Thinking about it, Yan Fei sprang into action, one of his greatest strengths.
By evening, he had begun to carry out his hunting operation in a planned manner.
In the blacksmith shop under the dim glow of a little lightbulb, Yan Fei looked serious as his gaze swept over each tool...
It wasn't strange that he was serious. Mainly because he had never even killed a chicken while growing up under his grandfather's wing, only ever troubling snakes by the river and cicadas and sparrows in the trees.
Yan Fei was fantasizing in his head: a Compsognathus was sleeping, he raised the pig-slaughtering knife, and with a swing, the dinosaur's head hit the ground, then the blood spurting out high...
Hmm, that's a bit cruel. Even after dying, to be decapitated, that's not good!
Truly, he felt that such a scene was a bit eerie.
In the end, he couldn't make up his mind when the power went out!
Freaking unbelievable, the power cuts just like that. Yan Fei cursed inwardly while he felt for a box of matches and lit a candle—lighters were being sold on the street already, but this food lover thought there was a certain flair to using matches, forsaking lighters in favor of preparing several packs of matches!
There weren't many candles left. He prowled around the blacksmith shop and carelessly tripped over something with his foot.
Damn it.
A pair of sandals less than a month old, now hanging on by just the soles to his feet, gave him an incredibly painful moment.
The object that tripped him caught his eye, and he lit up: this thing would do.
It was the big hammer his grandfather used for blacksmithing, the same one he had casually picked up and tossed to the ground that morning when cracking dinosaur eggs. Normally, the tiny blacksmith shop was kept neat and tidy by his grandfather, with every tool properly placed and none to trip over.
Clutching the hammer and shouting, "We workers have strength," Yan Fei rushed into the back room, startling the hens into flapping and clucking in their coop on his way through the yard.
What a menace.
Now this menace had started terrorizing dinosaurs.
Could there be anything less proper?
Yan Fei muttered to himself as he observed the Compsognathus resting in the woods. They were all curling their heads and tails while they slept; didn't they find that uncomfortable? How am I supposed to get a good swing at them?
After some searching, he finally found a few whose sleeping posture fit his goal, the ones with heads far from their bodies.
He positioned himself, went in, and struck!
Then came out!
He was a bit nervous the first time, but in the end, his daily bellows-pumping arms had enough strength, and perhaps there was a hammer-swinging gene in him because with that one strike, the unlucky Compsognathus's head was flattened.
Yan Fei quickly peered back inside as he emerged, and the Compsognathus he had hit was still struggling until it finally died.
Lucky he had chosen his target well. This one was farther away from the other Compsognathus, and perhaps the other dinosaurs had become accustomed to an easy life on the island. Hearing the noise, they became alert for a moment, but by then, Yan Fei had already carried the dead Compsognathus out and gone into the cave.
The skin of the Compsognathus felt almost like gecko skin, but much thicker. It didn't seem edible to the touch.
Eyeing the creature, Yan Fei paused to carefully remember, and then began to get to work.
First, he found a wooden stick and lay it across the entrance to the cave. The already narrow entrance became stuck with the stick after he pressed down hard on it.
He tied up the Compsognathus with a little rope and hung it up. Then, from among the tools he had out for sale every day, he rummaged for a while and found a skinning knife.
Under the crescent moon hanging in the sky and in the bright moonlight, waves gently lapped at the shore, and pterosaurs still circled in the night sky; in the distance, on the sea surface, enormous splashes occasionally arose and then quickly returned to calm, with intermittent roars and calls, sometimes far, sometimes near...
Amidst this vibrant and beautiful scene, Yan Fei sat in the crevice halfway up the cliff, listening to the waves crashing, he began—skin the dinosaur...
And it was a bloody mess.
Watching others work was entirely different from doing it himself. He'd often seen others skillfully skin rabbits, sheep, and cows, the hides coming off in one piece.
Instead, after his own protracted effort, he ended up with little chunks, looking nothing like what others produced in one piece, more like it had been gnawed by a dog. Not to mention the neck and tail areas, where barely anything was left but bones.
In the end, he found it was better to tear off the skin with brute force than to keep trying to skin it himself.
But he managed to skin it at last.
Holding the basin that caught the blood and innards, he made his way back to the hut and to the beach, looking as natural as if he had simply teleported there, with effortless expertise. He dumped the waste on the beach, then washed the skinned Compsognathus clean in the stream running beneath the island's central small pool.
Then he went back.
A faint stench of blood lingered inside the hut. Although he had moved quickly in and out a few times, the smell was still significant. In truth, the smell was faint, and if he hadn't just come from the island, sniffing the fresh scent of trees and soil, he might not even have noticed it.
He ran to the kitchen, not even checking the time; he was ready to stew some meat.
Just as he was about to throw the whole Compsognathus into the pot, he stopped. The creature looked too bizarre—what if someone saw it? The concept of secrecy, instilled deep into his bones under his grandfather's tutelage, wasn't about to be forgotten.
Yan Fei, always fancying himself as an underground party member, picked up the kitchen knife and started to chop loudly with a bang, bang, bang.
