Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 367 - 81: The Most Boring Night_2

Chapter 367: Chapter 81: The Most Boring Night_2

Could there be anything more boring than this?

Yan Fei began to fix his gaze on the few stars in the night sky that were far from the moon, playing the role of a child counting stars.

The police on TV drive along with sirens blaring, looking all grand and mighty. Turns out, real-life cops are like this, crouching in a tiny trench by the river in the biting cold, staring at a desolate little stone bridge, passing time by counting stars when bored.

"What are you guys doing? Why aren’t you talking?" Dang Wenzheng couldn’t help but ask when he saw Yan Fei and Xiang Changqing staring blankly at the sky. "Don’t you find this place picturesque and romantic? A crescent moon hanging high, a trickling stream beneath a small bridge, and bamboo forests. Isn’t it romantic?"

Xiang Changqing, having been paired with him for some time, didn’t bother to pick up on the conversation. Instead, Yan Fei humored him with a response, "Yeah, right."

His perfunctory agreement was little better than silence. Even Xiang Changqing laughed at this.

Dang Wenzheng grew bored, "Xiao Fei, you’ve become like your older brother Changqing, both of you are so lackluster. We might have to keep watch here until dawn, wouldn’t it be more interesting to chat?"

It was truly unbearably boring!

Yan Fei would swear that this was undoubtedly the most boring, most meaningless, longest night he’s had in more than a year!

The more bored he was, the slower time seemed to pass.

Three grown men squatting in a trench by the river. The food Yan Fei brought was all eaten up during the latter part of the night. The package was small, Yan Fei felt a bit embarrassed to keep taking out food.

The winter was advancing, and the weather was turning colder. Yan Fei didn’t mind, but the other two started trembling from the cold, needing to run around once in a while to warm up.

In the end, even energetic Dang Wenzheng lost interest in talking. Worse, they didn’t spot anything suspicious until dawn started to break. Even the goose quill-sized stones Yan Fei prepared stayed unused—not to mention oil thieves, they didn’t run into a single soul traveling at night.

Yan Fei was so bored he was contemplating fabricating an excuse to cross the river and catch an oil thief himself.

In his boredom, he even recalled the night he killed Zhang Laosan. The junior policeman from the county station squatting outside the residential quarters of the fertilizer factory—did he have an even more boring night back then, all alone?

Pity started to take hold, and he felt a little guilty in retrospect. He should not have given the young officer a half-eaten cucumber—it felt like he had been toying with him—though that had indeed been his intention back then.

At this moment, Yan Fei wished he had an old school mobile phone. If there were any notices saying that the patrol could be wrapped up early, the person on duty back in the office could just give them a call, and the three of them could go back ahead of schedule. Luckily, he didn’t have one; else, he would have been even more frustrated. Those mobiles had terrible signal quality. If they were able to get a signal in the middle of nowhere, where they sat, that would be a miracle!

There was some merit to occasional boredom. When it neared dawn and it was finally time for them to return as agreed, Yan Fei felt that his mind had delved deeper into reflection after a night of random thoughts.

However, it was quite exhausting. Staring into space and wasting a whole night felt more tiring than doing an all-nighter of actual work.

Upon returning to the vegetable greenhouse, he allowed Old Cheng, who had been keeping watch, to go home for breakfast, and he quickly stewed a large pot of meat to replenish his energy.

He rested briefly before mealtime. After eating, he busied himself with changing the cow dung in the earthworm farms.

He wouldn’t catch a break. Heizi brought someone over to find him before he finished his work.

It was none other than the grandson of the old woman who had swapped silver dollars for liqueur.

Yan Fei was quite surprised to see the young man—having known that some poor villagers used poverty relief funds to buy meat. After he left money for the young man, he never came back, so Yan Fei thought that his family had given up on keeping cows.

Seeing Yan Fei busy at work, Heizi, without waiting to be asked, enthusiastically came over to lend a hand. The young man also kept busy, learning quickly but not talking. He eagerly copied the way the two were working.

It wasn’t until Heizi prodded him, "Weren’t you looking for Brother Fei? Why have you become silent since you got here? Speak up!"

The young man was somewhat reserved in front of Yan Fei. After some hesitation, he began, "Didn’t you say you’d let me help raise cattle? I’ve come to buy calves, and I was hoping you’d accompany me."

Heizi explained, "He just told me that he didn’t come straight away because he was helping out at someone’s farm to learn how to rear cattle. Now that he’s learned, he wants our help to buy cattle."

Yan Fei was surprised, "Did you spend this much time learning?"

The young man replied with some embarrassment, "I was too young when we used to keep cattle at home, I hadn’t had a chance to do it myself. So, I spent some more time learning from others."

Yan Fei nodded and glanced at the sky. "It’s a bit late to go to the cattle market now. If you’re not opposed to the trip, come with me to the county tomorrow. I’m going there to sell cattle anyway, we can see if there’s anything suitable. But we’d have to leave early, and you might not be able to make it here on time... how about you stay here today and don’t go home? Or, come back the day after when there’s a gathering in town. I’ll be at the cattle farm, so we can go to the market early."

Without any hesitation, the young man said, "I won’t go back. Later, I’ll go into town to send a message to my grandmother."