My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 454 New Gameplay

"Oh, is that so? The first time I ate cicada nymphs, I roasted them over a fire..."

The little piglet stared blankly, as if recalling the taste. "My grandma rarely fried it for us."

No, frying cicada nymphs uses too much oil.

No one in the village was willing to spend that much.

Moreover, whether it's cicadas or cicada nymphs, they taste pretty good when roasted or grilled over fire.

"My family is the same, but my dad makes money, and when he's happy, he'll fry some for me too."

Xiaosen raised his hand and said, "Fried cicada nymphs are so delicious, fragrant and crispy. My dad loves to eat them with his drinks."

"Nonsense, fried ones don't taste good, they have a weird taste, they're not even as good as scorpions. They're best when they're braised."

"It's fried delicious!"

"It's delicious!"

"..."

"Uncle Fugui, tell me, are fried cicada nymphs tastier or roasted ones?"

"Haha, you guys, what's there to argue about? If you ask me, this is better cooked cicadas."

Whether it's a tender cicada that has just molted or an old cicada that has turned black, they taste better when cooked.

Of all the fried food, fried cicada nymphs are the best.

After soaking in salt water and washing off the dirt, soak it in water with Sichuan peppercorns and star anise overnight to fully absorb the flavor.

Fry them again the next day, and they're delicious!

Chen Ling listened to their chatter and laughed, "Hey, speaking of which, I'll take you to a great place later, I'll teach you a fun trick..."

The children's mouths watered as they listened, and they were about to ask for more details.

Rui Rui and Liu Ni'er, along with two big dogs, dug up several cicada nymphs and exclaimed with delight, then lay down on the ground to pick them up.

There's simply not enough to pick them all up.

"Good heavens, we've dug up several cicada nymph burrows connected together."

Chen Ling looked and saw that there were several cicada burrows closely connected together under the tree roots.

This situation is rather rare.

Don't be fooled by the dense, honeycomb-like holes under that old willow tree; they're all little holes left by cicada nymphs.

But in reality, cicada nymphs don't all crawl out together.

They came out one after another.

It can take several days, or even half a month, to cause this situation.

"You lucky rascal, it's just that your brother Liu Ni'er taught you for nothing, you're so impatient."

Rui Rui is still young. Although he is much smarter than most one-year-old babies, it is impossible for him to be as sensible as a three- or four-year-old.

When it comes to fun things, they get impatient.

He was quite interested in digging out cicada burrows when Liu Nier first taught him, but he didn't play for very long because his fingers were too small and he didn't know how to use his strength.

Even if you pry open the cicada nymph's hole, you still can't catch the cicada nymph inside.

He quickly lost his patience.

With two big dogs, they frantically dug around in the small hole under the tree, making "heave-ho" noises.

Unexpectedly, the random digging yielded seven or eight artifacts.

Chen Ling threw them all into the bucket and soaked them in water.

The sky gradually darkened.

The cicada nymphs underground crawled out of the soil and climbed up the nearest tree.

The area around the Earth God Temple is densely wooded and overgrown with grass, so not many people come here.

This provides a good living environment for cicada nymphs.

Every summer, their numbers become extremely large.

If we rely solely on these little kids to catch them every year, how could we possibly catch them all?
Now that it's dark, cicada nymphs are crawling out everywhere.

Some climbed onto tree trunks, some onto the stalks of wild grass, and some even onto the leaves of saplings that have sprouted in the last two years.

Some climb very low and then remain motionless, preparing to transform.

Some climbed quickly, reaching a great height in the tree, but they weren't satisfied and wanted to climb even higher.

On each tree, a cicada nymph crawled at varying heights.

We had already completed the first round of arrests.

When they circled back, new cicada nymphs had climbed up the tree.

Chen Ling led a group of children with flashlights and torches, and they couldn't catch them all.

Those that are too high, we'll just leave them be.

Wang Zhenzhen led Rui Rui, who rode Heiwa on his back. The two of them, sweating profusely, searched around the big tree and then looked for things in the grass.

"Uncle Fugui, we can't carry any more, so put them in your bucket."

"Come on, let it in, I'm almost full too."

"Oh? Uncle, is your bucket full too? How many will you have to catch then...?"

"There must be several hundred of them. Some people are coming over there. We've caught enough. Let's stop and let them catch more."

"Hey, wait, Uncle Fugui, don't go! There's a little cicada nymph here, it's climbed so high, I can't reach it."

Upon closer inspection, Chen Ling realized it was indeed a very small cicada nymph.

