My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 424 Giving Birth in the Sky
"Fugui, what was that thing that came down the mountain? I heard the dog barking and chased after it."

"I don't know what it is. The barking doesn't sound too fierce to me. I'll grab my gear and go out to check it out."

"Huh? The dog went out, so we all ran out too. What if something sneaks into the farm?"

"It's alright. It just rained, so the footprints and smells are obvious. Even if a dog sneaks in, it will know immediately."

Chen Ling and Lynx exchanged a few quick words, grabbed their hunting rifles and pitchforks, and hurried out.

Several elderly people and women were not to be outdone, and they quickly grabbed pitchforks, hoes, and shovels and followed suit.

Old Zhao and Old Zhong, in particular, were very excited and looking forward to their own hunting adventures and their battles of wits with wild animals in the mountains. They had never experienced anything like it before.

They quickly rushed to the forefront.

……

"Look, it's on the cliff to the west."

"what is that?"

On the west side of the farm, on the steep mountain wall north of the spring, shrouded in morning mist after the rain, a strange beast was seen leaping and bounding about on the smooth, steep mountain wall, moving as fast as the wind.

It appears and disappears in the fog, making it difficult to see clearly.

Only the crisp sound of hooves pounding on the rocks could be heard.

Even the farm's large pack of dogs couldn't find a good solution, so they split into two groups. One group followed Xiao Jin across the river to take a detour to the north mountain to pursue him, while the other group followed Heiwa, scattering at the foot of the mountain wall, barking wildly to block his escape route.

"Wow, it's actually a mountain donkey."

Upon seeing the strange beast, Wang Cunye couldn't help but widen his eyes and let out a gasp.

"Mountain donkey? Wild donkey?"

Zhao Dahai and the others, young and old, put down their tools and looked up to ask.

The beast was entirely black, with horns on its head and long ears. From a distance, it looked like a large black donkey leaping across the mountainside.

But upon closer inspection, one can see that this creature has a ring of white mane around its neck. However, as it runs, the thick fog obscures the white mane, making it difficult to see clearly unless one looks closely.

"It's not a donkey. The scientific name for this mountain donkey is serow. We call it a mountain donkey here because it looks like a donkey, but it's actually a hybrid of two different animals."

Chen Ling shook his head, turned around and smiled as he explained, "Two years ago, when Shanmao and I followed Uncle Han to Lutou Mountain to look for clouded leopards and golden monkeys, Uncle Han once said that he wanted to find this thing."

"Oh, right, that's what it is."

The lynx suddenly realized what this 'mountain donkey' was.

Zhao Dahai and his son, however, immediately noticed a particular word and interjected, "This thing is called a 'four unlikes'? Is it the 'four unlikes' mentioned in the Investiture of the Gods?"

Chen Ling smiled upon hearing this: "This strange creature..."

Just as he was about to speak, he heard a cacophony of barking dogs overhead. It was Xiao Jin leading a pack of dogs that had circled around from the North Mountain and attacked.

This large, golden-haired dog charged ahead with imposing grandeur, taking the lead as it climbed against the mountainside, using the momentum of horizontal tree trunks and protruding rocks to leap and bound, as if scaling walls, and approached the mountain donkey with lightning speed.

This scene secretly alarmed Chen Ling.

This also drew gasps of admiration from the others.

Compared to Heiwa, Xiaojin is a more steady and reserved dog. It doesn't usually show off, but when it comes to crucial moments, the demeanor it displays often surprises its owner, Chen Ling.

That's how Chen Ling feels right now.

I thought to myself, this dog is changing every day, it's improving so fast, I wonder where it learned these skills from.

But there was no time to think about the dog at that moment.

Then Wang Susu's voice came from beside her: "Look, look, the mountain donkey is standing up over there."

Wang Susu was pampered by Chen Ling with good food and drink every day, and her eyesight was much better than that of ordinary people. At this time, she was the first to notice the abnormal situation on the mountain wall.

The others, due to the thick morning fog after the rain, had to tiptoe and constantly change positions, laboriously tilting their heads and craning their necks to look back and forth.

"My goodness, it really is! It must have been scared by the dog; its hind legs were standing up."

"This thing is really amazing. It can run so fast on cliffs and stand up in such narrow places."

"Who says it isn't? It's like running on flat ground... Hehe, look how cunning Old Zhao is, taking pictures with his camera."

"Oh my, what's that? What's that? What's popping out from under the mountain donkey's butt?"

