My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 298 Crowdfunding for Crane Care, Forest Rangers Arrive
I dropped Wang Zhenzhen off at school this morning.

When Chen Ling got home, he carried his gun, grabbed a bucket, and called Heiwa to go out.

They said they were going up the mountain to catch some more fine-scaled salmon, but in reality they were just taking them out of the cave.

Otherwise, after the red-crowned cranes eat most of the fish we keep at home, the water will be empty with hardly any fish left.

There have been leopards in the mountains recently, and his family doesn't want him to go alone.

He had no choice but to say that he would go to the village and ask a few more people to keep him company.

He walked out of the orchard and headed into the village. When the two red-crowned cranes saw him carrying the bucket, they slowly followed behind him.

Now that most of the autumn crops in the fields have been harvested, these two red-crowned cranes, like two old men, are slowly pacing around the fields with their wings on their backs.

They weren't afraid of encountering people along the way. When Chen Ling stopped to talk to people, they would sneak over and keep peeking around.

This behavior might seem lewd on other animals, but it appears quite amusing on the red-crowned crane, which is known for its elegance.

The villagers were overjoyed to see them approaching, and they exclaimed in surprise, their voices rising considerably.

Wang Lihui, his face beaming, exclaimed, "Fugui, look! Look! This crane is rubbing against my arm and nibbling at my hand..."

Lately, besides drying corn every day, they haven't had much to do. What they really want to do now is go to the farm to see the red-crowned cranes.

Unexpectedly, they ran into Chen Ling with two cranes on the way. The cranes were even willing to have close contact with them. This feeling was so exciting and so blissful.

Seeing that they were all grown up, yet they acted like little children when they saw the red-crowned cranes, Chen Ling found it quite amusing and said, "Since you like these cranes so much, why don't you take them home? These two guys are always stealing food from my farm. They've eaten half the fish in the ditch. They act like they're royalty. I can't afford to feed them anymore."

If these two red-crowned cranes weren't afraid of being attacked by chickens, ducks, and geese, and wouldn't dare to roam freely after the chickens and ducks returned at night, Chen Ling's fine-scaled salmon would have been eaten long ago.

"Look at what you're saying. Eating fish is nothing. These are cranes. What's wrong with eating some fish? You're so rich, do you think you're short of a few fish? Fish aren't worth much."

“If you don’t want to raise it, we will. It’s such a wonderful thing to be able to keep a crane at home; everyone is scrambling to do it…”

When Chen Ling said he didn't want the red-crowned cranes to stay at the farm because of their problem of stealing fish, everyone immediately erupted in an uproar.

Want to eat fish? It's easy! Just catch as many fish as you want in the ditches, ponds, and reservoirs. There's enough for two cranes to eat!

As they were talking, these people rushed to take the cranes home.

And you know what? These two red-crowned cranes are really not afraid of people now.

Perhaps because they had been rescued, they were not wary and were not afraid of adults or children. They were even taken to the homes of villagers.

They stayed at Wang Lihui's house on the first day, went to Wang Lishan's house on the second day, and went to Chen Dazhi's house on the third day... The two red-crowned cranes were just like old men, going around in circles eating food from a hundred different homes.

In short, there was plenty of fish and shrimp, and if that wasn't enough, they would catch more; everyone was very enthusiastic about them.

They also roam around the village all day long, following everyone around.

However, this only applies during the day. After dark, they return to Chen Ling's pigsty on time every day.

This amazed the villagers, who said that the two cranes had made Chen Ling's place their home.

They also said that Chen Ling saved them, and the cranes were grateful and would not forget their benefactor.

At the same time, she was also very envious of Chen Ling's luck.

This kid seems to have all the good things in the world.

Wang Cunye was quite relieved: "This is good too. At least those two freeloaders aren't home during the day and won't eat our fish."

Otherwise, they would spend the day here, only eating the best fish in the farm, and in a few days they would have eaten up hundreds or thousands of fish.

Because of their status as cranes, no one dared to really do anything to them.

Chen Ling had warned the family's dog and kite not to harm them.

That's why they were allowed to run rampant a few days ago.

Now the two cranes are eating at every house in the village, truly living the life of grandpas.

This really saved Chen Ling's family a lot of trouble.

Not only do they not have to worry about the fish like the fine-scaled fish in the farm being stolen by them.

Moreover, after people from other villages heard that there were cranes in Chenwangzhuang, they stopped eagerly flocking to the farm.

After all, Chenwangzhuang Elementary School has many children from Jinmen Village and Taoshugou who come to study there, so the matter of the red-crowned cranes cannot be kept secret.

"Yes, it's better to avoid trouble if possible. Otherwise, people will come looking for Heiwa to breed dogs and people will come looking for red-crowned cranes. It's so annoying."

Chen Ling rocked his son's stroller, slumped in the rattan chair, and said lazily.

Ever since Heiwa was able to breed with dogs.

Some of those hunters, and others like those from Huangni Town who run factories, who knows, one day they might come over with their female dogs.

Some of them weren't even their own dogs; they found female dogs that could mate with Heiwa on short notice.

The goal is to breed puppies with Heiwa.

Fortunately, Heiwa is different from other male dogs; he doesn't mate with every female dog in heat.

Now, apart from Little Gold and the pack of female wolves, no other female dog has captured its heart.

This is indeed a dog with intelligence.

Ordinary female dogs don't even catch its eye.

“When we couldn’t mate last year, Susu and I were worried about it. Now that we can, there are a lot of problems. People are coming to us from all over the place.”

