Chapter 134 Departure to the Reed Marsh
The next day, before dawn, Jiang Xinbai and his group of six boarded a bus out of the city. The fare was five cents per person, which was quite reasonable. After wandering around for about an hour, they stopped at an intersection.
Li Lele patted his trouser legs and said thankfully, "Luckily I wore a pair of patched pants today. Look what they did to my pants. If they were new pants, I would be so heartbroken."
There were so many people on the bus at the beginning. I don’t know what got stuck on her pants, but she couldn’t rub it off. It was so annoying.
"That's right. We must wear old clothes when we go up the mountain. Where should we go now? Up the mountain?" Jiang Xinbai said and pointed to the intersection in front of him. There were exactly three forks in the road and he didn't know which way to go.
Qu Xiangming pointed to the far right and said, "Go this way. It should take another twenty minutes to get there, but it's all flat ground, so it's easy to walk."
"Okay, let's go!" So several people followed Qu Xiangming towards their destination.
Yang Jinsheng took a few steps forward and walked side by side with Qu Xiangming. He asked with a smile, "Xiangming, how did you find this place? It's quite far from the city."
Qu Xiangming smiled sheepishly, "I discovered this by accident. When Lele and I were dating, we often rode past this place. One time, it started raining halfway through the road, and we couldn't see the road clearly. We took the wrong path and stumbled upon the reed bush by accident."
Yang Jinsheng was delighted when he heard this and said with a smile: "That's really a coincidence, it should be yours."
“Yes, so last year Lele and I came here secretly, but it was too far and too remote, and we can’t swim, and we were afraid that if we fell in, no one would rescue us, so we just looked around the edges to see if there were any wild duck eggs, and we didn’t dare go any further inside.” Qu Xiangming felt that there should be more wild duck eggs inside, so last year they looked around the periphery and picked up more than fifty eggs!
When Zhao Yitai heard this, he patted his chest and said, "Don't be afraid now. There are so many of us. If you fall in, someone will rescue you. Besides, Jinsheng and I can swim, right, Jinsheng?"
"That's right. There is strength in numbers. We can look inside this time." Yang Jinsheng agreed with a smile. Now that they are here, they have to do a great job.
"But," Li Lele was a little entangled, "I heard from the old people that there might be snakes in the reed marshes. Aren't you afraid?"
"Snake? No, I'm afraid of snakes." Yang Jinsheng, who had just looked fearless, suddenly became soft and waved his hands repeatedly. He felt uncomfortable all over just thinking about snakes, let alone being bitten by one.
Zhao Yitai glared at Yang Jinsheng and laughed at him, "Jinsheng, you are too timid. What's there to be afraid of a snake? I can catch it with one hand and make a dragon and phoenix pot for you."
"What are you talking about? Don't eat those things anymore, or you'll be retaliated against." Jiang Xinbai slapped her husband angrily. Really, why not eat snake when there are so many other things to eat?
Seeing his wife was angry, Zhao Yitai quickly explained: "No, no, I was just joking with Jinsheng! Right, Jinsheng."
Yang Jinsheng said sarcastically, "Oh, I'm timid, but my brother-in-law is brave. I remember seeing you catching snakes and making snake soup a few years ago. You even talked about dragon meat. Brother-in-law, when have you ever eaten dragon meat?"
Seeing that her second sister's face was getting uglier and uglier, Jiang Xinbai quickly pulled her husband and said, "Stop talking. You are already grown up. When we go back, my second sister will probably be disgusted with that snake stew pot."
"Which pot did you use to stew the snake meat? Just throw it away when you get home." Jiang Xinlan felt a little uncomfortable in her stomach when she thought about the fact that the pot she used to cook every day had once been used to stew snake meat.
"It wasn't a pot, just a small clay pot. It was broken and lost a long time ago." Zhao Yita explained quickly.
After hearing this, Jiang Xinlan's expression looked a little better.
"We're here, right over there." Qu Xiangming, who was at the front, pointed ahead and said, "There's a big lake ahead, surrounded by lush green reeds. The breeze brought the smell of green grass."
Yang Jinsheng took the lead and walked forward a few steps, took a deep breath, and said with a smile: "The air is really good, why don't I see any wild ducks?"
"Isn't that it?" Jiang Xinbai stretched out his hand and pointed forward, only to see a group of wild ducks swimming in the middle of the lake.
Yang Jinsheng stood on tiptoe and looked in the direction of Jiang Xinbai's finger. "Wow, it's true. I wish we could catch a few and bring them back."
Qu Xiangming shook his head and said with a smile: "Then you will be disappointed. Wild ducks are just like pheasants. They are very alert and basically impossible to catch."
"Yes, I still want to catch wild ducks. You are so beautiful." Jiang Xinbai glanced at him, then used a short bamboo pole he brought with him to gently push aside the reeds, muttering, "Let me see if there are any wild duck eggs? Hey, here are two, Jinsheng, quickly take out the basket."
"Hey, I'll be right there." After hearing this, Yang Jinsheng quickly took out the bamboo basket from the fertilizer bag, pulled some reeds and spread them at the bottom of the basket, and then carefully picked up two wild duck eggs.
When the others saw that Jiang Xinbai and the others had already started picking up duck eggs, they also squatted down and parted the reeds to look for duck eggs.
Yang Jinsheng handed the basket in his hand to Jiang Xinbai, "Xiaobai, you hold the basket, give me the bamboo pole, and I'll look for it." Although the reeds here are all on land and not too high, it is still easy to hide something in them.
"Well, come here." Jiang Xinbai retreated behind her husband.
Yang Jinsheng also imitated Jiang Xinbai and used a bamboo pole to push aside the reeds. After several failed attempts, he finally found a nest of duck eggs, eight large eggs in total, which were very pleasing to the eye. He did not let Jiang Xinbai pick them up, but squatted down, picked them up one by one and put them in the basket held by Jiang Xinbai behind him before standing up and continuing to walk down.
"It doesn't seem like there are a lot of eggs? I just saw a lot of wild ducks, so there shouldn't be just a few eggs, right?" March and April every year is the egg-laying season for wild ducks, so there should be a lot of eggs!
Yang Jinsheng stood on the shore, tiptoed, and pushed the bamboo pole a little deeper. He squinted his eyes and looked at it before replying, "They should have built their nests inside. Those who build their nests outside can't get a good spot. How about we go inside?"
"How do we get there? There's water!" Jiang Xinbai was a little hesitant. Although it should be getting warmer in April, the water was still a little cold. Plus, she was not familiar with the environment and she was afraid!
"It's okay, I can swim. Just stand here and I'll go take a look first." Yang Jinsheng said as he took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his trouser legs and prepared to go inside.
"Hey, wait a minute, why don't you call them along," Jiang Xinbai stretched out her hand to hold her husband, in case something happened and she wouldn't be able to save him!
"Ah~~~" Suddenly a scream came from a distance, startling a group of wild ducks that flew out from the reeds.
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