"What is that? What is that thing? It looks like it's emerging from the fog..."

"My goodness, look, even the dog isn't barking anymore, and Little Gold has retreated."

"This this……"

Hearing the change in everyone's voices, as if they had seen something unknown and terrifying, filled with both fear and curiosity, they tilted their heads back, stretched their necks, and unconsciously swallowed hard, their voices trembling.

Chen Ling also hurriedly looked over, and only then did he realize that something was wrong, and he immediately froze on the spot.

Because the thick fog obscures the view, ordinary people can't see it clearly and might mistake it for some strange creature.

He could see clearly that what was under the 'mountain donkey's' rear end was none other than the half-born fetus of the 'mountain donkey'.

This situation is truly... something Chen Ling never expected.

I didn't realize earlier that this was a pregnant mountain donkey, and one that was very close to giving birth.

Surrounded and chased by a pack of dogs, in a perilous situation where she was caught between a rock and a hard place, she was so frightened that she gave birth to her puppies.

No wonder Xiao Jin suddenly left.

It had been hunting for two years and knew the rules of the mountains.

Pregnant or mother animals with cubs will not be caught.

The reason we chased after it was because we had never seen this 'mountain donkey' before, and because it had wandered into the farm's territory.

Now, as soon as they discover that the mountain donkey is giving birth, they immediately retreat.

"Don't be afraid, everyone. That's nothing strange. It's just a mountain donkey that was frightened by a dog and gave birth to its foal on the spot."

Chen Ling explained the situation to everyone in a very fast voice.

Upon hearing this, the crowd, who had been slightly frightened, were immediately dumbfounded and stood frozen in place.

"What the heck? The mountain donkey was so scared it gave birth?"

She was so frightened by a pack of dogs that she gave birth on the spot...

This is truly baffling at first glance.

It felt even more absurd and bizarre.

For a moment, I didn't know what to say.

The mystery surrounding the so-called "four unlikes" was shattered by this on-the-spot childbirth.

Zhao Dahai had the same feeling, muttering to himself, "Wasn't it supposed to be a four-legged creature? How come it's so scared by a dog?" Chen Ling didn't care about that now, she just squinted and looked up.

Through the drifting mist, one could see a mountain donkey with horns on its head and black fur standing in a shallow and narrow depression below the cliff. Its eyes were filled with fear and tension, and its whole body was tense, as if it were exerting all its strength.

Beneath its rump, there was a small, dark creature with its forelegs and head peeking out, and half of its body sticking out.

This child hasn't finished giving birth yet.

Moreover, the location is so high and so steep.

Chen Ling frowned subconsciously and whistled softly to stop the dogs from barking.

"What's wrong, Ling? Should we go up?"

Wang Susu knew Chen Ling's intentions best, and seeing his actions, she could roughly guess what he was going to do.

Besides, she was pregnant herself. Given her husband's temperament, if he didn't do something when he saw this mother giving birth in such a dangerous place, he wouldn't be himself.

Even if it's just for the sake of the child in her womb, she wouldn't ignore everything.

"Go up, but there's no way to go up. The mountain wall is so steep and smooth that a person can't stand up."

Chen Ling clicked his tongue, his eyes darting around: "Even if we can get up there, I'm afraid we'll scare the mountain donkey and cause problems during the birthing process... But if we don't do anything, I'm worried that the mountain donkey will drop its foal after giving birth."

Adult mountain donkeys can traverse cliffs with ease, but newborns cannot.

"Huh? What should we do then?"

Upon hearing this, the elderly people turned pale.

As people get older, they become even more averse to this.

No matter what, it's still a little life, isn't it?

Gao Xiulan and the lynx's mother even put their hands together and chanted Amitabha.

It's unclear whether the prayers of the two old women had an effect, or whether the maternal instincts of the mountain donkey were at play.

In short, after Xiao Jin led the pack of dogs back slowly to the North Mountain, the mountain donkey gently lowered its upright body and slowly walked south along the cliff face.

It started moving like this at first.

Even though the mountaintop was shrouded in thick fog, everyone could still clearly see the poor little thing with half its body sticking out from behind it.

"My goodness, it was like giving birth to a baby in the sky, so dangerous, so incredibly dangerous."

Zhao Yubao was both amazed and filled with worry and reluctance. He took a series of photos with his camera, thinking that witnessing such a breathtaking scene was perhaps the greatest reward of his trip.

They were making production while walking on the cliff face.

