Chapter 10 Chick

Every spring, there are always a few hens who cannot restrain their desire to grow chicks.In those days, they barely ate or drank, looking for eggs everywhere.When it sees the egg, it will "clack" a few times in surprise, then turn around the egg a few times, fluff up the feathers, squat down slowly, hold the egg together, and put it under the chest.But many families have no plans to hatch chicks, so they can't agree with the ideas of these hens in their hearts.Besides, it is spring, and it should be the season for the hens to lay their eggs well.These hens—once they are about to hatch their chicks—go into a state of obsession, and forget about eating and sleeping, as a result they can no longer lay eggs.This makes the owner annoyed, so he will use various means to drag these idiots back from their desire to hatch chicks.

Such behavior is called "wake up chicken". I always remember a black hen in my family many years ago. That spring, it also wanted to hatch chicks.The first mother to see that it had this idea.She fed it a few times, and when she saw that it was absent-minded and just pecked at a few grains casually, she walked aside alone and said, "Is it going to hatch chickens?" Chicken." The mother said: "No. Your aunt's family already has a chicken that hatched for our family. This black chicken should lay eggs. It is the chicken that can lay the most eggs." I can see from my mother's eyes that she has carefully calculated how many eggs this black chicken will lay in the spring, and how much oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar can be exchanged for these eggs.She looked at the black hen, seeming a bit embarrassed.But in the end he still said: "Don't let it hatch chickens."

On this day, the mother finally decided that the black hen really had the idea of ​​hatching chicks, and got into the mood.She came to this conclusion because she suddenly noticed that the black hen was missing, went to look for it, and finally found it in the chicken coop. on the eggs.When the mother grabbed it out, the eggs had already been warmed very warmly. My mother gave me a bamboo pole: "Shoot it, shout loudly, wake it up." " "Let it hatch" Mother insisted, "No. Chickens don't lay eggs, and you don't even have money to buy a bottle of ink."

I knew I couldn't change my mother's mind, so I took the bamboo pole and ran over to kick the black chicken up.It ran in front, and I chased after it with a bamboo pole, and shouted loudly: "Oh! Oh!" From the front of the house to the back of the house, from the bamboo forest to the vegetable garden, and from the road to the field.Seeing the black hen fleeing in embarrassment, I actually felt a kind of pleasure in my heart while chasing it.I kept a close eye on it, increased the speed of catching up, and increased the volume of shouting, so that the students who were going to school and those who were going to work in the fields stopped and watched.The younger sisters stood there at first and yelled, but later they also joined in with sticks and the like, and chased me away.

The black hen's speed became slower and slower, her wings drooped, and she fell down from time to time.Seeing the bamboo pole waving towards him, he had no choice but to struggle to get up again and continue running. I finally slumped under the haystack exhausted, panting while wiping the sweat from my forehead. The black hen got into the grass, and hid herself without saying a word until evening, and then got out of the grass. But after this fright, the black hen didn't seem to wake up.It aired its wings and clucked, still looking for eggs.It lost weight all of a sudden, and it seemed that there was only an empty shell left.The cockscomb, which was originally bright red, lost its blood color at this time, and the jet-black feathers became scorched and lost their luster.I don't know if it's because it always hangs its wings to make other chickens mistakenly think that it has the intention of attacking, or because chickens like to play tricks on idiots like human beings.It has no thought of resisting, and it has no ability to resist. When chasing and attacking, it can only flee in a hurry, and can only curl up in a corner, and its feathers are pecked all over the place.It has blood in several spots on its face.Every time I see such a scene, I get angry at its obsession, and at the same time use a bamboo pole to hit those vicious chickens hard, so that it can shake its body and hide.

In a few days, the hatched chicks came from my aunt's house. As soon as the black hen heard the crowing of the chick, she immediately straightened her neck, and then ran over with big strides, her wings were big and her body was light, as if she was flying.When I saw the chick, it ran over clucking regardless of the presence of others.It is going to be a mother chicken.But when those chickens saw it, they ran away in fright like children seeing a madman.I seem to hear the black hen say "how did you run away", and I saw it chasing those chicks around.After chasing them, it covered them in its arms with its big wings.The hooded chick screamed in the dark, then got out vigorously, and ran under the human leg.It chased here and there, making the chicks one by one, and there was a sound of "chirp chirp" all around.

