There were fewer people on the hillside these days, and she deliberately chose a secluded spot, so she wasn't discovered. She easily bypassed the village and followed Xiao Jiu to the river bend where it had found the wild ducks.
Xiao Jiu discovered the wild ducks at a place called Half Moon Bay, a very secluded spot nestled between several villages. There were fields nearby, but no houses. Along the river bend was a grove of wild trees, their branches growing very densely by the water. Years ago, many children from nearby villages would come to bathe there, but several drowned in the process. Rumors spread that a water ghost was searching for a substitute, and gradually, few dared to come here anymore.
Yun Duo didn't know, otherwise she wouldn't have dared to come.
It was morning, and the weather wasn't too hot. Not all the wild ducks in Half Moon Bay were gathered under the shade of the trees. Instead, they were swimming and foraging in the river in twos and threes. Of course, some were also taking a nap under the shade of the trees with their heads tucked under their wings.
Yun Duo hid behind a clump of reeds and watched the wild ducks in the river. She roughly counted more than twenty of them, which was quite a large flock.
After looking at it, Yun Duo said to Xiao Jiu in her heart, "Xiao Jiu, forget it. Don't bother picking old ducks. Just catch the ones that are close to the shore. Otherwise, if they are too far away, I won't be able to catch them."
"Mmm, Xiao Jiu knows how to choose." Xiao Jiu responded first, then flew towards the wild ducks. When it reached the ducks closest to the shore, it didn't rush to sting them. Instead, it first observed several ducks that were relatively close to the shore before finally choosing two of the fatter ones to sting. After silently stinging the two ducks, Xiao Jiu said somewhat proudly in Yun Duo's mind, "Master, Master, Xiao Jiu has chosen them. They should all be old ducks. Come and get the net to scoop them up."
Now that she had the ducks, Yun Duo no longer needed to worry about startling them, and therefore no longer needed to hide. She immediately took out a net from behind the reeds where she was hiding.
It must be said that the wild ducks are very alert. As soon as the clouds appeared, a few quacking calls came from the river, as if to remind their companions. Then, whether they were foraging, playing in the water, or dozing off, all the wild ducks moved together, flapping their wings and flying away into the distance of the river bend, leaving only two wild ducks that had been stung unconscious by Xiao Jiu, quietly 'floating' on the water.
The ducks weren't far from the shore, relative to the other ducks, but for Yunduo, they were still quite far. Even with her clinging to the trees on the bank, reaching out to her aunt, and stretching out her arms with a net in hand, she still couldn't reach the ducks in the water.
Yunduo picked up clods of mud from the bank and splashed them in the river in front of the four ducks, hoping the ripples would push the disoriented wild ducks a little closer to the bank.
However, throwing several clods of mud in a row failed to push the duck towards the shore; instead, it pushed the other duck even further away.
"Oh dear! It's all Xiao Jiu's fault. If only Xiao Jiu could have driven them closer to the shore!" Before Yun Duo could even give up, Xiao Jiu started blaming herself.
Yunduo quickly said, "It's alright, it's alright, it's just a little bit short. Isn't there a clump of Vitex negundo over there? I'll go get a Vitex negundo branch, tie some grass to the pole at this end of the net, and I'll be able to reach it."
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