The morning sun rose over Stone Roll Village, pale and weak, offering light but no warmth. The heavy frost clung to the thatched roofs like a layer of white fur, sparkling deceptively in the dawn.
Inside the Li household, the atmosphere was slightly lighter than the previous night. The "bark soup" had been little more than hot water, but the knowledge that the calf had survived the night gave the family a psychological boost.
Li Wei sat on the edge of the kang, finishing a small, coarse bun made of husks—the "treat" his mother had saved. It tasted like cardboard and scratched his throat, but he forced it down. His body needed fuel.
"Wei," his father, Li Dazhuang, called out from the doorway. He was wrapping his feet in layers of cloth, preparing for a day of work. "The calf. Check it again. If it stands, we have a chance. If it doesn't..."
"I'm going," Li Wei said, cutting off the fatalism. He jumped down, his body protesting the cold floorboards.
He grabbed a hoe from the corner—not for farming, but for a different purpose—and headed outside.
The air was crisp, biting his lungs. He made his way to the shed. The calf was awake, its large, dark eyes tracking Li Wei's movement. It was still lying down, but its head was held higher.
**[Target Status: Stable.]**
**[Health: 35% (Improving).]**
**[Recommendation: Introduce solid forage to stimulate rumen development.]**
"Good morning to you too," Li Wei muttered to the system. He poured the rest of the milk he'd secured last night into a trough. The calf licked eagerly at the white liquid.
Li Wei didn't linger. He had bigger plans for the morning.
He walked past the shed, past the family's small plot of frozen vegetable land, and stopped at the edge of the property where the wild grass grew. In the eyes of the villagers, this was just scrub land—useless weeds that harbored snakes and insects.
To Li Wei, it was a goldmine waiting to be unlocked.
He knelt, scraping away the frost and the top layer of dead, yellow grass. He dug into the dark soil until he found what he was looking for: the root systems of the native grasses.
**[System Scanning Local Flora...]**
**[Species Identified: Common Wild Fescue. Quality: Poor. Palatability: Low. Nutritional Value: 2/10.]**
"Worthless," Li Wei sighed. The native grasses were tough and woody; cattle could eat them to survive, but they wouldn't gain weight. They were like eating cardboard. To raise the premium cattle he envisioned—the Angus and Herefords—he needed premium feed.
He focused his mind on the System interface.
**[Ranch System Store - Category: Pasture Seeds]**
**[Available for Exchange (10 Ranch Points):]**
**[1. Brachiaria Decumbens (Signal Grass) - Drought Resistant, High Protein. Adaptation: 95%.]**
Li Wei smirked. He had earned 10 points from saving the calf. It was just enough.
"Purchase," he commanded silently.
A strange warmth spread through his palm. He looked down. In the center of his hand, a small pouch made of unfamiliar, smooth material appeared. Inside, he could feel the texture of thousands of tiny seeds.
These weren't magical seeds that would sprout instantly. They were biological templates. The system had adapted the genetics of a modern tropical grass to survive in this ancient, harsh climate. This grass, *Brachiaria*, was a monster—it grew fast, choked out weeds, and packed enough protein to turn a scrawny cow into a beast.
He couldn't plant the whole field. He didn't have the labor or the tools. But he could start a nursery.
He spent the next hour clearing a small patch of ground, roughly the size of a bed sheet. He turned the soil with the hoe, his blistered hands screaming in protest. He mixed the small bag of black seeds with some sand to spread them evenly, then covered them lightly with loose dirt.
"Grow," he whispered, patting the soil. "I'm betting my life on you."
"Third Brother?"
Li Wei stiffened. He turned around to see Li An, his ten-year-old brother, standing a few feet away, clutching a worn book to his chest. The boy was bundled in a coat that was too big for him, making him look like a turtle.
"An-er," Li Wei said, straightening up and hiding the empty seed pouch in his sleeve. "Why are you out here? It's freezing. You should be studying."
Li An looked at the patch of freshly turned earth with confusion. "Father said you saved the calf. The village headman's son... his calf died last month. He said it was impossible to save them once they go down."
"He was wrong," Li Wei said simply. He walked over and ruffled his younger brother's hair. "What is that you're reading?"
Li An held up the book. The cover was tattered, the title *Analects of Confucius* written in faded ink. "Master Zhang in the county seat gave it to me. He said... he said if I can memorize it by spring, he might let me audit his class."
Master Zhang was a failed scholar who ran a small private school in the county town. It wasn't the Imperial Academy, but it was the first step on the long road to the exams.
