My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 613 The Bear and the Lynx

As soon as Chen Ling saw the young guest, he chuckled.

It's not that this young guest has anything extraordinary about him.

The newcomer was just an ordinary gray wolf.

However, Chen Ling had never seen such a timid, even cowardly wolf before. It was also very small and its behavior was quite comical.

The charcoal fire at the cave entrance emitted a faint light.

It stood about five or six meters from the cave entrance, staring with its eerie green eyes, pacing back and forth, looking around, its nose twitching and sniffing...

In the dead of night, the sound of the wolf twitching its nose was quite distinct.

Chen Ling got up and glanced at it, but it turned its head away shyly and continued to look around, pretending to look at something else.

But knowing there was food there, and that it smelled enticingly delicious, it couldn't bear to leave.

After waiting and waiting, they found that Chen Ling had no intention of sleeping. He kept staring at them and had even relit the campfire.

The little beast in his arms also bared its teeth and made frightening faces.

Seeing this, the wolf sheepishly retreated to the edge of the forest, lying there like a dog. It didn't howl, but stared at the remaining deer leg by the campfire with its glowing green eyes, sniffing the aroma as if it were drooling.

Chen Ling was also quite puzzled.

He didn't continue sleeping and instead relit a campfire to prevent the wolf from discovering the food and howling to attract its pack.

Or perhaps they would play a game with their companions, like 'the wolf feigning sleep to lure the enemy.'

While this wolf is drawing his attention from this side, another wolf might suddenly pounce from another direction when he's not paying attention.

In the end, nothing happened.

Chen Ling gradually lost interest.

Picking up the two deer leg bones that the weasels had left behind, he threw them at the silly wolf.

Then, by the warm campfire, he tucked the little creatures, who were staring at the hungry wolves with some resentment, into his arms and went back to sleep.

The crackling of the campfire and the crunching of wolves gnawing on bones made the mountain night even more tranquil.

However, I didn't sleep well tonight.

It wasn't because there were wolves nearby.

With his own inner sanctuary, he wasn't afraid of even a pack of wolves. This time, he went into the mountains alone, without any outsiders following him, so he could use it without any worries. If a wolf pounced, he could simply pull it into his inner sanctuary.

But who would have thought that a bear would follow the wolf? Damn it, ever since he encountered this thing in the village, Chen Ling knew that these guys must have come out from the depths of the Qinling Mountains again.

As luck would have it, we ran into them this time when we went into the mountains.

This is, of course, also because he went into such depths.

It was late at night.

The campfire was about to burn out again.

A large, muscular bear roared and charged out of the forest, heading straight for the wolf gnawing on the bone.

That's why it's said the bear came with the wolf.

This bear didn't attack people when it saw them.

Without even paying attention to Chen Ling, he went straight for the wolf.

They chased the wolf all over the mountain, making it carry the bone in its mouth.

Chen Ling had considered the possibility that the smell of venison had attracted the bear.

But seeing that the wolf had been chased so badly that it had even left behind bones, and that the bear hadn't bothered to pick up the food after successfully snatching it, he understood what was going on.

These two have a grudge against each other.

No wonder the wolf was starving; with a furious bear following behind, it had no chance to hunt.

Besides, there's nothing else in this bear mountain that we dare to mess with.

If the commotion had been any bigger, the prey would have fled long ago.

"What happened? Could it be that the wolf stole and ate someone's bear cubs?"

This is not impossible. Bears protect their cubs for a long time, and bear cubs are not weaned until they are eight months old. Bears in the Qinling Mountains usually give birth in the spring.

If the baby was born this year, it definitely wouldn't be fully grown yet.

Chen Ling stared in astonishment at the bear and wolf chasing and fleeing down the mountain.

Five curious little yellow-haired animals, their round eyes wide open, perched on his two shoulders, watching the spectacle.

"These two are really disturbing my sleep. Forget it, let's not sleep here anymore. These guys in the mountains are too troublesome. Let's go back to our old nest."

Chen Ling shook his head and clicked his tongue, then led the five little creatures into the cave.

There are too many wild animals in the mountains, so it's noisy at night. They keep tossing and turning, and I can't sleep well.

Let's rest in the cave for a while.

Inside the grotto, the moonlight was bright and clear.

In the woods behind the thatched hut lay the harvest that Chen Ling and the weasels had gathered in the mountains over the past two days.

It can be clearly seen under the moonlight.

There were dead musk deer and muntjacs.

There were also living sika deer and muntjacs.

Those who were still alive huddled together in fear and unease when they saw Chen Ling enter with five ferocious little beasts.

Fortunately, the cave environment was peaceful, and they did not exhibit any signs of excessive stress.

Chen Ling glanced at them twice, but didn't pay them much attention.

Wild animals rarely see people, so just get used to it gradually.

