My 1995 Small Farm.

fortunately.

Today was Chen Ling's first official hunt, and these usually playful little guys did not disappoint him.

Soon, Little Yellow, the weasel father, returned to inform them.

He took Chen Ling to the place where the prey had been found.

It must be said that, compared to hunting dogs, these little creatures are truly silent as they move through the mountains and forests.

Along the way, if Chen Ling hadn't been with them, the other birds and small animals wouldn't have been disturbed at all.

When we were almost at the mountainside, we entered a pine forest.

Little Yellow stopped ahead, turned around and stood upright, stretching out its two little paws at Chen Ling, as if to warn him that its prey was just ahead.

Tell him to be quieter.

Seeing this, Chen Ling quickly slowed down, bent down, and carefully followed Xiao Huang closer.

A few moments.

The man and his small animal stopped in an open area under the pine forest. The chubby little guy was leading three toddlers and stood on a large rock under the pine trees.

One large and three small, four fluffy yellow creatures stared intently at the open, gentle slope ahead with their round, black eyes wide open, as if they dared not slacken their vigilance for a moment, lest they let their prey escape.

'These little ones are quite convincing; all my hard work in training you wasn't in vain.'

Chen Ling chuckled inwardly, then turned his gaze to the open, gentle slope ahead. The slope was covered with green grass, mixed with fallen leaves, and lying on it was a beast with dark brown fur that looked like a deer.

Bathed in the warm autumn sun, the beast lay sprawled on the grassy slope, basking in the sun with its eyes half-closed, neck outstretched, and two curved teeth peeking out from the corners of its mouth. It looked quite comfortable.

Upon seeing this, Chen Ling instinctively reached for his gun, intending to shoot the guy.

But then I realized that besides hunting deer, I also needed to check the little ones' hunting results.

Let's use this tooth-shaped incense stick to test the difference between the little guys and those expert deer hunters, the yellow-throated marten.

So he gestured to the little ones.

At this moment, Little Yellow, with its thick, long tail, silently ran to its wife and children. After receiving the order, the family of five turned to look at Chen Ling, jumped down from the rock, and approached the musk deer basking in the sun.

The musk deer was sleeping soundly.

Every now and then, he would slightly twitch his legs.

The musk sac on its abdomen was also exposed to the warm sun, emitting a unique fragrance that attracted insects and ants to crawl over and burrow into the sac on its abdomen.

The more insects and ants it attracted, the more comfortable the musk deer seemed to become, and it spread its belly even wider.

They longed to expose themselves entirely to the sunlight, letting the musk deer pods dry thoroughly, attracting even more insects and ants.

Just then, it suddenly felt an itch all over its body while it was sleeping, and it jolted awake from the grass.

Two small, yellow-skinned beasts were baring their teeth and squealing fiercely at his feet.

Upon seeing that it was a small creature, the musk deer lowered its guard.

He turned his head in bewilderment and saw three other small yellow-skinned beasts frantically biting at the fur on his back and neck.

At first, it only felt itchy and didn't care. It casually shook its body, trying to shake the three naughty little guys off so it could continue sleeping.

Unexpectedly, these three yellow-skinned little beasts were quite difficult to shake off.

The two small beasts on the ground suddenly revealed a ferocity that was completely different from their cute appearance. They leaped up in front of it, one biting the soft skin on its neck and the other biting its chin. They then grabbed its long chin with all four paws and retreated, biting and pulling a wound towards its throat.

That wasn't the end of it; the three little weasels that had been relentlessly biting at its back then finally tore through its skin.

Instantly, a sharp, stabbing pain shot through the body, causing the musk deer to scream and convulse and jump as if it had an epileptic seizure.

This thing can jump really high! It can leap nearly two meters from a standing position, with a series of thuds that startle a large flock of birds on the mountain and cause the trees to rustle.

To Chen Ling, the scene looked like five small, yellow-furred animals, barely bigger than rats, hunting deer, which was somewhat similar to the yellow-throated marten hunting.

However... strictly speaking, it's still a bit lacking.

'This was a sneak attack. If we encounter a herd of deer or monkeys later, we'll try to charge in head-on and see if we can achieve the same effect as the yellow-throated marten, immobilizing its prey.'

Chen Ling was not satisfied with this. He still couldn't forget the scene where the prey, after encountering the yellow-throated marten, obediently stayed in place, as if frozen in place, bewildered and helpless, waiting for death.

It deeply shocked him.

Just then, a 'clunk' was heard, followed by a sob. The musk deer's neck had been bitten by Little Yellow and Little Fatty, leaving it a bloody mess. Its eyes were unfocused, and it staggered to the ground, clearly not going to live.

"Not bad. You completed your first hunt alone, so I'll give you a 90."

Chen Ling then put away his gun, stepped out from behind the tree, and gave his evaluation.

This caused the little creatures, whose mouths were full of blood, to excitedly climb all over him.

Chen Ling didn't mind them at all, and stroked and praised each one of them.