Li Wei looked at his brother. In his past life, he had never cared much for books, but in this world, the Civil Service Examination was the only way to wash away the mud of the peasant class. If Li An could become an official, the Li family would have an umbrella against the storm of corrupt magistrates and greedy landlords.
"Can you read it?" Li Wei asked.
"Some," Li An admitted shyly. "The characters are hard. I don't have a brush to practice writing."
Li Wei knelt down. He picked up a dry twig from the ground. "You don't need a brush to learn. Look."
He smoothed out a patch of dirt. "Here. I'll teach you a character. My way."
Li Wei didn't know much Classical Chinese, but he knew basic characters from his brief schooling in this life. He wrote the character for 'Person' (人) in the dirt.
"This is 'Person'," Li Wei said. "Standing tall. Like you should."
Li An's eyes lit up. He grabbed a stick and copied it, his strokes shaky but determined.
"Good," Li Wei nodded. "Now, go inside and practice on paper if you can find some, or in the ash of the stove. But don't let Mother see you wasting ash."
Li An grinned, a rare sight on his underfed face. "Thank you, Third Brother!"
The boy ran back inside. Li Wei watched him go. *I need money,* he thought. *I need money for ink, paper, and tutors. I need money to buy better breeding stock. This calf is just the start.*
He looked back at his hidden patch of seeds.
"System," he thought. "What's the fastest way to make silver right now?"
**[Current Assets: 1 Calf (Growing), 1 Patch of Brachiaria (Germinating).]**
**[Market Analysis: Local livestock market in North County Town. Demand for quality meat is low among commoners, high among taverns and nobles.]**
**[Recommendation: Identify high-value byproducts or service.]**
Li Wei frowned. Byproducts. The cow. The milk.
He walked back to the shed. The mother cow was standing now, munching on some dry stalks. She looked at him with less hostility than before.
He approached her rear. He looked at the pile of manure she had just deposited on the floor.
*Manure.*
In this era, farmers used "night soil" (human waste) for fertilizer because it was easy to collect. Cow manure was often left to rot or burned as fuel in desperate times. But to a rancher, it was "Brown Gold."
If he could compost this properly with the straw and the new grass cuttings, he could create high-grade organic fertilizer. The vegetables grown in the village were small and tasteless because the soil was dead. If he could prove his fertilizer made crops bigger, he could sell it.
But that was slow money. He needed fast money.
He looked at the calf. It was trying to stand. Its legs wobbled like a newborn deer.
And then, Li Wei saw it. A distinct black patch on the calf's white flank. It was a mutation, a rare color pattern for the local Yellow Cattle.
"System, scan the calf's genetic potential again."
**[Genetic Anomaly Detected. Recessive Gene Expression.]**
**[Trait: Marbling Potential (Hidden).]**
**[Note: This specimen carries a rare mutation for intramuscular fat storage. If fed correctly, meat quality will far surpass local breeds.]**
Li Wei's heart skipped a beat. It wasn't just a calf. It was a prototype.
But meat took years. He needed something else.
He walked out of the shed and looked toward the distant hills. The sun was climbing higher. It was time to go into the mountains. Not for grass this time, but for what the mountains hid from the plain folk.
"Father!" Li Wei called out, walking back to the house.
Li Dazhuang was splitting logs in the yard, his breath coming in white puffs. "What is it?"
"I'm going up the mountain," Li Wei said.
Li Dazhuang lowered the axe, his face darkening. "Absolutely not. The wolves are hungry this time of year. And the snow is deep. You just recovered from a sickness."
"I'm not going far," Li Wei lied smoothly. He needed to go deep. "I'm going to check the snares. If we catch a rabbit or a pheasant, that's meat for the sisters. And I need to find some herbs for the cow's leg."
Li Dazhuang hesitated. He looked at his son's thin frame, then at the empty grain jar by the door. The promise of meat was a powerful temptation.
"Take the dog," Li Dazhuang finally relented. "Old Yellow is slow, but he can smell trouble."
Li Wei nodded. He whistled for the old mongrel dog sleeping under the eaves. "Come on, Old Yellow. Let's go for a walk."
He didn't take a weapon—he didn't have one. He took a sturdy stick he had sharpened in the shed. He didn't tell his father the real reason he was going.
He wasn't hunting rabbits.
He was hunting for *Napier Grass*. The System had hinted that specific wild variants existed in the river valleys, waiting to be improved. And where there was deep grass in winter, there were animals hibernating or grazing.
He was a rancher. And today, he would claim his first pasture.
He tightened the belt around his waist, adjusted his coat, and trudged into the snow, leaving the safety of the village behind. The first step of the Li Family Ranch had officially begun.