Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 99 - 40 Rage in The Heart_1

Chapter 99: Chapter 40 Rage in The Heart_1

With four dogs watching over by the river, Yan Fei had no worries about being disturbed, and he began to fish comfortably at the river bottom.

Actually, this seemed a bit foolish, staying motionless at the river bottom like a log, mouth agape, waiting for fish to pass by.

However, the fish in this river probably hadn’t seen a crocodile before. A group of small fish swam back and forth in front of him without caution, one naive young fish even swam right through the open jaws of Yan Fei.

These small fish clearly weren’t of interest to Yan Fei, so he just let them play around him.

There was a particularly abundant kind of fish in the river called Cuan Bai Tiao. Generally, after its scales and internal organs were removed, it was mixed with flour and deep-fried. But to make a meal out of it, you needed quite a number of them. If Yan Fei was to catch them one by one, it would be more trouble than it was worth!

Another fish called Yanyaopianer, never grew particularly large and had a bitter taste, no one ate it. These fish were also plentiful, but Yan Fei was not going to bother catching them.

Just as he was starting to become impatient, a large fish suddenly shot by. Almost instinctively, Yan Fei snapped at it, his teeth meeting their mark.

And then he was pleased.

This was his favourite fish—catfish.

In actuality, catfish was not a particularly popular fish species, as most people thought its flesh wasn’t very tasty.

But Yan Fei liked it, because it had few bones.

When he was younger, whenever there were happy events or funerals at relatives’ houses, Yan Fei would tag along with his grandfather to enjoy a good meal. At first, he ate fish too, but after a few occasions, he realised a problem: by the time he leisurely gnawed off a piece of fish, everyone else had finished their meals.

So, unless he was at home, Yan Fei stopped eating fish when dining at others’ homes and instead picked easy-to-eat items like ham and chicken.

While reminiscing, he felt the catfish in his mouth stop struggling. He climbed ashore, tossed the fish to the ground, informed the four dogs that they were not allowed to eat it, then returned to the river.

As time passed, the young crocodile became more and more proficient in his fishing skills. By noon, he had caught three more fish, each a different type—a carp, a grass carp, and a Hypophthalmichthys nobilis.

He had also caught a few crabs and shrimps along the way.

Satisfyingly carrying the fish back, he asked Lin Baoguo to help check for any signs of pollution. When he did, he became furious.

The catfish was from the polluted part of the river. The fish’s natural colour was black and yellow, so it was no wonder Yan Fei hadn’t noticed earlier!

Though not particularly large, the catfish weighed at least two catties. If it were a carp, Yan Fei wouldn’t have cared, but this was a waste.

Thinking about the river water, it made sense. On windy days, you could smell the awful stench of the river water from the cattle farm, so it wasn’t hard to imagine whether this fish was safe to eat.

Throwing the catfish over the wall into the West River, Yan Fei was extremely irritated and grumbled, "Damn that paper factory, they should just shut down. One lousy factory has made the fish in a whole river inedible."

Having gotten some rest, Lin Baoguo was refreshed and preparing to leave. Upon hearing Yan Fei’s complaints, he laughed, "Lousy factory? Do you know how many people that factory feeds? Besides, it only pollutes this part of the river. Haven’t you noticed how the water gets cleaner downstream from the Sancha River mouth?"

"Without this lousy factory, the fish in such a big river could feed quite a lot of people every day!" Yan Fei retorted.

Lin Baoguo didn’t argue with him and just continued on his way. He wasn’t an environmental expert, nor did he understand the effects the continued operation of this factory would have on the people living on either side of this stretch of the river.

Actually, not many people cared about how polluted this river was. It would take the emergence of a "cancer village" for the surrounding residents to realise that although the factory may have provided temporary employment for many, it caused lifelong suffering.

"Master Cheng, help me make a dynamite pack. Let’s blow up this damn factory later," Yan Fei called out indignantly after Lin Baoguo’s retreating figure.

Old Cheng just laughed without responding to his frustration.

Yan Fei was just venting his anger; if he really had a bomb, he wouldn’t dare to blow up the paper factory. But the resentment towards the factory truly irked him.

I don’t care how many people you provide for, but why do I have to deal with the stench of the polluted water every day just because I live by the river? Why can’t I even eat the fish I’ve caught with so much effort?

In fact, this stretch of river is still better in comparison. In the villages upstream, people don’t even dare to let their cattle and sheep graze by the river. Not just because the smell is unbearable to be near, but because the animals tend to fall sick after eating the grass by the river.

Moreover, there are locusts in the black soil by the river. Kids who used to play around here would dig up several with a single shovel. These creatures in black, green, and spots of yellow, curled would be the size of a small egg. Stretch them out and they’re as long as a palm. They are disgusting and horrifying. However, the kids didn’t mind, they would compete to see who could kill the most. But no matter what they did, these creatures wouldn’t die, burning them would take half a day to work.

If something is bothering you, time seems to crawl.

In hindsight, there wasn’t really a big problem. Ma Chao’s father had just passed away; it had nothing to do with him. But everyone knew the old man. Unlike Ma Chao, Old Cheng was a nice man except for the drinking habit, he was very friendly, even to Yan Fei and his grandfather.

Whenever Yan Fei heard of someone’s death, he would think of his grandfather. Along with the fact that he couldn’t even eat the fish he caught, he felt as if all the misfortunes in the world had come to him.

The afternoon sun was already quite warm. Yan Fei didn’t mind the heat, he used to run around in just his shorts when others wore sweaters. Now that others were in thinner clothes, he laid under the sun with an old book.

The two men on the site were used to his antics, they treated him as if he was tough as nails. Who else could catch rabbits and pheasants with bare hands or dive for fish in the middle of the night? Carrying a calf from the farm was effortless for him, he never even had a cold, he was anything but normal. Therefore, no one bothered about his behaviour.

After basking in the sun lazily for half the afternoon, when he was about to rise, he realised the book he was holding was a collection of Li Bai’s poems. Remembering how his grandfather had bought it for him, his mood worsened.

During dinner, he gave a fish to Xu Xiaoyan, who was studying in the county town. Even after chatting with her at school, his mood hadn’t improved much.

Mostly because as soon as she saw the fish, she asked where it came from. After she found out, her immediate response was: Isn’t it from that smelly West River?

What an absolute downer.

On his way back, he was too lazy even to fly, he just strolled along the river.

As he walked upstream along the river, his mood worsened. When he reached the three-way junction, he saw two clear water streams, and one blackish-green one. He had seen this before, but today, it was particularly irritating.

As the sky gradually darkened and there was no one around, he dashed into a cave on Vegetable Garden Island, transformed into a cinerous vulture, re-emerged, unfolded his wings, and took flight.

From the sky, the pollution was even more blatant. Comparing the three rivers, the polluted one felt like a sore to the eyes.

As he flew upstream along the river, the stench became more apparent.

The paper factory was in a small town not far upstream. If one were to calculate the straight-line distance, it would be less than fifty miles. However, the factory was across the county in Chaohu County of L County.

You could identify the paper factory along the river at a glance. Not because it was large or prominent, but because of the massive chimney spewing black smoke. The smoke was so harsh that Yan Fei had to fly higher.

This stretch of the river was simply unbearable, foaming white on the dark murky water. Beside it flowed garbage, among which were dead fish and rotten shrimp, the smell was revolting.

Indeed, the smell was so strong that it could be smelled from the sky. It’s a mystery how people living nearby could tolerate it.

His mood was beyond simply being annoyed. He fumed at the thought of his caught fish swimming through this terrible river.