Otherwise, if you bring them home and they bump into the children, they might hurt someone, which would be even more troublesome than unruly livestock kicking around in the village.

It is necessary to lock them up for a few days.

The little muntjac at home, for example, has adapted very well.

"Little tail, come here and be my pillow."

After passing the deer herd, Chen Ling saw the tailless leopard from Leopard Mountain staring intently at them from the nearby jungle.

However, Chen Ling set up an isolating barrier, so people could only observe from afar and could not pass through the obstruction to eat.

In the nearly one year since then, its broken tail has actually grown back.

But Chen Ling still habitually calls it Little Tail.

With a wave of his hand, he summoned the leopard, which had become much fatter, to his side.

Then he tucked her under his armpits and carried her back to the thatched hut.

This male leopard has not lost its wild nature.

Having been taught a lesson by Chen Ling a few times, it no longer dared to open its mouth to bite Chen Ling.

But being held by Chen Ling like that, it couldn't help but yell and struggle.

Chen Ling ignored it, tossed it on the bed and used it as a leopard pillow before lying down.

The leopard struggled and resisted, but Chen Ling punched it twice: "I've already fed you a whole deer, and you're not even happy to be a pillow? I've been giving you a free meal to improve your diet?"

The leopard lay down slowly, looking dejected, and dared not move again.

Although it has retained its wildness, it also has a memory.

I tried to ambush them before, but it never worked.

There's no other way but to cooperate obediently; at least we've already resisted.

……

I had a wonderful nap in the cave.

Today I'm heading home from the mountains.

Chen Ling led the little creatures out of the cave and hurried on their way, facing the rising sun.

Unexpectedly, his connection with the wolves and bears from last night was not over.

After crossing two mountains and a ravine, we unexpectedly encountered the same two people again in a river valley.

However, they did not see each other for one night.

The bear and the wolf have changed their appearance.

At this moment, the wolf stood high on a protruding rock on the side of the valley, gazing down and emitting intermittent, mournful howls.

The bear wandered back and forth in the valley, walking along the mountain wall, and constantly stood up, stretching out its two thick bear paws to slap the mountain wall, roaring angrily at the wolves above its head.

"What kind of romantic entanglement and feud is this? After all this time, aren't you tired?"

Chen Ling, standing above the valley, found this scene quite strange.

He even tried to mediate between the bear and the wolf, saying, "You should be fattening up for winter now. Why are you arguing with this silly wolf? Aren't you afraid you won't have enough fat for winter and will wake up hungry halfway through?"
Unfortunately, the bear ignored him. He couldn't persuade it any further.

After all, we are all neighbors in the mountains, so we should try to get along well most of the time.

The main problem is that there are still few bears. If he wants to eat bear paws, he has to wait until there are more of them and then put a couple into the cave.

Let's forget about it for now.

So they prepared to leave and continue their journey.

Just then, amidst the wolf's mournful howls, its ribs, thin to the point of being exposed, and its swollen belly came into Chen Ling's view.

Chen Ling was immediately shaken:
"Holy crap, is that a pregnant she-wolf?"

"What's going on? Is it going to give birth to calves again like the mountain donkey?"

……

Outside the mountains.

It was already noon.

Zhao Yubao and others gathered at the farm after seeing the newspaper report about Wang Qingzhong and his business booming in the city.

T-shirts, canned goods, instant noodles...

Some businesses also started by producing canned wild fruits, aiming to benefit the people in the mountainous areas.

Suddenly, the name 'Fugui Villa' became more famous than ever before.

Even some people who worked in the city returned to their hometowns after the National Day holiday and spread the word that all these transactions were related to Chen Ling.

Many of the ideas came from him.

Chen Lingguang earns money in installments; he can make ten thousand a day or so.

Some of them were Chen Ling's old classmates from high school.

He was a very promising young man, according to Zhao Hongbo and Liang Jinke. He was not jealous of Chen Ling at all. After hearing the absurd rumors about Chen Ling from his hometown, he sneered and said that just one crayfish restaurant was enough for others to earn for a lifetime.

Why resort to such underhanded tactics?

Now, people outside are talking about Chen Ling again.

They say that Chen Fugui still cherishes his impoverished mountain village background. Even after making money, he doesn't forget his hometown and even helps his fellow villagers find ways to earn money.

The wild fruits covering the mountains will finally be ready to be harvested this year.

Of course, Zhao Yubao and the others would come over to congratulate them on such a wonderful occasion.

The Wu Fei and Chen Xiao'er families naturally followed.

However, Chen Ling hadn't returned from the mountains yet after we arrived.

"What? Didn't you say you'd be back in two days? It's been almost four days since we went into the mountains, why aren't we back yet?"

Zhao Yubao looked somewhat worried.

"Who says otherwise? Kang Kang and Le Le aren't even a month old yet. We told him not to go, but he insisted on catching deer for the babies. Sigh..."

