Chapter 17: The Eldest Brother Arrived

  The daily life on the ranch was a bit monotonous, of course this is Thomas's view as one of the three people who were at ease, but for him, the only idle person in the ranch, life was still colorful.

  Get up at 7:00 every morning, originally it was 6:00, but Ju An decided to change it to 7:00.

  In the morning after getting up, the first thing is to rush to the greenhouse, get a cucumber or two tomatoes as breakfast, and pull out a carrot for each of the bean grass and snowflake.

  Thomas feeds them carrots, cut into small pieces and placed in the palm of his hand. The rest of the horses are satisfied with four or five carrots. Moreover, the carrots grown in the greenhouse are as thick as duck eggs, nearly twice as large as ordinary carrots. He puts the carrots in a water tank to wash off the mud, then picks them up and walks towards the stable.

  Gave beans and Snowflake each a share of carrots, then started sweeping the stable, clearing out horse manure, and finally gave the two guys a good brushing.

  In the past, Nancy and Wayne also wanted to let out the two alfalfa guys first, but these two guys refused to come out of their small enclosure. They only came out when they were each given a carrot by Mr. Ju.

  Old Thomas would shake his head every time he saw these two guys and say they were a pair of foodies.

  When the saddles were ready, one person and two horses had already arrived at more than 8 o'clock. Then ride on bean grass or snowflake small run a lap, as for which horse to saddle is completely decided by who is closer to the saddle rack. The other horse was carrying a folding chair with a fishing rod.

  Every day from 9 to 11 is the fishing time for Ju An, except on Wednesdays. On Wednesdays, Ju An goes to the shooting range at the gun store in town to practice shooting for a whole day. When he returns, he brings some purchased items entrusted by Old Thomas. He kills two birds with one stone, having fun and shopping at the same time.

  In the afternoons, they would help drive the cattle. It's called driving cattle, but in reality, most of the time was spent competing with the young calves and practicing tying them up. There were only about a dozen or so young calves in the herd, and each one was basically subjected to abuse several times as they were tied up one by one. As a result, whenever the calves saw the bean grass or snowflakes approaching, they would resolutely refuse to stay outside the herd and instead sneak back into the middle of it with a guilty conscience.

  Spent a few afternoons in peace and quiet, just sighing at the sight of these clever calves.

  Luckily, the rest of the cows were delivered soon after by cattle broker Mack. This Mack is not the auctioneer Mack; there are too many foreigners named Mack. If you yell "Mack" on a New York street, about half the people around will look at you.

  However, the calves brought over were only 70 or 80 heads, and the newly arrived calves weren't that smart. They liked to play wildly outside the herd, of course, the outcome of the naughty little calf was very miserable. A lasso came over, a four-legged big guy, and immediately stood still and tightened the rope (the other end of the lasso was tied to the horn of the western saddle).

  Then a couple of guys immediately jumped off the body, put you on the ground, and then tied up your three hooves. When you're unlucky, you can encounter being tied up twice in one afternoon. If calves could swear, I guess they would be cursed dozens of times every day.

  The quiet Angus cattle, after the excitement of the little bull had passed, Huan was very satisfied. In his words, An's technique for handling the little bull was becoming more and more skilled, and when we drove the cattle, it was much easier. Basically, there were no longer any stupid calves running around all over the place. Now these guys were centered in the middle of the herd. Old Thomas and Nancy then burst out laughing.

  I don't know if it's because of the high nutritional value of the pasture or what, but the intelligence of the cattle has increased a lot, especially the calves. Later, even when the herd expanded to over 10,000 heads, the calves still mixed in with the rest of the herd. I estimate that after these dozens of calves grew up and had their own offspring, they would tell them: "You see those four-legged creatures with long necks? They're not good things. And those two-legged guys carrying stuff on their backs? They're terrifying! If you run around outside, they'll tie your legs up, and in one afternoon, they can tie you up several times."

  Of course, Hurrying Cow's Huai En was delighted. Later, when friends came to the ranch for a vacation, Ju An thought of performing a set of little cows, but it took a lot of effort to separate the little cows from the herd. Of course, these are all afterwords.

  Pulling open the bedroom curtains, the sun has not yet risen from the horizon, but the sky is already bright. Stretching and yawning, I take off my pajamas and walk into the bathroom in my slippers to start a new day.

  Today's fishing trip is cancelled. A few days ago, I received a call from my senior fellow Liu Chao, saying that he would come over today and finalize the small investment plan with Ju An. Today, Liu Chao brought his wife over to play for a few days.

  Dealt with it in an orderly manner, settled the bean grass and snowflake, then threw them into several horses that were eating grass, watching the two guys scatter before leaving.

  He went into the house and saw that the wall clock was almost half past eight. He changed his high-top boots with horseshoes to a pair of low-heeled boots, picked up a dark cowboy hat hanging on the coat rack, and walked out the door, casually plucking a blade of grass and putting it in his mouth.

  Driving with one hand on the steering wheel and the other arm resting on the window, humming along to "Days Go By" playing on the radio.

  “Drivin‘waytoofast

  ‘Causedaysgoby

  Wethinkabouttomorrow,thenitslipsaway

  Theiate‘sjammedwithgunnerslikeme

  We‘dbetterstartlivin‘

  Butsomewhereintheracewerun

  "Humming and shaking his head."

  On the road, I gave way to several deer crossing the road. These deer are really bold and don't care about the cars on the road at all. They swayed through the road with their families, causing me to honk the horn several times.

  The twenty-minute drive was delayed several times and it wasn't until 9:20 that we arrived at the airport.

  Here is the translation:

  Listen up, a car with a big sign on it that reads "Liu Chao" in both Chinese and English. It drove into the airport with a flourish.

  It's called an airport, but it's actually similar to the bus station back home. It can't compare to domestic airports, which are crowded with people. This airport is sparse and empty, you can see everyone at a glance.

  Some foreigners looked at Ju An with curiosity and smiles on their faces.

  Jū ān zhǎo le gè jiǎo dì fāng fàng xià pái zi, tài diū rén le.

  Translation:

  Living in a safe place found a remote location to put down the sign, too embarrassing.

  Casually found a chair and sat down, looked at the watch, um, the plane is almost here.

  After waiting for about ten minutes, a sweet female voice came from the loudspeaker: "The flight from San Francisco has arrived", Ju An walked towards the exit.

  Before long, Liu Chao appeared with two small packages in each hand and a large travel bag on his back. Beside him was a woman wearing jeans and a white T-shirt, with oversized sunglasses perched on her face.

  "Hey, brother, it's all right here." With a carefree smile, he waved his hand.

  Liu Chao also saw Ju An at this time, and with too many things in his hands, he could only nod towards Ju An.

  Walked over and took a package from his senior brother: "How come there's so much stuff".

  "This is your sister-in-law, Chinese name Zhao Nan, English Angela." Liu Chao introduced: "I brought some things in the bag for you, and also brought two bottles of Maotai from China. Let's have a good drink today, brother. Also, I brought the laptop you mentioned last time, it just so happened that a colleague was returning to China, so I asked him to bring one back, a domestic Lenovo, with Chinese system."

  "Hello sister-in-law, I'm Ju An."

  Zhao Nan shook hands: "Liu Chao often mentions you and talks about some things that happened in college, thinks it's very interesting".

  "Isn't it interesting?" Ju An Qi looked at Liu Chao with a strange expression.

  "Your sister-in-law grew up drinking Western ink, and her education is different from ours. Even our computer science major, studying Marxist philosophy, can't think clearly, everything feels fresh." Liu Chao shrugged: "Fortunately, Chinese has not fallen behind, now many overseas Chinese can't even speak Chinese clearly."

  It's actually well-known that many Chinese immigrants no longer live in Chinatown. Since the reform and opening-up, many Chinese immigrants who came to the US are technical talents like Liu Chao. Take my senior fellow apprentice for example, he lives in a suburban area outside of San Francisco and is considered a high-end white-collar worker with an annual income of around $300,000, far exceeding the median household income of $50,000 in the United States.

  From this perspective, the new generation of Chinese Americans has begun to gradually integrate into American society.

  Carrying a bag and accompanied by Liu Chao, he took out the sign he had brought from behind him and walked out of the airport.

  "I'm telling you, kid, carrying a big sign like that, why don't you hold it up high? Otherwise I would have seen it earlier," Liu Chao said with a smile.

  "Damn, don't even mention it, carrying this sign into the airport and I feel like those foreigners are looking at me like an idiot." Yu Meng drove with a gloomy expression.

  "This crappy little airport only has a few flights a day, and you're carrying such a big sign, of course you look like an idiot. I said haven't you been to this airport before?" Liu Chao laughed loudly.

  "At that time, I came to see the ranch and didn't pay much attention. Besides, putting up a big signboard isn't meant to make you and your sister feel more formal, is it? It's just to give a good impression on our first meeting," said Ju An Yu Men with a hint of annoyance.

  "This small western airport, basically all small planes, San Francisco to here is not every day flights, generally receive personal unfamiliar, take a paper written on it, no one makes such a big sign" Zhao Nan also smiled and said.

  As they walked and talked, Ju An and Zhao Nan gradually became familiar with each other, and their topics of conversation increased.

  "Look, the snow-capped mountain in the distance is so beautiful!" Zhao Nan exclaimed, pointing at the giant house outside the car.

  Liu Chao took a look and said, "Don't worry, we'll be staying here for a few days, let's take a look." Then he turned to Ju An and said, "By the way, do you have all the seasonings for cooking? Your wife speaks Chinese generally well, and she cooks authentic Chinese dishes. When we get home, I'll ask your wife to show off her skills."

  Patted the steering wheel: "All the ingredients are complete, it's just that I'm the only one cooking, and it's not good to cook. Usually, we just randomly match, now it's fine, let's go fishing in the afternoon and burn some fish for dinner."

  I heard there are fish that can be caught, Liu Chao got excited: "It's been a long time since I last fished, you have a fish pond here, not bad, the recreational facilities are quite complete".

  "There's a big pond in the middle of the pasture, I've seen it before, and the fish aren't small either. During this time, I go fishing every morning, usually just letting them go." He said with a smile to Liu Chao.

  "It's really beautiful here," Zhao Nan said, leaning against the window.

  The car has turned off onto a small road, which is just slightly narrower, but still dual-lane. On both sides of the road are wooden fences, and inside the fences are individual pastures.

  At a distance, you will find a house, the entire horizon is a green carpet, with groups of cattle and sheep grazing leisurely. The distant grassland and blue sky seem to meet together, so harmonious and vivid, here you can see no high-rise buildings blocking your view.

  In the distant dark green forest, clusters of dense red cypress trees are dotted.