The cicadas that emerge from these tiny cicada nymphs are very small.

Its body and wings are covered with many beautiful patterns.

Compared to ordinary cicadas, they are much prettier, and their calls are clearer and louder.

Every summer, they emerge from the soil earlier than the cicadas.

Before shedding its shell, this little cicada nymph is not much different in appearance from a regular cicada nymph, except that it is much smaller.

But after catching it, Rui Rui immediately took a liking to the little one and held it in his hands, refusing to put it down.

Of course, Liu Nier and the others wouldn't fight with him for it. They also told him not to keep squeezing and playing with it, because if he broke it, the cicada nymph would get hurt and leak water, and it wouldn't be able to become a cicada anymore.

They never eat these small cicadas; they prefer to catch them and put them on the window so they can molt and become cicadas themselves, then keep them as pets.

Even if they die from playing, it's okay; they'll just feed the chickens and ducks and nothing will go to waste.

"Hey, catching a cicada nymph, Fugui, up so early! How many have you caught?"

Several young people from the village came around carrying torches and various bottles.

"I didn't count them, but there are probably several hundred. My little bucket is full."

Chen Ling shone a flashlight into the small bucket to show them.

"Goodness, this is enough for several meals."

“There are far fewer people in the village than outside the village. We each searched around for a long time and only managed to catch a dozen or twenty.”

When we were kids, we'd go out to catch cicada nymphs and, if we encountered one, we'd ask each other how many we'd caught.

Then they take them out and compare them.

Chen Ling didn't have his mother to take care of him back then, so he had a strange temper and wasn't very kind-hearted.

If you encounter someone who has caught far more cicada nymphs than you, you'll be so envious and jealous that you can't sleep at night.

Once, Wang Xuecheng from Wang Jukun's family caught more than two hundred people. Chen Ling's father wouldn't let him go out of the village to play at night, so he searched the village and only caught about thirty.

Upon learning that Wang Xuecheng had caught so many, he cried and made a scene when he got home. Chen Juncai had no choice but to take him out of the village and search along the riverbank and embankment, catching as many as he could until midnight, finally managing to catch enough.

The next day, before he had even had enough sleep, Chen Ling got up early and, carrying his spoils, knocked on Wang Xuecheng's door to show off, saying that he had caught more than 300 people the night before, a hundred more than Chen Ling.

Thinking back to how proud he was with his little head held high, Chen Ling couldn't help but laugh. He turned to look at his son, who was riding a dog and running around in the fields full of wheat stubble: "Come out quickly, stop making a fuss in there. I'll take you to play by the river."

Besides playing by the river, you should also fill the bucket with water. If you catch too many cicada nymphs and the water can't cover them, they will molt on their own.

If you put in more water and drown them, they won't molt anymore.

"Uncle, shall we go to the old river bend or the reservoir?"

“We don’t need to go that far. There’s a small river in our village now, and so many trees outside the elementary school. I’ll take you on a fun trip, and we can also try some new ways to eat cicadas.”

Upon hearing this, the children were filled with anticipation and skipped and hopped along the country path straight into the village.

Walking through the threshing ground into the village, you see many families gathered outside their doors to cool off, chatting and laughing.

Hearing the little kids shouting and yelling, with Chen Ling following behind, they all asked him what he was going to do.

Chen Ling stopped and said with a smile, "Brother Dazhi, Brother Lishan, want to go burn some cicadas?"

"How old is your child? You already have a child, and you're still burning cicadas. All you do is cause trouble."

Chen Dazhi was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, and then burst into laughter.

Wang Lishan put down the palm-leaf fan in his hand: "Come on, I'll go with you. Anyway, we're just idling around. It's better to play with the kids than to sit here."

Chen Dazhi thought about it and agreed: "I'll go then, I'll just bring some wheat straw."

As soon as those two moved, Chen Baoshuan, Chen Yuqiang, and the others followed.

There are quite a lot of trees around Dayantang. It's a school, so there are bound to be plenty of trees, both inside and outside the school.

There are pine and cypress trees and bamboo on campus.

Outside the school, there are mostly willow trees.

This is the kind of thing that people love, and it's very resilient and easy to live.

At the confluence of the newly dug stream and the large pond, the nearby slopes are covered with large willow trees.

When a group of adults get into trouble, they can be much more formidable than little kids.

Each person carried a pile of firewood and placed it under the willow trees, making sure to keep it away from the roots to avoid burning the trees.

Then they lit a fire.

