Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 930 - 507: Streetlights and the Broken Leg Incident_2

Chapter 930: Chapter 507: Streetlights and the Broken Leg Incident_2

However, departmental rewards generally aren’t as much as eight hundred yuan; the school has already given awards, and the departments are usually content with giving a token of recognition.

The Law School rewarding eight hundred yuan, to be honest, is kind of like empty talk. Because in such sporting events, the Law School has always focused on participation, never daring to dream of ranking—especially when the competition included other universities from Provincial City and its surroundings.

Since they never expected a student from their own department to place, the eight hundred yuan was like the carrot hanging in front of the donkey, something visible but unattainable—offering the reward was merely a way to prove that the faculty leaders took this matter seriously. They hoped that a heavy reward would bring out a brave warrior, and if something unexpected happened, all the better. And if not, it didn’t matter, since the reward was offered anyway, and if you couldn’t get it, it wasn’t their fault.

With the department already thinking this way, leaders from the divisions were merely joining in the excitement, saying a few words to cheer things on.

Who could have expected Classmate Xu Xing to come along—a dragon-eater, whose long legs not only looked good but could also... run...

Xu Xiaoyan is now beaming with pride: "With this first place, I’ve earned back the tuition fees for the first two years of university, and even more than that! Plus, if you add the usual scholarships, I might actually make money from the university over the years!"

At this point, Boss Yan could only admire the girl’s ’capability’ and took the opportunity to shower her with heaps of encouragement, praise, and support, in return for a better mood.

Yan Fei, who used to flit about Sancha River area, was also very familiar with the surroundings, so he quickly made his way to the national highway while Xu Xiaoyan was still basking in her happiness. He flagged down a short-distance bus headed to Provincial City—these kinds of buses would stop with just a wave, even for a one or two yuan’s distance.

In the afternoon, when he was planning to accompany her to the award ceremony, Yan Fei became busy with several pages.

Calling back, he learned that he had become a "well-known personality" and "famous entrepreneur," with plenty of matters to attend to.

One page was from the city; with the end of the year approaching, the city was going to hold an entrepreneurs’ symposium and invited Boss Yan Fei of Niuniuhua Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Company to attend. Another was from the county, also inviting him to an end-of-year key entrepreneur exchange meeting.

The last page involved an unfortunate incident; Zhou Dalian had some trouble and was asking for his help.

After giving it some thought, he consulted with Director Lin and Minister Pan over the phone; both recommended attending the meetings in the county and city as just a formality, better not to miss them.

First, it would allow him to meet more local entrepreneurs and expand his social circle. Second, he could make connections with more leaders, which would be helpful for future dealings. Another benefit was that this kind of meeting could make the local newspapers or TV news, providing an opportunity for some publicity.

As for Zhou Dalian’s issue, which needed to be mediated, it would be best for him to go back and deal with it himself.

When he mentioned it to Xu Xiaoyan, the girl was quite understanding, even urging him not to accompany her to the award ceremony. However, she was unaware that Boss Yan was someone who could come and go as he pleased; this was in vain, as Yan Fei was determined to attend her award ceremony.

The ceremony was fairly simple, with the leaders’ speeches taking longer than the award distribution itself. Once the long speeches were over and the certificates and prize money collected, the event was concluded.

Next would be the school’s distribution of prizes, which Yan Fei couldn’t wait for. It was said to occur during the New Year’s Day celebration—occasions like Christmas Eve weren’t as popular yet, and people generally only celebrated New Year’s Day at that time.

After the awards were handed out, Yan Fei flew straight back home, then prepared to handle the troublesome matter with Zhou Dalian.

Actually, this was a difficult matter to explain, and it stemmed from a recent major event in Sancha River.

The old streetlights on Sancha River’s streets had long been inadequate, only to be seen during the day, with no trace of them at night. The entire street was engulfed in darkness after sunset, with visibility only provided by some residential lights.

But now, by the end of the year, the town had finally obtained some funds and had recently replaced all the streetlights with new ones—a significant event for the town that affected the whole street.

Everyone knew this was a good thing—having streetlights illuminated at night was a great improvement!

But there were always a few idle souls with restless hands who, under the cover of night, practiced their aim on the streetlights, whether with stones or slingshots, breaking them.

The weather was getting colder, and people tended to go to bed early. Besides, the town’s public safety was pretty good, without any nighttime patrols, leading to several streetlights being broken shortly after they were brightened, causing general frustration—it was well understood that patrols wouldn’t have prevented this. As the saying goes, there are many who would become thieves, but not many who could guard against them day in, day out.

Most people could do nothing more than get annoyed when they saw the newly installed streetlights damaged—what else could they do?

Even the police were helpless, since the vandalism happened in the middle of the night, with no way to catch the perpetrator—still, even if they had heard who might be responsible, no one was willing to testify. It was not treated as a major crime, and investigating it was troublesome.

However, one person was affected by this issue, Zhou Dalian—he had been out drinking one night and stumbled on a step on the side of the road, allegedly spraining his ankle.

Everyone knew he was not someone who kept to himself, and drinking at night was quite typical for him.