"Your Highness!"
The middle-aged man hurried over, his eyes briefly flicking to Jiang Hai but without greeting him. Instead, Jiang Hai sensed a faint hostility in his gaze, which left him a little puzzled. It seemed this yellow-skinned man did not recognize him.
After casting a glance at Jiang Hai, the man turned respectfully toward Du Famen and spoke seriously, his hand pressed to his chest.
"Oh, Mr. Akita, what brings you here?" Du Famen smiled as he addressed the man.
Hearing that name, Jiang Hai realized this man must be a local islander. No wonder he'd felt uneasy. But now, on Du Famen's territory, Jiang Hai kept quiet. After all, Du Famen wasn't like him. As a member of Dubai's royal family, Du Famen was bound by public affairs, no matter their personal connections.
"Your Highness, please, no need for formalities. Just call me Shingo. I came because I heard His Highness Du Famen invited guests here, and I wanted to come by, take a look, and discuss cattle breeding," Akita Shingo said, his eyes fixed on Jiang Hai with clear hostility. Jiang Hai guessed the tension stemmed from the ranch.
"I'm Akita Shingo, director of the Foreign Trade Bureau at Akita Co., Ltd., from the island country, and one of the designers and builders of this ranch. I heard Mr. Jiang is a fellow traveler, so I wanted to seek his advice," Shingo said, ignoring Du Famen's sour expression, bowing slightly to Jiang Hai—a formal island country greeting.
Jiang Hai scratched his nose in disbelief. Was this guy serious?
"Forget asking—I know nothing about ranching, from management to breeding. I don't understand any of it," Jiang Hai admitted. He could have tried bluffing with impressive-sounding words, but he knew the islander would see through that. Everyone has their specialty... and honestly, Jiang Hai had none besides spiritual energy. No special skills at all.
Better to be honest than get mocked later.
Both Akita Shingo and Du Famen were momentarily stunned by Jiang Hai's blunt confession. Don't be fooled by Akita Shingo's brashness; the man was sharp. Akita Co., while not as powerful as island country giants like Yasui or Mitsubishi, was still a major player—leading the country's animal husbandry exports. Without that, they wouldn't have connections to Du Famen.
The island country's livestock industry was world-renowned, though it hadn't always been so. At first, with limited land and population, they just grew enough food to survive. Later, the island shifted policies, reducing food crop planting and focusing on premium cattle and rice, leveraging price differences to break into international markets. Most everyday produce was imported cheaply from China.
In fact, both the island country and South Korea imported many fruits and vegetables from China's Lu Province, albeit of very high quality and at a premium price.
Akita Co. dominated animal husbandry on the island. Akita Shingo, while carrying the company's name, wasn't an owner—he had no shares or inheritance rights. He was here on Du Famen's invitation, bringing the prized Wagyu cattle and hoping to edge Jiang Hai out.
He viewed Jiang Hai as a lucky upstart—someone who didn't know his business but somehow sold cattle at high prices, even beating a domestic livestock company. Akita Shingo, confident in his own expertise and company's reputation, had a plan: defeat Jiang Hai in his strongest arena, expose him as a fraud, and win Du Famen's favor.
This would boost Akita Co., the island country's standing, and make him a hero.
But now, Jiang Hai had admitted ignorance openly—undermining his entire strategy.
"You don't know anything about breeding? Then what are you doing here?" Akita Shingo coughed in disbelief, struggling to process this.
"I came here to visit. Du Famen's my friend," Jiang Hai said, looking at Shingo as if he were crazy.
Akita Shingo was speechless, his face burning red with embarrassment. It was like inviting a guest over and then forcing them into a competition to clean tables better—nonsensical.
Du Famen laughed softly. "Mr. Akita, if you have nothing else to do, please take some rest. My friend and I still want to look around."
"Ah, yes, sorry—I was rude…" Shingo bowed quickly to both and retreated, wanting to rethink the situation. What was Jiang Hai's story?
Watching Shingo leave, Jiang Hai looked at Du Famen in disbelief. "Is your manor built by the Japanese?"
Du Famen shrugged. "I know Chinese don't like islanders, so I wanted to hire an American or Australian company to run the ranch. Chinese firms are cheap but lack experience here. But my cousin found them. He's the chief, and his word is law."
Jiang Hai shook his head, not offended. He understood: China had little knowledge about advanced ranching. Most Chinese didn't even know beef grading or cuts like sirloin versus eye meat. They simply priced cows by weight.
So it was natural Du Famen didn't hire Chinese builders.
The island country had an undeniable edge: Wagyu beef was the best breed globally. China's top breed, Luxi Yellow Cattle, ranked only low second-tier worldwide.
In addition, many countries disliked by China—Britain, France, the U.S., Germany, Russia, Japan, and others—had all invaded historically. Diplomatic tensions meant that, aside from North Korea and some West Asian nations, China was essentially surrounded by enemies.
If Jiang Hai was truly rebellious, why would he work with the U.S.? He was already committed to socialism.
"Anyway, I don't care about these details. We're friends. You don't own shares in this ranch, so how much fodder do you want for the first batch? I can arrange it early," Jiang Hai said casually.
Du Famen pondered the scale: 1.2 million cattle in total, including 500,000 Charolais, 500,000 Simmental, 150,000 Wagyu, 30,000 dairy cows, 20,000 mixed breeds, plus 800,000 sheep and 50,000 alpacas.
Feeding all of them with Jiang Hai's grass would be impossible—especially in winter.
So Du Famen decided to start small: 50,000 cattle to be fed with Jiang Hai's grass. It was manageable and a good test.
Jiang Hai was easygoing about business. After agreeing on the first batch, they continued to stroll the grasslands—a rare pleasure in the desert.
Later, back at the residence, Du Famen hosted a welcome party for Jiang Hai.
At the party, Jiang Hai saw Akita Shingo again, and the man's hostility had only deepened.
Shingo was convinced Jiang Hai was a fraud: claiming ignorance while selling grass at cattle prices and beating a local livestock company was absurd. He called Jiang Hai a liar playing tricks, but Du Famen trusted him, which baffled Shingo.
If Shingo knew about the billions in jewelry and antiques business between Du Famen and Jiang Hai, he might think differently. For the wealthy, money is just a number, but who wouldn't want more of it? Their cooperation was only the smallest piece of a much larger puzzle.
Jiang Hai found Shingo's animosity amusing but understood it was Du Famen's domain, so he stayed quiet. Still, if Shingo dared bark again, Jiang Hai wouldn't mind teaching him a lesson. If a dog barks at you, you don't bark back—you hit it.
How hard depends on his mood. A light lesson, or maybe a heavy one... if he ended up as dog meat hotpot, that would be just desserts.
Jiang Hai bit into a piece of authentic Arabic grilled meat, laughing to himself. It had been a while since he'd had dog meat—though he wasn't a dog lover and wouldn't feel guilty eating dog meat.
In the U.S., few eat it, and back home it's rare too, but in Bingcheng, he could visit some dog meat restaurants and savor the delicacy—so delicious even the gods couldn't resist.
"Boss, what are you thinking about? You look so happy," Azarina, sitting beside him, asked, curious at his smile.
Jiang Hai snapped back to the moment.