The three of them walked to the ditch where they had placed the traps before, and found a narrow spot and strode to the other side. After walking for two minutes, they arrived at the woods.
This forest is about a hundred meters away from the river. There are several large banyan trees. Gray storks, turtledoves, cuckoos, yellow orioles, sparrows and other birds like to roost here after dark. When they were in the production team, they liked to come here to shoot birds and stew them at Zhou Yiding's house.
The weather here is warm. Gray storks build nests on banyan trees. They catch fish in the river during the day and come back at night.
It was pitch black in the woods, and from time to time one could hear the gurgling sound of a bird's throat. After entering the woods, Zhou Yiding patted Dahuang, signaling it not to run around. Then the three of them slowed down their steps and walked slowly inside.
With Da Huang by their side, they were not afraid of being attacked by Lao Suo. They just used flashlights to scan the bushes, looking for gray storks and turtledoves.
When Zhou Huaian entered, he saw a yellow warbler bird. He shook his head and said to himself, "It's so small and beautiful. It would be a pity to kill it."
He took two steps forward and saw a cuckoo bird standing on a branch with its neck hunched.
This bird is scientifically known as the Great Cuckoo, a species of bird in the family Cuckoo. It is also known as Guogong, cuckoo, dove...
Its body shape is similar to that of a pigeon, with a dark gray belly covered with horizontal spots. Its loud and somewhat sad "cuckoo-cuckoo-cuckoo" call can be heard almost day and night before the Grain in Ear season.
The idiom "the cuckoo takes over the magpie's nest" is actually used to describe the cuckoo.
Cuckoos are solitary and cruel by nature. Neither male nor female birds can build nests, hatch eggs, or feed their own chicks.
Its reproduction method is parasitism. It finds its parasitic target in advance, seizes the opportunity to take away eggs from the nests of other birds such as thrushes and sparrows, and then lays its own eggs in the bird's nest, leaving other birds to incubate them.
The mother bird, completely unaware of the situation, will carefully incubate and feed her chicks regardless of the hard work.
What is most frightening is that the first cuckoo chicks that hatch will cruelly push other eggs or chicks out of the nest in order to protect their own interests.
This kind of bird has a lot of meat, and its taste is slightly worse than that of a turtledove. They used to like to hunt it down and roast it.
"Gugu~Gugu~" It was their old secret code. He suddenly remembered that no one had shouted like that outside the courtyard wall for a long time.
Zhou Huaian took out a slingshot from his pocket, then took out a small stone from another pocket, put it into the sheepskin pocket of the slingshot, and found a good position to stand.
From the experience he had accumulated since childhood, he knew that he had to stand up straight, chest out, and head straight when shooting with a slingshot, because there was a strange phenomenon: every time his head tilted to one side, the stone would tilt to that direction, and he would miss the target every time.
He raised his left hand holding the slingshot, pinched the sheepskin bag with his right hand and pulled the rubber band back to tighten it. With the momentum of shooting an arrow through a willow's eye from a hundred paces away, he held his breath and concentrated on aiming at the chest and abdomen of the sleeping cuckoo, then released the stones in the sheepskin basket.
The stone flew out with a "buzz" sound, followed by a "puff" sound. The cuckoo fell headfirst from the branch to the ground, flapped its wings a few times, and then became silent.
He went forward to pick it up, and just as he was about to find Xu Erchun to put the cuckoo bird into the sack, he saw him waving at him, and walked forward to ask in a low voice: "What's the matter?"
He lowered his voice and said, "Come here, there is a gray stork."
Zhou Huaian stuffed the cuckoo bird into the sack he was carrying, turned around and followed the direction he pointed. Through the gap, he saw a large gray stork grabbing a branch with its long claws, sleeping with its head tucked in. It did not move even under the flashlight of Xu Erchun.
"Damn it, you still find a place to hide!"
"This is An Yi. It looks like it weighs more than three kilograms." Zhou Yiding also came over.
"The youngest just hit a cuckoo." Xu Erchun said excitedly and pulled Zhou Huaian, "Youngest, you are taller, I will follow you, get closer and hit you!"
His slingshot accuracy was as good as a trance. Sometimes he was like a sharpshooter and could hit the target even from a distance. Sometimes he used up all the stones in his pocket and still couldn't hit a single target. Instead, he scared away all the birds in the forest...
"Watch me!" Zhou Huaian whispered, took out a large round stone, and posed...
"Hurry up, kid! You're not taking a picture, you don't have to pose!" Xu Erchun urged in a low and anxious voice, fearing that the gray stork would scream and scare away other birds.
"Don't panic, there's no time to waste!" Zhou Huaian aimed at the chest and abdomen of the sleeping gray stork, loosened the stones in the sheepskin basket, and the gray stork fell headfirst from the branch to the ground.
"Run away, Ma Laoke!"
Before the gray stork could even flutter its wings, Xu Erchun ran over and grabbed it. He tucked its long head under his wings and stuffed it into the sack. "An Yi, we caught another one."
Zhou Yiding happily glanced at the two in the sack, one large and one small. "I got two of them right after the opening. It looks like I can fill up the sack tonight."
Xu Erchun smiled and nodded, "Let's get some turtledoves. Even though they eat fish, they still taste worse than turtledoves!"
"That's why they say there are turtledoves in the sky and loaches on the ground!" Zhou Huaian said as he took out a flashlight from his bag. "Let's go and take a look at those banyan trees. There are many bird nests on them."
Zhou Yiding slapped his head and said, "Oh! How could I have forgotten my old nest!"
"Don't worry, I'll remember it!"
