Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 730 - 366: Good Things Happen When Renting Land_2

Chapter 730: Chapter 366: Good Things Happen When Renting Land_2

He had gone home for a nap, and was back to the cow farm tying up loose ends before dawn: "Old Ou will need to take the truck to buy cows today. After butchering a cow, take a day’s rest and then hurry up to buy another one. Heizi, don’t go, let Li Fang go instead. Old Gao, can the three of you manage? Never mind, I’ll go with you..."

"No, don’t! I can handle it!" Heizi exclaimed.

"You just got married, stay home and take it easy. There’s work to do at home too, go talk to the people in the western village again, I want to rent the land next to the greenhouse. Speaking of which, Old Gong, how much is the annual rent for an acre of land in your area?" Yan Fei genuinely felt awkward making Heizi work right after his wedding, it wasn’t proper to make him go out in less than three days after the wedding.

Old Gong asked in confusion, "What do you need the land for?"

Not only was he curious, they all were. The night before, Ma Yongming said that all the land would be covered in greenhouses, and now they were renting more land?

"I’m renting land to grow grass!" Yan Fei clarified. "The cows can benefit from eating more green feed, and growing our own forage means we wouldn’t have to have people go out and cut wild grass. If everyone in the village starts raising cows, then that wild grass becomes a valuable commodity."

"Doesn’t seem to make much sense! It’s quite expensive to rent land just for growing grass. This land here is all good land with high rents. It might be more cost-effective to find some wasteland..." Ma Chao said. "I mean, our cows seem to be doing great even without the greens, aren’t they?"

"They’re doing great because we’re feeding them right, they definitely won’t do well without feeding in the long run. Plus, we have breeding bulls! We can’t just think about making money from selling beef and not invest anything." Yan Fei was thinking long term. "And where is there any wasteland for us to use these days? The best way to grow forage is in large, contiguous fields. It’s easier to harvest and manage, instead of having scattered plots and wasting costs just getting to them."

"Then don’t rent the lands here! Are the grasses you want to grow resistant to waterlogging?" Old Gong, familiar with the situation, offered a suggestion right away. "If they are, then we’ve got a solution. You see, south of our location, the lands leaning against the river bank, all the way to the small path that leads to the county town, all those areas will flood as soon as the water level rises a bit. Renting land there would definitely be cheaper than here."

Upon Old Gong’s suggestion, everyone seemed to get an idea. Heizi proposed, "From the eastern bridge down to Nan River, there’s a large plot of land that also gets flooded almost every year. Part of it always gets inundated. The rent for that land should be cheaper too."

"Alright, let’s see about that later," Yan Fei urgently put a hold on the topic. "By the way, is there a village gathering today? Can I have your brother help make the runs to buy the cows? Seems like I’m going to be tied up here..."

The moment Heizi heard this, he was on his way out. "You guys go ahead with the discussion, I’ll go call him. The only thing he has on his hands right now is matchmaking, he’d be more than happy to get out and run around!"

Yan Fei resumed the discussion, "Let’s think, are there more potential lands we can think of? We need a few in reserve. Whichever land deal goes smoother, I’ll take it. From what I know about this grass, it’s drought and flood resistant, so any land that is somewhat okay is good for it. The cheaper the better. Even if it’s far, no problem, we can just hire people to cut and deliver the grass."

"If you’re okay with it being a bit far, I know a good place!" spoke Xiaosong, who was known to keep his words to himself. "Heap Hillock in Huangtuwa—nothing there but bandits. A huge plot of land, but the locals can’t produce good harvests. Only problem is it’s quite far..."

Yan Fei was taken aback when he heard this. He had been to that place himself. It was within Tian Dafu and Tian Dazhuang’s village, Nine Hills and Eighteen Hollows, but if it were to grow grass, it would really be ideal.

Currently, apart from the original Tian Dafu and a few households that were raising cattle for him, there were also two households from the impoverished families who received distributed cows. They were from those two villages as well. So now, there were about seven or eight households in Nine Hills and Eighteen Hollows raising cattle for Yan Fei. If he paid them to take care of the grass and deliver it when it’s time to harvest, it could work great!

The land would certainly be cheap because it’s widely known that the hillocks are prone to droughts and the hollows to floods; labor would be cheap as well. There are many people in those two large villages. Since it’s far from the town with few connections, there is plenty of idle labor.

"Alright, let’s take Bandit Village then! Haha... You guys go ahead with what you were doing, I’m going to make a phone call to ask about the situation." Yan Fei stood up, prepared to make the call, and left the group behind.

