Chapter 91: The Goose Housing Unit
Whether the goslings would eat it or not, there was no other food at home—no room to be picky.
There was plenty of wild grass outside, but these goslings were less than a day old. Huai Yu didn’t dare take the risk. What if their sharp little beaks scooped up some sand or dirt along with the grass? She had no idea if their stomachs were made of iron!
So she diced the bamboo shoots, blanched them, let them cool, and poured them into a bowl.
The two chubby grey goslings, who had been “ah ah ah”-ing nonstop, immediately fell silent—then stretched their necks straight into the bowl!
“Craack.”
With a strange sound, Huai Yu saw that her stainless steel bowl, which had cost her quite a few points, now had a gaping hole in it.
Huai Yu: …
The hole matched the little gosling’s beak perfectly, and two pieces of diced bamboo had already slipped out.
And that gosling—hey! Quite frugal, wasn’t it? Its flat little beak was now aiming at the floor!
Huai Yu’s heart leapt. She quickly lifted the bowl up high and tried to distract them:
“Uh… so, I can’t patch a cement floor, alright? How about we eat outside instead?”
“You’re not afraid of the cold, right? If you are, I can carry the whole box out with you in it…”
How humble can one person be?!
Seriously—who were these people who kept strange mutant pets like this? What kind of cages did they use? Titanium alloy? Military-grade steel?!
Whether the goslings were cold or not, she carried the box outside anyway. The only thing she was grateful for was that they were quite docile—no matter how she moved them, they didn’t resist.
But they were also so round and so fat that the box couldn’t fit the food bowl anymore.
And Huai Yu didn’t dare risk letting them out, so she simply tipped the bowl over. The bamboo shoots fell out like rain.
The goslings stared blankly for a moment, smacked their beaks a couple of times, then caught the scent—and dove down into the bamboo shoot mountain, their little legs buried underneath.
“Peck peck peck… peck peck peck…”
The sound of flat beaks eating didn’t stop, and with each peck, a layer of cardboard from the box went flying.
Huai Yu squatted next to them in numb silence, unable to watch.
She didn’t know if they’d be good guard animals when they grew up, but the cost of raising them was way too high.
All she’d wanted was an early-warning alarm—what did she do wrong?! Her only mistake was giving them too much life force during incubation!
Way too much!
Two entire bamboo shoots’ worth! That kind of density and nutrition was nothing like the cabbage from this morning.
Now, there wasn’t a single piece left in the box. The goslings occasionally pecked left and right, turning the poor cardboard box into a total wreck.
And then, without warning, they lifted their little butts and let out a massive poop.
Huai Yu: …
Wow, what a blessing to have gotten these two.
She got it now—this cardboard box was not going to be recyclable in any way, huh?
Huai Yu didn’t even know what kind of emotion she had when she finally carried them back to the house. The chicks were still chirping away, the goslings “ah ah ah”-ing… and she didn’t dare put them together.
Leaving them outside was too risky—those beaks could destroy anything.
But keeping them inside? Just watching them pecking around the floor made her terrified.
This was a brand-new house, and no matter how much she disliked Wu Yue, she didn’t hate the house itself!
What if they poked holes everywhere?
She thought and thought… and finally looked toward the bamboo grove behind the house.
Well… Kuang Biao had caused such a big mess today. He should do something useful for the family, right?
With that thought, she rummaged through the house and finally found the old basket that had its handle broken off earlier.
The basket was flat and narrow—just the right height for the goslings to step over.
She’d stick a few tree branches around it and drape a plastic bag over the top to block the wind. A simple but warm little goose hut would be ready.
Then she gathered some dry grass to line the bottom carefully…
Holding the basket, Huai Yu found a small sunken spot in the bamboo grove and placed it down. She clapped her hands with satisfaction:
“Kuang Biao—”
The bamboo leaves rustled as his lazy voice drifted over: “Seriously, don’t keep calling me all the time. If you want to dig up bamboo shoots or cut down some stalks, just do it. I can’t stop you anyway.”
“I’m not,” Huai Yu replied, voice sweet as syrup.
“Besides, they’re your shoots and your bamboo. If you didn’t allow it, I wouldn’t dare touch them.”
Kuang Biao grumbled: “You didn’t ask last time when you yanked my bamboo core, did you? Just pulled it right out. That was my leaf, too.”
But since he’d already been punished today, he only dared to mutter softly.
Which made Huai Yu even bolder: “Can you help me with something?”
Kuang Biao puffed up: “No! You wanna eat, fine. But I’m not doing anything else.”
Huai Yu raised a finger: “Twenty square meters.”
“You help me out, and I’ll approve twenty square meters of land for you.”
“Don’t underestimate twenty square meters! When I was in Flower City, people in the city said they spent their whole life savings buying homes—many of their living rooms weren’t even that big.”
“With twenty square meters, your roots could stretch a good distance! Just think how many bamboo shoots you could grow!”
“So, what do you say? Deal or no deal?”
Kuang Biao’s leaves rustled like a windstorm, shaking the plastic bags she’d just hung for insulation.
“Twenty square meters… a human living room…”
He hesitated. “Tell me what you want first. I’ve been watching you—you’ve got no sense of aesthetics and not much brains either. I’m worried you’ll do something dumb.”
Huai Yu: …
She took a deep breath and forced a smile: “I got two goslings. There’s no place to keep them at home. Can you watch them overnight? If they get cold or hungry and try to run off, just give me a heads-up.”
The bamboo leaves stilled.
“That’s it?!”
His raised voice showed his disbelief, but then his tone softened, sounding reluctantly dignified:
“You know, we bamboos are a very exclusive species. Letting two geese in… that really breaks the rules. I’m in a tough spot here…”
Huai Yu stayed silent, holding her breath and listening to his nonsense.
“But since you, Little Yu, are the one raising them…”
Kuang Biao’s voice turned sticky and greasy with sentiment:
“I’m a bamboo that knows how to repay kindness. You gave me this territory, and now you’re offering twenty square meters as a babysitting fee… If I refused, that’d be disrespecting you, right?”
“Don’t worry—I’m the kind of bamboo that’ll never let your face hit the ground.”
Huai Yu smiled softly, exhaling the breath she’d been holding. Her voice turned sweet and gentle:
“Really? I knew you were reliable, Kuang Biao.”
“Then it’s settled. I’ll bring the geese over soon—oh, and if they try to run, please stop them. They cost me a lot of points.”
Kuang Biao’s branches thudded wildly against his stalks, and despite being only six years old, he made a grand, manly vow:
“Leave it to me. I’ll handle it!”
