Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 735 - 369: Light in the Darkness_1

Chapter 735: Chapter 369: Light in the Darkness_1

Sometimes poverty is not due to a lack of effort. Tian Yuejin led Yan Fei and a few others out, called over a young man who brought along a hand operated tractor, and then invited everyone to get in the vehicle.

All the others obediently loaded up, except Heizi who suggested, "Didn’t they say it wasn’t far? We could just walk."

The two young men with them waved him over, "Come on, you’ll soon see."

Heizi hadn’t been in this area before. His last visit had been just to the village and he had not ventured beyond. He had absolutely no idea how poor the conditions of Nine Hills and Eighteen Hollows were. He climbed in the vehicle with a mix of doubt and belief. As soon as they left the village, he exclaimed, "Damn, if you fall on this road, you would roll all the way down, wouldn’t you?"

The two young men chuckled at this comment. Tian Yuejin, however, did not laugh, "In our area, those who have never visited always assume we are lazy. In other villages, they can harvest a thousand or nine hundred catties of grain. If ours is less, it’s definitely because we’re not working hard enough. You’ll see soon. If not for the livestock, not a single person would dare to pull a cart along this road. Those with less manpower at home have to combine efforts with other households to harvest crops. It requires people to push uphill and drag it down, it cannot be taken lightly..."

The route descending from the hill is not straight because it is too steep. It doesn’t look far from the top, but the road bends several times. It snakes its way down like a long serpent, then twists its way back up another hill, which is a disheartening sight.

There are hardly any trees to be seen. The farmland is already harvested, its nakedness quite stunning to the eye.

The tractor smoothly descended the hill, but as soon it started to go uphill at the bottom, it immediately began to cough black smoke. Its speed was indescribable but clearly slow, which gave some young men a chance to catch up after they had been left behind when it came down the hill. Now they managed to rejoin it as it struggled uphill.

Once up the hill, it descended again and the tractor followed an even smaller path to the east.

After a while, they started to climb another hill. Halfway up, Tian Yuejin called for a stop, got down from the tractor, and pointed to a plot of land not far away, saying, "That stretch of field there, what do you think, Boss Yan?"

The plot he pointed to was decent. It was next to a small mound with a few trees. Even though it wasn’t close to water, it was situated conveniently near a hill, right?

Looking at it, Heizi sneered and muttered, "Isn’t this just recently reclaimed land?"

Indeed, it was just recently converted farmland. The difference between cultivated and newly reclaimed land was plain to see. This plot was likely cultivated just last year due to its proximity to the small mound, and small rocks could still be seen scattered everywhere with various sizes of broken rocks piled at the side.

But it doesn’t matter, it’s to grow grass after all. But Yan Fei looked back at the winding path they’d just taken, and thought about the hill to climb on their way back. This all caused him some headaches.

The yield of forage grass is higher than that of crops. Their village had threshing floors on the hills, where they threshed wheat nearby and hauled it back. All the other crops were treated the same way. Straw and other stuff could be hauled back later when needed. But it was different for his grass. One acre could yield a few thousand catties per cut, all of which needed to be transported immediately. Grass also took up lots of space. What could a small rural handcart carry? On such a road, they wouldn’t even dare to load it full.

In such a poor place, Yan Fei didn’t even dare to count on hand tractors, as he knew there weren’t many.

Tian Yuejin was still talking about the advantages of this plot, but Yan Fei signaled to Heizi. Heizi got the hint and quickly interrupted Village Head Tian, "Mr. Tian, do you have any other suitable places? This place makes it too inconvenient to transport the grass. If we need several dozen acres, by the time we harvest, we won’t be able to transport it all!"

Village Head Tian waved his hand grandly, "Don’t worry about that, just leave it to us, we have plenty of people..."

Heizi lowered his head, thinking about throwing a pile of cow dung at him. Even if you have plenty of labor, you’re not going to work for me for free, right? You think you can double dip, leasing out newly reclaimed wasteland and letting the village laborers have work to do, you are really thorough...

Heizi was about to say something, but Yan Fei intervened, "Let’s do this, Head Tian. We will discuss it when we get back and give you a call when we decide!"

As they prepared to leave, Village Head Tian became anxious, "How about this, Boss Yan, we can ask for less for the land, how’s hundred and thirty for each mu? And look, when you grow grass here, people from our village can help you keep an eye on it during usual times, and we don’t have to worry about people from other villages grazing their cattle or sheep..."

His words hit the nail on the head. This place was indeed free from the threat of cattle or sheep from other villages, because... people from other villages wouldn’t come here at all! With this terrain, it would be easier to land a plane—if planes ate grass.

Yan Fei paused in his steps, then said with a smile, "Hmm, we will discuss it when we get back, and give you a call when we make a decision!"

Seeing everyone getting ready to leave, Tian Yuejin opened his mouth to say, "Alright, then we will wait for the good news from Boss Yan. Please make it quick, the rain will be here soon and the land can’t be left idle. If it’s used to plant crops, it will delay a whole season..."

Yan Fei nodded, "Okay!"

On the way back, everyone was a bit silent, as if there was really nothing to say.

What annoyed Yan Fei was the Village Head’s attitude. He originally hoped to plant grass in this village due to young people like Tian Dafu and Tian Dazhuang. However, the Village Head’s actions made him unhappy. The underlying message was that only their villagers could do the work. The work would be done by the villagers of whichever village Yan Fei chose to farm in. However, he spoke as if without him, it would not be possible. He also wanted Yan Fei to hurry up. Without his land, would he miss a whole season?

