Two weeks had passed since the Constable's visit. The mud on the lower slope had dried, cracking in the sun, but where Lin Chen had planted, a miracle was taking root.
The Ryegrass had taken hold with a vengeance. No longer frail, hairlike shoots, the blades were now thick, dark green, and waving gently in the mountain breeze. They stood six inches tall, a lush carpet of emerald against the drab brown of the wilderness. It was the first sign that the "Peak Brand" ranch was not just a camp, but a functioning agricultural entity.
But the grass brought a new problem: utilization.
"We can't graze it yet," Lin Chen said, standing at the edge of the field. He slapped his thigh in frustration. "The roots aren't deep enough. If the sheep walk on it now, they'll rip the grass right out of the ground. We have to wait another month."
"So what do we do?" Dahu asked, leaning on his shovel. "The silage is running low. The sheep are hungry."
"We range them," Lin Chen decided. "We take them up the mountain. There is fresh grass sprouting in the forest clearings. But we can't just let them wander. We need to control them."
He looked at the herd. Fifteen sheep, five goats, and two cows. Controlling them on open mountain terrain with just sticks and ropes was inefficient. It was dangerous.
"We need dogs," Lin Chen said.
"We have no dogs," Zhao Hu reminded him. "And good hunting dogs cost ten taels each."
"We don't need hunting dogs. We need herding dogs," Lin Chen corrected. "Intelligence, not size. Speed, not brute strength. I saw a farmer in the village yesterday..."
***
The farmer was Old Woman Liu, a widow who lived at the very edge of the village. She was known for keeping a pack of scruffy, half-wild dogs that barked at shadows.
Lin Chen approached her yard. A litter of puppies, roughly eight weeks old, tumbled over each other in the dirt. They were a motley bunch—coats of black, brown, and mottled grey. They were "Tugou," the common village dogs, tough and adaptable.
"I want two," Lin Chen said, pointing to the litter.
Old Woman Liu squinted at him. "Five hundred coins each. They eat a lot."
"Three hundred, and I take the runts," Lin Chen bargained. "The ones you wouldn't sell to the hunters."
The woman shrugged. "Fine. Pick your trash."
Lin Chen didn't pick the biggest or the loudest. He ignored the puppy that was biting its sibling's ear. Instead, he looked for focus.
He snapped his fingers.
Most of the puppies ignored him, distracted by a butterfly. But two looked up instantly. One was a female with a coat of sleek black fur and a white patch on her chest, shaped like a flame. The other was a male, small and wiry, with one floppy ear and eyes that seemed to be calculating the distance to Lin Chen's hand.
They approached him not with timidity, but with curiosity. The black female sat down directly in front of him, tilting her head. The male circled, sniffing his boots.
"These two," Lin Chen said. "They have a brain."
He paid the coins and scooped the puppies up. He tucked them under his arms, ignoring the smell of earth and milk.
"You're not pets," he whispered to them. "You're partners."
***
Naming the dogs was a ritual. In the county seat, people gave dogs flowery names like "Flower" or "Lucky." Lin Chen wanted names that meant business.
He sat on a rock outside the hut, the puppies tumbling at his feet. Lin Mu and Zhao Hu watched.
"The black one," Lin Chen said, pointing to the female. "She's alert. Sharp. Like a spark." He looked at the system, thinking of the cattle he would one day breed. "We call her *Angus*."
"Angus?" Lin Mu tried the strange word. "It sounds... strong."
"And the male," Lin Chen picked up the wiry one, who was currently chewing on Lin Mu's sandal. "He's sneaky. He circles. He's a scout." He thought of the resilience of the Brahma bull. "We call him *Brahma*."
"Brahma and Angus," Zhao Hu tested the names. "Sounds like a pair of bandits. Good names."
Training began immediately. Lin Chen didn't use the harsh beatings common in this era. He used the **[Cowboy Skill Pack: K-9 Training]**.
"First rule: Food is earned," Lin Chen said.
He held a piece of dried meat in his hand. "Sit."
The puppies looked at him, then at the meat. They jumped.
"No," Lin Chen said, pushing them down gently. "Sit."
It took an hour. Finally, the female, Angus, sat. She looked up, her eyes intense.
*Click.*
Lin Chen had fashioned a simple wooden clicker. He clicked it and immediately gave her the meat.
She froze. The sound clicked. The food appeared.
"Good girl."
The male, Brahma, watched his sister eat. He hated being left out. He sat instantly.
