Chapter 14 Encounter_1

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Xu Xiaoyan quickly stopped him: "That won't do. It's too far, more than twenty miles! You'll have to ride in a vehicle, it's not safe for a kid like you to travel alone back and forth. Besides, there are many more people in the county town than when you are hunting rabbits in the wild!"

Yan Fei smirked, "Come on, only students like you are so delicate that you need to take a vehicle to the county town. My grandfather used to take me there on foot, we would cross the river and take the small road, it's not even twenty miles. What's the big deal about more people? I'm going to sell rabbits, not to see the crowd."

Xu Xiaoyan looked anxious right away: "No, you can't go to the town alone. Even if you're good at catching rabbits at night, there are so many people in the town. If someone has bad intentions, you can't avoid them just by being careful."

To strengthen her argument, Xu Xiaoyan used herself as an example: "I've been studying there for two years. Except for weekend trips to the station with my classmates, we don't leave the school campus."

Yan Fei didn't argue with her: "I'll think about it."

Although the girl seemed a little naive, she was familiar with him, and by looking at his expression, she understood: "Alright, I know you'll sneak there anyway. If you want to go, go once to check it out. Try to stay out of the town, take the Old Bridge route. I know there are many restaurants over there, after crossing the bridge, all you'll see are restaurants. Be careful on the road, if you can't make it on foot, take a vehicle, get off right at the head of the Old Bridge, ask around there and then wait for the vehicle there…"

Yan Fei agreed straightforwardly: "Alright."

When he woke up hungry, Yan Fei looked up at the sun, he didn't know the time, and just got up to cook some food.

Without any vegetables, he picked some sweet potato leaves from the small island, made a bowl of noodles with meat soup and had some meat, just enough to make do for a meal.

Before he could even put down his bowl, someone called from outside: "Yan Fei, Yan Fei, are you home?"

Yan Fei looked up and saw Yang Qian and a quite familiar-looking companion: "Come in, the door isn't tightly closed."

As soon as Yang Qian came in, he was very excited. He turned to his companion and said: "This is Yan Fei. You can't even imagine how good he is at catching crabs. Oh yes, Yan Fei, this is Jiao Bing. We were in the same class in the fourth grade."

Having been classmates for a year, Yan Fei only recognized his face vaguely, so he was a little embarrassed: "Sit down first, let me clean up the dishes and then we can go play by the river!"

These two were inherently restless and instantly noticed the rabbit fur hanging on the wall in the yard. Yang Qian grimaced: "Yan Fei, what's this? It's a bit creepy."

Yan Fei stuck his head out of the kitchen and looked: "Wild rabbit fur, I caught it last night. You guys are late, it's all eaten up."

Yang Qian was quite impressed: "You're really amazing, did you catch it all by yourself? How did you catch it?"

"Nothing much, I just chased it by the river at night, it was easy to catch." Yan Fei's voice carried from the kitchen. Jiao Bing was full of disbelief, but Yang Qian was already in awe.

"Impressive! Oh, I wish I could've come out at night, then I could've gone with you!" Yang Qian lamented, and then changed the subject." Also, Yan Fei, are there any wild chickens by the river? The day before yesterday my dad bought one from the street, he said wild chickens are the hardest to catch. But they taste so good! Last time Xiaobin and the others went to the bamboo forest, they found a Wild Chicken Egg, but they didn't see the wild chicken."

Having finished cleaning, Yan Fei came out of the kitchen and closed the door. He chuckled: "$20 each, right?"

"How did you know?" Yang Qian was a bit surprised. "Did you buy one too?"

"I sold it to your dad!" Yan Fei was pleased inside, but his face remained calm. "Did he not tell you?"

Yang's father, of course, wouldn't tell his son: your classmate can catch wild chickens and rabbits! Such a thing would be categorized as something other people's children can do, but absolutely not his own child. If other people's children can catch game at night and he can just buy it to eat, that's fine. But if his own child ran around at night, he would surely break their leg.

"Wait, what?" Yang Qian couldn't believe his ears, his expression changed, and for a moment he looked like a surprised puppy. "You're amazing! Where did you catch it?"

Yan Fei looked at Jiao Bing, who was a bit dazed, and continued to keep his calm: "Didn't you tell me last time, Xiaobin found a Wild Chicken Egg in the bamboo forest? I went there at night to check, and there were indeed wild chickens."

Then his expression turned to faint regret: "But not many, I only found two in one night. Fortunately, I bumped into a rabbit later!"

He spoke as if no matter how many there were, he could round them up as easily as picking up trash!

"..." Yang Qian was completely speechless at this point, he almost wanted to kneel down and kiss Yan Fei's feet.