Mother said: "Hurry up and drive it out!" I took the bamboo pole and went to bomb it.At first it ignored it, but at last it couldn't stand the pain from the bamboo stick whipping its body, so it left the chicks first and fled to the bamboo forest. We retrieved the frightened chicks one by one.After they saw each other, they huddled together in a very cold and loving manner, with timid expressions in their eyes. And the black hen in the bamboo forest kept calling.When it stops calling, it pecks on the ground.In fact, it didn't really peck, it just pretended to be pecking.To its eyes, it seemed to be surrounded by a flock of chicks.It will teach them to peck.After pecking for a while, it flapped its wings happily.

When it finally realized that it was alone, it ran out of the bamboo forest in a panic, screaming everywhere. The chicks, caught by their mothers and brought back to their cages, huddled together and shivered when they heard the crowing of the black hen. The mother said: "This idiot must be woken up, otherwise, these chickens will not live in peace." The mother specially invited Maotou from the neighbor's house to deal with the black hen.Maotou made a small flag, then smiled, grabbed the black hen, and tied the small flag to its tail.After Maotou let go of it, it mistakenly thought that something was flying towards it, screamed in shock, and ran like crazy.The little flag stood upright on its tail, rustling in the wind, which made the black hen even more frightening, so it ran even more desperately.

We all ran out to see.The black hen does not need to be chased, it runs endlessly in front of and behind the house, which looks very funny.So several children in the neighbor's house clapped their hands and jumped up for joy. The black hen later flew to the haystack.It thought it would get rid of Xiaoqi, but Xiaoqi still followed it.It flew down from the haystack again.When it flew down from the haystack, I saw the little flag fluttering in the wind, as if giving the black hen another wing. The other chickens were also frightened and flew around, and the yellow dog at home barked.Out-and-out restlessness.

The black hen got into the bamboo forest, and the little flag was caught by the bamboo branch, and was finally pulled off from its tail.It fell to the ground and couldn't get up for a long time, panting with its mouth open.The black hen still couldn't wake up.And after this period of tossing, other hens can't lay eggs. "Sell it," I said. Mother said: "Who wants a skeleton?" Maotou, the neighbor, seemed to be happy to dispose of the black hen.He laughed again, carried it to the river, suddenly turned his body, and threw it over the river.The black hen fell into the water, sank for a moment, surfaced, stretched her neck, and swam towards the shore.Maotou had already stood there, and when it swam to the bank, he caught it again and threw it farther into the sky above the river.Maotou got a kind of cruel pleasure from it, grinned happily, and threw the black hen farther each time, but the black hen became more and more immobile.The chicken's feathers are not like the duck's feathers that do not get wet. After swimming a few times, its feathers are completely soaked, and its fleshy body sinks into the water like a lead ball.It flapped its wings vigorously and swam towards the shore with great difficulty.Several times, when it was about to sink, it struggled to stretch its neck and flow again.

