Chapter 1667: The Dog

Shaking the large, round, greenish duck eggs like a fortune-telling tube was truly meaningless, but everyone was happy after doing it.

The reed marsh was deep and quiet, filled with the scent of dampness and decaying branches. The adults were still chatting and laughing as they searched for treasure, but the children had quieted down, treating the duck eggs with great gentleness.

Even He He Tuoluo was light-footed, as if the duck egg had become something different to him after being shaken.

Everyone rustled through the reeds, occasionally placing one into their baskets, accompanied by joyful cries:

"There are three here!"

"This one is so hidden! I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't turned this way."

"This nest must be where they all come to lay; there are five!"

Mother Yun asked, "Do we need to leave one as a decoy egg?"

In the past, when raising chickens at home, they would always leave one egg in the nest before the hens laid, to let them know where to lay. Every time they collected eggs, they would leave one behind.

Chen Chi shook his head: "No need, they're used to it."

These ducks were so irresponsible.

They ate and drank and laid eggs randomly every day, and at first, they even laid them in the water—not only was it hard to collect, but they couldn't be preserved once they hit the water.

Later, after suffering a sound beating from Da Bai and Goose Sister, plus the temptation of Chen Chi and Chen Xi's delicious food, they finally settled down here.

This meant that not every egg laid in the vast reed marsh could be found; some would inevitably be missed.

Qin Yun asked curiously, "Is it possible to collect every single egg in such a large reed marsh? Won't some be missed?"

That was bound to happen.

Since there weren't enough duck eggs for everyone to collect, Chen Chi stood quietly in a corner, frowning: "Many ducks lay eggs very mysteriously. At first, some were missed, but later, I'd have the dogs check again after collecting..."

But they couldn't let Liu Bao help!

It would steal and eat them; its moral character was too corrupt! Chen Xi hadn't noticed at first, but once, while he was tidying up reed leaves, Liu Bao had been ordered to find duck eggs...

In short, there was a reason why some dogs weren't trusted!

Perhaps hearing a familiar name, Xiao Shi tilted its head. Although it didn't quite understand, it didn't stop it from taking the opportunity to show off:

"Woof!"

It was also very good at finding duck eggs! But duty called, and it still had to keep an eye on this little one—wait, the little one had wandered to the outer edge again!

That wouldn't do.

Before Xiao Shi could act, Chen Chi grabbed him: "Don't go to the edge; there's a lot of water, and it's easy to step into it."

The outer edge of the reed marsh was right by the riverbank. The roots and dead leaves underneath weren't very deep, and it was easy to step into the soft, rotting leaves and have the water submerge one's ankles.

It wasn't dangerous, but if a child tripped and fell...

Chen Chi looked at the small basket in his hand: falling down didn't matter—in summer, they weren't even afraid of the cold water—but it would be bad if the duck eggs rolled into the water.

He He Tuoluo was full of confidence: "I can swim!"

"But the duck eggs can't!" Chen Chi huffed, feeling he wasn't very obedient.

Oh.

Seeing the adults staring over with vigilance, He He Tuoluo had to retreat for the time being.

Fortunately, although he wasn't very obedient, the girls were earnest and responsible in completing their work.

They had already swapped their small baskets for two larger ones, and as the large duck eggs were placed inside and slowly carried to the side, they felt a great sense of harvest.

They were small, agile, and tireless, bending, squatting, and standing in the same small, dense space of the reed marsh without feeling any discomfort.

The adults couldn't manage that.

After repeating these movements a few times, they felt their feet going numb and their eyes swimming.

The older ones even had to support their waists just to stand up straight, moving slowly.

In the end, everyone just searched sporadically on the outer edges, leaving the vast, bountiful area in the middle entirely to the children.

Although their efficiency wasn't great, they won by sheer numbers, and in the end, they managed to collect all the duck eggs.

Chen Chi breathed a silent sigh of relief, his youthful face filled with worry for these useless adults:

They weren't even good at collecting duck eggs, so they shouldn't help when it came time to slaughter pigs; they couldn't even help pull the pig's legs, sigh!

The boy's innocent gaze swept over everyone. The adults didn't notice his sigh, and instead asked excitedly, "What's next?"

Lu Chuan looked at the time: there wasn't much else they could do.

They had set off at 5:30, wandered over to the riverbank, and spent an hour collecting duck eggs—a task Chen Chi and Chen Xi could have finished in 10 minutes.

In another hour, it would be dark, so he gave them two choices: "Do you want to stay here and look at the pigs, cows, and sheep, or go back and pickle the duck eggs?"

Oh my!

This was a difficult choice. Standing on the riverbank, they could see lambs frolicking in the distance—so cute. There were white ones, black-spotted ones, grey-furred ones, and yellow ones...

The daughter stood there, eyes fixed, unable to move.

And a little further ahead, a large yellow ox was swaying in the river, its head and horns exposed above the water, its large, moist eyes with long, thick lashes blinking, ripples gently swaying on both sides of its body...

Oh! A childhood fantasy!

Everyone had just taken out their phones to take pictures when a bolt of lightning flew over from the distance. With a few leaps across the grass, it didn't stop at all and jumped straight into the river!

"Moo—"

The large yellow ox let out a low, slow sound.

On its back, the large yellow dog—that flying, quintessentially rural figure—was standing there, moving forward slowly amidst the ripples on the river surface.

It held its head high, its eyes bright, its fur shiny and flowing—it was indescribably dreamy and handsome.

"Holy crap..."

The people around them let out gasps, unable to find any meaningful words to describe it, finally settling for that simple exclamation.

The children were almost dumbfounded as they watched all this. It wasn't until a moment later that He He Tuoluo made a sound:

"Dad! I want to—"

He Kuang covered his son's mouth: "No, you don't want to; I do."

He looked at Lu Chuan with a mix of jealousy and bubbling emotion.

The stereotypical rural impression: dust, insects, snakes, labor in sweat, large fields of crops.

The rural life they were seeing: a large yellow dog! A large water buffalo! A "light-foot" technique walking on water—a superhuman Wuxia dream!

It was too handsome, boo-hoo! Humans really were pathetic; one day, he'd actually find himself jealous of a dog's handsomeness!

Qin Yun even looked at the other cows slowly grazing: "Chuan, can we..."

This wasn't a difficult request. The cows at home often soaked in the river, and with someone watching, he could let them ride the cows in the river to satisfy their craving.

But—

"Have you decided? Are you staying here to look at the cows and sheep, or going back to pickle the duck eggs? And tomorrow, can we still stick to the original plan of fishing and picking water caltrops?"

Everyone:...

Damn it! Why were there so many activities! It was really hard to choose when everything was so interesting!

The power went out last night. When the screen lit up, all the mosquitoes and bugs flew over, which was incredibly annoying, plus the internet was down for a long time...

Ah, damn it! There's more today! I'll let everyone have a taste of this appetizer first. ===== CHAPTER 1668 =====