1 Chapter 1: Yan Sanfen's Journey to Wealth_1

The scorching sun of August was suspending over the Sancha River town, causing smoke to rise from the streets.

In three old, tiled houses side by side along the street, only the middle door was opened to the high street, where Yan Fei hid behind the door. He lay on an old rattan chair with a worried and bitter expression, his bare feet raised high, watching the bustling crowd on the street.

Every now and then, when he would see people carry shiny, brand-new farming tools made by factories, Yan Fei would feel extremely unhappy. This was because the stall that he placed in front of him, propped up by several long benches, was fully stocked with kitchen knives, hoes, and sickles.

The tools he sold were all manually hammered by his household. Leaving aside the issue of which tools were more durable, just in terms of presentation, his products were far behind those produced by factories.

He felt frustrated by the lack of sales, and the occasional acquaintances passing by would say with a teasing smile: "Yan Fei, why are you setting up a stall today? Do you even know the prices?"

Yan Fei would not even bother to lift his eyelids, keeping a wooden expression.

Having grown up in this small blacksmith shop, the now twelve-year-old Yan Fei had never cared so much about his family business before.

Half a month ago, he was still sitting not far behind, tugging at the bellows, as his over fifty-year-old grandfather stood by, hammering. The sound of iron pounding resonated throughout half the street. He was still talking to his grandfather about his transition from elementary to junior high school when suddenly, his grandfather's hand slipped, the hammer fell to the ground, and he fell sideways.

His grandfather's hand was already pulling his on the road, unable to utter a single word. By the time the neighbors had sent him to the hospital, the man they used to call an iron tough man was already gone.

Yan Fei's parents, both working at a fertilizer factory in the county, rushed back upon hearing the news. After weeping and mourning, they buried their early-widowed old father together with their mother and planned to take Yan Fei to the county.

But Yan Fei would not go under any circumstances.

From a young age, he had led a different life with his grandfather and hardly interacted with anyone else except his grandfather. Not to mention, his parents now had a five or six-year-old younger brother. Besides, if he went to the county, he would have to squeeze into a two-room dormitory with his parents. He would not have as much space as at home, where he had seven or eight rooms.

Yan Fei had only one way to deal with his parents. Whenever they talked about taking him to the county, he would pretend to be an idiot, leaving his parents helpless. Fortunately, it was still the summer vacation. His parents had no other choice but to leave him some money to let him try to live alone at home.

As soon as his parents left, Yan Fei felt uncomfortable sitting alone in the house. The emptiness of the house without his grandfather made him feel particularly upset.

Then he let loose: he bought chickens from one place, fish from another, used the daily-laid eggs from his own chickens to make instant noodles with chicken soup. He even tried a few sips of the wine his grandfather had stored previously, but he found it too spicy and didn't like the taste. He ate and drank during the day, and spent his nights in a small video hall in the town watching action films. Ha!

His behavior almost caused his grandfather, who came from the countryside to see him, to spit blood in frustration.

Anyway, after messing around aimlessly for six days, on the seventh day, which was yesterday, he encountered a problem: his pockets were empty! He was out of money!

The money his parents left him was not little. Even in those days, as long as he had food and drink, it would be enough for a month. But with his spending habits, the neighbors had only one comment: "Yan, you fool, are you planning on not living anymore?"

"Not living anymore" meant that he was preparing to squander all his family's resources, and then die of gluttony.

Yan Fei smiled, cursing in his heart: "You're all fools, country bumpkins who have never stepped outside. Do you know that I see the sea every day?"

Then he turned his head and arrived at a cave entrance in the middle of a cliff.

Although the sun was a bit hot, when he looked into the distance, the view was spectacular: on one side were towering ancient trees, on the other side were beaches, ocean waves... and dinosaurs...

Flocks of Pterosaurs flew past in the sky, preying on the boundless sea surface. From time to time, strange-looking heads would emerge from the water, and the mouths the size of a house would suddenly burst out, attacking the Pterosaurs fishing stealthily. In the forest behind, there were small Compsognathus shuttling between the woods.

The mountainside cave was actually a small crevice in the rock, but the inside was quite spacious. Yan Fei had searched for this place for a long time. Any moving creature on this broken island, if it can breathe, is not to be trifled with. Here, it is out of reach of the heavens and the earth, the dinosaurs that walk through the woods on the island can't get up here, and the Pterosaurs flying in the sky can't get in because they're too big.

Sancha River town is located in the center of the mainland, most people have never seen the sea in their lives. Those who have become tired of seeing the sea every day, like Yan Fei, he referred to as "country bumpkins."

Conversely, they all referred to Yan Fei as "foolish Yan."

Ever since Yan Fei could remember, he had often been able to see a world that others couldn't see. That was this world of dinosaurs, although now he was only able to see a small island.

However, whenever he 'saw' this little island, people would see him with an idiotic expression on his face, motionless, with a dull look. Wasn't this child clearly an idiot? His parents took him to see all sorts of doctors, but no one could cure it.

It was because of this that his parents were able to boldly give him a younger brother, during a time when family planning was strictly enforced across the country.

And because of this, he lived with his grandfather from a young age.

Later on, he somehow found himself on the island. He was just a kid then, and went there out of curiosity. Then the small Compsognathus, the ruling species on the island, came running at him.

He was scared and automatically teleported back to his grandfather--which is why his grandfather had to keep him close and got stuck with the nickname "Weirdo."

But all this had become the past after his grandfather's sudden death.

