Chapter One Hundred and One: Strike While the Iron is Hot

  Back to the ranch, stopped the car, just walked out of the car door, and saw Teddy lying under the corridor staring at the car. He stood up on his hind legs, saw Ju An getting out of the car, waved at Ju An, and ran towards him. Wu Song, who was beside Teddy, also came to greet him with small steps.

  Just as Ju An closed the car door, two guys came to his feet. Wu Song grabbed Ju An's pants and shouted loudly, while Teddy rubbed against his calf with his body, making "hmm" sounds nonstop. He squatted down, first touching the heads of the two guys, then handed them two pieces of fruit he brought from the car. Wu Song got a small plum, and Teddy got a big pear. The two guys started devouring the fruit as soon as they received it.

  At this time, Old Thomas came out of his own house, looked at Ju An and laughed loudly: "An, you're finally back. If you didn't come, Teddy would get depression."

  "What's depression? With food and drink at home, nothing to worry about, it's much more comfortable than being out in the wild. What's wrong with this little thing?" Ju An looked down at the ground, standing upright on his hind legs, and saw a big fat Teddy bear holding an apple in its front paws, which had gotten even fatter since he last saw it, and wondered what kind of depression it could possibly have.

  "Since you left, the fruits that were left behind were eaten up four or five days ago. Then I went to the orchard and bought a lot more back, but Teddy ate twice and then didn't want to eat anymore. He's been lying at the door, staring out at the road, waiting for you to come back. These past few days, he gets up early every morning and squats under the corridor, even Wu Song doesn't play with him much, just accompanies him squatting under the corridor."

  This is clearly a case of being too used to the finer things in life. It's like someone who's always eating delicacies and then suddenly being given a moldy bun - would they be able to stomach it?

  "Thomas! I've got something to discuss with you, see if it's feasible. Come on, let's go inside and talk." Teddy, who was gnawing on an apple, saw Ju An walking away and quickly bit down on the apple, shaking his big butt as he ran after Ju An. Wu Song followed suit, but he was much more nonchalant, peeling a pear with one hand while strolling forward, his two small eyes fixed on the fruit in his hand.

  Entering the house, he directly turned on the coffee machine, poured two cups of coffee, handed one to Old Thomas, and then plopped down onto the sofa. Teddy also got up onto the sofa with an apple in his mouth, placing his two front paws on Gu An's thigh, continuing to eat the apple.

  Living in peace, he didn't care about Teddy much. With his right hand touching Teddy's head and two fingers rubbing Teddy's small round ears: "It's like this, I heard someone gave me some advice this time, to take out a five-year loan from the bank, and then expand our cattle herd to 30,000 heads, what do you think?"

  Thomas took a sip of his coffee, then grasped the cup with both hands and thought carefully: "This proposal is not bad, but if we have 30,000 head of cattle now, these people's hands are far from enough. At least ten more people need to be added. Another thing is that although the grass in our pasture is good, Anderson's pastures also have this kind of grass, and it's still green now. Other pastures have started to wither slowly. Although it seems that there won't be a big problem for the cattle to get through the winter, if we add 26,000 more head of cattle, our current pasture storage will be far from enough. Who knows how many months our pasture can remain green? The cattle's winter is a big problem. And if so many cows come out at once, it's better to build several worker houses on the east side of the pasture, and divide the cattle into two groups, which would be more convenient. After all, our grass is good, and it grows thick and fast, so we don't need to migrate like other pastures."

  A month ago, Ju An deliberately left some space in the pond on the pasture and extended the pasture towards Anderson's pasture, so that his own pasture would not be too conspicuous.

  After some consideration, Ju An nodded and said: "Alright, let's do it that way. Tomorrow, we'll first recruit some laborers to harvest the pasture grass, while at the same time building a few workers' houses on the east side of the ranch. Then, we'll start buying cattle. Today, I'll go return the car to the dealership and take a taxi back."

  Thomas asked seriously, "If you've made up your mind, we can get started right away. This afternoon I'll go with you to find some laborers and we can start the loan procedures at the same time. After all, it's already October and snow will be falling soon. And there's another piece of good news: the two dogs have given birth to nine puppies in total, and another one is about to give birth."

  "Good! That's it! The more dogs the better, now we have an extra pair of hands!" Who knew that with a loud slap on the thigh, it was sticky. Looking down, oh my, Teddy had finished eating the apple and his pants were also wet with a big stain. At first glance, it looked like he had lost control of his bladder. The pants didn't know whether they were stained more with apple juice or Teddy's saliva. The mischievous Teddy didn't have any awareness at all, his little head was still buried in Ju An's leg, enjoying the touch. A pair of small round eyes, occasionally closing and then suddenly opening wide, was taking a nap.

