My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 636 The Wolf's Revenge?

"This old boar is really something. It even knows how to protect the pigsty in the village. It's not like they're just freeloading off the pigs in the village."

"That's good. Last time, I was guarding the pigsty over at the threshing ground and killed an old wolf."

"..."

"Let's not talk about the wild boar for now. I'm just saying that Fugui's dog is so powerful, but it doesn't seem to be in a hurry at all. I didn't hear it barking at all in the middle of the night."

"Yes, yes, it's really strange. In the middle of the night, we only heard wolves howling, but we didn't hear a single dog barking. Also... Fu Gui's dog, and all the dogs in the village, apart from having mud on their feet, didn't look like they had been in a fight."

In the southwest corner of the village, on the dirt road outside Er Mao Lu's house, villagers stood on a slightly dry and hardened spot on the road after the rain, discussing the situation.

far away.

Chen Ling, along with Wang Lixian, Chen Dazhi, some young people, and Chen Xiaoer who had come to join the fun, returned with a large group of dogs.

Although Chen Ling understands his two dogs quite well, he doesn't understand animal language, so he still needs to go and see for himself.

"How's it going, Fugui?"

"I've finished looking at it; it was the wolves causing the trouble."

Chen Ling was also quite puzzled when he was called over. Why was there not much noise at night? He could only hear wolves howling in the mountains, but not dogs barking in the village.

After circling around, I realized that it turned out that the wolf that came down from the mountain had fought with the old wild boar.

After alerting Heiwa and Xiaojin, they were scared away and didn't actually fight.

Wang Lixian then said, "The wolves came down the mountain. By the time Heiwa and Xiaojin arrived, they were scared away... Otherwise, given Heiwa and Xiaojin's temper, it wouldn't be right if they didn't kill a few of them."

The others echoed this sentiment.

They had all witnessed firsthand just how powerful Chen Ling's two big dogs were.

Two winters ago, when there was a wolf infestation, they were only six months old, yet they dared to lead a pack of dogs to chase after wolves and pounce on them to fight.

Let alone now.

"So, they were pretty quick to escape."

"They're running away so fast, I just don't understand it. The mountains are so lively this year, how could they go hungry? Why are they starting to run down the mountain before winter is even here?"

"Yeah, that's pretty strange, donkey. Tell me, did your Xiao Chao see anything else while hunting wolves at Laohewan that day?"

"No, I didn't see anything, just that old wolf wandering around there."

Wang Wenchao looked bewildered and said, "Fifth Grandfather, are you asking this because you're afraid the wolves in the mountains are coming for revenge?"

"Yes, that's what I think." Wang Laishun frowned.

After two rare years of peace and quiet, this year's harvest was bountiful and there were more prey in the mountains, so why did we encounter wolves running down the mountain?
"Lai Shun, if that's what you think, you might as well say that we're always going to the mountains to find wild fruits, and maybe we've offended those beasts."

An old man shouted loudly.

He is Wang Laiyun, Wang Laishun's older brother.

"Hmm, that makes sense."

"Yeah, wolves are definitely more vengeful than anything else. They'll see you in their territory during the day and keep quiet, but then they'll come and silently harm you at night."

You can't defend against it at all.

"Fourth Uncle, do you think so too?"

It turned out that it was Fourth Grandfather Chen Gannian who spoke. In the past six months, he has become clear-headed, and everyone knows that he used to know a lot.

Not only does he know a lot and have a lot of experience, but his education level is also higher than most people in the village. He even worked as a teacher for a while before.

"Yes, that's what I think. Wolves can be quite bad sometimes, but sometimes if you don't provoke them, they won't provoke you either."

Before our village had the reservoir, this area was a large lake. We were little then, and there was a huge bamboo forest around the old river bend...

There are wolves living in there.

There was a wolf den. The mother wolf gave birth to four cubs in total.

The villagers knew that wolves lived there, and many had seen them, so they would avoid them during the day.

