The days following the cattle drive were a blur of grey skies, frost-covered grass, and the rhythmic sound of chopping.
Li Wei had entered what he called "The Finishing Phase." The System's reward—the Rapid Fattening Formula—wasn't a magic powder that appeared out of thin air. It was a precise recipe that required labor, timing, and specific ingredients.
"Forty percent Gen II Ryegrass," Li Wei muttered, weighing a bundle on a crude balance scale. "Thirty percent crushed corn stalks (bought cheap from a neighbor who had already harvested). Twenty percent tofu residue. And ten percent… the special mix."
The "special mix" was the key. The System had identified a specific ratio of minerals and local herbs—dried mugwort, ground oyster shells, and a pinch of salt—that acted as a rumen stimulant. It pushed the cattle's digestive system to extract every ounce of energy from the feed.
Li Wei stood by the grinding stone, his arms aching as he crushed the corn stalks and grain into a coarse meal. The wind cut through his jacket, biting at his ears, but he didn't stop.
"You're feeding them better than we eat," Li Jun joked, walking past with a basket of turnips. He looked tired; the winter preparation was hard on everyone.
"They are our bank notes," Li Wei replied, wiping sweat from his brow. "Every pound they gain is a coin in the box. Patches! Get back!"
He turned to see the spotted bull trying to nose his way into the feed mixing trough. Patches was the aggressive one, always hungry, always pushing.
Li Wei grabbed his bamboo pole and tapped the steer's nose. *Tap.*
Patches snorted and backed off, eyeing Li Wei with a mixture of annoyance and respect.
"Tie him to the post," Li Wei ordered. "He's bullying Red Cloud. We separate them for feeding. Red Cloud is shy; if we don't, he'll starve while Patches gets fat."
This was the reality of the cowboy life. It wasn't just riding into the sunset. It was managing personalities. It was being a psychologist for cows.
***
**The Cold Snap**
A week into the program, the temperature plummeted.
Winter had arrived not with a whisper, but with a scream. A north wind howled down from the mountains, bringing with it a fine, dry snow that coated the world in white.
The water troughs froze solid within hours.
Li Wei woke up before dawn, his breath misting in the freezing air of the bunkhouse. He knew immediately that something was wrong. It was too quiet. The usual sounds of cattle shifting and chewing were absent.
He threw on his coat and ran outside.
In the quarantine pen, the two steers were standing stiff-legged, their heads low. A layer of frost clung to their coats. The water trough was a block of ice.
"They won't drink if it's frozen," Qin Hu said, appearing behind Li Wei. He was wrapped in a thick wool blanket. "And if they don't drink, they can't digest the dry feed. They'll bloat. Impaction."
"It's too cold for them to be outside without shelter," Li Wei realized with a pang of guilt. He had been so focused on the feed that he had underestimated the weather. These weren't local acclimatized oxen used to sleeping in the snow; they were young, stressed, and still recovering from the flood.
"Move them into the tool shed," Li Wei decided. "Clear out the rakes and hoes. We'll bed it down with straw."
"And the water?"
"We boil it."
For the next three days, the Li family ran a continuous relay. Li Wei and Jun hauled water from the well. Mother and Mei boiled it over the kitchen fire in massive iron cauldrons. They carried the steaming buckets up the hill to the shed.
Li Wei added a handful of brown sugar to the warm water—a luxury expense, but necessary.
The steers drank the warm, sweet water greedily. The heat radiated into their bodies, relaxing their muscles and stimulating their appetites.
"Good," Li Wei said, watching them drink. "Now they'll eat."
The shed became a steamy, humid den. The smell of manure and wet straw was strong, but the animals were safe. Li Wei spent his nights in there with them, sleeping on a pile of hay, waking up every few hours to check their breathing and refill the trough.
**[System Notification: Environmental Stress Neutralized.]**
**[Feed Efficiency restored to 100%.]**
***
**The Transformation**
By the twentieth day, the change was undeniable.
The "Rapid Fattening Formula" was working its alchemy.
Patches, the spotted bull, no longer looked like a skeletal frame. His sides had filled out, becoming convex rather than concave. His coat had lost the dull, rough texture of starvation and was beginning to shine with the oiliness of good health.
Red Cloud was less dramatic but just as promising. His bones were disappearing under a layer of firm, red muscle.
Li Wei ran his hands over Patches' back. He pressed his thumb into the flesh. It sprang back. Not just fat—*marbling*. The intramuscular fat that gave the meat flavor.
