Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 649 - 305

Chapter 649: 305

"No, no, there is also a difference in price, good earthworms and poor ones do not fetch the same price. If feed factories are willing to pay a premium, would it not be for high-quality earthworms? If made into medicinal ingredients, the price could be even higher..." Chen Liqiang became anxious when he saw that Yan Fei was disinterested, and soon realized that he had perhaps overpromised, so hurriedly added an explanation.

"Ah, but it’s not necessarily so—I’m not at all sure why those feed factories would pay so much, perhaps due to high demand and short supply. Can I take a look at your earthworms?"

"Alright, follow me then," Yan Fei briskly replied.

He turned to one of the girls in the room and gave her a brief instruction before getting on a motorbike, Chen Liqiang following him.

As they approached the large tents, Yan Fei was just about to reassure Chen Liqiang in case the sight of the tigers and bears might scare him. But before he even finished his sentence, he heard Chen gasp from behind him, "Are those the tigers? How beautiful!"

Yan Fei halted the motorbike, looking a bit surprised. "Beautiful? Aren’t you scared?"

"What is there to be scared of? Aren’t these tigers obedient to your commands? Aren’t they meant to intimidate others on your behalf?" Chen Liqiang replied matter-of-factly. "Moreover, look at how beautiful they are! Look at the patterns on their fur, the way they’re lying down, their claws, the ’king’ character on their foreheads. So majestic, so imposing. The ones I’ve seen in zoos are nothing compared to these. I never thought I’d see real tigers in my lifetime. Truly magnificent..."

Seeing his captivated expression, Yan Fei didn’t quite know what to say. "Alright, alright, you can admire them some more later. Let’s go check out the earthworms now!"

"Oh, right!" Chen Liqiang seemingly remembered their actual purpose, took another long look at the tigers, and then reluctantly followed Yan Fei into the large tent.

"These are the earthworms. Come and see. The ones by the entrance are smaller. The big ones we had are all gone, the ones inside here are larger. They’re all like this. Take a look..." As Yan Fei spoke, he squatted down and scraped a little manure with a wooden board.

All the earthworms, which had been hiding in the cow manure, were now exposed. Rows and rows of red and pink earthworms sprawled out in front of them.

"These are a better breed, larger than the average earthworm you’d find. What do you think? If these are used in medicine..." Yan Fei faltered mid-sentence when he noticed that Chen Liqiang’s breath was growing more and more rapid.

Turning his head, he saw that not only was Chen breathing hard, his face had turned pale, and his whole body was shaking slightly.

"What’s wrong with you? Are you sick? Don’t panic, tell me slowly, I’ll take you to the hospital..." Yan Fei muttered, feeling rather annoyed. This was not how he expected the meeting to go. If Chen were to fall sick anywhere else, it would not be his problem. But the fact that Chen fell ill here, of all places, was utterly bad luck.

"No, that’s not necessary..." Stammering, Chen took a step back, legs clearly trembling and struggling to stand upright. As he was about to collapse, he managed to grab onto a nearby pillar and lift his head. "I’m fine, it’s just a minor issue. Since I was a kid, whenever I see a dense and wriggling mass like this, it would make me feel uncomfortable. Let me take a moment to adjust..."

Promising to adjust, he dashed out of the tent, stumbling as he ran.

Yan Fei quickly followed, and saw Chen hunched over by the river, gasping for breath.

Seeing that it wasn’t likely a serious illness, Yan Fei felt more at ease.

Chen Liqiang straightened up after some heavy panting. His face was still pale, but his speech had improved significantly, "I’m sorry! I’ve seen a doctor about this before, and it’s not a serious condition. But it’s uncurable, they said I had to overcome it by myself. I’m much better now. Give me a moment, I am really sorry for this... Give me another moment to adjust, I’m almost okay to go in again..."

Seeing him seemingly recovering, Yan Fei was left speechless, "You weren’t scared of tigers, but earthworms put you in this state? Even if they’re plentiful, they won’t be able to bite you to death!"

He probably should not have said that, as Chen Liqiang, reminded of the scene earlier, couldn’t help but begin to retch.

Yan Fei decided to just leave him to adjust on his own and went off to check the mushroom shed.

Just as expected, after two days, not much had changed in the large tent. After a quick check inside, he went back to the house, emerged with a few pieces of meat to feed the animals. The two Golden Eagles were still nowhere to be found, he had no idea where they’d gone off to.

The watermelon seedlings were growing well. Everything was going great!

Looking at the salesman sitting by the river in a daze, Yan Fei didn’t know what to say. Arriving with full confidence to inspect the earthworms, only to freak out at the sight of them? His condition really was a peculiar one.

