Chapter 44: Zhu Erhai Buys an Eagle
Today, Xiao Tao and his father returned with another full load. The flock of Sand Grouse active in the woods around the waterhole was very large, and they had been catching them for two consecutive days, still with great harvests.
Today, the father and son filled their bags to the brim again. Each carried a bag made from a fertilizer sack, both stuffed full.
While they were walking home, chatting and laughing, the persistent Zhu Erhai approached them again.
“Li Shu, Xiao Tao! Did you go into the mountains for a big hunt?” Zhu Erhai greeted Xiao Tao and his father with what he considered his most proper words.
Xiao Tao was already not on good terms with him. After seeing that the person was Zhu Erhai, he stared blankly and said, “Xiao Tao is also something you can call? Get lost! If you dare to act smug, I’ll beat you again!”
That phrase, “Xiao Tao is also something you can call,” completely shut Zhu Erhai down.
He dared to be unreasonable with Yue Feng because he knew Yue Feng had a steady temperament and wouldn't completely fall out unless absolutely necessary.
But Li Mingtao was different. Among his peers, he was notoriously a big, fierce guy. Besides his brother Yue Feng and his parents, he was someone who feared neither heaven nor earth, dared to fight anyone, and had maximum combat power.
“Xiao Tao, how are you talking to people! Erhai, we have things to do, let's chat later!” Li Wentong symbolically stopped his son for a moment, then bypassed Zhu Erhai and entered the village.
Less than twenty meters away, Xiao Tao grumbled somewhat discontentedly, “Dad, why give him a good face! Zhu Erhai is a rotten lowlife. With his character of not getting up early without profit, greeting us definitely means he's up to no good!”
Li Wentong quite agreed with his son's judgment, which was why he didn't stop his son's behavior just now. If Xiao Tao had talked to other decent villagers like that, Li Wentong's merciless iron hand and big ear slaps would have probably been dealt to Xiao Tao on the spot.
“Just know it in your heart, you don't need to offend him verbally!
We're all in the same village. It's not good if others hear it. Those who know will think Zhu Erhai is a annoying stray Dogzi, but those who don't will think our Li Family has no upbringing!
You're this old now, and in a few years, you'll be talking about marriage. You need to maintain a good reputation in the village!”
Li Wentong calmly explained the reasoning to his son.
It was strange to say, from childhood to adulthood, Li Wentong had never educated his son this gently.
In this era, when fathers disciplined their own children, little daughters might be treasured and not hit, but beating sons was definitely a regional and even national glorious tradition. Three kind words were not as good as one slap, a universal truth of childhood.
Even Li Wentong, after he was married to his wife, was still beaten by his father for talking back!
Economic base determines the superstructure. Since Xiao Tao started training Hunting Eagles and hunting in the small enclosures in the mountains with Yue Feng and earning money, Xiao Tao's status at home also began to rise. Li Wentong gradually accepted the fact that his son was slowly growing up, and now, unless he was extremely angry, he no longer used his merciless iron hand at the slightest disagreement.
Let's return the focus to Zhu Erhai. After being rejected twice, this guy still didn't give up.
He didn't dare to go into the deep mountains for a big hunt, and no one would take him. But getting an eagle and training it to catch small chickens on the hills around the village was something he could do alone, and this temptation kept lingering in his mind.
As the old saying goes, if you keep thinking about it, there will be a response. When he mentioned wanting to get an eagle while drinking heavily with friends that night, he actually found out about another possible channel to get an eagle.
In Fang'an Village, there was a person named Wang Mazi who liked to go into the mountains in spring and autumn to catch birds with a fan net.
The so-called fan net is somewhat like an oval palm-leaf fan, with a diameter exceeding one meter. In principle, this thing is like a giant mousetrap, except that besides putting some broken rice seeds as bait, they also put artificially trained decoy birds in the bait area.
When birds fly overhead or in the woods, the decoy birds will call, and the attracted flock will land to eat. When the mechanism of the fan net is triggered, the birds that have landed will be trapped.
This kind of bird-catching mechanism can sometimes catch an eagle, but in this era, few people understood eagles. Even if they caught a top-quality Hunting Eagle, it was difficult to find someone who knew its value. Ninety-nine percent of the time, it was either slaughtered for meat or sold to someone who made specimens.
Zhu Erhai, who got the news at the heated brick bed table, went to Fang'an Village the next morning led by his friend. After asking around several households, he quickly found Wang Mazi, who set the fan nets.
It was a coincidence's mother opening the door for coincidence, reaching the height of coincidence.
This morning, when Wang Mazi went to check his fan bird nets, he found a big Leopard trapped in the net from a distance.
The Leopard mentioned here is not a literal Leopard, but a folk name for a bird of prey.
Its scientific name is Common Buzzard, and it is also a bird of prey. However, in terms of species habits, it is not a suitable species to be a Hunting Eagle.
They are raptors of the wilderness, with breeding grounds in places like Inner Mongolia and Ningxia in China. Their main food source is mice, but they also eat small things like Toads, snakes, insects, and small birds.
Don't look at its large size of over two catties, but its fleshy claws are similar to chicken feet. Except for exceptionally talented individuals who can rely on sneak attacks to take down prey the size of pigeons, the vast majority are considered worthless eagles by Hawk Keepers, mere waste-producing machines.
Wang Mazi took this big Leopard out of the fan bird net and angrily stuffed it into a snakeskin bag. This big Leopard had harmed a decoy he had raised for two years. If it hadn't been for the fact that killing it would cause the specimen maker to lower the price, it would have probably been executed on the spot.
Zhu Erhai and his friend came to Wang Mazi's house and explained their intention. Wang Mazi's eyes lit up after hearing it.
“Is the eagle you are looking for this one?”
Zhu Erhai didn't understand birds of prey at all, so what could he know? However, he had a rather simple understanding: bigger is definitely better than smaller.
Yue Feng and Xiao Tao were impressive, but the eagle they carried was just a small eagle that could only catch birds. Now, the fertilizer bag contained a Great Eagle. If this thing was trained, encountering Rabbits or wild chickens would be effortless.
“That's the one I'm looking for! I want this Great Eagle!”
Zhu Erhai no longer cared about being reserved at this moment, his mind was full of thoughts like, “I also have an eagle now, and in the future, I'll have endless wild chickens and wild Rabbits to eat.”
“Specimen makers buy eagles, they give eight yuan for a Great Eagle this big. I see we are neighboring villages, all fellow villagers, so I'll give it to you for six yuan!”
Wang Mazi was also someone who would rip people off without batting an eye. Seeing that Zhu Erhai was indeed blinded by greed and clearly wanted it, he immediately demanded an exorbitant price.
In those years, this kind of big Leopard was only worth one yuan and two jiao when sold to specimen makers. Only eagles over two and a half catties could fetch one yuan and five jiao, and that was the price given only if it was transported dozens of miles to their home.
“So expensive? Why don't you just rob me!” Hearing Wang Mazi's outrageous price, Zhu Erhai's enthusiasm instantly deflated.
Let alone six yuan, even half of that, he couldn't afford.
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