Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 1380 - 671 Bullfighting_2

Chapter 1380: Chapter 671 Bullfighting_2

I thought there would be fewer people in the afternoon, but unexpectedly, due to the huge turnout in the morning, the crowd had grown even larger. Thousands of people were awaiting the bullfight, yet the two bulls showed no interest in fighting. As the people around tried various methods to provoke them, the bulls coolly continued to search for wheat seedlings to eat, much to the crowd’s unrest. Soon, a chorus of boos, laughter, and whistles filled the air.

The guy next to Yan Fei is a leader from the City Meat Processing Plant, a rather hearty man. He slapped the table and laughed, "Bulls used to be wild. Even those brought in to be slaughtered could start fighting if tied together. But these bulls just aren’t up to the task anymore; they’ve become greenhouse bulls that won’t fight!"

Chairman Dong also chuckled, "Anyway, everyone’s just here for a good time. If they don’t start fighting soon, we’ll just have to switch them out. As long as it’s not like this every time, it’ll be fine."

"Pull out the wheat seedlings, hurry, pull some out and bring them together, but don’t force it!" Across from the City Meat Processing Plant side was a big cattle breeder who was many times older than Yan Fei. He was currently shouting out his advice.

The noise in the arena was a chaotic mess, his voice simply couldn’t carry. It was the person next to the microphone, who was on standby to make an announcement, who disregarded everything else and shouted into the mic.

As it turned out, the method worked. Each bull was lured over with wheat seedlings, and soon they were coming face to face. One of them suddenly abandoned the wheat seedlings and charged towards the other.

The opposition wasn’t about to show any weakness; faced with the challenge, it lowered its head without hesitation and charged in response. With a loud thud, the two heads collided, their horns intertwined, resulting in an immediate stalemate.

Both animals were carefully selected, one weighing a thousand catties, and the other, presumably, nine hundred and ninety-nine catties, hardly any difference between them. Usually, these bulls held higher status than others, whether in the shed or being led out. Now, as the two strongest met, it was intensely fierce.

Most of the onlookers knew a thing or two and could tell that whilst the bulls weren’t moving, they were exerting force. Seeing the pits dug by the bulls’ hind hooves getting deeper and deeper, waves of cheers erupted from the crowd.

Gradually, the heads of the bulls began to tilt to one side as their horns remained locked. Once they tilted to a certain degree, both bulls almost simultaneously retreated a step, kicking up a cloud of dust with their hooves before colliding once again.

These massive beasts, each weighing around a ton and known for their strength, put on a spectacle that was truly stunning for ordinary folk. Especially for many who had never witnessed a bullfight, seeing the bulls’ hooves flailing, moving forward and backward in a cloud of dust, and their normally limp tails now raised high, it was far more impressive than any stone or bronze sculptures of bulls they had seen before.

Boss Yan, however, was quite unfazed. Try as he might, he couldn’t feign excitement; after all, witnessing dinosaurs fighting, weighing tens of tons, was much more spectacular, making any Jurassic movie seem a hundred times more explosive. After witnessing such grand scenes, a bullfight was hardly impressive.

Amidst the flying dust, the bulls started to flare up, the battle growing more intense, and the crowd’s roars rolled in waves as even the drummers beside the fences couldn’t help but start beating their drums to spur the bulls on.

Seeing this, Chairman Dong suggested, "I could watch this for three to five days without getting tired. Why don’t we add a few more rounds?"

Yan Fei thought for a moment and said, "We don’t have enough time. It’s already been half an hour, and I reckon even if we had another half an hour or an hour, it would be tough to declare a winner."

"Both bulls are heated now; Boss Yan might be right," said the man from the Meat Processing Factory next to him. "Bulls have great stamina. Unless one is suddenly knocked out due to a distance, they could fight like this for half a day with no problem."

A knowledgeable judge added, "Pretty much. I’ve seen this happen before when I was at the production team. If we hadn’t separated them for fear of trouble, they could have fought all day without taking a break. But it’s hard to say; it depends on whether there’ll be an accident. Some bulls lack the fighting spirit or just have bad luck and can lose within three to five minutes."

