Sky-cracking Rider

"Pure Light Sparrow? Grandpa Barut, do you know its breed?"

Chen Fei raised his head from the technical manual. He had been unable to identify what kind of bird Xiao Jiu was and worried that this little thing might end up a bachelor. The worry of a father was evident.

"Hehe, it's still a magical beast!"

Barut chuckled with eyes narrowed.

It seemed he found it extremely amusing that this young man was unwittingly rearing a bird-shaped magical beast. Ordinary people hardly ever had the chance to come across a magical beast, let alone a wise one that would willingly become someone else's pet or a utility beast.

"Is that true? Hahaha, Xiao Jiu, you're actually a magical beast. You must study hard!"

Chen Fei reached out his finger and gently rubbed the little bird's head. If Old Piao knew this news, he'd probably vomit blood to the tune of three liters!

The little bird flew agilely onto his hand, pecking around to express its dissatisfaction.

What is a magical beast? Can you eat it?

Its little brain didn't understand and didn't want to try. All it knew was that it was the master's Xiao Jiu, chirp chirp!

Perhaps the crooked merchant Pu Aihua, who had given the egg to Chen Fei, never could have imagined that he had actually found a real magical beast egg near the Aircrew Base in the wilderness.

However, whether Xiao Jiu was really a magical beast or not, Chen Fei didn't much care. After a brief moment of surprise, he quickly returned to his usual demeanor, without entering into any emotional turmoil over it.

The Neanderthal elder, Barut, watched him with approval in his eyes, nodding secretly. He didn't continue the conversation about Xiao Jiu's identity as a magical beast, instead he reached for another piece of lamb chop with his chopsticks, looked it over, and said with a smile, "These ribs must be your handiwork, right? Chef Abel doesn't have such skill."

And Chef Singh, who could only open frozen food packages, was even less likely. The reason he could hold the position of chef at the Aircrew Base was simply because of lower employment costs. His salary definitely couldn't compare with that of Chef Abel, who had real talent in his hands.

Chen Fei didn't deny it, and said, "Yeah, I used garlic powder, eggs, salt, cooking wine, Orleans roasted meat seasoning, and fried chicken breading, nothing technically demanding."

All readymade ingredients were used: garlic powder and cooking wine to remove any gamey flavor, eggs to tenderize the meat, Orleans roasted meat seasoning to enhance flavor, and fried chicken breading to lock in the moisture, ensuring a pleasing texture.

There wasn't much innovation, yet it gave more nuanced flavor layers than Chef Abel's original plan of using black pepper, sweet red wine, onions, basil, and cumin as seasoning.

Compared to Abel's method, Chen Fei's approach was more akin to home cooking, with ingredients that were easily found in any common household.

"You should be in the kitchen more often, much better than that guy who can only open packages."

Barut swallowed the meat and bone in one gulp as usual, showing his satisfaction.

"I'm a mechanic, the base won't pay me that much salary."

Chen Fei lifted his wine glass, gestured with it, and took a sip, saying, "This wine is really good!"

The blueberries for brewing were picked from the vines inside the shed, hardly any different from the wild, all-natural ones. The purple wine was thick, clinging to the glass, with a fruity aroma and a crisp, smooth flavor — far superior to those gaudy, cheap booze made from corn alcohol mixed with chemical essences.

Compared to the wine Barut had brought last time, one was like a rustic beauty and the other like an urban goddess, each with their own strengths.

"Hahaha, I've heard!"

Barut was also well-informed. The young man before him was not just a mechanic in the maintenance team but had recently joined the flyer squadron and become an assistant to the canteen's head chef, Abel.

During the daytime, he worked for the maintenance team and the flyer squadron; the two hours after work were spent in the canteen's kitchen, and the rest of the time was dedicated here, working non-stop, never resting from labor.

Young people who worked this hard in today's society were rare.

"No choice, I owe a lot of money."

Chen Fei didn't avoid the subject, shaking his head with a wry smile.

He, too, wanted to be like everyone else: work regular hours, rest on holidays, call a few friends together for food and fun, vent the pressures of work, and then continue saving money to buy a house and a car, marry a decent girl, start a family and just like that, live an ordinary, unremarkable life without any regrets.

"Don't worry, for someone like you, it shouldn't be a problem. Young people, after all, have countless possibilities ahead of them."