"Haha, that's right. Most people find raising a female dog troublesome. She has to carry the food trough every year, and the puppies keep coming in one litter after another, which is a headache for the family. It's too good that we have a male dog. If he can mate with us, other people will covet him."

Wang Cunye was drying pine cones on the open ground nearby, and said with a smile, "There's no way around it. Once a male dog reaches the age where it can mate and knows how to mate, and can't mount a female dog and fail to enter, then from then on, it can mate with any female dog that is in heat."

Unlike female dogs, they won't mate only when they are in heat and won't get pregnant until they ovulate.

It goes into heat when the female dog is in heat.

He's normal most of the time, but as soon as he smells the scent of a female dog in heat, he can't stand it and will show signs of being in heat, wanting nothing more than to mate with the female dog.

Of course, this is for ordinary dogs. Heiwa does well in this respect and doesn't get aroused by the smell of a female dog in heat.

"Sigh, that's what I mean. It's not good if this big stud is too popular. I should go out and put up a sign with a price."

Chen Ling glanced at her son in the stroller, who was already asleep, then got up and went to the storeroom to find a piece of wood. She took a saw, trimmed it into a rectangular sign, and hung it up.

The sign read: "Superior stud dog, starting at 2,000 RMB for mating with dogs. Serious inquiries only."

Hmph, two thousand for a dog-matching session, guaranteed to scare you so much you won't dare come again.

"This is a solution."

The father-in-law nodded. "Aren't you going to the mountain to fish today?"

"Hey, let's call Brother Xian and the others and head over later."

They say they're catching fish, but there aren't many fish to catch; now they're trying to lure leopards.

This leopard has been very active lately, circling the mountain lake every day.

There's no other reason than that there are now an abundance of waterbirds there, including geese, cranes, egrets, blue geese, and mallards. Food is plentiful, and they are very easy to catch, which is much better than guarding against wild boars.

The leopard wasn't stupid; it couldn't bear to leave such a treasure trove.

……

After going up the mountain several times in the past few days, Chen Ling has roughly calculated the leopard's range of activity and is ready to catch it.

Unfortunately, we were delayed again by an unexpected guest.

These guests were none other than Professors Han Ninggui and Feng Yi, who arrived with their entourage at noon.

When they left last time, they said they would find some more people to come after the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Because there are many wild animals in the mountains, they don't have enough manpower or protective gear, making it difficult to carry out their work.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, there had been no news for a while, and Chen Ling thought they might have something to do and wouldn't be coming.

I didn't expect them to come so suddenly, just before National Day.

"Haha, what a stroke of luck! I haven't seen you for a few days, and you already have red-crowned cranes here. In a couple of years, crested ibises will be flying over here too."

As soon as he entered the farm gate, Han Ninggui burst into laughter.

This time, their team was quite large, with about ten people including him and Feng Yi.

"Uncle Han, you saw the red-crowned cranes?" Chen Ling greeted them with a smile.

"I see them. Those two are living a good life. They have food and drink, and people to wait on them. Nobody dares to mess with them. Even the naughty kids in your village don't dare to mess with them..."

"When we arrived, two red-crowned cranes were spreading their wings and blocking people's way. The villagers said they were begging for food. So we stopped the car, got out, and caught a few fish to feed them."

As Han Ninggui spoke, he spread his arms wide and gestured, laughing even louder.

Feng Yi and his teammates were also laughing, clearly finding the two red-crowned cranes amusing.

"Yes, those two red-crowned cranes are very greedy, especially the male one. He started stealing my fine-scaled salmon right away and almost ate them all."

Chen Ling shook his head, looking regretful.

He then added, "I don't know when these two red-crowned cranes arrived. When my father-in-law and I went up the mountain to look for honey, we found the injured female crane and brought her back. I didn't expect the male to come along too."

"I heard it from the people in your village, but I have to say, you're really lucky."

Han Ninggui smiled and said, "Fugui, you're quite a special talent just by relying on luck. You'll have to work harder in the future."

Then, turning to Feng Yi, he said, "Old Feng, let this kid see what surprise we've prepared for him."

Feng Yi took out his briefcase, raised an eyebrow at Chen Ling, and handed him a brown paper bag: "Look at this, kid. Most people don't get this kind of treatment."

Chen Ling took the file bag, opened it, and was immediately surprised.

"How... how did I end up being treated as an unofficial member of your organization...?"

"Hey, that's not important. It's just a verbal agreement, something we agree on. If someone asks, they'll say, 'Old Han and I both know you,' and that's fine."

Feng Yi waved his hand and gestured to Chen Ling, "Take another look. The remaining two are the real gems, and they'll even pay you a salary."

Chen Ling took another look and, wow, it was a forest ranger's certificate and a hunter's license.

Especially these forest rangers, they were only introduced this year, in 1996! Amazing, amazing! It's true that having connections in the government makes things easier.

Seeing him staring blankly at the file folder, Han Ninggui explained, "After October 1st this year, guns will be banned nationwide. With these two little notebooks, you can continue to patrol the mountains with a gun. Not only will no one care if you hunt with a gun, but you'll also get a monthly salary. How about that? Isn't that a pleasant surprise?"

"Yes, yes, that's perfect! Thank you, Uncle Han. This surprise is so thoughtful and just what I wanted."

Chen Ling grinned. With these things, no one could stop him from going hunting in the mountains. He could hunt whatever he wanted and eat whatever he wanted.
With a wave of his hand, he declared that the entire mountain forest would be his personal domain, and half of the Qinling Mountains would be his personal breeding farm.

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The bonus chapters for August's monthly tickets will bring the total to 78 chapters.

(End of this chapter)