CH 43.2

After bringing the cow back, Lu Qingjiu told Yin Xun to feed it something, then he and Zhu Miaomiao went to the glass factory in the city to order a batch of glass bottles.

The process of ordering the glass bottles went quite smoothly. After handing the drawings to the owner and telling him his other requests, he was told that he could come pick up the goods next month after paying the deposit.

Having ordered the glass bottles, Zhu Miaomiao then told Lu Qingjiu to remember to buy some high-end packing boxes off of the internet. It would be best if he could get them customised. After the initial preparation was done, the two of them discussed pricing. Lu Qingjiu was more kind, saying how about three hundred per bottle? Who would have thought that Zhu Miaomiao would slap her hands on his shoulders, saying, “If we’re doing this, we’re going to make premium products. Three hundred per bottle has too low a profit margin. This kind of one-of-a-kind product needs to have a price worthy of it.” She held up five fingers.

“Five hundred?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

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“Five thousand!” Zhu Miaomiao said, “When you sell them, you have to make it clear, if they don’t grow hair they’ll get a complete refund! And you’re only going to sell 100 bottles per month, and limit it to one bottle per account.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Five thousand is a little too evil.”

Zhu Miaomiao shook her head. “How is is evil, why don’t you go and ask how much a hair transplant costs. Besides, a hair transplant doesn’t even guarantee 100% success. Five thousand for a bald person to grow a head of hair? Everyone will be chomping at the bit to buy some.”

Zhu Miaomiao’s words were indeed reasonable and Lu Qingjiu didn’t want to waste too much energy on the Taobao store. He returned to Shuifu village for a slower paced life, if he made himself too busy, it wouldn’t be worth it. Thus, Lu Qingjiu accepted Zhu Miaomiao’s suggestion in the end and decided to set the price at 4,999. One yuan less than five thousand.

With Zhu Miaomiao’s help, the opening of Lu Qingjiu’s Taobao store was a success.

Zhu Miaomiao’s holiday was now over, so she had to go back to work. Lu Qingjiu asked her if she had made any plans for National Day. Zhu Miaomiao laughed bitterly and said that she’d definitely be working overtime for National Day, the next time she could come back would probably be New Year’s Eve.

Lu Qingjiu sent her off on the train before going home. After getting home, he saw Yin Xun sulking as he sat in the courtyard. He wasn’t like Bai Yuehu, his emotions were always displayed on his face. Once he heard Lu Qingjiu arrive home, he called out, aggrieved, “Jiu-er, I fear I can’t help that cow.”

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Lu Qingjiu asked, “What’s wrong?”

Yin Xun said, “He won’t eat anything I try to feed him.”

Lu Qingjiu replied, “Won’t eat?” He remembered Bai Yuehu had said that thing would be fine eating grass. “Where’s Yuehu?”

“I don’t know.” Yin Xun rubbed his nose. “He seems to have been called out by someone.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Since it won’t eat grass, then try feeding it something else?”

Yin Xun, “Feed it what?”

Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment. “I remember that animals like cows all like eating fruits. Don’t we have some apples at home? Why don’t we try those?”

Yin Xun said, “Fuck, feeding it apples, isn’t that too luxurious?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Those apples are so sour, didn’t you not want to eat them?” The apples were bought in town a few days ago. They weren’t like the ones they grew at home. Those apples looked red, but they tasted incredibly bland. Don’t even mention Yin Xun, even the never-picky Bai Yuehu had no interest in them. Originally, Lu Qingjiu had intended to feed them to Xiao Hei and Xiao Hua, so feeding it to the cow now wasn’t a big deal.

Yin Xun and Lu Qingjiu took the apples to the cowshed that was next to the pig sty. Fortunately, Xiao Hei and Xiao Hua were asleep at the moment, otherwise, if they saw Lu Qingjiu feeding their apples to the cow, they would definitely pitch a fit.

Lu Qingjiu brought an apple to the cow’s mouth. The cow looked at the apple, then, sure enough, opened its mouth and took a bite, polishing off the apple with a few crunches. After eating, it smacked its lips. Its big, watery eye stared straight at the other apples in Lu Qingjiu’s hands. Clearly, it still wanted to eat.

Lu Qingjiu simply placed all of the apples on the ground in front of it. As he watched it start eating happily, its single, giant eye curved into a joyous arc. Paired with those long, long eyelashes, it really looked incredibly cute.

