Chapter 551: Sign Up!

Before they knew it, a week had passed!

On August 30th, just two days before Jiang Xue’s first day of college, Li Yi finally returned to Beijing with his wife and child.

Three days earlier, his older sister’s husband, Yang Wenguang, had left Yunshan County the very next day after resigning from the sugar factory, heading to neighboring Pingcheng to find his old platoon sergeant.

Rumor had it that this old platoon sergeant was not only highly capable but also commanded considerable respect during his time in the military.

In his brother-in-law’s words, as long as he could convince the old squad leader to come out of retirement, everything would be settled.

He couldn’t say for sure about the rest, but at the very least, he could bring the other members of their platoon over with him—a prospect Li Yi was quite looking forward to.

They came back as a group, and they’d leave as a group—not one more, not one less.

Li Yi had originally planned to bring his older sister and his young nephew, Yang Rui, back to Beijing with him, but his older sister refused.

First, she wanted to wait for her husband to return so they could go to Beijing together.

Second, the autumn harvest was just around the corner in the village, and her parents would certainly be extremely busy then.

In previous years, his parents had basically survived on dry rations during this time, so she wanted to take this opportunity to cook for them.

Li Yi didn’t press the matter.

After leaving 150,000 yuan for the village, he set off from Nianzishan Village with Jiang Xue and the children.

The reason it was 150,000 yuan rather than 100,000 was mainly because, after running the numbers, Li Yi felt that 100,000 yuan would be a bit tight for setting up a livestock farm.

For one thing, Li Yi planned to build not only a sheep farm but also a cattle farm; the site construction alone would require a significant sum. If they were to build brick-and-tile structures, it would cost at least 30,000 yuan.

Furthermore, a farm of this size required extensive supporting infrastructure—not only would they need to dig a well, but they also had to build storage facilities for fodder.

Most importantly, a farm of this scale could no longer rely on the extensive, haphazard feeding methods of the past; it required intensive management. At the very least, the forage would have to be chopped before being fed to the livestock.

Otherwise, not only will the cattle and sheep have difficulty digesting the feed and grow slowly, but it will also result in a waste of forage.

This requires building a large forage warehouse and purchasing a forage chopper.

These days, industrial machinery is exorbitantly expensive; even the most basic forage chopper costs at least 2,000 yuan, and given the scale of the farm Li Yi is setting up, he’ll need about five of them.

Based on these calculations, the cost of the site and supporting facilities alone would be between 50,000 and 80,000 yuan.

In addition, Li Yi feels that the village’s herd of cattle and sheep is still somewhat small, especially the sheep, of which there are a mere 500.

For the current hot pot and barbecue restaurant, even if all of them were transported to Beijing, it wouldn’t be enough to cover the restaurant’s consumption for two months.

And once he returns to Beijing, he plans to open a branch, at which point the consumption of beef and mutton will inevitably surge.

Therefore, Li Yi specifically set aside an additional 100,000 yuan, instructing the village to use this money to purchase cattle and sheep in the pastures (grazing areas).

Unlike last time, when they had only bought calves and lambs that wouldn’t survive the winter, this time he instructed Feng Kai, Xiaogouwa, and the others to purchase adult cattle and sheep as well.

As long as there was enough forage, they were to buy as many as possible!

In short, Li Yi was determined to run this livestock farm with all his might.

After all, the Household Contract Responsibility System had already begun to be implemented province-wide, and in the future, the authorities would gradually relax controls on most things, allowing him to confidently lead his fellow villagers out of poverty and toward prosperity.

………

Beijing. The Jiang Family Ancestral Home!

The day after returning to the Capital from Nianzishan Village, Li Yi brought Jiang Xue and the children to the old family home to visit his mother-in-law.

The main reason was that registration for Beijing University had begun today; Li Yi planned to take Jiang Xue to register in the morning and then take her shopping for clothes and other items in the afternoon.

