My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 498 New Discovery

"Look, the eagle is circling around here again."

That evening, when Chen Ling was collecting eggs on the mountain with his brother-in-law and his wife, several black figures were circling and hovering in the sky.

And as they circled, they continuously lowered their flight altitude.

It looks like they're looking for a suitable hunting target.

"These guys are really something, they're getting bolder and bolder. A couple of days ago they didn't dare to fly near the village, but today they're so close."

Wang Qingwen put the egg basket on the ground, tilted his head back, and frowned slightly.

He had naturally heard about the eagles' group stealing chickens before.

Later, he was intimidated by Er Tuzi's example of killing one to warn a hundred.

Chen Ling also dried the dead eagle's carcass and nailed it to a tree next to the chicken coop on the back mountain as a warning.

This kept the eagles away from the vicinity of the village for quite some time.

Unexpectedly, after these egrets and cranes migrated here, they attracted them back.

"Don't worry about it. Er Tu Zi is back today. If they dare to steal chickens and ducks, Er Tu Zi won't take it lying down."

Chen Ling didn't pay much attention to the eagles, not because he was careless, but because there were just too many egrets, far more than cranes.

There are only a little over a hundred cranes, including the red-crowned crane.

However, these egrets and herons, along with a small number of cattle egrets and little egrets that have mixed in with the local population, are estimated to number in the nearly one thousand.

For some people living in areas with water or paddy fields, this number may not be very large.

But that's enough for the eagles to go out hunting every day and return with a full load, enjoying a hearty meal.

Even Er Tuzi has been frequently going out lately to prey on these migrating birds.

With such ample food, they have no interest in harming chickens and ducks.

"That's true."

Wang Qingwen thought that made sense, so he was no longer so worried.

The three of them chatted as they picked up the eggs. Just as they finished, a large flock of egrets returned to their nests.

A large flock of egrets flapped their white wings, drifting like white clouds into the canopy of the trees and their nests atop the cliffs.

After the sun sets, the dim sky is filled with cawing sounds.

It is also a rare and spectacular sight.

Chen Ling and his brother-in-law and his wife stood there watching for a long time.

Watch as those eagles swoop down from all directions every now and then, launching surprise attacks on the herons.

With so many egrets, the fierce eagles were like mice falling into a rice jar; they could easily swoop down and catch them.

This startled the egrets, causing them to fly away in panic.

As darkness fell, the eagle's eyesight was greatly affected.

The battle in the sky gradually subsided.

Afterwards, the brother-in-law pointed to the egret nests on the cliff and in the trees and said, "I heard from the people in your village that these rare birds have been increasing since last year. It's really strange. In the past, our geese didn't land here so often. They would stay for a month or twenty days and then leave."

Unexpectedly, now even red-crowned cranes are leading the way by building nests and settling down here.

Could it really be like Dad said, some kind of auspicious burial ground where treasures are buried...?

Before Chen Ling could reply, Su Ligai chuckled and said, "Is that even a question? The Turtle Prince has already traveled here several times; it must be a place of great feng shui. Why would he need to bury treasures underground?"
"You agree, right, Lingzi?"

"Yes, yes, yes, sister-in-law is right."

Chen Ling laughed heartily.

He felt quite accomplished that so many cranes and egrets had come to nest and live around his village.

Sometimes, whether the feng shui is good or bad doesn't require divination.

Good birds choose trees to roost in.

The performance of these rare and exotic animals is more convincing than any feng shui master.

This proves that, under his influence, the environment in his hometown is getting better and better.

Moreover, it is foreseeable that local products will become increasingly abundant in the future.

This is much more fulfilling than how much money he has made.

……

The sky was still overcast and not yet fully light.

Laohewan.

A young man was already strolling along the riverbank, leading a small blue horse and a chubby-faced baby.

The weather hasn't been very good these past few days.

It was still a bit chilly when I went out in the early morning.

Chen Ling took his son for a couple of strolls, then left the egrets nesting in the reeds undisturbed.

He simply rolled up his trousers, waded into the icy river, and pulled the cage along.

"It's been three days, and still nothing. Could it be that I accidentally released those whitebait near the farm?"

Chen Ling looked at the cage full of fish and shrimp, but there was no smile on his face. He casually opened the cage and dumped all the fish and shrimp on the ground.

They didn't care about the crayfish and crabs crawling around everywhere.

Looking at this pile of miscellaneous fish and shrimp, Chen Ling was still somewhat unwilling to give up.

Logically, the bait he used had a special smell, which should have attracted any whitebait in the river.

It's impossible that there aren't any.

"Dad, Daddy."

Rui Rui ran over with her short legs, holding a sticky, dirty little turtle in her hands.

"Huh, a wheat field turtle has hatched?"

Chen Ling was stunned for a moment, then thought that it was already the end of June, and it should be time for them to hatch.