A hundred and fifty yuan per mu isn’t much. But later Yan Fei would rarely hire people to watch the grass. If he entrusted it to the villagers, wouldn’t he have to give some money to show goodwill? When the grass grew, how many carts would be needed to transport dozens of mu’s worth of forage? Giving just a little per cart to the carriers would cost a fair amount.

Besides that, if they get sick and need medicine, or if it’s too dry right after planting, this land isn’t close to the river, so they’d have to hire someone to water it... All these hassles also mean work that they can earn extra money from. And yet, they still try to be cunning. It’s really frustrating.

On the way back to the village, many people were still asking about the outcome of the discussion, Heizi always answered with a big smile: "Very good, we will go back and think about it first."

Some people didn’t even realise that this was a polite refusal and asked what exactly we planned to plant?

We started the motorcycles and prepared to leave. The village mayor was resolute and added: "To support Boss Yan’s project, I will discuss it with the villagers again to persuade them as much as possible to reduce the price for Boss Yan, preferably to one hundred yuan per mu. Boss Yan, what do you think? We are looking forward to your good news!"

If you hadn’t mentioned, I would have forgotten that your village has a Party Secretary. Yan Fei didn’t even bother to respond, but Heizi said a word of thanks: "Thank you very much!"

As soon as the motorcycles left the village, a young man on another motorcycle shouted to Heizi: "Why are you thanking him? When have you ever heard them call a meeting in the village? They just announce it over the loudspeaker, and it’s basically a one-man show. What negotiation is he talking about? It’s all decided by him...He’s blinded by money. Boss Yan, don’t be angry, let’s try another village..."

On the motorcycle, you have to shout to be heard. Yan Fei loudly said, "Which village are you all more familiar with? Find one where the people are better. Skip the ones that are annoying..."

Both young men thought for a moment, but before they could reply, they heard a man calling desperately from a distance: "Boss Yan, Boss Yan..."

They’re too far away for anyone but Yan Fei to hear. He looked over and saw an old man on the other side running toward them and shouting. The speed was so fast that even the stubble of the wheat on the ground couldn’t slow him down. Behind him was a younger man who was not as fast and was out of breath after only a few steps. Although Yan Fei didn’t recognize the old man, he stopped the motorcycle and planned to wait a bit.

The motorcycle behind hadn’t noticed the man from far away and was about to ask when they realized by following Yan Fei’s gaze. After waiting for a while, once the old man got closer, one young man recognised who it was. Laughing, he said, "Did old Guan hear some kind of rumours? People are too sharp these days..."

The other young man explained, "That guy is from the village ahead, just one village away from Huangtuwa, from Guan Village! If he’s here for this, maybe we don’t need to go to other villages."

"Is the news that fast?" Heizi didn’t believe it.

"Hard to say, anyway he’s almost here, you can ask him yourself," the same young man gestured to the distance and answered.

The old man trotted over with an amiable disposition and shouted from afar, "Boss Yan, are you leaving? Come sit in our village?"

Yan Fei hesitated slightly, but the old man had already grabbed the motorcycle: "It’s not far, and it’s on your way. Do you remember a few years ago when you caught the cattle thief? That was from our Guan Village. I, the Party Secretary, have always wanted to thank you properly but haven’t had the opportunity! Today, you have to come over for a cup of tea. Come on..."

Seeing his enthusiasm, Yan Fei looked at the other three and asked, "Do you want to go over for a bit?"

That young man who had been talking to Heizi was deep in thought and suddenly laughed and said, "Old Guan, old Guan, what am I going to do with you? If you hadn’t mentioned, I wouldn’t have remembered. The person whose cattle was stolen is from Daguan Village, right? What does it have to do with your Xiao Guan village?"

Being exposed, the old man blushed and chuckled awkwardly, "Both have ’Guan’ in their names, what’s the difference between Daguan and Xiao Guan? They’re all the same, all the same!"

Yan Fei laughed. Anyway, it’s on the way, might as well go. He gestured for Heizi to ride on the motorcycle and go first, and he walked slowly with the old man.

The old man finally got the opportunity and began to talk, "I heard that Boss Yan wants to find a place to plant grass and raise cattle? Why don’t you come to our village? Although our village is small and sparsely populated, there are benefits to having fewer people. Just say how much land you want, and the entire village will back you. By the autumn, we are going to divide the fields again, take some out now, then we can just make it up when we divide the fields. The farmland we have here is near the river, so it’s very convenient for watering..."

Yan Fei laughed and asked: "I just told Mayor Chen this morning, how did you know?"

The old man laughed and pointed to a young man who was just walking over from a farmland: "This is my son. When you were in Huangtuwa just now, he was there, heard the news and ran back to tell me. Rest assured, even if this is a temporary decision, I can ensure everyone in our village will support you..."

Yan Fei was speechless. For such a small thing, these people were really making an effort, even using spies - although it was a coincidence.

No wonder the young man came running over, panting heavily. Must be because he had run back from Huangtuwa. The young man came over and smiled awkwardly at Yan Fei, then complained to the old man, "Dad, why are you running so fast? Aren’t you afraid something might happen with your old arms and legs?"

The old man glared at him: "You little rascal, is this a curse on your dad?"

Then, turning to Yan Fei, he said: "Boss Yan, don’t mind this boy. He’s kind of slow and clueless, but when it comes to work, he’s strong."

After catching his breath, the young man didn’t respond to his father but said to Yan Fei, "Boss Yan, did my dad tell you? He’s not very good at speaking, but you can rest assured, all the people in our village will fully support you, really!"