bookcurios Chapter 182 Cicada Turtle
Chapter 182 Cicada Turtle
In the afternoon, Yun Xi took Mu Jinyan to sketch. The two found a shady place and asked the maids to set up the table and chairs. Yun Xi had prepared a wooden board with silk cloth stretched on it, as well as brushes and paints.
She prepared plant pigments, mainly black, red, purple, orange, green, etc., which were extracted from plants such as gallnut, safflower, madder, indigo, and sepia. The pigments of this era were already very rich, and some were extracted from minerals.
He gave Mu Jinyan a pen, a wooden board, and a paint tray: "Draw whatever you want. You can draw according to the surrounding scenery, or according to your own imagination. Draw whatever you like."
Mu Jinyan took the pen and was eager to try.
Yun Xi was beside her, drawing directly on the paper. She pasted several pieces of paper together to make a super thin cardboard that was not limp.
She drew a rural scene on the cardboard, and planned to cut it up and give it to Mu Jinyan to play with as a puzzle. It was unlikely to be a puzzle like in the future, so it could only be cut into many square pieces.
The two of them painted until dusk. The sun gradually became less hot and dazzling, and slowly set in the west. The sky was covered with gorgeous sunset clouds, illuminating the entire field. They sat in the field and felt the wonder and beauty of nature.
"Mom, it's so beautiful."
"Yeah." Yun Xi agreed, "The afterglow of the sunset, the evening glow and the fields, everything is just right."
"I tell you, the sunset is beautiful, and the sunrise is also beautiful." Yun Xi recommended. "If you can get up tomorrow, you can ask the nanny and the maids to take you to see the sunrise."
"Can't mom watch it with me?" asked the little bun.
"...Uh, mother probably can't get up." Yun Xi said awkwardly.
Mu Jinyan chuckled. Yun Xi nodded his head and ordered people to collect all the paintings and put them back to dry. It's true that Mu Jinyan's paintings really have a bit of postmodern style at first glance.
The next morning, he got up earlier than his father, got dressed and got out of bed by himself, and asked his nanny to take him out to watch the sunrise.
Nurse: "..."
When the group came out, the sky was gradually getting brighter. The sky slowly changed from blue-gray to blue. White clouds floated in the blue sky and gradually turned red.
The morning glow rose with the sun, and the entire east was red, a bright red covering the entire sky.
As the sun rose higher and higher, the sunlight penetrated the clouds and the morning glow gradually dissipated.
The sky is blue and white clouds, and the sky is clear.
"Mom is right, the sunrise is indeed beautiful." Mu Jinyan said with emotion.
He returned to the courtyard and just saw his father pushing the door open.
"Daddy."
"morning."
Mu Sheng heard the sound of him getting up and kept an eye on his movements. With a wet nurse and guards following him, he had nothing to worry about.
"Is Daddy leaving?"
"Yes. Daddy still has to go to the government office to be on duty. You stay here and listen to your mother."
"Got it. Goodbye, Daddy."
Mu Jinyan saw his father off, drank a glass of milk, and then ran to Yun Xi's room to take a nap with her.
Yun Xi loved to sleep, and now that she was pregnant, she was even sleepier. When Mu Sheng left and Mu Jinyan came, she felt nothing.
When she finally woke up with a good sleep, it was already very late. Looking at the position of the sun, it was probably around nine o'clock. She slept for more than a circle.
After an early lunch, Yun Xi asked the craftsmen to make small parts for her. They were a few small wheels and a few small wooden boards that could be assembled into a simple car. A small wooden stick and fish bladder were used as springs to drive the car. Even if it was tightened, it couldn't go far, after all, the materials were limited.
But Mu Jinyan had a lot of fun. Yun Xi demonstrated the assembly method once, then took it apart for him to assemble by himself. Mu Jinyan played with it for a whole day.
Seeing that he really liked it, Yun Xi drew some more pictures and asked the craftsmen to help build it. In the few days at the manor, they made a manual mini lift, a track ball, and even a mini barrel car.
With these toys, Mu Jinyan almost didn't want to leave the house except for taking walks with Yun Xi in the morning and late afternoon.
However, since she had said she would take him to look for cicada turtles and see fireflies, Yun Xi still made time to do these two things.
