The foreigner looked around helplessly. "What are you laughing at? What are you laughing at?" He asked the crowd.
He didn't understand why they were laughing at him. Milk was so good. "We've all been drinking this since we were kids. It's delicious."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone laughed out loud again. An intrusive woman from the crowd shouted with her arms crossed, "Yo, is this cow your mother? You drink cow's milk and not your mother's milk?"
Hearing her words, loud laughter sounded from the crowd again. One of the onlookers said, "Drinking milk really makes you different. Did it give you your yellow hair? Hahahaha… "
Although he couldn't quite understand what they were saying—the foreigner could tell that those were unkind words—judging by the mocking looks among the onlookers. He began to look annoyed. Before he could speak again, the person who had just chased him out said impatiently, "Leave. We do not like drinking cow's milk here."
The foreigner's face was ashen. He desperately needed money to find his family. Feeling despondent, the foreigner walked away resignedly among the sound of laughter from the crowd. Xiaoguo waited a while before hurrying after him when he was far from all the commotion.
Xiaoguo called out to him, "Hey, wait a minute."
The foreigner stopped and looked at the skinny woman running towards him, he felt puzzled.
"How much are you selling the cows for?" Xiaoguo asked directly.
The foreigner's surprise turned to joy in that split second. "Are you going to buy my calves?"
The words were spoken in fragments. He didn't know how to pronounce the words. They all sounded funny.
Xiaoguo suppressed a smile and nodded.
"Only a silver tael for the cows," the foreigner said hesitantly. He watched Xiaoguo's face, worried that she would find the price too high. He added, "Cow's milk is really good and nutritious."
Xiaoguo could only hear a babble of words, spoken with a strong foreign accent. She nodded and agreed to the price. One silver tael was a real bargain. It would cost two taels of silver to buy a cow for farming now, let alone a milking cow. She had struck gold. Although the cows were still young, Xiaoguo could make a lot of dairy products when the cows were older. She could also sell them for money. That would be another source of income.
Although the foreigner in front of her was very tall, he seemed to be quite young. She could tell from the look in his eyes that he was very young. He must have encountered some difficulties. Xiaoguo felt pity for him. She felt like a cheat, getting the cows for such a low price from this lad.
Unaware of the hurricane of thoughts in Xiaoguo's head, the boy was ecstatic. He could finally use this money to find his family.
The both of them exchanged cash and cows to complete the transaction. Xiaoguo felt guilty for taking advantage of him and passed him the last two copper coins she had, so he could buy some buns to eat. The boy was crying in gratitude and kept saying words of thanks in broken mandarin.
Xiaoguo felt even more guilty. Without daring to look back, she hurriedly pulled the cows along with her and left.
When she arrived at the entrance to the market, the carriage driver almost refused to let her get on. Two cows would occupy so much space and he had never heard of a carriage transporting cows.
While they were still bargaining and negotiating, Mrs. Yang returned. Upon hearing what the two had to say, she handed the driver some cash. It was enough to pay for two more people on the carriage, but in this case they were cows.
The driver then reluctantly let Xiaoguo bring the calves up the carriage. He instructed her to keep a close eye on the calves so that they don't dirty themselves on the car. Xiaoguo gritted her teeth and acknowledged with a grunt.
Xiaoguo and Mrs. Yang sat themselves down in the carriage and told each other what they had bought.
Mrs. Yang had bought a lot of stuff including clothes and food, while on the other hand, Xiaoguo had only two little cows and some seeds.
"Do you need me to help you with one?"
Mrs. Yang looked at Xiaoguo, who was holding on to the cows and offered her help.
"I'm strong enough to handle it."
Xiaoguo flexed her biceps at Mrs. Yang, to show her there was no problem.
Mrs. Yang had also bought a lot of things. Xiaoguo didn't want to inconvenience her.
Although the calves were milking cows, they were malnourished and had just been weaned. Their bone structure was big but they looked very skinny. Xiaoguo vowed to fatten up the calves. She would not be fit to call herself a chef if she failed to do so.
The two of them chatted and laughed as they returned to the village. After getting out of the carriage, the two of them walked home together. To be very precise, Mrs. Yang was walking, while Xiaoguo was inching along like a turtle.
The two cows did not want to move forward because of the unfamiliar environment. After much coaxing with grass and physically pushing them, Xiaoguo managed to get them moving.
Before arriving at Mrs. Yang's house, Xiaoguo could see Zhuang Zhuang, Xiaohua, and Xiaohu from a distance, playing at the front door of the house.
The moment Zhuang Zhuang heard them arriving, he threw down the stick in his hand and ran towards Xiaoguo. The boy was going to jump onto her, but Mrs. Yang and herself quickly stopped him. It had not been easy for Xiaoguo to calm the cows down. If Zhuang Zhuang were to jump forward and frighten them, they could respond in shock and injure Xiaoguo.
Xiaohua and Xiaohu fan over and said to Mrs. Yang, "We were playing in the house, but Zhuang Zhuang insisted on coming out to wait for his mother."
