Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Hatching Wild Eggs
They did, however, hear the others say it was a shame.
"If we’d gone into the mountains with you today, maybe we could have caught one too."
’As if we’d want to go into the mountains with you,’ Yun Xiaowu thought.
Although he loved to show off, Yun Xiaowu and the others knew where to draw the line. They kept the snake well-hidden and didn’t take it out.
Running back home, Yun Xiaowu immediately started shouting boisterously.
"Grandma! Mom..."
"They’re not home. The door’s locked."
Yun Xiaowu dropped the firewood from his back basket by the door.
"You guys watch our stuff. I’m going to find Grandpa to get the key."
Mr. Yun was busy over at the new house. The others, including Granny Yun, had probably all gone to work.
Country folks were rarely idle.
Yun Xiaowu quickly ran back.
Yun Xiao Liu and the others were sprawled on the ground by the door, playing with glass marbles. Yun Jiao sat on a stone stool by the entrance, clutching the fifteen wild eggs. She held one up to the sky with her soft, pale little hands, curiously examining something.
"I’m back! Grandpa said Grandma went to the fields to pull weeds."
"Jiaojiao, what are you looking at?"
Yun Jiao turned her head slightly. Her delicate, doll-like face looked up at Yun Xiaowu, her large eyes exceptionally bright.
"Fifth Brother, there’s a little wild chick in this egg."
Her soft, sweet voice held a hint of excitement.
"Really?"
Her other brothers stopped playing with their marbles, got up, dusted off their pants, and crowded around.
"Let me see, let me see."
"Don’t push! I want to see too."
They took the wild eggs and started examining them, mimicking Yun Jiao.
"I can’t see anything."
"I think mine might have something."
Yun Xiaoqi said, "Let’s go get the flashlight. That’s how Grandma used to check our eggs at home."
After the family’s only little rooster was eaten, Grandma never checked the eggs again.
They opened the door, went inside, and immediately found the flashlight. Then, they huddled together, holding an egg up to the light source.
"Look, there really is something! There are so many little veins here."
"Is that the heart? It’s still moving!"
"Let’s check the others."
In the end, out of the fifteen eggs, they only found three that clearly had little lives inside.
They couldn’t tell with the rest.
"Quick, let’s put these three wild eggs in the chicken coop and have our hen help incubate them."
"Huh? What if our hen doesn’t want to?"
"Let’s try it first."
Yun Jiao scrambled after her brothers on her short little legs as the children ran to the chicken shed.
Inside were two nests, both made from discarded baskets filled with hay.
The family’s two hens would go in there on their own to lay eggs.
"There’s a hen still in the nest here."
Suddenly surrounded, the hen grew agitated.
"Could it be laying an egg?"
Curious, Yun Xiaowu and the others walked over, squatted down behind the chicken’s rear, and tried to see how it laid an egg.
The hen: ...
Even if it had been in the middle of laying an egg, the shock would have made it hold it back.
"What do you think you’re doing?"
Granny Yun had returned. Seeing the little rascals tormenting her precious hen, she flew into a rage, picked up a thin switch, and looked ready to start swinging.
"Run!"
Yun Xiaowu grabbed Yun Jiao and took off, but her legs were too short to keep up. In the end, Yun Xiaowu and Yun Xiao Liu each grabbed one of her little arms and lifted her off the ground. A bewildered Yun Jiao was left dangling, her tiptoes stretched straight but unable to touch the ground.
"Yun Xiaowu! Yun Xiao Liu! Put your sister down this instant!"
"Grandma, don’t hit us! We just wanted the hen to help us incubate the eggs."
After being chased around the courtyard twice, they all started talking at once, trying to explain.
Granny Yun stopped. The children huddled together across from her, their eyes warily fixed on the switch in her hand.
Yun Jiao’s short legs dangled and kicked. "Let go of me! I want to get down."
Her two brothers quickly put her down.
"Incubate what eggs?"
Granny Yun picked up Yun Jiao and gave Yun Xiaowu and Yun Xiao Liu each a light smack on the arm.
"What if you hurt your sister, carrying her and running like that?"
Yun Xiaowu said shamelessly, "We wouldn’t. I loved playing like this when I was little."
"It was fun, right, Jiaojiao?"
Yun Jiao mumbled, "You weren’t running in sync."
Since they weren’t in sync, her arms were being pulled, so it wasn’t as fun.
Yun Xiaowu and Yun Xiao Liu immediately scratched their heads in embarrassment.
Yun Xiaowu said, "It’s all your fault for running too slow."
Yun Xiao Liu slowly retorted, "No, it was clearly you who ran too fast."
The two brothers started blaming each other.
"Brothers, the wild eggs."
At Yun Jiao’s reminder, Yun Xiaoqi quickly took out the wild eggs.
"Grandma, we found a bunch of wild eggs! These three have little chicks inside, and we were just about to ask our hen to help incubate them."
Granny Yun took a look and saw that it was true. She checked the three wild eggs and confirmed they all had chicks inside.
"Give them to me. I’ll take them over and try. Our hen is broody right now, anyway."
The eggs she was sitting on wouldn’t hatch, but these three wild eggs were worth a try.
But three was too few.
She checked the other eggs as well and found three more fertilized ones that were harder to spot, so she took those out too.
The children watched as only nine wild eggs were left—not even enough for the whole family to eat.
"I’ll go look for more eggs in the next couple of days and have the hen incubate them all together."
They only had two hens left; she had actually been wanting to raise a few more.
The children followed Granny Yun and watched as she skillfully nudged aside the hen sitting in the nest and pulled out a warm egg from under its belly.
The hen seemed anxious as it watched her take the egg, clucking incessantly.
It only quieted down after Granny Yun tucked the six wild eggs back under it.
Once out of the chicken shed, they chattered away, telling her everything they had found in the mountains that day.
When they mentioned the snake, Granny Yun immediately checked on Yun Jiao, nervously asking if she had been bitten.
Yun Jiao stood still and let her grandmother inspect her hands and little face. She was well-behaved and didn’t fuss, only shaking her head when asked.
"No."
"Grandma, it was an indigo snake! Sister is fine. She was amazing—she even smashed the snake’s head!"
Granny Yun soon saw the snake and the wild chicken they had caught.
The little ones clamored for Dragon and Phoenix Soup.
Yun Jiao also stared at her with wide, expectant eyes.
Granny Yun held up the wild chicken. "Alright, Grandma will make you Dragon and Phoenix Soup today."
"Hooray!"
All the children cheered.
Yun Jiao, Yun Xiaojiu, and the others helped boil water. Yun Xiaojiu was in charge of the fire, while Yun Jiao sat on a small stool nearby, slowly nibbling on a guava.
It was a little hot, so she scooted her small stool a bit to the side.
Meanwhile, Yun Xiaowu and the others went to help prepare the wild chicken and the snake.
"And you even brought back so many morels! This is good stuff."
Yun Jiao poked her little head out, her mouth still smeared with tiny bits of guava pulp and juice.
"Grandma, don’t sell them. For us to eat."
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