**[System Scan: Patches.]**
**[Weight: 320 kg (Gain: 60kg in 20 days).]**
**[Meat Quality: Tier 2 (Good).]**
**[System Scan: Red Cloud.]**
**[Weight: 280 kg (Gain: 40kg in 20 days).]**
**[Meat Quality: Tier 2 (Good).]**
"It's working," Li Wei whispered to himself. He had achieved in twenty days what normally took three months.
"You look like a ghost," Li Jun said, bringing breakfast up the hill—a bowl of congee and a pickled egg. "You haven't slept in your own bed in a week."
"The landlord comes in ten days," Li Wei said, eating quickly. "I need to push them for the last stretch. I'm increasing the grain ratio. I need them to look like barrels."
He looked at the feed store. They were running low on the corn and tofu residue.
"I need to go to town," Li Wei said. "I need to buy more supplies. And I need to check on the beef sales at the restaurant."
***
**The Town Gossip**
Li Wei arrived at Qing Shui Town in the afternoon. The streets were bustling with people buying winter supplies—cotton, coal, and cured meats.
He went straight to the grain depot, buying two sacks of crushed corn. He haggled the price down, citing the bulk purchase. Every coin counted.
As he was loading the cart, he overheard a conversation near the tea stall next door.
"…did you hear? The Li family boy, the one who went for the exam?"
Li Wei froze, his hand on a sack of corn.
"Yeah, Li Chen. I heard he's staying at the 'Scholar's Retreat' inn. My cousin works there. He says the boy studies by the light of the streetlamps because he's saving oil. Hard worker."
"He's going to need more than hard work. The competition is fierce this year. I heard the Prefecture Inspector is looking for 'practical talent', not just poetry. That's rare. Usually, it's all about flowery prose."
Li Wei's heart swelled with pride. *Streetlamps.* Chen was studying. He was fighting his own battle in the city.
"And the Magistrate?" another voice asked.
"Ah, the Magistrate is happy. The Inspector loved that Dragon Gate Beef dish. He's asking for more. The Chef at the Fragrant Pavilion is scrambling. He's buying up all the decent beef in the market, but he says it's all tough as leather. He wants that Cloud Hill stuff."
Li Wei smiled. The market was waiting. The demand was there.
He finished loading the cart and walked over to the tea stall.
"Brothers," Li Wei greeted them, tossing a few coins for a cup of tea. "Did you say the Chef is looking for beef?"
The men looked at him, then at his cart.
"You're the Li boy?" one asked. "The Cow Doctor?"
"I am. And I have two steers that are almost ready. Tell Chef Luo not to worry. I'll have his meat by the Winter Solstice."
He drank his tea in one gulp and walked away. The rumors were flying, but they were flying in the right direction.
***
**The Final Push**
Back at the ranch, Li Wei intensified the regimen.
He stopped letting the steers graze freely. To maximize the fat cover, he kept them in the shed, limiting their movement to conserve energy. This was "lot feeding," a technique unknown to the locals who let their cattle roam miles a day searching for scraps.
"Eat. Sleep. Grow," Li Wei told Patches, dumping the mixed feed into the trough.
The shed smelled rich and earthy. The steers were now eating with a frenzy, their bodies converting the high-energy feed into fat at a rate that would have seemed impossible to a traditional farmer.
On the night before the landlord's deadline, Li Wei stood in the doorway of the shed.
The moon was full, casting a silver light over the snow. Inside, Patches and Red Cloud lay on thick beds of straw, chewing their cud. The sound was rhythmic, soothing. They looked like two sleeping giants, their sides rising and falling in unison.
"You did good, boys," Li Wei whispered. He was exhausted. He had lost weight himself; his cheeks were hollow, and his hands were cracked and red from the cold and the lye soap.
But looking at the cattle, he felt a surge of power.
Tomorrow, Steward Chen would come. He would expect to find a skinny, desperate boy with a skinny, desperate cow.
He would find a professional rancher with prime beef.
Li Wei went to the bunkhouse. Qin Hu was sharpening a knife.
"Ready for tomorrow?" Qin Hu asked.
"I am," Li Wei said. "We sell Patches to the Landlord for the rent. We keep Red Cloud for the restaurant contract. And we keep the profit."
He lay down on his bunk. He didn't even bother to take off his boots. He closed his eyes.
In the distance, he could hear the wind howling, but it didn't sound threatening anymore. It sounded like applause.
**[Ranch Status: Critical Phase Complete.]**
**[Livestock Condition: Prime.]**
**[Financial Status: Solvent (Pending Sale).]**
The Winter Solstice was here. Time to collect the harvest.