Li Du ran to the field to get a shovel. For this kind of work, he had to use a round shovel. A square shovel was not convenient.
Carrying the shovel, he went to the mouse hole that Ah Meow had found.
Godzilla and Hans had just finished plowing the field. The mouse hole was blocked by mud. Li Du used his hand to sweep away a layer of mud and found a hole the size of a child's fist.
Hans put on a cotton-padded jacket and asked excitedly, "What are you going to do?"
After working for a while, he was no longer cold and had regained his lively personality.
Li Du rubbed his hands and said, "Wait and see. I'll get you something to eat."
Hearing that there was food, Godzilla, who was busy working, stopped. He pressed the wooden frame with both hands and inserted the plow knife deep into the soil. "Food?"
"Yes."
He and Big Quinn stopped working and gathered around Li Du to watch the fun.
Seeing the four of them gathered together, Li Du's father, who was smoking on the field, asked, "What are you doing? What's wrong? "
Li Du turned around and said, "I found a mouse hole. I'm going to dig it. There's food inside."
Li Du shook his head and said, "Not necessarily. This place is too close to the county. There are garbage dumps nearby. When the mice are hungry, they go to the garbage dumps to find food. They won't store food."
"Even if there's food inside, what's the use of digging it up? Who needs food these days? "One of Li Du's uncles laughed.
"That's right, Xiao Du. You're taking foreigners with you to dig a mouse hole for food? Won't they think that China is still poor and backward? "
Li Du said, "I'm doing it for fun. I haven't dug a mouse hole since high school. There must be food in this mouse hole."
One of the onlookers nodded and said, "Well, the farmland here has been growing crops. If the mice are willing to store food, there must be peanuts, corn, peas, sweet potatoes, and so on."
Li Du guessed that there would be food in this mouse hole. The mouse that Ah Meow caught was very fat. Its fur was not dirty, but shiny, indicating that it had stored enough food and that the place where it foraged for food was very clean.
It was easy to guess that the mouse's smooth fur proved that it did not live in garbage dumps. Its fat body meant that it had plenty of food and less exercise.
In conclusion, the mouse hid a lot of food in the cave. It stayed in the cave every day for the winter, which was why it was fat and clean.
Li Du used the shovel to dig the mouse hole. The mouse hole snaked downwards, and after digging diagonally for more than a meter, he still did not reach the cave. Instead, he found two forks.
Hans was taken aback. "What's going on?"
Li Du said, "In our culture, there's a saying: 'A cunning rabbit has three burrows.' It's the same for a rat. Watch me, I'll find its nest."
He did it for fun, so he did not use the little bug to find out which of the two holes was the rat's granary.
Following the hole, he dug down for another half a meter. At this time, the shovel dug up some peanut skins and corn cob fragments.
Seeing this, Li Du perked up. Hmm, there was hope. They were almost at its nest.
Sure enough, it was no longer a tunnel but a cave. At this time, he carefully dug out the soil with his hands, widened the cave, and lifted the top of the cave. What was inside appeared in front of them.
The area of the cave was quite large, covering an area of one square meter. The overall shape was irregular, and there were a few small holes in the cave.
There was food in every small hole, mostly peanuts, followed by corn, and a few sweet potatoes and potatoes. Some of the sweet potatoes had sprouted, and the potatoes were well preserved.
In addition to the food, there were a few bird eggs in the cave.
Li Du counted a total of five bird eggs. The eggshell was green, and the surface was a little uneven. It shone with a bright luster and was smooth to the touch.
The five bird eggs were smaller than chicken eggs, but much bigger than sparrow eggs and quail eggs.
It was the first time he saw such bird eggs. He picked one up and asked his father, "Dad, what kind of egg is this?"
Li Du's father and the others, who were chatting excitedly, looked up. Someone's eyes lit up. "Oh, pheasant egg? This is a real pheasant egg. "
In many places, pheasant egg was another name for pheasant egg. In Li Du's hometown, pheasant eggs were eggs laid by pheasants. In the past, there was a large wetland nearby, and many pheasants lived there.
Later, the weather was dry, and the amount of water in the wetland decreased. In addition, in the 1970s and 1980s, people were enthusiastic about reclaiming land from the lake, and eventually the wetland was almost destroyed.
By the time Li Du was born, the surrounding wetland was almost gone. There were only a few small lakes and ponds left. Wild birds and pheasants were caught and ran away, and could no longer be seen.
Now that the country had begun to pay attention to environmental protection, some places in his hometown began to return farmland to forests and lakes. Gradually, wild birds began to fly in.
Li Du had never eaten pheasant eggs before. His father said, "This thing smells good. Where did you find it?"
"In the mouse hole," he said. "These are pheasant eggs? Could it hatch then? If they can hatch, don't eat them. Go home and get a hen to incubate them. "
Li Du's father shook his head. "No, the weather is too cold. The mouse dragged these pheasant eggs into the hole. Without a hen to incubate them, the chicks inside are already dead."
There was no other way. They could only eat them, or it would be too wasteful.
Li Du took the three of them to dig out all the food in the mouse hole. This mouse was very diligent, and it had stolen a lot of food to store in the hole.
There was a bag in the three-wheeled motorcycle. Li Du filled half the bag with food.
He brought the food to the other side of the field, found some firewood and hay, and got Big Quinn to build a simple earthen stove with mud and bricks. He said, "Come, let's roast peanuts and roast sweet potatoes."
Hans was stunned and said, "Can we eat them? Didn't we dig them out from the mouse hole? "
Li Du said, "Yes, why can't we eat them? There's a saying in my hometown: 'The mouse hole has a good harvest, and the frogs croak.' This is a pleasure. "
"Will there be something like the plague?" Hans asked worriedly.
Li Du said, "Maybe there will be."
Hans shook his head. "Then we can't eat them. I definitely won't eat them."
Li Du laughed. "It's good that you don't eat them. We can eat more with one less mouth."
Big Quinn started a fire. Li Du used water and mud to cover the surface of the sweet potatoes, and then threw them into the fire along with the potatoes and peanuts.
Soon, as the fire burned, the surface of the peanuts was charred.
Seeing this, Li Du used a stick to pull out the peanuts and said, "You can eat them now. The roasted peanuts are delicious."
Godzilla didn't care if they were delicious, he only cared if they were edible. The peanuts that he pulled out were still hot, so he pushed them into his mouth.
After chewing two mouthfuls, he nodded and said, "Mmm, delicious."
Big Quinn also picked up the peanuts and peeled them. After eating one, he said, "It's really fragrant."
Hans shook his head with a look of disgust. Li Du ignored him and pushed the peanuts away, eating happily. Ah Meow smelled the fragrance and came over. Li Du gave him one, and he ate it happily.
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