The wolves didn't even venture into the village; instead, they preyed on chickens, ducks, and livestock...

Nobody bothers anyone.

The wolf cub grows up quickly, changing its appearance every day.

The adult wolf is usually not seen during the day, but the cubs keep coming out to play.

A playful boy in the village, around ten years old, went to play by the old river bend and saw a wolf cub coming out of the bamboo forest. He took the wolf cub home with him.

This is really bad.

When the wolf saw that the child was gone, it would come to the village and howl every night.

Back then, everyone's houses were dilapidated. People were poor and had no money to repair their houses. Some families couldn't even afford to live in mud-brick houses... At night, you could hear wolves howling outside the windows. How scary and frightening!

The villagers were puzzled. The wolf used to be quite well-behaved, so why had it been running into the village at night these past few days?

Sigh, it's all those naughty kids' fault. They caught the wolf cubs and hid them in the vegetable cellar because they were afraid the adults would find out.

But the wolf wouldn't leave until it found its cubs.

It still comes to bark every night.

Those little devils got scared and decided to throw the wolf cub out and let it go.

Who knew that by then it was too late to throw it out.

Why?
Wolves eat meat, and even wolf cubs that have been weaned still need to eat meat. You can't feed them leftovers like you would feed puppies.

As a result, after being locked in the cellar for several days, the little thing, perhaps afraid of being separated from its mother, starved to death without eating or drinking.

This terrified the few mischievous kids, who quickly threw the lifeless wolf cub into the latrine.

They thought to themselves that if they threw it in, it would smell terrible, the big wolf would never be found again, and the adults in the family would never know that they had caught a wolf cub.

Also.

That night, the big wolf came and howled for half the night.

I didn't come back for the next few days.

It was as if he knew his four children were dead…

Grandpa was getting old, and after talking for a while, his mouth became dry. He stopped and gulped down water from his tea-stained cup.

"And then? The wolf never came back?"

The villagers didn't react at first, but Chen Xiaoer and the others couldn't help themselves and eagerly pressed for an answer.

"How could that be? I've already said that wolves hold grudges."

Chen Gannian chuckled: "It was less than half a month later, when the wheat harvest was in full swing, the wolf led a large pack of wolves into the village at night. It was hot then, so everyone was sleeping outside."

People slept soundly in the latter half of the night.

With so many wolves entering the village, even the dogs dared not bark.

They silently bit those brats to death and dragged them away.

"Dragged away? Or...eaten?"

"They were all bitten to death, so of course we ate them. The leftover bones are in the wheat field outside the village."

"This……"

"Hey, you know what, those wolves do have some sense of reason. Whoever messes with them, they'll seek revenge. Apart from those unruly kids who got bitten to death, no one else, not even their parents, got hurt."

"...What Fourth Uncle said, we seem to have heard some of it when we were young. They all said not to provoke the wolves in the mountains, and they also talked about wolf foals, which were even scarier."

Some of the older villagers joined in the conversation.

Chen Xiaoer and the others were still a little confused.

Especially the bosses, who frowned and asked, "Why didn't you think of driving the wolf away in the first place? Wouldn't it have been better if you had just driven it away?"

"I don't know why no one chased away the wolves back then. We were all young then, and we didn't know what the adults were thinking."

Chen Gannian shook his head, "The point of this story is that we can't always blame the wolves. Sometimes we humans just don't know when we've offended them. The key is that some people have offended them, like some naughty kids who keep it from their families and don't tell anyone until something bad happens."

Upon hearing this, Wang Laishun quickly told everyone, "Go back and ask your kids at home, make sure they don't cause any more trouble like this."

"No, definitely not. It's only recently that the kids have dared to go into the mountains. Besides, even if they do go, they don't go as deep as we do."

"Yes, yes, they only go for a stroll after school at noon, or on Sundays. On Sundays, they go with Zhenzhen and bring the dog with them. They can't go very far."

