Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 676 - 324: Rocking the Black-Awned Boat_1

Chapter 676: Chapter 324: Rocking the Black-Awned Boat_1

When Yan Fei heard the old lady inquire if paying high wages would make him lose money, he chuckled, "That’s just the price of a young calf. Given the sheer number of people raising cattle for me in the village, this amount of money is insignificant. I feel it’s not enough! I’d like to pay more, but I don’t want people gossiping so I can only compensate everyone with some beef from time to time..."

Seeing that the two old ladies seemed convinced, Yan Fei seized the opportunity to press on, "Actually, I think Uncle Baoguo working on his own is quite good. Working at the police station is a job that tends to make enemies, and it doesn’t sit well with me when people gossip about my aunt. I’m in real need of a cultured person to handle my accounts. Having my aunt there would be perfect. I mean, she studied accounting for so many years, what can she achieve working at that run-down guidance station? But if she were to work with me, everyone bringing cattle to me would have to get their money from her. They’d have to keep on her good side..."

As he was speaking, Yan Fei had finished cleaning two fish, he stood up with the fish and headed for the kitchen, "It’s almost time for dinner, I’ll cook these up for us!"

While stewing the fish, Yan Fei continued his spiel, "In my opinion, Uncle Baoguo being a station chief doesn’t seem to have many benefits. It provides so little salary and they are living frugally. What does it really mean? Even if he becomes an important official in the future, his lifestyle will be the same. He certainly wouldn’t take improper money, and his salary won’t increase by much. Even if you all contribute some from home, they can’t dare to spend it lavishly, otherwise, people will talk. Isn’t that right, Granny?"

"If my aunt could just help me out at my place, everyone knows I pay a high salary. Having money and spending it without fear of gossip would be great. Besides, the work schedule over there is flexible, if there’s something to handle at home, they can just go ahead. It wouldn’t interfere with anything at home, she could even bring the kids to work. We’re all family, it would be very convenient."

"Actually, I’ve been thinking. My little brother will eventually need to go to school. While he’s at home, expenses are lower. But if he goes to university in the future, relying only on the salaries of the two of them, the budget will be stretched. You don’t know, things are getting expensive outside. My daughter-in-law’s university tuition in the Provincial City is more than a thousand a year, and it’s said to increase in the future. If he wants to eat well outside, it’s different from here, even a random meal costs more than ten yuan..."

Looking at the little toddler who didn’t understand a thing but was just happily smiling about it, Yan Fei wore a worried expression on his face, "When the time comes, as he is going through his growth spurt, studying outside by himself with a tight budget, would he dare to eat well? Could he concentrate on his studies then?"

Finishing his speech, he had also finished cooking the fish. He then firmly declined the old ladies’ invitation to stay longer, striking a pose before leaving without causing a fuss - if he didn’t leave now, Lin Baoguo and Xiang Rui would be back, and his agitation and allegations earlier would end up being debunked, which would be unpleasant.

Regarding what would happen after he left, he wasn’t worried at all. The old ladies were highly convinced by him, so Lin Baoguo and Xiang Rui wouldn’t be able to explain it all even after they came back.

Yan Fei returned to the cattle farm, had dinner with everyone, and then watched TV with his daughter for a while.

He didn’t enjoy watching TV at all. It was a drama about the white snake transforming into a human to repay a debt of gratitude, which had been replayed countless times. The male lead role who dressed like a woman was slow and dull, which Yan Fei despised from the bottom of his heart. But his daughter loved watching it, so he had to bear with it.

What’s even more frustrating is that the women were watching and discussing the plot at the same time. They knew the storyline like the back of their hands but were totally engrossed in watching it. It was really true when it was said "three women make a drama". Luckily, there were only three of them. If Ma Chao’s wife joined in the next few days, it would be even livelier.

The group knew that the white snake was about to reveal its true form, and yet everyone watched in excitement as the female lead pretended to be scared to death. He didn’t see what was so exciting about it.

At night, he went home with his daughter who was still discussing how powerful the demon in the drama was. Yan Fei looked at her with contempt; the demon in the drama had practiced for hundreds of years yet was still so weak after having cultivated for centuries.

Listening to his daughter talking, he suddenly had an idea, "How about I build a boat tomorrow and take you out to row?"

"You can build a boat?" His daughter’s eyes lit up immediately, but she soon began to object. "Never mind, we would need to buy lumber, and it’s of no use anyway. If you’re not busy these two days, just rest and don’t run yourself ragged."

Yan Fei chuckled without saying anything. Distracted by Yan Fei’s suggestion, his daughter immediately stopped discussing the TV drama and began to persuade him to stop wasting money - she was unaware that he never spent money on lumber; he could get as much as he wanted.

In the evening, once his daughter had fallen asleep, he started busying himself with a joyful smile on his face.

Having an abundance of energy and not planning to trap sea monsters tonight, he found the perfect thing to keep himself occupied.

As for whether he could build a boat, that was hardly a problem.

He simply cut down a sufficiently thick tree, and a section was enough. The rest he left to dry in the sun for future usage. He built a boat in half a night and even added some wooden sticks on the boat to make a small shed, all while having nothing much to do.

