With people talking along the way, time didn't feel slow; it felt like we hadn't walked very far home.
By the time we arrived in the village, it was already late afternoon.
At this time of day, many people in the village come out to play: men gathering firewood on the mountain, children, and women visiting each other's homes.
We're from the same village, so naturally we'd greet each other if we ran into each other.
The men exchanged a few pleasantries with Gu Shouxin, while the women exchanged a few pleasantries with Cai Xiaolian.
The original owner and his wife were not the kind of people who lived in seclusion; they would also go around the village.
Along the way, Gu Nian got to know quite a few people. She was smart and had a good memory. She could remember people after just one meeting, but Sanchakou Village had a small population, with only a few dozen households and a little over two hundred people. She met more than twenty people today, and Gu Nian remembered them all.
Even though Gu Shouxin and Cai Xiaolian retained the original owner's memories, no one could tell that they were different.
On their way home, they noticed that the roosters were crowing incessantly.
"Oh dear, I forgot to let them out. They must be hungry. I need to go dig for wild vegetables!" Gu Xin heard the hen clucking and remembered that she hadn't gone to dig for wild vegetables today.
"Let's just pick some cucumber leaves to feed them. You've walked so far today, don't bother!" Cai Xiaolian called out to Gu Xin.
"Oh, then I'll go pick some cucumber leaves!" Gu Xin rolled up her sleeves, grabbed a basket, and went to pick leaves.
Gu Nian stepped forward to help, while Gu Shouxin squatted in front of the vegetable garden, looking at the lush vegetables growing there, completely bewildered.
"Did you figure it out?" Cai Xiaolian asked as she came out after putting the things she bought in the kitchen.
They hadn't forgotten the things they'd dropped when they escaped from the alley; the rice and salt bags were all neatly wrapped and hadn't spilled.
"No," Gu Shouxin answered truthfully.
"Oh dear!" Gu Xin, who had already chopped cucumber leaves and was carrying a basin to feed the chickens, suddenly shouted.
"What's wrong?" The couple looked up at Gu Xin, who was standing next to the chicken coop.
"Dad, Mom, eggs, so many eggs!" Gu Xin turned her head, looking completely bewildered.
"Eggs? Have the hens laid eggs yet?" Cai Xiaolian walked over.
Gu Nian, who had gone back inside to get a drink of water, heard the noise outside and came out as well.
The Gu family raised a total of ten hens and two roosters. The chicken coop was quite large, and they even connected the pigsty, which was originally meant for pigs, to the chicken coop.
The three walked to the chicken coop and looked at the eggs lying in the straw, still covered with chicken feathers and droppings.
"One, two, three, four, ..., seventeen, wait a minute! We have ten hens, and each hen lays one egg a day, right? How come..." Gu Nian found it particularly amusing. She had fed chickens before but had never seen a chicken lay an egg. As she was counting, she realized something was wrong.
"Sister, it's been cold lately, and I haven't been able to dig up many earthworms. I've only been feeding them vegetables, so they've only laid one egg every other day lately. They rarely lay one every day," Gu Xin explained quietly from the side.
She was the one who fed these chickens; Gu Nian usually didn't care, which is why Gu Xin made that explanation.
"I'll go see how many there are! Gu Nian, go get the baskets," Gu Shouxin said, pushing open the enclosure.
The chickens in the coop were happily eating chopped cucumber leaves, too busy collecting eggs for Gu Shouxin to notice.
Soon, Gu Shouxin came out carrying a basket containing twenty eggs, meaning that each chicken laid an average of two eggs.
This doesn't make sense!
No one in the village has chickens that lay two eggs a day.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com