Chapter 99 – The Cousin Who Raises Chickens

Tian Ting, 24 years old.

Daughter of Tian Baosheng—Jiang Ning’s older cousin.

She had just graduated this year from Huzhou University, majoring in Animal Husbandry.

Her thesis was also focused on livestock farming.

According to Auntie,

Her cousin didn’t feel comfortable leaving her uncle and aunt to retire alone at home, so she turned down the offer to stay at the university and go straight to grad school.

She wanted to come back and stay with her parents.

As for her cousin being a homebody—

Jiang Ning had heard bits and pieces in her previous life.

But she’d never known that her cousin actually studied poultry farming.

Which meant…

“That’s right, I’m the one who spearheaded that breeding base. The village supported it too.”

After changing into a clean jacket, Tian Ting sat next to Tian Wenhao and readily confirmed it when the topic came up.

“Tell us about it.”

To be honest, even though Jiang Ning ran a fried chicken business, she wasn’t very familiar with the farming side of things.

When Tian Ting heard that her two cousins were interested in the farm, she immediately straightened up—

Then launched into an enthusiastic explanation of her farm’s scale, setup, and the types of poultry they were raising.

When it came to some technical parts, afraid Jiang Ning and Tian Wenhao might not understand, Tian Ting even started using hand gestures to illustrate her points.

After listening for a while,

Jiang Ning finally had a basic idea of what the farm was like.

First, the size.

The village had made things really easy—they gave her two acres of land just outside the village.

They even had craftsmen build a greenhouse structure.

But because the construction wasn’t up to standard, chickens often managed to escape from the enclosure.

No big deal.

They just saw it as a kind of bonus for the nearby villagers.

As for the chickens being raised, they were mostly the common three-yellow chickens.

The number wasn’t too high—only around 2,500 mature birds in the first batch.

Including chicks and juveniles, the total didn’t exceed 8,000.

Jiang Ning did a rough calculation.

Take the station store, for example. It had about 1,000 customers a day. The most popular item was the chicken wing combo, selling roughly 300 sets.

Assuming each customer only bought one pair of wings, that meant they needed about 300 chickens per day just for wings.

As everyone knows—

A chicken only has one pair of wings.

So the station store alone would require 300 chickens per day.

The university store was a bit less, but still needed one to two hundred.

Combined—

Jiang Ning’s two stores needed around 500 chickens per day.

Which meant even if they slaughtered all the chickens from her cousin’s farm, it would only last a few days.

And that’s not even accounting for chickens lost to illness or deformity.

Of course, if the farm was running steadily,

There would be new chickens ready for market every few days.

But even then—it still seemed like it wouldn’t be enough.

Jiang Ning furrowed her brow ever so slightly.

However—

Her cousin added that this was just the current scale.

Once the farm stabilized, she was confident she could expand the operation by over tenfold.

Her goal was to turn poultry farming into the village’s main industry.

Seeing the ambition on her cousin’s face, Jiang Ning keenly caught something important in her words.

“Cousin, is there a problem with your farm right now?”

At that,

Tian Ting’s expression fell completely.

“No buyers.”

“The earliest batch is already overdue for sale, but the person who was supposed to buy them suddenly backed out.”

Backed out?

There was such a thing?

Tian Wenhao couldn’t help but ask, “Didn’t you sign a contract or get a deposit?”

Seeing her cousin hesitate to speak, Jiang Ning and Tian Wenhao understood immediately.

So their cousin was the classic tech-type—great at the technical side, but completely clueless when it came to business.

At that moment,

Their aunt came over with some fruit. As she peeled an orange, she sighed and said:

“We invested nearly ten thousand to support Tingting’s farm.”

“Now the chickens are ready for market, and this happens.”

“Thankfully, the village said they’d help us figure something out.”

The village will help?

Jiang Ning didn’t think those old village men would be of much help.

At most, they’d probably send someone to the wet market or encourage nearby villages to buy.

It might work, but it’s too limited.

And the time it takes to earn back the investment would be too long—hard to sustain the farm long-term.

But seeing how optimistic her aunt and cousin were, Jiang Ning didn’t say much.

She just exchanged a glance with Tian Wenhao, who then asked:

“Cousin, would it be convenient for us to visit the farm?”

“Right now?” Tian Ting glanced back at her mother who was handing her an orange.

“Let’s wait until after the ancestral rites.”

Fair enough.

The most important thing about coming back was the ancestral ceremony.

Jiang Ning didn’t have to worry about it—technically, she was from a different family line.

But it was different for her cousin Tian Wenhao.

He was the only remaining male heir of the Tian family.

He couldn’t be absent from the ritual.

On the way back, Jiang Ning had teased him more than once—

Calling him the Tian family’s sole descendant.

The “Crown Prince” of the Tian clan, and so on—

Which earned her several scoldings from Tian Cuilan.

Half an hour later,

The whole family headed off toward the ancestral shrine.

“Shrine” was a bit generous—it was really just a small room, barely bigger than a land god’s temple.

Around 1.6–1.7 meters tall, 3–4 meters wide.

Inside, just a couple square meters. Besides the ancestral tablets and a little table for offerings, there was barely room for one person to kneel and kowtow.

In her past life, Jiang Ning had never had the chance to go inside.

Because she had a different surname—and was a boy in that life, which meant in the village’s eyes, she could’ve started her own family line.