As the flames began to leap up, the firelight gradually grew brighter and brighter.

Chen Ling and the other adults stood under a willow tree and instructed the children, "Stay away and watch carefully."

The children responded enthusiastically, running aside and urging them to hurry up and start burning the cicadas.

"Coming right now."

"One, two, three, kick..."

After Chen Ling finished shouting the slogan, several adults chuckled and kicked the trunk of the big willow tree repeatedly.

Amidst the violent shaking of several large willow trees, a continuous 'squeak' sound rang out, and countless cicadas cried out in panic, falling into the fire like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

The scene was spectacular.

Wow, so many cicadas!

The little ones were stunned by the adults' actions and started jumping, clapping, and cheering.

Soon, the Zhao Yubao family was also attracted. After they found out what they were doing, they stared wide-eyed and opened their mouths in amazement.

"Why are these cicadas so stupid? What are they going to do with their wings? Don't they know how to fly farther? Why do they just fly straight into the fire when you kick a tree?"

"Exactly, exactly, like moths drawn to a flame."

"..."

"Haha, Uncle Zhao, Uncle Zhong, you both said it's like moths to a flame, isn't that clear enough?"
Cicadas are similar to moths in that they also exhibit phototropism.

If you kick the tree during the day, they'll definitely fly far away. But it's a different story at night. You can light a fire under the tree, and it'll smoke, burn, and glow...

If we kick the tree again, in their panic, where else can they rush but into the fire?

Chen Ling replied with a smile, then waved to the children.

"Come on over, come and wait to eat roasted cicadas."

The little devils cheered and gathered around, helping the adults put out the fire.

Wang Lishan nodded approvingly: "That's right, that's how it should be done. Don't play with fire like this when no adults are around."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yuqiang laughed and said, "Uncle Lishan, have you forgotten what Uncle Fugui just said? Without adults, they can't burn cicadas even if they want to. Back then, when we were watering the fields and keeping watch at night, we needed adults to help us. Otherwise, with their limited strength, they wouldn't even be able to kick the trees after lighting a fire."

"Haha, that makes sense."

Back then, eating roasted cicadas was such a treat! Even if we had to water the fields at night, we wouldn't feel tired or sleepy; we could be happy all night long.

Wang Lishan's words were met with unanimous nods of agreement from everyone.

"Yeah yeah."

Even though they are of different ages, they all share a common memory of "burning cicadas".

However, back then, we were mostly outside the village, in the fields or on the riverbank, where we would find a tree, light a fire, kick it hard, and watch the cicadas fall into the fire like rain.

There is a genuine sense of joy that comes from the heart.

This is a rare treat on summer nights, a pleasure enjoyed by both adults and children.

The main thing is that you can have fun and eat meat.

……

As for playing with fire...

Actually, adults often remind children of this, and kids already know it.

Those who don't know will learn their lesson after being punished a few times.

"Alright, alright, you can eat it now. If you keep burning it, it'll turn to ashes."

Chen Ling quickly grabbed a stick and pulled the charred cicadas out of the fire one by one.

The little kids followed suit and soon pulled out a whole bunch.

"Do you know how to eat roasted cicadas? If not, let your Uncle Fugui teach you."

"We know how to eat it, we eat the middle part, that's where the meat is."

Burning cicadas and frying cicadas are very different.

Fried cicadas are made from tender cicada nymphs that have just molted. They are fried whole without damaging the cicada.

Burning cicadas refers to old cicadas that can fly in the trees.

After falling into the fire, his body was burned.

Only the middle part after removing the head and tail is edible; that thing is a saddle-shaped shell, which is the cicada's back.

It's all meat inside.

Chen Ling taught his son to break off the charred buttocks, break off the head, and blow away the black ash from the remaining small section in the middle to reveal the tender red flesh.

It's cooked through.

Chen Ling popped a piece into his mouth and chewed it carefully. A feeling buried deep in his memory welled up in his heart along with the familiar yet unfamiliar taste in his mouth.

"Delicious, this stuff is really good." Zhao Yubao and his wife, the two old men, imitated Chen Ling and ate a piece, their eyes immediately lighting up.

"It tastes a bit like chicken. I didn't add any salt or seasonings, so how come it tastes so good just from cooking it?"

Chen Dazhi and the others laughed when they heard this. While picking up and eating the cicadas from the ground, they told them that the taste of roasted cicadas was actually not much different from that of roasted sparrows.

Roasted quail eggs are the best.

(End of this chapter)