91 Dongshan

Shepherd dogs did not have easy jobs. Every day, they would run at least 30 kilometers. If they needed to consistently change pastures, the distance was even greater. For arduous tasks, sometimes times they might even cover 100 kilometers in a single day. However, there was no way Su Hou could compare with the professional shepherd dogs. Without a car, and given his weaker constitution, using just his two legs would be an impossible ask.

Luckily he was only playing the role of an instructor. There was no need to frequently run with the dogs. However, just slowly following them and shouting commands nonstop was enough to tire Su Hou till he was on the verge of collapsing.

When they were heading back from the pasture, Su Hou rode the car back. He was too tired to run anymore.

At dinner, Su Hou ate with the dogs. That did not mean that he ate dog food, but rather, after feeding the dogs, Su Hou would have his own food beside them. When it came to sleeping, Su Hou slept in the kennel. However, the place where the dogs slept on the farm had rather decent living conditions. Not as good as Su Hou's own home, but it was better than some of the living quarters of normal employees.

People from Muzhou said that the shepherd dogs lived better than the average working-class person from another continent, and that was not without reason. This also caused a lot of jealousy and hate among others. Their lives could not even be compared to a dog's.

With Su Hou sleeping in the kennel, his three bodyguards could not wander off too far. They had to stay nearby and monitor the area where Young Master Su was.

During the day, Su Hou was dog-tired. At night, he could just lie down in the kennel and fall asleep straight away. However, there was a strange laughter coming from the kennel.

"Hehe... Heiheihei... HAHAHAHA..."

The three bodyguards cautiously headed over to check it out. They realized it was their young master having a dream. It was probably a good dream, as he kept laughing. The dogs in the kennel had looks of irritation. Bingo let out a dissatisfied whimper before changing positions and continuing to sleep. The shepherd dogs were tired out and left the guarding of the farm at night to Chubby Black and a few other specially trained guard dogs.

The Su Hou was pushed by the paw of a nearby dog. He smacked his lips a few times, turned his body the other way, and continued sleeping. In no time at all, the intermittent laughter came back.

Seeing the situation, the three bodyguard felt a little helpless. They cared for their young master dearly, but seeing this situation, they had no idea what to feel. Their young master seemed rather comfortable just sleeping in the kennel.

Unlike Su Hou and the rest who slept early, Fang Zhao still went running at night. As his bodyguard, Zuo Yu also followed, although he had no idea why his artist boss was running in the pitch-black farm at night.

Curly Hair had joined them and was running beside Fang Zhao's feet.

The farm was huge. Fang Zhao ran two rounds from the cultivated farmlands to the pastures before heading back.

"It's really quiet," Fang Zhao said.

Zuo Yu thought to himself, What nonsense is he saying? "Muzhou is like this. There are few people and the farms are big. Everywhere is just fields and pastures," Zuo Yu said.

Fang Zhao laughed but did not bother explaining.

Back during the end of days, nights had not been like this.

As they were running back to the residence Wu Yi had prepared for them, Fang Zhao realized that, although the farm was very quiet, there were many "eyes" behind them. The whole farm was being monitored. Every night, there were people in the monitor room, prepared to investigate any unusual happenings. The dogs of the farm also doubled as their "early warning system." Even if their eyes were closed, their ears were always listening for any suspicious sounds.

This farm was run well. Fang Zhao knew that, even if they had not collaborated this time, Wu Yi would still have been able to expand his farm. All he needed was more time.

When they returned back, Fang Zhao did not head out anymore. Zuo Yu also went into his own room. If his boss did not head out, he could also rest a little. Midway through a yawn, Zuo Yu suddenly halted as he remembered something. No wonder he kept feeling something was amiss. After they had returned back from running, Fang Zhao surprisingly had not been panting as he had expected. How was that possible?

According to the information on Fang Zhao's file, he was supposed to be the sort that lacked physical training and was an artist that only knew how to use his brains to make money. But after running such a distance, why had he still seemed so relaxed? Could it be that it was as the people in the virtual projects department had said, that Fang Zhao spent a lot of time training himself every day?

But even if it was normal training, it was still not possible to reach this sort of level. Unless Fang Zhao's training had increasing intensity. But what would an artistic worker need such a high degree of training for?

Zuo Yu realized that he understood Fang Zhao less and less. Shaking his head, he took two steps then stopped. He remember that the curly-haired dog at Fang Zhao's feet had not panted either. During the day, it had sheep-herding training, and at night, it still kept up with Fang Zhao for the run. To think that it was not even panting. If it were another dog, it would probably have laid down and gasped for air after returning.

Zuo Yu was even more depressed. Even that dog made no sense!

The next day, Su Hou emerged from the kennel in high spirits and ran over to find Fang Zhao. Yesterday, he had run the entire day, but at night, after spraying medicine, it was as if his muscles were not sore at all. Instead, after his nice dream last night, he'd woken up smiling.

