My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 525
Chen Ling moved a little closer.

Upon closer inspection, the opening was as big as a water vat; a calf could easily squeeze through it.

Wang Lixian is right.

This is clearly not a mouse hole.

Even a field mouse, which digs its burrows in a network of interconnected tunnels, would never dig such a massive burrow.

The burrows dug by field mice are just exceptionally deep and long, resembling spider webs underground.

The hole itself is very narrow.

It won't be as big as a water tank; to be honest, it's already quite frighteningly large.

The murky, muddy water gushed into the large cave.

"Wow, there's so much wheat and sorghum inside. How come we didn't see such a big hole here when we were harvesting the wheat?"

Chen Ling stared at the ears of wheat and sorghum floating out of the cave, his heart filled with doubt.

Yes.

The large hole didn't contain hulled wheat and sorghum, but rather handfuls of wheat and sorghum ears.

These are all very light and dry.

That's why they float when rinsed with water.

This also proves that these are indeed burrows dug by wild animals that, like field mice, have the habit of storing food.

Because this is basically the situation inside a field mouse's food barn.

After all, wild animals don't husk and store crops one by one.

When the crops are ripe, just bite them off and carry them into the hole.

"Judging by the size of this hole, could it be a badger? But I've never heard of badgers storing food."

Chen Ling was quite puzzled. Badgers, also known as hog badgers, tend to steal melons, tender corn, peanuts, and sweet potatoes more often than wheat and sorghum, which are not on their diet.

Thinking about it again, a fox is even less likely.

Two other Yangtze alligators could dig such a large hole, but they have long since fled down the river to the deep mountains to lay and incubate their eggs.

And they don't eat vegetables either.

"Yeah, that's why we thought this hole was weird. There was a lot of grass around here before, and after we cleared the grass, we couldn't see any hoof prints or droppings."

Wang Lixian's knowledge of wild animals in the mountains was not much less than Chen Ling's, and he was also completely bewildered when he saw this large hole where grain had been stored.

I can't figure out what it was that dug up.

"Hmm... I'll call the dog to come and take a look."

Chen Ling turned his head and whistled. A moment later, Erhei led a pack of dogs into the cornfield. They waded through the muddy water and sniffed around the entrance of the hole. Unfortunately, after sniffing for a while, they didn't find anything, not even excrement or urine. They didn't react much.

"It seems that won't work; the smell might dissipate faster if it's rinsed with water."

While Erhei and his pack may not have the same keen sense of smell as Heiwa and his companion, they still hunt and forage for food in the wild and mountains all day long, so they're no worse than the good hunting dogs kept by ordinary families.

They didn't react at all, so there was nothing we could do.

"Just water this place briefly for now. I'll bring Heiwa and the other two back tonight and see if they've found anything."

Chen Ling frowned and thought for a moment before speaking.

He was more curious and puzzled than worried about anything strange.

After all, they are just wild animals used for storing food.

They are not like jackals, wolves, tigers, or leopards.

Wang Lixian nodded: "Okay, Liu Nier, you guys go and get some bamboo sticks. We'll stick them here later so we don't accidentally step into a hole later."

When Liu Nier and the others heard that they had a mission assigned to them, they responded loudly and ran out wearing their little straw hats.

The two black dogs and their pack may not have found nothing at all, just very little, but they had already sensed something was wrong and kept wading through the water near the cave entrance, sniffing back and forth.

At this moment, Liu Yuzhi and her daughter, Da Ni'er, saw the bellies of several dogs and their eyes lit up. They smiled and made a few hand gestures to Chen Ling.

"Yes, these are female dogs, they're about to give birth to puppies, their bellies are quite big."

Chen Ling smiled and replied.

Cats are pregnant for three months and dogs for four months. Of course, this includes both day and night.

In the blink of an eye, almost two months have passed, and these female dogs will naturally be about to give birth to puppies.

"All the dogs you raise are excellent. If you hadn't already reserved them and paid for them, I would have wanted one or two..."

Wang Lixian also wanted to raise two hunting dogs, but there weren't any suitable ones.

"That's easy to say, there will be more in the next litter."

Chen Ling pointed south: "The red wolf in the city is also pregnant. It's my dog's puppies. I'll ask him for you another day. He has a lot of dogs there, and he doesn't necessarily want all the puppies."

“Okay, I want to raise two native hunting dogs, or maybe Tiger Head Yellow. Bo Ming brought back that silly dog, it eats a lot and can't even guard the door properly.”

Wang Lixian gets a headache just thinking about that big black-backed dog.

