My 1995 Small Farm.

"Oh dear, why is there so much water?"

Wang Susu, wearing a pink and white long dress, had just come out of her bedroom upstairs when she was startled by the rainwater that had accumulated below.

The rain didn't stop last night, and the young couple slept soundly, listening to the sound of the rain.

I never expected that the farm would have such a wide network of irrigation canals, and that so much water would accumulate in the yard.

"Ha, the rain was so heavy and torrential last night, our yard is not only full of water, but also full of fish!"

Chen Ling looked up and laughed. Seeing his wife's pregnant belly straining against her dress, making her look even heavier, he said, "You're not feeling well, don't get down yet. Stay up there and play with Rui Rui. I'll drain this water..."

"Oh."

Wang Susu nodded blankly at first.

Then she suddenly remembered: "Ah Ling, the rain is so heavy, will the courtyards in our village be okay? I hope they don't flood the houses."

"It should be fine. The flooding here is because the mountain streams also rose, and the rainwater poured into the irrigation ditches, which couldn't drain away quickly. There are several drainage outlets in the courtyards of our village, and we've also dug a small river, so the drainage will be faster..."

It's much better than this farm.

As Chen Ling spoke, he rolled up his trouser leg, looked up, and said, "I'll go back and check on things later. Don't worry about it. Anyway, it rained heavily yesterday, and Mother didn't go back to sleep."

Then he picked up the bucket, went into the water, and prepared to catch the fish first and then drain the water.

He was wading in the water, and after taking only two or three steps, he heard a "splash" and a slippery, large thing suddenly sprang up from his feet.

It is powerful and has great momentum.

It felt like something slapped Chen Ling's leg.

It startled him.

Upon closer inspection, he exclaimed, "Hey, you big white fish, I haven't even come looking for you yet, and you're already causing me trouble!"

At this moment, the huge creature had already fallen heavily into the water.

A large splash of water erupted.

Chen Ling quickly reached out and grabbed...

But the White-lipped Fox is fierce, strong, and slippery.

Just as Chen Ling got his hands on it, the big fish suddenly shook its head and tail, almost slipping out of his grasp.

In a hurry.

With his other hand, he scooped up a bucket and stuffed the big fish directly into it.

All that could be heard was a series of loud bangs coming from the tin bucket.

The big white fish was jumping and splashing around in the bucket.

The fish was big, but the bucket was small.

It almost popped out of my head.

Hearing the commotion, Wang Susu hurriedly came out: "What's wrong, A-Ling?"

"It's nothing, it's just that there are not only a lot of fish in the water, but also a group of whitebait..."

Chen Ling looked up and laughed: "We caught another big one. Look, it's rummaging around in the bucket right now."

A cluster of white-cheeked bastards.

Besides, there's a big fish leading the way.

When it rains heavily, it surges even more fiercely than a fish swimming upstream.

"Oh! They've all run into the yard? That saves us the trouble of looking for them!"

Wang Susu said happily.

I was still worrying about it last night.

Although Chen Ling said at the time that they wouldn't be hard to catch, these big fish were too much of a menace.

She was worried about it.

They were afraid of missing the opportunity and suffering further losses.

Unexpectedly, a heavy rain fell that night, which caused these large fish to come out of the yard on their own.

Overjoyed, Wang Susu turned around and went downstairs to help Chen Ling catch it.

"Hey, hey, I just told you, it's all water down here, what are you doing down here?"

Chen Ling quickly called her to stop.

"It's alright, I'll get you the net from under the eaves..."

Wang Susu chuckled, waved her slightly plumper hand due to pregnancy, and then walked down the street with her belly sticking out.

Perhaps the young couple were speaking a little too loudly.

With her little bottom bare, Rui Rui rubbed her sleepy eyes, mumbled "Mama" in her sleep, and ran out of the room on her short legs.

They followed.

This little thing is quite something when it comes out.

Blackie and Little Gold wagged their tails and rushed up, without needing anyone to tell them to, they hurriedly went to meet them.

The moment the little boy and the dog moved, the whole farm came alive.

In a short while, everyone came out.

