My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 271 Little Jin Also Has Some Bad Friends
The weather was pretty good today. Chen Ling's father-in-law insisted on going to the county town to see Wang Zhenzhen off, so he had no choice but to go up the mountain to pick green persimmons.

In autumn, the mountains are laden with fruit; trees and vines are covered with green and red wild berries.

Chen Ling, carrying a basket, led Er Tu Zi, Xiao Jin, and three little yellow mice past the Earth God Temple and into West Mountain. His eyes followed the wild jujubes, pomegranates, and grapes at the foot of the mountain, then the hawthorns, walnuts, and chestnuts on the mountainside, and finally the persimmons and kiwis.

Wild persimmon trees are quite common on the mountain, but they are unevenly distributed, and most of them are several decades old and very thick.

Even a lower branch is strong enough for an adult to stand on.

If you look up carefully, you can find one or two persimmons that are turning red.

Although these persimmons are not fully ripe and taste astringent, there are ways to ripen them after picking them and taking them home.

For example, if you put some white wine on them and put them with bad grapes or apples, they will soften and sweeten in five or six days.

It's just that the taste isn't as good as naturally ripened ones.

"Xiao Jin, take them for a walk around and see if there are any beehives nearby."

Chen Ling waved his hand, signaling Xiao Jin to lead the little weasel to search for the beehive, while he himself began to pick persimmons by pulling on the branches of the persimmon tree.

The wild persimmon trees were not pruned, and most of their branches were covered with fruit that hung low.

I had only picked a few when I suddenly felt a cool sensation on my face, as if fine rain was falling on it. I reached up and touched it; it was wet. I immediately understood...

Damn it, it's cicada urine from the tree.

Chen Ling looked up, kicked the tree, and several cicadas chirped and flew away with a whooshing sound.

"You dare piss on me, you bald bastard, go and bring him back to me."

At his command, a fierce hawk flew out from a tree not far away. No one knew how it did it, but the cicadas were soon placed at Chen Ling's feet.

It went back up to the tree, looking around, clearly not interested in the little creature.

Chen Ling glanced down and saw that a few cicadas were still alive. He then pinched off their wings and tossed them aside, waiting for the little weasel to come back and eat them. Those little guys weren't picky eaters; they never ate raw or cold food, and they would eat any kind of meat.

Picking persimmons is quite quick.

However, Chen Ling did not specifically target one particular tree.

Instead, they wandered around the area and picked all the green persimmons from the lower branches of the persimmon trees, regardless of size.

Just by picking them casually, you can have a full basket, plus two large burlap sacks of green persimmons.

In the middle, we saw two white-headed bulbul nests on two persimmon trees, with chicks that had just hatched. When they saw the two bald birds flying around, they poked their heads out of the nests, opened their mouths, and chirped and made noises, as if they thought the adult birds had returned to the nest and were begging for food.

Fortunately, Er Tu Zi is not hungry now, and it has no shortage of food every day. Its targets are always pheasants, rabbits, or its old nemesis, the magpie.

So they ignored these fledglings.

When it got annoyed by being called, it took flight and flew around and circled in the high sky above Chen Ling's head.

"It's autumn now, but there are still quite a few birds incubating their chicks."

Chen Ling hadn't gone far when, besides the white-headed bulbul, he discovered many more bird nests, which were also birds with relatively long breeding seasons.

“That’s good. These birds are hardy. I’ll release a few into the cave another day and take a look at them.”

Recently, he has been exchanging letters and boasting with several pen pals, engaging in lively conversations, all because he made a fuss by tinkering with paper mulberry trees in his cave.

This greatly boosted his confidence, and he planned to breed some new bird species when he was bored.

When I no longer want to raise too many chickens and ducks.

You can also hang a row of birdcages on the farm and sell ornamental birds without leaving the farm, which is also a good business opportunity.

Just as I was pondering this, Xiao Jin's dog barked from afar. Although the barking was neither hurried nor panicked, it carried a strong warning tone.

"Er Tuzi, take me there."

Hearing the sound coming from nearby, Chen Ling quickly signaled to the hawk in the sky, put away the green persimmons, and rushed over.

He often went up the mountain and was in good physical condition, so he was fast. Before long, he saw Xiao Jin leading three weasels, baring his teeth and howling, confronting two plump, brownish-gray wild animals.

"Damn, it's badgers again. Are they really becoming a plague lately?"

Chen Ling was stunned when he saw the two little wild animals. Damn it, they were two more badgers.

Moreover, these two hog badgers are not very big. Although they are plump, they are not as robust as the badgers I have seen before. They are probably cubs born last year and have just left the nest this year.