Barut picked up his wine glass and clinked it with Chen Fei's, savoring a sip with satisfaction from his homemade blueberry wine.

The purple liquid was rich in anthocyanins, offering many benefits to the human body. As a fruit wine that wasn't distilled, it was naturally low in alcohol content, not strong and heady, usually around 14 degrees, but with an exquisite flavor.

Accompanied by snacks, raising their glasses from time to time, they engaged in light and pleasant conversation. The Neanderthal elder then entrusted Chen Fei with the night shift work overseeing the Target Low Temperature Nuclear Fusion Energy Tower.

With not a drop left in the bottle of blueberry wine and the snacks finally gone, the Neanderthal elder stood up, wrapped himself in a coat at the entrance of the hut, and staggered away, temporarily leaving the place in Chen Fei's care.

Barut had his own dormitory, which was much better than Chen Fei's modest personal room.

The steel structure shelter housing the Energy Tower was originally not a place for living. After some modifications, it had become a garden-like greenhouse.

Even though it had a restroom with running water, it still couldn't be fully used as a dormitory.

Firstly, it lacked shower facilities, making bathing impossible. Sure, one could wash with a basin of hot water, but it's no match for a proper shower.

Secondly, this place was a warmhouse. It was as warm as spring in winter, very comfortable, but in summer, it would turn into a steamer or an oven. Without opening the rooftop vents for enhanced ventilation, this place could only serve as a sauna room, impossible to live in.

But right now, with the biting wind outside and the warmth inside the shelter, it was more than adequate as a temporary place to sleep.

Working the night shift here didn't require constant vigilance. Keeping periodic checks was enough, and the rest of the time, one could do whatever they wished—tending to plants, eating and drinking, or even just sleeping.

There was a bedside cabinet, a steel-framed single bed, and an empty personal storage locker, with pillows and fleece blankets all provided. Chen Fei had no complaints.

He tried out all the operating procedures as Barut had instructed. The automation level of the Energy Tower was high, not requiring much manual intervention. The actual workload was minimal, and within just five minutes, he had completed the state and safety check of the Energy Tower.

Xiao Jiu tirelessly flew around the garden, occasionally returning with a beakful of colorful berry juice, smearing it on Chen Fei's hands and leaving vivid, splotchy marks.

The flowers and plants Barut had grown were not chosen deliberately. Whether they bloomed or bore fruit, whether they were fragrant or the fruit was edible, it didn't matter. In a corner, there even was a pot of lush green scallions, thriving without any signs of being plucked; they seemed to be grown purely for the sake of planting.

Still, there were some nice things, like figs, blueberries, raspberries, trifoliate oranges, pineapples, pitayas, and even an apple tree laden with fruit.

The Neanderthal elder was not stingy at all, telling Chen Fei to help himself to whatever he wanted to eat. The greenhouse's fruit yield was more than a couple of people could finish.

The night deepened, and Chen Fei had roughly skimmed through most of the technical manual that Barut had given him. After turning off the lights inside the greenhouse, leaving only a small lamp on, he headed to the steel-framed single bed and found that the little creature, Xiao Jiu, had taken over his pillow, curled up and sound asleep, occasionally chirping softly.

In such a small form, what kind of Magical Beast could it be?

Chen Fei smiled and shook his head, gently picked it up, and placed it back into the bird's nest he had brought, covering it with a soft tissue to serve as a blanket. He had no interest in finding out what abilities the little bird might possess, as long as it grew up safely.

Before sleeping, he reached into his bag to get the sleeping pill bottle, wanting to sleep until morning, but came up empty.

He had actually forgotten to bring them.

Chen Fei wasn't of an age where he relied on sleeping pills, so it wasn't unusual to forget them.

He gazed out the door of the greenhouse; the cutting wind of the Xingdu Kush Mountain Area swept across the standard container hills, emitting a deep growl.

From sunset to now, in just three or four short hours, the outdoor temperature had plummeted to a chilling minus ten degrees Celsius or more, reinforced by a fierce wind that could easily cause one to catch a cold.

As a hardworking laborer, he simply couldn't afford to fall ill; it was much better to stay in the warmth of the greenhouse-like shelter, guarding the Energy Tower that consistently released residual heat.

But Chen Fei had his own ways.

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