28: Chapter 28: Ancient Bones_1 28: Chapter 28: Ancient Bones_1 Seeking favorites and recommendations.
Right after school, Yan Fei got to enjoy a rare moment of leisure.
Last week, he told his parents that he would be coming and going from the town every weekend by himself.
His parents had to pay for two tickets whenever they traveled whereas he just had to pay for one.
In fact, if he weren’t so tall, he might have been able to get a half price ticket.
His parents were delighted at how “understanding” he was.
They were unaware that their son had arrived on Saturday just to feed someone else rabbit meat, something his own parents had never tasted before—there was really no choice; if his parents found out their son was out catching rabbits alone in the middle of the night, they wouldn’t bear to think of the consequences.
Walking around the streets was quite uneventful, other than the theater vicinity being crowded with many small stalls.
Despite Yan Fei’s disinterest towards the games, he thought the book stalls were nice and spent some time browsing through them.
He actually found a book called “Ancient Bones”.
After flipping through a few pages, he discovered it was about some of the dinosaur fossils that had been discovered, and their regional distribution.
The content was quite specialized, and there were many unfamiliar words that Yan Fei didn’t know, but he was drawn to the many pictures inside.
Although all were in black and white, most of them were of fossils, with some reconstructions.
Pretty amazing, honestly.
After looking it over, Yan Fei decided to buy the book.
He lifted the book and shouted towards the stall owner, who was behind the stall: “Boss, how much is this book?”
The stall owner raised his head and looked over: “You are buying this book?
Have you read its content?
Look at it first and then decide if you want to buy it, don’t let people say I’m cheating kids.”
Yan Fei looked at the book again; it was indeed a book about dinosaur fossils: “Yes, it’s a book about dinosaur fossils?”
The stall owner finally walked over: “You’re buying a book on fossils?”
Seeing Yan Fei nod, the stall owner was still somewhat sceptical: “I have a no return policy on my books.
Don’t buy it and then come back to me once you’ve read it and don’t like it!
This book is only eligible for an eighty percent discount… Ah, forget it… I’ll give you a seventy percent discount!
I’m really losing out here!”
Yan Fei began to bargain: “Other books, thicker than this one, are five bucks, why are you charging me seventy percent?”
The stall owner casually picked out two books: “Look at these books I sell at ninety percent discount.
Can you judge a book by its thickness?
The paper and ink are all different.
Take a look at the book you’re holding, it’s even better than the ninety percent discounted one.
I’m giving you a seventy percent discount since you’re young.
It’s already quite cheap!”
Yan Fei continued to bargain: “I don’t have that much money, just five bucks, want to sell it or not?”
Feigning anger, the stall owner said: “Look at the list price of that book… Ah, forget it, If I hadn’t made a mistake, I wouldn’t have bought that book.
It was too damn expensive and now it has upped the taste of my book stall too!
Just give me ten bucks!
Ten bucks is not even half the list price…”
On this book stall, the thin books consist of things like Story Club types, the thick ones are all kinds of Swordsman romance, mystery novels, and some even had covers featuring scantily dressed women.
This book, with its distinguished title and specialized content, is absolutely unique on this stall.
Another woman sitting behind the stall interjected: “Just don’t embarrass yourself, others might think you bought a book to act like an expert!
Ask the kid how much money he has and sell it to me quickly!”
Thinking it was about time, Yan Fei, who had previously claimed to only have five bucks, interjected: “I have eight bucks!”
With a resigned expression, the stall owner acquiesced: “Eight it is, but remember: sold means no returns.
When the money was presented, the stall owner broke down crying: “Doing business is really freaking hard these days, even kids can lie without batting an eye!”
Yan Fei felt embarrassed too.
He thought of strolling around the streets earlier, so he had a few tens of dollars in his pocket.
When he was paying, he intentionally didn’t take out all the money, but accidentally, a ten-dollar bill showed up with the rest of the money.
After receiving the money, the stall owner seemed to have come to a realization: “I knew it, those who buy this kind of book are either foolish or exceptionally clever, and the same goes for kids.
As they say ‘the waves behind drive on those before, the front waves die on the sandy shores…'”
Yan Fei didn’t pay attention to the shopkeeper’s complaints.
Holding the book in his hands, he happily walked off.
He had enough change.
He took out eight dollars, so no change was needed, which also served to prevent the shopkeeper from going back on his word.
But in the evening, he didn’t have the leisure to read the book.
Glancing at the dead Pterosaur in the forest, Yan Fei explored it from top to bottom.
He slashed it with a knife and tapped its bones, and finally decided to bury this biggest “prey” in his history.
It was nothing more than skin and bones; you couldn’t see any meat on it at all.
The key problem was the skin was incredibly tough to cut.
Since he could transform without eating its meat, he decided to give it a “proper burial”.
But it was really heavy.
Even in its emaciated state, Yan Fei could barely drag the pterosaur along the ground.
This was only possible because he had cleverly padded beneath the pterosaur’s body with numerous logs.
With the help of their rolling ability, he was able to drag it along.
If it rotted so close to the Spring Pool, it would be disgusting.
The pterosaur’s skeleton was somewhat large.
Paths that seemed wide in the forest were impassable when dragging the pterosaur.
It wasn’t until midnight, soaked with sweat, that Yan Fei managed to drag the body far enough away.
The small compsognathus were watching from afar, not daring to approach, unsure if they were scared of him or the corpse.
During the day, Yan Fei had noticed compsognathus lurking around the pterosaur’s body, but their tiny, pointed teeth couldn’t bite through the pterosaur’s skin.
After digging a large hole all night, he finally managed to bury the pterosaur.
Returning to the Spring Pool, looking at the clear spring water, Yan Fei felt a sense of relief.
Touching his somewhat hungry stomach, he silently thought: “May your journey be easy, pterosaur.
I promise to steal more dragon eggs to avenge you.”
He cooked and ate dragon meat.
After eating, he had to repair the fence.
The pterosaur had only thrashed around a bit, but it had already caused a considerable damage to the fence around his small farmland.
Having been tidying up for awhile, he got tired.
He decided to leave the rest for later!
Jumping into the small creek, he washed off his sweat.
It was always summer on the island.
While it would certainly be a bit cold to swim at night elsewhere, the island was comfortable.
After lying there for a while, Yan Fei, who had been delighted all day, began to worry.
Where would he practice flying?
There simply wasn’t enough space around Spring Pool, and he dared not venture out of the forest.
Pterosaurs on the island attacked him as soon as they saw him transform into a large pterosaur.
Moreover, even if they didn’t attack, he could carelessly fall into the sea and be devoured by sea monsters — would he be able to transform back if they bit him?
He definitely wouldn’t try this.
After giving it some thought, he decided that he’d probably have to leave the island to practice flying.
For now, he’d practice walking around the Spring Pool!
The way large pterosaurs walked was strange, and Yan Fei, who was used to walking on two legs, found it a bit difficult to adjust.
It was fine if he walked slowly, but if he tried to run faster, he felt like he was about to fall over at the slightest misstep.
Accidentally letting out a few calls, the island’s pterosaurs flew over again.
Although they could not land, they were bothersome.
Moreover, from time to time, Yan Fei received several “gifts” from them.
After walking for a while, he became tired and hungry again.
He ate some leftovers, and then prepared to go to sleep.
Once inside the cave, he couldn’t resist transforming into a pterosaur again and admiring himself in self-satisfaction.
What had initially seemed like a spacious cave now felt incredibly cramped.
Even taking a few steps was difficult.
With the sound of the island’s distant waves in the background, Yan Fei drifted into deep sleep, dreaming of soaring through the sky.