My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 412 The Jackal's Startling Appearance in Early Summer
The Chen family has gotten used to it and has experience in dealing with this kind of thing.

Let outsiders say what they want; we'll just live our lives steadily and honestly.

They went about their business as usual, just like any other day.

Zhou Weijun and the crew members from the Water Margin TV series stayed at the farm for a day and overnight before leaving the next day.

I was a little reluctant to leave when it was time to go.

I won't even mention the amazing surprises the food and drinks gave them.

The scenery and environment here are extremely comfortable.

It's not so noticeable when the weather is cool, but once the weather gets hot, the difference between the farm and the outside world becomes very obvious.

The air was incredibly cool, and listening to the babbling of the water flowing in and out of the farm's irrigation ditches, you could almost feel the fresh moisture, along with the fragrance of flowers and fruits, wafting over you, refreshing your senses and making you feel invigorated.

That’s all.

The key point is that it's very comfortable to sleep at night, quite different from other places.

When asked what the differences were, they couldn't give a clear answer.

I just felt very comfortable and relaxed all over my body, inside and out, when I woke up.

It was as if the fatigue of many days had been relieved in an instant, and I felt refreshed and full of energy.

Even Zhou Weijun, who had visited many times before, couldn't help but praise it repeatedly, saying that it must be a great place to escape the summer heat.

In short, after staying one night, they were even more willing to come here to film the scene of fighting the tiger on Jingyang Ridge.

The film crew brought the tiger over for filming, so it wasn't a big deal.

If a zoo has a suitable tiger, they will transfer one from that zoo.

So it doesn't matter whether the tiger goes to the main filming location or comes to Chenwangzhuang, it still has to be transported by car.

Tigers were never a problem in the first place.

The tiger is insured.

This means that if a tiger is injured or killed, compensation must be paid.

If an actor or other crew member is injured or killed by a tiger, it is ignored.

Even after the production team promised to buy insurance for the actors and hire animal trainers, no one dared to go on set.

This is why it's so difficult to find an actor to play Wu Song.

After all, aren't tigers in zoos tigers too?

No one has the guts or the confidence to film with a tiger.

Now, Chen Ling's own family has also passed the initial excitement and is slowly coming to their senses, and is starting to worry.

Chen Ling didn't seem to care much.

The production crew also told him that a month or two before filming, they would come and take him to the zoo so that he could find a tiger he could get along with, act as its keeper, feed the tiger, and build a relationship with it over a few days.

This was exactly what Chen Ling wanted.

They failed to catch the mother leopard and allow them to have cubs.

So going to the zoo to pet the big tabby cats would be a good idea.

And you can also take your wife and kids to the zoo a few more times for free.

……

This day marked the one-week anniversary of Sun Yanhong's crayfish restaurant opening in the city.

With this woman's connections and her ability to cultivate relationships.

Then, they'll use the name of the "Big Turtle" for further promotion...

The result was as expected.

As soon as crayfish, a night market staple, appeared, it conquered the taste buds of a large number of people.

With summer approaching and the weather getting hotter, the weather is getting warmer.

Having a few drinks at night, a lobster hot pot, and a delicious meal sounds amazing!

Sun Yanhong happily took the ledger and showed it off to Chen Ling, displaying the money she had earned that week.

Before I could finish showing off, the little sheep came over too.

These past few days, he's been delivering aquatic products to Tian Hongli twice in several vehicles. He's planning to come back and rest for a couple of days before stopping the aquatic product transport and starting to haul apricots to Chen Ling in the city.

Although Tian Hongli's fish and shrimp purchases have become a sensation in the provincial capital thanks to a series of legends about divine turtles and giant softshell turtles, the market is gradually becoming saturated.

It will take some time to digest.

Furthermore, there are only so many fish and shrimp in the reservoir.

Sun Yanhong's share is also included here.

It's not just Tian Hongli's thing.

Little Sheep then said, "Sister Hong, you should hurry up and transport the fish to the city. Now is the perfect time. I've seen many people in the provincial capital having dinner parties and specifically requesting fish from Biewang Lake."

"Hey, Boming, you still care about your former boss, huh? I thought you were hanging out with your Uncle Fugui and looked down on your former boss."

Sun Yanhong made a surprised joke.

Upon hearing this, the little lamb looked embarrassed and quickly said, "No, no, how could that be?"

In this young man's heart, Tian Hongli was ultimately an outsider.

As a local son-in-law, he naturally had to side with the locals, and in his view, it was only right to remind Sun Yanhong.

I'm just tongue-tied, shy, and don't know how to speak.

