CHAPTER 59: CHAPTER 59: CATCHING CICADAS

So, the trio agreed to go catch cicadas together after school.

Scholar Meng, who was walking into the classroom from outside, happened to witness the entire conversation between the two children. His heart swelled with pride, for these kids were not only intelligent but also displayed excellent character.

Therefore, during class, Scholar Meng shared a few stories about how the sages had faced their fears and eventually conquered them.

The two listened intently, finding the sages in the stories impressive. They felt they needed to study hard and strive to be like the sages.

Their fear and hesitation faded away. As soon as the Teacher dismissed the class, they said goodbye to him, gathered their books, and dashed out.

Today, Zhao Yu, Zhao Zhitong’s older cousin, was there to pick her up from school. It was his second time picking up his little sister, and he was still somewhat nervous, staring unblinkingly at the school gate.

As soon as he saw Zhao Zhitong appear, he waved and rushed toward her. "Little sister, I’m here to take you home."

He then took the luggage box from Zhao Zhitong’s hand and held it in his arms.

Zhao Zhitong asked, "Xiao Ge, I’m going to take Qiao Jiaojiao and Lanlan to catch cicadas. Do you know where the most cicadas are?"

Zhao Yu hesitated. His aunt had told him to take Zhao Zhitong straight home after school. If she wanted to go to Qiao Muchen’s or Wei Shulan’s house, he should let her go, but climbing trees and going into the river were not allowed. Now that his sister wanted to catch cicadas, they would definitely have to climb trees, which could be very dangerous.

So he asked, "Little sister, why do you want to catch cicadas?"

Zhao Zhitong replied, "To eat! My mom will fry them, and they’re so delicious."

Zhao Yu immediately replied, "Cicadas aren’t tasty. They’re dry and hard to chew. Let’s not go."

Nearby, Xiao Shitou, who was also worried about his young master, chimed in, "Yeah, yeah, that stuff isn’t edible. Let’s not go."

But having already spoken her mind, Zhao Zhitong was determined. She insisted, "Not the old cicadas in the trees, but the tender cicadas that have just emerged. Those are delicious."

When he heard they didn’t have to climb trees, Zhao Yu breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Oh, you mean the cicada nymphs, little sister? In that case, we have to go home first and get a small shovel to dig them up."

Upon hearing they needed a shovel, Zhao Zhitong was a bit confused. "Huh? Do we need a shovel? Don’t they come out by themselves?"

In her previous life, she had only eaten cicadas once, given to her by the boy next door. She had never caught them herself.

Zhao Yu explained, "They only come out at night to molt on the trees, but it’s too dark at night for us to see."

Seeing that Zhao Zhitong didn’t know, Qiao Muchen looked at her suspiciously. "Zhao Zhuangzhuang, are you a fool? Didn’t you say they come out from the ground? How can we dig them up without a shovel? Even I know that, and I’ve never caught them. Have you really ever caught them?"

Being called a fool by Qiao Muchen and questioned about whether she had ever caught cicadas, Zhao Zhitong felt embarrassed. She stubbornly declared, "I haven’t caught them myself, but I’ve seen others do it. They didn’t use a shovel, just their fingers to dig them up."

Hearing they would use their fingers to dig them out, Qiao Muchen shivered involuntarily. Digging with fingers? Gross! "What if they’re deep in the ground? Let’s bring a small shovel."

Zhao Zhitong compromised, "Fine, let’s go to my house and get them. We have two small shovels."

So, the three of them went back to Zhao Zhitong’s house to fetch the shovels.

After they left, three sneaky figures emerged from behind.

It was Zhao Yue and his two companions, who had been following Zhao Zhitong for days.

Zhao Yue excitedly said, "Did you hear that? They’re going to catch cicadas. We’ve got our chance!"

The other two little companions were also extremely excited.

"Let’s follow them quietly," they whispered.

「...」

When Zhao Zhitong and the others returned to her house, many villagers were there buying tofu.

Her father and second uncle were busy collecting soybeans, and her mother was cutting tofu for the villagers. The two aunts were busy washing and scrubbing, too busy to pay her any mind.

So, after putting down her luggage box, Zhao Zhitong went with Zhao Yu to the west room to get two small shovels. Then, after saying goodbye to their family, the five friends set off on their adventure.

Zhao Yu said that the forest at the foot of the back mountain was where cicadas were most plentiful. Every time he went to pick up firewood, he could hear the deafening sound of cicadas.

So, they decided to search for cicadas in the forest at the foot of the back mountain.

The back mountain, known as Waifang Mountain, was incredibly vast in Zhao Zhitong’s eyes, spanning their entire county town.

Teacher told them that the mountain consisted of 72 peaks. It was bordered on the west by Luoyang, on the north by the Yellow River, and on the south by the Ying River. Spanning six cities and counties, many emperors had visited Waifang Mountain throughout history.

The main peak of Waifang Mountain was Taishi Mountain, located north of Anyang County. There, a famous academy named Taiyi Academy was built.

Teacher told them that if they studied hard, they could enter the Official School and go to Taiyi Academy to study.

Scholar Meng was a provincial graduate from Taiyi Academy. He had gone to the capital several times to take the imperial examinations but was unsuccessful due to bad luck.

As he grew older, he retreated to their village. Coincidentally, Country Gentry Wei was looking for a teacher at the time, so Scholar Meng was invited to teach at the school.

At the time, she had only listened for the excitement of it all; women weren’t allowed into Taiyi Academy. Qiao Muchen, on the other hand, was determined to get in.

Now, looking at the dense forest on the back mountain, she felt it was incredibly mysterious and couldn’t resist the urge to explore it.

Zhao Yu held Zhao Zhitong’s hand tightly the whole way, fearing she would get lost. He kept warning her, "Little sister, stay close to me and don’t run off. We can only play at the foot of the mountain for a bit; we can’t go into the mountain itself. There are wild animals deep in the mountains, the kind that eat people."

"Oh, okay," Zhao Zhitong said, nodding, though her eyes, filled with curiosity, scanned the surrounding trees, and it was unclear if she had truly heard him.

When they arrived at the spot, just as Zhao Yu had said, the sound of cicadas was deafening.

Zhao Zhitong took a small shovel, handed the other to Qiao Muchen, and said, "Let’s start looking."

Qiao Muchen looked at her blankly. "How?"

Zhao Zhitong replied, "Of course, we have to find their holes. The cicada nymphs must be hiding in them."

And so the little ones began searching the ground.

Brushing away the fallen leaves, they could see many thumb-sized holes. It was too dark inside to see anything, but Zhao Zhitong, growing curious, exclaimed, "Wow, look, there are so many holes here!"

Then she stuck her little finger into one of the holes...

Qiao Muchen saw this and shuddered. Wei Shulan, however, went over and examined the hole with Zhao Zhitong.

Zhao Yu looked up at the hole Zhao Zhitong was poking into and explained, "Little sister, in those big holes, the cicada nymphs have already emerged. There’s nothing in there."

Zhao Zhitong was surprised. "There aren’t? But I think I touched something!"

Qiao Muchen and Wei Shulan exclaimed in surprise, "Really? Then dig it out quickly!"

Zhao Yu rushed over to pull Zhao Zhitong away. "Little sister, don’t poke around in there with your hand! It could be a frog, or even a snake! They might have crawled into the hole to eat the cicada nymphs and then hidden inside."

When she heard "snakes," Zhao Zhitong froze. She quickly pulled her finger out and shrieked, "AAAAH!"