Chapter 6: The Flat Eagle, the Face-Breaker, and the Trickery of the Food and the Shaft

Yue Lei nodded. "Alright! You haven't lost a bit of the falconry skills your grandfather passed down to you!"

That evening, Yue Feng perched the hawk for less than an hour before tying it up again. He burned the midnight oil until past eleven o'clock, only then untying the hawk and tethering it to the back of a chair in the house.

Having been gripped in his hand and flattened all day, the hawk relaxed quickly once it was back on the perch. Its feathers puffed up into a fluffy ball, and after Yue Feng blew out the lamp and climbed onto the kang to sleep, it soon tucked its head into its neck and rested on one leg.

The next morning, before dawn, Yue Feng’s mother had just gotten up in the east room. Hearing the movement, Yue Feng woke up, got dressed, and climbed off the kang. The first thing he did was to tighten the bindings on the large blue sparrowhawk on the chair back.

For the rest of the time, whether he was getting up to relieve himself, washing his face, or eating, Yue Feng kept the hawk flattened in one hand, doing everything one-handed. The sparrowhawk, having rested for a few hours and regained some of its wild nature, quickly adapted to yesterday's rhythm again.

For the entire day that followed, Yue Feng spent almost all his time at home with the hawk flattened. At noon and dusk, he untied the hawk to let it stand on his hand for half an hour each time; the rest of the schedule was almost identical to the day before.

By the third day before dawn, Yue Feng took a sparrow he had been keeping in a cage, killed it, skinned it, and gutted it, then soaked it in water, feathers and all.

When the sky was just beginning to brighten, Yue Feng got up early again. He tied up the hawk, took two steamed buns from the big pot and tucked them into his jacket, and strolled out of the house, heading straight for the neighboring village's market.

In the rural markets of this era, due to certain unspeakable reasons, one could barely see any cash transactions on the surface. Most people brought the limited supplies they had at home to the market to exchange for things they could actually use.

Yue Feng walked around the market with the hawk flattened on his hand, soon choosing to sit down under the large locust tree near the village entrance.

There were people playing chess here, along with quite a few onlookers. The sounds of talking, arguing, and the occasional burst of laughter provided the perfect environment for "breaking the hawk's face."

Seeing this, many people might have a question in their minds: what exactly is "breaking the face"?

Actually, it’s quite simple. To explain it from a scientific perspective, it is social adaptation. It means letting the hawk become familiar with the stimuli of human activity, getting it accustomed to the presence of people, and slowly letting go of its stress response.

Once the hawk is fully "face-broken," it won't even lift an eyelid when facing a crowd of people; it will eat and drink as it pleases, no longer afraid.

Only a hawk that has been thoroughly "face-broken" can be taken out for hunting. Otherwise, the moment you let it go, the hawk will get scared and fly away, leaving you with nothing but tears in your eyes as you look at the sky.

The market lasted from dawn until past three in the afternoon. Once most of the people had left, Yue Feng headed home with the little hawk.

After a full day of "face-breaking," the blue sparrowhawk’s gaze was noticeably more relaxed, and its pupils were no longer constricted into pinpricks.

Upon arriving home, Yue Feng untied the hawk to let it cast a pellet, as it had been holding it in for most of the day. Afterward, he took the sparrow that had been soaking in water all night from the stove.

Counting from the day the hawk was caught, this was the third day. During these three days, other than providing enough water, the little hawk hadn't eaten a single bite of meat. The pellet it cast today was basically just water.

In falconry terms, the hawk was now completely "empty-gutted."

Between the flattening and the "face-breaking," the hawk was no longer very afraid of people after a few days, and it was extremely hungry.

When it saw the water-soaked sparrow in Yue Feng’s hand, the little hawk moved instantly.

It lunged forward with force, but because the jesses were still held in Yue Feng’s hand, it ended up hanging upside down.

Yue Feng flicked his right hand, and the little hawk used the momentum to return to his hand and stand steady. Then, Yue Feng carefully placed the sparrow under the little hawk’s talons with his left hand.

*Snap!* A crisp sound was heard as the blue sparrowhawk’s sharp talons grabbed the wet, feathered sparrow with lightning speed, then lowered its head to eat frantically.

For a sparrowhawk that has been starved empty, its eating could be described as wolfing down food. The sparrow had been gutted and soaked in water overnight, so the fresh blood in the meat had long since leached out; it was essentially equivalent to water-soaked white meat.

Feeding this kind of meat to a hawk provides much less energy, but the starving little hawk couldn't care less at this moment, burying its head and tearing into it.

If it were a live sparrow, the first thing a hawk would do after catching it is pluck the feathers, only starting to eat once they were all gone. But with this water-soaked sparrow, the feathers were completely saturated, and the hawk couldn't pick out the small downy feathers, only the large flight feathers on the wings and tail.

Just like that, in less than three minutes, the water-soaked sparrow was devoured.

After finishing the sparrow, a small bulge appeared on the little hawk’s crop. In this state, with food in its crop, it couldn't be "flattened" anymore. Yue Feng simply took a folding stool and sat in his courtyard with the hawk perched on his hand.

It must be said, this blue sparrowhawk had a very stable temperament. Even after eating and being carried into the courtyard, it stood firmly on Yue Feng’s hand.

Yue Feng kept the hawk perched, observing its subtle reactions. The creature was no longer afraid of people at all; even when Yue Feng’s mother, Meng Yulan, pushed the gate open and entered the courtyard, the blue sparrowhawk didn't struggle.

Every so often, the sparrowhawk would tilt its head and twist its neck, pushing the food from its crop into its stomach. As it slowly adapted to the feeling of being perched on a hand, the short feathers at the base of its tail slowly puffed up, and its 12 tail feathers merged into a stick-like shape, swaying every now and then—it was clearly quite relaxed.

Seeing that the hawk was relaxed, Yue Feng would stroke its feathers with his left hand every so often. At first, it resisted slightly, but as time went on, the blue sparrowhawk stopped puffing up its feathers when Yue Feng stroked it.

By 4:30 in the afternoon, when Jingjing came home from school with her backpack, the sparrowhawk in Yue Feng’s hand had completely relaxed.

Its facial feathers were also fully puffed up; in professional terms, this is called "opening the face." Its entire body of feathers was puffed into a ball, looking like an old hen squatting on his hand.

Jingjing knew that the sparrowhawk her second brother had caught was the key to her getting to eat sandgrouse, so she had been coming over to find the little hawk to play with whenever she was free these past few days.

However, Yue Feng knew the principle that no matter how small a bird of prey is, it is still a bird of prey, so he never let his younger sister touch the hawk.

Seeing the hawk’s state this evening, Yue Feng made an exception and let his youngest sister touch the blue sparrowhawk’s chest, which made the little girl giggle.

At dinner that evening, Yue Feng ate with the hawk perched on one hand. By the time he finished eating around seven o'clock, the food in the sparrowhawk’s crop had all been digested.

Yue Feng held the hawk under the oil lamp until eleven o'clock, only then tying it up before blowing out the lamp and climbing onto the kang to sleep.

He only slept for a little over four hours. Before dawn, when Yue Feng heard the first rooster crow in the village, he climbed out from under the covers early.

The hawk, resting on the back of the chair, still had its head tucked into its feathers and hadn't looked up. After getting up, Yue Feng took a roll of tire cord from the head of the bed, tucked it into his pocket, and then put on his gloves to perch the hawk.

From four o'clock until five-thirty, the large sparrowhawk finally showed a reaction.

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(End of chapter)