NOVEL NEXT Chapter 698: Collecting Bird Eggs
Gou Dan is cutting pigweed in the courtyard.
Recently, his father no longer locks him with chains.
Seeing that he works diligently and obediently.
However, his mother and sister keep a close eye on him, seemingly afraid something might happen to him alone.
Gou Dan has now grown accustomed to this life, waking up before dawn every day, eating breakfast, and then heading up the mountain with his sister to gather pigweed.
Although he is small and has short legs, unable to do much, he still strives to work hard.
He wants to make his father happy.
If his father isn't happy, he uses a belt and bamboo whip to beat them.
Although he gets beaten the least, he knows the taste of a belt hitting a person is very painful.
Once, he wanted to go outside to see the wild chickens and ducks by the river, but his father caught him and dragged him back, whipping him hard with the belt. That night, the pain kept him awake all night.
It took several days for the injuries to heal.
The belt hurts even more than the bamboo whip.
From then on, he knew his father did not want him to go out.
Even if he went out, his mother and sister had to accompany him.
He knows he is the apple of his family's eye, his father's only son, and if something happened to him,
his mother and sister couldn't survive.
Gou Dan strives to make himself into a man.
A boy appeared at the door.
"Hey, what's your name?"
Gou Dan looked at the boy. This boy looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn't remember who he was.
"My name is Gou Dan. Who are you?"
"I'm Zhuzi!"
Baozi looks at Tang Yuan with concern as he works.
He took more than a month to ease the wariness of his foster father.
Now he can play like all the other kids in the village.
It's because his foster father realized he intends to stay here sincerely.
When he first went out, his foster father even sent people to secretly follow him, but now he's accustomed to it, even if he runs around the mountains, playing all day.
Because he knows he cannot leave.
These mountains are connected.
To walk out on foot would take at least ten days and nights.
And there are many wild animals and venomous snakes in the jungles.
Without villagers guiding him, relying on a child alone to walk out would mean dying in the forest without making it out.
It's not like there haven't been children in the village who wanted to escape, only to be found later, starved to the brink of death or completely vanished.
"Zhuzi, don't come to my house, my dad said you can't play with my brother."
Ladi suddenly appeared, aggressively driving Zhuzi away.
Zhuzi replied awkwardly, "Ladi, why are you being so fierce? I just saw your brother being lonely and wanted to chat with him. None of the kids in the village are like your brother, staying at home like a little girl all day.
Look, my dad let me out long ago, and I've been running all over the mountains, able to do all sorts of chores."
Zhuzi pointed to the sickle in his hand, intending to head up the mountain to cut pigweed as well.
Ladi glanced at Zhuzi, "You're not the same as my brother."
"Hurry up and leave. If you don't, I'll call my dad to see if he beats you."
Ladi threatened.
Everyone in the village knows Gou Dan's dad is the village bully; who can beat his dad?
Even three or five grown men couldn't beat his dad.
Zhuzi angrily said, "No good deed goes unpunished. I originally wanted to take you both up the mountain to gather pigweed. I found two nests of bird eggs in the trees that day. I thought we'd go together, gather pigweed, find bird eggs, and roast them to eat together.
Not coming is just as well. I thought about inviting you. I'll go find Gou Sheng and the others; they love roast bird eggs."
Saying this, he deliberately swallowed.
Sure enough, upon hearing this, Ladi couldn't help but swallow as well.
Seeing Zhuzi about to leave, they hurriedly blocked him.
"Zhuzi, don't go. My brother and I will get sickles and go up the mountain with you to gather pigweed. I was just trying to scare you. Why did you take it seriously? By the way, you're such a little guy, can you really climb trees and even grab bird eggs?"
Ladi's family is poor, often not having enough to eat. They usually want to find some wild fruits to eat when they go up the mountain.
But it's already late autumn; wild fruits are long gone from the mountains.
Besides, even if they're not picked, other kids in the village would have already picked them. Even wild vegetables are hard to find now.
The family's meals are getting worse and worse each day.
The morning's half bowl of wild vegetable porridge, though called wild vegetable porridge, is actually quite thin and watery. They're already hungry.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have felt so hungry just hearing about the bird eggs.
Zhuzi laughed, "Don't underestimate me, I'm great at climbing trees. Don't believe me, ask Gou Sheng and the others; I've recently raided several bird nests, the roasted bird eggs are really good. Once, there were even 12 bird eggs in the nest. Gou Sheng and the others each ate three."
These words made Ladi even more famished.
She hurriedly prompted Gou Dan.
"Gou Dan, stop dawdling here. Quickly get the sickle and basket, let's hurry up; maybe we'll eat bird eggs today."
Gou Dan also gulped eagerly; his stomach was growling with hunger.
Suddenly his eyes lit up because he saw a small pocket hidden inside Zhuzi's clothes, and it looked familiar. He seemed to have had a similar pocket.
But where did that pocket go?
Zhuzi said, "Don't rush. Look at your and your brother's feet. Can you go out like this?"
Gou Dan didn't have shoes at home, mostly going barefoot, because the family was poor. They only had one pair of shoes, worn only when going out.
Of course, when going up the mountain to cut pigweed or firewood, they wore straw shoes.
Ladi slapped her forehead, having been so preoccupied with the idea of bird eggs she forgot about that.
She quickly ran to the backyard where the straw shoes had been washed and were drying on the windowsill.
Seeing Ladi walk away, Zhuzi took out a pink thing and stuffed it into Tang Yuan's mouth.
Tang Yuan looked at Zhuzi, confused.
"What's this?"
"Just swallow it quickly. After that, search the room for the bag hanging around your neck to see where it might be. Once you find it, sneak it out, and we'll head up the mountain."
Zhuzi didn't know what happened to Tang Yuan, but he knew something was wrong because Tang Yuan didn't recognize him and had forgotten many things. Tang Yuan was very obedient, just like all the children in the village, submissive to their circumstances.
Moreover, he treated this place like his home.
He couldn't let his younger brother become like that, nor let Tang Yuan remain as Gou Dan forever.
He always remembered his mother saying if they found themselves acting strangely or feeling particularly uncomfortable, they must take a pill from the bag. This pill would help them.