She went to the storage room and found some leftover red bricks from building the yard. After the rain stopped, she moved the red bricks under the eaves and built a square house. She also dug a hole in the chicken coop facing her to serve as a door for the chicks to enter and exit.
Then, they found a few planks left over from demolishing the old house in the tool shed, placed them on top of the blocks, and a simple little house was completed.
After she finished doing all this, she turned around and found that a dozen or so chicks had flown into her vegetable garden to eat the vegetables she had grown.
There aren't enough vegetables for her and Yaya, how can these stinky chicks eat them!
Qiao An'an hurriedly ran over to shoo the chicks away.
At the same time, she also realized that chicks and vegetables could not coexist in the same space; either the chicks had to be controlled or the vegetable garden had to be protected.
After considering all the options, it seems more reliable to keep the chicks under control.
She found several thick, tall tree branches and used them to surround the chicken coop, giving the chicks room to move around. Then she used wire to connect the pieces of wood together. Finally, she found several old woven bags that she used for storing things at home, tore them open, and fixed them to the wire and wood.
After finishing all this, Qiao An'an called Ya Ya to catch chickens with her.
These chickens are just too good at flying.
Even if you throw them into the chicken coop, they can still fly out.
Qiao An'an's task might involve grabbing a pair of scissors and preparing to clip the wings of the chicks.
Ya Ya felt sorry for the chicks she had raised herself and cried, "No, the chicks will be in pain!"
Qiao An'an could only explain to the heartbroken Ya Ya, "Mommy is just cutting the feathers off the chicks' wings. It won't hurt them, and they won't feel any pain."
Ya Ya was skeptical.
Only when they saw that the chicks whose wings had been clipped by Bie Qiao An An were neither bleeding nor struggling in pain did they feel relieved.
The chicks with clipped wings can't fly out and can only move around in the chicken coop that Qiao An'an has set up.
Ya Ya has gotten used to the chicks living in the room.
I was a little reluctant to part with them suddenly, and I clung to the fence of the chicken coop, unwilling to leave.
Qiao An'an noticed Ya Ya's reluctance and put the rice and water prepared for the chicks into the chicken coop. Then she squatted down and said to Ya Ya, "They used to be able to live in cardboard boxes when they were small, but now they're too big for the boxes. Besides, it's very hot now, and they'll get too hot living in the boxes."
Ya Ya seemed to understand but not quite: "Like what Ya Ya did a few days ago?"
Qiao An'an nodded: "Ya Ya will feel uncomfortable if she gets too hot, and so will the chicks. Mom made such a big house for the chicks to live in, so they won't get sick from being crammed into cardboard boxes. And this new home is big enough that they can wander around in this big chicken coop when they have nothing to do, and when they are tired, they can go into the little chicken coop that Mom made to sleep."
Ya Ya was relieved and waved goodbye to the nine baby chicks.
A chicken coop kept Qiao An'an so busy that she missed lunchtime.
Her and Ya Ya's faces were covered in sweat and mud. She helped Ya Ya wash her hands and face with well water, and then pumped a bucket of well water into the house to prepare dinner.
As they passed the potato field, Ya Ya pointed at the potatoes with delight and said to Qiao An'an, "Mommy, the seedlings have grown so much!"
Potatoes are a type of crop with relatively high requirements for soil, prefer cool weather, and are not heat-tolerant. The optimal growing temperature is 12-21 degrees Celsius. So, even though Qiao An'an and Ya Ya watered and fertilized them every day after planting, the potatoes didn't grow much. Qiao An'an even doubted whether the potatoes would survive. If so, her hope of using potatoes as a supplementary food would be dashed. Unexpectedly, this heavy rain caused them to sprout a large section.
Look how tall the potatoes have grown.
Qiao An'an was relieved.
But when she got to the eaves, she found that the little rooster was not getting better, but was in worse shape. It was probably not going to live, so she had to kill it and eat it before it died. Once it died, she couldn't eat it anymore.
The matter of killing the chickens couldn't be told to Ya Ya, otherwise she definitely wouldn't be happy. So Qiao An'an pointed to the second floor and said to Ya Ya, "The baby chicks made a huge mess of our room upstairs just now. Can you help Mommy tidy up the room, Ya Ya?"
Three-year-old Yaya's favorite thing to do is help adults with chores.
This would make her feel useful.
She agreed without even thinking about it.
After Qiao An'an and Ya Ya went upstairs, she hurried to the kitchen to sharpen a knife and kill a chicken.
The rooster was still too small; only a small half bowl of blood was released, and its down feathers hadn't even grown in yet. The feathers all fell off when it was scalded with boiling water.
The chicken weighed about a pound and didn't have much meat on it, except for the two chicken legs which had some meat left. Qiao An'an took dried chili peppers, broad bean paste, and garlic cloves as seasonings, and prepared to make a braised chicken, stir-fry some green vegetables, and heat up some steamed buns. That would be their dinner.
The chicks are small; just add a big bowl of water, salt, dark soy sauce, and light soy sauce, and they'll be cooked in twenty minutes.
Perhaps because she had been eating garlic-flavored pork belly for so many days, Ya Ya ate with great relish when a plate of braised chicken suddenly appeared. While gnawing on a chicken leg, she asked Qiao An'an, "Mommy, what kind of meat is this? It smells so good!"
Qiao Anan wondered if Ya Ya would get angry with her if she said it was chicken meat.
But lying doesn't seem right either: "This is chicken."
Ya Ya stared at the chicken leg in her hand, lost in thought: "Chicken...?"
These days, Ya Ya has been personally feeding and watering the chicks, and she even helps clean the cardboard boxes. In Ya Ya's eyes, the chicks are her babies.
Qiao An felt relieved. She had eaten the chick that her child had worked so hard to raise. Would her child develop EMO now?
Unexpectedly, Ya Ya looked up at Qiao An'an seriously and said, "Mom, I think chicken tastes better than pork!"
Well, it seems I was overthinking it.
Qiao placed a piece of green vegetable into Ya Ya's bowl with her chopsticks: "Even if it's delicious, you can't just eat chicken all the time. You have to eat some green vegetables too!"
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