Across Ranch Story: Friends of Mineral Town

"Brother Huo, you are so nice! Come, let me toast you a glass!" Lin Xia was so moved that she immediately picked up the iced juice.

Huo An picked up his glass and clinked it with Lin Xia's. He took a sip and then said, "By the way, is the snake skin ready?"

"No, I'll help you deal with it tomorrow after I've examined the snake and taken out the gallbladder!"

Huo An got nervous when he heard this: "Don't try to find another job while you're still a donkey. Shepi has already been promised to me!"

Lin Xia narrowed her eyes when she heard this: "Did you offer me a low price?"

Huo An's eyes unconsciously moved away and said, "How...how is it possible?"

"Then why are you so nervous?"

"Hey~ Aren't I worried that Dot, the medical nerd, would make an irrational offer when he sees good medicinal materials? You know, sometimes the price he offers completely destroys the market situation, you know? We can't encourage this bad trend..."

Lin Xia was stunned when she heard Huo An's shameless remarks.

"Alright, alright, stop talking. I will definitely give priority to selling the snake skin to you, but if the price you offer is too different from that of Dortmund, you have to make up the difference, otherwise the deal will be void!"

Huo An's eyes were filled with tears. "My dear sister, how can you be so heartless? The relationship between you and Dortmund is just a simple doctor-patient relationship. We are close brothers and sisters. How can it be measured by money?"

"Go to hell~ You usually sell things to me, and you're never polite to me~" Lin Xia knew Huo An's character quite well. This guy must have offered a low price for the snake skin. After all, he was a businessman, and it was normal for him to make money by selling goods.

However, Huo An usually takes good care of himself, especially the protective clothing. It never let him down at all. Without the protective clothing, Lin Xia would never be as safe and worry-free when going into the forest as she is now.

Since he wanted the snake skin so much, Lin Xia would definitely sell it to him. Even if it was not as high as what Dortmund offered, it was still a way of repaying his care for her. However, the malicious Lin Xia deliberately made him anxious at this moment, because he was usually merciless when it came to hurting her.

"Zach, have you gone fishing recently?" Lin Xia stopped arguing with Huo An and asked curiously while looking at the seafood they were going to eat tonight.

"Yes!" Zach stopped eating and said, "I have started to explore some places where edible marine life gather. All the seafood today is caught from those places, especially the shells, shrimps and crabs. Huo An said that there is no need to catch the fish. When the time comes, we will provide fishing gear for customers to fish by themselves. It is fun and effortless, and they like it more.

But these cannot be caught by fishing. Some can be caught by customers themselves, while others can only be caught manually, such as these relatively large clams, deep-sea lobsters and king crabs. "

Lin Xia agreed with what he heard. Winter was coming soon, and it would be difficult to go to the sea or the mountains. There were no vegetables to grow either. In order to avoid boredom, shouldn't she find something else to do?

Lin Xia thought about it and said, "Zach, can you still get the big clams like the ones I caught before? If you can, help me get more. I'll pay you!"

"Yes, there are, but they are not as big as the one you had last time. The more common ones are about 60 centimeters long. Do you want one?"

"Yes, yes, I'll take as many as you want, please!" Lin Xia was happy. She had seen people opening clams on TV before, and those clams were only as long as two palms, but they didn't hinder the opening of pearls! That's right, Lin Xia wanted to collect more clams, so that she could sit by the stove in winter, watch TV, and open clams to get pearls. It was quite relaxing.

There used to be an international film queen whose hobby was to buy a bunch of river clams and open them. Hey, let’s experience it now!

After listening to Lin Xia's winter plan, Huo An and Zach were a little speechless, but Zach was kind and said nothing. He also said that he would try his best to catch clams for her in the few days before winter comes.

Huo An forgot about the snake skin incident again and started to attack Lin Xia: "The pearl yield rate of clams is not as high as you think. Remember the last time you found a half-man-high clam, there was only one pearl?"

