My 1995 Small Farm.

Chen Ling kept his thoughts to himself.

Based on what he knew, judging from the news alone, those stray Tibetan mastiffs and packs of wolves were far more dangerous than this pack of old wolves and wild dogs.

Whether Tibetan Mastiffs are as miraculous as they're made out to be, Chen Ling himself didn't know.

However, this type of dog is definitely a rare breed known for its aggressive nature.

Once you get used to being out in the wild, you stop recognizing people, and your wildness and ferocity come out.

Those were far more ferocious and terrifying than ordinary stray dogs.

They not only attack ranches, but also ambush people like wolves, chasing and biting them, and many of them can kill people.

"Regardless of whether these dogs are like those stray Tibetan mastiffs, we need to take this seriously. They've all learned to come down the mountain with wolves. What if they suddenly pounce on or bite someone if we encounter them on the roadside during the day?"

"It's better to wait until Heiwa and the other two come back tomorrow, then go into the mountains, find these bastards, and take care of them."

After seeing off the villagers, Chen Ling, while helping his two old men clean up the wolves and wild dogs lying in pools of blood by the river, kept his head down, lost in thought.

At that moment, Qin Rongxian was praising Little White Ox and Baldy to Wang Cunye.

It is said that after Chen Ling left, the little white ox came over and stayed by Wang Susu and the children's side.

Er Tuzi also spread his wings and looked around.

They were afraid that something might break into their home.

Little White Ox is quiet and gentle most of the time, and never gets angry in front of his family.

But he's incredibly petty with outsiders, and when he gets angry, he can be quite frightening.

Er Tu Zi simply didn't go out because the fog was so thick he couldn't see anything, so he stayed home and kept watch.

"Lingzi, it's a shame to bury all of these as fertilizer. Can we keep them to feed the dogs?"

"Wolf meat can definitely be fed to dogs, so let's bury all those dogs!"

How could Chen Ling possibly let his own dogs eat their own kind? Of course, they certainly wouldn't eat them themselves either.

"Don't we need to peel it? Don't we want the skin?"

Qin Rongxian also raised a question: the old man remembered that Chen Ling hunted wolves two years ago and even kept the wolf pelts to make an overcoat.

"These old, weak, sick, and disabled people are all so shabby, why should we bother?" Chen Ling shook his head.

These wolves were the old, weak, sick, or disabled that were eliminated from the normal wolf pack.

Its fur was all messy and unruly, not only was it not smooth, but it was also very unkempt.

As for those stray dogs, their fur is even worse; they're either injured or have skin diseases, and they're disgusting to look at.

Why bother with all this junk so late at night? Just dig a hole and bury it under the tree as fertilizer.

Simple and convenient.

"That's true. This wolf and dog skin is all messy and unkempt. It's really not a good look, and you can't even look at it."

"Well, actually, in villages like Kinmen Village where there are many hunters, they don't care whether the pelt is good or bad, they just skin it once they've caught it... Once I took Rui Rui to find an old hunter there to ask about yellow-throated martens..."

Good heavens, half the yard was full of furs, big ones were deer and muntjac, small ones were rabbits and squirrels.

"The moment you walk in, that thing reeks of stench."

"The hide is valuable, isn't it? Can it be sold for a lot of money?" Qin Rong asked first.

"No, the price of this stuff depends on the time and the harvest. As the old saying goes, hunting doesn't make you rich. Nobody gets rich from it. It's just enough to fill your stomach."

Chen Ling chuckled: "Take this year for example, the price of leather is less than half of what it was last year. Besides, good leather isn't something you can just rip off and sell."

Fox pelts and weasel pelts are best obtained during the coldest days of winter, when the fur is thick, glossy, and layered, making them both thick and attractive, and thus fetching a good price.

It's okay to leave it for a few more years.

"Wow, there's so much more to this story."

Qin Rong was speechless.

"Yes, there are many different opinions. According to Lingzi a couple of years ago, we ordinary people have a lot of good things, but we can never get a good price for them."

The father-in-law also started shaking his head and sighing.

The fog was thick, and the night was cool. At the threshing ground at the village entrance, firecrackers started going off again, banging and popping.

The sound was deafening.

Putting everything else aside, it's definitely going to be a chaotic night.

We almost let a wolf into the village just now; the village will have to arrange for someone to keep watch tonight.

Chen Ling's family was alright. Erhei and the others weren't as good as Heiwa and Xiaojin, but they were still more perceptive than ordinary hunting dogs. They could detect the slightest movement immediately.

Even without them, the little white calf is more intelligent than a dog. Chen Ling had long known that the calf he raised could sometimes hear things from a greater distance than a dog.

Even so, Chen Ling's family still went to bed a little later than usual.

The main reason is that Rui Rui was both nervous and excited after what happened just now.

