Chapter Twenty-Three: Tailing

What Zhong Di meant by "unsafe" was mainly that it was getting dark, and with his mother's poor eyesight, it would be easy for her to get hurt riding home.

“I think the chicken coop you bought won’t be enough for all these chickens. How about we build a new one together right now?”

Di Chunhua was thinking that the sooner they started, the sooner they could make money—every moment counted.

“It’s fine, Mom, you should head back. I can handle this by myself.”

Zhong Di understood what was on his mother's mind. Anyone in her place would feel the same.

“Alright, then, I’ll go. Be careful while you’re working,” she reminded him before leaving, not insisting further. After all, children grow up and have their own ideas.

Once his mother had left, Zhong Di first made himself some dinner.

Yusheng whimpered nearby, and Zhong Di affectionately patted the dog's head before deciding to cook scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

When the food was ready, Zhong Di didn’t eat; instead, he gave half a plate to Yusheng. The dog happily trotted over to Zhong Di’s feet, nudging his pant leg with his head.

It was as if he was saying, “Dad, you’re the best! Dad loves me the most! You’re the only one in my dog life who truly loves me.”

“You little rascal, you’ve been growing so quickly lately. If you keep eating like this, you’ll turn into a little chubby dog,” Zhong Di said, watching as Yusheng grew more robust each day. He couldn’t help but wonder if the dog would eat himself into obesity at this rate.

After dinner, Zhong Di grabbed a flashlight and started setting up the chicken enclosure.

The old coop could actually hold a fair number of free-range chickens, but the space was so small the chickens could barely move.

With them crowded together all day and getting no exercise, the eggs would be of poor quality.

He was aiming for a premium product and couldn’t follow the conventional methods.

Zhong Di quickly fenced off the grove in front of his house, finishing the job in less than an hour.

Once the new chickens arrived tomorrow and he tidied up the last bits, he would start planting vegetables.

The first customer was already on the way, yet his crops hadn’t even been sown. It was an awkward situation.

He released the chickens from the electric tricycle into their new coop and then went to water the wild sand fairy sprouts with compost tea.

Once the compost was well-rotted, he’d soak and water the plants, then spread the remaining residue directly onto the soil.

Later, he planned to buy several loads of well-rotted sheep manure to keep on hand.

After finishing these chores, Zhong Di retreated to his little room, took out his phone, and started playing “Chicken Dinner.”

Half an hour later...

Staring at the settlement screen that read “Landed and became a crate,” Zhong Di began to doubt himself.

“Damn, my luck is terrible.”

With these words, Zhong Di quit the game.

No matter where he landed, there was always someone else. The moment he touched the ground, he’d get shot—even punched to death sometimes.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a shooting game? How did it turn into a boxing match? Couldn’t they just pick up a gun like normal?

Frustrated, Zhong Di put away his phone and went to bed.

The next morning, he was woken by a phone call. Seeing the unfamiliar number, he was tempted to hang up.

It wasn’t even dawn—who was calling at this hour? Didn’t people sleep at night anymore?

He made a mental note to set his phone to silent before sleeping next time.

“Hello? Who is this?”

Zhong Di decided to swallow his annoyance and answer the call.

It was the chicken delivery. They were arriving before sunrise, a full two hours early.

In the end, Zhong Di accepted it, checked the time, and got dressed.

According to the caller, he’d arrive in ten minutes.

After getting up, Zhong Di decided to filter out the compost tea and leave the rest to soak.

Once the chickens were delivered, he’d go harvest today’s fresh sprouts.

“Boss Zhong?”

He was just finishing up when he heard someone calling for him at the gate.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Sorry to come so early. I need to get to the market right after this, or I won’t get a good spot,” the delivery man explained politely.

“No problem, I just got up myself,” Zhong Di replied, glancing at the sky. Life wasn’t easy for anyone, so he didn’t make a fuss.

After the first batch arrived, more deliveries followed, each bringing twenty or thirty chickens, sometimes forty.

Zhong Di hadn’t bought too many yesterday, and none from the bigger suppliers, so the deliveries came in smaller loads from various people.

By the end, nearly three hundred chickens had been placed in the new enclosure, each batch separated out.

Once the trials were complete and he found the ideal ratio, he’d start feeding the wild sand fairy sprouts to the chickens to produce premium free-range eggs.

As dawn approached, a pale streak of light appeared on the horizon.

Uncle Zhang arrived early with his workers, just as they’d agreed the day before. The deal was simple: finish the job, get paid, and leave. With fair wages, there was no need to fuss over minor details.

“Zhong Di, you bought so many chickens again. Why not buy chicks? There’s barely any profit in grown chickens,” Uncle Zhang said, puzzled as he looked at the flock in front of the house.

Anyone who had raised chickens knew that while older chickens fetched a higher price, the labor and feed costs were much higher, too.

Though the sale price was higher, the actual cost per chicken was also up, so the profit margin wasn’t great.

“Uncle, I plan to raise free-range chickens and sell their eggs—real green farming.”

“Free-range eggs aren’t that valuable, maybe twenty per unit at most. That’s not cost-effective. Those who make money do it on a large scale, so their costs are lower. For you, it just won’t work.”

“If you ask me, you’d be better off buying pullets. Forget about selling eggs,” Uncle Zhang advised. Everyone understood this well—no one was foolish.

Raising a few free-range chickens for your own eggs, you didn’t care about cost because it was for your own table.

But once it became a business—raising free-range chickens to sell eggs—costs and profits had to be considered, and there wasn’t much money in it.

“Don’t worry, Uncle. I’ve thought it through and have a plan. It’ll work,” Zhong Di replied.

Uncle Zhang was genuinely kind, but Zhong Di didn’t want to get into a debate.

“Alright, if you’re sure. But if you start losing money, stop before it’s too late. Don’t keep pushing. We’ll get to work on the trees,” Uncle Zhang said, then went off with his men, leaving Zhong Di alone.

After two more deliveries, the last of the chickens had arrived.

Looking at the flock, Zhong Di realized feed would be a considerable expense. After a moment’s thought, he contacted a supplier of wheat bran and corn.

He ordered ten bags of wheat bran and five hundred kilos of corn.

This would do for now. He could buy more if needed.

Wheat bran was eighty per bag, corn was two twenty per kilo—costs were high.

Unlike commercial feed, corn had low energy conversion, and chickens ate a lot of it.

Watching his funds dwindle, Zhong Di could only sigh at how quickly money vanished.

He’d been buying this and that nonstop. If his mother hadn’t brought over more than twenty thousand yesterday, he would have run out long ago.

Of the sixty thousand he’d started with, only a few thousand remained. Adding in what his mother gave him, he was down to less than twenty-five thousand in total.

He desperately needed to increase his income!