On the fifth day of living in the manor, it rained a little, the weather was still overcast, and the ground was not muddy. In the evening, Yun Xi took Mu Jinyan to search in an area with more trees.
After the rain, the ground is soft and moist, and cicada turtles prefer to crawl out. When they drill up from the ground, a small hole will appear on the ground first, which is the kind of hole that looks small at first, but you can tell at a glance that the soil is thin, and the small hole will become a big hole when you touch it lightly. Usually, there are cicada turtles.
Yun Xi and her friends found the first small hole. They gently touched the hole entrance with a small wooden shovel, lifted the thin soil a little, and saw the small head and big eyes of the cicada turtle.
To be honest, Yun Xi was a little frightened. After all, this thing was rare in her time, and she only had theory but no practical experience.
Before, she had only seen cicadas and their shed shells. A thin, transparent brown shell, with its claws still clinging to the tree trunk. The cicada had already left its shell and climbed to a high branch, and after its wings dried, it could spread its wings and fly.
Of course, after shedding, the cicada becomes old and inedible. It is only delicious before shedding.
This thing has become a seasonal and local specialty product in later generations, and is sold at a very high price.
She did not continue digging the hole and take out the cicada turtle. Instead, she shoveled up the turtle and the soil together, placed it on the ground next to her, and slowly dug it out with the shovel.
The newly unearthed cicada turtle is probably still confused, with its body covered with mud. Its little claws slowly stretch out and the mud slowly shakes off. Don't say it, it's really ugly but cute.
Mu Jinyan was just like her, wanting to touch but not daring to, his little hand stretched out and retracted. Yun Xi handed him a wooden stick: "Use this, touch gently."
The cicada turtle is not dangerous. Even if you are scratched by its claws, it will only hurt a little. If you pinch its back, it will be completely unable to resist.
Yun Xi plucked up her courage, reached out and pinched it. The cicada turtle was instantly suspended in the air, its claws still struggling.
By nightfall, they had caught more than 20 cicada turtles. After all, they had no experience, so they didn't catch that many.
In the time and space where she lived, the history of eating cicada turtles was very long, and it was said that it was recorded in oracle bone inscriptions. Yun Xi didn't know whether people in this world ate it or not, and she didn't ask.
After returning home at night, Yun Xi ordered people to wash the cicada turtle, soak it in salt water, and fry or deep-fry it early the next morning.
Even after soaking in salt water overnight, some cicada turtles had cracks on their backs the next morning, which was a precursor to molting, but fortunately it was just a crack and they had not actually shed their skin.
Yun Xi sent someone to invite Yun Dad to come and eat together. Yun Dad didn't want to eat it at first, but the fried cicada turtle was so fragrant that he couldn't help but chew one.
Mu Jinyan watched him eat and tried one as well. They both instantly found it delicious.
Dad Yun looked at the small plate of cicada turtles left after frying them, with a look of disgust on his face. "You only caught a few?"
"Go ahead and catch them if you can. We have been searching for these few for quite some time."
"I'll go if I want. There's a lot of this stuff, I can grab a bunch."
"Dad, look up at the sky. Cows are flying in the sky."
Father Yun said angrily, "Nonsense, whose cow can fly in the sky?"
"It's ours. You just blew it up."
Father Yun: “…”
Mu Jinyan giggled as he listened to it. His little mouth was also busy. When Yun Xi and his father finished making the cicada turtle cough, only half of it was left.
Yun Xi: "...Baby, don't eat too much of this. It will easily cause you to get angry."
Mu Jinyan was already full, so he replied obediently, "I know, mother, I'm full."
Yun Xi only ate two, and the rest were eaten by Yun's father.
That evening, Yun Dad sent people to the woods to look for cicada turtles. As it turned out, he was not exaggerating. The workers walked much farther than Yun Xi to look for cicada turtles, and with strength in numbers, they easily found hundreds of them.
Dad Yun came to Yun Xi with a big jar in his hand to show off: "Take a look, is it a lot?"
Yun Xi: "..."
Did you catch this?
But she also knew that she had to save face for her father, so she said in a flattering manner: "Duo, Duo, my father is really amazing."
This is a photo of the sunrise I took in the summer of one year. It was about five in the morning.