Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 103 - 44 Ulterior Motives_1

Chapter 103: Chapter 44 Ulterior Motives_1

While busy working, Lin Yumei came over, followed by an old man carrying a load on a pole. Seeing the two large and flat boxes covered with cloth, Yan Fei knew they were selling chicks.

Lin Yumei came to ask him how many chicks he wanted to buy, and Yan Fei said to buy as many as she wanted, ten or eight were okay, even thirty or fifty were fine, given the large space available there.

Surprisingly, the old man somehow persuaded Lin Yumei to buy as many as thirty to fifty chicks. Usually, in the countryside, each batch of chicks is raised by one mature hen. After rooting around his farm, Yan Fei could probably still find two or three feathers in some corner’s garbage heap, but as for living chickens, there were none.

In other words, these large groups of chicks had to be taken care of by humans as there were no hens to lead them.

Anyway, it was Lin Yumei who bought them; it would be good to keep her busy.

She actually had a daughter named Fang Xiaoqing who was one school year above Yan Fei.

This young girl was very pretty, and it was said that she was also good at her studies, but she was a bit awkward. She first came to the farm with her mother a while ago. Lin Yumei mentioned that she had wanted her daughter to tutor Yan Fei, but after that, the girl stopped coming.

Presumably, she was embarrassed because her mother was working at her classmate’s home. It wasn’t that she never showed up anymore, she would sometimes come over on weekends when she was out of money, to ask her mother for living expenses, but she never stayed long. She would leave as soon as she got the money and barely spoke to Yan Fei at all.

Lin Yumei might not have shown it, but she definitely felt pained inside. Usually, even in her factory job, she was always looking for work to keep herself busy.

Rural women, even though literate, have it hard once they become widows. Neither her husband’s family nor her own family want them around, especially when they also have a daughter to raise. Having a job here was already decent enough, providing food, housing, and a generous payment. What other choice could there be?

When it came to cooking, as long as Yan Fei was willing to eat along, she would go out of her way to create different dishes, afraid that her daughter’s issue would discourage Yan Fei.

Actually, Yan Fei didn’t care at all. Such a pretentious young girl, it really irked him when he saw people twisting and tweaking around, even if it was a girl of his age, he didn’t acknowledge them at all.

As for the girl’s appearance, that wasn’t something Yan Fei would consider. Regardless, he couldn’t be bothered to look directly at her.

Having just felled the last crooked-necked willow tree and cut off some unnecessary branches, he was preparing to drag it away when he saw his grandfather coming with two people, one old, one young. He stopped and asked, "Grandpa, you’re in town today? Are you here for the market, or is there something else?"

"Something else. I wanted to ask you about the medicinal wine you gave me last time. Did you brew any more afterwards?"

"Oh, yes, indeed! There’s quite a lot left! I brewed two jars, gave one to my dad, and still have a lot left over from the second jar! Just the day before yesterday, I was feeling cold while fishing in the river at night, so I drank a few sips."

"You’re up to your pranks again, aren’t you? Fishing in the river at night? You think you’re an osprey?" The grandfather started to grumble as soon as he heard.

"I’m no osprey, but I’m even better than one. I can catch a few fish at night, and by midday, I can catch quite a few, weighing at least two or three catties each, and even five or six for the larger ones. This young fellow is experienced!" Old Cheng, who was beside Yan Fei, chimed in to change the subject, fearing the grandfather would blame Yan Fei.

"Never mind, I can’t control you anyway. You’re a student, but you never worry about school. If you’re not catching rabbits, you’re fishing. Can’t you just be a bit more settled down? Share some of that wine with me and you can brew more later." The grandfather gave up on reprimanding him.

"Okay! It’ll be done in a moment." Yan Fei immediately started dragging the willow tree away.

After walking for a bit, seeing his grandfather coming to help, he quickly said: "Rest, grandpa. I’m almost done."

Anyway, this crooked-necked tree wasn’t too big, just a little thicker than a thigh, so he simply hoisted it up.

He ran all the way to the planting hole, the soil on the tree roots nearly all shaken off. He quickly filled the hole back up with soil, brought two big iron buckets to the riverside and fetched two buckets of water to pour on it. Not caring whether it would live or die, he deemed the job done.

Turning to look at the cut willow branches, Yan Fei thought for a moment and decided to plant these branches in a row along the riverbank. As long as these branches were planted close to water, in a few years, they would grow into trees. Of course, for Yan Fei, this place was much higher than the riverbank and far from the water, so he needed to water them more frequently in the early stage.

"So, um, just wait a moment longer. I need to plant these branches. If I wait too long, they’ll dry up and that wouldn’t be good." Yan Fei felt a little embarrassed.

This process was very quick. Dig a hole, mix some cow dung in while filling with soil, stick the willow branch in, and pour a bucket of water. That’s it.

While Yan Fei was carrying the trees and running around, his slightly dumbfounded grandfather and two other gentlemen of different ages joined in to help dig up the ground. All Yan Fei had to do was carry two large iron buckets filled with water up and down the slope. It was a simple task of filling a hole with a bucket of water.

Once they finished their tasks and were wiping their sweat off, the elder they came with was stunned. "What did this lad eat to get so strong? Where did he get all this strength from?"

Yan Fei’s grandfather laughed, "What’s wrong? Haven’t seen something like this before? He was born this way, ha ha! Can your grandson even match up to him?"