"Hehe, Daddy, take it."

Rui Rui tilted his little head happily, handed it to him, and then ran off to the grass on the riverbank to continue catching turtles.

Chen Ling saw that Heiwa and his two tails had already followed them over, wagging their big tails and running around, busying themselves around the little boy.

They rinsed the little turtle in the river water and tossed it into the bamboo basket.

They picked up some of the larger crucian carp, grass carp, and common carp and threw them back into the river. They left the smaller fish, crayfish, and crabs alone, tossing them into a bamboo basket to take back to feed Rui Rui's chicks.

Although I don't know how many more days I can patiently feed the brat, I can't just leave him to starve to death.

"Hmm? Good heavens, this is a spiny loach, isn't it? I haven't seen one in years. This fish is even rarer than a wheat field turtle..."

Chen Ling picked up a strange, long fish from the bottom of the net. It was dark brown, thin and long, with barbs on its back and a sharp, thin mouth.

It looks a bit like a yellow eel, but smaller, and a bit like a loach, but bigger, and it doesn't have whiskers on its mouth.

If it weren't for its unremarkable color, its bizarre appearance with barbs would probably make it even more grotesque than a red eel.

"Although we didn't find any schools of whitebait, finding spiny loach is still considered pretty lucky."

Chen Ling had planned that if he didn't catch any whitebait from the old river bend today, he would go to the reservoir to set up cages.

However, after seeing this spiny loach, I had a slight idea in my mind.

Having caught this spiny loach, which hadn't been seen for many years, Chen Ling had to admire his good luck.

Of course, he knew in his heart that this was largely because his bait was so tempting that it attracted so many fish and shrimp to frantically crawl into the cage.

This spiny loach is also called the knife loach. I haven't seen it since the late 1970s.

These fish look strange, but they taste very good.

The fish meat is delicate and has a more savory flavor than eel meat, with less of a muddy taste.

In addition, this stuff can also be used in medicine.

Every part of the fish is a treasure; the fish meat can nourish blood and qi, and the fish bones soaked in wine can remove dampness.

This is something Chen Ling values ​​highly.

It's something I value even more than whether it tastes good or not.

After all, the mountain air is very humid, so this fish is much more valuable than other aquatic products.

I continued rummaging through the pile of fish and shrimp, picking and choosing. There were relatively few spiny loaches; I only found five in total. Two of them were so small that they were only about the thickness of my little finger. If I hadn't checked them carefully, I would have mistaken them for mud loaches and thrown them back into the water.

However, five is not a small number.

Chen Ling happily tossed them into the cave, pleased that he had found another precious fish species.

The rules in the mountains prohibit hunting in the summer. His only enjoyment, besides taking his children to catch cicadas and look for scorpions at night, is in the water.

He made a new discovery, and Rui Rui also gained a lot.

In just a short while, they caught five or six small turtles. Every time they caught one, they ran over and put it into the bamboo basket, busy back and forth.

There were many small fish and shrimp mixed in, so Chen Ling had to pick them out, pick two lotus leaves to cover the bamboo basket, separating the little turtle from the fish and shrimp below, and letting them crawl back and forth on the lotus leaves.

These little guys had obviously just hatched and were crawling around everywhere on the riverbank and in the grass.

There would probably be even more at night.

This creature is similar to a newly hatched sea turtle in some ways. It is quite alert even when it is just born, and it prefers to come out at night rather than wander around during the day.

With nothing much to do early in the morning, Chen Ling, seeing his son was happy, let him go and catch the little turtles to his heart's content.

It's just that it gets harder to find them as you go further in the search.

In the end, we only caught about ten, which, combined with the big turtles at home, made enough for a pond.

The father and son returned home thoroughly satisfied.

Back at the farm, before the whole family had even gotten up, Chen Ling carried her son and tiptoed to the backyard kitchen to cook some porridge and make some egg pancakes.

Then, the two of them, one big and one small, surrounded the bamboo cage of the little moorhens and began to feed them with small fish and shrimp.

Rui Rui actually loves feeding these little creatures the most.

Watching them eat insects and small fish bite by bite makes them happier than when they eat themselves, and they squat next to the bamboo cage the whole time, watching intently.

If he's full and doesn't want to eat anymore, he'll stick his fingers in and poke them a few times.

He mumbled a few incomprehensible words, but he seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Generally, it doesn't need anyone to manage it.

The brat was feeding the chicks with great enthusiasm.

Chen Ling took the box containing the turtle eggs down and looked at it from all angles, but there was no sign of them hatching.

Compared to the baby turtles that hatched early in the cave, they were much later.

Shaking his head, he put the box aside and simply took the turtle he had caught earlier and placed it in the stone trough under the gourd trough. This was a livestock trough that he had brought back from the village; it was dilapidated and no one wanted it anymore.