Wang Cunye had a cigarette dangling from his lips, his brows furrowed deeply.

Something strange happened in the mountains this year.

The male wild boar of the herd has come out of the mountains.

The old wolf has come down the mountain more than once.

Logically speaking, Chen Ling shouldn't have been allowed to go into the mountains alone.

"Stop talking, why are you all chattering about this in the yard?"

Gao Xiulan walked over from the kitchen carrying a basin, her face tense. She said unhappily, "Susu is already worried. If she hears this again, she won't be able to have a peaceful postpartum period."

Zhao Yubao immediately felt embarrassed: "I won't say anything more. Fugui is very capable. He can fight leopards and train tigers. He'll definitely be fine... Sister-in-law, are you going to knead the dough to make steamed buns or hand-pulled noodles?"

Gao Xiulan snorted, turned around and left, ignoring him.

So what if he's a big writer and professor? He comes to our house and starts making a huge fuss. Doesn't he know he's feeling uneasy here?

Zhao Yubao didn't mind at all. That's why he liked this place. Most people would argue with him if they were unhappy, they could flip the table when playing chess, and they could laugh, shout, and curse as they pleased. He was very happy.

However, after leaving the farm, the group discussed that if Chen Ling didn't return by tomorrow, they would have to go to the county town to report him missing.

As for the joy of arriving, it has long been forgotten.

In response, Wang Susu was afraid that everyone would think she was overthinking things, so she comforted her parents and sister-in-law: "It's okay. When A-Ling went into the mountains, she said that Heiwa has very sharp ears and can hear far away. If something happens, he will react sooner."

That's true, but since we can't see him, everyone's worries will definitely not go away.

Wang Susu was the same.

However, seeing Heiwa and Xiaojin running around with Ruirui and having a great time, I didn't have any special reaction.

At least I felt a little comforted.

"Sigh, we should bring the dog next time we go into the mountains. Lingzi is the same; I don't know what she's thinking all day. What's the use of bringing a weasel?"

As Wang Cunye walked downstairs, he said this to Gao Xiulan.

"Who knows? If your son-in-law were like everyone else, he wouldn't have such great abilities."

Gao Xiulan said irritably.

……

Chen Ling was indeed delayed while living in the mountains.

After encountering the pregnant wolf being chased by a bear, he saw that the wolf was chased for a full sixty miles by the bear.

I had no idea how far they had chased them before.

Chen Ling could have ignored it.

But while he was waiting for the wolf cub to be born and to save it, he discovered something strange.

Yes.

He didn't intend to save the mother wolf; he planned to rescue the wolf pups after they were born.

He didn't care what grudges the mother wolf and the bear had.

But...

Strange things happened.

The bear, which had chased the mother wolf for so long, actually gave up the pursuit after hearing the cub's cry and turned to run away.

That little black bear is actually nearby?

The bear chased the mother wolf so far, could it have been going in circles and ended up back where it started?

The little black bear didn't die, but got lost?

Chen Ling was completely confused and had no idea what had happened.

Then he saw that the bear had left, the feud between the two sides was over, and there was no need to save the wolf cub anymore, so he also felt it was time to leave.

To everyone's surprise, the mother wolf did exactly the same thing as the mountain donkey before, giving birth right there on the cliff above the valley.

Perhaps frightened by the bear and having traveled such a long and bumpy journey, the mother wolf experienced some difficulties during childbirth.

They then slowly retreated to the valley, found a temporary cave, and gave birth to the wolf cubs.

This life went straight from day to night.

Chen Ling finally couldn't bring himself to leave. Since the mother wolf was hiding deep inside the cave, he couldn't reach her or bring her into the cave, so he threw a lot of raw meat inside.

This prevents the wolf cubs from dying of exhaustion and starvation after giving birth, thus avoiding the tragedy of them starving to death due to lack of milk.

So Chen Ling also spent a day in the mountains.

But this delay led to other problems.

Perhaps it was because the mother wolf's pregnancy emitted a strong odor.

After dark, it attracted the attention of a lynx.

This female wolf is really unlucky. She's all alone while pregnant, and the male wolf and the pack are nowhere to be found. First, she was chased by a bear, and now, having just given birth, she's being targeted by a lynx.

This is really...

Chen Ling didn't know what to say.

He recalled what Liu Guangli, an old hunter from Kinmen Village, had said: "When you've been a hunter for a long time, you're bound to encounter anything."

indeed.

These events unfolded in the mountains under the cover of night.

If you hadn't witnessed it with your own eyes, how would you know that there can be such thrilling moments between wild animals, and that there can be such hardships and predicaments between mothers and their offspring?

The innocent wolf cubs probably don't know that they'll face a life-or-death crisis right after they're born and haven't even had a few sips of warm milk.

(End of this chapter)