Mountain Looting: Targeted by a Leopard at the Start
Chapter 146: The Steady White Stork, New Farm Employees and New Developments!

Chapter 146: Chapter 146: The Steady White Stork, New Farm Employees and New Developments!

Xu Yang posted a video of the Eastern White Stork.

And he added the caption, "After consulting and communicating with the police, the Eastern White Stork will be staying on my farm for a while. Everyone has a responsibility to protect wildlife."

Upon seeing this video, fans immediately replied in the comments section:

"Old Xu, well done!"

"It’s great that it could be saved!"

"Now you really are raising a First Level protected animal on the farm!"

"Awesome, only you would have a First Level protected animal at home!"

Life on the farm is always full of surprises.

Before, there was a Chinese Merganser, and now an Eastern White Stork has arrived.

All of them are animals with the highest level of protection.

Actually, it’s pretty normal, since the farm is at the foot of the mountain, and the wildlife all live in the mountains; in essence, Xu Yang is their neighbor.

The incident quickly became hot news.

Although it didn’t make it to the trending searches, it did have a flame icon next to it, indicating that it was quite popular.

Xu Yang felt surprised when he noticed it.

Because in their area, it’s quite common for villagers to rescue animals and post videos about it, and journalists often come to interview them.

But the attention each incident gets is usually moderate, falling into the category of ordinary news events.

This time, however, it was an exception.

Perhaps because Xu Yang himself was quite popular, so the story gained traction more easily.

Many people in the comments were clamoring for him to live stream.

At this moment, on the farm.

The Eastern White Stork could already stand up and was running around quite cheerfully.

Only its wings couldn’t move.

This fellow was similar to a Red-crowned Crane, with long, slender legs and a long, thin neck, the majority of its feathers being white.

The only difference was that the tips of the Eastern White Stork’s wings were black.

It was like wing skins in a video game, that kind of black and white color combination.

It looked quite stunning.

The Eastern White Stork was still somewhat reserved, as such wild animals aren’t so quick to adapt to life on the farm.

But Xu Yang tried his best to comfort it, and gradually its mood stabilized.

At 7 o’clock in the evening, Xu Yang started a short live stream to show everyone the condition of the Eastern White Stork.

"This afternoon I posted the video of its rescue, and now it’s doing very well."

"It’s currently stable, and it doesn’t have any panic or thoughts of trying to escape."

"I’m now taking it out for a walk," Xu Yang told everyone.

In the live stream, the Eastern White Stork was strolling around Xu Yang’s farm.

It walked with long strides, slowly moving forward and occasionally scanning its surroundings.

Both wings were clung tightly to its body, with one wing fastened with bandages and a thin wooden board.

It walked with an elegant gait, possibly because its long legs made it look more graceful.

Xu Yang followed behind.

The other animals were not seen, as Xu Yang didn’t allow them to follow.

[This Eastern White Stork looks so beautiful!]

[Old Xu, why not keep it!]

[Yeah, why let it migrate? Just take care of it over the winter, and then let it go back to its group next year!]

[Hahaha, exactly, why bother flying back and forth, warm houses at the ready, taking care of it for one winter is definitely better than the hardship of a long journey!]

The netizens had lots of ideas.

After all, migration is flying south in the autumn and returning the following spring.

So just stay on the farm through the winter and then head straight for the assembly next year.

Seeing these comments, Xu Yang responded with a smile:

"That really won’t work."

"This migratory bird obviously has migrated before, and migration is a part of its life cycle."

"It’s an adult Eastern White Stork, and it only wants to live with its group. Right now it’s just recuperating, so it will stay temporarily on the farm."

"I can sense that it’s eager to fly now, filled with the wildness of a wildlife animal."

"Having it stay in a warm house every day would actually be torture for it."

"That said, once it’s healed, I’ll let it fly free to see what it chooses. If it flies away, I definitely won’t stop it."

"If it wants to stay on the farm, I’m also willing to continue taking care of it."

"Not all animals like to be confined; some birds just can’t be caged."

Xu Yang ambled along with the Eastern White Stork, leisurely sharing his thoughts.

He could feel the emotions of this stork.

So Xu Yang knew that once its wings were healed, this Eastern White Stork would surely migrate alone.

Migrating alone as a migratory bird entails even greater dangers and more suffering along the way.

But to it, that’s not a big deal, as long as it can live in the warmth of the south, such pain is necessary to endure.

At this point, Xu Yang added:

"Large waders are generally strong fliers, and you all saw that when white storks migrate, they don’t form flocks but just fly independently and then gather together."

"So if it migrates on its own, it can also fly to its destination."

He continued streaming with the stork for a while.

The netizens were fascinated seeing the white stork on the farm.

From the outside, this was just an ordinary little farm.

A fence made of wood, the living area still comprised of many houses built with red bricks, nearby were four greenhouses, and there was also a plot of cultivated land.

But inside the farm, life thrived.

The greenhouses were all advanced, with temperature control, and from time to time, First Level protected animals would come in, like mallards, wild sika deer, white storks, and so on.

What a farm looks like depends on what the farmer is like.

Xu Yang was managing the farm entirely in his own way.

After walking around with the white stork, Xu Yang led it to rest in a house with laid-out dry grass.

The stork was also at ease in there.

The next day.

Xu Yang continued with his farm work, contacting construction teams from the village, preparing to renovate the living area, especially the houses, and have them all fitted with heating.