Fortunately, the stone trough is quite large.

Now it's used as a turtle pond, with turtles of all sizes put in, and a few pennywort plants added, instantly making it vibrant with life. It actually complements the mottled marks of time left on the stone trough.

The father and son were feeding the chicks and playing with the turtle.

When Wang Qingwen and his wife got up and saw this scene, they found it quite amusing.

As Su Li turned to walk this way, she said to her husband, "We should bring Tongtong over. You're not as good a father as Lingzi. You've hardly played with your son since he was little. Look at all the things Lingzi made for Rui Rui, like little chicks and little turtles. They're so nice."

Wang Qingwen moved his lips, wanting to refute, but he had nothing to say.

Fortunately, Gao Xiulan arrived in time, leading a white calf from the village. She then told Chen Ling that Wang Jusheng had returned from the hospital and that he should go and check on him after eating.

These days, whenever Chen Ling is herding horses, as long as the weather is good, he will ride around the county town to visit Wang Jusheng at the hospital.

They were afraid he might do something rash.

Fortunately, after Zhang Qiaoling's family made a fuss, Wang Jusheng seemed to realize that besides his wife and Chen Ling, he still had relatives who cared about him.

So gradually I didn't feel so bad anymore.

Once, when Chen Ling visited, he even took the initiative to mention to Chen Ling that he wanted to bring his brother-in-law along to do some business with Chen Ling.

It was inconvenient for him to be at the local police station, and Zhang Qiaoling also had to take care of the children, so he decided to follow Chen Ling's initial suggestion and let his wife's family members take over.

"If that doesn't work, let Jusheng work with your second brother first."

During the meal, Wang Qingwen said.

Among Chen Ling's friends, Wang Qingwen felt that he got along best with Wang Lixian and Wang Jusheng.

He was particularly sympathetic towards Wang Jusheng.

"No need for that. You and your second brother can do that. Others don't let them get involved. As for Jusheng, he and his wife are focused on making money, but they just don't want to put in the effort in that area."

Chen Ling rolled the pickled vegetables in an egg pancake and ate it with scallions. Without looking up, he muttered, "Take this pickled vegetable, for example. It was Sister Qiaoling who taught Susu how to make it, but our family's pickling ingredients are better. I don't know why, but it just doesn't taste the same as theirs."

Later, they sent someone to our house to marinate it with our own ingredients, and that's when it started to taste good.

Several friends from Beijing would always go to his house to get pickled vegetables whenever they came over.

If this business can be successfully established, it will be quite remarkable.

I've tried to advise them more than once, but they always take it as a joke.

While feeding Rui Rui steamed eggs, Wang Susu hurriedly nodded in agreement: "Yes, that's right. Sister Qiaoling is also an honest person. In the past, she would shake her head faster than anyone else when she heard about doing business."

We started joking around about it later; after all, no matter how close they are, Ah Ling couldn't force them to do it.

Wang Qingwen and his wife exchanged a glance.

I thought to myself, "This brother-in-law has so many ways to make money."

Gao Xiulan looked at them and chuckled, "It's just like you and Qingzhong, brothers. You'll get it when you finally understand."

Said that Cao Cao Cao Cao arrived.

They were eating and hadn't had a chance to go to the village yet when Wang Jusheng strolled over by himself.

He carried a basket filled with gifts he had received while recovering at the hospital, ostensibly to help Wang Susu and Rui Rui recover, but in reality, he was there to express his gratitude.

However, they didn't stay there long. After the meal, Chen Ling went back to the village with him.

Today, all of them who are usually close to him are here. Wang Jusheng has been discharged from the hospital, so they have to sit down together for a meal and talk about this matter.

Unexpectedly, Wang Laishun, the father, came over halfway through the conversation.

I don't know what this old man was thinking. After all this commotion, why did he still come all this way? Doesn't he know how anxious and resentful the couple is towards them?
Upon entering...

Good grief, Wang Jusheng didn't say anything, but Zhang Qiaoling immediately lost her temper, grabbed a broom and started hitting it, chasing her father-in-law out the door like a dog.

This is not finished.

In the afternoon, the aunt from the county town heard that Wang Jusheng, the eldest son, wanted to sever ties with his family, so she rushed over to plead for him, but was chased away by Zhang Qiaoling.

It caused quite a commotion.

It was quite a joke.

This angered Wang Juxiang and his mother so much that they couldn't stay at the hospital. The two of them didn't dare to cause trouble for Chen Ling anymore, and instead held a grudge against Wang Jusheng, their boss.

Wang Juxiang even declared: "If it's a breakup, then it's a breakup. When my parents pass away, if they want to visit my grave, they'll have to kneel down and pay me. If they don't pay 30,000 yuan, they won't even get to wear mourning clothes..."

He's got no parents, let's see where he'll cry later."

(End of this chapter)