The lumber was wet, but it didn’t matter. As long as the boat was big enough, it would definitely float, especially since it would only carry two people. Normally, the body of the boat would need further processing to prolong its lifespan, but he skipped this process.

It was just for temporary use, after a few days if they got bored with it, they could just chop it up for firewood. Not a thing wasted.

Early next morning, his daughter, who had crawled into his bed again, got up, chased the rascal out of her bed, got dressed, and was ready to start her yoga routine outside the house.

After a while, she noticed something off and asked the watching Yan Fei out of confusion, "Didn’t you make breakfast?"

Yan Fei was watching his daughter’s yoga poses with deep interest, caught off guard by her abrupt question; he blinked and replied sheepishly with a grin, "Didn’t feel like it!"

His daughter didn’t think much of it, "Alright then, you wait for me, I’ll cook in a bit!"

Without uttering a word, Yan Fei continued watching her do yoga. When she was about to head to the kitchen, he finally responded, "Actually, let’s not cook today. Let’s go to town and have some Hot and Spicy Soup!"

"That works too, you go get the motorbike ready, I’ll go in and grab my jacket." His daughter agreed without a second thought.

Seeing Yan Fei still sitting there dumbfounded, she urged him, "Weren’t you going to go to the street? Why aren’t you moving?"

Only then did Yan Fei stand up, sneakily pulling the girl along, "Today we are taking a boat. It only takes two minutes to get to the other side of the river for some hot and spicy soup!"

The girl quickly understood, this guy definitely didn’t listen to her again, and must have been busy as a night owl in the darkness.

She had gotten used to his numerous similar actions, so she couldn’t be bothered to argue with him again.

Being pulled by him to the riverside, the girl was genuinely surprised when she saw the boat.

At least two and a half meters wide and six meters long, it was a wooden boat with a simple shed - the shed was just a piece of cloth propped up by several wooden sticks. The cloth looked familiar, it was an old bedsheet with a small hole in it. The shed was not intended to be rainproof, so it barely provided shade from the sun.

However, the girl didn’t care whether the bedsheet looked good or not, she just couldn’t help but ask, "Did you make this overnight?"

"Indeed!" Yan Fei didn’t directly respond to the question, but instead beckoned to the girl, "Get on the boat! Let’s go get some hot and spicy soup!"

It was only when she descended the riverbank that she realized the boat was indeed hastily constructed overnight. The uneven bumps and grooves all over the boat bottom and surface clearly indicated that. However, from a distance earlier, these imperfections were not noticeable.

But just making such a large boat in one night was astonishing in itself, so these details didn’t really matter. Seeing Yan Fei’s triumphant expression, the girl couldn’t bring herself to criticize him.

After getting on the boat, Yan Fei pushed the boat into the water. The boat sat rather deep in the water, but luckily it was built fairly large, else it could have sunk completely.

Yan Fei stood at the bow, holding a bamboo pole as an oar, and shouted, "Let’s set sail..."

With a gentle push, the boat drifted into the middle of the river.

It was the girl’s first time in a boat, and it felt quite novel and somewhat scary. She was worried that the boat would capsize and watched nervously as he used the oar to row the boat.

Yan Fei turned his head to flash a smile at the girl and started to sing, "Row this black-topped boat, following the river and the wind, your eighteen-year-old face, like the sunset reflecting on the lotus, different shades of red... wait, what’s happening..."

He had only sung one line when he gasped.

He had gleefully retracted the bamboo oar to push again, and the boat swayed once before flipping over, spinning in the water. He couldn’t continue his song and his smile turned awkward.

The girl watched as he floundered, both worried and amused, and advised him, "Take it slowly. This big boat won’t capsize. Don’t panic, just go slow..."

"It’s fine, it’ll be alright in no time!" Yan Fei said while struggling with the spinning boat.

The task was easy. After a few tries, he sort of got the hang of it. The issue was that the boat’s direction had slightly changed with the water current after leaving the bank. He had continued to row the boat directly as he had done while near the shore, resulting in the wrong angle and the spinning.

Before he could fully master the maneuvering of this little boat, they had already arrived at the opposite bank.

There were two old men at the riverbank exercising. Seeing the boat approaching, they began shouting, "Young man, over here, over here. There’s a mooring pile here!"

Yan Fei steered the boat towards them, jumped ashore pulling the rope and directly tied it to a stone pile.

One old man exclaimed, "It has been decades since a boat docked at this wharf. Yours is the first in all these years. Let me see. Ah, the way you built this boat, it’s a waste of good wood!"

The girl also jumped ashore without Yan’s help. With a beaming smile, she asked the old man, "Sir, do you also know how to build boats?"

"Of course! My grandfather’s generation lived right beside this dock. I grew up at the dock. How could I not know?" The old man replied modestly. "You have wasted some good timber. You should quickly haul it ashore and dry it when you get back. It will rot quickly if soaked in water. You need to apply some tung oil..."

Yan Fei grabbed the girl and began to walk away, "Alright! We will do it later. We came here to eat. We should go and have our meal first."

They had walked quite a distance when they still heard the old man lamenting, "Such a big chunk of wood wasted, what a waste..."

Another old man reminded him, "You’re confused. Who else could have come from across the river? The young man just now is none other than Boss Yan who raises cattle! He’s got plenty of money to afford such waste, why worry yourself..."