Chapter 18: Catching Chickens

The women weaving nets around couldn’t help but shake their heads. These guys were idle all day long, just like children who hadn’t grown up, and they only knew how to play. Now they even wanted to kill the chickens at home?

They are really prodigals. If they were in their family, they would really beat them to death. However, they have seen them making trouble over the years, so they are not surprised!

Anyway, it’s okay that they didn’t come to cause trouble to other people’s families. This can barely be considered the only advantage.

Ye Yaodong touched his nose and felt a little embarrassed. Seeing her angry look, he felt a little sorry.

Xiaoxiao smiled and said, “Dongzi will feel sorry for his wife? It’s okay, just coax her when you come back tonight.”

“Yes, just coax her when you come back tonight. Let’s go quickly. We still have to kill the chicken. It’s past two o’clock now, and we have to stew it for half a day. If it’s too late, we will starve to death.”

Ye Yaodong was dragged by the two of them to run. He thought it was too late to turn back now. He should wait until he came back to coax her at night. He would go fishing with them tomorrow and perform well to try to win her heart back.

After thinking it over, he also put aside his worries and went with them happily.

Their Baisha Village is not big, but not small either. A Zheng’s home is closer to Dongqiao Village, and there are fields behind his home.

Although he said that catching chickens was justified, he felt a little guilty if he really wanted to catch them. He was afraid that his mother would see them while weaving a net at the door of the house. He took them on purpose to take a detour and wanted to pass through the fields at the back door and then turn over and enter the fence.

Who knew his mother would sit at the back door and weave a net today!
And he saw the three of them on the side of the road as soon as he looked up…

“What are you guys doing now?”

A Zheng smiled awkwardly, poked his hand and stepped forward, “Mom, I want to discuss something with you, do you think it’s okay…”

“No!”

Three people: “…”

Before he could finish his words, he was blocked back!

A Zheng’s mother raised her eyelids, scratched her hair with a shuttle net needle, and started weaving the net after scratching it, and then said: “If you guys meet together, it must be bad, don’t discuss it with me, I won’t agree if you ask!”

“Mom, hasn’t my dad been saying that his hands and feet are weak recently…”

“What’s the matter, do you want to buy a blue crab to nourish your dad?”

People living by the sea have weak hands and feet and need to eat tonic, and generally choose to eat blue crabs.

“Not really…”

Ye Yaodong stood aside and looked at him with a bit of amusement. He had just spoken confidently at his doorstep, but now he was actually scared when he met his mother. How many years had it been since he saw Ah Zheng like this?
Ah Zheng thought that if he stuck his head out, he would be stabbed, and if he withdrew his head, he would also be stabbed. He simply said directly: “Ah Guang caught a cobra this morning. I thought of killing a chicken and stewing it together, and then filling a bowl to make up for you and dad. Hasn’t my dad been complaining about his weak hands and feet recently?”

His mother raised her eyebrows and was about to scold him, but she swallowed the second half of the sentence. He was still a little filial and caring about his father.

Seeing that his mother didn’t scold him right away, Zheng knew there was a chance, so he continued, “Mom, you see, I paid for this chicken and hatched it with eggs, and I usually feed it more. You see, you don’t seem to have any loss by giving me one, right?”

“Do you think I’m stupid? You eat my food, wear my clothes, and live in my house. How can you say that you raise the chicken?”

“Hehe, you raise it, you raise it, so if you don’t object to me catching it?”

Zheng’s mother glared and was about to scold him, but he had already excitedly called Ye Yaodong and Xiaoxiao to catch the chicken.

Not objecting, not scolding, isn’t that the same as agreeing?

“Get out, get out, get out if you catch it, you can only catch roosters.” After giving birth to four daughters and only this one son, how could she not love him?

“Which one do you want to catch?”

“That one! That big fat rooster! Xiaoxiao goes first!” Ye Yaodong pointed at the big rooster with colorful feathers that was leisurely pacing in the corner, and ordered them to go first.

He didn’t want to step on the chicken shit all over the ground.

After a short clucking sound of the rooster, “Fuck, I didn’t catch it!”

“Over there, over there… Dongzi…”

“I’ll do it… I’ll do it…”

The three of them ran around the yard, and the chickens flew around the yard. After a while of jumping around, they still didn’t catch the chicken.

“Fuck, how can it fly so fast? You guys, I’ll do it, let’s surround it!”

Ye Yaodong quickly stopped them, “Wait, wait, Ah Zheng, go grab a handful of rice bran, we’ll stand in the corner, it’ll be easier to catch them when they eat.”

“Okay~”

Ah Zheng’s mother was so upset, these stinky boys! Fortunately, she reacted quickly and moved the fishing net into the house, otherwise it would have been a mess.

After sprinkling a handful of rice bran, the chickens were still very alert, lingering around tentatively, not daring to get close.

After a while, when they felt there was no danger, they went forward to peck.

“Go, Dongzi, you go.”

He went forward quietly, aimed at the target, and pounced directly.

“I caught it!”

He was full of joy, holding the two wings tightly, “Bring the straw rope here, I’ll tie it up, otherwise it will fly away again in a while.”

“Here, tie it while walking, and take it to A Guang’s house to kill it.”

This big rooster was full of energy, and it kept struggling even after being tied, raising its neck and calling.

Ye Yaodong tied up the chicken before handing it to them. Seeing that the edges of his shoes were covered with chicken shit, he pulled a handful of straw to wipe them, and then rubbed his feet hard on the ground a few times to clean the soles of his shoes before happily following them to A Guang’s house.

A Guang’s mother was gone, and his father went out to sea with a big ship. He would be gone for several months before returning. There was no one in his family to take care of things, and there were no girls to marry, so he had not yet married. There were only him and his two sisters at home, so they chose A Guang’s house for daily gatherings.

Everyone gathered at his house to play cards, just waiting for the three of them to come and start fighting.

“Damn, A Guang, don’t you know your name? You dare to play cards in the afternoon?”

“Hahaha, Pei Guang, lose everything!” Ye Yaodong also thought of the bad luck that A Guang’s name brought him, slapped his thigh and laughed, and A Guang hadn’t seen him for many years.

In his previous life, his father saved enough money to buy a boat and took his family to Zhoushan to sell shrimps. He rarely came back.

A Guang looked at them with contempt, “I didn’t lose today, okay?”

“Who lost? Who won? The one who won the most can go to the dock and buy two bowls of seafood. A Zheng brought a chicken from home. Let’s cook dragon and phoenix soup in the evening to make it more sumptuous!”

A Guang shook the money in his hand and said proudly, “I won three times. It’s the first time ever. I’ll go to the dock to see what’s available now. You guys kill the chicken first!”

They play cards and gamble a little every day. They are all friends. They will use the winnings to buy food. Everyone eats, drinks and brags together.

Although they were all quite weak, they all had a good relationship. Ye Yaodong was also very excited and volunteered, “You play your own games, and I’ll kill the chicken and clean up.”

“Okay, I’ll give it to you. I’ll play cards for a while, and call me when you’re done. I’ll cook it!” Xiaoxiao felt as if she had been pardoned. She handed the chicken to him and gathered around the table.

(End)