Now, Yan Fei didn't have the mood to enjoy the scenery. He had to find a way to earn a living quickly.

Yan Fei had no intention of asking his parents for money so soon. If he spent too much money, they would certainly want him to go to the county. He wasn't really a fool. How could he go see the sea when he was in the county?

He was always called a fool since he was a child, but actually, as long as he doesn't use his mental view to see the island, he wasn't stupid at all. His grandfather often reminded him only to "see the sea" in his mind when there are people around and never to go to "see the sea", lest he be seen as a monster.

When people don't enter the 'sea island,' other people might just think he's a fool. But if he suddenly disappeared, that would scare people to death.

He had long been able to do what his grandfather demanded, but some things were just out of his control.

For instance, the routine of leading a simple life.

The sun was high above, and the crowd from the market had dispersed. Yan Fei weakly walked into his kitchen, grabbed a handful of firewood to start a fire and prepared to reheat some leftover rice.

This chicken doesn't even taste good!

Yan Fei casually tossed the picked-clean chicken bone outside to his courtyard where a flock of chickens began to squabble over it. If it were any other day, he'd have made a comment about how chicken tastes to chickens. But today, he was too dispirited.

Man, being poor does mess with your ambition!

This twelve-year-old rural kid, barefooted and shirtless, sighed deeply.

After washing the pots and pans, and filling a bucket with dishwater, he made a swift exit and appeared on the beach. He emptied the bucket of dirty water on the sand, then disappeared momentarily before returning.

Then he swapped out the bucket, darted back, and fetched water from a small pond. He carried the bucket of water back and set it in the kitchen for future use.

These are the limited uses Yan Fei found for the dinosaur island.

Because he could access the island at any given moment and choose to appear at any location he had previously been, whether it was treetop or cliff edge, wherever he wished, he was there in an instant.

However, his return location was limited to where he had originally entered.

For instance, if he went to the cave within the dinosaur island through his kitchen, his return trip would always lead him back to the kitchen. He could return repeatedly from the kitchen to any specific tree on the island, but couldn't warp directly from the tree to the island's cave. He'd have to return to the kitchen first before venturing to the cave.

Since he could scope out the island before entering and was always able to retreat whenever he pleased, he never encountered any danger. In fact, he had collected numerous colorful seashells from the island's beach before, but grandfather had instructed him to store them in the cave.

He wasn't allowed to boast about the things from the island. After a few solo trips, he lost interest. Now he was thoroughly bored by the countless tiny creatures on the beach.

What did fascinate him were the groups of mini Compsognathus he observed on the beach hunting, capitalizing on the high and low tides. He took one back, and it disgusted his grandfather.

It looked like seven or eight slimy earthworms joined together — definitely not appetizing. Later he realized, it was probably an octopus or squid. The disparity between what he'd seen on TV and in textbooks compared to the real-life encounter was huge.

If only he'd been born a few years later. Even without venturing outside, he could've just gone online and understood everything about sea cucumbers, abalones, squid, octopuses, and whatnot via pictures.

At present, Yan Fei was a treasure island owner oblivious to his wealth, wandering the streets aimlessly.

Sancha River was an ancient town. It remained unchanged for years, pretty much like the three-century-old temple in the center of the town, despite the Soviet Union disintegrating a few years ago.

Just go east out of his house, and along the street, he could find restaurant owners, scale makers, gold and silver jewelry craftsmen, tobacco and liquor merchants, oil extractors, flour millers, everything.

Yet none offered ideas on how to earn money. He turned back when he saw the wall of the village at the end of the street.

Upon returning to his house and continuing west, he came across a major construction site at the beginning of a small alley.

This used to be a veterinary clinic, now moved behind the site. They were going to build a big shopping mall here.

The midday sun did not slow down the workers. Yan Fei watched for a while, and his eyes lit up. He spotted a familiar face in the crowd: "Uncle Ming, Uncle Ming..."

A young man supervising the work turned his head and then went back to instruct the workers briefly before walking over, "Xiao Fei, what is it?"

Yan Fei eagerly blurted out his thoughts, "Can I work here? How much do you pay per day?"

Uncle Ming instantly lost his cool, "Get lost. Can't you see I'm busy?"

He was about to leave but came back, pulled out a handful of money from his pocket, separated a five-dollar note, and shoved it at Yan Fei, "I told you to save money. You ran out of money for food, didn't you? Get by with this. If you need more, come to me."

Yan Fei shamelessly took the money, "Actually, I still have money, but I thought it would be wise to think ahead, you know?"

Uncle Ming laughed and called out from distance, "You stay away from this place. Don't hurt yourself in the chaos. And who'd have thought you, a low-scoring student, know idioms like 'look beyond the present'. Impressive..."

The mention of his test scores rendered Yan Fei unable to gloat. He was always an on-and-off student during his primary school, dismissed as slow by everyone, with teachers hardly bothering about him.

Then when the exams came, his grandfather also passed away. Although Yan Fei started the exam, he merely scribbled a few strokes before leaving.

When the results were announced, even the teachers were surprised. Out of a total of two hundred-plus, Yan Fei scored just three points.

One in languages and two in mathematics, totaling three.

A stain on life, indeed!

Yan Fei sighed, looked at the money in his hand, and murmured: taking someone's money like this is called 'shamelessly content', right?

Don't let the low exam result fool you. I can indeed use idioms, so shamelessly content he tucked the five dollars into the back pocket of his pants and continued his journey west along the street, in search of ways to wealth.