Chapter 122: Taking the Black Calf Along

Early the next morning, Liu Xing was already up. After washing up in the kitchen, he said to his sister, Liu Dongju, “Sister, after breakfast, I’ll head back to handle some issues with the shoe-making. If nothing else comes up, I probably won’t be able to come over until the twelfth.”

“All right!” Liu Dongju nodded with a smile.

“There’s one more thing.” Liu Xing glanced around, noticing only the little one playing by the door, then lowered his voice. “Lately, tell brother-in-law to keep a closer eye on the cows in the pen. If possible, lock them up in the backyard.”

“Why?” Liu Dongju was puzzled. The backyard was where people lived—wouldn’t keeping cows there make it unbearably smelly?

“Because the notorious cattle thief, Zhu Dachang, has escaped. It’s very likely he’s hiding out in Laowu Village. I heard from Sister Ding Lan that he even wants to kill Black Calf to get revenge!” Liu Xing sighed lightly and briefly revealed the truth.

There was no other way. While others could be kept in the dark, Liu Dongju was his own sister. After weighing the situation, he decided to tell her. The matter was serious, and if something happened to Liu Dongju’s family because of Zhu Dachang, it would be something he could never bear to see.

“What did you say??”

“Zhu… Zhu Dachang escaped?”

Liu Dongju was frightened, her face paling considerably.

Taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart, she said again and again, “Then you must be extra careful, little brother. You’ve always been the one feeding Black Calf!”

“I’m fine,” Liu Xing smiled.

“I believe you.” Liu Dongju paced anxiously. “Should I talk to brother-in-law about this? At least he’s strong and could protect you.”

“You can’t let brother-in-law know. He’s the kind who spills everything when he drinks. If word gets out, that would be a real problem for me,” Liu Xing warned.

“That’s true.” Liu Dongju nodded in agreement. Her husband really did say anything when drunk.

“Enough talk. I’ll go pack my things now.” Liu Xing noticed Zhao Dongkui and Zhao Liang appearing on the road, smiled, and left the kitchen.

Liu Dongju could only focus on preparing breakfast, though the worry on her face was unmistakable.

…

After breakfast, Liu Xing casually asked Zhao Liang about last night’s patrol.

Hearing nothing unusual, he mounted his old bicycle and headed home.

The things he brought back were tools for shoemaking purchased from the black market, including three vintage grinding machines.

Thanks to the clear weather and dry roads, half an hour later, he arrived at the grain drying yard.

Just as he was about to call his father out to help carry the tools, he noticed something strange.

There was a set of unusual shoe prints on the yard.

These prints weren’t from running shoes or cloth shoes—only leather shoes would leave such marks.

This meant that sometime within the last two days, a stranger wearing leather shoes had been to his family’s grain drying yard.

As for who it was…

Liu Xing froze for a moment, then hurried toward the Black Calf’s cattle pen.

When he saw Black Calf was safe, he finally exhaled in relief.

But soon his guard was up again, because the leather shoe prints were found around the pen—but not close to it.

In other words, this stranger wearing leather shoes was wary of Black Calf in the pen.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a strange pattern.

And this person might very well be the escaped Zhu Dachang.

Thinking this, Liu Xing’s expression darkened.

He walked to the pen and reached out to touch Black Calf’s horns. “You’ve got to be careful lately, especially at night. If you see strangers, try to avoid them.”

“Moo~~!”

Black Calf looked at Liu Xing in confusion.

“Heh… Maybe I’m overthinking it. But I’m telling you, that cattle thief Zhu Dachang you injured in Laowu Village has escaped, and he’s shouting that he wants to kill you to settle the score.” Liu Xing murmured with a smile.

Black Calf blinked its large, bright eyes at Liu Xing.

“Get some rest!” Liu Xing knew talking further would be like playing music to a cow. Smiling, he turned and left.

Black Calf watched Liu Xing walk away, snorted softly, then tilted its head to scratch an itch.

It seemed not to take Liu Xing’s words seriously at all.

…

After bringing the tools back home, Liu Xing didn’t rest but entered the main room to start helping with shoemaking.

