119: Being family with the boss

"It really looks quite nice. It's spacious and sparsely populated; a forest like this is perfect for raising chickens. If we develop it properly, opening an agritainment farm or something similar won't be a problem at all."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. We'll set up a simple agritainment farm. Then we can invite our old customers, or those who are skeptical, to come and see what our Breeding Farm looks like in person. It should put them at ease."

"Exactly!"

Li Ming nodded with satisfaction and continued asking.

"So, brother, what does the owner of this place think? Is he willing to lease it to us?"

"It should be fine. Brother Li, there's a mountain reservoir over there. I'll take you guys to see it."

"There's a reservoir too? That's even better!"

Li Ming and Wang Shufen looked delighted and quickly followed Ye Tian.

On the way, Ye Tian briefly explained the situation regarding the Little Girl and the old man to the two of them.

"No wonder you found this place, kid. It seems kindness truly begets kindness. In the old man's situation, we should help out. It's a win-win anyway; it benefits others and ourselves."

Li Ming and his wife were both kind-hearted. After hearing Ye Tian's suggestion, they had no objections at all.

After viewing the reservoir with satisfaction, they returned directly to find the old man.

"Old man, we've seen enough. We'll lease your land. However, if we start a Breeding Farm, the scale might be quite large. We'll likely need to hire workers to build chicken coops and greenhouses. Can you find someone to handle that? Also, we'll need to use your kitchen for cooking and such."

"Good, good, good. None of that is a problem. Xiao Wen, go to your Grandpa Wang's house and ask him to come over."

The old man nodded excitedly and spoke to the Little Girl.

The Little Girl quickly ran out the door.

Not long after, she ran back with an old man in tow.

The old man was the village chief of this Yiyuan Village. After hearing Li Ming's purpose, he gratefully shook Li Ming's hand.

"Thank you! Meeting you is a lifesaver for Old Li's family. Leasing the site and contracting the reservoir is no problem. I will definitely get you the most favorable price. I only hope you can help this grandfather and granddaughter a bit; then I will be satisfied."

"Village Chief, that's a given. Here's what we're thinking: once the Breeding Farm is up and running, we'll ask the old man and the Little Girl to help keep an eye on things when they're free. Besides the lease for the site, we'll pay them a separate salary. We'll also cover their meals."

"Good, good, good. My heart can finally rest easy now. You bosses can rest assured; as long as I'm here, I'll guarantee that no one disturbs your Breeding Farm."

The Village Chief patted his chest in a guarantee.

After some discussion, both hosts and guests were happy.

They agreed that Li Ming would come the next day to sign the formal contract. Ye Tian left with Li Ming and the others, carrying the four chicks.

On the road, Li Ming rolled down his window and drove alongside Ye Tian.

Looking at the basket at Ye Tian's feet, he couldn't help but ask, "Brother, what are you doing with those chicks?"

"A competition!"

Ye Tian smiled slightly.

"What competition?"

"A chicken-raising competition. I checked these four earlier; they're about the same size as the ones left at Xiao Wen's house. Those are for you, Brother Li. Then we'll compare and see whose grow faster."

"Heh, that sounds interesting. Fine, let's see then. What happens to the loser?"

"The loser buys the drinks."

"Deal! You just wait to bleed some cash, kid. I'm definitely going to fleece you for a big meal."

Li Ming laughed and teased.

Ye Tian's lips curled into a smirk. "Brother Li, don't go crying when the time comes."

"We'll see!"

After the banter, the cars reached the main road and went their separate ways.

When Ye Tian returned to the Breeding Farm, the chickens in his hand quickly drew the old man out.

"Oh, you move fast, kid. You got the chicks already? Not bad. And they're the same free-range chicken stock we ate last time. This kind of silkie chicken tastes great, but they take a long time to grow. They're perfect for observing data and testing flavor."

The old man didn't stand on ceremony with Ye Tian at all. He took the chicken cage directly.

With someone volunteering to raise the chickens for him, Ye Tian was naturally happy to be relieved of the chore.

Moreover, in the old man's hands, the chickens could be put to better use. Otherwise, if Ye Tian fed them himself, he would just feed them whole Cockroaches, which would waste a lot of stomach sac extract. That was cleaning agent, after all.

With his burden gone, Ye Tian quickly made dinner.

