My village can't be like this

Chapter 633 Digging Spring Bamboo Shoots

The weather this year was pretty good. As soon as the rapeseed was planted during the day, a drizzle started to fall in the evening.

Although the rain is not strong and is just a drizzle, spring rain is as precious as oil. I think this crop of vegetables will grow well.

The next morning, Zhang An got up and walked out of the yard. He felt the wind blowing on his face was a little cold.

Although the weather in early spring has become much warmer, the light rain last night caused the temperature, which had finally risen, to drop by several degrees.

After moving his arms and legs in the yard for a long time and feeling the cool spring breeze, Zhang An immediately felt refreshed, and the slight sleepiness that had not yet dissipated after he got up had disappeared.

Zhang An was about to turn around and go back to the house, but as soon as he turned around, he found several black and white objects on the ground at the door, which were particularly conspicuous on the concrete floor.

Looking closely, I found that they were actually some piles of bird droppings, and they looked fresh. They were right below the bird's nest under the eaves.

Zhang An’s first reaction was that Yan Zi had returned, but he immediately shook this thought out of his mind the next second.

Because it is only February or March, it is still early spring and the temperature is not warm enough. The swallows that flew away for the winter in late autumn last year are still on vacation in the south.

If they are to come back, it will be at least April or May.

Moreover, Zhang An knew that even if the swallows under his eaves came back, they would not just poop in the yard.

Because these nests of swallows have been living here since they built their nests a few years ago, they have become old acquaintances.

Even though they fly south for the winter every autumn, they will still fly back the following year.

Unlike other people's homes, the swallows that fly away every year rarely come back. The next year they are either replaced by other swallows or simply abandoned.

During these years, except for the first year, they would defecate in the yard.

But in the following years, it has always been very hygienic. Even if it needs to defecate, it will do it outside when it flies out.

The main reason was that in the first year, they defecated too much in the yard. They would defecate from time to time every day, and they would do it again as soon as we cleaned it up.

So Zhang An tamed them a little bit later, and the effect was quite obvious. In the following years, there was no bird droppings in the yard.

Just as Zhang An was staring at the bird's nest, a small gray-brown creature flew over and drilled directly into the mud nest.

Those gray-brown feathers, what else could it be but a sparrow?
"Good fellow, it turns out to be you, a bunch of old thieves. It seems that you are getting bolder and bolder. You took advantage of Yan Zi's absence to come and occupy her mansion. You really don't take me, the landlord, seriously."

Zhang An sneered. He didn't like this group of chattering people.

Speaking of which, these swallow nests have been built for several years, but they have always been quiet and no other birds have occupied them.

It seems that the flower-head family didn't come out much last winter, so they forgot that this is not the place they should be.

After saying that, he went back home and found the ladder. He was ready to teach these old thieves a lesson.

Because the swallow's nest under the eaves of their house has always been prepared for those pairs of house martins.

If they were not driven away, if the nests of swallows in the house flew back and saw that their homes had been stolen by other birds, they would definitely run to other places to build nests. Zhang An definitely wanted them to save as much effort as possible on such a strenuous task.

After all, compared to those birds that chirp and make annoying noises, Zhang An definitely prefers the quiet and hardworking swallows.

Moreover, the beauty of swallows cannot be compared with those old sparrows.

When Zhang An climbed up the stairs and reached into the bird's nest, he was surprised to find that there was not only an old sparrow but also three sparrow eggs.

It seems that this pair of guys have been occupying the swallows' house for quite some time. If he hadn't seen the bird droppings on the ground today, he wouldn't have discovered it.

It might be that Zhang An’s head appeared in front of the opening of the bird’s nest, scaring the sparrow that had just flown in.

It did not shrink inside, but fluttered out.

Zhang An was quick-eyed and quick-handed, and caught it in his hand the moment it flew out.

"Godfather, why are you digging out swallows' nests? Aren't swallows good friends of humans and their nests can't be robbed?"

As soon as Zhang An caught the sparrow, Li Yao, who had just run over to find Xiao Siqi, saw him and asked Zhang An with a puzzled look on his face.

"You are right. Swallows are our good friends. We cannot rob their homes."

Zhang An came down the stairs and nodded to little Li Yao with satisfaction.

"Look, the one that Godfather took out wasn't Yan Zi, but a bad guy."