"But that pearl is as big as a baby's fist! And it's a rare black pearl, so I'm not losing out!" Lin Xia said proudly, "Besides, even if I can't get the pearl out, the clam meat is delicious, and I like to eat it too!"

Seeing that Lin Xia was in a good mood, Huo An no longer worried that she would hit him too hard. He rolled his eyes and said, "Then I wish you could open more pearls so that you can sell them to me. I know a lot of people who like pearls, and I can sell them to you at a good price!"

"Hey, sure."

Zack looked at the two people who were quarreling a moment ago, and then turned around and smiled like siblings. They both loved money, but also got it in a proper way. He no longer wanted to think about what to say. He didn't even know where the clams were, but these two were already talking about where to sell the pearls!

"By the way, Huo An, I heard that it was you who found the black chicken over at the Clucking Hut?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"Why did you think of introducing black chickens?"

"Uh~" Seeing that Huo An seemed to be unable to speak, Lin Xia became even more curious.

"Actually, I was greedy and wanted to eat chicken." Huo An scratched his head embarrassedly, "But there is only one kind of chicken here, which is mainly used for laying eggs. People here don't eat chicken, so I can't say anything.

So I thought, let’s introduce a kind of chicken that doesn’t lay eggs very well, but has nutritious chicken meat. Then the people here won’t be able to get the ideal eggs, but they should be able to start eating meat. So I asked my nephew to bring me two black chicken eggs.”

"Black-bone chicken eggs?" Lin Xia scratched her ears. "Shouldn't they be black-bone chicken eggs?"

"Such a long distance, and shipping, how can the black chicken be so lucky? Eggs are so convenient!"

Thinking about it, Lin Xia urged Huo An to continue, "Actually, my nephew is not that stingy. He brought me 20 eggs in total. Unfortunately, the weather was too hot on the road, and 18 of them were hatched directly. They died after a few days on the boat. Fortunately, there were still 2 eggs left that survived until we got ashore.

After I received the eggs, I immediately went to find Rick from the Clucking House and tried to persuade him. No, I tried to introduce him to the various benefits of black-bone chicken. But this guy, as a small town dweller, was not interested at all after listening for a long time.

I could only tell him that the nutritional value of this egg is also very high. Just looking at the appearance of the egg, it is different from ordinary eggs. It is emerald green and the egg is small, but the essence is concentrated inside. In this way, Rick finally decided to raise black chickens as well."

Lin Xia laughed out loud, "So that's how it is. I thought you had some special business acumen."

Huo An quickly explained, "Oh, you don't know how difficult it is to raise black chickens. Rick took the black chicken eggs and put them in the incubator. That night, the chicks hatched. I was so scared when I heard it the next day. If I was any later, I would have hit my hand again.

However, the appearance of this black chicken really troubled Rick for a while, and it didn't lay eggs frequently, and the locals don't eat meat. If you hadn't come, I think Rick would have come to me to return the goods."

Lin Xia nodded. "Yeah, not bad, not bad. This can be considered an accident. But having said that, the variety of ingredients we have here is still too small. It would be better if there were more."

Huo An slapped his thigh and said, "Yeah, I thought so too, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to so much trouble to find it."

"Then can you find some ducks and geese? I want to raise a few and try it out." Lin Xia finally stated her ultimate goal.

Huo An looked at Lin Xia with his mouth open: "You...you are really courageous!"

Zack nodded repeatedly. That's right. Ever since Lin Xia came to Mineral Town, he has single-handedly raised all the original species in Mineral Town and also raised additional beef cattle, sheep and pigs. Now he is going to introduce species that are not available in Mineral Town again. He is so motivated.

Lin Xia looked at the expressions of the two people. She took Huo An's hand and said, "Isn't everything for food? The feelings of us foodies are really hard for ordinary people to understand."

Huo An closed his mouth and pulled his hand back from hers, trying to distance himself from her position and said, "You are a foodie, but I am not. I am a qualified businessman. My goal is to bring different goods from all over the world to the people and enrich their lives..."