Adrian Hawthorne smiled. His former gloominess was gone, replaced by a handsome cheerfulness. Having eaten and drunk well for the past few months with no one to bother him, he had shot up in height and was now almost as tall as Jim Thorne.

His face had filled out, too; he was no longer just skin and bones. However, Adrian Hawthorne had a cold, hard temperament. Even now, with his rosy lips, white teeth, and handsome features, he still gave off the impression of being hard to get along with—a stark contrast to Clayton Xavier, who was as gentle as jade.

Rosalind Green’s voice called out that it was time to eat. Adrian Hawthorne smiled and said, "Stay for dinner. We’re having venison tonight."

Jim Thorne’s eyes lit up. "Did you hunt it?"

"Nope, bought it in the city."

Policies were becoming more lenient, so many farmers from near the city would bring their surplus vegetables and mountain goods to sell. The prices weren’t high. Adrian Hawthorne only bought meat, and they had been able to eat it every day recently. As a result, both Old Master Tate’s and Rosalind Green’s health had improved significantly.

"I haven’t had venison in ages. Let’s go!"

Jim Thorne’s interest was piqued. He hadn’t eaten any muntjac deer this year. The meat was mostly lean and more tender than wild boar. Jim Thorne quite liked it and had eaten a lot of it growing up, but the deer had become much rarer these past two years, so he didn’t get to eat it often.

Tang Xiaonan swallowed. ’In my past life, I was strictly against eating wild animals. But since coming here, I’ve broken that rule time and time again. I’ve eaten plenty of snake, wild rabbit, pheasant, and sparrow. And now, muntjac deer. I seem to remember this thing being a Class II protected species—in the future, of course. Right now, it’s just another dish on the dinner table.’

’Since I can’t change other people’s eating habits, I might as well be the one to adapt.’ Tang Xiaonan swallowed again, her eyes sparkling. ’Venison must be delicious, right?’

Rosalind Green stood at the door, feeding the chickens and ducks. Her chickens and ducks were doing a bit better than her pigs, but they were still scrawny. Then, Tang Xiaonan saw Rosalind Green feeding the chickens white rice, and her heart ached at the sight.

"Aunt Green, you should be mixing their feed! You can use leftover rice, rice bran, and chopped vegetable leaves all mixed together. You can’t just feed them plain white rice; it’s too wasteful."

’Even in modern times, nobody feeds chickens pure rice, right? This Rosalind Green really is... hopeless at running a household.’

Rosalind Green smiled faintly and explained in a soft voice, "The chickens are a bit skinny. I thought eating more rice would fatten them up."

Jim Thorne scoffed. "If you want to fatten up chickens, you need to feed them bugs. Letting them roam the mountain to find their own bugs would be better than feeding them like this. No wonder they’re getting skinnier the more you raise them."

"I do let them out for a walk every day. I don’t dare let them go for too long; I’m afraid they’ll get lost."

"You’d get lost before the chickens do. Let them out in the morning, and they’ll come back on their own at night. The mountain has bugs and grass seeds; you barely need to feed them at all." Jim Thorne rolled his eyes, annoyed.

’Using such good rice to feed chickens... what a wasteful woman. No wonder Adrian Hawthorne’s father left and never came back. She must have wasted all his money until he was flat broke, so he got scared and fled.’ 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Rosalind Green’s face flushed with embarrassment. She really didn’t understand any of this. Before, she had been full of ambition, wanting to create a whole operation of raising chickens, ducks, and pigs. But now, she hadn’t managed to do a single one of those things well.

A few chickens started fighting. Jim Thorne frowned. "Why haven’t you caponized these roosters? You only need to keep one. The rest have to be castrated, or they’ll fight all day and never fatten up."

Rosalind Green’s mouth fell open in surprise. "Chickens can be castrated too?"

"If people can be castrated, why can’t chickens? Ducks need to be castrated too, and pigs. It’s pointless trying to explain it to you. I’ll have my grandpa come over tomorrow and castrate everything here that needs it."

Jim Thorne grew impatient. ’It’s impossible to get through to this ugly woman. I’ve never seen a woman this stupid. Useless at everything, but takes first place in wasting money. How did a woman like her even get married? She must have been born under a lucky star.’