Then they gutted the animals on the spot and distributed the meat to the little ones.

The section on dividing the meat is self-explanatory; it's the same principle as training a hunting dog's hunting instincts.

These little guys are just too lively.

It took him a lot of effort to train a hunting routine.

After feeding them the meat, he stored the musk deer in his cave and continued leading the little ones over the hills, striding forward.

These days, roe deer are quite common in this area.

There have been even more in the last two years.

Due to their living habits, these grass-like animals mostly live on high mountain cliffs, and often only one lives on a mountaintop, making them difficult for hunters to capture.

Unless they come out on their own during the current mating season to accumulate capital for their musk pouches in order to attract mates.

The musk deer's burrows are quite unique; once exposed to the sun, the scent attracts a large number of insects and ants to crawl inside.

Insects and ants could only go in and could not come out, and gradually they were trapped and died inside, which made the musk pod bigger and bigger, and the fragrance more and more abundant.

Besides its fighting ability, this is another important way for male roe deer to attract mates.

Therefore, wild musk deer especially like to bask in the sun on sunny days during their mating season in autumn and winter, while also airing out their fragrant sachets.

It is no coincidence.

After hunting a male musk deer, Chen Ling soon found a female musk deer on a nearby cliff.

Perhaps they were attracted by the musk of the male roe deer.

Its fur is also dark brown, similar in color to the cliffs.

However, the cliff was high and steep. After spotting Chen Ling from afar, it cleverly leaped two or three meters high and landed in the crevice of the cliff, remaining motionless and pretending to be a large rock so that Chen Ling could not see it.

"Interesting. Jumping so high, it's quite similar to a mountain donkey or a Tibetan antelope."

Chen Ling glanced at them with surprise, feeling that these kinds of beasts, which could run swiftly between cliffs, were very attractive, and their meat was also of excellent quality.

For example, the mountain donkey meat was something he craved after just one bite.

……

The sky is clear and bright, and wild geese fly overhead.

Under the high, clear autumn sky, the farmland outside Chenwangzhuang Village has been prepared and cultivated.

After the corn harvest, the stalks were removed, and the fields were tilled and turned over once or twice, making them open and spacious again. With the large cornfields no longer obstructing the view, the scenery of the mountains and forests can be clearly seen.

Monkeys frolic among the swaying branches on the mountain; red-crowned cranes and egrets stroll with their chicks in the ditch at the foot of the mountain; and further away, a large flock of ducks plays on the water.

And in the nearby farmland, there were people leading a large group of snotty-nosed kids to plant national flags.

Besides Li Zhongyi and Chishima Miyoko, who were always trying to show off, the Zhao Yubao family and the Chen Xiaoer family were also among them.

Although Chen Xiaoer was not a talkative person among the villagers.

But his wife is going to work as a teacher in the village alongside Wu Fei and his wife.

Moreover, today is a memorable day, and the whole brigade was filled with excitement after watching the live broadcast on TV.

So I also came out and mingled with the kids to help out.

Rui Rui and Da Xu, the two little babies, also joined in the fun. They didn't know what it meant to plant the red flag, so they just led a bunch of lively puppies around, running around and playing happily.

This attracted Li Zhongyi and Chishima Miyoko to keep glancing at them, as they were looking at the puppies.

After looking around, he couldn't help but ask Zhao Yubao and the other man, hoping they could put in a good word for Chen Ling and buy two puppies to raise.

It wasn't that they particularly liked keeping dogs; it was simply to integrate into the village and complete their mission.

The countryside is different from other places. If you want to live there, whether you are fleeing famine or want to settle down for some other reason, you must get the consent of the majority of people in the village.

It wouldn't be enough for Chen Ling to agree alone, nor would it be enough for Wang Laishun, the Party Secretary, to nod alone.

Zhao Yubao and his group moved in smoothly because their identities as writers and professors made the villagers feel proud to have them stay in the village.

Besides, those two old men have made so many contributions to the village.

Later, they started recruiting people to come and be teachers and such.

Even those in the village who were envious and jealous of Chen Ling's family had nothing to say about Zhao Yubao and the others; they had nothing but deep respect for them.

But the Japanese were different.

Even if someone is very rich, people will still feel resistant towards them.

Realizing this, Li Zhongyi and Chishima Miyoko tried their best to show off in front of the villagers, seizing every opportunity to help.

But in addition to that, the village dogs also need to lower their guard and accept them.

Especially when you look at the two strong, muscular dogs that are following closely behind Rui Rui, those two dogs are even more intimidating than Erhei, who is known as the dog village chief. It's as if the two dogs can see right through you with just one look. It's really stressful.

Faced with such strange and unsettling dogs, they had no choice but to adopt other people's dogs in order to build a relationship and get closer to these dogs.

Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to carry out any action.

"No, there's nothing I can do about it. These puppies weren't decided by Fugui, but by his father-in-law. Fugui's father-in-law likes these little creatures and wants to keep them for now."

Zhao Yubao's excuse, though, isn't really an excuse.

