Chapter 88: I Want to Do Livestock Too

No one remembers alms bestowed from above, but they will never forget a helping hand extended in their time of need.

That was exactly what Ma Changrong and Song Zhichao had in mind at this moment.

Within the bounds of the rules, they intended to befriend the promising young man, Cao Shujie.

—

Cao Shujie found a spot with a good view. Raising his arm, he traced a wide circle in the air before pointing toward the distant mountains.

“Manager Ma, Manager Song, what do you think about that stretch over there?”

“Where?” Ma Changrong was confused for a moment, then realization dawned. He nodded. “It’s huge. Vast.”

Song Zhichao followed up, “Mr. Cao, are you thinking of leasing that area as well, for livestock?”

“Manager Song is exactly right.” Cao Shujie didn’t shy away from revealing his “ambition.” Instead, he eagerly laid out his “advantages and vision” before them. “That’s my plan. What I’m doing now—this small-scale farming—is just to build up experience for future large-scale breeding.”

His voice boomed with confidence: “One day, those mountains will create greater value, instead of being overlooked and abandoned as they are now!”

Ma Changrong and Song Zhichao exchanged a glance, both smiling. They weren’t afraid of his big talk—what scared them was someone without the ability to hype things up at all. Without a hook, it would be impossible to promote or maneuver things later.

By the time they descended the mountain, it was nearly noon. Cao Shujie was still explaining his plans for the future, painting the vision carefully. What he described wasn’t just fanciful airs but seemed to follow a coherent thread of development.

Ma Changrong and Song Zhichao had met countless people, yet no matter how they thought, they couldn’t figure out how someone contracting mountain land just to plant fruit could spin so many bold, forward-looking ideas.

*This guy is practically born to pitch pyramid schemes!* thought Ma Changrong, watching the ever-talking Cao Shujie.

At noon, Cao Shujie treated them to a meal in Pingyuan County Town. The three of them drank heavily, cups clinking and laughter growing louder, the atmosphere warming with each toast.

—

Two days had passed since their site inspection. Back then, neither Ma Changrong nor Song Zhichao had promised any concrete figure for Cao Shujie’s project evaluation. But Cao Shujie had reassured them—everything would remain as agreed.

That meant no matter what the final total turned out to be, the two of them would get a tenth to divide between themselves.

After all, expecting others to work for you without offering benefits—what kind of dream was that?

Once the excitement faded, Cao Shujie pushed aside those thoughts and returned to the orchard, shears in hand. Moving among the trees, he clipped weak branches and fruit without hesitation, cold and methodical.

It was the same with the saplings. Though thousands had been sprayed repeatedly with nutrient solution, growth was still uneven.

Cao Shujie, however, showed remarkable patience. He wasn’t irritated in the least; in fact, this steady rhythm of life calmed him, breathing new vigor into him.

The weather had been scorching lately. Little Mengmeng wasn’t as lively as before, staying indoors with her mother or grandmother in the air conditioning, only venturing out at dusk for a run, always returning drenched in sweat.

One evening, as Cao Shujie left the orchard and headed home, he ran into Cao Jianhua—the man who ran the general store at the north end of the village. From afar, Jianhua raised a hand in greeting.

“Uncle Hua, were you calling me?” Cao Shujie jogged over.

Cao Jianhua nodded, pulling a cigarette from his pocket and offering one. “Smoke?”

“Sure.” Cao Shujie accepted, borrowing his lighter to ignite it before returning the favor and lighting Jianhua’s as well.

“Shujie, how’s the orchard coming along?” Jianhua asked with genuine curiosity.

Cao Shujie chuckled. “Oh, just a small-time venture, messing around really. Why do you ask, Uncle Hua?”

“You’ve started with almost a hundred mu. That’s hardly small-scale.” Jianhua studied Shujie’s young face, full of conflicting emotions.

Grinning, Cao Shujie pointed at Jianhua’s store. “And what about you, Uncle Hua? You must be making a decent profit here too!”

“Bah. How much could one really earn in Cao Family Village? We only have so many people. Everything’s counted already.” Jianhua shook his head.

He took a deep drag on his cigarette, then asked, “I heard you’re not just planting fruit—you’re getting into livestock too?”

“Mm. That’s the plan. Right now, I’m still looking at stock.” Cao Shujie didn’t hide it.

After all, at the end of June he’d hauled up bricks and cement to the mountain. The villagers weren’t blind. With so many hands working, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that pigsties were going up.

“What do you think of livestock? Doable?” Jianhua asked with unusual seriousness.

It clicked—so that’s what this was about. Uncle Hua was interested in raising livestock too?

“Uncle Hua, honestly,” Cao Shujie said, “our family’s been growing fruit for decades. My parents passed on plenty of experience, and I also went to Agricultural University. Running an orchard comes naturally to me. But livestock? Apart from the theory, I’ll have to figure most of it out as I go.”

Jianhua nodded—what Shujie said made sense.

“So what are you planning to raise? Pigs?” he pressed.

Shujie shook his head. “Not just pigs—what a waste that would be with all the land I’ve got up in the mountains! Cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, pigs—I’ll raise a bit of everything first, then see which works out best before deciding.”

“That’ll take a lot of money,” Jianhua remarked, keeping his eyes fixed on him.

Cao Shujie let out a bitter laugh. “A lot indeed. I’ve already put in over 800,000, and now I owe the bank an assload of debt.”

Saying this, he grasped his head with both hands, rubbing hard, his face twisted with frustration. “Uncle Hua, truth be told, I’m worried too. I really didn’t expect it to turn out like this. If I’d known earlier, I might’ve chosen a completely different path!”

Cao Jianhua couldn’t quite tell if what Cao Shujie had said was true or not.

He went on to ask another question: “Shujie, tell me—what if I also lease some mountain land and start raising livestock up there? What do you think?”

“I saw on the Agricultural Science Channel that some people rent whole mountains, let chickens and ducks roam free in the hills, and their prices end up several times higher than regular poultry. They’re making pretty good money off it!”

“So that’s what you were waiting for from me,” Cao Shujie thought to himself.

Then he nodded firmly. “Uncle Hua, leasing a mountain is definitely no problem. If you raise enough stock, you can even apply for subsidies from the Ministry of Agriculture. The leasing fee itself isn’t very high, but the later costs really aren’t small. How many acres are you planning to take?”

“I was thinking the more the better. At the very least, I’d contract a hundred mu,” said Cao Jianhua. He flicked the last of his cigarette to the ground, crushed the glowing tip under his heel, and added, “I figure if I raise too few, there’s no real profit.”

“If you’re going to do it, then do it on a bigger scale. Just recently I went to the Forestry Bureau in Pingyuan County Town to apply for a subsidy, and they told me that if you lease over two hundred mu, there are special state subsidy policies in place. It’s just that…” Shujie’s expression grew hesitant.

(End of this chapter)