As he spoke, Zhang An held the old sparrow in his hand and showed it to Li Yao.

"Hey, it's a sparrow. How come they are in a swallow's nest?"

Li Yao is no longer the same Li Yao as before. After spending a few years in the village, he can now tell the difference between a sparrow and a swallow.

"Because they take advantage of the swallows flying south for the winter and come here to occupy people's houses. Do you think they are bad guys?"

Zhang An touched his godson's short hair and explained with a smile.

"He is a bad guy, so bad. So, godfather, can you let me play with this sparrow?"

Little Li Yao nodded his head to show his agreement, but the next second he set his eyes on the sparrow in Zhang An's hand.

There is no kid of this age who doesn’t like playing with birds.

"Want to play Mahjong? Aren't you afraid that your hands will shake and you won't be able to write?"

Zhang An chuckled and said threateningly.

"No way, Godfather is lying. Ermao has played Mahjong for so many years, and I have never seen his hands shake when he writes."

Not only was Li Yao not frightened, but he pursed his lips and said.

"Okay, I'll give it to you then."

Seeing that he couldn't scare him, Zhang An simply gave him the sparrow.

Although according to their current playful attitude, this sparrow probably won't last long.

But Zhang An didn't care at all. This old sparrow was a pest in the village and specialized in eating everyone's crops. If there was one less sparrow now, there would be several fewer nests this year, which was a good thing for everyone.

"Thank you, godfather."

Little Li Yao, who got the sparrow, immediately became excited.

Although he has lived in the village for several years, he has never climbed high and jumped low like other naughty kids.

He had never done anything like robbing bird nests or catching birds before, because he had always been under strict supervision by Zhou Lan and Grandma Li.

After saying thank you to Zhang An, he ran outside holding the old sparrow in his hand. He didn't even go to look for little Siqi at home. He must have gone to show off to his little friends.

Seeing Li Yao running away with a smoking figure, Zhang An couldn't help but shook his head. A child is always a child.

Then he climbed up the stairs again and took out the sparrow eggs from the bird's nest.

Although the sparrows have been taken away, the eggs left inside will soon go bad. By the time the swallows fly back, they will not be willing to live there anymore.

Then, Zhang An checked the bird's nests under the eaves of his house one by one.

I found that in addition to the nest just now, there was another swallow's nest that was also occupied. There was an egg in it, but no sparrows were seen.

Zhang An took out all the sparrow eggs, then went upstairs to wake up Huatou who was still squatting in the nest. It was cold in winter, but now it was starting to warm up, so he couldn't let it be lazy any longer. He had to guard his territory, otherwise the sparrows would come back again after being driven away.

Zhang An had no use for the few sparrow eggs in his hand, so he just threw them in front of Huatou as a snack.

After lunch, Zhang An went outside to digest his food.

When I arrived at the bridge, I found that Chen Ze and Ding Yi were already standing there.

"Didn't you just return to the city? Why are you back again?"

Zhang An remembered that this guy had just left two days ago, but just a few days later, he came back again.

"If something happened, I'll go there. If nothing happened, I'll definitely come back."

Ding Yi spread his hands and said that in the past, the couple were very busy as hell because of the supermarket matters.

But starting from the second half of last year, they gradually handed over the tasks at hand to the people below them, and it became common for them to come back every few days.

"Speaking of which, Old Ding, Chen Ze has already started building such a big hotel. Would you like to consider opening a branch in the village?"

Looking at the hotel building that was already under construction in front of him, Zhang An suddenly thought, whether he could also open a supermarket in the village.

"Is it possible? There isn't much demand here."

After hearing what Zhang An said, Ding Yi frowned and thought for a while, then said hesitantly.

"I think it's feasible, but it certainly can't be as large as in the city. Look at our village, there are only two or three small shops, and the same is true in Hongyan Town. There are basically no larger shops. We can open a scaled-down version to meet the needs of the villagers here."

After all, there are many villages near Changqing, and it is not far from Hongyan Town. In addition, there are more and more tourists here in the past two years, so it seems that this supermarket can really be opened.

After hearing this, Ding Yi immediately fell into deep thought, really thinking about this problem.

"What you said makes sense. I'll have someone come over to do some research to see if it's feasible."

Ding Yi really took this to heart. After all, the flow of people in Changqing has been increasing year by year in the past two years.