"Huh? What's wrong? The dog's doing just fine, isn't it?"

"Sigh, you did save its life after all, so it will definitely behave well when it sees you. But it's not like that at home. If you tie it up, it poops and peees a lot, and it eats a lot and poops a lot, making the yard smelly and stinky."

Letting it out won't work either; it keeps eating random things, and I'm afraid it might eat some poisonous rats or something.

And don't let its size fool you, that big wolfhound doesn't get along in the village. It's always bullied, and every time it goes out, it comes back injured.

That's true; the local dogs in their village aren't your average local dogs.

Many of them had hunted wolves and wild boars with Heiwa, and each one was fiercer than the last. Dealing with a black-backed dog from the city was a complete annihilation for them.

"Haha, dogs like this have to be raised in the village from a young age, either kept on a leash or allowed to roam freely from a young age. Dogs brought back from the city halfway through life are the most troublesome."

Chen Ling had experienced this before, and that was with a local dog, but having grown up in the city, he couldn't adapt to the new environment after returning.

At first, they played happily, but later the village dogs made them afraid to go out.

After all, pampered dogs can't handle much hardship.

"Yes, I've put it by the greenhouse so it can watch over the greenhouse."

"Ha, that's good too, it can pee anywhere outside the village."

At that time, dog theft was not as rampant as it was after the millennium. Dogs were not valuable then, and there were no dog meat shops or sausage processing plants in the area. So, there was nowhere to sell stolen dogs, and keeping them outside the village was not a big deal.

"I'll take two puppies from your house later. Bo Ming can take them to the county town and have them guard his freight station."

Wang Lixian smiled and said, "Jusheng and his wife arrived quite early today. I wonder if he's heard what the villagers are talking about..."

"What are you talking about? Chun Yuan's parents? Or is it something to do with Second Aunt's family?"

"That's not it. I heard that Uncle Wu seems to be having some regrets lately. Last night, we were drinking inside while he waited outside, too embarrassed to come in. He only came in to take Chou Dan away after the news about you beating the Pig King on TV finished airing. You know that, right?"

"I know."

Someone came to the house and took away a little child. How could Chen Ling not keep a close eye on things?
“You broke Juxiang’s leg and he still hasn’t gotten out of bed. These days, it’s just Uncle Wu and Aunt Guizhen taking care of the baby. They were late getting home with the baby yesterday.”

I heard it was Juxiang and his wife, and Aunt Guizhen, who either complained to him or said something else.

Uncle Wu couldn't hold back his anger any longer and beat the woman, then scolded Juxiang and his wife. Juxiang later threw away his cane and started smashing things in the middle of the night. Just now, Baoshuan and Xiaochao came over, and they said that Uncle Wu seemed to have shouted a couple of things, saying something like, "Aren't you ashamed enough? Do you have to offend everyone?"

The neighbors all heard it.

Chen Ling was a little surprised after hearing this.

It wasn't unexpected that Wang Laishun would do such a thing.

It was unexpected that such a thing could be heard from the taciturn Wang Lixian.

It feels like even the guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes has betrayed us.

However, he also understood that Wang Lixian was concerned about his own people and felt that Wang Jusheng's family had gotten some satisfaction in a roundabout way. That was probably his mentality.

When people see bad people suffer, most of them feel a little smug.

Chen Ling shrugged: "Fifth Uncle is right to think that way, but it's too late to regret it now."

If you stab someone in the back, can you be forgiven once you realize you were wrong?
The damage has been done.

How could they treat their own son like this?

Wang Jusheng hadn't been able to warm the hearts of the elderly couple for many years, and now he regretted it, but what good was it?
Many young people in the village used to say that Wang Jusheng was too honest, too stupid, and too cowardly. People didn't like him, but he still went up to them and got the cold shoulder, and in the end, he felt bad after being ignored.

That's just asking for trouble, isn't it?

But when it comes to this kind of thing themselves, they keep quiet.

Ultimately, they are their own parents, whom they raised from childhood to adulthood. How can they be severed from their parents so easily? In the countryside, filial piety is highly valued, so it's not that simple.

This result didn't come overnight.

……

Chen Ling carried the shovel back to the east side to irrigate the fields, muttering to himself, "These two are quite interesting; they're even gossiping about each other behind each other's backs."

Just as Zhang Qiaoling was talking about Dani'er, Wang Lixian brought up his family's conflict.

It's fair to say that watering the fields is so tedious and boring that everyone inevitably starts gossiping.

Fortunately.

There are many people today, and the water flow is quite fast.

