Chapter 560 Chapter 561: Wild Animals Come Down the Mountain
Zhou Huaian smiled and nodded, happily went to the backyard to turn on the faucet, washed up in a few seconds and returned to the room.
Yang Chunyan heard the door open, put down the book in her hand, and saw him coming in with a flashlight, "Is the bridal chamber lively?"
"It's lively!" Zhou Huaian wiped his feet with a towel, "... in a few days it will be Erchun's turn."
Yang Chunyan nodded and asked, "Tomorrow morning, will you deliver the food to Ning'an or will Third Brother go?"
"Third brother, go! Third sister-in-law is alone over there, he's still a little worried." Zhou Huaian got on the bed and looked at his sleeping son, then raised his head and saw the book beside the pillow, "Read less during the confinement period, or your eyes will hurt in the future."
"Yeah!" Yang Chunyan put the book on the stool beside the bed and lay down to sleep.
In the middle of the night, she suddenly heard the dog barking non-stop, and hurriedly patted Zhou Huaian, "Hurry up and see if there is anyone outside?"
"I woke up too, and just remembered to come and take a look!" Zhou Huaian turned over and got up, took the flashlight and put on his coat, opened the door, and Zhou's mother came out from the opposite side.
"The dog is barking from the front yard to the back yard. Grandpa has already gone to the back yard. Go check it out."
"Oh!" Zhou Huaian went to the backyard with a flashlight and saw the old man standing at the backyard door, leaning over the door with a small window to look out. Lai Fu and Wangcai saw him coming and continued to bark at the back mountain.
It seems that wild animals have come down the mountain, otherwise the dog would not bark so fiercely.
"Grandpa, what's that?"
The old man turned around and said, "It was too dark to see clearly, but I saw a dark shadow running past."
Zhou Huaian hurriedly said, "Don't open the door and go out. I'll go back and get the gun. Open the door and take a look."
The old man waved his hand and said, "Stop talking nonsense. Go and take it out to check. Don't let wild animals destroy the herbs in the medicine field."
People who live at the foot of the mountain know that even if they hear a noise in the middle of the night, they should not go out casually, otherwise they will be in trouble if they encounter a wild animal.
Zhou Huaian walked to the corner, and Zhou's mother and Yang Chunyan also came out, "Youngest, is that thief here?"
"No, you guys hurry back, I'll go get the gun and go out to take a look."
"I've got the gun." Yang Chunyan handed him the gun. "Don't go out. Just look at the stairs."
"You stay here and don't go over." Zhou Huaian warned and walked over with his gun. The old man pulled open the bolt and the dog quickly ran out to the mountain, sniffing non-stop.
The old man was holding a flashlight that used three batteries. The light could reach quite far. The grandfather and his wife went up the mountain and looked around. "We didn't see anything. The dog stopped barking. The wild animals must have come up the mountain."
"I'll go see if any of the fences are damaged." Zhou Huaian strode over with his gun in hand and saw that the fences near the yard were all intact and not damaged.
The dog sniffed around, ran back and stood beside Zhou Huaian, looking at the dark forest.
The old man heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that the herbs in the medicine field were in good condition. "Go back to sleep first, and come out to take a closer look at it in the morning."
"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian patted the dog, "Be good, I'll cook some big bones for you guys tomorrow morning."
"Woof woof!" The dog wagged its tail happily and escorted its master back to the yard.
Zhou Huaian closed the gate and asked, "Grandpa, what kind of shadow did you see?"
The old man said: "I opened the small window and leaned forward and saw a dark thing running past. When I shone the flashlight over there, I saw nothing!"
Yang Chunyan recalled that in her previous life, when she lived at the foot of a mountain, a mountain cat came down the mountain to steal chickens from the village chicken farm. "Grandpa, do you think it could be a mountain cat?"
The old man nodded, "It's possible, only mountain cats can run that fast!"
Zhou Huaian yawned, "It was just a false alarm. I thought there were cattle thieves again!"
Zhou's mother rolled her eyes at him and said, "We don't raise any cattle, so where did this cattle thief come from?"
Several people went back to their rooms to rest. Yang Chunyan slept too much during the day, so she got up and walked around to feel more awake. She lay in bed and counted sheep for a long time before falling asleep.
The next morning, Zhou Huaian and the old man went to check in front of and behind the house. After finding nothing, they went for a walk in the medicinal field. When they reached the forest on the mountain, they found a few tufts of bloody chicken feathers.
After seeing this, the old man said, "That thing last night was either a weasel or a mountain cat. Let's go down the mountain and see if the chickens in the chicken coop have been stolen."
Zhou Huaian nodded, and the two of them went down the mountain together to open the chicken coop and see that there was not a single chicken missing. "Let's go ask my brother later!"
The old man couldn't wait any longer, "I'll let the chickens out to feed, you go and check it out."
Zhou Huaian went to Zhou Huaishan's house first. Zhou's mother, who had come early to accompany the two children, said that the chickens at home were all fine, and asked him to go to the eldest and second son's homes to check.
When he came out of Zhou Huaishan's house, he saw Lin Wu's wife cursing at the door. He walked over and listened carefully, only to find out that two of his chickens had been taken away and there was a dead chicken in the chicken coop.
"Sister Ma, a mountain cat came down the mountain last night. You'd better lock all the chickens in the house tonight to prevent them from being stolen again!"
Ma Chunhua looked at him in surprise, "Really?"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "That should be the case. My dog woke us up at around 2 o'clock last night. My grandfather saw a shadow running over, and it was probably at that time that he ran to your side."
