Chapter 2: Chapter 2 Eating Dinosaur Eggs_1
Translator: 549690339
Yan Fei wandered around the streets for a while, but all he got was a sweaty forehead.
On his way home, he passed by the high school and decided to take a detour into it.
The high school was eerily quiet during the summer holidays, with only the cicadas chirping on the trees.
Sancha River town was surrounded by rivers on three sides, where three rivers converged on the south side of the town. Before liberation, the water transport was well developed and the small town had seen its glory days. The intact earth wall around the town is a testament to this.
The county high school located in the town was built on the site of what was said to be a former commercial guild, covering a dozen acres. Upon entering, there was a towering, three-story ancient building with dragon and phoenix carvings on its bases and wooden sculptures on the eaves, as well as various figures and animals decorating the rooftop.
But none of these held any appeal for Yan Fei.
What Yan Fei was interested in was the massive trees in there, specifically around their roots.
The 300-plus-year-old building was surrounded by ancient trees, the thickest of them an elm so big that four men couldn't encircle it by joining hands. In front of each row of houses, there were rows of lofty trees.
Yan Fei was there to dig up Pa Cha, the larvae of cicadas that burrow into the ground before emerging.
Considering he had no money and hadn't found a way to get any, he planned to fry some Pa Cha for dinner.
The school had a few teachers staying on the premises, but you would inevitably run into one during a long visit. Yan Fei ignored their probing eyes: as if he'd step foot in their school if he could find Pa Cha back on his own island amid the dinosaurs.
Even though it was broad daylight, Yan Fei still found the courtyard a bit creepy with its uniform rows of green bricks and tiles belonging to centuries-old houses and hardly a soul around. He wouldn't want to come at night, for sure.
Pa Cha was easy to find. Using a small iron plate he had picked up, he simply had to check the little holes in the ground near the roots of the trees. Experienced as he was, Yan Fei soon filled two small bags.
Spotting an old man with a scrap collection cart in the distance, Yan Fei hurriedly called out, "Hold on, sir."
He had already noticed neat piles of bottles located at the foot of the walls of these courtyards. Spotting the scrap collector, he quickly rushed over with a few bottles in his arms.
The old man was a scrap collector who picked up waste papers from the garbage heap around here. He didn't dare touch the orderly array of bottles for fear of being accused of theft— getting a bad rep would mean he couldn't collect scrap in this area anymore.
But Yan Fei didn't care.
The bottles had been there for a while with the ones at the bottom half-buried in the ground.
He had sold some when he was really short on cash in the past, buying candies or picture books with the money. He had plenty of experience. He'd tell the old man if asked that he lived in the school, which naturally led people to believe he was a teacher's child.
Now that he was out of money, Yan Fei no longer cared about possible consequences. He cleared out the bottles from around seven or eight courtyards in one fell swoop.
He helped the old man count when the latter got confused between the three and five cent pieces. The most expensive ones were a few beer bottles, each worth a few dimes. After the old man left, he held the five or six bucks, grinning from ear to ear.
Could he resort to collecting and selling scrap in the future?
As this idea popped into his mind, he quickly shook his head, shaking off the thought: he was not ready to lose face like that.
Having brought the Pa Cha home and carefully washed them off, he heated up the stove in the evening, poured a half bowl of oil into the pan, and fried up a large bowl of the larvae.
Munching on a bun and Pa Cha, Yan Fei felt pride in his resourcefulness. Look how he got by, the vegetables didn't cost him a dime.
Thankfully nobody saw him. Otherwise, they would berate him for wastefulness. Who uses half a bowl of oil to cook? That would last others a week!
As he was about to wash the pan, he couldn't help but regret seeing the leftover oil at the bottom. "Goodness, how lovely it would be to fry an egg with this."
Thinking of the few eggs he had just collected, he quickly dismissed the idea. Better save them for a few days to sell for money. Even though he had around ten bucks in his pocket now, it ran out so fast!
Eggs, oh eggs, are we doomed to be separated from now on?
After locking the door, Yan Fei lay down in his sleeping room for a while. Thoughts of his late grandpa made his heart heavy. The room was stuffy and hot while mosquitoes kept buzzing around.
He ended up getting up, rolling up the straw mat on the bed, taking his blanket, and going into the cave.
Here was much better, cool.
Lying in the cave, looking at the moonlit entrance, Yan Fei was half asleep. In his daze, the screeching of the Pterosaurs, the native birds living atop the cliff, floated in. Having become accustomed to the noise, he tucked his blanket tighter around him and mumbled: go ahead, squawk all you want, just don't forget to lay an egg when you're done.
He took the squawking of the Pterosaurs as if it were the crowing of chickens back in his homestead.
When he woke up the next day, he felt as if he had forgotten something. He hastily prepared a snack to fill his stomach, displayed some random items from his ironware stall in front of his house, and then relaxed on a rattan chair.
In his extreme boredom, he unconsciously looked towards the Pterosaurs atop the cliff. Their nests, made from branches and leaves, were scattered across the entire cliff top. Large and small Pterosaurs were squawking against the sun.