Because of his father and brother, Wang Cunye hated the Japanese devils. It was no wonder he would agree to let them buy a puppy.

A few days ago, before Wang Qingzhong went to the city, he just said that the two little Japanese devils were not from the same generation as the Japanese devils of the past, and that they might not be so bad. Before anything happened, the old man was so angry that he slammed his fist on the table at home and almost threw his shoe at his second son.

Zhao Yubao and the others naturally knew this as well, so they said it that way.

Actually, if those two Japanese devils hadn't been so kind to the children, he wouldn't have bothered with them.

"Huh? Didn't Brother Chen say the time was approaching? He said the puppy was already two months old, and if it was delayed any longer, it would be difficult for it to recognize its owner after three months."

Why keep them at home? This is another huge pack of dogs; will you be able to handle raising them all?
Those newly brought-back horses don't belong to Brother Chen. Even if they did, they wouldn't need so many dogs to expand the breeding operation.

Li Zhongyi was taken aback when he heard this; even ranches didn't keep that many dogs.

Zhao Yubao fell silent immediately, thinking to himself, "They've already said all that, why are you still asking? Don't they know who I am?"

Old Zhong chuckled upon hearing this, turned around and gave the two of them a knowing look, then continued to lead the children to plant red flags everywhere.

Seeing the look in Old Zhong's eyes, Li Zhongyi and Chishima Miyoko looked embarrassed, knowing it was still because of their identities.

This can't be blamed on Chen Ling and the others.

Even now that Hong Kong Island has only recently returned to China, some things will not be easily forgotten.

So Li Zhongyi and his companion exchanged a quick glance, realizing that their efforts were simply insufficient.

So, following Li Zhongyi's experience of living in the rural Northeast, the two of them helped one neighbor carry water one day and another gather firewood the next. When their enthusiasm was high, they even helped some elderly people from other families in the village with hoeing, building walls, and repairing roofs.

Within two days, Chishima Miyoko, this pure Japanese beauty, had tanned two shades darker, and her white dress had been replaced with a country woman's outfit.

There's nothing we can do about it; farm work changes people.

They really went to great lengths to get the village to accept them.

……

Meanwhile, Chen Ling had been in the mountains for two and a half days.

In late autumn, it gets dark very early in the mountains. It gets dark as early as four o'clock, and by six o'clock, it's almost as late as night outside the mountains.

Chen Ling lit a campfire in a cave, with two deer legs sizzling and dripping oil on the fire.

Several small yellow-skinned animals sat obediently around Chen Ling's feet, their eyes fixed on the roasting meat over the fire, constantly licking their lips.

The idea that wild animals don't eat cooked food is a lie.

In Chen Ling's experience, the aroma of fresh cooked food, as well as the stench of rotten cooked food, are extremely attractive to wild animals in the mountains.

Around this time last year, they were exploring the Miasma Valley when their barbecue in the mountains attracted an attack by giant lynxes.

The Xiao Huang and Xiao Pang family went into the mountains with Chen Ling this time. They had a lot of exercise and digested quickly, so they needed to be fed from time to time.

Fortunately, the harvest was plentiful this time, enough to fill their little bellies—that's no big deal.

At the same time, they learned how delicious medium and large prey were in the mountains, and their attitude towards these large prey in the mountains became more positive.

Chen Ling wasn't in a hurry, though, since the little guys hadn't yet produced the spectacular phenomenon of immobilizing their prey like the yellow-throated marten. They were already quite fierce, so he could take it slow.

Even if the yellow-throated marten has unique scent glands, it doesn't matter if the weasels I raise don't have that talent. Their current performance is good enough for me to take them hunting in the future.

"Er Tu Zi hasn't found a partner yet. I'll find a little eagle to train and train to work with you. We'll just play with small hunting birds."

Chen Ling stretched out his finger and scratched the little guys' heads, then took down the roasted deer leg, took out a bamboo plate from the cave, cut some large pieces of meat, and added seasonings.

The rest, bones and all, were thrown to them to eat.

While eating the meat, they also pulled out two black charcoal balls from the edge of the campfire. Peeling off the charred outer shells, they found snow-white steamed buns inside.

Break it open and add the venison leg meat, it's absolutely delicious.

After finishing his meal, Chen Ling had a few more bunches of Dongtian grapes to cleanse his palate, and then he comfortably lay down by the campfire to prepare for sleep.

After the little ones finished eating, they all jumped onto his stomach, huddled together, and fell fast asleep.

I don't know how long I slept, but the campfire had burned out, leaving only a faint glow in the ashes.

Under the cover of night, the weasels began to squeak, their calls filled with ferocity and intimidation, not panic.

Chen Ling suddenly opened his eyes and stepped out of the cave. Outside was a pair of eyes that glowed with a faint green light. When the owner of the eyes saw him come out, he lingered cautiously, not daring to approach any further, yet also reluctant to leave.

"Oh, this is yet another little guest attracted by the barbecue."