After eating, Zhang Liang went back to the dormitory. Ye Tian took over the loader and continued working.

In one night, he cleared out another room's worth of trash.

All the black soil was transported to the vegetable garden in the back.

Plastics and such were piled into a small mountain inside the warehouse.

Fortunately, the old man had built the warehouse large enough; otherwise, there really wouldn't have been a place to temporarily store so much trash.

Early the next morning, after eating, Ye Tian entered the old man's laboratory.

Now there was the pressure of feed for the chickens and fish. Plus, most of the Cockroaches had reached adult size.

The old man no longer held back on those Male Cockroaches.

In a single day, he ground up quite a few.

Ye Tian watched the old man feed the livestock cockroach meat like an old child while he used a bunch of spray bottles to make cleaning agent.

It took him over an hour to make about 40 bottles before he was finished.

"Old man, how many Cockroaches did you kill over the last two days?"

Counting the bottles of cleaning agent, Ye Tian asked the old man.

"Four or five thousand. I only kept a small portion of adult Male Cockroaches for breeding; the rest were killed."

"Then it's roughly 100 Cockroaches' worth of stomach sac extract to make one bottle of cleaning agent."

Ye Tian estimated.

"Yeah, but don't think it's a lot. Take it easy, kid. After all, I don't have many Male Cockroaches left. I have to keep enough to get through the lean period. If your Cockroaches' reproduction time isn't as impressive as their growth rate, we might very well run out of supply."

"We won't. Old man, feel free to use them as you please."

Ye Tian chuckled. While the old man was dazed, he went back to his room and brought over a box.

Then, under the old man's puzzled gaze...

He opened the box.

The old man's eyes widened, and he quickly snatched the box away.

"My god, how are there so many oothecae? Little Ye, didn't you say you'd pretty much searched your whole dormitory area?"

Looking at the densely packed oothecae in the box, the old man was filled with a mix of surprise and joy.

"I had searched it all before, but I can't help it if these things are so prolific. They can produce four oothecae a day. I've saved them up for a few days, and this is what I have."

"Prolific? You caught adults?"

The old man was delighted.

"Yeah, I wasn't sure if they were at the time, so I kept the few hundred large Cockroaches I caught together. As it turned out, the mutated large Cockroaches ate the ordinary ones and then started laying eggs. So, here they all are."

Ye Tian fabricated a story.

Previously, fearing the old man would notice something abnormal, Ye Tian hadn't dared to show him the Strong-Grade Cockroaches.

But now, as the 20 Gold-rank Young Larvae he gave the old man grew up, Ye Tian found that their appearance was almost identical to the Strong-Grade Cockroaches, except maybe their color was a bit more yellowish.

So, bringing some out now wouldn't give the old man any other ideas.

"So these are the mutated adults. They should be the same species as the 20 you hatched that day."

Looking at the glass bottle Ye Tian handed over, the old man indeed seemed much more calm.

After a brief observation, he didn't pay much more attention to it.

After all, things were different now; the Gold-rank Young Larvae in his hands had also grown up.

Carrying the new oothecae, the old man impatiently entered the lab, clearly intending to hatch the several hundred new oothecae properly.

Having resolved a small trouble that had been weighing on his mind...

Ye Tian felt much more relaxed.

Carrying the cleaning agent, he went straight to the Housekeeping Company.

Seeing such a large quantity of high-potency cleaning agent, The Girls were instantly ecstatic.

Their faces were full of joy.

It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality.

After experiencing the insane effectiveness of Ye Tian's cleaning agent, even though The Girls were all hard-working, they couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment when cleaning without it.

Now, seeing this massive amount of the 'divine tool,' it was hard not to be happy.

After all, finishing work faster meant their daily income would increase.

"Boss, how should we use this batch of cleaning agent?"

"Use it however you want, as long as you don't waste it. What we're pursuing now is efficiency and reputation; otherwise, the customers in line will start to complain if they wait too long."

Ye Tian seemed to know what The Girls were thinking and didn't disappoint them, speaking heartily.

Because, just as he said, this thing was like using a cheat in a game—it was addictive.

Being able to earn money easily and efficiently with him would only make them more loyal.

Soon, The Girls who weren't on a mission each took a bottle of cleaning agent and headed out in their groups.

Ye Tian was called over to the computer by Wang Jia.

