Good spring light, better than a dream, where the green grass exudes its fragrance in the dream.
Xu Yang drove the tricycle, pulling ten piglets, traveling on the cement road of the mountain village.
The wind from the mountains blew in his face, cool and pleasant.
Little Black lay in the passenger seat.
It was still young; even if it stood up, its front paws couldn't reach the handlebars, so it could only lie there.
The little pigs in the back were all steady and calm.
Although the ride was a bit bumpy, the pigs were very stable in mood.
These guys, as long as you let them eat and sleep, they are settled.
Moreover, their sleep quality was excellent, enviable.
Let's put it this way, if the piglets were sleeping, you could lift them up and slap their faces a dozen times, and they wouldn't even wake.
It's like they're dead, that's the quality of their sleep.
Xu Yang drove the tricycle back to his small farm; Li Shan was holding a hose and washing the pigsty.
The pigsty was quite large, more than enough to raise ten piglets.
Upon seeing Li Shan's mother, Zhang Mei there, Xu Yang greeted her:
"Aunt Zhang, you came over too?"
Seeing Xu Yang, Zhang Mei immediately smiled.
She was especially grateful to Xu Yang since he had hired Li Shan.
Zhang Mei hoped that Li Shan could find a job to at least support himself.
Zhang Mei was very good to Li Shan, perhaps out of a sense of indebtedness; she had been protecting Li Shan since he was young, and whenever other kids bullied him, she personally stepped in to chase them away.
It's also why Li Shan had a decent character.
"My Shitou came here, and I just came to help out and see if there's anything I can do. The farm is just starting, and there must be a lot of work."
"I'm just helping out. I see you guys don't have someone to cook, so I'll do the cooking from now on."
"Don't worry, Aunt doesn't need your money, you just tell me what you want to eat."
Shitou was Li Shan's nickname; Zhang Mei spoke very sincerely.
"Aunt Zhang, I don't have much here, just raising some pigs and geese in the beginning, then fixing up the greenhouse to grow some blueberries."
"I was planning to cook by myself initially."
"If you want to come and cook, that's fine, I'll pay you a wage, and I'll go buy anything we need and keep it in the fridge."
Xu Yang said somewhat sheepishly.
It's a commendable quality among contemporary college students, feeling embarrassed to trouble others and not liking to impose on anyone.
Unfortunately, many people lack this quality, which makes them seem of lower character.
Zhang Mei immediately replied:
"You don't need to pay me a wage. Since Shitou is working for you, I'm just helping out."
"I said I don't want it, so I don't want it."
"Just buy the groceries, and I'll cook whatever you feel like eating."
"I'll come over every afternoon and evening."
Xu Yang added, "Aunt Zhang, I feel bad if you put it that way. Well, if you come here to cook, I'll increase Li Shan's salary by 800 yuan; that should be fine, right?"
Xu Yang wasn't very rich now, so the salary he was offering wasn't that much.
But once things improved in the future, the treatment at his farm would get better.
Hearing Xu Yang say this, Zhang Mei nodded gratefully.
Li Shan had already started carrying the piglets into the pigsty, one by one.
He wasn't good at expressing himself, just silently getting on with the work.
Even though he walked with a limp, he was particularly efficient at his job.
All the piglets were now in place, Xu Yang poured the prepared pig food into the feeding trough to feed the little pigs.
After finishing up with the pigsty, they went to check out their living area.
The living area of the farm had several rooms, including living quarters, kitchen, bathroom, storage, etc., all fairly well-equipped.
The living quarters consisted of a living room and a bedroom, which had a traditional Northeastern style clay bed.
Xu Yang planned to have the living area renovated and build a two-story house once he earned some money.
Since the land was leased by him, as long as it was within legal bounds, he planned to modify it as he wished.
Zhang Mei went to help Li Shan clean up his room.
In the evening, Xu Yang's parents also visited the farm to check out the place, bringing some food and drinks.
Knowing that Xu Yang loved cream-flavored ice cream, they stocked several boxes in the fridge.
These ice creams were specifically bought by Xu Hongshan from the ice cream wholesale market in the city.
His parents were very concerned about Xu Yang starting a farm.
And they came to help look around.