Spotless, round dinosaur eggs occasionally peeked from under the Pterosaurs in the nests, appearing and disappearing as they moved their bodies.
Seeing the dinosaur eggs, Yan Fei suddenly thought, if chicken, duck, and goose eggs were edible, why wouldn't dinosaur eggs be?
His excitement surged instantly.
Ever since he was a child, he had been bullied by little dinosaurs during his island visits, promptly returning each time. As he grew older, grandpa began to reprimand him for his actions on the island, dead or alive. When he was young, he avoided being smacked, but as he got older, grandpa found him liable enough to hit. Those slaps would leave five purple finger marks that wouldn't fade for two days.
Hence, the island did not present much enticement for Yan Fei, except to hide his "treasures" in a cave. Over time, he found its other uses convenient like throwing rubbish on the beach or getting water from the lagoon in the island-center - quick and effortless.
The cave still held a heap of odds and ends, ranging from mud pistols to "misplaced" exam papers.
The situation was different now, he'd never before considered the island as a source of edible stuff. But he had his sights on a dinosaur egg now, instantly excited.
No matter what, he'd get it first.
Having made up his mind, Yan Fei started planning to steal the egg.
Steal isn't the right word, 'take' is better for him. He thought the island was his and these Pterosaurs and Compsognathus had bullied him into dwelling in this cliff cave, it was insufferable!
Yan Fei quickly locked onto a target; this new nest had a clueless Pterosaur who couldn't even protect her egg, one of them was completely exposed.
Leaving the stall unattended, he returned to the house, closing the door. Taking a deep breath, he geared himself up: on your marks, get set, go!
Since he could traverse the island freely, Yan Fei chose to appear directly behind the Pterosaur, swiftly grabbing the dinosaur egg. Before the Pterosaur could react, he disappeared back to his house.
It was as simple as that.
Standing in his house, Yan Fei still felt a tinge of disbelief. He repeatedly examined and touched the dinosaur egg -- finally expressing, "Damn, it's huge!"
Suppressing his excitement, he was ready to head to the kitchen, but noticed through the door gap that the outside door faced the street directly.
Immediately closing the barely ajar door like a thief, he hid the egg in the cave, then opened the door casually and entered the kitchen as if nothing happened.
He closed the door again, grabbing a pot and entering the cave.
Grinning with the dinosaur egg in both hands, he tapped it gently on the ground several times. The egg was much stronger than he thought. So, he placed it on the floor, fetched a large hammer from his grandfather's smithy, thought about it, and switched to a smaller hammer.
Returning to the kitchen, he disappeared again, reappearing in the cave with the small hammer in hand. After a few light taps on the egg, there was a crackling sound - the dinosaur egg had cracked!
With a few more cracks, a hole appeared on the egg. He stirred it vigorously with a chopstick, then poured the yellow and white egg liquid into the prepared pot.
Yan Fei sniffed, it was a bit fishy. He wondered if it would be delicious?
Carrying the pot back to his house, he started to fry the dinosaur egg regardless of the time.
Speaking of his stall outside, his grandpa had often lamented that their blacksmith shop would go out of business. So, he didn't really expect to sell anything.
When the pan of fried eggs was ready, Yan Fei took a sniff, ignoring the heat, and stuffed a large piece into his mouth. It tasted slightly different from a chicken egg, but it was tasty.
He broke into a grin and slipped into daydreaming mode, counting the number of Pterosaur nests and eggs on the island. The frozen grin, however, made him seem like an idiot to outsiders.
He ate dinosaur eggs for lunch, napped in the wicker chair in the afternoon and continued having dinosaur eggs for dinner.
His only sensation after dinner was nausea!
He had two meals of dinosaur egg, ate nothing else. He didn't even have any seasoning apart from oil and salt while cooking the eggs. It wasn't a surprise that it took a strong stomach to eat, not everyone could manage it.
The beginning is always the hardest. Once started, everything else just falls into place.
So, Yan Fei continued to lie in the not-too-hot nor cold cave, looking at the moonlight outside. After a while, he got up, lit a candle, and started to entertain new ideas.
Near his mat lay some tattered books.
These were his collection over the years, including comic books and primary school textbooks from his "Nature" class. Regardless of their type, each had some information on dinosaurs.
According to Yan Fei's research: this unscientific ecosystem on this small island.
The dominant creature in the island's forest was a breed of dinosaur - the Compsognathus, the size of a chicken, with thin elongated necks and tails, and fast moving on tiny legs.
There were other small creatures in the forest, but they were rare, victimized by these Compsognathus, barely surviving. The small Compsognathus could climb trees and go to the sea, their population greatly outnumbering other species.
The Compsognathus usually foraged the beach during high and low tides, thus the beach was their cafeteria and the forest served as a playground and bedroom; they had a better life than Yan Fei.
The Compsognathus and Yan Fei had a deep-seated animosity; now that he'd had the dinosaur egg, he had other ideas and started to plan how to get them into his stomach too.
Having eggs to eat, why not meat too?
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone