Chapter Twenty-One: Change of Scene

  The next morning, after attending to his chores, he rode out on the oat grass, made a few casual circuits and then waited at home for the Taylors to drive their cattle over.

  Old Thomas said he was fine just watching, and that Huan could go busy himself with things like fishing. But Huan wanted to see what the scene was like, whether it was like in Western movies, where a herd of cattle galloped by, kicking up clouds of dust, and then cowboys on horseback emerged from the dust, their heroic figures shouting "Hurray!" as they lassoed with ropes, the tassels on their leather pants and the horses' manes floating in the wind. The cowboys rode towards the sunrise, their bodies bathed in a layer of golden light.

  Riding on a bean grass, they ran several laps, and those who were waiting at home were getting impatient. A group of cows finally appeared in their line of sight.

  Thomas also saw it and said: "An, they have come, let's go".

  One spurred his horse and rode off in the direction of the cattle towards old Thomas.

  When it was almost near, the residence was greatly disappointing. You see this family in front, driving two pickup trucks, one of which is towing a trailer, with only four or five people riding horses and herding cattle, looking at the herd, one of them strolling lazily, occasionally nibbling on the green grass, leisurely chewing.

  This is far from what I imagined a transfer would be like, it's just a family on vacation with their cow.

  Seeing Quinn and Thomas coming, Tyler also happily urged the horse to come forward. There was a little guy sitting in front of Tyler: "Hey, An, Thomas, good morning."

  "Good morning, Tyler," said Jess and Thomas, waving at Tyler from horseback.

  "Right behind him, Tyler introduced: 'This is my little nephew, Sandton, Sandton's son Jack, this is my old friend Anderson, and the one herding cattle over there is my son-in-law Kri' and so on."

  "And me, I'm Jerry," said the little guy sitting in front of Tyler.

  Taylor affectionately patted Jerry's head: "Oh, right, forgot to introduce my grandson, Little Jerry". Everyone looked at Jerry, who was wearing shorts and riding on a saddle, hugging a stake with both hands, smiling happily.

  Behind them in the car were Taylor's wife and daughter, with several families' children and housewives, both cars were packed with people. Goodness gracious, it was just like a tour.

  A group of people slowly drove the cows into the peaceful pasture, where hundreds of cows were easily herded. After driving for nearly half an hour, Taylor called out to everyone to take a break and let the cows eat some hay before giving them water.

  As soon as the carriage stopped, a three or four-year-old little girl ran over, shouting "Grandpa, grandpa, carry me up!" Taylor, who had just dismounted his horse, scooped up the little girl's armpits and put her on the horse's back. The little one then hugged her older brother's waist in front of her, blinking her big blue eyes staring at Ju An.

  Living in comfort, looking at the little guy having fun, teasing the little guy and saying: "My name is An, what's your name".

  The little guy was still a bit nervous, and Jerry puffed out his chest and said: "She's my sister, Emily."

  "Hello, Emily," Ju An said with a smile.

  "Hello, An." The little guy raised a chubby little hand and stretched it out towards Ju An.

  Yu An hastily grasped the small hand that Emily stretched out and gently shook it: "It's an honor to meet you, Miss Emily".

  Emily looked into Ju An's eyes and then called out to Tyler: "Grandpa, grandpa, I found that An's eyes are black!"

  Jerry said: "An is from China, so his eyes are different from ours."

  Emily bit her finger and asked: "China is a very far place?"

  Little Jerry rubbed his head and thought for a moment: "Of course, it's so far from home to Billings, driving will take more than a day".

  "Oh, it's really far away." Emily nodded and said.

  Haha, a group of adults were amused by the answers from two little guys.

  Two little guys chatting idly on horseback.

  He followed Tyler over to the Andersons', where he found Anderson pushing aside the grass and talking with Thomas, who was saying something that made them both laugh.

  Anderson said, "An, your pasture is really great. Look at the stems, they're half as thick as the others, and the leaves are wider and thicker too. Have you noticed that even the old leaves near the roots aren't yellowing at all? It's really good pasture, much better than ours in both pastures. And I just looked around the enclosure, it's all this kind of pasture, not a single weed in sight."

  He said that apart from the safety of everyone, he had also noticed that the grass grew very quickly. Within a week, it would grow back to its original state after being eaten by the cows. Moreover, the cows seemed to prefer this type of grass. He tried an experiment where he drove two cows to a nearby patch of ordinary grass, but they refused to eat it and instead ran to the edge to eat this particular type of grass.

  Taylor looked at Ju An strangely and asked, "Isn't your ranch all this kind of grass?"