From the beginning, there were only tourists during holidays, and the rest of the time there were only fishermen.

Even now, there are still tourists every day even if it is not a holiday.

In addition to the development of Changqing Village itself, this is also due to the achievements of Hongyan Town in developing into a tourist town in the past two years.

"This morning I found that several elderly people from the neighboring families went to the purple bamboo forest to dig bamboo shoots. Why don't we go dig some too? The spring bamboo shoots in this season are so delicious."

The three of them chatted for a while, and Chen Ze suddenly spoke.

"If you want to go, go. I have nothing to do."

After hearing what Chen Ze said, Zhang An started to want to eat fried bamboo shoots with meat.

"Okay then, let's go back and find the guys and meet at the door of Zhang An's house later."

Ding Yi had no objection, so the decision was made.

So the three of them went back to their homes and prepared to dig bamboo shoots.

When Wang Fang found Zhang An going home to look for a hoe and a basket, she asked curiously, "Xiao An, are you going into the mountains?"

"No, Chen Ze just said he wanted to dig spring bamboo shoots, and I thought I had nothing else to do, so I might as well go dig some. We haven't eaten bamboo shoots in a long time."

Zhang An shook his head and said that he didn't really want to go to the mountains at this season.

Because it was too early, there were no wild vegetables to dig and no mushrooms to pick, so it was not worth going into the mountains.

"It's true that we haven't dug bamboo shoots in a long time. If we find any, we'll dig more. We can then dry some."

Wang Fang nodded after listening to this. In the past, almost every household in the village would go digging bamboo shoots.

It's not just for eating fresh bamboo shoots, but more for drying them.

In this way, when there is not much food to eat at home, dried bamboo shoots will be a good dish.

Not only can it be soaked and fried, but it can also be cooked with green beans. When people couldn't afford meat, both adults and children loved to eat it.

But in recent years, people have grown more varieties of vegetables, and the conditions are much better than before, so there are not as many people digging bamboo shoots as before.

The same goes for Zhang An. In the past few years, he would go dig some and dry bamboo shoots, but he hasn't done that since last year.

The last time we ate them, they were the two that Zhang An brought out from the space.

The bamboo shoots in the purple bamboo forest are definitely not as delicious as those in the space. Zhang An actually doesn't have to go, but he has nothing to do anyway, so he might as well go out for a walk with Chen Ze and Ding Yi.

With his mother's instructions, Zhang An put the small basket in front of him back and replaced it with a larger one.

Even if he couldn't dig much today, he wasn't worried. He could get it from the space later. There would be plenty in the small bamboo forest anyway.

After a while, Chen Ze and Ding Yi came over.

Both of them carried a light hoe and a small bamboo basket.

Now they all have their own vegetable plots in their yards, and they have all these things in stock.

"No way, you got such a big basket, how much do you want to dig?"

When they saw the big basket Zhang An was carrying, their eyes widened, wondering how many bamboo shoots they would need to dig to fill the basket.

"Hey, my mom told me to dig more because she wants to dry some bamboo shoots."

Zhang An chuckled and explained.

"I heard from my neighbor next door that there aren't many bamboo shoots sprouting now, so it's hard to dig them up."

Chen Ze looked at it and shook his head slightly, somewhat unimpressed with Zhang An carrying such a big basket.

"It's okay. Just dig as much as you come across. You don't have to fill it up. I'd rather come back with an empty basket than find something but not be able to put it in."

Zhang An said nonchalantly, thinking that he would shock you quietly later.

On the way there, the three met a lot of people who were just coming back from digging bamboo shoots.

"Go dig bamboo shoots, Zhang An."

Seeing the stuff on them, everyone greeted them.

Zhang An also responded with a smile: "Yes, Auntie, you have already dug them back. How are the bamboo shoots now? Are there many?"

"There are quite a few grandchildren, but very few have been unearthed. They are not easy to find. I dug for the whole morning and only found this much."

When the other party heard Zhang An's question, she shook her head and took the initiative to show the three of them their own gains.

"This is quite a lot. It's already more than half a basket. After drying, it will weigh several kilograms."

Looking at the half basket of bamboo shoots, Zhang An didn't want to talk. He even felt that the aunt was showing off her harvest to him.

(End of this chapter)