Seeing many young wives waiting for Kang Hu to produce soles, he smiled and brought over the grinding machines, immediately fitting them with sharp saw blades.

These saw blades were specially prepared by Zhou Can after much effort to acquire.

With these modified grinding machines, speeding up the production of shoe soles was now effortless.

He believed that with this electric grinder, Kang Hu alone could quickly supply soles for everyone.

But before that, he had to teach Kang Hu how to use the grinder properly.

If Kang Hu injured his hands and caused an accident, it was something Liu Xing wanted to avoid.

Fortunately, such accidents were unlikely because operating the grinder was very simple.

One only needed to protect the eyes and hands.

Kang Hu did not disappoint; he learned the operation in just a few minutes.

At first, he was a bit hesitant.

But by the end, Kang Hu could cut a rough shoe sole in just a minute or two—and his speed kept increasing.

By lunchtime, Kang Hu was able to cut soles in just over fifty seconds per pair.

This pleased Liu Xing greatly, and the young wives helping with shoemaking were quite surprised.

They realized that this little grinding machine had completely transformed the bottleneck of Kang Hu’s sole supply.

In other words, if they didn’t speed up their own shoemaking, Kang Hu would soon have a mountain of rough sole materials piled up.

This made them somewhat anxious, but Liu Xing paid it little mind.

Instead, he continued assembling the other two grinding machines.

These two machines weren’t fitted with saw blades but with grinding wheels.

Once installed, he had his aunt learn the basic techniques for smoothing the shoe edges and removing burrs.

He assigned Zhao Xiaomo to sit by one machine to handle shaping the shoe edges.

This drastically saved time on the most time-consuming parts of shoemaking.

Still, Liu Xing felt a little regretful.

If only he could find a nail-setting machine and specialized hole-punching molds, he was sure the speed of making simple slippers and sandals would increase even more.

Busy hours always flew by quickly.

Before long, it was just past five in the afternoon.

Liu Xing was delighted that, thanks to the three grinding machines he bought, the daily production of finished shoes had tripled—from nearly a hundred pairs a day to over two hundred.

Moreover, the quality had improved significantly.

This was the difference between having professional machinery and not.

Seeing the piles of finished shoes crowding the main room, Liu Xing decided to take Black Calf from the pen to the front gate, placing an empty bamboo basket on its back.

“Dad! Mom! I won’t be home for dinner tonight. I’m taking the shoes to my eldest sister’s place,” he said, then loaded all the finished shoes into the basket.

Seeing that some pairs wouldn’t fit, he found woven bags to fill and tied them to Black Calf’s back as well.

At this moment, Liu Dazhao came out of the room.

“It’s late. Don’t go to your eldest sister’s place now. I can help deliver them by bicycle tomorrow.”

“No need. I have Black Calf,” Liu Xing smiled.

“You boy, I still need Black Calf to plow the fields!” Liu Dazhao said helplessly.

“Mom said the fields were already plowed in the last few days,” Liu Xing asked, puzzled.

“Well…” Liu Dazhao hesitated, unsure how to respond.

“He just wants to make some extra money with Black Calf!” Zhou Qiuxiang stepped out of the kitchen, smiling brightly. “Xing, don’t listen to your dad! Compared to your shoe shop opening, his efforts are nothing.”

Her words embarrassed Liu Dazhao greatly.

But Liu Xing wasn’t upset.

Instead, he pulled Liu Dazhao to the grain yard.

“Dad! It’s not that I don’t want you to earn extra money, but I have to take Black Calf with me. Even if I’m not delivering shoes, I can’t leave him at home.”

“Why?” Liu Dazhao was confused.

No one was starving Black Calf at home, nor mistreating such a valuable field worker.

Seeing no one else around except Guazi playing nearby, Liu Xing leaned close to Liu Dazhao’s ear and quietly revealed the truth about Zhu Dachang’s escape and the lurking danger.

“What?” Liu Dazhao’s eyes widened in shock.

“I’m off now. Stay home and help Mom a bit,” Liu Xing smiled, walked to the gate, took hold of Black Calf, and with Guazi following, headed toward Laowu Village.