Yin Xun, who stood off to the side, watched the cow eat the apples. He sighed tiredly, “People really can’t be single for too long. If you’re single for too long, you can even find a cow pretty.”

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Bai Yuehu had gone off somewhere unknown and didn’t come back all night. It wasn’t until 6am the next morning that Lu Qingjiu saw him enter through the door to the courtyard.

Lu Qingjiu’s hands were currently occupied by folding the dumplings they were going to have for breakfast that morning. He greeted him, “You’re back.”

“En,” Bai Yuehu said, “Is there food?”

“There is,” Lu Qingjiu said, “Have these fruits to stave off your hunger first, the dumplings still need a while.”

Bai Yuehu said alright.

After Lu Qingjiu was done cooking the dumplings, he went to the cowpen with a basin, preparing to get some milk. This cow was unexpectedly very obedient, standing in place and letting him milk it. The milk from the market nowadays all looked rather diluted because they had all been pasteurized, but there was no such problem with the milk from his own home. Lu Qingjiu remembered that the milk he drank when he was young was absolutely fresh. That kind of milk would form a thick layer of milk skin on top after boiling, which would fill one’s mouth with the taste of milk when eaten. It was incredibly fragrant.

After going to the city, Lu Qingjiu never had the chance to drink that kind of milk again. Now that he saw it again, he became a little nostalgic.

But as he was milking the cow, Lu Qingjiu felt that this milk had a different fragrance from ordinary milk. When he smelled it carefully, he unexpectedly found that the milk had the faint aroma of apples. At first, Lu Qingjiu thought he’d smelled it wrong but when he took the milk back to the house, the just-arrived Yin Xun asked, “This milk is so fragrant. Why does it smell like apples?”

“It really does? I even thought that I smelled it wrong.” Lu Qingjiu was a little surprised.

Bai Yuehu didn’t have much of a reaction. He asked, “You two fed him apples yesterday?”

“Yeah,” Yin Xun said, “He wasn’t willing to eat grass, so we just fed him a few apples.”

Bai Yuehu said, “Then this is normal.”

Lu Qingjiu realised what he meant when he said that. He felt that this cow was truly different from the rest, its milk would have the flavour of whatever it ate. Yin Xun, this thing, also understood. He eagerly set off, planning on feeding the cow chocolate, but was cold-heartedly stopped by Lu Qingjiu.

Chocolate was poisonous to a lot of animals after all, he couldn’t just feed it to the cow like that. If the cow reacted badly, what would he do then? Lu Qingjiu decided to first check the cow’s usual eating habits before deciding on what flavour of milk he wanted to drink.

After the milk was cooked, it didn’t have even a hint of gaminess, full of the strong flavour of milk. Some people who didn’t drink milk much would be unused to that strong milky scent, but the milk from the cow was mellow and rich, yet not greasy. Rather, it actually had the fragrance of apples, incredibly tasty.

Hence, that day everyone in the house had their lives change for the better. Even though it wasn’t much, every person and every animal got a cup of apple flavoured milk.

Lu Qingjiu took advantage of his free time to look up what one needed to take note of when raising a dairy cow. It was just that the more he found, the more he felt like there was something strange. He raised his head and asked Yin Xun, “Wait… wait a minute, is our family’s dairy cow a male or a female?”

Yin Xun replied, “Male ah.”

Lu Qingjiu, “…It’s really a bull?”

Yin Xun was still absorbed in reminiscing over the flavour of the milk from that morning and didn’t notice the strange expression on Lu Qingjiu’s face. “Of course he’s a male, I saw his XX, it’s really long.”

Lu Qingjiu, “…” What the hell are you looking at all day long? Aren’t you afraid of burning your eyes?

Even though Yin Xun had also seen cows before, all the cows in the village were raised for tilling the soil. Practically none of them were specially raised for their milk. He hadn’t seen anything like this, but when he saw the disturbed look on Lu Qingjiu’s face, he asked blankly, “What’s wrong? Jiu-er?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “…” He stared at the information he’d found on his phone and didn’t speak for a long time.

Yin Xun didn’t understand what was wrong, so he moved over to take a look. The more he read, the further his jaw dropped. By the end, his jaw was falling off his face. “What the fuck, what the fuck, what is this thing?”

