Call Me Daddy

“The chickens from the Guo Hua’s family have flown out again!”

The tranquility of Tuanjie Village was shattered by the sharp, piercing shouts of a woman.

Following the commotion, an older woman with a short stature and a slightly plump build emerged from a relatively new two-story house. She was holding a spatula smeared with vegetable leaves, suggesting she had been cooking in the kitchen when she heard the shouting.

Fan Xiajuan glanced at the chicken coop in her own yard. Originally, it had housed six chickens, but now only one remained. Moreover, this lone chicken was restless, flapping its wings desperately. It almost flew out several times but kept getting caught by the coop’s fence and falling back inside.

Seeing this, Fan Xiajuan felt a headache coming on.

Nowadays, few people in the village raised poultry in large numbers. Even for those like Fan Xiajuan, who had decent conditions, their flocks of chickens and ducks were not very large. They kept them mainly because they preferred their own eggs and meat to store-bought ones, feeling more at ease about their quality.

Businesspeople today were so shrewd. Who could tell if those cheap chickens and ducks had been grown with hormones? Who knew if those eggs labeled as free-range were from hormone-treated chickens? Raising their own chickens and ducks made a difference. They were fed with rice bran and leftover food, allowed to roam freely in the yard and village. That was truly free-range poultry, which tasted better and was more nutritious.

Fan Xiajuan raised six chickens every year without fail; one rooster and five hens. Because she cared for them so well, she could collect four to six eggs almost every day. With only one son, Fan Xiajuan would regularly send batches of fresh eggs to her son’s family in the city, ensuring that her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren could enjoy truly fresh and nutritious eggs.

When the time came for these egg-laying chickens to be slaughtered, Fan Xiajuan would prepare batches of nourishing chicken soup with an old stove and earthenware pot, using the best seasonal ingredients to help her grandchildren build their strength.

According to Fan Xiajuan, the mixed-gendered twins, when they were born, weren’t much bigger than kittens. Now, they were healthy and plump, thanks to the group of hens and free-range eggs she raised.

Therefore, Fan Xiajuan took special care of these “nourishing” chickens. Luckily, she was used to raising chickens, and since six chickens wasn’t a large number, she didn’t feel tired despite getting older over the years.

However, recently, this easy-to-manage poultry had caused Fan Xiajuan quite a few troubles.

In fact, it wasn’t just Fan Xiajuan’s family but all the families in the village who raised poultry and livestock that had been troubled by their wayward animals.

Anyone who has raised ducks knows that they were territorial and can be managed even if they’re free-range.

In rural villages, one often witnessed this peculiar sight; a flock of ducks would first waddle out of their own yard, then along the village path, they would stop at the gate of another household. Quacking loudly for a few moments, another flock of ducks from that household would soon join them, happily merging into the original group before moving on to the next house.

These ducks would roam together to forage in the village ponds and fields, and when it was time to return, they would do so in the same manner. Each time they passed by a household, a few ducks would detach from the group and waddle back home to wait for their owner to continue feeding them.

Occasionally, one or two ducks would end up at the wrong home, but villagers would usually coordinate to return them.

As for geese, they were even more remarkable. Many villagers raised geese as guard dogs. The geese in the village were quite fierce. Except for their primary feeder, any stranger entering their territory would be chased away. Sometimes even the village children would suffer attacks from these geese, demonstrating how seriously these birds took their territorial duties.

Yet, despite being so easy to manage, these traditionally raised poultry had recently developed a strange habit of constantly trying to escape.

Take Fan Xiajuan’s chickens, for instance. Unlike geese, they weren’t wild, nor did they need to be near ponds like ducks. They were mainly raised for their eggs and meat, and were so well-fed that flapping their wings seemed like too much effort. Usually, they would only wander around their spacious yard, and if they happened to get out when the gate was open, they wouldn’t venture far. Upon hearing the feeding call from their owner, they would instinctively wander back.

However, recently, the chickens at Fan Xiajuan’s home had been persistently trying to escape. Even when they ran away, they were reluctant to return. If Fan Xiajuan hadn’t been so attentive to her flock, tying bright red cloth strips to their legs, she might have lost them completely. The last time they ran away and hid in the thicket at the foot of the mountain, they were impossible to find.

Originally, the chicken coop at Fan Xiajuan’s place was about the height of an adult’s thigh. Chicks, being light and agile, couldn’t fly that high, and the adult chickens, being heavier, couldn’t reach that height either. After the incident of the chickens running away, Fan Xiajuan had raised the height of the coop, which was now roughly at the height of an adult man’s thigh.

Who would have thought that not only had the chickens become unrulier, but their flying abilities had also improved? Fan Xiajuan couldn’t believe that her plump meat chickens could fly so high.

She realized that simply raising the height was no longer sufficient; she needed to cover the top of the coop.

No, wait! First, she had to catch the other five chickens that had managed to escape.