Seeing Chen Ling running over aggressively, and with Xiao Jin and the three weasels becoming even more ferocious after Chen Ling arrived, especially the three little weasels, who were jumping around and pretending to be fierce.

The two badgers were so frightened that they turned tail and ran away.

And so, the battle ended before it even officially began.

However, after the badger fled in panic, Little Gold and the weasels did not run to Chen Ling to claim credit as usual.

Instead, he took small, quick steps and walked to a stone ditch overgrown with wild grass and shrubs.

The stone gullies on this mountain were formed by the erosion of water over the years. They used to be streams on the western mountain, flowing into the gullies at the foot of the western mountain and the old river bend on the southern mountain.

However, after a major earthquake, some streams dried up and changed course, flowing into Yeren Gully, thus forming the present-day mountain lake.

Chen Ling followed them into the wild grass in the stone ditch.

Er Tuzi also descended from the gap in the woods, slowly taking steps and following closely behind Chen Ling.

Chen Ling hadn't gone far when he heard a mournful "aww~aww~" sound coming from the air.

Looking in the direction Xiao Jin and the others were looking, they saw that hidden under the thick old tree root in the grass was a fox den.

Just then, a red fox with its front half exposed lay in front of the den, howling mournfully.

As they approached, its cries grew even more mournful, and its bright amber brown eyes became wary and alert. It even unusually emerged from its burrow and stood up, its legs trembling.

"What happened? Is the fox injured?"

Chen Ling noticed that the fox was behaving strangely. Upon closer inspection, he saw bloodstains on the ground near the fox's den, staining the withered yellow leaves red.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that there were several fox cubs in the bushes next to the fox den, but they were in a rather pitiful state.

Only two fox cubs were alive; the rest had no belly movement, indicating they were dead.

Upon seeing this, Chen Ling immediately understood what was going on.

This is clearly two badgers looking for a ready-made den to live in, and they found the fox's den.

Perhaps the mother fox wasn't in the den at the time.

So several fox cubs suffered the consequences.

This kind of thing is very common in the mountains.

Logically, a fox litter should produce at least six or seven cubs, but no more than three will survive.

Because of the harsh wild environment, the cubs are either eaten by predators or starve to death in their early years because they cannot compete for food.

This is perfectly normal.

However, in such situations, most people would intervene and rescue the foxes if they could, unless they were particularly stubborn or scoundrels who would take the opportunity to wipe out the fox den and sell its meat and pelts.

"Xiao Jin, go over there and subdue it. I'll check their injuries."

Chen Ling gave a shout, and not only did Little Gold rush forward, but even the little weasel trotted over and joined forces to subdue the mother fox.

To call it subduing was really just Xiao Jin pinning it to the ground; the mother fox was still struggling and resisting, letting out mournful cries.

It thought Chen Ling was going to harm its child too.

It wasn't until a while later, when it saw Chen Ling take out bamboo tubes and place them in front of it, applying medicine and feeding water to its children, that it gradually calmed down, staring blankly at Chen Ling's actions, and no longer resisting when Xiao Jin held it down in front of the cave.

Foxes are intelligent.

They are clever and cunning, with a high IQ. Even if they are wary of humans, they can still distinguish between goodwill and hostility. "Goodness, it really is a badger; this wound is really deep."

Chen Ling had no interest in observing the mother fox's reaction; he was currently holding a fox cub in his hand and examining it.

There was a long gash on the little fox's back, the skin and flesh were torn open, and the injury was horribly gruesome.

Unlike other fox cubs, which were bitten to death by badgers, this one was caught on the back by a badger's claws and nearly torn in two by the badger's sharp claws.

"This one can still be saved, but the rest are beyond saving."

Chen Ling shook his head. Apart from the two lightly injured ones and the one that was on the verge of death, there were a total of three little foxes alive.

If he hadn't carefully checked it again, he would have thought the little guy was dead too.

After being given two more drops of spiritual water, his breathing gradually returned to normal.

This kind of thing called "spiritual water".

Using it when you are in good health is completely different from using it when you are seriously injured and dying.

In this situation, the only remaining function of the spiritual water is to heal injuries and restore vitality.

Therefore, Chen Ling doesn't need to think too much when using it on these injured little foxes.

After applying the medicine, they also checked on the mother fox, who turned out to be not seriously injured.

After a quick treatment, he led Xiao Jin and the others away slowly.

Watching the mother fox carry her cubs one by one back into the den, and after placing them safely inside, she returned to the den entrance, secretly watching them, her eyes gleaming faintly in the dim light.

Chen Ling then turned around and returned the way he came.

Over the next few days, Chen Ling spent her time at home taking care of the child and busy making persimmon wine.

Making persimmon wine is more complicated than making grape wine.

Before brewing, it needs to be steamed in a pot, similar to rice wine.

