Daily Life in the Countryside After Being Reborn-Chapter 28 - 27 Red-haired Pigeons

On the hillside of Black Mountain, nearly a thousand pigeons are kept in over a hundred pigeon cages.

Every day at ten in the morning, three women hired from the Miao family come to feed, collect pigeon eggs, and clean the cages. This routine has remained unchanged since Yibar started breeding pigeons.

Li Ye, taking advantage of the elders' lack of attention, deliberately lagged behind the group. After all, he knew the path to the tea mountain well enough, and wasn't afraid of getting lost. Mama has been worried about the white tea for quite a while now, so she didn't have the mind to attend to him. Daddy often left the mountain in previous years, and the affairs of the tea mountain were taken care of with the help of the Great Wizard.

But after the New Year's celebration last year, the Great Wizard's health declined. She wasn't up to moving around too much, and Mama didn't want to disturb her rest over matters relating to the tea mountain, so those affairs were postponed.

"Chirp chirp, don't be scared, I have some soaked crushed corn here, come over," whispered Li Ye as he leaned in front of a row of pigeon cages, coaxing a newborn little dove.

Pigeons lay eggs, and about eighty percent of these are sold, while the remaining twenty percent are kept for hatching.

Whether or not the eggs hatch depends greatly on the mother pigeon's mood. The cages nearby had several eggs awaiting incubation, but in just a few days, the temperamental mother pigeons crushed them, smearing the cages with egg whites and yolks, looking grimy and dirty.

Li Ye loved animals, and the birds in the mountains were his best friends.

That little dove had just hatched when Zhu Shijun and his group went up the mountain. No one else noticed the arrival of a new life, only Li Ye detected the feeble cries of the young dove amidst the unusual "cooing" sounds of the pigeons.

The newly hatched pigeon seemed to be shunned by the flock. It wasn't cuddly like a fluffy yellow chick but was covered in red feathers. Its sparse and drooping plumage, its eyelids topped with fetal white, it couldn't see its surrounding environment clearly. Its two feet were tucked under its belly, motionless even upon hearing a sound.

"If you don't come out, Uncle Yibar and the others will find out, and then you can only be eaten as a squab," Li Ye said urgently, reaching his hand into the pigeon cage. Although the trained pigeons wouldn't fly out on their own, a dozen beaks seemed ready to peck at the approach of a strange pair of hands.

Xiao Xian watched the scene from not too far away, thinking that this kid was about to get into big trouble. The mother birds were protective of their nests, and yet he dared to provoke them.

A series of coos, incomprehensible to Xiao Xian and sounding as if they came from deep within a pigeon's throat, spilled from Li Ye's mouth. The dozen or so pigeons fluffed up a storm of feathers, ceased their assault, retracted their wings, and crouched down in the cages. The scene was most peculiar.

Li Ye was oblivious to the small figure slowly approaching him.

He wanted to take the oddly colored "little dove" away early. The newborn "dove" curled up in his palm, its warm and fragile body tugging at the heartstrings.

"Little cutie, eat some corn, I'll take you down the mountain in a bit," Li Ye brought the soaked crushed corn closer to the little dove's mouth. The fledgling, however, didn't move. He then made a series of "cooing" sounds, but the dove was still too young and didn't understand the communication methods suitable for a flock of pigeons. After trying several times with no result, Li Ye became so frustrated that he scratched his head.

"You're so foolish," Xiao Xian couldn't hold back any longer and spoke up. When Li Ye saw Xiao Xian, he hurriedly tried to hide the little dove behind him.

"Keep hiding it like that, and you'll starve it to death," Xiao Xian stopped in his tracks, plucked a slender wild grass leaf beside him, dipped it in some water, and brought it close to the little dove's beak.

He gently shook the grass leaf and didn't forget to lecture, "Humans and animals are the same; a young pigeon this small can only rely on its instincts to eat food fed by its mother dove. Of course, it won't react to being fed by hand."

Strangely enough, the young bird that had been unresponsive a moment ago, upon touching the slender, beak-like tip of the wild grass, opened its ginger-colored beak and a few drops of water neatly made their way into its mouth.

Xiao Xian also noticed that this "dove's" feathers were sparser than that of a regular young pigeon. Its color was the rosy red of mountain azaleas, and it was surprisingly small, clearly out of place in the pigeon cage.

"If you truly want to raise it, go home and find a sharpened bamboo strip and forget about crushed corn. Just feed it softened rice dregs," Xiao Xian looked at the little dove, seeing it was quite ugly—only a fool would want to raise such an ugly little dove.

Yunteng Sect is a famous mountain for cultivation, adhering to the principle of natural harmony, the Yunteng Sect Leader once raised a blue feathered peacock for a while. She had also been sent by her master to take care of the pigeons' meals, which she did for over half a year. Thanks to her rearing, the peacocks she fed flaunted their tails high and mighty, there was no end to their strutting.

"Don't you dare look down on Little Pig," Li Ye saw Xiao Xian's disdainful look—this kid, quick-witted indeed, not only imitated the cooing of pigeons but also guessed what she was thinking.

"You naming a pigeon 'Little Pig' really makes the joke of 'pigs might fly' come true," Xiao Xian couldn't understand what goes through the mind of an eleven- or twelve-year-old child.

Li Ye smiled triumphantly; Little Pig, isn't that just Zhu Xiaoxian?

"Going back to what I was saying, I remember that it wasn't just the pigeons you cooed to. The first time I saw you, you were also talking to the crickets in the grass," when Xiao Xian referred to 'the first time,' it was the first encounter between 'Xiao Xian' and Li Ye.

Li Ye became anxious, and to cover his nervousness, he bent a few dry reed stalks and started weaving a small pigeon cage in his hands.

The reason he bullied Zhu Xiaoxian stemmed from that time "Zhu Xiaoxian" caught him talking to animals and mocked him as a fool, saying there was no such person in the world who talked to animals. It was also his fault for carelessly getting caught by Zhu Xiaoxian multiple times.

Before, he really disliked Zhu Xiaoxian, but seeing her this time, he didn't find her so detestable anymore. If she was loudmouthed and blabbed everywhere, should he teach her a lesson, or...

"You can't tell anyone about these things, otherwise, even if my Mama beats me, I won't let you off," Li Ye tried to sound fiercely threatening, but his efforts to intimidate sounded extremely weak, almost pleading.

"Who am I going to tell? It's just talking to birds and little animals, a common thing for me. It's no different from talking to flowers and plants. What are you so embarrassed about? Don't forget, you can't beat me," Xiao Xian showed her dissatisfaction, putting on a big sister's air.

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"Who says I can't beat you?" When Li Ye heard this, it was a matter of reputation as the First Child King of the Miao family, but pondering Xiao Xian's words, his still youthful face cleared up in an instant, "You said, you also talk to... flowers and plants, are you not afraid of others laughing at you?"

"Laugh at what? Let me tell you, I've even seen animals in the air... But it's pointless to say,"

Li Ye finally found someone to talk to about that matter, and thought of forming a temporary alliance with Zhu Xiaoxian. As they talked, they headed towards the tea garden at the foot of the mountain. Behind them, the cooing from inside the pigeon cage seemed to carry a sense of heavy burden.