"I heard that Young Master Su had a good dream last night? What did you dream about?" Wu Yi asked when he saw Su Hou.

"I dreamed that... dreamed that... sigh, I already can't remember, but it was a good dream. Hehe, Master Zhao!" Su Hou shouted when he saw Fang Zhao coming. "The application for the farm's name was successful. We will have a new name for the next competition!"

Su Hou wanted to change the name after he had bought Xishan Farm. After all, with a new owner, there was no need to use the previous name. Even if the farm had nothing, it still was his own property. A name change would make him feel more at ease.

However, after thinking of quite a number of names, Su Hou could not decide on one. After that, Fang Zhao had said, "If you don't like Xishan, how about Dongshan; it means to make a comeback."

Hence, Su Hou had gone and applied for the change of name and received news that it had been approved early this morning. From today onward, their farm was no longer Xishan Farm but Dongshan Farm.

Although he was unclear of what he had dreamt about last night, Su Hou remembered it having something to do with the sheep-herding competition. As Fang Zhao had said, he was eagerly anticipating entering the Eastern finals. When that happened, everyone watching the competition would know Su Hou's name! With the success of the name application, Su Hou was in a good mood, and he begun putting in added effort to learning herding.

For the following few days, Su Hou followed the flock of sheep every day, giving instructions to the seven shepherd dogs on his team.

Wu Yi picked out a hundred sheep for training from his own livestock. The sheep were selected by their breed and characteristics to be similar to the sheep used in the sheep-herding competition. These sheep were the most commonly seen sheep in Muzhou.

Su Hou's three bodyguards lamented every day. At the start, Su Hou had been at a loss all the time, but now, he had both form and shape. At the start, he'd taken half a day to think of commands to issue, but now, when he saw the changes in the flock, he could immediately come up with hand gestures. In just a week, the young master had lost weight.

Wu Yi imparted some sheep-herding tactics every day, but he no longer concealed anything. After all, they had chosen to cooperate, and he had chosen to bet on Dongshan farm. He considered it an all-in gamble, so if he kept anything to himself, it would not benefit anyone at all.

But what made the three bodyguards puzzled was the composer from Yanzhou, Fang Zhao. What was he up to every day?

In the day, Fang Zhao just sat there with his earpiece, fiddling with some music software. At night, he took his dog out for runs. When Su Hou was herding sheep, Fang Zhao would even place some sort of recording equipment on the sheep, dogs, and even on Su Hou's body.

Any instrument to be placed by Fang Zhao had to go through a stringent inspection by the three bodyguards. The inspection found that the equipment was indeed a sound recorder and, furthermore, it was to be placed closest to the ear. The sounds it recorded were sounds that the ear tended to not hear. This made them even more bewildered. 

Eavesdropping? What was there to eavesdrop on? And so much effort just to do so.

Collecting materials? What sorry of materials did this collect?

They had all heard the sounds from the recordings. It was just a bunch of sounds all mashed together; there was nothing much to hear. Sometimes they could hear the wind, but the sound of wind was not that special either.

As for the symbols Fang Zhao wrote down in his notebook, it was rumored to be a musical score, but no one could understand it.

Indeed, the world of an artist was different from that of a normal human.

In the blink of an eye, the day of the competition arrived. In this round, other then their Dongshan Farm, there were seven other teams from the Eastern region. In total, there were eight teams.

"Boss, what are you betting on this time? Top five again?" Zuo Yu asked.

"No."

Wu Yi had said that, in Muzhou, most of the people that could correctly guess the top five were from the Su Family. Fang Zhao guessing all correctly once could be down to pure luck. But out of ten times, hitting predictions correctly three times would attract unwanted attention. If the frequency of correct predictions increased, it would attract more attention. Fang Zhao currently did not want any trouble. Furthermore, he was not short of cash, so there was no need to take such a risk.

After all, making less guesses did not mean not being able to win big.

Fang Zhao looked at the odds for the payouts. Perhaps there were a number of teams of a similar standard, so the payouts were slightly higher.

Guessing first place correctly would give a threefold bonus.

The places that followed were the same, higher than the previous time.

"This time, there are no slight favorites or underdogs. Guessing the top five is hard," Fang Zhao said.

Zuo Yu looked at Fang Zhao. He did not know if Fang Zhao really could not guess or if he did not want to. Pausing awhile, he asked, "So how do you intend to buy?"

"You don't have to overthink. As long as we are taking part in the competition, wagering on ourselves will be good enough," Fang Zhao replied.

Zuo Yu understood and nodded his head. Just as Wu Yi had done so to support his cousin, whether it looked good or not, he could always wager some and have a side bet in the shadows.

Zuo Yu wanted to know if Fang Zhao had any secret side bets but could not ask him so publicly. so he walked over and whispered, "Boss, how much did you place on us this time around?"

"All the winnings from our previous trip to Muzhou," Fang Zhao replied.

Zuo Yu was startled. "Are you serious?!"

"When am I ever not serious?"