The red-crowned crane said so much optimistically, Zou Xianci listened to it, and he also raised his paintbrush and said excitedly, If you are the reincarnation of the big-headed cicada, please accept my worship. I was admitted to the art academy in the provincial capital thanks to your secret help, and I didn't repay my kindness, and I was not a gentleman.

You don't have to be polite. The red-crowned crane flapped its snowflakes and said, "I will repay you for my favor!" It's good for us to keep it in our sights.

Okay, I'm not going to talk about it. Since the big-headed cicada has been reincarnated as a red-crowned crane, from today onwards, I will no longer draw cicadas, but red-crowned cranes. Zou Xianci stared at the red-crowned crane in front of him, which was as beautiful as an angel, and was really ready to draw it, so he said so.

You don't have to draw me. I am not looking for you today to ask you to draw my form, I have a matter to trust. The red-crowned crane said.

What's up? As long as I can do it, I will do it. Zou Xianci put down his paintbrush and said firmly with his fists clenched.

There is a barren lake in the south of the Yangtze River, and there is a desert island in the lake, on which many migratory birds live, and many people secretly shoot birds with shotguns, but there is no one to protect them. The red-crowned crane dripped, with its small round eyes, spoke melancholy.

Zou Xian said "oh", and before he could answer, he saw the red-crowned crane pull its wings and take off, and the shadow as white as snow flakes melted into the sky. Zou Xianci looked at it and chased a few steps, but he stepped into the air, and woke up, and when he opened his eyes, he was lying on the bamboo bed. He sat up, wiped the saliva from his mouth, and quietly thought about the scene in his dream and the words of the red-crowned crane.

Where is the barren lake in Jiangnan? He wanted to inquire. When I went out to inquire, someone looked at him and said, there are many barren lakes in the south of the Yangtze River, which barren lake are you looking for? Zou Xianzi couldn't answer, after all, he had a dream, and he didn't know if it was true or not, so he almost lost the confidence to inquire.

Just as he was returning, before he had reached the door of his house, he heard the sound of birds, so loud, one, two, three, and he looked up, and saw a red-crowned crane hovering overhead, exactly like what he had seen in his dream, flapping its snowflakes gracefully.

Zou Xianci opened his voice and asked, Red-crowned crane, if you are the one I dreamed of, you can lead the way for me! I don't know where the barren lake in Jiangnan is. Some people say that there are many barren lakes in the south of the Yangtze River, and even if I find one, I don't know if it is the one you told me in your dream, so I expect you to lead the way, otherwise, I really can't find it.

The red-crowned crane hovering overhead let out a cry similar to that of a white goose, perhaps it was answering, but Zou Xianci did not understand it, because it could not speak human words at all as if it were in a dream.

Zou Xianci looked at it and said, I don't understand the bird language you say, so you won't speak, lead the way with me! Take me to the barren lake in the south of the Yangtze River that you are talking about, and see if anyone is shooting birds with shotguns.

The red-crowned crane could understand his words, and with a cry of "chirp-", he immediately stretched his slender neck to the south, and then slowly flew forward, as if a white flag fluttering in the sky was guiding him in the right direction.

At this time, the red-crowned crane flew in which direction the sky flew, and Zou Xianci walked in which direction on the ground, walking, walking, and arriving at a city in the south of the Yangtze River.

Red-crowned cranes have a bird's-eye view of him in the sky, giving him accurate navigation. Zou Xianci passed through the city again and reached the outskirts of the city, with an impassable Yangtze River in front of him.

Zou Xianci took a boat to the opposite shore, jumped over the side of the boat and went ashore, and when he looked at the sky again, he saw the red-crowned crane flying very high, and gradually disappeared into the clouds.

His gaze continued to be fixed on the sky, hoping that the red-crowned crane would appear, so that his raised neck was a little sore, and he did not lower his head.

Suddenly, feeling a slap on the back, Zou Xianci withdrew his gaze from the sky, turned his head to look, but it was a pockmarked man, he was holding a shotgun, staring at Zou Xianci and asking, what are you looking at? Lad. Zou Xianci said, I looked at the red-crowned crane in the sky, and somehow disappeared after a while.

Oh! I also found the red-crowned crane, which flew in the sky and somehow disappeared after a while. I was taking a shotgun to go to the barren lake 4 kilometers away to hunt birds, unexpectedly found the red-crowned crane flying from the sky in the north of the river, I planned to wait until it flew a little lower and waited for the opportunity to shoot it, unexpectedly, it has not been flying low, as if it found me, until now there is no shadow. When the pock-faced man said this, he asked with a puzzled face, why are you bare-handed, and you don't hunt it, and you raise your neck to watch it so intently?

Zou Xianci saw that he was dressed as a hunter, so he didn't have a good impression of him, so he asked rhetorically, is there anything wrong with me looking at the red-crowned crane flying in the sky so intently? He thought of what the red-crowned crane said in his dream, there were many people hunting birds on the desert island of the barren lake, and the pock-faced man in front of him was one of them. No wonder the red-crowned crane in the sky disappeared without a trace, as it had spotted this particularly sinister hunter with a shotgun.

Thinking about it like this, Zou Xianci softened his tone and persuaded him, uncle, the red-crowned crane is a national first-class protected animal and cannot be hunted. The pock-faced man sneered and said that even if it is a national super-protected animal, I still dare to hunt it, and if I catch it, I will be unlucky, and if I don't catch it, I will be lucky. I'm going to go to the barren lake to hunt birds, and who can stop me?

Zou Xianci really couldn't help the pock-faced man, so he followed him, but wanted to see what the barren lake described by the red-crowned crane he dreamed of was like.

There is a city in the south of the Yangtze River, which is referred to by the locals as Nancheng. In a park in the southern part of the city, a clear-faced old man is doing tai chi, his movements slow, even slower than the slow motion on television, so slow that only patient outsiders are willing to watch quietly.

At this moment, there was indeed a man standing at the gate of the park looking at this old man who was doing sports. He was silent, carrying a net bag in his hand, which contained a heavy bag wrapped in newspapers. Outsiders don't know, only he knows.

This person is none other than the pock-faced man Zou Xianci met last time. He stared at the old man who was doing Tai Chi and looked at the old formation, not patiently, nor strange, but purposeful.

When the old man finished exercising, wiped the sweat from his forehead, picked up the oily crutches placed on the grass and walked out of the park step by step, to the gate of the park. The pock-faced man Ma Li greeted him with a smile on his face, old man, hello!

The old man stopped and asked, is there something wrong? The pock-faced man said, I often see you doing tai chi in the park, of course you do exercise, but I found that your face is not very good, and your eyes are still a little yellow, I feel that you may have a little illness, or you usually do not pay attention to nutrition. As he spoke, he opened a bag of things wrapped in newspaper in his net pocket - ten dead wild ducks for the old man to see, and said, This is pure game, nutritious, can replenish the body, seeing that you are so old, I want to sell it to you cheaply.

Unexpectedly, the old man kept shaking his head and said no. He walked on crutches. The pock-faced man followed up and pestered him and said, "Old man, buy it!" This is a wild duck from a barren lake. The old man shook his hand and said that I am a vegetarian, and I don't even eat domestic ducks, let alone wild ducks. The pock-faced man squatted down in frustration, and used newspapers to wrap the dead wild ducks tightly in his net pocket and carry them elsewhere to peddle.