Last time, she had luckily found a conspicuous red cloth strip in the thicket. This time, if they had escaped further into the woods, the feed she had provided would be wasted, and so would the effort she had put into cleaning up after them.

***

Without even having time to put down her spatula, she hurried towards the direction of the noise.

Thinking about her carefully raised chickens and her sweet grandchildren who always said that Grandma’s free-range eggs were the best, the old lady ran quickly. In no time, she spotted the plump backs of her fleeing chickens heading towards the village outskirts.

“Guo Guo Guo, Guo Guo Guo—”

Fan Xiajuan made the usual call she used during feeding time. Normally, hearing this call would prompt the scattered poultry to gather around her. But this time, the escaping chickens seemed to ignore her, continuing to run away towards the village edge.

Along the way, she occasionally saw other people’s chickens, ducks, and geese, as well as villagers like herself who had chased after their runaway poultry. The once-quiet village had suddenly become lively with various calls and sounds.

“Hey, hey, don’t peck, don’t peck! I’m catching my own chickens, not trying to catch you. The person who really wants to catch you is over there!”

A young woman was about to grab her old hen when a few geese, mistaking her for someone trying to catch them, came after her. The geese, stretching their necks to nearly the height of the young woman, flapped their wings aggressively. They pecked at her, leaving bruises on her soft skin.

After being pecked a few times, the young woman cried out in pain and could no longer focus on her own hen.

Fortunately, the true owner of the geese arrived shortly after. Recognizing their usual feeder, the geese didn’t attack but didn’t follow their owner home as they usually did. Instead, they continued to waddle away from the yard.

The owner struggled to catch one of the geese. The geese were very strong, and even without attacking him, the force of their flapping wings was enough to give him a hard time. He managed to hold on to one while watching the others run farther away.

These geese were so ungrateful. Didn’t they see there was already a goose in my arms?

When Su Aobai drove the old lady home, he happened to witness the chaotic scene.

A flock of poultry blocked the village entrance, and several familiar villagers were chasing them. Since they were in the car, they couldn’t hear the noises outside.

“What’s going on?”

Deng Caihua widened her eyes and asked her son to roll down her window to find out what was happening.

Her daughter-in-law, Kong Yao, who was sitting next to her, was also puzzled by the commotion outside. With the flock blocking the road into the village, the car clearly couldn’t move forward without risking running over someone’s chickens or ducks.

So when the car window was rolled down, Kong Yao didn’t think twice.

“Guo Guo Guo—”

“Goo Goo Goo—”

“Ga Ga Ga—”

As soon as the window was rolled down, the sounds of poultry stretching their necks and calling out loudly came inside. The different breeds and sizes made for a noisy racket that gave people a headache.

Deng Caihua was about to say something else when a brownish-red shape flew through the open window and landed directly in her lap.

It was warm and heavy.

Deng Caihua’s mind momentarily went blank. When she came to her senses and looked down, she saw a hen, weighing about 3 to 4 pounds, nestled comfortably in her arms, its neck tucked into its fluffy feathers as if it were cozy in a nest.

This chicken…

How did it end up in my lap?

Unlike pets such as cats and dogs, poultry rarely showed such closeness to people. Even those that recognized their feeders wouldn’t voluntarily fly into a stranger’s lap.

Before Deng Caihua could figure out what was happening, a second and third shape flew through the open window and landed on her.

“Er Bai, close the car door quickly!”

As Kong Yao’s panicked warning came, Su Aobai had already noticed the unusual situation. Even before her warning, he had pressed the button to close the window, but at that moment, a plump goose was stuck in the window. This bulky poultry obstructing the window allowed the smaller birds to easily fly inside.

The goose stuck in the window seemed to feel the force of the window rising as neither painful nor bothersome. It even had the leisure to stretch its neck and nuzzle against the old lady’s hair.

Deng Caihua was a tough woman, but she had never seen such an odd scene. Holding a flock of chickens and ducks that were actively flying into her arms, she felt somewhat at a loss.

Kong Yao, sitting next to the old lady, had it even worse. The chickens, ducks, and geese flying into the car seemed to find her large size inconvenient, and they kicked her several times.

A few mischievous ones even tried to shove her aside with their plump rear ends, as if to push her away from the old lady.

Su Aobai immediately realized that his elderly relative seemed to have gained some supernatural ability.

Yes, a supernatural ability!

***

The reason Su Aobai had resigned from his job and returned home upon coming into this body wasn’t only because of the memory of the original owner that the old lady would die of a heart attack in the future, but also because a huge transformation was about to occur in this world.

This transformation would alter the way most people lived, effectively reversing this technologically advanced modern society back to an agricultural society from thousands of years ago.

In the future, many people would refer to this drastic change as Earth’s punishment for humanity, and also as Earth’s way of self-healing. During this process, humanity would face many setbacks and challenges, but it wasn’t a dead end. A small number of people would awaken special abilities, giving them a status higher than ordinary people.