By eleven o'clock, the people on both sides had irrigated about six acres of land.

That's already very fast.

Even if it's a land temple next to a well, or a reservoir with stone canals, it only takes about half a day to grow two or three acres.

Chen Ling and his team were able to irrigate six acres of land because they used different water streams on both sides simultaneously.

After 11 a.m., the cornfield became so stuffy that it was hard to breathe.

Chen Ling told everyone to stop working and go get some water to cool off.

He put on his rubber boots, blocked the two irrigation ditches with bluestone, and led his two families and a group of children to wash up in the orchard before eating melons and resting.

A short while later, Yu Qi'an arrived on Chen Ling's motorcycle with his girlfriend in tow.

They also brought a large bag of fried dough sticks and fried bread.

He said he was passing through the county town and went to find him in the courtyard. Gao Xiulan said that he was watering the fields today. Fearing that it would be troublesome for them to cook in the heat, the old man bought these things from the fried dough stick stall for them as lunch.

They also said that their beef soup sells out really fast.

It wasn't even 11 o'clock yet, and it was already sold out. Otherwise, I would have brought some back for them. Beef soup with fried dough sticks would be delicious.

"That's fine. Brother, go home and tell your wife so she won't have to cook."

Chen Lingchong smiled at Wang Qingwen, then turned his gaze back to Yu Qi'an: "You rascal, where have you taken Huining these past two days? You don't know anyone here, don't you know where to refuel? Aren't you afraid that your motorcycle will run out of gas and you won't be able to get back?"

Since his last return, the old man's relationship with Bai Huining has progressed rapidly, and he can't wait to take the girl out to play.

Driving in the mountains is inconvenient, so he rode Chen Ling's motorcycle and wandered around.

They were gone for four or five days, and Chen Ling was really worried that they might be eaten by wolves or encounter robbers.

There won't be any more crosstalk queens in the future.

"Look at what you're saying... I travel a lot these days, I'm not mute, I can ask where I can get gas."

Yu Qi'an pushed up his sunglasses, looking quite spirited. "This trip was really fun! We went to Fenglei Town and then to the Medicine King Temple. On the way to Fenglei Town, we even ran into Uncle Cunye taking Zhenzhen and the others to the market. Hehe, the two of us even stayed overnight on the mountain. It was so comfortable!"

If it weren't for the bad roads, the two of us could have wandered around outside for a month without coming back.

"Right, Huining?"

Bai Huining also smiled and said, "It's fun, but I still miss the things near Brother Ling's house. I think it's more comfortable here."

There's food and fun to do, so every day is enjoyable and there's no need to rush around so much.

"If the red-crowned cranes didn't live on the mountain, I would definitely have stayed in that little house in the bamboo forest."

"Goodness, they've all set their sights on that spot. Looks like I'll have to build a few more in the future. Once more people come to visit, I'll just rent them out."

Chen Ling joked.

“Great idea. Old Zhou’s artsy tendencies, and cultured people like Teacher Zhao and Teacher Zhong, all love this kind of style. I’ll bring you some customers, rip them off, and we can split the profits 30/70 afterwards.”

Yu Qi'an grinned smugly with a big, shameless face.

"Well done, Lao Yu, you've got a pretty good plan."

Chen Ling patted him on the shoulder while eating a fried dough stick.

"Oh, get out of here! Your oily hands are all over me."

Yu Qi'an quickly dodged away, stood up and said, "I'm not staying with you anymore, let's go up the mountain to find Teacher Zhao to herd sheep."

Zhao Yubao and his companion were also helping Chen Ling herd his flock of sheep today.

He pulled Bai Huining away.

Wang Lixian and Wang Jusheng said, "This brother's personality is like the ocean; he talks in a jovial and humorous way, which is quite interesting."

"They are somewhat similar, but still different. Da Hai has a wife and children, and most of the time he has serious business to attend to. This old guy is different; he just loves to have fun."

Chen Ling chuckled.

Having a few friends like this makes life feel real, interesting, and colorful.

There are other things besides money and fame.

"Lingzi, the little leopard just came back, walked around the house for a bit, and then left."

At this moment, Wang Qingwen and his wife came out.

"Oh, that little guy probably came back to look for Susu, but left because he saw that Susu wasn't home."

Chen Ling didn't care, since no one in that little clouded leopard's family could get close to him except for Wang Susu.

"Brother, sister-in-law, you two sit down and eat too. There are so many fried dough sticks."

Chen Ling stood up: "I'll go pick a couple of cucumbers and tomatoes and make two cold dishes."

(End of this chapter)