Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Purchasing Livestock

With the house successfully sold, the massive weight on Melody Summers’s shoulders was finally lifted.

After breakfast, Melody said to Miss Lowell, "Miss Lowell, I won’t be home for lunch or dinner today, so please don’t wait for me."

With that, Melody drove off. Today, she was going to buy fruit trees and animals.

Melody first drove back to Mount Anworth. She planned to transplant a few of the undamaged trees from the orchard on the mountain.

The fruit trees on Mount Anworth had all been hand-picked by her uncle. They were superior varieties that, after several years of careful cultivation, had all reached their fruit-bearing stage.

During the apocalypse, this was the orchard Melody had longed for more than anything. Back then, a single apple could sell for an astronomical price. Melody had dreamed of returning to this orchard and eating her fill of fruit.

Melody parked her car in a hidden spot at the foot of the mountain. Avoiding the loose rocks along the path, she hiked to the orchard. Sure enough, she saw that quite a few fruit trees had survived. She began transplanting them into her space one after another.

[Received: Apple Trees x10.]

[Received: Peach Trees x10.]

[Received: Orange Trees x10.]

[Received: Apricot Trees x10.]

[...]

[All received fruit trees have been transplanted into The Arcadian Woods. The Arcadian Woods are suitable for the growth of all fruit trees. The trees are now striving to blossom and bear fruit.]

Melody reluctantly prepared to leave the orchard, wondering if she would ever have the chance to come back here again.

Suddenly, she saw several figures in the distance at the base of the mountain, making their way up.

A jolt of alarm went through her. She snuck down a different path to get a better look at the group.

It turned out to be Simon Lancaster, leading a project team to conduct an assessment. They were probably trying to evaluate the damage and see if they could salvage any of their losses.

Ever since Melody had told Silas Lancaster off a couple of days ago, Elaine Hughes had been calling and texting her nonstop. Even Robert Lancaster had sent her a special message, lecturing her about the resources and connections the Lancaster Family could provide if she returned home. ’The central message was that she should stop being childish and learn to weigh the pros and cons.’

She hadn’t responded to any of them.

Melody quietly slipped past the group, returned to her car, and drove away.

On the road, Melody decided that the fruit trees from the mountain weren’t varied enough. She drove to a plant nursery and bought more: cherry trees, grapevines, persimmon trees, kiwi trees, Honey-Tang plum trees, lychee trees...

The sellers all promised the trees would bear fruit this year. Whether they were telling the truth or not was anyone’s guess; Melody didn’t know much about it and could only hope for the best.

She first pretended to load the saplings into her car, then, when no one was looking, she transplanted them all into her space, hearing the successive notifications of successful transplants in her mind.

*

After leaving the nursery, Melody drove to a chicken farm. It was run by her university classmate, Lester Archer. Lester had studied animal science and became friends with Melody through a university club.

Lester was a stand-up guy. When Melody was being slandered and cyberbullied by Austin Hale and Joanne White, he was the first to step up and help clear her name.

Lester had started his own business in his junior year, opening this chicken farm.

When Melody had called Lester yesterday, she told him her family was planning to lease another mountain and wanted to raise some chickens, ducks, cattle, and goats on the back slope. She asked if he could help her pick some out, and Lester had readily agreed.

Seeing Lester waiting for her in front of the chicken farm, Melody got out of her car and greeted him.

"Lester, long time no see! You’re a big boss now."

Lester replied with a wry smile, "What kind of big boss? Haven’t you heard the saying? No matter how much your livestock is worth, it doesn’t count as real wealth. Sigh, I’m planning on quitting this year. I’m about to sell the whole place, chickens and all. If you’d come half a month later, you would’ve missed me."

Lester was much tanner than he had been in university. He wore a simple long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans, and his handsome face carried a trace of weariness that hadn’t been there in college.

Melody was taken aback. ’I was just wondering how I was going to warn him to be careful about the coming heatwave.’

’After all, even if the chicken farm could survive the tornado in a month, there would be no escaping the coming global heatwave. Power prices would skyrocket, the farm would lose electricity, and the chickens probably wouldn’t make it. I can’t believe he was already planning to switch industries.’

Melody asked, "Selling it? Is it not profitable?"

"Sigh, you’re just trading your life for money. A corporate job is a 996 grind, but running a farm is a 24/7 ordeal," Lester lamented.