This job sounds simple, but it’s actually quite troublesome.

Because I need to add on to the building, I have to move, so I put a lot of things temporarily in a storeroom.

Xu Yang has his own little courtyard, while the employees live in two-room bungalows, side by side.

There are showers, water toilets, and the like, so life is pretty convenient, it just looks a bit old.

Xu Yang plans to develop the farm in the long term, so he takes it step by step.

Soon, the renovation workers were bustling about on the farm.

Xu Yang began to look for new employees.

At the same time, he took good care of the animals on the farm.

The White Stork liked to rest by the grass field on its own, running over there every time it was let out.

Xu Yang just let it be.

The farm’s new employees were quickly recruited by Xu Yang.

His family suggested hiring a relative to oversee things, as it is his own farm, and they thought a relative would manage it better.

But Xu Yang felt the opposite.

Having a relative oversee it would be more troublesome.

He preferred a pure employment relationship.

"I pay money, he does the work, if he does well he stays, if not, he goes—both sides are clear-cut."

Relatives always complain about too much or too little, Xu Yang did not like that at all, so he definitely wouldn’t hire them.

The newly arrived employees were two people, both from the town, and close to their village.

One was named Ma Wen, two years out of college, had returned to his hometown to start a business, opened a farm, and lost 100,000 yuan.

He was about to work in a factory when he heard Xu Yang was hiring and came over.

After chatting with him, Xu Yang found him reliable and decided to keep him here.

The other was a recent graduate from Agricultural University named Wang Wu, whom Xu Yang met through chatting with students and teachers from the university, and one teacher recommended him.

No sooner had Xu Yang mentioned the job than Wang Wu agreed.

After all, finding work in their area was really difficult at the moment.

Without any skills, relying only on physical labor, you’d earn just three or four thousand yuan a month.

Otherwise, young people all head outside, as they really have no other choice.

If hometowns could offer salaries of eight or nine thousand yuan and the economy was more developed, who would want to go away?

The base salary at Xu Yang’s place was five thousand, and the benefits were quite good.

Ma Wen and Wang Wu quickly adapted after they arrived.

However, Xu Yang found both of their names a bit awkward.

When he first saw Ma Wen’s name, he thought it was a Chinese name transliterated from English, since there are many people named "Ma Wen" in English.

Wang Wu’s name was even more awkward.

One day, Xu Yang called out to him by his full name.

"Wang Wu! Wang Wu! Wang Wu!"

After calling a few times and Wang Wu not coming over, Little Black and the Maquan dog came instead.

The two little guys looked at Xu Yang curiously, wondering why he suddenly started mimicking their barking.

Only then did Xu Yang realize that if you call out Wang Wu’s name consecutively, it sounds similar to the dog’s "woof woof" noise.

The moment he thought of this, Xu Yang felt quite embarrassed.

So, from then on, he no longer called Wang Wu by his full name, just calling him Xiao Wang.

Also, Xu Yang reassured Li Shan, telling him to work with confidence.

He very much recognized Li Shan’s ability to work.

The farm was always filled with miscellaneous tasks and was quite hard, requiring someone like him who worked diligently.

Li Shan was extremely grateful to Xu Yang.

Xu Yang had a clear plan for the farm; being the farmer and the boss, he was responsible for the farm’s overall direction.

He would hire people for many tasks.

Gradually, the farm would develop better and better.

During his daily live streams, Xu Yang also chatted with his online friends about these matters.

Some of the viewers joked:

[Old Xu, your farm is quite big now.]

Xu Yang chuckled and replied:

"We’re just getting started, it’s just an ordinary small farm now."

"A real big farm is built beautifully, with well-planned areas."

"Just the residential buildings alone are two or three stories high, with luxurious interiors, a sense of technology in the decoration, similar to the feel of a research building at a school."

"A farm like that isn’t just about farming; there’s research, external sales, private branding, and so on."

"We’ve only just put in central heating here."

"We can only say that we’ll develop slowly."

Xu Yang was full of expectations for his farm.

He even planned to rent more land next spring and extend the lease period at the same time.

After all, renting land from locals was cheap and straightforward.

It was a pity that the government had prohibited the sale and purchase of collective land, otherwise, Xu Yang would have liked to buy this piece of land.

This was to prevent the wealthy from hoarding land; if land could be traded, real landowners would have emerged, which is definitely forbidden.

Even with collective land, renting it for thirty years and then renewing it for another thirty isn’t much different from owning it.

With new employees, Xu Yang’s life became much easier.

"We’ll start getting busy after autumn. But for now, the farm is small, and there’s not much work, so the four of us are more than enough."

Xu Yang occasionally held meetings with the other three.

"Everyone should first get familiar with the daily work, and then I’ll specify the tasks, so we don’t end up like the three monks with no water to drink."

Xu Yang’s arrangement was for each person to be responsible for a specific area.

Ma Wen was in charge of poultry and livestock since his own farm was mainly involved in breeding, and even though he had lost everything, he still had plenty of feeding experience.

Li Shan and Wang Wu were each responsible for two greenhouses.

This was just the start, with not many responsibilities for everyone, but by next year, with more greenhouses, there would be more work to do.

Everything was well arranged.

And so, the days went by.

At the same time, the Eastern White Stork’s wings were gradually recovering, and Xu Yang could sometimes see it gently flapping its wings.

It seemed to miss its family and friends.