  Hurriedly pushing Teddy away, Ju An immediately stood up from the sofa. Thomas saw a big wet spot on Ju An's pants and burst out laughing. Ju An had no choice but to say: "Well, let's do it this way then. I'll go change my clothes first, this guy has made a mess."

  Thomas smiled, picked up his cowboy hat and stood up: "Then I'll go prepare, see what else is missing, make a list, and bring it over for you to take a look" After finishing speaking, he put on his hat and turned around to leave.

  Ju An turned around and went upstairs with his luggage, of course, the two little tails followed. As he walked, Ju An called Nian: "Hello! Nian, I'm An, I want to turn my ranch into a company now, I need a legal advisor to come over and help me out, do you have time?"

  Nian thought for a moment and said: "Okay, then doesn't your ranch always need a fixed lawyer?"

  "Right," said Ju An with a nod. "That's the situation, but for now I haven't found a trustworthy lawyer here, so I'll have to ask for your help. How about it? When can you come over?"

  Nian smiled brightly and said: "I have time anytime, just notify me a day in advance when the time comes."

  "Alright, thanks, I'll get started tomorrow. If you have time, come over tomorrow."

  "Okay! I'll go there tomorrow afternoon," Nian replied.

  After finishing the phone call with Nian, Ju An put her luggage in the house, found a clean pair of jeans from the closet and changed into them, and threw the dirty clothes from her luggage and the jeans she had just taken off into the laundry basket.

  Then, carrying two small things, they entered the space. After a while, there were still many fruits on the fruit tree, but the ripe fruits on the ground had increased, and under the fruit tree, they had piled up into a small heap. Wu Song and Teddy entered the space and immediately pounced on the fruits on the ground. Teddy even lay down on the fruits and started rolling around.

  Looking over at the nearby herd of cattle, there were actually seven or eight more half-grown calves. Several large cows were accompanied by the calves, and under a nearby pear tree, they were eating fallen fruit. The entire herd had already grown to seven or eight heads, this expansion was really fast! This guy in the space not only liked to eat grass but also enjoyed eating fruit on the ground. Holding a small bucket, he picked up some of the fruit on the ground and put it into the bucket, then took these two reluctant little guys out of the space.

  Followed by going to the granary to see two dens of small dogs, as soon as the door of the granary was opened, I saw two female dogs standing up vigilantly, seeing that it was Ju An, they lay down again. The little ones beside their belly had not yet opened their eyes, and were still under their mother's belly skin, occasionally using their short legs to kick each other, competing for milk. The little ones looked very healthy, more than half of them were yellow, two were black, and the rest were white, but none of them had their mother's piebald color, they were all fluffy and cute.

  When Ju An came out of the warehouse, Old Thomas also walked over and handed one of the papers to Ju An. After taking a look, he saw that it was written with a long string of words, something about purchasing another tractor, and then some materials for building workers' quarters.

  "Isn't this worker's house supposed to be built directly by finding someone? Why do we still need to buy the materials ourselves?"

  Thomas shook his head and said, "There's no need to find a professional to build this kind of house. It costs less money, and these houses are basically just simple combinations put together. If you can't even get this right, how can you work on the ranch?"

  After listening to Old Thomas, Ju An nodded slightly. In fact, this kind of house is like building with blocks, the only trouble is the foundation, but for these American cowboys who are used to doing things themselves, it's really nothing.

  Nodding in agreement with Thomas, the two of them got into their car and left the ranch. When they arrived at Lewisburg, Gideon returned the car to the rental agency and took Thomas to the small bar where they had first met, greeting the owner Billy before Thomas went over to a table to chat with some people around his age.

  After taking a sip of beer, Ju An said to Bili: "This time my ranch is going to raise more cattle, so I need some manpower, that's why I came here to ask for your help".

  Bill wiped his big glass beer mug with his hand and said with a smile: "The expansion of the ranch is a good thing, is it still the same condition as last time?"

  "Right," said Ju An, nodding his head. "The conditions remain the same. This time we're preparing to recruit ten people. I'll have Old Thomas take care of this matter."

  "Billy smiled and said: 'Alright, I'll hang a sign at the entrance of the bar later. By tomorrow, everyone who needs to know will know'."

  "Thanks, Billy," said George, smiling at Billy.

  "No trouble at all, just a matter of convenience," Bill replied with a smile.