Chiang Xiao looked outside the space and instantly her eyes widened.
She saw a flock of brownish-yellow birds flying over the grass outside the woods, flapping their way down onto the patch of grass where her painting lay. There seemed to be more than a dozen birds in the group, too many for her to count at a glance.
After racking her brain, Chiang Xiao finally remembered the name of this bird—it was a partridge! As a child, she had heard the villagers talk about catching partridges by the creek, and how delicious they were when roasted. But in recent years, partridges had not appeared near the village slopes or the creeks.
Chiang Xiao never expected to see a whole flock now! A whole flock!
Although partridges didn’t fly high or fast, they were still birds!
With such a flock of partridges, how was she supposed to catch them?
Chiang Xiao, carrying a few wild hares and pheasants, flashed out of the space, and to her surprise, the flock of partridges didn’t pay any attention to her, still eagerly pecking at the little bugs she had drawn. Unable to hold back, she immediately ran outside.
No matter what, with a big flock of partridges right before her eyes, how could she miss this chance!
"Uncle, Aunt’s husband! Quick, bring the bamboo baskets! So, so many partridges! I don’t know how to catch them!" She was so excited she went mad for a moment, only thinking about getting Ge Dejun and Xu Linjiang involved in the capture, instead of just taking them all into the space.
At this point, Xu Linjiang wondered if Chiang Xiao was so overjoyed that she mistook two or three for a whole flock.
But he and Ge Dejun still happily grabbed a large bamboo basket each and ran over.
As they were running over, Chiang Xiao thought she should collect her painting first, but when she got close, well! Where was the painting?
The entire painting was pecked to pieces by the flock of partridges, and probably half of it had been swallowed, the remaining scraps so tiny one could hardly tell they were paper, as they were originally covered in green, and even in pieces, they were just bits of greenery. Occasionally you’d see a bit of the backside, looking like grains of sand.
Chiang Xiao was dumbstruck.
But perhaps the partridges would even eat grass scraps, and the grass she had painted was too lush and tender, so it was pecked into pieces. The flock of partridges couldn’t distinguish between paper and grass and still refused to leave, continuing to peck happily among the grass.
So when Ge Dejun and Xu Linjiang arrived, they too were stunned.
"Uncle, Aunt’s husband, quick, catch them!" Chiang Xiao urged them urgently.
Ge Dejun and Xu Linjiang, as if waking up from a dream, immediately darted forward with the baskets.
Becaus the flock of partridges were clustered together, as they scooped down with the baskets, both men succeeded in capturing some, though they didn’t have time to see how many they had caught.
While they were pouncing, Chiang Xiao also threw herself into the action.
She had no bamboo basket, so she just used her hands to catch.
However, the moment her hands touched a partridge, she willed it and immediately transported three partridges into the space. Then she shifted her hands and managed to firmly catch another one.
Chiang Xiao, holding the partridge, tumbled into the grass.
Hearing her cry, Ge Dejun and Xu Linjiang, who were pressing down the bamboo baskets, turned their heads to look. At first, they were startled, but then they burst out laughing in unison.
"Little, you’ve squashed that partridge to death!"
Squashed it to death?!
Chiang Xiao quickly got up and checked—indeed she had unwittingly squashed the poor partridge to death! She immediately felt a flood of embarrassment.
"Hahaha!" Ge Dejun and Xu Linjiang couldn’t help but laugh out loud again. This was the joy of harvest! It was the joy of having something to look forward to!