Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 552 - 231: The Human Heart_1

Chapter 552: Chapter 231: The Human Heart_1

How long it takes to manage an acre of land can vary from person to person.

For land planted with cucumbers, tomatoes, and green peppers, cleaning up the withered seedlings is a daunting task. Most people would need a break after plucking about a fifth of an acre, and especially near the end of the work, breaks are needed more often.

But Yan Fei didn’t need any rest. He plucked each seedling with one hand as if pulling up weeds. Since Old Lin from the bamboo grove had left, he threw the plucked seedlings directly into the dinosaur world. Only after he had plucked across the whole area did he take out those seedlings from the Dinosaur World and threw them into the fire pit in the shed, preparing to use them as fuel later.

He didn’t bother with soil loosening. He just dug a hole, threw in a watermelon seed, and watered it. The water also came from the Dinosaur World, so he could water them wherever he planted. Anyone watching would certainly say that he was just messing around, not serious about farming at all.

But he had his reasons. The seeds were cultivated in the Dinosaur World and he couldn’t plant them too carefully. Otherwise, they might grow too large, which wouldn’t be good. However, he didn’t want to use normal watermelon seeds, afraid that they might also grow too large and go overboard.

He was really in a dilemma! So he had no choice but to plant in such a ’casual’ manner.

Meanwhile, Old Zhutou was over there with a machete, chopping the bamboo. He hadn’t chopped two stalks when he saw Yan Fei strolling over. After looking around, he headed straight for the bamboo grove, not to find him, but to start cleaning up the bushes here.

Anywhere you could see on this plot of land, there were basically no visible plants left, all cleared right down to the roots. Of course, once spring arrived and a few spring rains fell, it would still be a lush green, and would still need constant maintenance—after all, it was wasteland for many years, how could there be a lack of seeds?

The bamboo grove was a little farther from Yan Fei’s shed, and he hadn’t had time to clean up here before. Now that he had some free time, he took the opportunity to do some extra work.

He had just plucked two bushes when Old Zhutou rushed out with his machete, "Little Yan, what are you doing?"

Yan Fei was puzzled, "Can’t you see I’m weeding?"

"Those are Kadsura Coccinea that I specifically transplanted from elsewhere. Why are you plucking them?" Old Zhutou replied, puffing his beard and staring.

"Kadsura Coccinea? Is this Kadsura Coccinea? Don’t these grow everywhere by the river? Why are you planting them?" Yan Fei wondered. It seemed like his grandfather used to dig them up. All he needed was a hoe, and he could walk along the river, dig for a little while, and come back with a small bundle.

"Of course! Haven’t you noticed they’re becoming increasingly scarce by the river, too many people are digging them up, they’re nearly extinct. I dug these up and planted them here myself, it’s been several years. I saw you coming to pluck, so I came out. Look at how quickly you ruined them!"

"Why didn’t you call out to me earlier? Look how distressed you are. You planted them but you never dug them up, wasn’t that a waste? Bring me a hoe, I’ll dig some up for you, don’t be upset." Yan Fei saw Old Zhutou looking distressed as if something terrible had happened and tried to comfort him.

"You ignorant fool, why do you think I want Kadsura Coccinea? It is for picking wolfberries..." Old Zhutou was left speechless by his remarks.

"Oh right, I forgot these also grow small red fruits. Well, since I’ve already pulled them up, there’s nothing you can do but grieve. I’ll be going elsewhere to pull weeds." Yan Fei finished speaking and left to pull weeds somewhere else.

Old Zhutou was almost bursting with anger, "You’re really a spendthrift. I don’t plan on giving you the bamboo grove anymore. Later, you’ll certainly cause some trouble..."

"How am I a spendthrift? Can’t you see how hard I work to earn money? If I’m a spendthrift, then everyone in town is a spendthrift..." Yan Fei was very upset.

"Aren’t you a spendthrift? You have the money to raise so many calves for others, I could understand before when the paramilitary had some, but now you’re even taking out loans at interest to buy calves for others to raise. You should at least wait until next year when these cattle are grown before making any decisions, sending out so many at once, isn’t that being a spendthrift?"

"Eh... Aren’t you supposed to be sick? How are you so well informed?" Yan Fei was surprised.

"I’m sick but my ears aren’t deaf..." Old Zhutou said grumpily.

"That little bit of interest doesn’t count for much. As long as I can recover my costs from these loans, that’s fine. After all, my main income isn’t from this, I still have my fattened cows!" said Yan Fei.

"Fattened cows? You mean raising fully grown cows to be fatter for selling? How much money can you earn from that?" Old Zhutou asked curiously.

"As long as it’s profitable, you don’t need to worry about it. Rest assured, I won’t lose out!" Yan Fei tossed a few bushes to the side as he spoke.

Currently, one fattened cow was being slaughtered per week. After a while, they could be slaughtered daily. Later on, as more sales channels were found, slaughtering several cows a day wouldn’t be a dream. The money would be pouring into his pockets, and he wasn’t worried about losing money on the cooperative cattle raising. After all, it was impossible to lose money unless there was a large-scale outbreak of an epidemic or something.

The key point was that there had to be cows available for fattening. If others didn’t raise cows, where could he buy cows to fatten? This cooperative cattle-raising served as his foundation, ensuring that he always had cattle available for fattening.

