Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 265 - 125: The Turmoil on the Provincial Road That Year _1

Chapter 265: Chapter 125: The Turmoil on the Provincial Road That Year _1

"Ahhh...."

"Do you know you can’t be thieves on this road anymore?"

"Mister, We truly didn’t know?"

"Smack!"

"Ahhh....We really didn’t know, if we did we wouldn’t have dared to come! Please stop hitting us, we swear we’ll never dare to do it again! Ah...."

"Smack... Smack..."

On the side of a certain highway, a farmer dressed man was whacking stick on the seven pitifully screaming persons lying on the ground, one by one.

Oncoming vehicles sped up to bypass this area, fearful that moving slow would land them in trouble.

Actually, it didn’t take long before Yan Fei feared spending too much time and leaving a deep impression on them. He just asked a few questions.

Then, as his usual routine, he tied them up to trees with white paper. He kindly reminded them, "Endure the pain, it’s just two more hits. Originally, I had planned to only hit each of you once, but your situation necessitates an extra hit. Bear with it, just two more hits. It will be quick, and I will leave once I’m done."

Hearing this, the seven car thieves felt as if dawn was breaking and light was at the end of the tunnel.

Even though the beating was painful, they were just flesh wounds. At most, a few unlucky ones might have broken ribs. One had his wrist crushed and another’s face was scarred from being thrown off the bus.

To them, these injuries were nothing. As thieves, how could they not expect to be beaten? Once they healed, it wouldn’t hinder them from ’working’ again.

However, after enduring fourteen successive whacks, divided amongst them, they realized how naive they had been!

They had innocently believed the man in front of them was simply a delusional do-gooder. It was only when the two strikes landed did they realize that he was indeed a devil in human skin, who relished in their suffering!

So, for a while, the edges of the farms and the provincial road echoed with screams.

These people now realized even if they healed, they would only be able to eat the leftover pieces of ham dropped on the plate -- they feared their wounded arms wouldn’t be strong enough to tear meat off a whole piece of ham with chopsticks.

They were drowning in sorrow, feeling like their lives had been plunged into darkness.

On his way back, Yan Fei felt quite stupid.

Why was he naively riding the bus from home? Wasn’t that simply wasting extra fare and leaving clues behind? Although he didn’t care about the money, he’d paid unnecessary fare and rode the slow bus.

He could have patrolled the road, followed any suspicious individuals when they boarded the bus, and once they started to act, he could have dragged them off and beat them up.

That way would have been more convenient. He wouldn’t have to worry about attracting attention on the bus and could roam freely. He could patrol along the whole stretch of the road throughout the morning.

So, after Yan Fei’s realization, many stories with different versions about this provincial road circulated as conversation material after meals.

It is said that once, a group of people, three or four of them working together as thieves, boarded the bus.

Because, one of the thieves cursed the man wearing a ragged straw hat who was constantly staring and didn’t dare to raise his head, "Why the hell are you staring at me?"

Just because of that sentence, the group of thieves, who had just begun to steal, were pulled down from the bus by that man. The bus hadn’t gone far, and those people had already been beaten so pitifully that they were crying and screaming.

Another story tells of a group of people waiting for a bus. A few ragged-looking young men were stared at by a man wearing a ragged straw hat. They cursed him before the bus had even arrived.

The result was the same, all of them were beaten to a pulp, so much so, that even their parents wouldn’t recognize them if they showed up. The scene was too grizzly to bear.

In the end, all these people were tied to the trees on the side of the road, with a white paper bearing big words posted on them. At a busy intersection, no passerby dared to come to their rescue.

There were rumors that the man in the straw hat didn’t attack without provocation. Instead, he asked if they were thieves. When they responded by pulling out their blades, he proceeded to beat them-up.

But all things ultimately come to light.

As more and more drivers and passengers traveled the route and shared stories, people began to realize something. The person committing the beatings on the side of the road always wore an old straw hat and dressed in the same manner. It was clearly the same person.

The people he attacked were carjackers, road bullies, and petty thieves who roamed this stretch of road. They were all troublemakers.

Some even connected him to a previous incident, where a gangster inn was smashed, as well as an earlier case where a group of thieves were beaten up.

People had no doubts that the person responsible for these two incidents was the same man. After all, who else had such formidable fighting skills to overcome multiple villains and leave them tied to trees with notes on them?

They even guessed that he didn’t bother hiding his identity during his first couple of actions due to inexperience.

As he never disguised himself in his early expeditions, and always appeared filthy with a beat-up straw hat, people affectionately named him the Straw Hat Hero.

The legendary Straw Hat Hero was everywhere on that chaotic stretch of road, running along rooftops and fighting for justice without mercy, a genuine gratification for all.

The Straw Hat Hero’s attire became quite popular among the passengers for a time. Many people deliberately dressed shabbily and started wearing the once-outdated short coat. They even carried a wooden stick and a bundle of rope.

The more serious ones even tucked an old newspaper inside the collars of their jackets.

After the appearance of the Straw Hat Hero, the conditions on this road improved significantly. While it couldn’t exactly be described as crime-free, it was definitely much cleaner than before.

Passengers traveling this route gradually mustered the courage to stand up and fight against thieves; they didn’t hesitate to intervene whenever they encountered injustice.

There was even an incident where a criminal responsible for numerous crimes elsewhere, thought he’d try his luck here. Unfortunately for him, just as he made his move, he was beaten to a pulp by the passengers on the bus.

Many out-of-town passengers remarked that traveling this route was quite pleasant. The bus drivers were more courteous, and even though the roadside restaurants were a bit more expensive, they were just like any other restaurants on the streets.

Anyway, for quite some time after this, there was a decent environment along this road. This lasted until highways emerged, and long-distance buses on the provincial roads gradually disappeared, the Straw Hat Hero was slowly forgotten.

Of course, there are other rumors about this incident.

There was a man somewhere who admired the Straw Hat Hero greatly and went around collecting the "ink treasures" left by the hero.

Upon displaying his collection, the old man from the village who often helped write couplets, sighed deeply after closely examining the "ink treasures": "Actually, it wouldn’t be hard to find this man. If a renowned calligrapher emerges from our vicinity in a few years, it must undoubtedly be him."

Someone asked, "Why’s that? What do beating up people and calligraphy have in common?"

The old man pointed to the graffiti collected, which reads "I’m a thief, I’m a bandit," and said: "See, from the first time, this person couldn’t even hold the brush properly. The second time, his writing could be called characters. After that, his writing improves each time. Look, comparing the last and the first time, who would have thought they were written by the same person?"

The old man continued to marvel, "Such rapid progress in just a few days! Someone with such talent only needs a few more years of hard practice to be a master calligrapher. What’s he doing still practicing martial arts and catching thieves? We should preserve these ’ink treasures’, perhaps they’ll be worth a fortune in the future! The early calligraphy exercises of a master calligrapher... heh, then we could afford to repair the road in front of our village..."

In reality, Yan Fei didn’t resort to physical force often. After all, no one’s a fool. Those with intentions to commit crimes always pay attention to signs of trouble. If they sense danger, even the dumbest among them would know to lie low or quit their illegal activities.

So after Yan Fei took action a few times, he found that there were hardly any thieves on this road.

By this time, Xu Xiaoyan’s paper-selling action also made significant progress.