The three of them held flashlights and looked up at the branches above their heads, scanning with their eyes like radars. Da Huang, who was leading the way in front, walked in a cat-like manner.
Before they reached the banyan tree, Zhou Yiding discovered a cuckoo and Zhou Huaian discovered a turtledove. The two of them easily dealt with them, and Xu Erchun was responsible for picking them up and putting them in a burlap bag.
The three men and the dog moved forward slowly. Two of them had shot five turtledoves, seven cuckoo birds, and two gray storks. Maybe because they were with Da Huang, they didn't see Lao Suo.
Half an hour later, the three of them arrived under a few banyan trees and saw that the two banyan trees under the rock had grown into one. The gray-black roots, like long snakes, were densely crawling on the exposed rocks, almost wrapping up the rocks.
Zhou Huaian whispered, "Fuck~ It's only been two years since I last saw this place, and these trees have grown a lot."
Zhou Yiding took a look and pointed at a few dead tree trunks. "Look, the ones next to them have been entangled to death by them."
Xu Erchun, who was standing next to Zhou Huaian, gave him a nudge and said, "Youngest, there's a gray stork up there."
Zhou Huaian looked up and saw the gray stork hiding in the bushes. He handed him the flashlight, took out a big stone and put it in the sheepskin basket, then shot it over quickly.
With a dull "puff" sound, the gray stork fell headfirst. Xu Erchun hurried forward to pick it up, twisted its head and stuffed it into the sack in one go.
Over there, Zhou Yiding also shot down one, but it didn't even have time to flap its wings before it was caught by Dahuang.
Zhou Huaian whispered: "There are four gray storks now. It will be enough if we kill two more!"
Zhou Yiding nodded, "Just a few more will be enough. Erchun and I will take a gray stork and a turtledove back to stew bamboo fungus. The others will be left at your house. We will go to your house tomorrow afternoon to stew various mushrooms for soup."
He picked a lot of bamboo fungi in the mountains this year, dried four or five kilograms of them, and shared some with his family for making soup.
Xu Erchun: "Youngest, I'll bring it back for you to clean up later!"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Okay! Go back and kill it, apply some light salt and marinate it in the wine cellar. It will taste better when stewed in a soup pot tomorrow night."
After he said that, he raised the flashlight and walked slowly under the tree. He soon found another turtledove and shot it down neatly.
The three of them wandered around under the banyan tree and shot two more gray storks and a few turtledoves. The sack was almost full.
Zhou Yiding looked at the wild animals in the sack and said with some reluctance, "They are so easy to hunt. I haven't even had enough and I've already caught so many!"
Zhou Huaian looked at the time. "It's eleven o'clock. I've been out for almost two hours. I'm tired after a day and it's time to go back."
Zhou Yiding laughed and said, "Time flies faster when we're having fun. I just spent an entire afternoon picking corn yesterday, but it felt more difficult than a whole day."
Xu Erchun took out a hemp rope and said, "It looks like tonight's dragon and phoenix soup is ruined!"
Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "Next time, don't bring Da Huang out. Can you see if there is any?"
"Woof woof~Woof woof~" When Dahuang heard his name being called, he kept wagging his tail at him.
Zhou Yiding rubbed its head and said, "Don't bark. I'll take you there next time!"
"Let's go!" Xu Erchun carried the sack on his shoulders, "What are you two going to do tomorrow?"
Zhou Huaian: "I'll deliver the vegetables tomorrow morning, and then I'll break the corn when I get back. What about you?"
"Xiaohui has gone to her in-laws' house. I'm going to go there to collect mushrooms tomorrow morning." Xu Erchun pulled the sack, "We can still collect mushrooms for a month or so. After that, take a good rest for a few months."
"It's not as easy as you say!" Zhou Huaian felt a headache when he thought about the next job. "The next step is to plow the fields, sow rapeseed and wheat, and plant some broad beans, sedge and flowers."
"Yeah, it feels like there's always work to do all year round!" Xu Erchun said, and then asked, "Youngest, are you still harvesting truffles this year?"
Zhou Huaian shook his head, "Wang Zhen hasn't notified you yet. As soon as I get the news, I promise to notify you first."
Zhou Yiding said nothing. He remembered that the youngest brother had told him a few months ago that the truffle harvest this year was settled. Since he kept it a secret from Erchun and the others, he must have his reasons.
Xu Erchun said gratefully! "Thank you!"
The three men and the dog came out of the woods, walked to a small ditch, crossed over it, and walked along the river bank, talking and laughing.
When Zhou Yiding's flashlight swept across the grove opposite, he seemed to see two dark shadows, which disappeared in the blink of an eye.
He suddenly felt his pores stand up, and he grabbed Zhou Huaian, "Youngest, there seems to be someone in the woods across the street."
"It's pitch black. You know I'm timid, so don't scare me." Zhou Huaian shone the flashlight over there, but saw nothing. "Your eyes are blurry, right? Where is the person?"
Xu Erchun leaned over to take a look and said, "Maybe the wind is causing the branches to move."
Zhou Huaian: "That's right, Da Huang didn't even bark, what are you afraid of?"
"Yeah, Da Huang didn't even bark." Zhou Yiding thought for a moment, "Let's go, three hot-blooded men, what are we afraid of!"
As soon as the three of them arrived at the stone bridge slope, they saw a flashlight shining towards the river.
Da Huang barked twice, and then Zhou Yiding slapped him, "Stop barking."
Zhou Huaian glanced at Zhou Yiding and said, "It's so late, what happened?" (End of this chapter)
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