Salad Days Chapter 2 part1

Jiang Shen didn't care all that much about cell phones, likely because he hadn't reached that age yet. Just getting to read "Doraemon" in his free time was enough for him. Nowadays, having gone to preschool, he could recognize plenty of words. Although he hadn't studied in the city yet, he could still read simple manhua like "Doraemon".

As far as cell phones went, it's not like he'd never heard that children in the city far younger than him were playing on their phones.

Gou Mao and the rest were two or three years older than him, and he thought they treated cell phones like a pot of gold. The children of the rural fields shared most of their property with each other, and since Shu Bao's family was wealthy, when his father bought a cell phone for him, Gou Mao's gang envied him like a pack of dogs.

Here, everyone grew up playing the "egg-snatching" game, and Jiang Shen had served as the referee since he was small. He sat outside on a stump in the woods, dressed thickly for the weather. Two bags had been placed in front of him, and he waited for Shu Bao and Gou Mao's teams to bring the eggs back.

Gou Mao's eyes reddened with bloodlust. All for the sake of a cell phone, he was brave enough to steal all the chickens' eggs. While Jiang Shen sat outside the forest, waiting, he heard the doleful wailing of the chickens, and not a moment sooner, Gou Mao, in his cotton-padded clothes, took to his heels and ran like mad. Innumerable eggs were stuffed in his bulging clothes, and a pheasant with a multi-colored tail trailed right behind him. Its two wide wings spanned the width of a small child, and its howling crow sounded like a thunder strike from the heavens. The chicken stretched its neck and pounced on Gou Mao, pecking the crown of his head.

Gou Mao wanted to reach out and block the pheasant, but was afraid of ruining the eggs, running and yowling "Oww! Oww!" the whole way like it were life or death. The chicken was crazily persistent, nipping the life out of him without release. Jiang Shen saw Gou Mao about to charge into him, and fled. From behind, Gou Mao yelled, "Brat, what are you running for?!"

Jiang Shen shouted, "Because of the chicken!" 

Gou Mao gasped for breath, "You're afraid of a freaking chicken?!"

Jiang Shen, "Then why are you running away?!"

Gou Mao, "……"

Gou Mao endured, lasting long enough to not yield the eggs over to the chicken, and finally they returned. At first, the chicken felt like it was a matter of honor, but eventually forgot about the egg business after strutting from side to side in a show of strength in front of Jiang Shen and Gou Mao for half an hour. Whenever Gou Mao went somewhere to snatch an egg, it followed, getting a beak-ful of pecks at Gou Mao's head without warning.

Poor Gou Mao didn't have a lot of hair to start with, and half of it had already been pecked out. At first, Jiang Shen wanted to say that it really wasn't worth it to go bald for the sake of a cell phone, but when he saw how Gou Mao was risking his life for it, in the end, he restrained himself from pouring the cold water on him.

Shu Bao arrived and was taken aback by the chicken, teasing, "Look at how it's sticking to you, you might as well keep it." 

Gou Mao got the cell phone, and was rightly pleased with himself, "Keep it? I'd rather kill it and eat it. Shen zi, what about you?"

Jiang Shen, "My dad said you shouldn't just eat whatever you want from the wild, you should protect the animals there."

Gou Mao snorted, "So annoying."

He found a soft wicker from the root of a plant, coiled and tied it in a circle around the pheasant's neck. It dipped its head down and pecked multiple times. Surprisingly, when it caught sight of the wicker, it didn't care about it, parading behind Gou Mao.

"I'll bring it back home and give it to Qing Ling zi to raise," Gou Mao stood rather triumphantly, and gave the bag full of all the eggs he'd won directly over to Jiang Shen. "Let's eat these with your family tonight."

Jiang Shen certainly had no opinion on whether the chicken was going to be brought home for Qing Ling zi. In fact, it was more or less free-range land already, and the distance between the houses was so close that they didn't even keep track of who owned which dog, let alone chicken.

All the others scattered, leaving just the three boys behind: Gou Mao, Shu Bao, and Jiang Shen, plus a crimson and verdant-colored pheasant. The woods were at a distance from the residential area, and the three boys and one chicken walked until halfway through they came across a tractor that was blocking the way. 　

It was late in the day, and the breeze was strong. The wind blew a layer of yellow sand and mud onto the dirt roads. It never ceased spraying on their faces and the chicken's head like rain the whole way. Jiang Shen looked down to eye the thick wooly sweater he'd just changed that day, and felt immediately apprehensive as the image of his mother's face emerged in his mind. Gou Mao and Shu Bao stayed close to his right and left sides. The chicken at the rear was probably freezing, and had no energy left to crow, so Jiang Shen took it into his arms and embraced it. The three of them saw the rough position that they were in and burst into laughter. 

By the time they came back to the village, Jiang LuoShan was already out searching for them. Jiang Shen held the chicken, his whole body the color of dust, and the sound of his voice trembling, "Dad". 

Jiang LuoShan took a gander at Gou Mao and Shu Bao, and saw that they were in the same condition. He looked up to the heavens and sighed, not even having it in him to curse.

The first thing Jiang Shen did when he got home was take a bath. The chicken had a better streak of luck compared to them, since the Jiang family had raised fowl before. They had a trough, and Tan LingLing added feed to it and repaired the original fence at once. The pheasant ate and drank its fill, then crouched by the hay and dozed off.

After Jiang Shen had washed from head to toe, he came out and caught sight of Shu Bao and Gou Mao in new clothes, sitting upright in the living room, eagerly waiting for Jiang LuoShan to poach the eggs. 

"You boys are really naughty," Tan LingLing entered after feeding the chicken, and began to lecture. Can't help but get restless like animals as soon as it's Spring, huh?"

Luckily, Gou Mao still had a healthy conscience, "It was Shu Bao and I who wanted to play around, Shen zi was just keeping us company."

Tan LingLing gave her son a wide stare.

Jiang Shen earnestly immersed himself in eating his eggs.

Tan LingLing, "Qing Ling zi's come back, and she's been waiting here for a long time, but she walked off just a moment ago."

Gou Mao brought out the treasured cell phone he'd won, "I'll call her."

Shu Bao was beside him and speared him with a glance, "Are you trying to lose face?"

Chapter end