A day has passed since the dream, and the calf didn't realize it. It was already morning. The door of the cowshed opened with a creak. The calf turned its neck and saw its owner Hu Qian. He was holding a bowl in one hand and a basin in the other. He didn't know what to do. It stood up warily and walked to the corner of the cattle pen. It couldn't walk anymore because there was a wall in front of it.
Hu Qian put down the thing in his hand, and immediately grabbed the fur on the calf's neck. He used some force, but the calf couldn't move. He found that the owner was very kind to it. He loosened his fingers, stroked its head, and then stroked it. It didn't move its tender lips, watching what Hu Qian was going to do. He was moving the basin closer with his feet, which contained white liquid. He picked up another bowl, scooped out the white liquid from the basin, and tentatively brought it close to his lips.
The calf closed his lips and stared at the bowl in confusion. Hu Qian lifted the calf's chin to make its head look up, then used two fingers to open its mouth, and then slowly poured the white liquid in the bowl into its mouth.
The calf was so frightened that he wanted to vomit, even though it tasted good. The calf's reaction caused a third of the white liquid to splash out.
Hu Qian frowned and said: No wonder people say that animals are stupid and refuse to eat soy milk, which is so good for nourishing the body. They are really just eating grass.
Hu Qian was a little angry. He pushed the calf's neck up high with his hand. The calf felt uncomfortable and stamped its four calves. Hu Qian took the opportunity to pour bowl after bowl of soy milk from the basin into its mouth. , flowing into the throat like a bone. There was not much soy milk spraying out at this moment, but the calf's lips and Hu Qian's fingers were wet and white, as if they had been rinsed with lime.
A week later, the calf never ate soy milk again and went to the mountains to graze. It’s no wonder that when Hu Qian’s second son saw Hu Qian grinding soy milk for calves to drink every day, he said, “Dad, I want to eat beans.” Such a shout took the lead, and the boss also started shouting. Hu Qian thought it was pitiful that the child's mother was not around, so he agreed to eat the fried beans. But the soybeans at home are grown by ourselves, and the quantity is limited. Now we only have one dustpan. He took out half of it and fried it and gave it to his children as snacks; he wanted to keep the other half to continue grinding soy milk to feed the calves.
But within a few days, the children finished eating the fried soybeans and stared at the little soybeans left. The boss encouraged the third child, hugged Hu Qian's thigh, and said, Dad, I want to eat beans, beans are delicious.
Hu Qian was soft-hearted and bent over to pick up the third child: Baby, I will fry soybeans for you right now. But there are not many soybeans left, not even enough to grind soy milk for calves. The third child followed what the elder taught him and said that now that the calf has grown teeth, it can eat grass. Grinding soy milk would be a waste for it to eat.
It's not a matter of waste. Even if we don't grind the soybeans at home, there won't be much soybean milk. Okay, let’s fry the few soybeans we have for you three brothers!
Hu Qian kept his word. For a while, the room was filled with the aroma of fried soybeans, the stove pot was very hot, and the hearts of the three children were also very hot. After a while, they were chewing the soybeans and eating them like a competition. There is not much left.
At dusk, before the sun sets, the crimson afterglow stretches the shadow of the calf and the shadow of Hu Qian who walks out of the house. The calf circled Hu Qian. He understood that it wanted to eat the delicious soy milk, but after circling for a long time, Hu Qian did not bring out the soy milk, so it wandered to the edge of the house and ate the soy milk that grew on it. of green tender stems and leaves.
Hu Qian was a temperamental person, even with animals. He went to borrow soybeans from other houses in the village that night, but he couldn't borrow them. They said that the old soybeans were gone and they had to wait for the new soybeans to be harvested. This sounds like nonsense to Hu Qian. His family has a soybean field, and the soybeans produced are still tender. When he got home, he felt a little sad, so he went to the cowshed to pet the calf that was already sleeping lightly on the ground. The calf was very good. It was put out of the pen in the morning and kept in the pen in the evening. Hu Qian stroked it and felt that it was big, but very thin and obviously malnourished.