Xiaohu continued, "That's right. Zhuang Zhuang had asked dozens of times why his mother wasn't back yet."
Xiaoguo looked at the bashful Zhuang Zhuang with amusement. This boy was still a mommy's boy. He really needed his mother by his side.
"Ey… What's this? A big dog?"
Xiaohu's voice drew everyone's attention to the cows. The three children crowded around the calves curiously, discussing quietly among themselves.
Xiaohu even reached out to touch one of them. The gesture frightened the little cow and it darted away from Xiaohu with a kick.
Xiaohu was also taken aback by their response. He frowned and jumped a few steps back. This made Xiaohua burst into unstoppable laughter.
"Haha, this is a cow, a little flower cow."
Mrs. Yang explained to her children what the creature was called. The three children nodded in confusion. No one in the village had ever raised cows, so they never knew what the animal looked like.
When Xiaoguo heard this, she didn't correct Mrs. Yang. So be it. Flower cow it is, she'd explain next time.
When Xiaoguo and Zhuang Zhuang returned home, she allowed him to play with the calves while she took the seeds out of the basket. She planned to start planting them right after eating.
There were only so little seeds within a large basket. So much effort was required just to get this small amount of seeds.
Even with her self-healing powers, Xiaoguo was feeling a little tired from the bumpy ride on the carriage. The shabby carriage was made up of wooden planks, and there were no cushions on the seats. With each bump that they rode over, Xiaoguo felt like all the bones in her body were going to shatter.
Xiaoguo came to the kitchen again, wondering what to cook. She searched through the vegetable basket and brought out two eggplants and a cucumber. "Let's just have some noodles." She thought to herself and started cooking.
After his meal, Zhuang Zhuang did not go to sleep. He was worried about the calves in the courtyard. Looking at the slightly gray sky, he asked worriedly, "Mom, where will cows live?"
There was no shed in the courtyard. But since the cows were still small, it should be fine to let them stay in the courtyard. "Shall we build a shed for the calves soon?" Xiaoguo asked Zhuang Zhuang.
"Okay." Zhuang Zhuang replied and went to play with the cows again.
Xiaoguo remembered that there could be heavy rain. Judging by the look of the clouds, the rain should be torrential. She needed to prepare fodder for the cows in advance before the rain came. There were also some traps that she had set on the mountains. She wondered if there were any animals caught.
As she thought about what was in the mountains, Xiaoguo sped up what she was doing. Immediately after eating, she took out the seeds she bought. Based on the size of her plot, she decided that 20 seeds from each type of vegetable should be a good quantity to plant. The lady boss had told that these were catalyzed seeds and that they could be planted directly. This saved Xiaoguo the time of soaking them.
Xiaoguo picked up the hoe and started to loosen the soil. As the small plot had been neglected over the years, the soil had completely hardened. Vegetables would not grow under such conditions. She began to till the soil, turning out the moist layer below the white hardened surface. Once the tilling was done, she could start planting.
After the soil was all turned over, Xiaoguo began digging small holes within the plot. At this moment, Zhuang Zhuang stopped playing with the calves and came over to help. WIth each hole that Xiaoguo made in the soil, he would throw a seed in. "Mother, what kind of seeds are we planting?"
"These are eggplants. We'll also plant beans, potatoes, cabbages, loofahs, and leeks," said Xiaoguo, pointing to the ground at her feet. She showed him where each type of vegetables will be planted on the small plot.
With Zhuang Zhuang's help, Xiaoguo managed to sow the seeds for eggplant, beans, potatoes and cabbage.
Loofah was planted on the side of the plot— next to a wall. When it grew taller, it would climb up the wall for support.
The remaining leek seeds were to be scattered . They could not be planted one by one.
Xiaoguo chose a patch within the plot and dug out five small ditches, each was two centimeters deep and five centimeters apart. The seeds were sprinkled evenly into the ditches.
After planting the seeds, she had to water the soil. She needed a lot of water to soak the soil completely. She didn't ask Zhuang Zhuang to help as he was too small to carry the water. Xiaoguo fetched seven or eight buckets of water from the well all by herself and poured the water onto the plot. The water was quickly absorbed into the ground. It didn't seem very possible to flood the soil at all.
She watered the soil another five or six times. After the last bucket of water was poured in, she began to see water pooling on the surface of the soil. She was finally done.
Xiaoguo glanced at the plot and was deeply gratified to see the fruits of her labor. It wouldn't be long before vegetables started growing.
The weather was a little humid now, so Xiaoguo couldn't stop to rest. She asked Zhuang Zhuang to wait for her at home while she went out to gather grass for the calves.
Zhuang Zhuang wanted to follow at first, but Xiaoguo persuaded him to wait at home.
If she were just cutting grass, she would have let him follow her. However, she still had to go up the mountains. Xiaoguo repeatedly reminded Zhuang Zhuang not to go out and wait for her at home. She then set off, carrying the basket on her back with a machete in hand.
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