But this time around, she was still an outsider by name—

Yet as an unmarried girl, she counted as part of the main family.

So Jiang Ning followed the others in and bowed three times.

While she was kowtowing,

She felt a little uneasy.

Having experienced reincarnation and rebirth, she had an indescribable awe toward spirits and the supernatural.

What if something strange happened while she was bowing…

What if, while she was kowtowing earnestly,

An ancestor suddenly popped out, pointed at her forehead, and cursed her as a monster?

Of course—

That was just Jiang Ning’s imagination running wild.

The ancestral offering ceremony proceeded peacefully.

From bowing to replacing the offerings to finishing up, the whole thing only took about ten minutes.

Seeing that it was just barely ten o’clock,

Jiang Ning once again expressed her desire to visit the chicken farm.

Tian Wenhao agreed as well.

Considering their next stop was to talk Second Uncle through his emotional problems,

having the younger ones around really wasn’t appropriate.

So, the elders agreed to Jiang Ning and Tian Wenhao’s request.

After a few words of caution, they left.

Ten minutes later—

The trio’s car pulled up in front of a brick factory building.

No sooner had they stopped than a stern-looking old man, leaning on a cane, came striding toward them with an aggressive air.

Before he could speak, Tian Ting stepped out of the car.

“Uncle Hu, this is my cousin’s car. I’m just taking them in for a look.”

Hearing that, Uncle Hu immediately lowered his cane and said, “Alright.”

Then he tottered back to the high-backed wooden chair by the gate and closed his eyes to rest.

Seeing how weak his breathing looked—

Jiang Ning genuinely feared the old man might just drift off for good.

Then—

Tian Ting opened the big door.

The moment they stepped inside,

Jiang Ning was jolted awake by a blast of fishy stench straight to the face.

Then came endless cluck-cluck-clucks swirling in her ears.

It took a while for her to regain her senses.

Staring at the densely packed chicken heads frantically bobbing behind the fences,

Jiang Ning felt like her trypophobia was about to flare up.

Right after, Cousin Tian Ting began explaining the methods for raising the chickens, their feed, and the daily care routines.

Most of her explanations were directed at Tian Wenhao.

Judging by the way she was treating him like a key trainee, it was obvious she wanted to rope this young man into the chicken-raising business too.

This made Jiang Ning, standing to the side, feel both amused and helpless.

After some time—

Once Jiang Ning had walked through the entire chicken shed, she had a fairly clear picture of the place.

She paused to think for a moment.

Then, in front of Tian Wenhao and facing her technically-minded cousin, she asked aloud:

“Cousin.”

“Would you be open to investment in exchange for equity?”

“Investment… for equity?”

Tian Ting looked blank, clearly unfamiliar with the term.

Seeing that, Jiang Ning explained:

“We provide the capital, and you raise the chickens.”

“And what do you get out of it?”

Upon hearing that question, Tian Wenhao coughed twice.

He exchanged a glance with Jiang Ning.

Following her silent cue, he briefly mentioned their partnership in opening a business.

When Tian Ting heard that these two cousins had opened a company together—

and had dozens of employees under them—

She was completely stunned.

Even when a big rooster flew onto her shoulder, she didn’t react right away.

It was Jiang Ning who reached over and shooed the chicken off her cousin.

After a while—

Cousin Tian Ting finally came back to her senses, though her eyes were getting brighter by the second.

“So you’re saying… your two shops consume at least 500 chickens a day?”

“And specifically this breed of Sanhuang chicken we raise?”

“And now you’re planning to invest in helping me scale up?”

Being stared at so directly made Tian Wenhao feel a little awkward, but he nodded.

The next second—

Tian Ting jumped up like a rabbit with a loud “Yay!” and leapt straight into the air.

All the nearby chickens were startled and scattered in a frenzy.

But right now, Tian Ting couldn’t care less about the chaotic clucking.

She spun in place, grinning in excitement.

Before long, though—

Tian Ting froze mid-spin, turned back to Tian Wenhao, and frowned in confusion.

“Does Auntie know about this?”

Since she was looking at Tian Wenhao, “Auntie” clearly referred to his mother, Tian Cuixiang.

“Mom knows.”

Tian Wenhao didn’t clarify whether he meant the store opening or the investment in the farm.

This led Tian Ting to assume he meant the investment.

Immediately, she returned to her joyful state.

Afterward—

To put their cousin’s mind at ease,

The three of them sat down in the storage room next to the chicken farm and drafted a preliminary contract.

It was decided:

Jiang Ning would invest 60,000 yuan, receiving 30% of the farm’s shares and profits, without participating in operations or management.

Tian Wenhao would invest 20,000 yuan, receiving 10% of the shares and profits, also without involvement in operations or management.

The remaining 60% would belong solely to Tian Ting, who would retain full control and decision-making power over the farm.

Once the core terms were settled,

They spent a bit more time hammering out the details—like priority supply for “Shi Ning Ji,” transportation costs, etc.

By lunchtime, everything was finalized.

After signatures—

The contract was officially in effect.

However—

Jiang Ning didn’t rush her cousin to start slaughtering, cutting, and delivering chickens just yet.

Instead, she asked her to take the funds and try scaling up production a few times over first.

After all—

Barring any surprises,

Jiang Ning’s franchise expansion plan was about to roll out in full.

(End of Chapter)