Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
For the average person, they were better off not knowing that cats and hamsters would sometimes eat their own babies. Once they knew, they would panic whenever they saw the mother cat or female hamster coming in close contact with the newborn babies. They would nervously think that the babies were going to be eaten. In many instances, it really was a situation where the ignorant was fearless.
In fact, Zhang Zian saw it clearly: The mother hamster did bite something, but it wasn’t the baby. Instead, she was biting on the umbilical cord.
Even Little Celery, who was always smiling, got angry. She suppressed her anger and pulled Wang Yaning back, then reprimanded her. “Yaning, don’t talk so loudly! You’ll frighten the mother hamster!”
The other students also felt that Wang Yaning was unable to keep her cool, but they didn’t dare to say anything.
“But I clearly saw it trying to eat its babies…” Wang Yaning was quite convinced.
“What should we do now? Why don’t we take the little hamster out?” The other children discussed it amongst themselves. There was a child who had even reached out his hand to pick up the little hamster.
Zhang Zian slapped his hand away and interrupted their argument. He said, “Stop making noises. Do you have any disposable chopsticks here? Bring me a pair!”
“Disposable chopsticks?”
All the students present were stunned. One of the more mischievous boys had a strange thought. His face changed and he said, “Could… could it be that you’re planning to eat ‘Zhi Zhi?’”
“Zhi Zhi?” The other children were confused. What was “Zhi Zhi?” Was that edible?
Zhang Zian knew what he was referring to. Of course, it was certainly not the sound that Pi made, but a special recipe that was popular in some places where a live baby mouse was first marinated in soy sauce and vinegar before it was eaten. A “Zhi Zhi” sound could be heard from the baby mouse before it died, hence the name.
That method of eating was said to be quite cruel. The level of cruelty was comparable to that of eating monkey brains, so it was no wonder the other children had never heard of it. Somehow, however, that little boy was aware of it. When he heard Zhang Zian ask for a disposable chopstick, he linked it to the hamster’s baby, and quickly formed the impression that Zhang Zian was going to eat the hamster’s baby. Since it was going to be eaten by its mother anyway, he thought Zhang Zian was just going to eat it himself…
Zhang Zian was definitely not going to explain to the children what “Zhi Zhi” was; otherwise, they would definitely have nightmares. He gave the little boy a wink and said, “What ‘Zhi Zhi Ya Ya?’ Enough with your nonsense. Are there any disposable chopsticks?”
“Yes! I bought buns on the way here and it came with two pairs of disposable chopsticks, but I didn’t use them. Eating them with your own hands makes it more delicious…” another little boy said as he handed over two pairs of disposable chopsticks.
Zhang Zian couldn’t agree more. Those who ate their buns with chopsticks were heretics.
“How unhygienic!” Wang Yaning clearly expressed her disgust.
Both pairs of disposable chopsticks were still wrapped in their plastic film, unopened. Zhang Zian then tore open one pair and rubbed the thinner end of the chopstick on the cardboard box, deburring it as much as possible, then he concentrated on the mother hamster.
It was the mother hamster’s first time giving birth and it was going well until it got frightened by Wang Yaning’s sharp voice. The newly born baby hamster was squirming in the wood shavings, but it didn’t care. It just looked around with its small eyes.
Most hamsters were easily frightened; they could even be frightened by the sound of the wind and grass. If they were to be frightened during birth, they would either eat their babies or escape with them and run to a place they thought was safe.
Zhang Zian told the children to prepare an empty cardboard box and pour some new clean wood shavings into it. With the disposable chopsticks, he picked the female hamster out and placed it into the new cardboard box, temporarily separating it from its baby.
After that, he plucked at the old cardboard box with the chopsticks before he picked up a few pieces of wet wood shavings from a pile he found at the corner and placed them in the new cardboard box right next to the mother hamster.
“That’s the wood shaving that’s stained with urine,” a little boy reminded him.
“It doesn’t matter. That’s what we need,” Zhang Zian said.
In order to make the mother hamster feel at ease after putting it in an entirely foreign environment, it was necessary to transfer some wood shavings, paper pieces, cotton, and other things that had been stained with its urine in order to lower the wariness it had towards its new environment.
After all that, Zhang Zian picked up some of the stained wood shavings again and rubbed it on the baby hamster to get the scent of the mother hamster on it, then he carefully picked it up and placed it right next to the female hamster in the new cardboard box.
The children stared nervously at the transfer process.
“From now on, don’t touch the baby hamster with your hands for the three weeks; don’t rub the scent of humans onto them. When you need to clean the cardboard boxes, you have to use a pair of disposable chopsticks just like this,” Zhang Zian explained softly.
Curious to know everything, some of the children asked, “What about three weeks later?”
“Three weeks later? After three weeks, the baby hamster will be grown. At that point, it needs to be separated from its mother, so you can grab it directly with your hands,” Zhang Zian answered.
“I can’t use chopsticks well, so can I wear gloves to hold the baby hamster? Or maybe a spoon?” a little boy asked, his tone embarrassed.
The other children laughed in a low voice.
“It’s best to not. It’s easy to drop the baby when you use a spoon, so when it comes to transferring them, let those who are better at using chopsticks do it.” Zhang Zian didn’t laugh at him. Many children were not very good at using chopsticks, especially those who were doted on by their parents. Some children were still being fed by their parents even when they were seven or eight years old.
In fact, wearing gloves was ok, but the premise was that the gloves had to be disposable; they could not have the smell of human beings on them. The process of wearing gloves must also be standardized. Otherwise, it was equivalent to not wearing any at all. Because the requirements were too much to ask from primary school students, it was much simpler and convenient to just use disposable chopsticks.
The mother hamster sniffed the baby hamster and smelled its own scent, which made it instinctively believe that it was its own child. It pulled the baby hamster to its side; the new environment seemed more secure.
Not long after, the second baby hamster was born smoothly, followed by the third and fourth…
The children looked stunned and murmured, “It can really give birth…”
Only after it gave birth to eight baby hamsters did the mother hamster’s bulging abdomen flatten slightly. It then, exhausted, pressed its body against the baby hamsters to keep them warm, and at the same time looked around at their surroundings.
“The homemade paper cotton that I told you guys to prepare in advance––is it ready?” Zhang Zian asked.
“It’s ready.” Little Celery brought over a bag of homemade paper cotton and handed it to him.
After unpacking it, he grabbed an amount of paper cotton and sprinkled it in another corner of the cardboard box.
“What’s the paper cotton used for?” the children asked curiously. They had been very curious about what the wide strips of paper cotton were for.
Zhang Zian didn’t answer their question but indicated for them to look carefully.
The mother hamster noticed the pile of paper cotton almost immediately and left the baby hamsters that were waiting to be fed. It quickly rushed to the paper cotton, then it opened its mouth and stuffed them inside.