"You guys head back, I'm doing fine here; buy whatever you need, I don't need the money. Don't keep saying you are saving it for me; if you have to spend it, just spend it."
Xu Yang's parents left, and he spoke to them as they were about to leave.
"Okay, we'll head back," they replied.
Xu Yang's parents waved from the driver's seat and then drove away from Xu Yang's farm.
Big Yellow stuck his head out from the back seat window, also saying goodbye to Xu Yang.
Once the van had gone far, Xu Yang took Little Black back to the farm to rest.
That night, he lay on the kang, feeling completely content.
The nights in the mountain village were still a bit cold, requiring a thin quilt.
At times like these, it felt the most comfortable, the temperature was just right, much better than any air conditioning.
Xu Yang's favorite were the summer nights of the mountain village.
With a light quilt over him that carried a hint of warmth, sleep was extremely comfortable.
Outside in the yard, there was a large iron cage with a blanket laid inside, where Little Black was sleeping.
It wasn't that Xu Yang wanted to keep Little Black caged.
It was to protect him.
If it had been a kennel without a door, Little Black could have been carried off by a lynx, Mongolian Wildcat, or Wild Wolf at night.
The mountain was right beside the farm.
At night, many animals would come out to forage.
It was nothing unusual for little dogs to be carried away.
Unless several adult big dogs lived together, then there would be nothing to fear.
Most foraging animals acted alone, except for the tiger, other animals wouldn't dare provoke several dogs at once.
The night on the farm was utterly quiet, even the sound of insects had disappeared.
Xu Yang felt tired, washed up, then went to sleep, sleeping very peacefully.
The next morning.
Xu Yang woke up naturally, and when he opened his eyes, it was already 7:30.
He had arranged yesterday for someone who sold sugar cakes to come by, having bought four sugar cakes and four buns.
Together with a bucket of milk, that made up their breakfast for two.
After breakfast, Xu Yang let Little Black out, fed him a cake, then went to check on the piglets.
The piglets were all lying on the ground.
Worried that they might actually be dead, Xu Yang entered the pen and touched each piglet's neck.
After confirming they were all alive, Xu Yang breathed a sigh of relief.
"You guys really sleep like the dead."
"I thought you'd all drop dead on your first day here."
Xu Yang couldn't help but complain.
Looking at the "dead pigs" scattered on the ground, Xu Yang left them be and walked out of the pigpen, ready to tend to other matters.
Xu Yang had his own plans for the development of the farm, mainly focusing on two aspects.
One was to raise animals, and the other was to set up a greenhouse for off-season vegetables and fruits.
As for planting crops in the fields, Xu Yang found it too bothersome and labor-intensive, so he gave up on that idea.
The greenhouse was intended for growing blueberries.
Xu Yang had looked into the market and researched it; the prospects for the blueberry market were very good, and he judged that for at least the next five years, the business of growing blueberries in greenhouses would be quite profitable.
Managing a farm also required a lot of thought.
Otherwise, it was difficult to make money.
After breakfast, Xu Yang sat in the yard, checking the system's information.
In the past few days, the live broadcasts had accumulated quite a bit of popularity value.
Especially on the day they encountered the wild boar, just that day had garnered over twenty thousand popularity value.
He now had thirty-two thousand popularity value.
Xu Yang was thinking about how to use the lottery.
The Low-level Lottery only required 1000 popularity value, but there was a very high probability of receiving Low-level Rewards, like underwear, socks, clothes, shoes, and so forth.
There was a lower probability of receiving an Ordinary Reward.
After some consideration, Xu Yang chose to use three Ordinary Lotteries and two Low-level Lotteries.
He decided to use up all his popularity value in one go, to have a bit of fun.
[Host chooses two Low-level Lotteries, lotterying underway…]
[Congratulations to the host for receiving two Low-level Rewards:]
[Sunscreen Cool Straw Hat: A hat that feels cool as soon as it's worn, with excellent effects against sunlight radiation. (Note: Rumor has it that wearing this hat, one can become a man who conquers the mountain.)]
[Lightweight Underwear *1: Ultra-soft lightweight underwear, giving the sensation of wearing nothing at all.]
Unfortunately, Xu Yang got the underwear again.
Xu Yang was at once amused and exasperated.
But he accepted it since they were indeed very comfortable to wear.