*Click.* Meat.
"They learn fast," Lin Mu observed, amazed.
"Dogs are smart," Lin Chen said. "They just need a language. We teach them the language of the whistle."
***
For the next week, the sound of the whistle pierced the mountain air.
*Phweeeeeep!* (One long blast) = Come.
*Phwee-phwee!* (Two short blasts) = Go left.
*Phwee-phwee-phwee!* (Three short blasts) = Go right.
The puppies, now twelve weeks old, grew quickly. They weren't big, but they were agile. Lin Chen started taking them to the sheep pen.
The sheep were initially terrified of the dogs. They bolted to the far corner of the pen.
"Angus, walk up," Lin Chen commanded, pointing.
Angus moved forward, low to the ground, her eyes locked on the sheep. She didn't bark. She didn't lunge. She simply created pressure.
The sheep moved away from her, drifting to the left.
"Good! *Phwee-phwee-phwee!* (Right)."
Angus curved around, cutting off the sheep's path. She turned them back towards Lin Chen.
It was instinct, honed by the clicker. She was herding.
"They are moving the sheep like a shepherd moves clouds," Dahu breathed, watching from the fence. "I've never seen dogs do that without being beaten."
"Force creates fear," Lin Chen said, rewarding Angus with a scratch behind the ears. "Intelligence creates partnership. These dogs will save us miles of walking. They will find strays. They will warn us of wolves."
***
That night, the test came.
It was a moonless night. The wind was howling down from the peaks, rattling the shutters. Lin Chen was asleep in the hut, Lin Mu snoring softly beside him.
Suddenly, a sharp bark erupted from the yard. It wasn't the casual bark of a dog chasing a rat. It was a deep, guttural warning.
*Woof! Woof! Grrrrrrl!*
Lin Chen's eyes snapped open. He grabbed the machete by his bed.
"Quiet!" he hissed, listening.
The dogs were barking in unison now. Angus's bark was sharp and high. Brahma's was a low, rumbling growl. They were near the perimeter fence.
"Wake up," Lin Chen shook Lin Mu. "Don't light the lantern."
He crept to the door and opened it a crack. The yard was pitch black.
He heard a scrambling sound, like claws on wood. Then a yelp.
*Yip!*
"Brahma!" Lin Chen whispered.
He slipped outside, pressing his back against the wall. Zhao Hu appeared from the bunkhouse, a spear in his hand, silent as a ghost.
"Wolves?" Zhao Hu mouthed.
Lin Chen nodded. The scent of wild musk was heavy in the air.
They moved to the corner of the animal shed. There, near the fence, they saw shadows. Two pairs of yellow eyes reflected the faint starlight. A large, grey wolf was pacing near the gap in the thorns.
But between the wolf and the livestock stood two small, brave shapes.
Angus and Brahma were holding the line. They didn't charge the wolf—that would be suicide. They stayed close to the fence, barking furiously, snapping at the wolf's heels whenever it got close, and dodging back before the wolf could snap.
They were creating chaos. They were alerting the humans. They were buying time.
The wolf, confused by the noise and the aggression of the "prey," hesitated. Wolves were calculated killers; they avoided injury.
"NOW!" Lin Chen shouted, stepping out and banging his machete against the metal bucket.
*CLANG!*
Zhao Hu roared, brandishing his spear.
The wolf flinched. It looked at the shouting humans, then at the annoying dogs, and decided the meal wasn't worth the trouble. It turned and vanished into the darkness of the forest.
Lin Chen ran to the fence. "Angus! Brahma! Here!"
The two puppies—now dogs—trotted back to him. Brahma was limping slightly.
Lin Chen knelt, feeling the dog's leg. It was a scratch, not a bite. The wolf had tagged him, but Brahma hadn't backed down.
"Good boy," Lin Chen whispered, hugging the wiry dog. "You did your job."
He looked at Zhao Hu. "Without them, that wolf might have spooked the sheep enough to break the fence. Or worse."
Zhao Hu nodded, impressed. "I thought they were just mouths to feed. I was wrong. They earn their keep."
Lin Chen bandaged Brahma's leg with a strip of cloth. As he worked, he realized the dynamic of the ranch had shifted again. They were no longer just men struggling against nature. They had a team. They had eyes in the dark.
The next morning, Lin Chen added two lines to the ledger Su Wan had given him.
*Assets:*
*2 Herding Dogs (Angus & Brahma) - Value: Priceless.*
He closed the book. The ranch was growing up.