Yan Fei and Heizi returned from Huangtuwa and headed straight to the cabin near the greenhouse. Yan Fei asked Heizi to ride his motorcycle and take Old Cheng back home, deciding to skip dinner himself.
He gave Heizi a thousand yuan on the way. Seeing him happily tuck the money away and get ready to depart with Old Cheng, Yan Fei called out to him, "Tell Brother Chao when you get back that our families used to use coal for making wine and cooking, right? We’ll be doing the same from now on. Keep track of the expenses. If we run out of money, ask me for more. This way, I don’t have to scavenge for firewood."
Before, when they had less money, they had to save by chopping their own firewood. Yan Fei would invent excuses to go get it from the dinosaur world at night. But now that they had more money, they didn’t need to do that anymore. Continually doing so would surely cause problems in the long run.
Bone meal was a different matter. Luckily, now that they were on land, it was easier to scavenge bones. There were fresh bones scattered everywhere due to the abundance of cows. They would no longer need to kill dinosaurs just for bones.
First, Yan Fei went to the kitchen to clean up the ’trash’ Heizi had left behind and use it to feed the dogs. Then, he went to check on the greenhouse.
Old Cheng couldn’t sit still. When Yan Fei was about to leave, Heizi had finished making bamboo sticks but left them aside. Old Cheng had set up quite a few trellises for the vegetables in one afternoon.
Since Yan Fei had nothing else to do at the moment, he took up where Old Cheng left off.
As for the couple of willow trees Yan Fei had set his sights on, they were doomed. That evening, Yan Fei flew over and cut some big branches off the willows.
Actually, it wasn’t the right season to replant willow branches as they may not survive through winter. He intended to plant them first in Dinosaur World. He planted most of them around the lake on Toad Island where the giant salamanders were kept and put mud around the roots to protect them.
By next spring, these willows should grow fine with the mud. After a couple of years, the riverside would be adorned with dangling green willow branches.
It was a pity that the polluted river couldn’t be immediately turned clean. If that happened, it would be perfect!
He intended to go to Vegetable Garden Island and start work: chopping firewood, soaking bones, roasting bones, crushing them, taking care of the vegetable garden and forging. There was so much to do.
Then it suddenly occurred to him that he had captured two... laborers.
They couldn’t be allowed to slack off!
The two unfortunate men lay motionless on the ground, as if they were dead. Suddenly, a heap of firewood and two axes fall from nowhere beside them. Then, a few overly large bones and an iron canister, which was taken apart from the machinery at the paper factory, perfect for crushing bones.
As the two men stared in bewilderment, Yan Fei appeared at their side, pointing at these items: "Stop playing dead! Get up and start chopping wood. Once you’re done, roast these bones on fire until they’re thoroughly cooked. Then put them in here and crush them until they’re really fine. If you want to eat, work. If you don’t want to work, you might as well throw yourself into the lake sooner!"
With that, he disappeared.
The two men didn’t regain their senses until Yan Fei had disappeared, whereupon the younger but bigger of the two hastily scrambled to his feet and shouted at the other, "Big brother, did you hear that? He asked us to work! We won’t be eaten! You don’t have to think about committing suicide! We will have food if we work!"
The joy in his voice was almost tearful.
The other man, who was older and much thinner, managed to stand up weakly. He glanced at the gun he held, casually tossed it to the side and said in a bleak manner, "We’re merely clinging onto life, what’s there to be happy about?"
Still, the big man was unfazed. "At least we won’t be eaten and turned into feces, and we will have something to eat!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he clutched his stomach looking miserable, "Big brother, are you hungry? Why do I suddenly feel so hungry?"
The older man responded with the same bleak smile, "We were just thinking about dying, about losing our lives. Who would think about being hungry? It’s been a day and a night without food, who wouldn’t be hungry?"
With that, he clutched his bandaged head and staggered towards the edge of the waterhole. Without any further ado, he started gulping down water. The younger man followed suit.
After drinking the water, the two men picked up their axes, ready to chop the wood.
The younger man could barely lift the oversized axe made by Yan Fei, but the older man was hopeless, too weak from hunger. Even after gulping down a belly-full of water, he still couldn’t lift the axe.
The younger man was considerate, "Big brother, leave it! I can handle the work by myself."
But the older man just laughed bitterly, "Do you think I’ll get fed if I don’t work? That...he might be watching us right now!"
With that, he mustered his strength and managed to lift the axe.
The two accepted their fate. Yan Fei didn’t know what battle of thoughts they had been through since he left the previous day, but now they were obedient and started working hard to earn their food.
While working, the younger man whispered, "Big brother, do you think that...he, is a deity or a demon? He surely has other things to do than just constantly watching us, right? Do you think we still have a chance to escape?"
It was always with humans. They just thought about dying during the day, therefore they didn’t realize they were hungry. But now, when they felt like they could survive, they started thinking about escaping again.
"No matter what he is, we have no chance to escape. Now it’s clear to me, if I hadn’t fired that shot, the worst-case scenario would be us being captured by Leizi, but we might have had a chance to flee. Since we have angered him...and we’ve seen what he really is, we’ll probably never step out of here in this life. I’ve dragged you into this! If it wasn’t for this gun..."
While speaking, the older man unconsciously looked back at the place where he had thrown the gun, only to jump with a start. "Where’s my gun?"
Though the younger man wanted to address the older man’s earlier comments, he was interrupted by the latter’s surprise. The gun thrown to that spot was nowhere to be seen, and in its place was a box of matches.
The younger man was taken aback as well.
Then they looked at each other and started chopping wood again without a word.
Not that Yan Fei was doing nothing other than observing these two men; he simply glanced at them occasionally. He had taken the gun and played with it for a while. The box of matches was to ensure the two could start a fire and complete their assigned work.
After being grazed by a bullet, playing with the gun felt less exciting. Its power was too little to be of any use. He even noticed that it was already reloaded, but didn’t feel the urge to fire it. He glanced at it and casually tossed it aside.
This could be given to Uncle Baoguo at a proper occasion, the police station was short of guns, right? We are law-abiding citizens, handing over a gun is like contributing to the four modernizations!