They might fish or drain water together with Chen Ling, or play with Rui Rui.

Nobody was in a hurry to eat breakfast.

The fish yesterday were really big enough.

Even if someone were to eat it like a steamed bun, they still wouldn't be able to finish it.

Chen Ling's entire family, including Zhao Gang, barely managed to finish eating.

So I'm not hungry in the morning.

"Good heavens, look how hard that white-lipped fish crashed in; all its scales fell off..."

Zhao Gang pointed to the two large fish that had been put into the water tank and said in surprise.

"It's not surprising. This fish is known for its impatient nature. It's like a wild bird that's just been caught and will keep crashing into its cage until it's bleeding."

Also, these fish often chase away other fish, or like when it rains and the water surges and jumps upwards, it's common for fish scales to be knocked off..."

Chen Ling caught another medium-sized mandarin fish and threw it into the water tank. With a splash, the fish, along with several large fish in the tank, vigorously shook their heads and tails, thrashing about wildly.

The water in the tank was stirred up and jolted.

The big fish inside was about 50 centimeters long.

Even the smaller ones are over 30 centimeters tall.

It's not easy for them to grow this big.

There are only five water tanks in total.

But these five fish already filled the large water tank, which was more than half a person tall.

Each fish has missing or damaged scales.

If the situation becomes more serious, or if the aquatic environment is not very clean, these fish are very likely to become infected with bacteria and die.

Seeing this situation, Chen Ling thought that if these fish couldn't be eaten, they shouldn't be released rashly.

Otherwise, the chances of contracting the disease are definitely not small.

It's better to keep it in a water tank for a few days to help it heal, then move it to a mountain lake or somewhere else. That way, at least it won't get sick.

But.

Chen Ling suddenly realized that these fish might not have appeared out of nowhere; they might also be found in places like mountain lakes, old river bends, or reservoirs.

After all, there's that rarely visited Dumb Lake. Several rivers surrounding the county town are all connected, winding and turning.

It's not strange that they have it here.

Chen Ling wanted to see how many of these things there were now.

We'll do some simple breeding or something then.

He was thinking about things while he was working.

Suddenly, a series of crisp crackling sounds came from the bamboo tiles on the roof.

The sounds were very dense.

"Huh? It's raining again?"

"No way, it must be the wind that blew the rainwater down from the trees."

"Hey, no, no, it's not rain. Listen, there's a cawing sound. Good heavens, it's a flock of cranes that have landed..."

"Wait, something's not right. Is it a egret?"

The rain has just stopped, the sun hasn't come out yet, and the sky still looks a bit gloomy.

On the roof of the bamboo house in the front yard, there was a row of large birds, some white and some blue, about thirty or forty in number.

No wonder it patters down on the bamboo tiles like rain.

I don't know if these big birds have become bolder by flocking together or what.

Before the crowd could discuss and guess a result, a large white bird spread its wings and flew down from the rooftop.

It came to a steady stop beside the lotus pond and began to peck at the small fish that the people on the shore hadn't had time to clean up.

"This is a white egret, but it's probably not from this area..."

Before Chen Ling could finish speaking, there was another commotion coming from the rooftop.

With a flapping sound, another large, azure bird landed, and like the large white bird, it began to peck at the small fish on the ground.

"This is a grey heron. Egrets and grey herons often flock together, so this one probably isn't from our area."

"Yes, the water birds in the neighborhood are all afraid of our dog and dare not come to our house. This one is probably like a crane, flying in from afar because it's hungry."

Wang Susu echoed.

Egrets and herons are also migratory, constantly changing locations in order to survive.

Just like the red-crowned cranes a few days ago, they also choose to migrate at night.

Thumping...

In the short time it took the young couple to say those two sentences, all the large birds on the roof came down.

One by one, they folded their wings, and with an air of superiority, they lowered their heads to eat the small fish.

When it's enjoying its food, it even makes a couple of loud squeaking noises.

He acted as if no one else was around.

As for the humans in the distance, they seemed to be completely ignored by them.

The family dog ​​was a bit dumbfounded when it saw such a bold bird.