The little rascal had his first concept of wolves. Holding some photos of wolves taken by Chen Ling, he hid in his mother's arms and kept looking at them, his big eyes shining.

It was muttering incomprehensible words like "wolf" in its mouth.

Besides him, the two old men in the house also couldn't sleep, keeping watch over the aquarium and feeding the fish in the front hall of the wooden building with the lights on.

That big vat is becoming more and more beautiful now.

There's just one thing, every night...

It will be very noisy in the tank.

The fish, shrimp, crabs, and turtles were all making a huge commotion.

Even the snails and clams make a slight 'crunching' sound when they crawl at the bottom of the tank.

As for the fish, the one that makes the most noise is the red-lipped barb.

Despite its beautiful and elegant appearance and herbivorous diet, the Chinese paddlefish is actually more 'violent' than some carnivorous fish.

There are various sounds during the day, but they are not very noticeable.

Once night falls and all is quiet, these red-lipped barbs nibble at the aquatic plants along the bottom and sides of the tank. It's alright at the bottom of the tank because there's a rockery there, but the tank walls are a different story. They open their big mouths and gnaw on the tank walls with a loud 'bang bang' sound.

It's like smashing the cylinder wall.

Chen Ling was quite startled when she first saw it.

Thankfully, nothing happened. Unlike those aggressive fish that could break the aquarium, this one actually cleaned the algae off the tank walls quite well.

Chen Ling went to take a look and saw two old men feeding the fish in the tank while watching with great interest.

I didn't stay there with them any longer and went back to the bedroom to help my wife and put the child to sleep.

After all that commotion tonight, Rui Rui wants to sleep with her parents.

Neither Chen Ling nor Wang Susu said anything.

When Chen Ling returned upstairs, the mother and daughter were washing their feet together, laughing happily.

Wang Susu sat on the bed with her feet in the basin.

The little rascal sat on a low stool, his little feet dangling in the basin, playfully splashing against his mother's feet.

Seeing Chen Ling come in, his eyes lit up, and he wanted to pull him in to play together.

Chen Ling went over, patted his head, and coaxed him, "Daddy has big feet, so we'll play with a bigger basin later."

Then I went to my desk, turned on the lamp, and briefly wrote down what happened tonight.

I wrote it down, and when I have some free time tomorrow or the day after, I'll go to the county town and call the zoo or Professor Feng Yi and others.

Ask around about the situation of these old wolves and wild dogs causing trouble together, so you'll have a better understanding of the situation.

Since Han Ninggui and Shanmao can't be contacted now, they can only ask them.

Then I also recorded the small discovery of the sinkhole.

There was no way around it; one thing after another came up after returning from the mountains, and Chen Ling hadn't even had time to organize the small discoveries about the sinkhole.

After finishing writing, Chen Ling saw Wang Susu breastfeeding Lele, and Rui Rui nodding his head beside his mother. Chen Ling got up, carried him to the bed, placed him on her side, poured out the foot bath water, washed herself, and went back to sleep with her son.

That brat doesn't sleep well.

Now we usually don't let him sleep with Wang Susu anymore. As a mother, I have to take care of two little ones, and I'm already sleep-deprived. I can't let him disturb my sleep.

Chen Ling's family had a relatively peaceful night, but the village was on edge. Most families didn't sleep well, even though they had organized able-bodied men to patrol and guard the area at night, and kept firing warning shots and cannons.

People still feel uneasy.

However, the next morning, before the fog had even lifted, the men from each household were discussing going into the mountains to hunt wolves and wipe out these scourges in one fell swoop when suddenly the sound of gongs and drums, along with the lively shouts of the crowd, rang out from the direction of the reservoir at the village entrance.

When the villagers went outside to take a look, they were immediately stunned.

Good heavens, it was actually Heiwa Xiaojin, wearing a big red flower, being brought back by a group of people banging gongs and drums.

"Wow, judging by their appearance, there's no need to say more. Those two mountain bandits from the Fu Gui family must have done something again! They've probably found all the kids from Jinmen Village!"

"That's for sure, otherwise they wouldn't be so happy! I wonder who has the audacity to invite those two scoundrels from the Fu Gui family over?"

"They're either dedicated to serving others or have lofty ambitions; look, there are them among the crowd!"

"Then there's nothing more to say. These two mountain bandits aren't like Erhei, who can be teased by you. You can't order these two around if you're not familiar with them."

"..."

The villagers discussed it and laughed as they rushed forward to join in the fun, following the people from Jinmen Village to take Heiwa and his brother home.

They also asked Wang Lixian about the situation in Kinmen Village last night.

This question leads to...

Sure enough, it was Heiwa and his companion who found the lost child.

There were two parents in the crowd who had lost their children.

However, not all of them came.

Either the grandparents come to express their gratitude, or the parents come alone to thank them.

no way.