Ma Chunhua believed what he said with all his details. "I know this thing. If it steals once, it will come back again. I have to get a mousetrap."
Zhou Huaian laughed and said, "What's the use of a mousetrap? You can ask Lao Xiazi to make an animal trap for the chicken coop."
He felt that the bobcat last night had set its sights on his chickens, but Lai Fu and Wang Cai screamed too loudly, and his grandfather came out in time, which scared it away.
Chickens are naturally nocturnal, so they can’t see when it gets dark, and have nowhere to escape if attacked by wild animals! Fortunately, the chicken coop at home is made of bricks, so even if a bobcat gets into the alley, it can’t steal Chunyan’s food.
Just then Ye Laoyao came out from the yard and said, "Two of my chickens were stolen last night, and one was bitten to death. Luckily I got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and scared it away, otherwise all my chickens would be gone."
Ma Chunhua complained after hearing this: "Ye Laoyao, why didn't you yell? My two laying hens were stolen and one was bitten to death. What a pity!"
Before Ye Laoyao could answer, Li Chuntao responded angrily, "My youngest didn't know it was going to your house, and my chicken was bitten to death! It's a pity for your family, but not for mine, right?"
When Zhou Huaian saw her come out, he turned and left.
"You..." Ma Chunhua glanced at her, patted the non-existent dust on her body, and said sarcastically, "It's a pity, another egg will be lost!"
After she said that, she didn't even look at Ye Laoyao and the other two, she walked into the yard and closed the door with a bang.
Ye Laoyao looked at Li Chuntao with disapproval, "You! We are neighbors, why do you have to say that! Also, our chickens were just taken away by a bobcat, why did Sister Ma say that we will have one less egg in the future?"
"How should I know? Go ask her next door!" Li Chuntao turned around and went back to the house.
Zhou Huaian listened and felt a little strange, "The egg that the White Bone Demon took couldn't be from my third brother, right? It shouldn't be, my third brother wouldn't lie to me! Oh! It should be the youngest bear bastard!"
When he got home, the old man learned that the chickens of the Lin and Ye families had been stolen by a mountain cat. He said in fear: "Fortunately, that thing didn't come in last night. Lai Fu and Wang Cai combined are no match for it!"
The bobcat, also known as the leopard cat, is similar in size and appearance to a domestic cat. It looks like a leopard, with a round head and a long tail, and irregular black stripes and spots from the head to the back.
Zhou Huaian comforted him, "Don't worry, I'll go find Lao Xiazi and buy a few traps to put at the backyard door. I'll be there just in time to skin the bobcat!"
When Yang Chunyan heard him say that he was going to find a trap to catch a bobcat, she remembered that a chicken farm in the village used traps to catch bobcats and almost injured someone without catching any.
Later, they imitated a mousetrap and used a small iron cage. They tied a chicken inside it and had a rope connected to the chicken at the exit of the cage. As long as the chicken was moved, the cage door would automatically close, and the bobcat was finally caught.
Then I thought again, where can I find something to weld an iron cage these days? I can only try using the animal trap first, and if that doesn't work, I can think of a way to make a cage to catch the prey.
Zhou Huaian fulfilled his promise and cooked two large bones with meat for the dogs as a reward.
After dinner, he said hello to Yang Chunyan, rode his bike to the village to find Lao Xiazi, bought three animal traps and walked back. As soon as he left Lao Xiazi's house, he saw Xu Hongbing, who was walking home with his face swollen like a bloated steamed bun.
"Oh my! Even if I take the Ten-Herbs Tonic Pill, it won't have such a good effect, right?"
"Stop talking!" Xu Hongbing looked at him with a bitter face. "Yesterday afternoon, I went to the mountain behind my house to pick pumpkin flowers and was stung by a wild bee. It seems there is a nest of wild bees in the cracks of the rocks. I wanted you to go and have a look!"
"That's fine. It's been very comfortable collecting nectar during this period!" Zhou Huaian glanced at the back seat of the bicycle, "I'll take you to my house to apply some medicine?"
"No need, I have all the medicines you have!" Xu Hongbing's face was swollen, and his smile was uglier than crying. "Go back and get your things, I'll wait for you at my house!"
"Okay!" When Zhou Huaian heard that there was a wild beehive, he pedaled his bicycle as fast as the wind, went straight to the backyard to get his belongings, greeted Yang Chunyan in a loud voice, and rode away again.
Yang Chunyan came out of the house without even seeing anyone. She turned to Yang Xiaoxue and said, "Look at him. He runs faster than anyone else when it comes to finding a beehive!"
"Zhiqiang doesn't dare to go looking for wild beehives. He said that he was stung by a wild bee when he was a child and his head was swollen."
Yang Xiaoxue is due to give birth in two months. This time she came to Yang Chunyan's house to ask her why the Polygonatum sibiricum seeds she sowed last year did not germinate?
Only after coming here did I realize that after sowing, Polygonatum sibiricum seeds will remain dormant for a year and will only sprout in the second year.
Zhou Huaian and Xu Hongbing went up the mountain and laughed when they saw the papaya tree. "Last year, Ding Ding Cat and I stole papayas from your house and were chased away by your mother."
"It's you who are responsible for all this trouble!" Xu Hongbing said with a smile, "There are still a few ripe ones on it. I'll pick them later and you can take them back to make pork rib soup for your Chunyan!"
"That's great!" Zhou Huaian looked around, "Where is the beehive?"
"Come with me!" Xu Hongbing led him down the mountain along the path. They saw pumpkin vines growing everywhere on the road, and there were several industrious little bees on each pumpkin flower.
(End of this chapter)
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