Steaming removes the astringency from persimmons.

Then wait for it to cool and harden again.

At this point, slice the persimmons, add yeast, and mix well.

Only then does it begin to be stored and fermented in vats.

After fermentation, pour it all into a large pot.

Then, a still is placed on top of the pot for distillation.

What comes out after distillation is persimmon wine.

But in the details, such as removing the head of the liquor, placing wheat bran around the edge of the still, and filtering with cotton cloth.

That all depends on how well you manage it.

In short, making persimmon wine is not difficult.

It means that you can't just drink it after it's brewed.

If an inexperienced person brews persimmon wine with a high alcohol content, one or two sips might be enough to knock someone unconscious.

This is something we need to be careful about.

……

The weather wasn't very good that afternoon. After her son fell asleep, Chen Ling sat down at the table to write a letter to her pen pal and didn't go out for a stroll.

While her son was fast asleep, Wang Susu chatted with Zhang Qiaoling and several other women from the village who had come to visit outside the farm.

The corn on the cob is ready to eat, so people came to deliver some corn to their family and also stopped by to drop by and chat with Wang Susu.

After a long while, once everyone had left, Wang Susu suddenly ran back downstairs and shouted, "Ah Ling, Zhenzhen just saw a fox in the reeds by the river. Could it be trying to steal chickens and ducks?"

"Why don't you ask Heiwa and the other two to go and take a look?"

The orchard outside the farm covers a large area, about thirty acres, which is too much for Heiwa and Xiaojin to keep an eye on.

However, given their strength, they patrol the area every day, leaving their scent by urinating, so wild animals generally dare not provoke them.

"A fox? I'll go out and take a look."

Chen Ling got up and walked outside, wondering if it was the fox he had rescued a few days ago.

They called on Er Tuzi and went out to search along the bluestone path in the orchard.

At this moment, Wang Zhenzhen was leading Liu Nier and a few others, using bamboo poles to hit things everywhere in the reeds.

Chen Ling walked over and took a look; it was just a string of footprints.

When they called Heiwa and Xiaojin over from the mountain, there was no reaction from them, and their hostility was not obvious.

He didn't take it to heart when he saw that.

Unexpectedly, the next day, Wang Zhenzhen came here to play on Sunday and said she saw a fox running around in the reeds and then quickly disappeared.

She chased after them for a long time with several little children, but they couldn't catch up at all.

Upon hearing this, Chen Ling secretly took note of it and spent two days guarding the reeds in the ditch.

This was quite a surprise. He had initially thought it was some other wild fox, but who would have thought that the one that appeared near the farm was actually the same one he had encountered on the mountain before.

The fox was moving house, so it had been running around in the reeds for the past two days.

But it wasn't a one-person move.

They even had helpers.

This helper was none other than their own pet dog, Xiao Jin.

A dog and a fox, one in front and one behind, moved nimbly through the reeds.

They would wag their tails from time to time and playfully fight with each other.

Chen Ling was completely dumbfounded.

He rarely sees Xiao Jin playing with anything else.

Even with Heiwa, they were only affectionate, but they didn't play together much. It was even less so with other local dogs; they always showed a submissive attitude in front of Xiaojin.

Surprisingly, Xiao Jin, the little tyrant of the mountains and forests, is now having such a good time playing with this fox.

Moreover, with its keen sense of smell and hearing, it naturally knew that Chen Ling was nearby. So, while playing around, it brought the fox to him, wagging its tail and acting cute towards Chen Ling, as if to say, "Look, this is my friend."

The mother fox, however, remained somewhat cautious, quietly watching Chen Ling from the ditch about five or six meters away.

"People say that friends are like foxes and dogs, and you really live up to that saying. No wonder I couldn't even touch a fox's fur the other day; it turns out the fox was hanging out with you."

Chen Ling patted Xiao Jin's head to reassure it, then waved to the fox: "If you're Xiao Jin's friend, then you're our friend. Welcome to visit us."

The fox, of course, couldn't understand human speech, but when it saw Chen Ling beckoning, it still took small, quick steps, walking and stopping, circling around in the grass, and stopped two meters away from him, squatting down in place. It looked at him, and then whimpered softly to Xiao Jin with unease.

It's clear that it's still a bit shy around strangers.

Seeing that they looked like two little kids, Chen Ling patted Xiao Jin's neck and couldn't help but smile: "It's rare to make friends, so you two go and play. I won't bother you anymore."

After saying that, he slowly left.

Having gained Xiao Jin's approval, the fox naturally wouldn't come here to harm the chickens and ducks, so he had nothing to worry about or guard against.

I wonder where the fox has made its new home. If it's near the farm, the little foxes are much safer here.

(End of this chapter)