Having heard everyone’s opinions, Chairman Dong thought for a moment and said, "Let’s just inform everyone to wait a while. If the bulls can fight like they are doing now, we’ll allow more time. If each round is short, we can add more on the fly."

This seemed like a more proper approach, since bulls are not humans; you can’t expect them to be tenacious and unyielding. Some look strong and healthy, but are meek by nature, and would flee at the slightest provocation. Besides, no one speaks the language of bulls, so it’s impossible to predict.

It seems that the heavens really smiled upon the Yellow Cattle festival this time, with both the morning’s events and the afternoon bullfight starting on a high note. The two bulls fought for an hour without a clear winner, which led Chairman Dong to propose, "Let’s just call this one a draw. If they keep going, it’ll never end, and everyone’s running out of patience watching this."

"I think that’s a good idea," Yan Fei nodded.

"Seconded!" "Agreed!" "Let’s say it’s a tie..."

The others nodded in agreement as well.

Separating two bulls that had locked horns wasn’t an easy task. They resorted to all sorts of methods, dragging the plants and luring with crops, to finally get the bulls apart.

Then there was a rest period, and a lion dance troupe came up and performed for a while, allowing everyone to calm down from the excitement of the moment. Otherwise, the continuous bullfighting would cause aesthetic fatigue soon enough.

The lion dancing troupe, too, was an excellent team selected from the county. Their performance was no less spectacular than the bullfighting. Yan Fei didn’t hesitate to score a high 9.5 points, explaining to someone nearby, "The four people who went up this round, if not trained professionals, have definitely practiced lion dancing specifically. But since they’re the first act, they can only score this high. Any higher, and it would be unfair to those who might perform even better later on."

Everyone nodded with understanding; the order of performance drawn by lots was a gamble. Being first could be an advantage, but more often it could be a disadvantage—you couldn’t assign too high scores to start with, otherwise as Yan Fei said, what about the later acts?

After the lion dance troupe exited the stage, the second round of bullfighting began.

Now with experience, the two bulls quickly met each other, and the inevitable fight broke out.

Cheers, applause, and whistles once again filled the air.

However, these two bulls fell short compared to the first pair—not in size, but in spirit. In less than half an hour, one bull started retreating consistently and was about to be cornered to the edge of the arena. It finally turned around and began running around the edge of the arena.

The other bull chased for a few steps and then stopped, marking the end of this round.

When the lion dance team took the stage again, Heizi ran over and whispered in Yan Fei’s ear, "Brother Fei, we’ve discussed it. What about bringing out our most combative bull?"

Yan Fei smiled at the other judges and nodded slightly to Heizi, "Just handle it as you see fit."

The bulls from both sides quickly made their entrance. As soon as Tanghe County’s bull appeared, even Chairman Dong was puzzled, "Boss Yan, what are you planning here? Why did you bring out such a bull? Have you thought it through? We can’t change bulls mid-competition."

To speak the truth, the bull they brought out was absolutely not small, at least comparable to the one from Xinyuan County. But Chairman Dong and a few others who were familiar with the situation knew very well that this bull was nowhere near the largest in Boss Yan’s farm.

Yan Fei chuckled, "No worries, just enjoy the show. At the very least, this bull’s horns are long enough; they might just scare the opponent’s bull away."

The forthright older brother from the Meat Processing Factory laughed, "Boss Yan, you’re so confident. How about we make a bet? I’m betting on Xinyuan’s bull. Are you in?"

Yan Fei asked, "What’s the bet?"

"Money isn’t suitable, let’s bet on tonight’s dinner! There’s ten of us, we go have a meal in the city tonight, whoever loses pays the bill, how about that?" the older brother said enthusiastically.

"Sure!" Yan Fei was full of confidence, his words firm as he replied, "Tonight, you just wait to be the host! And that’s not enough—when you lose, you have to down three drinks as a penalty, with everyone here as witnesses!"

"Done! Three drinks it is. No glasses smaller than a tael, they don’t count. At least one tael or more!" the older brother replied, not showing any weakness.