"Alright, Xiao Fang is shy and doesn't like joking with girls, why are you teasing him?"

Chen Ling put the ledger back to Sun Yanhong and said.

“I’m not kidding him. This kid just can’t let loose around women. He’s from a wealthy family, so why is he so reserved?”

Sun Yanhong was in a good mood today and talked a lot. After chatting for a while, she smiled at Little Sheep and said, "Don't worry, Boming, I'm not in a hurry. I'm guarding your Uncle Fugui's treasure trove, why would I need to compete with outsiders for food?"

She wasn't usually this calm and composed.

They were also planning to quickly buy several truckloads of fish to compete with Old Tian for market share.

Tian Hongli is in the provincial capital.

She's in the city, and the news hasn't spread yet, which is a good time for business.

However, the popularity of the lobster restaurant was beyond her expectations.

She had a new idea.

While the lobster restaurant is still thriving, we plan to gradually add other freshwater fish, shrimp, and other seafood to the menu.

Anyway, all the fish and shrimp left in the reservoir outside the village belong to her.

She can fish it out whenever she wants.

Then put Chen Ling's fruit wine over there as well.

She had bought wine many times and knew the taste of those fruit wines well.

It's a real weapon when you bring it out in the summer.

So I stopped panicking immediately.

Sun Yanhong and Little Sheep are discussing business here.

Chen Ling had no interest in listening to their stories.

He simply sat on a wicker chair next to the grape trellis, lazily feeding the little pigeons, watching them coo and scramble for food on the ground, flapping their wings and circling around him, a lazy smile on his face.

These two little creatures have just learned to fly.

They just can't fly very high or very far. Chen Ling noticed that they weren't happy staying on the long corridor by the lotus pond. They couldn't fly into the nests made of earthenware pots after they were hung up, and if they couldn't control their direction, they would easily crash into the pillars of the corridor.

So they moved them to a different place.

The earthenware pot was tied to a wooden stake, which was taller than a person, next to the grape trellis.

This place is quite nice; it's shaded by grapevines, so it's cool in the summer, and it's also spacious.

They like it very much themselves.

"Fugui, Boming told me that your apricots are selling quite well in the city. Is the orchard open yet? If it is, start picking them. I'll send a car to help you transport them."

"I'll keep a few baskets of apricots and sell them in front of the lobster restaurant."

Sun Yanhong is always in high spirits when she's having a good time; her lobster restaurant is almost as profitable as a sand quarry.

At the same time, he realized that he hadn't misjudged Chen Ling; this kid was a real catch, and he had to get in touch with him more quickly.

Upon hearing her say that, Chen Ling looked at Little Sheep and asked, "Bo Ming, Old Liu said the apricots are selling well?"

"Yes, Lao Liu said our apricots taste better than other apricots, and the key is that they last longer. Some customers have bought them several times in a row, saying that both the elderly and children like them, and asked me to bring a few more baskets when I go to the city this time..."

Chen Ling waved his hand: "No need to bring several baskets at a time. The apricots are almost all ripe. We can just take them all in one trip this time."

Having been in the cave for over two years, he knew what was going on.

The effects of the magical water on fruit trees and vegetables are different.

Even if you use undiluted spiritual water to directly water a sapling, it won't grow into a towering tree within a year.

However, vegetables, grains, and other herbaceous plants can be watered two or three times, and some can even mature in just one time, and they taste excellent.

Even diluted spiritual water makes the grains and vegetables taste noticeably better than ordinary water.

You can taste the difference.

As for fruit trees, the diluted spiritual water has no obvious effect.

This effect appears to last for many times longer in fruit trees.

Especially since it was the first year that their own orchard bore fruit.

It becomes even less obvious.

It barely reaches the sweet taste of Northwest fruits, and is slightly different from the authentic Xinjiang fruits.

This is the difference in the effects of the spiritual water on woody and herbaceous plants.

At first, Chen Ling was a little confused about this.

If you pick and eat one of those fruits while inside the cave, it will grow back very quickly.

He subconsciously assumed that trees were the same as vegetables and peanuts.

As a result, the peach and jujube branches that were cut down did not flower and bear fruit as quickly as he had expected after they took root.

This is true even inside the cave.

Later, while chopping firewood, I discovered the rings of growth on the old tree stump...

He then began to understand.

Herbaceous plants wither and flourish once a year.

Fruit trees, however, need to grow for many years, take root, and endure wind and frost.

Fruit trees themselves store and absorb a lot of nutrients for growth, but not all of these nutrients are reflected in the quality of the fruit.

In terms of taste and texture, it is naturally not as varied as grains and vegetables.