After selling top-grade beef a few times, along with his experience accumulated from selling vegetables from his greenhouse, Yan Fei was beginning to sense that he was getting the hang of how to make a fortune—the key seemed to be selling products that others didn’t have. If others did have it, he needed to be able to offer a better one. If he couldn’t provide a product better than what others could offer, then he would sell it at a more competitive price.

Once a cow was slaughtered and the high-priced meat sold, whatever was left became pure profit, and who among the other butchers could compete with his prices? As long as he could find a sales channel for the high-grade beef in the future, he wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to sell the rest of the meat.

Of course, he would need to expand the scale of his earthworm business; with the increasing number of cows in the future, disposing of cow dung would become a major problem. As the amount of cow dung increased, he would not be able to hide it by throwing it into the dinosaur world alone without scaling up his earthworm business.

Not only would he have to deal with the cow dung from his herd, in the future there would be waste from tens of thousands of households to manage!

With these thoughts in his head, Yan Fei wasn’t idle either. He checked the western sun, barely visible anymore, and went into the greenhouse for a tour. Then he ventured into the dinosaur world and prepared a few large carp.

He also caught some small fish. On his way past the bamboo forest, he left them for Old Zhutou who was hiding in the house and had started cooking. With Old Zhutou’s thanks following him, Yan Fei headed straight for the cattle yard. He took a few steps but then thought better of it and went back to plant the few wolfberry trees that he had just plucked in Vegetable Garden Island.

The cattle ranch was not short on eggs and beef now, but they still needed to supplement their diet with some fish. Everyone at the ranch was kept busy this year, so it was only right that he provided them with fish every few days.

It was only at dinner time that Yan Fei learned about what Lin Baoguo had said to Heizi and others and grumbled, "Finally, he didn’t weigh us down this time!"

He spoke as if it was his uncle who had hindered him, forgetting that the militia certificate he had been flaunting was provided thanks to his uncle. If it weren’t for joining the militia, he wouldn’t have known where to find the first batch of calves!

After dinner, he started planning his new action — it was again about liquor.

He was no longer planning on selling turtle shell liquor now; in the future, he would sell Lingzhi Wine. While delivering beef to the provincial city a few days ago, he had finally remembered to learn how to brew Lingzhi Wine and fry tea on that trip. The wine was now brewing and would be ready for sale in a few days. As for the tea, he had tried to fry some himself again – it looked slightly better than the last batch. Given that this was his first attempt after acquiring the knowledge, reaching this level with his unskilled craftmanship was already quite good.

Since Lingzhi Wine would be exclusively sold in the future, the turtle shell liquor and the previous dragon bone liquor would be exclusively for their own consumption on the ranch. The young folks would drink dragon bone liquor. Folk like Gao Rui and the mute, who were energetic, worked all day, and still practiced martial arts, would be best suited for drinking dragon bone liquor.

The two old men and Lin Yumei and her daughter would drink turtle shell liquor. Of course, from the surplus honey, they would also distribute some to everyone at regular intervals.

These were minor things, but since they didn’t cost much money and could make everyone happy, why not? People are made of flesh and blood, and treating them sincerely would mean he could expect the same sincerity from them when they worked for him!

He also brought out some tea for everyone to taste.

Unfortunately, among all the people on the ranch, including old Cheng who often posed and sipped tea from a cup, none of them were skilled at detecting the quality of tea. They simply felt that it was fragrant and smooth to drink. Other than that...they didn’t get the feel of it.

Once the ranch’s matters were managed, the only thing left was buying cattle the next day.

Yan Fei was too embarrassed to talk about today’s frustrating affairs. At last, he casually asked Heizi and Old Gao to rise early and then went back to the greenhouse with his girl.

Once his girl fell asleep, three large birds soared up into the sky. After circling twice in the air over Sancha River Township, they headed directly to Oil-Stealing Township.

Like owner like bird, Yan Fei had a habit of flying at night, and now even his two golden eagles had learned to fly around with him at night. They followed him flying madly every night and often slept soundly during the day. He wasn’t sure if their diet from the dinosaur world had anything to do with it, but these two golden eagles were not only impressive and robust but their night vision was also highly efficient. Flying low, they could catch not only hares but also field mice.

After a patrol round with no gains, he took the two golden eagles back to the greenhouse, delved into the dinosaur world, and busied himself for half the night. After feeding a large group of animals that only knew how to eat, he finally went to bed to rest.

Early the next morning, a large crowd headed straight for the county town again, before splitting up, each group going their own way to collect cows.

Yan Fei and Chang Liang still chose the same county as yesterday. Yan Fei felt he did nothing wrong yesterday, and he couldn’t believe that someone would dare to give him trouble. Moreover, yesterday was not a good day as there were very few cows in the cattle market. Today would certainly be different.

Besides having been to this place once, another reason was that this place was close to Tanghe County.

To the northeast of Wan City was Tanghe county. These were neighboring counties, excluding Black Heart County, which Yan Fei was unwilling to go to. The other two places were where he and Heizi had split up to collect cows in the last two days. If they didn’t come here and went to a different county, they would have to run across counties and cities, which would be even more troublesome.

Luckily, cow collection was smooth today, and they managed to return early, almost returning to the cattle ranch at the same time as Heizi and his group, which was nothing like the embarrassing ordeal of yesterday.