It's not a big deal. If it were a major issue that affected the whole family, my grandfather would probably have used a more roundabout method.
The snow this year was really light; there was almost no snow in the mountains, making the roads easy to walk on. However, there were very few small animals outside, and the two of them walked for a long time without encountering any prey.
Qian Xiao frowned: "It's a bit strange. We usually encounter some small animals when we come here. Is it unusually quiet today?"
Sun Kaicheng raised his hand to signal Qian Xiao to be quiet. He released his mental energy to scan the surroundings. It was too quiet here. Perhaps he had been back for too long and seemed to have forgotten the vigilance he had in the apocalypse.
After a moment, Sun Kaicheng looked at Qian Xiao and asked, "Are there many people in the village who know how to hunt?"
"It's alright. There used to be a lot of people going up the mountain to hunt, but there have been far fewer in recent years. Going into the mountains is still too dangerous. What? Did you discover something?" Her mental energy couldn't be projected outwards to observe her surroundings.
"We found quite a few wild boars; it must be a large herd. The two of us are definitely not enough. We need to go back and find someone. If we leave them alone, they might end up falling down the mountain."
Approximately how many?
It's not that there haven't been instances of wild animals coming down from the mountains in winter in their village, but it's not common. The mountains are rich in resources, so these animals don't lack food and rarely come down to harm the villagers.
"Looking at this number, there are at least twenty or thirty of them, and further away there's a pack of wolves. Did you have wolves around here before?"
Qian shook his head with a smile: "I've never actually seen a wolf since I was born, but I can occasionally hear wolves howling at night. However, they are always far away. My grandparents said they live deep in the mountains. No wolves have ever come to our village."
"The wolf pack is small, and they won't be coming down anytime soon."
Qian Xiao frowned. The appearance of the wolf pack on this mountain was not a good sign, but that wasn't the main concern. The wild boar herd was a bigger problem. She knew of no more than five families in the village with hunting rifles. How could they possibly handle so many wild boars?
"Let's go down the mountain first. Remember the location and have Shuangdan draw a map. Then we'll lead the people up the mountain to find those wild boars."
Shuangdan said they hadn't found it yet, which meant the wild boar was quite far away from them, but she didn't know the exact location, so this was the only way to determine the location.
Sun Kaicheng nodded. He had no intention of showing off. This was no longer the apocalypse where strength was paramount. If two teenagers killed so many wild boars, no one would think they were amazing.
People will just whisper that they are monsters. Reputation is still very important in this era. He is better off because he won't be living here for long. But it's different for Erdan. His whole family lives here. We can't let Erdan be the subject of bad rumors.
"Host, I've drawn the route for you. See if you can understand it." Based on Sun Kaicheng's description, Shuangdan roughly drew a topographical map.
Qian Xiao looked down at the hidden virtual screen, combining it with his knowledge of the back mountain: "I know the general area now. There weren't any wild boars there before, so this is probably a herd of wild boars that just migrated here."
"You know this place?"
Qian Xiao nodded: "I used to go there. It's relatively safe there. No large wild animals have ever appeared there."
“I’ll lead the way with you in a bit,” Sun Kaicheng said, still a little worried about Erdan’s safety. After all, Erdan was different from him; although he had hunted, he had never actually seen bloodshed.
"Okay, do you want to tell Grandpa Zhou and the others?"
His grandparents would also worry, but since they knew their own situation, they weren't too nervous. However, they couldn't just let Sun Kaicheng, a boy who grew up in the city, go on an adventure without saying a word.
"I'll go back and tell them in a bit."
The two walked quickly down the mountain. When they reached the village, they parted ways: "You go back first. I'll say hello to my grandpa and then come to your house to find you."
"You should go directly to my great-uncle's house, which is the village chief's house. I guess we'll discuss the follow-up matters there."
"OK"
When Qian Xiao got home, she went to her grandfather and said, "Grandpa, Grandpa, I have something to tell you."
"What's wrong? Why are you in such a hurry? Didn't you go to the mountain to play with the Zhou family's little grandson?"
"Grandpa, we found a herd of wild boars on the mountain. We wanted to come back and tell the villagers as soon as possible. If so many wild boars come down the mountain, our village will be in big trouble."
Modern houses can't withstand the onslaught of wild boars. If they were to come down from the mountain, countless people would lose their homes, mainly because there are just too many of them.
Old Man Qian sat up abruptly: "What did you say? A herd of wild boars?" There were at least seven or eight wild boars that could be called a herd of wild boars.
He grabbed his granddaughter and spun her around to check on her: "Are you hurt? You can't go up that mountain anymore. Those wild boars are really fierce. If there are too many, even tigers won't dare to mess with you."
"No, they saw us from afar and rushed back. We were worried that those things might come down since we're not far from the village, so we thought we'd ask you what to do. Should we organize the villagers to go up the mountain and kill those wild boars first?"
Old Man Qian got out of bed and put on his shoes: "Come on, come with me to your great-uncle's house, we'll talk about it then."
"Old woman, I'm taking Erdan to my cousin's house."
Grandma Qian came out of the kitchen: "It's almost time to eat, why are you going to visit someone at this hour?"
"Something came up. You guys eat first after the meal is ready."
"You old rascal, you're such a busybody," Grandma Qian muttered a few words before going back to the kitchen to work. There were so many things to prepare for the New Year, and she didn't have time to get angry with the old man.
As long as the twenty yuan wasn't mentioned, the old lady could still speak to the old man calmly.
Upon hearing Erdan's words, Qian Baozhu nearly dropped his pipe: "What did you say? A herd of wild boars? Twenty or thirty of them? Really?"
Qian Xiao wanted to roll his eyes: "Grandpa, would I joke about this with you? When Sun Kaicheng comes later, you can ask him. We saw it together. We just peeked at it and then rushed down the mountain to report to you."
"If those wild boars come down from the mountain, our village will suffer."
"Oh dear, it's not that your great-uncle doesn't believe you, it's just that we've never seen more than three wild boars together here before. I'm just too surprised. You two are too daring. What are you doing going up the mountain in the dead of winter?"
"I was just thinking of getting some rabbits and pheasants to satisfy my cravings, but who would have thought I'd run into that big guy? I even heard a wolf howling, though I don't know where it was. But the sound was different from what I'd heard from afar before. I suspect it might be in the back of the mountain too."
This time, Qian Baozhu's pipe fell to the ground without incident. Good heavens, there were already so many wild boars, and if there were wolves on top of that, how could anyone live like this?
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