A few days later, the calves were grazing on the mountain. The grass was green, but the wheat seedlings were not as green as the wheat seedlings in the crop fields. How could the cattle graze if the wheat seedlings were green? Don’t farmer farmers expect a harvest of golden wheat grains when they grow wheat? But there is something special now. There is a wheat field outside the reservoir dam. The village decided to build a channel and abolish it. This green wheat seedling cannot be used for firewood. It is also good for grazing cattle and can provide a few fragrant meals for the cattle. Hu Qian naturally thought of his family's calf, so he went to the mountain to call the calf down the mountain and rushed to the wheat field. It was full of green wheat seedlings. , and the food was delicious. But the calf is always a little unaccustomed to it, and even a little timid. I remember a few days ago, a big ox walked to the edge of a wheat field. As soon as it stuck out its tongue and took a bite of wheat seedlings, it was severely beaten by the cowherd boy with a bamboo whip. It turned around and walked away. What's going on now? It couldn't figure it out. Looking at the wheat field, there were also people and cattle in twos and threes coming. The cattle were eating wheat seedlings happily. No one was beating them with whips. The doubtful calf couldn't understand the reason. After taking a look at the owner, he saw that he had no ill intentions towards it and had a smile on his face, so he ate the wheat sprouts with confidence.
After a while, the owner left, but the calf was still greedily eating the stems and leaves of the wheat seedlings. The sun shone on it, and the warm rays intertwined with it, and it felt quite comfortable. Inadvertently, a crow sounded by its ears; the calf was still eating the stems and leaves, chewing them carefully, and its lips were full of There was a bit of bitter saliva.
At this time, the sun dimmed, dark clouds slowly covered the sky, and the hoot of owls came from the distant forest again. It was getting late, and the calf, which had been eating wheat seedlings all day, felt uncomfortable in its stomach and stopped eating. It ran around uncomfortably and came to the field in front of the owner's house.
Hu Qian found that its belly was bulging, as if there were two round watermelons stuffed on the left and right sides of its back. When Hu Qian approached the calf, it was already unsteady and fell to the ground. Its body was twitching with a painful rhythm, and white saliva came out of its mouth.
Hu Qian was so anxious that he couldn't help him up. The symptoms are clear at first sight. If the calf eats too much wheat straw, it will become bloated. If it is not done well, it will die. Hu Qian regretted that he should not have taken the calf out of the forest to eat wheat straw. Now its life could not be saved.
At this moment, he wanted to find a veterinarian outside the mountain, but he considered that he still had a yellow cow in the mountain, and it would be safe to find it back. Only after he found it could he find a veterinarian, which would make him feel at ease.
Leaving behind the swollen calf, Hu Qian got up and walked towards the back mountain. The back mountain was shrouded in twilight. In the morning, the cattle were grazing in the dense forest of the back mountain. At this time, he went into the mountain to look for it, but there was no sign of the ox. He traveled through this mountain range hundreds of meters above sea level and ran a five-kilometer-long mountain road before reaching the end of the mountain range. It was connected to a field full of crops and a village house in the distance. An old man with a hoe was walking on the street. Hu Qian guessed that he was doing field management, so he went up to ask: Old man, can you see my scalpers? The old man was stunned for a moment, frowned, and then said in a choked voice: At noon, an ox ran down from the mountain and went straight to the farm to eat the seedlings. I was looking at the water and found it, so I stepped forward to grab it, untied the rope from its horns, and tied it to a wild tree, but no one came to claim it. In the afternoon I took it back to the village and tied it to a willow branch in front of the owner's pond. I don't know if it was your cattle.
I'm going to check it out. Hu Qian followed the old man to the village and saw the ox under the willow tree in front of the village from a distance. Hu Qian thanked the old man profusely, and the old man let him take away the scalper. But when I went around to my house, I led the ox into the corral and tied it up. Then I came out and saw the calf lying on the ground. It was dead, and its body was as stiff as a brick. It looked messy and miserable.