Then by the river, Yan Fei showed them what it meant by "nine out of ten attempts are successful", earning their admiration and bewitching gazes countless times. He returned home satisfied with several crabs in tow.

Parents in Sancha River town all understand that no amount of scolding or spanking will stop their children from sneaking to the river to play. But there always are some parents who prefer self-deception, thinking as long as they don't know about it, their child isn't going. Those kind of parents, no matter how many crabs you catch in the river, or even if you fish a 300-catty big fish, you can't bring them home. Otherwise, you'd definitely be in trouble.

Unfortunately, Yang Qian was such a hapless child, too afraid to take crabs home. Jiao Bing, his companion, had no choice but to leave it and eat the crab at Yan Fei's house.

While eating the crabs, Yang Qian proposed: "Let's go out and play tonight? Go see a movie!"

Yan Fei was surprised by the idea. Before he could comment, Jiao Bing said: "You just got spanked, and you're still going to watch a movie? I think we could just play pool or video games."

Yang Qian didn't care, "I've already been hit, would be a waste not to watch a few more times! As long as you guys help me keep it secret. Let's go later this time, enter at the last minute and sit at the back. If we don't bump into anyone we know, it will be fine."

Yan Fei agreed: "I support watching a movie. Playing games is meaningless, they cost too much; the pool table owner also doesn't want us to play, if there are too many people, he will refuse us!"

Pool and gaming arcades were new things in Sancha River town. The game center had arcade machines such as Street Fighter, King of Fighters, and Captain Hook. Those who didn't know how to play would spend money like throwing it away. The owner loved newcomers, it's always a fixed amount for a few coins, the shorter the time they played, the better.

Pool on the other hand was the exact opposite, charge per game, half a dime a game. The rules here weren't strict, just hit the balls in. Experienced pool players could finish all the balls in a short time, some could even get all of their balls in with just one hit.

Players like Yan Fei who didn't know how to play at all could spend half the night and still not finish a game. Only when the place was empty the owner would let them play. As soon as there were other customers, they would be driven away. So Yan Fei only ever sneaked in once, he didn't go again after being chased out in the middle of a game. Even though it was free, he was upset.

Jiao Bing didn't really care. Seeing that both of them insisted on watching a movie, he agreed.

After the three of them finished their meal and gathered again, they snuck off to watch another movie. Each of them went happily home as if they had won the lottery.

Yan Fei started packing up to go to the county town.

Small towns with no nightlife were basically deserted by night. Occasionally there were a few young people, obviously classified as delinquents, entertaining themselves in pool rooms, game arcades, and video stores.

Yan Fei didn't walk on the main street, but directly left the town through the alleyways from his home. He didn't meet a single person on the way.

Once he got past the small town and West Bridge, he left the main road and took a riverside path for a while. Seeing that there was no one around, he disappeared quietly.

Not long after, a Compsognathus appeared stealthily.

Although the riverside path was overgrown with lush greenery on both sides, and the narrow path was difficult to walk on, it was a heavenly path compared to the forest on the island. Yan Fei jogged along the path, and within less than half an hour, saw a large expanse of sandy land ahead.

This place is where the local villages and towns come to collect river sand. The terrain was flat, and the area was extremely vast, with some water plants and shrubs covering most of it. The river here was wide and therefore shallow. At its deepest, it only reached just above the knee.

Yan Fei wasn't planning to cross the river yet. As soon as he saw the sandy ground in the distance, he became enthusiastic. There must be a lot of game here...

"Bang..."

Yan Fei was taken aback.

After a moment, he realized that it was the sound of gunfire.

He recognized the sound, it was made by an old shotgun firing iron sand. He had seen quite a few when he was younger. Later, they were all confiscated by the local police station. Now, anyone found with one of those had to visit the police station and take a detour to jail for a tour.

He hated those who smuggled firearms the most!

Yan Fei grumbled under his breath and sneaked into the nearby cornfield.

He could vaguely see two lights flickering in the distance, and two figures were moving around there. Since Yan Fei was upwind, he couldn't hear them talking.

Once the gunshot sounded, it would be hard to find any rabbits nearby. These two probably just arrived and wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. Annoyed, Yan Fei drew up a scheme to teach them a lesson. After all, such shotguns took a while to reload and their firing range wasn't far. The farther the target, the less potent it was.

The Compsognathus silently moved through the cornfield towards the sandy land. When he reached the edge of the cornfield, he looked at the flickering lights in the distance, and quietly leaped over the small ditch at the edge of the cornfield.

Taking advantage of the cover of dunes, soil mounds, and bushes, he slowly approached the two men.