"..."

The adults chimed in, each offering their own opinion, and they were right; the children of this generation in the village are much better than those of the past.

There are many things to do.

I can ride a bike, I can go to Chen Ling's house to watch TV, and Chen Ling's dog is more fun than a wolf.

At most, they might hunt monkeys, raid bird nests, or try to set traps like the adults.

There wasn't anything too dangerous. "Then it must be something the adults did. They must have somehow angered the wolves while they were picking fruit in the mountains, that's why they came down... From now on, bring guns when you go into the mountains, everyone should bring one, and try not to go alone..."

Wang Laishun concluded by saying this.

As for whether this guess is too hasty, it's perfectly reasonable to be on the safe side and protect everyone's personal safety.

Then she looked at Chen Ling, who had been listening to the story and grooming the dog without saying a word.

“Fugui, what do you think? There have been a lot of strange things happening this year. You also mentioned last time that you encountered quite a few strange things while you were alone in the mountains.”

Chen Ling just smiled and said, "I think it's better to play it safe this year. Just don't work too hard to pick more fruit."

It gets dark early in the mountains, and you can't see anything clearly. Sometimes you go into very deep places.

If you provoke a wolf or something, then who knows?

"Sigh, Fugui said the same thing. Then let's be more careful in the future. Even if we go deeper, let's wait until there are more people around before we go together."

"Yes, yes, yes."

"We can't keep fighting over it. If someone gets killed, it's no joke."

"..."

That said, Chen Ling, Wang Lixian, and a few other young men who frequently ventured into the mountains only knew it was wolves by looking at the footprints near the old river bend.

The exact reason why these wolves came down from the mountain is still just speculation.

There was nothing they could do; the wounded wild boar had run away as soon as people came out at dawn.

At first, it wandered around the land temple, but as more and more people came, it went further and further away.

Otherwise, we should examine its condition; we might find something new.

Chen Ling had no intention of dwelling on this.

Anyway, I'll be going to the mountains again in a couple of days.

Wu Fei's wife and the female colleagues in the Journey to the West crew were in a dilemma.

I kept thinking about what my great-uncle had told me, saying that the wolf was pitiful and the little bear was wicked.

They said that if those mischievous kids hadn't secretly taken the wolf cub, none of what happened later would have occurred.

Perhaps the wolf and the villagers can live in peace.

Finally, they even discussed whether wolves or humans were evil.

There's nothing we can do about it; some cultured people are just like that—they overthink things.

They overthink things, and they're thinking in the wrong places.

They didn't even consider the social environment at the time. That was before the founding of the People's Republic of China. People were so poor that they often couldn't even get enough to eat.

When they're starving, they'll eat anything, not just wolves, but pandas and tigers—anything they can catch.

There's no time to think about who's good or bad.

……

The rain stopped, and the thick fog dissipated.

The scooter came by, but he didn't drive it because it was muddy after the rain.

They came by bicycle.

They brought Sun Yanhong's request, saying that since it was getting colder, all the pots and pans Chen Ling had mentioned earlier could be used.

Hot pot, hanging pot, iron pot stew—the variety doesn't matter, nor does the type of pot matter, as long as it's a soup pot.

When the weather gets cold, food cools down quickly, so a hot pot is still the perfect match for winter.

Correspondingly, the demand for various kinds of wild game is gradually increasing.

Putting aside other things, wild rabbits, pheasants, and the bamboo rats that have only recently started to be raised are all quite popular.

Although bamboo rats are not actually called bamboo rats, they are referred to as wild goat meat or specialty venison.

Otherwise, some people might not like it, thinking that bamboo rats are a type of rat and that it spoils their appetite.

Anyway, Sun Yanhong is very adaptable.

They've already made a huge splash in the wild game industry.

"Go to the village and tell them that I'm going to the mountains in the next couple of days and won't have time for anything else."

"Also, you can come and take these fish away once the road dries out."