The elder also laughed, "No, no, he can’t. ’One strong man can beat ten weak ones.’ Among the people I know, no one can compete with his strength."

Just when the younger man was about to show signs of displeasure, the elder said to him, "You should take these two buckets and fetch some water yourself, then you’d know"

The young man immediately grabbed the buckets and went down the slope without another word.

It was easy going down, but when he finished fetching the water, climbing up wasn’t so smooth.

The riverbank was very steep and there was no path, the space where Yan Fei had descended was barely walkable. Carring the two buckets of water on top of all this wasn’t easy. Even though he climbed slowly, he still spilled quite a bit of water. By the time he reached the top, each bucket barely had seventy to eighty percent of the water left.

The young man came up with the water, his face reddened, partly from exhaustion, partly from shame.

It wasn’t surprising, these iron buckets were soon to be phased out, made from iron sheets, they were much bigger and heavier than the current plastic buckets we usually see in the market. Two buckets filled to the brim would weigh up to 130 to 140 catties. Hence, in the countryside, the physical labour was performed by men, women wouldn’t dare to fill such buckets.

It wasn’t hard to carry water if you were on a flat surface, just needed to use your arms to lift the buckets, your entire body could put on strength. But it’s different when you are climbing a slope. The buckets were too large, if you tried to carry them and climb, your arms couldn’t be straight, else the bottom of the buckets would be touching the ground. Given the steep slope with no path, you had to raise your arms as much as possible, and it completely relied on the strength of the arms.

The elder laughed, "Let’s go, let’s get the wine first. Now you know that there are always greater people out there, right? Still want to compete?"

The young man was walking behind them, deep in thought, only when they were about to reach the entrance, he raised his head and said to the old man, "Why not compete? Didn’t you bring me here to gain some experience? He is just more solid in the fundamentals and have more strength!"

The elder slowed down, falling a few steps behind Yan Fei’s grandfather, and said in a low voice, "You’re wrong, you can’t see the real strength! Do you think his strength is just about the basic training? When we came over, you saw him carrying a tree and thought it wasn’t big right? Do you know how much the tree with the soil attached to its roots and the branches weighs? Have you counted the number of trees he had replanted?"

The young man thought for a moment, turned his head back and looked, "Not many trees, right?"

"Not many? Just try and you’ll know! Those trees were clearly replanted today, could you do it? When we came, he had already been working alone for half a day, how many times did he carry water up and down? Did you see him carrying the water uphill? He was full of energy, did he look like he was carrying two buckets of water?"

"Yes, it’s very smooth, it’s just about basic training." The young man was still not convinced.

"Look at how he walks now, does he look like someone who just did so much work?" The elder reminded, then sighed. "This kind of strength can’t just come from training, it needs to be innate. Don’t bother competing with him. This kind of person, if they lived in ancient times, they would be the likes of Xiangyu, a legendary figure that appears once in many, many years. You don’t need to worry about it. He’s only thirteen, sigh..."

"Thirteen? Really?" The young man exclaimed, then thought for a moment and said, "Well, I won’t compete then! It’s meaningless to win or lose now! I started martial arts training at five and practiced hard for thirteen years, are you really my grandfather? You said you would take me to visit famous martial artists to gain some experience. Now I’ve had the experience, the first trip you’ve taken me on is to compete with this kind of person, you’re definitely not my real grandfather!"

"Little rascal, are you asking for a beating?" The old man feigned anger and then paused, shaking his head, "Monster, he really is a monster. If he continues to grow like this, even Xiangyu would not be able to compete. By then, it would all be just regrets and longing. It’s just your bad luck, I’ve never seen such a person before either."

"Actually, I wanted to fight a little, even if it’s just a casual match, at least I would know how such innately powerful people fight." The young man was still a little unwilling. "By the way, what does ’refix the sky without a handle, refix the earth without a ring’ mean?"

"Look at your uneducated demeanor. Even a casual match? Wait for a few more years and then you can try." The old man sighed, "He’s still young now, according to his grandfather, he’s only trained alone and probably hasn’t sparred with others. We’re not afraid that his martial arts skills are high because higher the skill, the better the control of strength. But if he’s only half competent and relies on his strength, in the end, you’ll be the one getting hurt."

"Why wouldn’t I practice martial arts? I’ve been practicing for over ten years!" The young man intentionally changed the topic.

"You? Go back and look at the books and see what I mean! I can’t be bothered explaining it to you. Weren’t you so determined to give it a try before leaving? Aren’t you known as a martial arts fanatic? Weren’t you set on not joining the army, determined to practice martial arts?" The elder teased.

The young man held up his head, "I don’t want to join the army, right? What’s so good about being in the army? Look at my dad, he’s been in the army for his entire life, yet he’s still a petty officer. Also, being a martial arts fanatic doesn’t necessarily mean being a fool, right? I still get beaten even after I know I can’t win, isn’t the pain still mine to bear? Didn’t you say you would take me to visit famous martial artists? Turns out it was a setup!"

The old man didn’t reply to his nonsense, instead, he said earnestly, "If you’re not going to join the army, what else can you do? With your academic performance, what hope do you have? Just listen to your dad, honestly go to the troops and practice for a few years. The army is full of talents, learn well once you’re there, and after a few years, you’ll know your future path."