But for Yan Fei, selling earthworms was not a concern. If this deal was successful, that was great. If not, he would lose nothing either way.

Remembering his wife would be home soon, Yan Fei watered and cleaned both the inside and outside of his house thoroughly.

By the time he had finished, the salesman still had not returned. Yan Fei went to check and found him cautiously peering into the earthworm shed with a stick in hand, ready to turn over the earthworms.

With apprehension, he used the stick to carefully expose some earthworms, took a peek then quickly pulled back his head. After much inner struggle, he decided to try peering in one more time.

The way his head bobbed back and forth, made Yan Fei feel uncomfortable on his behalf and he couldn’t help but say, "Are you tired? You could simply stop looking, I mean, you’ve seen it just now. If it doesn’t work out, then drop it. I can sell these anywhere anyway..."

"I’m so sorry, just a moment, I’m almost done!" Chen Liqiang issued another string of apologies.

"Forget it, I’m done entertaining you, take your time!" Yan Fei said, preparing to continue with his own work.

Having taken a couple steps away, he heard footsteps behind him, followed by Chen Liqiang’s voice: "Err, boss, I’m so sorry! I just wanted to take another look at the tigers before moving on to the earthworms. Do you mind?"

Yan Fei waved a dismissive hand: "Go on then, just don’t go too close!"

"Thank you so much..." Chen Liqiang replied before standing there staring at the tigers for a while. After gathering his courage, he strode confidently towards the entrance of the earthworm tent.

After a short while, he returned to gaze at the tigers...

Then he hustled back to the earthworms again...

The cycle repeated an untold number of times, until dusk, when Yan Fei was ready to go for dinner. Thinking that Chen Liqiang wouldn’t see much in the darkness of the tent, he saw him walk over, his face deathly pale.

His walk was clearly off, as though he was treading on cotton. His few steps gave the effect of moonwalking.

Upon seeing Yan Fei, he said: "I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I’m ready, and, I still don’t know your name, sir?"

Remembering to ask for his name, his mind must have cleared up. Yan Fei was bemused, it was his first time meeting someone who was more afraid of earthworms than tigers. "Just call me Yan Fei. By the way, what do you think of my earthworms?"

"I’ll call you Boss Yan then! Honestly, I can’t really tell with these earthworms, they’re much larger than usual. I want to take some back and ask my teacher. Is that alright?" Now Chen Liqiang realized that this young boss was patient enough to wait for him, and he wasn’t as unreasonable as he initially thought, so he boldly put forth his request.

"Sure, do you want the dry ones or the wet ones?" Yan Fei agreed without a second thought, figuring that this guy wasn’t likely to be a scammer given his zeal.

"The wet ones, please! The wet ones!" Chen Liqiang immediately cheered up, but his excitement was quickly replaced by dejection. "Boss Yan, could you perhaps put some in a small bottle for me? Just a few will do. I, um, can’t go inside..."

"Wait right here!" Yan Fei chuckled at Chen Liqiang’s tiger-like fear of the earthworm tent.

No, that’s not right. This guy didn’t look scared when he saw the tigers. More like he sees the tent as haunted.

Yan Fei went inside to get a small bottle, put a few earthworms into it, as well as some cow dung, and made air holes in the lid. He handed it to Chen Liqiang, who had returned to watching the tigers: "This is all I have, will it be enough?"

Chen Liqiang looked inside the bottle, repeatedly nodding his head: "This is enough, thank you, Boss Yan. I’ll inform you as soon as I have any news..."

"Hey, aren’t you scared anymore?" Yan Fei asked, noticing that Chen Liqiang didn’t seem scared at all holding the bottle.

"There are just a few in here; it’s the masses of them I find frightening..." Chen Liqiang replied with slight embarrassment.

"That’s good then. Take them and let’s go. Do you live in the town here?" Yan Fei lost interest in understanding why seeing more made him scared and turned to push his motorbike.

"I’ve finished what I had to do here. I have to work tomorrow, just drop me off by the road and I’ll wait for a bus."

"There are no buses to the county town at this time. I’ll drop you off on the main road, you can hail a passing car to the county town."

"Uh... thank you for going through the trouble..."

"Enough with the formalities, let’s hurry..."

Before leaving, Chen Liqiang turned around several times to look back at the tigers. His longing gaze convinced Yan Fei that this guy was undoubtedly ill.

After dropping him off on the Provincial Road, Yan Fei left him to his own devices. His wife had just returned and he had no time to spend with her due to the endless distractions. He definitely didn’t have time to spare for this peculiar guy!