"The moment I see anything unusual with the droppings or feathers, I have to run to the city’s veterinary station for advice. Eventually, I just bought my own microscope to do dissections. After selling the chickens at the end of the year, I have to disinfect everything with quicklime, then fumigate with formalin. Even the soil in the yard has to be turned over and sterilized."

"I have to personally go to the hatchery for the chicks. The second one hatches, it needs a vaccine. Any that aren’t vaccinated within twelve hours have to be destroyed. From hatching to market, they need over twenty vaccinations, and you can’t cut corners. If it needs an injection, you can’t just put the medicine in their water."

"Chicks, coops, the yard, feed, lighting, vaccines, water source, supplements, separation... there’s a pitfall to avoid at every single step. Only after all that can you even start thinking about making a profit." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

It was as if a floodgate had opened, and Lester poured out his frustrations to Melody. "My old college roommates are all getting married, and I don’t even have a girlfriend. After graduation, my family set me up on a few blind dates, but the moment the girls heard I raise chickens, they all ran for the hills."

Melody sighed to herself. ’Farming really is hard work.’

"So what industry are you moving into after you sell the farm?" The apocalypse was imminent, and Melody was worried Lester would jump from one disaster into another.

"I’m planning to work at the municipal Livestock and Veterinary Research Institute. They were hiring a while back, and I passed the interview. Earning a few thousand a month as an employee is a lot more stable than this."

Melody breathed a sigh of relief. During the apocalypse, crops would fail and animals would die off in massive numbers. The government would then vigorously promote indoor farming and animal husbandry. The Livestock and Veterinary Research Institute would be a core institution in the rebuilding efforts. ’Lester’s choice was the right one.’

"I have both caged and free-range chickens here, layers and broilers. I’ll pack some of each type for you. These free-range ones are for stewing, and the brown-shell layers are for their eggs."

"I raised these ducks myself, too. I’ll pack them up for you as well."

Lester helped Melody load the chickens and ducks into the small truck, then took her to a farmer’s house they had arranged to visit yesterday to buy goats and pigs.

"I’m a master at raising native mountain goats," the old farmer said proudly. "They’re all free-range and grass-fed. These two big bucks are over 88 pounds each; you’ll get at least 33 pounds of meat from them. These five ewes are all mature. They’ll give you at least three litters in two years, with two kids per litter."

"These piglets are all free-range Riverbend Aromatic Boars. It’s a protected national breed—they were tribute for emperors in ancient times! I had the breeding stock brought in from out of town. I’m the only one in the whole village who has this kind. This pig is small-bodied, so you can roast or stew it whole. The flavor is incredible! Fragrant without being greasy, not like your ordinary pig at all!"

This was exactly what Melody wanted. She paid without hesitation, then noticed a rabbit hutch behind a wall. "Sir, you raise rabbits too? I’ll take twenty, please."

But Lester interjected, "Two or three rabbits are enough. They breed like crazy, litter after litter. You won’t be able to keep up."

The goats and pigs cost several tens of thousands. After taking the money, the old farmer waved his hand magnanimously. "Alright, you can have these three rabbits on the house."

"Thank you, sir." Melody happily took the rabbit cage. It was surprisingly heavy.

The farmer helped Melody tie up the goats and load them into the truck bed, then put the piglets into cages and loaded them as well.

*

Finally, Lester took Melody to a cattle cooperative.

"This co-op specializes in cow breeding. The cattle here are a heritage breed, brought in from Torgun. The quality is absolutely top-notch."

Melody promptly bought five calves—two bulls and three heifers. They were all around 330 to 440 pounds and cost over ten thousand each.

To be on the safe side, Melody also bought three adult cattle—one bull and two cows—for twenty-five thousand each.

Seeing how quickly Melody paid, the co-op owner gave her a large amount of feed for free. "This is King Grass we grow ourselves, mixed with a lot of tofu dregs and rice bran. The cattle love it."

The small truck couldn’t fit the cattle. Melody loaded the feed into the truck bed and arranged with the owner to come back the next day with a larger truck to pick them up. Because she often helped her family with deliveries, Melody had also gotten her CDL.

With Lester guiding her, buying the animals was incredibly efficient. In a single day, she had acquired chickens, ducks, cattle, goats, rabbits, and pigs. She had spent two hundred thousand, and she was completely satisfied.