They didn't react in time and didn't rush over to drive them away immediately.

And let's not even mention the kitten and the two dens of civets sheltering from the rain.

They used to act all high and mighty in front of the birds in the orchard, but now that they saw these large birds that were over a meter tall, they didn't dare to be so tough anymore.

It just quietly watches the flock of big birds pick up fish to eat, meowing softly.

The three little weasels, however, remained fearless. They used to provoke the geese in the village, and these water birds naturally wouldn't let them back down.

They hopped and skipped like three big yellow mice, running up to the flock of large birds and baring their teeth.

"Daddy, Huanghuang!"

Rui Rui's eyes lit up. After giving the weasels a bath last night, Rui Rui carried them to her crib.

A glass bottle of glow-in-the-dark fish hangs above the bed, while five fluffy, adorable weasels are cuddled in her arms.

It's very comfortable.

However, weasels are not cats or dogs. At first, these little creatures rolled around on Rui Rui's bed, sniffing around, and seemed to be having a lot of fun.

But being naturally wild, they couldn't stay still until midnight and all of them made their escape.

When Chen Ling went downstairs in the morning, she saw them sleeping soundly on Rui Rui's pile of toys in the next room.

I didn't expect them to rush to the scene so quickly when something happened.

At that moment, Rui Rui shouted, and the dogs immediately reacted. As if they had been provoked, they barked and pounced on the flock of birds.

Heiwa Xiaojin was once attacked by a flock of geese.

I've never had a good impression of these waterbirds.

Seeing Rui Rui beside Chen Ling, he put down his little master and rushed over with the pack of dogs.

The waterbirds that had been eating fish so leisurely were suddenly startled and squawked as they spread their wings and flew up in a panic, circling in the sky again.

It seems they want to find another opportunity to land.

However, the dogs kept circling on the ground and barking, so they didn't dare to come down.

"This place is really interesting; you can encounter all sorts of strange things."

Zhao Gang looked up at the flock of egrets in the sky and clicked his tongue in amazement.

The Chen family smiled without saying a word. Is this all there is to it? It's even rarer that some people can't participate at all.

For example, last winter I encountered a civet cat that was being chased and beaten by a flock of magpies. The civet cat was bald in several patches. For several days in a row, the magpies blocked the civet cat's burrow morning and night, cawing and jumping around like they were cursing.

It was like a provocation, urging the mountain raccoon to come out and fight.

The cunning fat cat was so frightened that it dared not go out. It went hungry for several days and even ran to the farm to steal steamed buns and cabbages from the cellar.

Just think about how terrible it must be.

That's a scene most people will never witness in their lifetime.

"You should come here more often when you have free time. You see, there are even more amazing things to come."

Wang Qingwen said with a smile.

He was actually referring to the giant turtles in the reservoir, which are easily seen when there is a lot of rain.

But as luck would have it, something quite unusual happened after he said those words.

And it happened on the same day.

In the morning, he and Chen Ling noticed that the flock of egrets kept trying to steal fish from the vicinity. So, while cleaning the farm's livestock pens, chicken coops, and duck sheds, they would occasionally look up at the sky and shoot at the large flock of birds with their slingshots.

Around 11 o'clock, Chen Baoshuan, along with Xizi and Liu Nier, were heading up the mountain to look for mushrooms and wild lilies. They greeted Chen Ling as they passed by.

But not long after, Chen Baoshuan was heard shouting from the mountain, and the children joined in the shouting.

Chen Ling thought something had happened.

He grabbed a shovel and rushed over.

"What's wrong, Bao Shuan?"

"Fugui, Fugui, come quick! There's a huge bird's nest here, and there's an egg lying under the tree."

Chen Ling walked up and was also a little stunned. "Good heavens, it really is. This is a nest built by an egret. The sloppiness is comparable to that of a spotted dove."

On this big tree, there was a nest larger than a millstone, spread out in the shape of a shallow dish. Looking up from below, it was a mess of dead branches and dry grass, haphazardly arranged, as if several magpie nests had been dismantled and flattened.

"I don't recognize it. Can you take a look and see if this egg is an egret egg?"