They saw the information explain in full detail why there were no bulls who could produce milk. Cattle which could produce milk were all cows which were in their lactating period. So as long as he was a bull, he could not be a dairy cow — That raised some questions: Whether their family’s cow was male or female, if it was male, why could he produce milk, and if it was female, then what was with that certain organ hanging down at her crotch?

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun exchanged looks. They both felt as if the sweet taste of milk in their mouth had changed slightly. Lu Qingjiu didn’t bother thinking about it anymore. He walked in silence to the courtyard, sat down by the currently napping Bai Yuehu’s side, and spoke, “Yuehu?”

Bai Yuehu opened his eyes to look at Lu Qingjiu. “En?”

Lu Qingjiu asked, “That… Just, that… our family’s cow, is it male or is it female?”

Bai Yuehu, “Male, ah.” His tone was calm, as if there was nothing wrong with what he’d just said.

Lu Qingjiu forced out, “Then even though he’s male, he can still produce milk?”

Bai Yuehu blinked, seeming to not understand what Lu Qingjiu meant.

Lu Qingjiu could only ask, “Then producing milk isn’t something only done by females?”

Bai Yuehu said, “Yeah?”

Lu Qingjiu, “…”

Bai Yuehu said, “Who said producing milk was something only done by females? If you wanted, I could make you produce milk.”

Hearing this, Lu Qingjiu’s expression twisted for a moment. He hurried waved his hands, saying, no need, no need, it was just a casual question.

Bai Yuehu said, “That cow is male, but their species can all produce milk. The quality of the milk is also very good, it’s very popular. What, you don’t like him?”

Lu Qingjiu still hadn’t recovered from the shock of him also being able to produce milk.

Bai Yuehu seemed to have misunderstood what Lu Qingjiu meant. He blinked and said, “If you don’t like him, we can just kill and eat his beef. Even though the quality of his beef is pretty average, we won’t have to have him take up space at home that way.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “No no no, his milk is delicious, both Yin Xun and I really like it, there’s no need to kill and eat him.”

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Bai Yuehu said, “Alright, as long as you like it.” He clearly didn’t quite understand Lu Qingjiu’s shock. To him, males producing milk was so common it couldn’t be any more common. So from beginning to end, he didn’t understand what Lu Qingjiu was shocked about.

In a daze, Lu Qingjiu went to the cowpen and saw Yin Xun, that thing, eagerly feeding the cow chocolate with delight on his face. The cow was also eating with relish, even wagging his short tail like a dog’s.

Yin Xun, hearing Lu Qingjiu’s footsteps, said happily, “Jiu-er, we can drink chocolate milk now!”

Lu Qingjiu, “…”

Yin Xun said, “What, did you get your answer? Is he a bull or a cow?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “A bull.”

Yin Xun said, “Oh.”

Lu Qingjiu thought he would say something more, but after Yin Xun “oh”-ed, he focused his attention back on his beloved bull. Lu Qingjiu finally couldn’t bear it any longer and said, “Don’t you want to ask how bulls can also produce milk?”

Yin Xun said, “Not really, actually.”

Lu Qingjiu’s curiosity was piqued. “Why not?”

Yin Xun said, “Because after I died and came back to life, I realised that there are some things that just can’t be explained by science or logic. And compared to what’s going on with my body, a bull that can produce milk doesn’t seem all that special…”

Upon hearing Yin Xun say this, Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help but laugh, realising that he had overreacted somewhat. He said, “That’s true.”

Yin Xun said, “And who cares if he’s a male cow or a female cow, as long as he can produce milk, he’s a good cow.”

Lu Qingjiu rolled up his sleeves. “Alright, let me milk him a little, we can have crispy deep-fried milk for afternoon tea today.”

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Hearing this, Yin Xun was so happy that he broke into a wide grin, showing off the cute tiger tooth of his. He said, “You can go cook, I’ll milk him. Also, he just ate the chocolate, it’ll probably still take a while for him to produce milk.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Alright, but remember to be gentle. If you use too much strength, you’ll hurt him.”

Yin Xun, “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely do it gently.”

Hearing Yin Xun’s words, for some inexplicable reason, Lu Qingjiu felt as if the contents of their conversation had been a little… suggestive.

Nevermind, he should just go off to cook. Before he could come up with any more strange thoughts, Lu Qingjiu hurriedly turned and left.