Chopping the meat seemed even more strenuous than cutting chicken a couple of days ago. After prepping the meat, he added some star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, and cinnamon bark, then put it over the fire to stew.
Add wood, add wood, add wood...
Yan Fei groggily opened his eyes only to see the stove had cooled down, dawn was breaking outside, and the sound of tofu being sold was already drifting over.
In this world, there are three hardships: rowing boats, forging iron, and grinding tofu.
Rowing amidst the waves, always at the risk of capsizing; forging beside the furnace all day, living in an inferno year-round; grinding tofu means waking before dawn and not stopping despite the weather, yet still barely scraping by.
From the faint light of dawn until the rising of the sun, tofu sellers would carry their yokes from one end of the street to the other, calling out their sales pitch over and over.
By this time, Yan Fei would usually have finished selling tofu and returned home. It was rare for him to oversleep, so why did he fall asleep on this pile of wood?
A faint fragrance tickled his nose, startling him into action. He jumped up and lifted the lid from the pot, followed by a quiet yet impressive cloud of steam and a strong, enticing aroma.
Suddenly, a crisp girl's voice came from next door, "Yan Xiaofei, are you cooking something delicious again? Do you really not plan on living a normal life?"
Lost in the savory scents, Yan Fei reflexively turned his head and shouted back at the wall, "Xu Xiaoyan, as a cultured high school student, shouldn't you speak more carefully? Besides, if I don't have a future, I'll just spend it with you..."
Laughter from several girls next door followed, but that girl's voice didn't ring out again. After a while, there was a banging on the door accompanied by the girl's voice, "Fool, open the door for me. Don't pretend I'm bullying you; let's see how I'll deal with you!"
Yan Fei, completely oblivious to how his words might affect the girl, was holding the pot lid in one hand and a spoon in the other, blowing on the broth in the spoon. Enjoying the taste, he got wrapped up in his satisfaction. Sipping the soup, he mumbled complacently to himself, "The seasoning is just right, not a bad job at all!"
Outside, the girl kept shouting, "Fool, let's see if you dare not to open the door today, you..."
The voices of two other girls offering consolation could be heard. After a while, the noise at the door died down.
The neighbors had three daughters, with the two older ones attending university in the provincial capital. The voice from before belonged to the youngest, who studied at a key high school in the county town and was currently on holiday at home. The three daughters often encountered unpleasant remarks in the small town because the family had no sons. However, all three daughters were impressive, excelling in their studies.
In those days, the number of college-goers was pitifully low; having a university graduate was as rare as hatching a duck from a chicken's egg. And here was a family with two university students, with the third seemingly set for college as well. This quieted those in the small town who used to make spiteful comments.
Yan Fei didn't know much about others, but he was certainly envious, though that didn't stop his idle gossip and internal snickering.
Having feasted on meat since early morning, a well-satiated Yan Fei finally started to clean up.
He stored the remaining food from the pot in a basin and placed it in a cave, then cleaned up and dumped the waste by the seaside.
Then he slowly went to open the door and set up his stall.
With food and drink taken care of and a dozen or so dollars in his pocket, his enthusiasm to sell wares at his stand waned, no longer as vigorous as on the first day, given that sales were slow.
As soon as the stall was set up, a somewhat plump girl with a student haircut, wearing a small floral dress, came over, "Fool, what did you say before? Come on, tell me, how do you want to be 'dealt with'?"
Yan Fei, lounging in his rattan chair, glanced at her with a sideways look, and in an instant noticed her toes painted with pink henna in her sandals, "Vain Little Ni'er, even dyeing your toenails..."
The girl, infuriated, stamped her foot and was about to twist him when he quickly yelled, "Don't hit me, don't hit me, if you do I'll scream, and you know what I'll scream..."
The girl, with her face flushed with anger, halted in her tracks, took a few rapid breaths, then turned and scrambled to mess up the items on his stall before lowering her head and going back home.
Yan Fei was utterly pleased with himself.
In the past, you used to tattle on me to Grandpa all the time, now what will you do?
Thinking of his grandpa, his energy faded, and as he lay there, he began to doze off.
In his dream, delicious food and drink awaited him once more. A crowd of aromatic braised Compsognathus were hopping vigorously toward Yan Fei, shouting, "Eat me, eat me..."
"I smell better, eat me quickly..."
"..."
Yan Fei was so dazzled by the choices that he completely didn't know which one to eat first.
Just as he felt perplexed, the braised Compsognathus ran away, calling out as they went, "Chase me, chase me, you can eat me if you catch up..."
Without a second thought, Yan Fei took off after them.
As he ran, he suddenly transformed into a Compsognathus himself, running lightly on the beach alongside countless others.
Suddenly, a big wave surged over him with a he-he-he of laughter, drenching him head to toe...
Then he woke up to find a girl, her eyes squinting with laughter, holding a little teacup and looking at him with amusement.
As he came to, the girl quickly spoke, "Yan Xiaofei, you started it, so it's only fair to return the favor..."
Saying that, she scampered toward her home...
Yan Fei wiped the water off his face, not bothering with the little girl's antics, his mind still lingering on the dream he had just had...