Chapter 114: Zhang Zhao's Opportunity
The commotion in the yard woke up Big Black.
Big Black wagged its tail and ran out with Little Black, then came running back, dug around in the ground, and pulled out a dirty piece of rabbit meat.
Cheng Wanwan: "..."
This looks like the meat that Si Dan dropped on the ground during dinner. He was about to pick it up, wash it, and eat it, but when he bent down, it disappeared. It turned out that Da Hei had carried it away.
That dog, Big Black, is really patient. He can hide the meat and not eat it, but now he's so generous as to take the meat out and hand it to the mother wolf.
When the mother wolf first saw Big Black, she crouched down to attack, but was stopped by Little Black. The wolves whimpered incessantly, seemingly communicating with each other.
After a while, Big Black successfully blended into the wolf pack, and the mother wolf even gave Big Black a bath with her tongue.
The mother wolf swallowed the piece of meat whole, then looked up and stared at Cheng Wanwan.
Cheng Wanwan understood that look all too well; it was the same look Si Dan gave her when he was starving.
Alright, the rabbit meat at home was originally delivered by these wolves, so it's not unreasonable to give it back to them.
Cheng Wanwan took down the two rabbits hanging under the eaves and threw them out. Several wolves sniffed them, kicked them aside in disgust, and continued to stare at her.
Big Black rushed in, biting Cheng Wanwan's skirt as it led her into the kitchen.
She finally understood that these wolves wanted cooked food.
There was still half a chicken in the kitchen, which was saved for Wu Huiniang to drink tomorrow.
But the chicken was brought by the wolves. If the wolves wanted to eat it, could she refuse?
Cheng Wanwan reluctantly scooped out half a chicken and threw it over the courtyard wall. The mother wolf held the chicken down with her front paws, bit off a piece of meat and placed it in front of Xiao Hei, then bit off another piece for Da Hei. Then the four wolves swallowed the chicken whole.
The four wolves were drooling, clearly they hadn't had enough to eat.
Cheng Wanwan chuckled: "It's all gone, not a single piece of meat left."
The four wolves licked the two cubs repeatedly before reluctantly leaving.
The two little creatures returned to the yard, dragging back the two dried rabbits as well, and kept cuddling with Cheng Wanwan.
She picked up Xiao Hei with a slight headache: "Next time, tell your mother not to come and scare people late at night again. It's giving me a heart attack."
"Waaaaah..."
Little Black licked her fingers and rubbed its head against her palm.
The next morning, while Cheng Wanwan was still in bed, Zhao Dashan's voice rang out in the yard: "Mom, there are so many pheasants at the gate, seven or eight pheasants. They must have been brought here by that pack of wolves again..."
Cheng Wanwan jumped out of bed and went to the gate of the courtyard. Seven or eight pheasants had their throats bitten and were covered in blood.
She pressed her temples, feeling a bit of a headache. She had a feeling that these seven or eight pheasants were a midnight snack prepared by wolves for themselves.
She had a premonition that the four wolves would come again tonight.
What else can we do? Let's start simmering the chicken soup first. There are four wolves, one wolf and one chicken. Give one to Hui Niang, and we can keep three to hang under the eaves.
The courtyard became bustling with activity.
In the morning, Zhao Ergou and Zhao Sanniu went to deliver goods, Zhao Dashan went to the fields to pull weeds and fertilize, and Zhao Sidan went to the mountains to dig wild vegetables to feed the chickens and ducks. All the household chores were left to Cheng Wanwan and Wu Huiniang.
After Cheng Wanwan finished disinfecting and cleaning the chicken coop and duck shed, she went to the village head's house.
The adults in the village head's family had all gone to the fields. The ducks in the yard were quacking. The village head's wife was chopping wild vegetables to feed the ducklings.
Seeing Cheng Wanwan come in, the village head's wife beamed with joy: "Auntie Dashan, what brings you here?"
Cheng Wanwan smiled and said, "I've come to see Uncle Village Head about something. Is Uncle Village Head here?"