However, he felt somewhat uneasy about leaving Juanzi alone at home to watch the two children, so he wanted his mother-in-law to help look after them.

Of course, the main reason Li Yi felt confident leaving the children here was that Ye Lingyun’s condition had stabilized.

After taking medication for the past six months, combined with the treatment provided by a nationally renowned traditional Chinese medicine doctor arranged by the old man, Ye Lingyun’s health had largely recovered.

Although she still needed to take medication, she hadn’t had an episode in a long time.

Moreover, since her weight had returned to nearly 100 pounds and her bodily functions had largely returned to normal, she was even planning to go back to work at the school this semester.

When Li Yi’s family arrived, Ye Lingyun was in her study organizing her lesson plans. After all, she hadn’t worked for several years, so she was rusty in many areas and needed to prepare in advance.

Just then, a noise suddenly came from the west wing, and Ye Lingyun immediately went out to investigate.

Seeing that her daughter, son-in-law, and their family had arrived, she was overjoyed and asked right away, “When did you all get back?”

As she spoke, she reached out and took Yunrui from Jiang Xue’s arms.

Li Yi and Jiang Xue were about to answer when they heard Ye Lingyun say with a hint of surprise, “Oh my, I haven’t seen him in a few days—how come this child has gotten so tanned?”

Li Yi smiled and said, “The sun is strong back home, and the child’s skin is a bit delicate—even a little sun exposure makes a noticeable difference!”

In the countryside, there’s no shade to speak of, and the sun’s UV rays are much stronger than in the city. Not to mention children—even adults who spend time in the village will find their skin darkening by a shade.

“You two are just as bad. The kids are so young, and you don’t even know to keep them covered up when you go out. You’ve turned my fair-skinned, delicate grandson into a little charcoal briquette!”

Jiang Xue smiled and said, “Mom, I don’t think it’s a big deal. He should be back to his usual fair complexion in a few days!”

“By the way, Xue’er, school starts tomorrow. Have you got everything ready?” Ye Lingyun asked.

“Mom, isn’t it just a matter of registering? What else do I need to prepare?” Jiang Xue asked, puzzled.

“It’s not as simple as you think. First, you need to take your admission letter, exam admission ticket, and household registration book to the school to register. After that, you’ll have to go see your homeroom teacher to fill out a commuting student form…”

At this point, Ye Lingyun glanced at Yunrui in her arms, then continued, “Xue’er, if you go to school, have you thought about what to do with the baby?”

Li Yi immediately replied, “Mom, my older sister will be coming to the capital in a few days. She’ll help us look after the baby at home!”

“Will that really work? If it doesn’t, I can quit my job and stay home to help you look after the baby!”

“Mom, really, there’s no need. My older sister’s child is still small too and needs someone to look after him. It’s the same whether I’m watching one child or a whole bunch!” Li Yi said.

“That works too. If we really can’t manage, we can send the child to the daycare at our school. The staff there will take good care of him!” Ye Lingyun said.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it!”

Then Li Yi added, “Mom, the main reason we came over today is to ask you to watch Yunrui and Yunjin for a bit. I need to take Xiaoxue to school to register her!”

Ye Lingyun replied immediately, “Alright, if you’re going to register, you should head over early. If you go too late, you’ll have to wait in line!”

“Alright!”

With that, Li Yi placed Yunrui and Yunjin on the kang and asked Juanzi to stay behind to help.

Then, he set off for Beijing University with Jiang Xue and Zhang Ziqiang!

The Jiang family’s old residence was quite a distance from Capital University; it actually took a full forty minutes by car to get there.

Since it was the first day of registration, most students from out of town hadn’t arrived yet.

So when Li Yi and Jiang Xue arrived at the school, they found that the registration area wasn’t very crowded. Although they still had to wait in line, the queue wasn’t long.

Li Yi had Zhang Ziqiang park the car in a less crowded area, then got out with Jiang Xue. Holding the admission letter and various documents, they headed straight for the registration desk!