. In the end, except for Lawrence and Andrew, everyone on the eastern side will be hired Chileans.

  After the three young men tidied up a bit, Qui An took them to the pasture where the horses were scattered. Each of the three guys chose a horse for themselves, and they would be using these horses from then on. Of course, taking care of the horses every day, such as brushing their coats and trimming their hooves (except for occasionally changing horseshoes), was basically all up to them. The ranch required each cowboy to be multi-talented, not just herding cattle but also being able to diagnose simple illnesses in cattle.

  Four people saddled up their horses, and Ju An let Lu Guangyuan wait under the corridor for a while. He took three young Chinese men to the construction site on the east side of Thomas's pasture. When they arrived at the site, they saw a flatbed trailer with wheels about 10 meters long parked next to the site. Lawrence was directing the driver to unload something from the trailer. After introducing the three men to Thomas, Ju An watched for a while before leaving. Thomas chatted with the three young men for a few sentences before they took off the saddles from their horses and let them graze freely. Then, they picked up tools and began to dismantle large crates one by one.