"Your uncle, the village chief, was invited over by the people of Lijiagou early this morning," the village chief's wife said with a smile. "Somehow the news of our village's locust eradication efforts got to Lijiagou. When the village chief heard that there were no locusts in our rice fields, he wanted to ask your uncle if there was any solution. Your uncle, the village chief, is kind-hearted and went with Lantana."
Cheng Wanwan nodded.
The locust plague is not a small-scale issue. It usually affects a county or even a province. In the most serious cases, it can affect half of the country. It is useless to eliminate them here. There will be locusts flying over from other villages. Only when everyone works together can the losses in the rice fields be truly controlled to the minimum.
As she was thinking, the village head's curses rang out behind her.
"Those people from Lijia Gou are so unreasonable." The village head walked in with his hands behind his back, his beard bristling with anger. After gulping down a cup of water, he said, "I know Li Jia Gou quite well. I kindly told him how to get rid of locusts, but he didn't hear anything else. All he heard was that Artemisia argyi could drive away locusts. There's a lot of Artemisia argyi in their village, and it's grown wildly. Someone tried it on the spot, and sure enough, the locusts buzzing around in the fields were driven away."
The village head's wife said, puzzled, "It's a good thing that they can drive away the locusts..."
"What a rotten good thing!" The village head slammed the table. "Next to Lijiagou is Wangjiatun, and all the locusts flew to Wangjiatun. People from there almost got into a fight with Lijiagou, and Wangjiatun also started using mugwort fumigation. The locusts from the two villages then flew to the nearest village... Mugwort can only drive away locusts. Locusts are always flying around in our villages, destroying our crops. We can obviously kill them, so why drive them to other villages?"
The headman's wife understood what was going on. As a woman, she had limited vision, and the first thing she thought of was whether these locusts would fly to Dahe Village. They had finally controlled the locusts, and if so many more flew over from other villages, all the villagers' efforts would have been in vain.
"I'm so angry!"
Li Zhengqi paced back and forth, his face full of worry.
Cheng Wanwan said slowly, "Uncle Village Head, it seems we have no choice but to go to the County Magistrate."
The village head's eyes lit up: "Yes, go find the county magistrate. There's no way the county magistrate will ignore this matter. I'll go now."
"Take Cheng Zhao with you," Cheng Wanwan continued. "Cheng Zhao has recorded the effects and usage of Lantana. He's written down every detail of the locust control efforts in Dahe Village these past few days. The county magistrate will understand immediately."
The village head nodded vigorously: "Cheng Zhao is a scholar. He speaks logically and the county magistrate will believe whatever he says. Let him come with me."
Cheng Wanwan went back and asked Cheng Zhao to change clothes and follow the village head to Ping'an Town.
Cheng Zhao took out the stack of papers he had written down and was about to leave when Cheng Wanwan reminded him, "This is an opportunity, you should seize it."
Cheng Zhao was stunned.
He finally understood why his second aunt had asked him to record the entire locust eradication process and write it down word by word on paper for future reference.
He thought that his second aunt wrote it down so that he could read it to other people in the village, or save it to use the same method to kill locusts next year.
It turned out that it was to pave the way for him.
Last year there was a locust plague, and the fields yielded no harvest. If another locust plague comes this year, I wonder how many people will be displaced.
Dealing with the locusts would be a great merit... This was indeed his best chance at the moment.
It was clearly the idea of the second aunt, but she pushed the blame on him.
"Second Aunt, I can't go!" Cheng Zhao said firmly. "I know Er Gou wants to do business in the future. Let him get to know the county magistrate better so it will be easier for him to do business in town later."
"Just go when I tell you to. Why are you talking so much nonsense, kid?" Cheng Wanwan said with a deliberately stern face. "Whether the county magistrate is willing to help you depends on your ability. Alright, hurry up and go before you delay important matters."
She pushed Cheng Zhao out.
Cheng Zhao's face was full of complex emotions, and a glint of light flickered in the depths of his eyes.
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