Chapter 44: Zhu Erhai Buys an Eagle

Today, the father and son duo made another bountiful haul. The sandgrouse flocks active in the woods surrounding the marsh were very thick; they had been catching them for two consecutive days and were still coming home with plenty.

The pair had another successful day, filling their capacity to the brim. Each of them carried a bag made from a fertilizer sack, and both were stuffed full.

As they were heading home, chatting and laughing, the persistent Zhu Erhai approached them again.

"Uncle Li, Xiao Tao! You guys went into the mountains and out of the perimeter, didn't you?" Zhu Erhai greeted the father and son using what he considered to be his most polite manner.

Xiao Tao had never gotten along with him to begin with. Once he saw it was Zhu Erhai, he stared him down and snapped, "You think you can just call me 'Xiao Tao'? Get lost! If you keep acting cocky, I'll give you a beating!"

That remark—"You think you can just call me 'Xiao Tao'"—completely deflated Zhu Erhai.

He dared to be difficult with Yue Feng because he knew Yue Feng had a steady temperament and wouldn't lose face unless absolutely necessary.

But Li Mingtao was different. Among his peers, he was a notorious hothead. Aside from his brother Yue Feng and his parents, he was a guy with maxed-out combat stats who dared to pick a fight with anyone, heaven or earth be damned.

"Xiao Tao, watch your mouth! Erhai, we're busy, let's talk later!" Li Wentong gave his son a symbolic reprimand, then bypassed Zhu Erhai to enter the village.

Not even twenty meters away, Xiao Tao grumbled in dissatisfaction, "Dad, why bother being nice to him? Zhu Erhai is a rotten piece of work. With his 'nothing comes without profit' attitude, there's no way he's greeting us for any good reason!"

Li Wentong largely agreed with his son's assessment, which is why he hadn't disciplined him for his behavior just now. If Xiao Tao had spoken to any other decent villager that way, Li Wentong's "Iron Hand" or "Big Ear Slap" would likely have been administered on the spot.

"As long as you know it in your heart, there's no need to offend him verbally! We live in the same village. If others hear it, they might think Zhu Erhai is a nuisance, but if they don't know him, they'll think our Li family has no upbringing! You're getting older; you'll be looking for a wife in a few years. You need to keep a good reputation in the village!"

Li Wentong explained the reasoning to his son very calmly.

Strangely enough, Li Wentong had never been this gentle when educating his son.

In this era, men managed their children quite strictly. They might dote on a young daughter and hesitate to hit her, but beating a son was a regional, even national, glorious tradition. The "childhood truth" that three kind words were worth less than one slap applied everywhere.

Even when Li Wentong was married to his wife, he had still been beaten by his own father for talking back!

Economic foundations determine the superstructure. Ever since Xiao Tao started making money following Yue Feng to train hawks and hunt in the small perimeter, his status in the family had risen. Li Wentong had gradually accepted the fact that his son was growing up; unless things got truly serious, he no longer resorted to the "Iron Hand" at the slightest disagreement.

Returning the camera to Zhu Erhai, the man had not given up despite being rebuffed twice.

He didn't dare go out of the large perimeter into the deep mountains, nor did anyone want to take him, but getting a hawk and training it to catch small chicks on the hillsides around the village was a job one could do alone. This temptation remained etched in his mind.

As the old saying goes, "constant remembrance brings an echo." When he was drinking heavily with friends that night, he mentioned his desire to get a hawk, and he actually managed to find out about another potential source.

In Fang'an Village, there was a man named Wang Mazi who liked to go up the mountains during the spring and autumn seasons to catch birds with a "fan net."

The so-called fan net was somewhat like an oval-shaped palm leaf fan, over a meter in diameter. In principle, it worked like a giant mousetrap, except that instead of just crumbs, they would place trained decoy birds in the bait area.

When birds passed overhead or through the woods, the decoy bird would call out. Attracted by the sound, flocks would descend to feed, triggering the mechanism of the fan net and trapping the birds on the ground.

Sometimes, these bird-catching mechanisms could catch hawks. However, in this era, few people understood hawks. Even if they caught a top-quality hunting hawk, it was hard to find someone who knew its value. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they were either slaughtered for meat or sold to specimen collectors.

Having received the news at his kitchen table, Zhu Erhai had a friend lead him to Fang'an Village early the next morning. After asking around several households, he quickly found Wang Mazi, the man who set the nets.

By a stroke of coincidence, Qiao'er's mother opened the door just as they arrived.

That morning, while Wang Mazi was checking his nets, he had spotted a "Big Spotted Leopard" caught in one from a distance.

The "Big Spotted Leopard" mentioned here was not a literal leopard, but a folk name for a certain type of raptor.

Its scientific name is the Common Buzzard, also a type of bird of prey, though in terms of breed and habits, it is not a suitable species for falconry.

As a wasteland raptor, its breeding grounds in China are in places like Inner Mongolia and Ningxia. Its main diet consists of mice, but it also eats toads, snakes, insects, and small birds.

Despite having a large body weighing over two pounds, its fleshy claws are similar to a chicken's. Except for exceptionally gifted individuals that can rely on ambush to take down pigeon-sized prey, most are considered "poop hawks" by falconers—essentially flying manure machines.

Wang Mazi had pulled the "Big Spotted Leopard" out of the net and, in a fit of anger, stuffed it into a burlap sack. This bird had ruined one of his decoys that he had raised for two years. If the specimen collectors didn't drive prices down, he probably would have executed it on the spot.

When Zhu Erhai and his friend arrived at Wang Mazi's house and explained their purpose, Wang Mazi's eyes lit up.

"The hawk you're looking for—is it this one?"

Zhu Erhai knew nothing about raptors. All he knew was a very simple concept: bigger is definitely better than smaller.

Yue Feng and Xiao Tao were impressive, but the hawk they handled was just a small hawk used for catching birds. Now, the fertilizer sack was filled with a large hawk. If this one could be trained, catching rabbits or wild chickens would be effortless.

"That's the one! I'll take this big hawk!"

At this moment, Zhu Erhai couldn't even bother with being calculating; his head was filled with the thought that he would have a hawk too, and in the future, he would have an endless supply of wild chicken and rabbit.

"The specimen collectors buy hawks. For a hawk this big, they give eight yuan a piece. Since we're neighboring villages and practically kin, I'll give it to you for six!"

Wang Mazi was also a man who would swindle you without a second thought. Seeing that Zhu Erhai was clearly blinded by greed and desperate to buy, he opened his mouth wide and demanded an exorbitant price.

In these times, such a "Big Spotted Leopard" would only sell for 1.2 yuan to specimen collectors. Only a hawk weighing over two and a half catties could fetch 1.5 yuan, and even then, that was the price only if you carried it dozens of miles to their doorstep.

"That expensive? Why don't you just go rob someone!" Hearing Wang Mazi's astronomical price, Zhu Erhai's excitement instantly deflated.

Forget six yuan—even at half price, he couldn't afford it.