"Boss, those seniors of mine have already created a simplified version of the app. Basically, all the functions and settings we requested before have been included. Internal testing starts today."

"Nice efficiency. Is there anything I can help with?"

Ye Tian looked at an icon Wang Jia pulled up—it was actually a shield pressing down on a Cockroach. He couldn't help but smile slightly.

"We temporarily plan to introduce this app to customers while on missions. But in the early stages, the user base won't be very large; it would be best to do some promotion. We'll need to run ads and such later. According to my seniors, the more data we have in testing, the better we can find potential bugs and improve it. However, this kind of app is a bit niche for the general public, so I don't expect many people will want to download it."

"So, what do you mean?"

Ye Tian thought for a moment, seeing that Wang Jia seemed to be hinting at something.

"I just wanted the boss to keep an eye out for another chance to become an overnight success like before. If we could launch our app under those circumstances, the effect would definitely be twice as good with half the effort."

"A chance like before? You mean something like a TV station interview?"

"Yeah. It's a pity our app wasn't out then. Otherwise, if you had just shown it off briefly, the effect would have been amazing."

Wang Jia said regretfully.

Ye Tian nodded. "It really was a bit of a waste. Now that the interviews and the Joint Inspection are over, trying to... Wait, I think I forgot something."

Ye Tian's expression froze, and he suddenly slapped his forehead.

"Damn, how could I forget something so important? Wang Jia, send the app's download QR code to my phone. I need to go out and handle something."

After saying that, Ye Tian hurriedly flipped through his phone book. But after searching for a while, he suddenly realized something and gave a bitter laugh. After thinking for a long time, his eyes lit up when he saw a name in the phone book.

"Sister Bing, are you free?"

Ye Tian sent a message.

"What's up, Xiao Tian?"

"Nothing much. I just wanted to ask if you're familiar with that Director Zhao from the Health Bureau who led the inspection team here?"

"You need something from him?"

"It's not that I need something. It's just that during the inspection, he told me to find him when I had time. I got so busy that I forgot such an important thing..."

"That's no big deal. If you want to see him, just go over anytime."

"Then... if I just show up like that, will he have a problem with me?"

"We're all family; what kind of problem could he have? Just go directly."

"This... alright then."

Hearing Zhao Rubing say that, Ye Tian finally felt relieved. That night when they were drinking, although he didn't catch everything, he still gathered that Zhao Rubing's status was very unusual. Since she said so, it should be fine.

Thinking this, Ye Tian rode his bike straight out the door.

He arrived all the way at the Health Bureau.

After having the guard announce him, he soon saw a familiar figure appear ahead.

"Little Brother Ye, I've finally been waiting for you."

Under the guard's surprised gaze, the usually stern Director Zhao of their bureau affectionately patted Ye Tian on the shoulder and led him into the building.

Then they came to his office.

Ye Tian still hadn't quite come to his senses even after entering. This change in address really made him feel somewhat overwhelmed by the favor.

"Director... Director Zhao, you said before for me to come, I..."

"Haha, alright, Little Brother Ye, no need to be so formal. Rubing already told me. We're all family; just speak freely. When there are no outsiders, you can just call me Third Brother."

"Third Brother?"

Ye Tian was even more shocked.

"Yeah, Rubing is my younger sister. You're my sister's brother, so shouldn't you follow her and call me Third Brother?"

"Director Zhao... no, Third Brother, are you very close with Sister Bing?"

"Isn't that obvious? My name is Zhao Qianjin, and hers is Zhao Rubing. Although we aren't direct siblings, we aren't far apart either."

Hearing this explanation, Ye Tian finally felt at ease. And seeing Zhao Qianjin's beaming face, he could also feel the goodwill in his words.

"Then, I'll really call you Third Brother."

"Haha, that's how it should be. I really didn't expect you and Rubing to have such a relationship. It's truly a case of family not recognizing family."

Zhao Qianjin laughed.

"Haha, I didn't expect it either, otherwise I would have come to see Third Brother sooner. By the way, Third Brother, you mentioned wanting me to come see you. What was it about?"

After the pleasantries, Ye Tian got to the point.

"Brother, it's like this. As you know, the purpose of the Joint Inspection is to use the inspections to serve as a model. But many times, just a model isn't enough. Our task is to truly improve the city's appearance."