  "I don't understand anything about pasture, to be honest I have some difficulty distinguishing between grasses. You'd better ask Thomas about this." He kicked the ball to Thomas, and as for the reason, Ju An would rather die than say it. Would he tell them that the pearl on his neck contained magical grass and water? The principle of "a commoner is innocent, but a jade wearer is guilty" was still understood.

  Thomas thought for a moment and said, "An, I don't quite understand the pasture either. I've never dealt with pastures before. I reckon it's the improved pasture that the previous rancher did. There are still some ordinary pastures on the edge of the ranch, but I don't know what's going on. This pasture doesn't extend over there."

  I know that the water in the pond is abundant, and if some of it is diverted into the pool, the grass will probably spread over there. With a sense of self-satisfaction, I think to myself, "I know this, but I'm not going to tell you guys."

  Old Thomas continued, "Also, in the past when we managed the pasture, we would always divert water. This time I observed that it's not necessary to intentionally divert water. Look at this grass root." He casually pulled out a blade of grass and pinched its root, saying, "Look at this root, it's very thick and moist, so there's no need for intentional irrigation. Our pasture currently has over 1,000 head of cattle. I roughly estimated that in the summer and autumn seasons, our creek can raise 20,000 to 30,000 head of cattle without any issues. As for whether these pastures will wither in winter, I don't know yet. The specific situation will have to wait until after this winter has passed."

  Taylor shook his head and said, "The previous rancher improved the pasture, that old Jew only knew how to fool around with women. I've seen him bring several young girls here to spend the night many times. When he was in charge, there were hardly any sheep raised, yet he improved the pasture? Improved Viagra, I'd believe that."

  Everyone was amused by Tyler's words. Ju An also felt from Tyler's words his deep resentment towards the previous ranch owner.

  After resting, Tyler called on everyone to continue their journey. The women got back into the carriage while the men mounted their horses and rounded up the scattered cattle, driving them forward as they continued on their way.

  The group of people were mostly very outgoing, Taylor's son-in-law Keli was quiet but worked hard and the old cowboys here were used to having thick mustaches, Thomas was like that, today these two older cowboys were also like that, probably a tradition, Ju An didn't like having a mustache, thought it felt more comfortable with a clean face.

  When the cattle approached their own pasture, Old Thomas and Wyan, who were driving the cattle, became busy, and finally Ju An also joined in to stabilize his own herd.

  Because it's already June, the cow's delivery date has arrived. According to Thomas' introduction, the cows raised on the ranch can give birth at any time of the year, but generally they will give birth during the warm spring and summer seasons. This way, the calves will be born in the spring and summer of next year, which increases their survival rate. Taking care of calves in winter is a lot of trouble.

  There were many female cows in the Taylor family's herd, which made the male cows here very excited. They couldn't resist the temptation of the beautiful cows and always wanted to go over and get intimate with them. Once a male cow moved, the other cows in the herd would follow suit. If they weren't stopped, the two herds would mix together, and it would be difficult to separate them later. Therefore, Wayne and Thomas tried their best to prevent the male cows from approaching Taylor's herd, while stabilizing the entire herd. Pidan and Suantou also shouted loudly, baring their teeth and staring fiercely at the herd, as if they were about to pounce on them at any moment.

  When Taylor's cattle drove away, the cattle on the side of Ju'an gradually calmed down. At this time, the three people in Ju'an were already sweating profusely.

  Watching the gradually quieting down cattle, Ju An finally let out a sigh of relief. These guys, with only a dozen or so bulls in their herd of over a thousand cows, still can't get enough of those black little females, and they're always eyeing someone else's cattle. Who's not being honest? Just focus on farming your own land, and after two months, I'll kill you all. If there aren't many calves born next year, I'll use you guys as a sacrifice to the knife, and I'll also get to enjoy some meat myself. With a fierce glare, he eyed those bulls, "Hmm, this one's not bad, its muscles are really solid." As soon as his mom comes over, I'll slaughter it and make some braised beef for myself. His thoughts had once again turned to food, and thinking of his mom's braised beef made his mouth water instantly. He couldn't help but want to bring his mom over right away, so they could have a delicious meal of braised beef tonight.

  "Alright, it's okay, we can go back now." Thomas' words finally pulled Ju An out of her reverie.

  Riding on the bean grass, I returned to the horse training ground and saw that Liu Chao and Zhao Nan were already riding horses side by side in the field. Looking at their movements, they had made a lot of progress. Now, they were also quite elegant on horseback, unlike when they first started, looking like big monkeys squatting.