The matter is over, and Yu Jiu doesn't want to dwell on it anymore, otherwise she'll only make herself angry.
"Yes, I know. I'll take the things to him. The road repair is temporarily suspended. The higher-ups said they'd reconsider. They probably think this isn't a good solution. Actually, there's no need for so many teams to be gathered together. Just designate one team to repair the road. It'll be faster, they'll follow orders, and it'll be less likely to cause trouble. With so many teams gathered together, it'll be chaotic. It's no wonder something bad happens."
Xu Zijiang didn't want to repair any roads anymore. When he was free, he would pick up his wife from get off work every day and cook for her. Wasn't that good enough?
The two chatted as they walked home.
Yu Jiu was also hungry. She washed her hands and was about to eat. Since becoming pregnant, her appetite had increased, and she got hungry easily. She thought that from now on, she should bring some food with her when she went to work in the afternoons so she could eat when she was hungry. She could eat the pastries from the pastry counter without any hesitation, but she would get tired of them if she ate too many.
"Dinner's ready! Dinner's ready!"
Yu Jiu put the soap back, washed her hands, dried them with a towel, and put the towel back before going to eat. However, when she glanced around, she noticed her own chicks lying in the yard.
This unusual posture made Yu Jiu frown. Thanks to Xu Zijiang's explanation, she had learned quite a bit about raising chickens. So when she saw the chicks spreading their wings and lying motionless on the ground, she had a bad feeling.
She quickly went over and stomped her feet beside it, trying to wake the chick. However, the chick didn't react after she stomped several times. She then poked at the chick with her shoe, but there was still no movement. It lay there silently, looking as if it had died.
"Xu Zijiang, Xu Zijiang, come quickly and come see why our chickens seem to be dead?"
Yu Jiu called out as he walked toward the small fence in the yard. They had specially set up a small area in the corner of the yard to make a coop for the chickens. They had only raised three chickens in total. One was lying in the yard, one was lying in the coop, and the other was nowhere to be found.
"Xu Zijiang, both chickens are gone, and we don't know where the last one went!"
Yu Jiu was a little angry and a little sad. Her chickens were doing so well, how could they all be gone? What went wrong? She had put so much effort into raising these chickens, you know? This wasn't about the money!
"What? No way? I just fed the chicks before I left, and they were fine then."
Hearing this, Xu Zijiang also came over. He was even more puzzled than Yu Jiu. He squatted down and touched the chick; it was indeed dead, its body already stiffening. Xu Zijiang also found the third chick behind the gate. Because the door had been pushed in, it hadn't been noticed at first.
If all three chicks are dead, then something must have gone wrong.
"Could it be that there was something wrong with what you just fed the chicks?"
Yu Jiu looked at the dead chicks with regret, losing all appetite. She had put so much effort into raising three chicks, only to have them all die. These three were the strongest and fastest-growing; the rest had all been culled.
"No way, I just dug up some earthworms and some small insects to feed them, and sprinkled some bran on them. These are all great supplements for chicks, so how could there be a problem?"
Xu Zijiang examined the chicks over and over, but he couldn't figure it out no matter what he did.
"Could a snake have crawled in and I've been poisoned? But that shouldn't be the case. If it were a snake, it would probably bite me a few times, and even if it didn't eat me, it would leave wounds. Oh no, could it be chicken plague?"
Xu Zijiang racked his brains and came up with two more possibilities. Chicken plague seemed more likely. If it really was chicken plague, all of everyone's chickens would suffer.
"Stand back a bit, don't come any closer. I'll take it out and burn it first. You eat first, and then wash your hands twice more."
Xu Zi gave careful instructions.
"I'll wait for you to eat together."
Yu Jiu didn't want to eat alone, so she soaped her hands twice before watching Xu Zijiang take the chicken outside to cook. After it was cooked, Xu Zijiang also came back and rubbed his hands several times with soap. Then he went to the neighboring houses to ask about their chickens.
"Our chickens have been listless these past few days. No matter how much we feed them, they're still lethargic. I wonder if they're sick."
"One of our chickens died a couple of days ago, and it broke my heart. I don't know how it died. I couldn't bear to throw it away, so I plucked its feathers, cooked it, and ate it. Now that we've lost a laying hen, how are we going to get by?"
After asking around, Xu Zijiang learned that although chicken deaths were not common—only two households besides his own—several other families' chickens were listless, which was enough to raise his concern. Otherwise, if the chicken plague were to spread, all the chickens would suffer.
Xu Zijiang didn't even have time to eat; he was already using a megaphone to tell everyone to clean up.
"There might be an outbreak of chicken plague. Everyone should clean the whole house immediately, paying special attention to the cleanliness of their own chicken coop. Sweep up the chicken droppings in time, keep the air circulating and dry, and then pick some mugwort leaves to bedding the chicken coop."
If the chickens are dead, it's probably from fowl plague. Don't eat the dead chickens, just burn them to avoid any harm to people. Did everyone hear that? Go clean up immediately and gather mugwort to line the chicken coop!
Xu Zijiang's deep voice instantly spread throughout the entire brigade. Everyone was worried and, without even having time to eat, immediately sprang into action.
"Why is there chicken plague again? I raised these chickens with great difficulty. They survived the flood. It would be such a shame if they died now. Raising an egg-laying chicken is not easy!"
"Isn't that right? My chickens used to be very energetic, laying an egg every day. No wonder they haven't laid any eggs these past two days, and they don't seem very energetic. I thought they were just getting old, but I didn't expect they might have chicken plague! Do you think I should kill and eat them while they're still okay, so that if they really die, the team leader won't make me burn them!"
"That makes sense, but how can we bear to do that? What if it survives? To eat a laying hen like that, oh dear, it's heartbreaking!"
Everyone was talking about it, but no one dared to linger. The whole family pitched in; some cleaned the house, while others went out to pick mugwort overnight. Luckily, mugwort grows quickly, and the mugwort that Yu Jiu and the others had picked earlier had grown back. Otherwise, they really wouldn't have been able to provide enough for every household to pick.
Moreover, just in case, everyone picked a large pile, and those who arrived late almost missed out on the mugwort leaves. Using mugwort as bedding in the chicken coop probably has a disinfecting and sterilizing effect; anyway, mugwort has many uses, and rural people often pick it—it's practically a free medicinal herb.
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