After giving the little lamb some instructions, Chen Ling went back to check on the leopard's condition.

A lot more insects were expelled.

But I finally felt better.

Seeing Chen Ling bring the dog in, it cowered in the corner of the cage in fear.

Chen Ling ignored it, gave it another dose of deworming medicine, changed the cat litter, and then cleaned up the animal pen.

Then I pickled salted eggs and prepared chili peppers with my mother-in-law and the others.

My father-in-law goes out to herd cattle and sheep, and takes the children out to play along the way.

Chen Ling doesn't need to worry about anything else.

For example, the packhorses that Yu Qi'an left here and the sika deer he caught are fed by the village children after school.

The little ponies and deer are popular with children, and they care about them even more than Chen Ling himself.

The pigeons were also carried around by two bald men.

There's even less need to worry about the little white calf and the little blue horse.

When he was in a good mood, he would follow Wang Cunye to herd cattle and sheep; when he wasn't, he would come back to lie down, or come to Chen Ling's vicinity to make a fuss, pop up, and make his presence known.

Aside from the fact that wolves came down from the mountain in the village today, Chen Ling and his family were still very happy.

Wang Susu is finally able to finish her postpartum confinement.

When it got warmer at noon, Chen Ling washed her hair and cooked her a sumptuous lunch.

They even heated up the roast chicken that Zhou Weijun had bought from the city and put it out to eat.

"I rarely eat roast chicken. I used to be reluctant to spend money to buy it. I could only eat it when I was taking the train to school."

The roast chicken I ate on the train was the most delicious.

My uncle worked at the train station. Back then, when I took the train to Beiping to go to school, he would always buy my ticket, see me off, and give me a roast chicken to eat on the way.

After starting work, I traveled all over the country and ate a lot of different things, so I completely forgot what roast chicken tasted like.

This is Wu Fei speaking. The middle-aged man is holding a chicken carcass and gnawing on it. He is actually a little choked up: "When I ate this roast chicken today, I was completely overwhelmed by its delicious aroma. The first roast chicken that my uncle bought for me back then tasted just like this."

"Alright, alright, you haven't even been drinking, so why are you drunk? Stop talking so much nonsense."

Chen Xiaoer placed some fish on his plate: "Eat up, you're just here to freeload, why are you putting in so much?"

"Haha, Fei-ge is a man of character. You two want to raise dogs too, right? I'll have someone bring you two over."

Chen Ling smiled.

These two were definitely not there to freeload.

It's Wang Susu who's finished her postpartum confinement and came to visit with her husband.

When I arrived, Chen Ling's family had already finished lunch, and he was washing his hair with Wang Susu.

These two didn't care about leftovers at all; they sat down and started devouring the food in a whirlwind.

"Sure, let's catch two. They're from the Lynx Brothers dog farm, right?"

"Yes, Brother Er is really smart. No wonder everyone praises you for being exceptionally intelligent."

"Go away, Wu Fei said you're going to the mountains again?"

"Damn, yeah, Fei-ge, how did you know? I didn't tell anyone."

“He definitely said it. You forgot? I overheard it at Brother Lixian’s house.”

Wu Fei had calmed down and glanced at Chen Ling.

"Oh right, I told Boming this morning, 'Hey, you two don't tell anyone,' I haven't told Susu about this yet. She just finished her postpartum period and I don't know how to bring it up."

Chen Ling said in a low voice.

It's really inappropriate for him to go to the mountains right after his wife finished her postpartum confinement.

But no matter what, things have come to this, and he should go to the mountains.

Just to say that, you can't keep a leopard at home for too long.

Not to mention, the things happening in the mountains also touched his heartstrings.

Since we're openly going to let the leopards into the mountains, wouldn't it be a waste not to take this opportunity to go for a stroll in the mountains?
Moreover, if things don't calm down after the wolf pack came down the mountain last night, he, as a member of the village, will have to go there sooner or later.