Chapter 19 Rabbit Hunting Contest
And so the four of them stayed in Leida's room until dinner.
The Wilsons came back from horseback riding in the afternoon and seemed to be in a very happy mood. They exchanged glances from time to time, as if they were in love.
At dinner, Aunt Mary didn't behave any differently. As usual, she gave Zhang Wei a small plate of smoked beef.
After dinner, the children didn't move, but just looked at Leida expectantly, which puzzled the adults.
Seeing Aunt Mary pushing her wheelchair to leave immediately after eating and the Wilsons also starting to move, Leida hurriedly said, "Hey, everyone, we have something to announce. I hope everyone will stay for a while."
Although a little surprised, everyone stopped and listened attentively.
"I'm leaving here in a week, and during this week we're planning a competition to get rid of all the rabbits in the back garden!"
"Wait a minute, Leida, do you mean catching rabbits?" Charles asked uncertainly.
"Dad, it seems I didn't explain it clearly enough. Let me repeat it again. The contestants are as follows: Leida, Manny, Namir, and Vera."
When her name was called, Namir puffed out his chest, and Zhang Wei followed suit. After all, she really wanted to catch it too.
"Rules of the competition: Participants can use all conditions in the castle, including people and tools, to catch rabbits. The person who catches the most rabbits within three days wins."
"Of course," Leida added, "people like Namir and Vera can each choose an additional adult to assist them."
"Can I choose my father?" Namir asked immediately.
"If Dad agrees, but the prize has to be divided equally!"
"Prize!" "Prize?" Zhang Wei and Manny asked at the same time. This was not mentioned during the previous discussion.
Leida said proudly, "Of course, we would like to ask Aunt Mary to provide this prize. What do you think?"
Aunt Mary nodded and said, "Yes, the first person can choose an item from my collection."
Leida nodded in satisfaction. Seeing that Manny, Namier, and Vera didn't react much, Emma increased the prize: "Except for the first place winner, I can grant a wish to any contestant who catches the rabbit."
"Yeah!" The boys were happy then.
"Well then, we'll give all the contestants a day to think tomorrow. The official competition will begin the day after tomorrow!"
Just like that, the castle suddenly became lively.
Zhang Wei found Betty and hoped that she would be his partner.
"Honey, are you serious?" Betty was surprised. "But I can't catch rabbits. There were lots of mice where I grew up, but I never caught any either."
Zhang Wei comforted her, "It's okay, Betty. I know how to catch rabbits. Just do me a favor..."
It's dark now, and Zhang Wei plans to go to the garden for a field inspection tomorrow.
Before going to bed, I continued to consolidate today's vocabulary and looked at the composition I wrote in the afternoon. I decided to change writing the composition to writing a diary, so that I can practice every day. It would be even better if I could find someone to correct it for me.
She thought of Leida first, but he was leaving in a week. Then she thought of Manny, but she didn't know if he would be willing. Forget it, let's talk about it after the game.
Maybe because he had something on his mind, Zhang Wei woke up early the next day, and so did the others. As soon as Zhang Wei went out, he saw Namir waiting at the door of the Wilson couple's room.
Charles said to him, "Namir, I'm not going out today, but I'm going to work in the study this morning. I only have time in the afternoon, so you can think of a plan in the morning."
Namier pouted and said with some dissatisfaction: "If I had known earlier, I would have chosen Betty like Vera..."
Betty happened to be going upstairs to let them have breakfast. Upon hearing this, she spread her hands helplessly and winked at Zhang Wei.
After finishing his meal, Zhang Wei went to the back garden to check it out. It couldn’t really be called a back garden, as there was a large lawn in the middle, covering an area of about one hectare. It was surrounded by trees and vines, including evergreen trees, and a few roses blooming here and there.
From this, we can see that it used to be a garden, but it has not been taken care of for too long, and it has gradually encroached on the surrounding open areas. The reason why the grass is still there is probably thanks to the rabbits. There are holes everywhere, and it is difficult for plants to develop roots.
She squatted down and dug some soil with a wooden stick. Except for the grassy areas where the roots were firmly grasping, the soil below one centimeter was brown-black humus soil, which was very loose.
This is a perfect place for rabbits to dig holes...
Clearing out rabbits from one hectare of land at once is obviously a huge project, but Zhang Wei is not planning to do so at the moment. She chose a piece of land close to the castle and next to the moat to save materials.
When Zhang Wei took Betty to ask the old housekeeper, Leida and her two followers had already arrived at the tool shed next to the stable.
As soon as Zhang Wei entered, he was stunned. There were all kinds of tools, both current and old, made of wood and iron. Some of the tools were not much different from those used in China.
She found a big hammer and asked Betty to try it out. Betty easily held it with one hand. She didn't expect that although she was fat, she was quite strong.
Leida only stared at the long knives and iron forks, and it seemed that she was still unwilling to give up catching the rabbit with her bare hands.
"Hey! Vera, do you want Betty to knock the rabbit out with a hammer?" asked Namir.
Zhang Wei didn't want to reveal it in advance: "Uh... This is a good idea. I hadn't thought of it just now."
Next, she went to the warehouse next door to look for other materials. When she saw a large ball of nylon mesh, she reached in to try the size and felt that she was confident this time.
Then she pointed to a pile of planks about five or six meters long and said to the old housekeeper, "Can I use them?" This way she wouldn't have to find someone to cut the sticks.
"Yes, Miss Vera."
"Can someone help me saw it into one meter long? No, wait, can someone help me saw it into the same length?" Oh no, she should go dig first to see how deep the rabbit hole is, although she had seen others catching rabbits before and they said the rabbit hole would not be more than one meter deep.
"Sure, Kerry has nothing to do recently." He called the butler who was sweeping fallen leaves not far away over.
Zhang Wei then took Chris to the back garden, found a rabbit hole and started digging. After a few hoe strikes, the rabbit hole was at the bottom. However, the passages below were crisscrossed and almost empty.
After digging in a few more places, they found that none of them were deep. A one-meter long wooden board would be enough. Then they ordered Chris to saw the long wooden board into short boards of one and a half meters long as soon as possible.
The job she assigned to Betty was to check the edges of the nylon net, which would be used to catch rabbits.
At this point, Zhang Wei’s preliminary preparations are almost finished.
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