This scene was truly breathtaking.

But the women felt differently. They didn't care about whether it was shocking or not; they just felt sorry for the mountain donkey.

"Oh dear, what a tragedy! It must hurt so much. Can't we help it?"

They had given birth before and knew how much suffering it involved.

Even under normal circumstances, production in a safe area can be incredibly painful.

Moreover, having to walk back and forth on the mountainside, pulling and straining, not to mention... you could easily fall down.

"By the way, Fugui, where's your kite? Why don't we let it fly up there..." Dujuan suddenly remembered Chen Ling's bald-headed son, whose kite was much more powerful than ordinary ones and might be able to help.

“No, even if Er Tuzi is home, we can’t let it fly up. Look at this mountain donkey, it’s distracted from giving birth and its steps are trembling from the pain. We can’t let it get too frightened now, or it will be in danger.”

Chen Ling shook his head slightly, rejecting the suggestion.

"It's heading south. Let's not chase it away or disturb it. Let it find a safe place on its own."

Animals, especially wild animals that live in the wild year-round, have very strong instincts in such situations.

They will spontaneously find a safe location to carry out production.

Walking south along the mountainside, the terrain is still rugged, but it is no longer a sheer cliff. Instead, it is an area near a mountain lake, which is an excellent training ground for mountain donkeys who live in high-altitude areas and rock climbing is a daily routine.

really.

As everyone watched with bated breath, the mountain donkey, dragging its half-born calf, walked to the vicinity of the mountain lake, slowly climbed over a rock, and disappeared into the thick fog.

Everyone then wiped the sweat from their foreheads and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"How come this mountain donkey suddenly started giving birth, and in such a dangerous place at that? It's terrifying, making everyone afraid the baby won't survive the fall..."

People tend to become talkative when they suddenly relax after being stressed.

The elderly were even more so, talking one after another like they were chanting scriptures.

After recalling for a moment, Lynx said to everyone, "I heard Uncle Han say that serows reproduce once a year. They mate in the autumn months and have an eight-month gestation period. The cubs are born in May or June of the following year, which is now, after the weather gets hot in summer."

If you think about it that way, it seems like now is the time when they're breeding.

“Yes, this thing likes to roam around with its little donkeys in the summer, sometimes it can carry several.” Wang Cunye nodded in agreement.

When they were young, they gathered herbs, often climbing high and low, and frequently encountered these mountain donkeys.

Sometimes, while gathering herbs on the side of a cliff, you might even have a close eye contact with a mountain donkey that suddenly appears, which can be quite frightening.

"Huh? So, according to you, the noise we heard in the mountains last night was because this thing was about to give birth?"

Old Zhong's eyes lit up, as if he had made a major discovery: "Think about it, it was scared by the dog just now, and it only gave birth to half of its pup. Maybe it had a difficult labor. It was in pain during the difficult labor that it cried like that all night."

The lynx listened for a while and was speechless: "Dad, don't be so delusional. These kinds of wild animals that eat grass don't bark that loudly."

Wang Cunye nodded in agreement: "That's right. Wild animals that graze are afraid of being eaten, so they are usually very quiet and don't make much noise. Mountain donkeys are mostly not fond of braying. Anyway, we've been collecting herbs for many years and have often encountered mountain donkeys, but we've never heard them bray."

As they were talking, Heiwa, who was standing nearby, shook off Rui Rui's entanglement and ran to Chen Ling, shouting twice.

Chen Ling looked up and saw a pack of dogs, led by Xiao Jin, dragging a large, black-furred creature down the North Mountain.

"Is this yet another mountain donkey?"

Chen Ling was greatly surprised to see this and hurriedly walked over.

When everyone came over, they saw that the mountain donkey was covered in wounds and had been dead for some time. The more they looked at the injuries, the more frightening they became, especially the wounds and scratches on its buttocks.

"It must have died in the mountains last night. The horrible sounds of wild animals last night are definitely related to this."

Chen Ling squatted down to take a look and found that it was a male mountain donkey. It was huge, but there was a big hole in its rump, and all its internal organs had been emptied and eaten.

This mountain donkey looks perfectly fine on the surface, but its cavity has actually been hollowed out, and it's lost a lot of weight.

Originally, she weighed over 200 pounds, but now she has shrunk to only 120 or 130 pounds.

"Fugui, can you tell what did it?"

"Yes, there are no other wild animals in the Qinling Mountains, only a jackal."

(End of this chapter)