The child was carried off by a wolf and was seriously injured.

Among them was a child who, like his great-uncle Chen Gannian when he was a child, had his chin and cheeks bitten through.

It terrified his parents.

You need to get treatment as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Wang Lixian borrowed two of Heiwa's to go with them last night; otherwise, given the situation, those children would have been eaten by wolves long ago.

But.

The child was saved, but the lost pigs and sheep could not be saved.

Almost half of them were eaten.

Fortunately, many of those wolves were also eliminated.

The villagers asked about the situation in Kinmen Village and also talked about what happened in the village last night.

They learned that wolves had also come down from the mountain to their village.

We came down from the North Mountain behind Chen Ling's house.

Wang Lixian and the others were all very surprised.

They all said that this shouldn't be the case, because they had heard wolves howling while they were walking on the road, but Heiwa and his companion didn't react at all.

Judging from their past behavior, if wolves were to approach their home, these two mountain bandits would become alert long before the wolves were even a few miles away.

It won't be as leisurely as it was last night.

Or do you know that those wolves aren't enough for Chen Ling to fight?

The question wasn't over yet; someone else added that it wasn't just wolves that came down the mountain last night, but also a lot of wild dogs.

Most of the wolves are old wolves.

That's very strange.

This statement not only stunned Wang Lixian and the others, but also frightened the entire group from Kinmen Village.

No one spoke for a moment.

They even stopped playing gongs and drums.

Kinmen Village has many hunters, who know wolves best.

He understands not only wolves, but also dogs.

It was common for village dogs to sneak into the mountains, and sometimes it wasn't just one or two dogs going into the mountains, but a whole bunch of them, seven or eight, or even ten or more, running noisily into the mountains.

Sometimes it's to find food, and sometimes it's simply to have fun, to go for a drive in the mountains.

But no matter what, if you encounter a wolf, you either run far away or get into a fight and become the wolf's meal.

Dogs are generally no match for wolves.

Those that are boasted about are extremely rare.

Even if Tiger Head Yellow is fierce, ruthless, and daring, he's still just a reckless brute. Wolves know how to fight in groups and cooperate as a team.

Dogs are generally not clever enough to outsmart them.

In other words, although wolves and dogs look quite similar, and dogs are descended from wolves, they are not the same kind of creatures and under normal circumstances, they would absolutely, absolutely never get along.

After a long pause, someone finally managed to stammer out, "Did the old wolf run out of options and start hanging out with wild dogs?"

"That makes some sense... but that doesn't make sense either. There are so many wild things in the mountains this year, they have plenty to eat, so why would they run down the mountain?"

"That's right, aren't all old wolves supposed to be cunning and cowardly? How come they're so ruthless, going straight into a fight with Rich Dog as soon as they came down the mountain."

"Yes, the dogs in the wealthy family are all very capable. Even though Erhei is a good steward and worries so much that he's not as big as Heiwa, he's still no match for a pack of old wolves and wild dogs..."

The more the group talked, the more confused they became, feeling that the matter was somewhat eerie.

Moreover, the incidents occurred in Chenwangzhuang and Jinmen Village within two days of each other.

Thinking about it this way, the look in their eyes towards Heiwa and his companion became even more fervent.

Some of the younger men even had the audacious suggestion that after they met Chen Ling, they could ask him to bring the tiger back to live with them.

Tigers are mountain kings, the overlords of the mountains. If they are brought back to guard the mountains and forests, there probably won't be so many strange things happening.

...Chen Ling got up quite early that day. He didn't expect that lending out the dog to help out would be such a big deal.

They even banged drums and gongs and wore big red flowers.

It's like they're coming to pick up a new bride.

The sight of this scene made Chen Ling's vision blur and gave him a terrible headache.

I thought to myself, can't we just keep a low profile? With all this commotion, people will start asking me to borrow their dogs in the future.

But in the countryside, there's not much you can say. Farmers aren't good at expressing gratitude, so they can only do their best to show how strong their thanks are.

I heard this was a rushed arrival; they'll bring a pig this afternoon when they have some free time.

Chen Ling waved his hand, saying there was no need for such formalities. They were all from the same village and knew each other well, and there were many relatives and friends among them. It didn't have to be like this.

As the parents of the younger children talked, their eyes welled up with tears, and they insisted that he agree, saying that he had no choice but to agree.

His father-in-law and mother-in-law finally nodded in approval.

A child is the hope of a family; with a child, there is hope. If you save someone's child's life and don't accept their thanks, they will feel indebted and have a grudge.

Chen Ling understood, but it was just too much trouble. There was plenty of food at home, so why bother going back and forth like that?

However, as they were talking, a young man from Kinmen Village called him Uncle Fugui and chuckled, saying that something was wrong in the mountains this year and asking if he could bring the two tiger cubs back.

Chen Lingcai suddenly perked up.