Maotou made himself covered in water. When the black hen swam desperately back to the shore again, the mother told her not to throw it away. The black hen crawled to the bank and could no longer move.I carried it back and put it on a pile of hay.It shrank its body and shivered in the sun.There was nothing in his dull eyes. The black hen became weird. It refused to enter the nest at night, and it took a long time to find it.And as soon as he got out of the nest in the morning, he ran away alone, or got into a hole in the haystack, or got into an abandoned box, which made everyone in the family very upset.After another two days it was downright abominable.When the chick is released from the cage and walks around the yard, it will run out unexpectedly and chase the chick.Once it caught up, it showed a perverted viciousness, like an eagle, and beat the chicken with its wings, until the chicken screamed wildly. The mother drove it away and said, "You are about to be slaughtered!" One day, when there was no one at home, the black hen probably tried to get rid of a chick's caress because it didn't recognize it, and pecked the chick's butt. wing. When the mother came back, she saw that the chicken's wings were bleeding, and she was very distressed, so she went to call Maotou again. Maotou said: "This time, if it doesn't wake up, it really won't wake up." He found a piece of black cloth, covered the black hen's eyes, lifted it up, and put its paws on— on a clothes-drying wire. The black hen dangled on the wire.At that time, it is conceivable that its fear is probably worse than that of a person standing on a cliff facing the abyss.Because after all, one can see the abyss, but this black hen is in the darkness.It firmly grasped the wire with its two claws, and spread its wings to maintain its balance. The wind picked up, and the wind made the wires whine.The black hen began to swing wildly on the wire.In addition to grabbing the wire with its claws, it also squatted down, pressing its chest against the wire, and did not dare to close its wings for a moment.Even so, after a long period of persistence, it is no longer possible to maintain balance at any time.It almost fell off the wire a few times, and only managed to stay on the wire again after vigorously flapping its wings. I glanced at it and went to school. In class, I didn't listen to the teacher's lectures very much. There was always a wire shaking in front of my eyes, and the wobbling black hen stood on the wire.After school, I hurried home and went into the yard to have a look, only to see that the black hen miraculously remained on the wire.I immediately took it off, untied the black cloth, and put it on the ground.It was paralyzed on the ground, unable to move even a single step. Mother grabbed a handful of rice and put it near its mouth.It ate a few pills and stopped eating.Mother brought another half bowl of water, but it couldn't wait to stick its mouth into the water, and drank up the water in a blink of an eye.At this time, it slowly stood up, staggered and walked under the fence.Guessing that he still had no strength, he squatted down under the fence again, looking very quiet.The mother sighed, "I'm probably going to wake up this time. If you can't wake up again, don't startle it anymore." In the evening, the black hen staggered into the nest after the other chickens had almost entered the nest. I said to my mother: "I'm afraid it really woke up." Mother said: "In the future, I have to separate it and let it eat some partial eclipse." However, after two days, the black hen disappeared. No matter how you call it everywhere, you can't call it out.We can only hope that it will come out on its own.But - a week passed, also failed to see its trace. I searched for it all over the world, calling out loudly. Mother said: "I'm afraid it was dragged away by weasels." We were finally disappointed. The mother was very sorry: "Who made it crazy?" At first, I still thought about it, but after ten days, I forgot about it too. About 30 days after the black hen disappeared, my mother and I were planting vegetables in the vegetable garden, when we suddenly heard the crowing of chicks in the bamboo forest not far away. "Whose chick has come to our bamboo forest?" When mother said this, we didn't care anymore.But after a while, I heard the sound of clucking hens again, and my mother and I both stood up at the same time: "Why does it sound like the sound of our black hen?" Mother was stunned. The black hen led a group of chickens out of the bamboo forest and came to a willow tree.At that time, it was noon, the sun was shining brightly, and willow silk fluttered gently in the breeze.Those chicks seemed to have grown up for some days, and they had already shown their plumage color. They were all white, like balls of snow, happily foraging and playing around the black hen.One of them, seeing Liu Si fluttering, jumped up and tried to grab it with its beak, but failed to catch it, fell to the ground, and turned over clumsily.Taking a closer look at the black hen, I saw that its expression was serene, without any trace of foolishness, its comb was also red, and its hair was shiny, dense and shiny. I jumped over the fence, hurriedly grabbed rice from home, walked over gently, and sprinkled it for the black hen and her group of white chicks.They are not afraid of people and happily peck. Mother wondered: "Where did it hatch a brood of chicks?" Half a year later, when my mother and I went to the Donghe River, more than 50 meters away from our home, to get back a stack of hay, we found that there were many blood-stained eggshells in the hole that children used to play hide-and-seek.My mother and I guessed that these eggs were laid here when the other hens in my family were frightened and did not dare to lay eggs in the nest at home when the black hen went crazy.The place is full of weeds; few people come here.It is probably grass seeds and worms that maintain the life of the black hen and her young. Ever since the black hen reappeared, she never led her chick back to that lonely haystack hole. On 24th, 1997, at Yanbei Campus, Peking University