Since that's the case, we can just take all these apricots away in one truckload and hand them over to Liu Jiancheng to sell at the market price, or at a slightly higher price.

Now, because Liu Jiancheng sells salted eggs, he has also started selling fruits and vegetables, and it is slowly taking the shape of a fruit and vegetable supermarket.

“In that case, let Boming rest. I’ll help you haul the apricots this time. Anyway, as you said, it’s only about a ton, and one truckload will do.”

Sun Yanhong had asked Chen Ling about this before.

Chen Ling estimated that ten acres of apricot trees would yield at most one and a half tons of fruit in the first year, or at least one ton, or even less.

One fruit and vegetable transport truck can take them all away.

"Okay, let's leave it at that for this year."

Chen Ling nodded. Apricots are like that, and peaches and pears are probably similar.

The effects of the spiritual water on fruit trees are slow and require a long time; it will probably take three to five years for the taste to undergo a qualitative change and for the quality to improve.

A glimpse of the splendor of the fruits and vegetables inside the cave appeared.

Of course, to outsiders, this young man had never grown fruit trees before, and this was only his first year selling them. It would be good if he could sell them all without losing money.

Only his closest family members, such as his father-in-law and mother-in-law, who have witnessed too many miracles in him, would have high expectations for the fruit trees.

They believe that fruit trees can also bring surprising harvests.

"Oh, right, Fugui, prepare a few more jars of fruit wine for me... Fill a few jars of each kind for me, I'll put them in the restaurant. Boming, go outside the village and bring me some more wheat straw, I'll have someone take it to the city today."

Sun Yanhong's plans were not kept from Chen Ling. She knew that this guy was shrewd and didn't like people who played tricks.

Besides, if she's willing to spend her own money on alcohol, Chen Ling certainly won't refuse her.

They even helped her put a thick layer of wheat straw on the car with the little sheep to prevent the wine jar from breaking on the way.

After selling the wine and settling the accounts, a quick calculation afterwards showed that over the past half month, Tian Hongli had earned money from the fish and shrimp she had purchased, the share of the crayfish profits, the wine sales, and other miscellaneous income.

It's almost 60,000 yuan.

If we calculate back further, the income from the past six months must have been at least 100,000 yuan.

After thinking about it, Chen Ling realized that this amount of money was quite substantial.

Maybe we should postpone buying a car.

Well, as long as we don't buy a car, the money we've saved for the kids is enough. For the remaining six months of this year, it's better to spend time with my wife and son, enjoying life and waiting for the second child to arrive.

After all, after picking apricots, there's wheat harvest to wait for, then corn to be planted, and after that, the peaches will be ripe and ready to be sold.

There's no end to being busy, and there's no end to making money.

Also, I can hardly remember how long it's been since I last went into the mountains.

As a forest ranger, this is a serious dereliction of duty.

There is one particularly good thing about Chen Ling.

They just do whatever comes to mind, but unfortunately hunting is prohibited in the summer. This is the rule in the mountains and among hunters.

Summer is the peak breeding season for wild birds and animals, so hunting is prohibited.

So he didn't bring any hunting equipment.

After going to the county town to deposit money with Sun Yanhong and Xiao Mianyang that day, I took the two big dogs and went into the mountains from Xishan, where the slope is relatively gentle.

He thought to himself: Since hunting is not possible in the summer, I'll go find a pack of wolves to play with first.

Whistling all the way, he led his dog over mountains and valleys, chasing away the birds and small animals they encountered, playing as they went, heading towards the wolf pack's den.

Perhaps he had been holding back for too long, because he was a bit too indulgent this time in the mountains. The two dogs, Heiwa and Xiaojin, also became a little lax and, without realizing it, attracted the attention of wild animals in the mountains.

They headed towards the wolf's den, but before they had gone halfway, just crossing the edge of the forest, they encountered a cunning-looking jackal watching them from afar in the woods on the opposite bank of a stream.

This discovery instantly put an end to the playful mood of the person and the two dogs, making them alert.

----

PS: Good news! We've finally reached the premium subscription threshold of 3,000 average daily subscriptions, but we haven't lit up the badge yet. I originally planned to post this chapter after I got the badge, but I was afraid that if I posted it, the subscriptions would drop and we wouldn't reach 3,000 average daily subscriptions.

After waiting and waiting, it was almost midnight and I still hadn't received the badge, so I decided to send it out anyway.

Thank you all for your support! I'll be sending out red envelopes in the book club group tomorrow, so please remember to claim them. We didn't finish claiming the ones from the New Year's Day giveaway...

(End of this chapter)