The smell of cooking wafted out in waves, delicious enough to make anyone salivate.
For three or four days now, this has been the condition by the side of Yan Fei’s vegetable greenhouse. It’s as if the tomatoes that will eventually blossom and bear fruit might come into the world carrying a natural aroma of meat stew.
The once ruthless Sarcosuchus, victim of Yan Fei’s poisonous hand, had been dug out. Fortunately, Yan Fei was able to treat Dinosaur World outside like a treasure and fetch anything from it at will. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to move the huge body of the Sarcosuchus at all.
Now, the Sarcosuchus was stored in a cave by the ring-shaped lake. Cutting it open had been laborious, leaving no time to tidy things up. But it was perfectly utilized; each day, he’d cut off meat from it to eat—this proved it was not wasted in his hands.
The cave was just the right temperature, so he could leave it for a few more days. He reckoned he couldn’t finish all the meat by himself anytime soon anyway. When the meat would start to spoil, he’d give it to the giant salamanders.
His daily routine consisted of eating and working—splitting wood, forging iron, raising earthworms, taking care of vegetables, even manually picking insects from the vegetables in the greenhouse.
Every now and then, he’d take a short nap while the meat was cooking. The rest of the time, he’d be busy. In order to control his ever-increasing strength, Yan Fei spared no effort.
Until now, he hadn’t dared to transform into the Sarcosuchus. He feared that even a slight movement in that gigantic form would burn all the food he had eaten for half a day.
Yan Fei had made an interesting new discovery now. Picking insects off the vegetables, given the required control over his movements, was more effective than punching or doing any other work. Most insects were found on the tenderest shoots and leaves of the vegetables, even on the new buds. If his movements were not gentle enough, instead of removing insects, he’d end up destroying the plants!
After a sumptuous meal one day, with no more insects left on the vegetables, he felt content about his control over his strength. Yan Fei decided to give himself a whole afternoon off to rest.
Lying on that old rotten rattan chair basking in the sun, he enjoyed the warm sunlight slowly seeping into his body. Gradually, he felt a warm sensation envelop him from inside out. And slowly, it felt as if his bones had been roasted by the sun making him lazy to the point of not wanting to move.
The afternoon sun was rather pleasant. A few chubby, fluffy puppies with eyes barely open had crawled out of their hidden nest where they had been for nearly a month. They came out into the sun and started playing around.
When they stumbled to Yan Fei’s feet, they recognized the familiar scent and began to scramble over his feet, their baby-like barking adding a touch of warmth to the afternoon.
The two adult dogs were lazily lounging around. Occasionally, when they saw a puppy wandering off on its own, they’d get up and carry it back to where its siblings were.
When Ma Chao rode his motorcycle over, he saw this scene from afar.
Under the clear sky, surrounded by a river, on a large empty stretch of land with two greenhouses nearby. A person lying on a rattan chair, two lazily sprawled-out dogs, seven toddling furry balls—the scene in the sun of the late autumn looked like a painting, harmonious and warm.
Ma Chao felt ashamed to interrupt such a peaceful scene. He parked his motorcycle far away and slowly approached them.
"Something’s up at the cattle farm?" Yan Fei, who had noticed his arrival long before he turned from the bridge on his motorbike several miles away, asked. It was just that the sun was too comfortable, which made him too lazy to get up.
Hearing the sound of the motorcycle, Yan Fei knew it wasn’t anything urgent, so he waited for Ma Chao to reach him.
"Nothing!" The closer Ma Chao got to Yan Fei and the dogs, the more the relaxed atmosphere affected him, and he felt almost ashamed to state his business.
Yan Fei didn’t bother asking if Ma Chao wasn’t comfortable talking about it. He gestured to a chair next to him, inviting Ma Chao to sit down and bask in the sun.
After squinting at the sun for a while, Ma Chao finally broke the silence and said, "A fool has come to the cattle farm. Heizi and the others are all waiting with popcorn to watch the show! Heizi came to get you, but he was afraid that the fool would leave."
Yan Fei was caught off guard by this, "What fool?"
Before Ma Chao could divulge the matter, he started to laugh, "A reformed criminal has been released after serving his sentence. He had accidentally killed two people in the county town. I have no idea who misled him about our cattle farm being wealthy, and he came stomping over, intending to work for us as a gatekeeper and demanding a wage of 500 yuan. I reckon he’s someone with poor social skills and not very bright. He actually had the audacity to run over to our cattle farm and extort money. Everyone is waiting for you to go back to see the fool’s comedy unfold!"
After speaking, he added: "I guess someone deliberately drove him into this! Bringing him to the cattle farm to stir things up is simply asking for a beating. His brain might not be functioning well either. He did not inquire beforehand. Even if you don’t do anything to him, your uncle is still the head of the police station! He is not asking around, but I think his brain must be addled from his time in jail. "
When the cattle farm had just opened, the Si Family’s Brothers had come to make trouble, terrifying Ma Chao and others. But now, less than a year later, a released murderer had come to pick a fight, and everyone was treating it as a joke, even worrying that they wouldn’t have the chance to see the spectacle if he left.