But once he got his phone in his hand, he was stumped—who should he call? He wanted to call the village committee in Huangtuwa to ask Tian Dafu or Tian Dazhuang to come over, then he realized that he didn’t know the number for the village committee.

He had no other choice but to ride his motorcycle down to the main street. It was starting to get light out, which left him a bit frustrated. It was too early, who could he ask? The local police station and the Armed Forces Department would probably have the number. There would be someone on duty at the police station, so that might be the place to look first.

As he passed by the entrance of the Armed Forces Department, he glanced inside and immediately turned around.

Old Pan was leisurely practicing his punches in the yard!

Seeing him come in, Old Pan greeted him with a cheerful grin, "Ah, Xiao Fei, come watch us practice our new Capture the Enemy Fighting Fist! As an expert yourself, we’d love to hear your thoughts!"

Yan Fei parked his motorcycle and after watching for a bit, he found it uninteresting. "Great, really great! Uncle Pan, I have a question to ask you. Do you happen to know the phone number for the village committee in Huangtuwa? I need to ask a few questions about something from the people there."

Old Pan seemed quite discontented, "What do you mean by ’it’s good’? Why can’t you make some suggestions? What are you calling about? You could have just asked me!"

"Just ask if it’s cheaper to rent land from them, because I intend to do so."

"What does it being ’cheaper’ mean? What are you going to grow on the land you rent from that place? Even children know that nothing can be grown there, you’re just messing around. Besides, even if you grew something, there’s no way you could transport it. Tractors are the only things that can get in or out."

"I’m growing pasture!" Yan Fei clarified his intentions. "Their farmland may not be suitable for crops, regardless, my pasture can grow anywhere. After their villagers harvest it for me, they can deliver it. I don’t care how they transport it, even if it’s by a bullock cart. As long as the grass gets here, I’ll pay. I’m sure there will be takers."

"Growing grass?" Old Pan stopped his movements abruptly. "If you have too much money and don’t know where to spend it, why not give me a couple of catties! You must be burning money, right? And you’re looking to grow grass?"

"It’s for my cattle feed!" Yan Fei could not help but laugh, he replied gruffly, "So what even if I am burning money!"

"Seriously planting grass? Have you thought about it?" Old Pan didn’t particularly mind his tone. "Don’t mess around, think it over before deciding."

"Don’t worry, I’ve thought it over very well. It is exactly what I’m planning, to rent land and grow pasture." Yan Fei confidently responded.

Upon hearing this, Old Pan relaxed and slowly resumed his martial arts practice.

Yan Fei grew impatient, "Do you have a phone? If you do not, I’ll ask at the police station. Don’t waste my time here!"

Old Pan was grinning widely, "If you go to the police station, you’ll be in trouble. Come, first give me a review of my martial arts practice. If you do, I will tell you something good!"

Yan Fei noticed Old Pan was joking around. Without a better strategy, he considered a thought that sparked after watching Old Pan’s moves, "What was that move you just did?"

"This?" Old Pan demonstrated. "Look, this is in case the opponent has a gun. I grab it, then I swing in this way, and we have the weapon! If they are not willing to release it, at least they can’t aim and shoot at me..."

Watching Old Pan’s enthusiastic demonstration, Yan Fei absent-mindedly looked around the clean courtyard but found no weapon. He took a moment and held out his arm, "Come, Come! Let’s pretend I have a gun. Take away my weapon!"

Old Pan grinned, "Oh? Want me to give you a demonstration? Well...!"

The shrewd old man made his move mid-sentence.

Then the fun began. Old Pan had one hand on Yang Fei’s fist and the other on his arm. He applied force, but nothing happened...

He exerted more strength, still no effect...

He also tried to pinch the numb spot on the elbow, but the pinching had no effect on Yan Fei.

After a couple of futile attempts, he gave up and let go, clearly unhappy, "Forget it, I won’t try with you. I completely forgot that your physique is exceptional!"

Seeing Yan Fei sneakily chuckling, Old Pan pretended to be angry and kicked him, "You cheeky boy, that good news I mentioned before, forget it!"

Yan Fei stepped back to dodge and laughed, "Hey, hey, what good news, hurry and spill the beans! Why are you, old man, still practicing martial arts? Whatever problems crop up, we’ll charge forward, all you need to do is stay behind..."

Old Pan was quite pleased with what he heard, "I must admit you’re clever, since you speak so wisely, I’ll let your previous actions slide. Let me ask you, have you heard of the Returning Farmland to Forest and Grass Project?"