Chapter 65 Surely universities don't teach pig slaughtering, right? ...
People in the countryside go to bed early, and most households have already turned off their lights by now.
Upon hearing that a wild boar had run into the village, everyone quickly put on their clothes and ran out to see what was going on.
When Shen Qingqing, Zang Lijun, and Shen Mingjiang arrived, a large crowd had already gathered at Old Zhang's vegetable garden.
Several young men, carrying farm tools, stood at the front of the crowd to prevent the wild boar from suddenly turning around and charging.
Shen Qingqing found a secluded corner, squinted, and looked in the direction people were pointing. In the darkness, there was indeed a blurry, huge shadow, using its long, pointed snout to nudge the bare vegetable patch.
Shen Qingqing was genuinely surprised, and also a little confused.
She wasn't lying, because her hometown is near the mountains, and she always paid close attention to news about wild boars coming down from the mountains. In recent years, due to ecological changes, the reduction of natural predators, and food shortages caused by land development, there have indeed been more and more news reports of wild boars entering human settlements, and some have even run into cities, injuring people and vehicles.
...But she never expected that she could actually summon a wild boar just by casually saying it.
Besides, what Grandpa said was actually right. The area where the Shen family's hometown is located is not a wild boar habitat. The villagers often go up the mountain, but they have rarely seen this creature.
What a coincidence!
That's a good thing, Shen Qingqing thought. If there really are wild boars in the nearby mountains, then when the apocalypse comes, they'll have an extra source of meat.
A large wild boar can weigh four or five hundred pounds, and it's high in calories, but unfortunately, I've heard it doesn't taste very good...
While the onlookers were still worried about the wild boar entering the village, little did they know that the little girl watching was already ruthlessly plotting how to add the big wild boar to her food reserves.
"Hey! Back up a little more, this wild boar is fierce."
"Back off, back off, it's dangerous."
The two young men with pitchforks and hoes were quite pleased with themselves as they directed the group to retreat.
Because they were the only ones present who had "weapons," or perhaps because the villagers inexplicably felt that the young man gave them a sense of security, they all obediently stepped back.
Some elderly people remarked to the young man's parents, "What a reliable young man!"
"Raising a son is precisely for these crucial moments."
The compliments made the group quite pleased, and they readily agreed: "Of course, Hailin has built up a muscular physique from working all the time. That wild boar doesn't look very big. We'll see if we can kill it and have some meat together later."
Someone took the opportunity to touch him, and the young man named Hailin quickly tensed his muscles under his cotton-padded coat.
He readily received a compliment: "Yes, those muscles are quite firm."
"That's great!"
Zang Lijun and Shen Mingjiang listened, growing increasingly silent. The rare liveliness during the Spring Festival was no longer appealing.
But they remained silent. Someone, determined to cause trouble, spotted them and Shen Qingqing and laughed, "Oh, the college student is back!"
When Shen Qingqing's college entrance examination results came out, there were indeed many people in the village who were jealous and envious. But in the face of such a "crisis", boys still had to step up – isn't that where the value of having a son comes in?
Zhao Hailin's parents immediately puffed out their chests and joked, "Qingqing, they probably don't teach pig slaughtering in college, right?"
The people around burst into laughter and glanced at Shen Qingqing out of the corner of their eyes.
Unexpectedly, the other party did not show the embarrassment they expected after being teased by everyone; instead, they laughed out loud because of these words.
—Believe it or not, they actually teach it in universities.
Shen Qingqing couldn't help but laugh for a while before she straightened her face and said seriously, "Aunt Wang, wild boars are protected wild animals with important ecological, scientific and social value. According to the Wildlife Protection Law, it is not allowed to hunt them privately. If caught, you will be sentenced. We should call the forestry department as soon as possible and ask them to send professionals to handle it."
As she spoke, she glanced again at the pitchfork in Zhao Hailin's hand.
This thing looks intimidating and is good for making a show of things, but the handle is made of wood. How could it possibly withstand a deadly charge from a wild boar at 40 kilometers per hour?
Let alone a head-on confrontation, it would be quite an achievement for Zhao Hailin to not be so frightened as to run away on the spot when a wild boar charges at him head-on.
You want to kill a wild boar? Are you kidding me?
Although Shen Qingqing's hometown village is not far from the mountains, the villagers are all farmers who have been farming for generations. When they occasionally go up the mountain, they only stay at the foot of the mountain, and very few people are aware of the danger posed by wild boars.
If a jackal, tiger, leopard, or bear were to enter the village, everyone would probably run away on the spot. But when they encounter a wild boar, they dare to stand far away and watch the show, even though the wild boar is almost unbeatable in a one-on-one fight with a wolf.
Shen Qingqing sighed inwardly.
Her words did startle some people, but others remained skeptical: "Really? A pig has become a protected animal?"
"But Qingqing is a top student, so what she says shouldn't be wrong..."
"Why call the police? If we can't kill it, we can just let Hailin and the others drive it out of the village. It's too much trouble late at night."
Zhao Hailin felt that Shen Qingqing had suddenly taken over the conversation. He frowned unhappily and looked at the thin, girl-next-door type, saying, "Yes, Qingqing, you should all step back. Leave this to us."
Shen Qingqing raised an eyebrow and said with concern, "Okay, Hailin, but be careful too, don't get hit by a wild boar and break your bones."
What does that say? It puts his muscular physique, which the villagers have just verified, in the open!
Zhao Hailin didn't take it seriously: "I'm not you, I'm just a pig..."
He turned around with a relaxed expression, and suddenly his eyes met those of a wild boar in the distance. He couldn't help but exclaim, "Hey, it's looking this way."
Shen Qingqing inwardly cried out in alarm.
Without thinking, she grabbed Zang Lijun and ran, then urgently called to Shen Mingjiang to follow: "Run!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the wild boar and the stunned Zhao Hailin locked eyes for two seconds. Suddenly, the boar pawed the ground twice with its front hooves, buried its head, and charged forward with its tusks bared.
This charge unleashed the speed of a giant cannonball. Everyone only felt a dark flash of lightning streak across the night, and the next second they were upon each other!
Upon closer inspection, Zhao Hailin realized that the wild boar was much larger than he had imagined. Its sharp tusks made his heart skip a beat, and fear quickly spread through him. His hand holding the steel fork trembled violently, and he couldn't even grip the wooden handle.
In the blink of an eye, the enormous creature traversed the distance of a field, reached the edge of the field, and without stopping, leaped upwards, jumping two or three meters high.
It's unbelievable that this clumsy animal can jump so high—it could easily jump over the fence of a farmhouse.
Fortunately, the running wild boar was not good at turning, and the people standing in a straight line distance away screamed and ran away. It only cared about charging forward and crashed straight into a tree as thick as a bowl.
The tree trunk was already partially rotten, and when it was suddenly struck by a huge force, it cracked open from the middle with a snap and collapsed with a roar.
The wild boar was also dizzy from the impact, stopped temporarily, and shook its head groggily.
Seeing the ferocious beast so close at hand, Zhao Hailin could no longer contain his terror. His calves trembled as he took two steps back, then suddenly said, "I'm going to call the police," and ran towards his home without looking back, carrying the steel fork.
The way they fled was incredibly agile.
In the blink of an eye, they left a group of elderly people with mobility issues behind.
Shen Qingqing, who was also with Zang Lijun, ran fast, but she couldn't keep up with the young man's sprinting speed. She couldn't help but sigh, "So it turns out that Brother Hailin's muscles are for running away."
The Zhao couple, who were just praising their son's success, were speechless.
Zang Lijun patted her daughter's hand: "Stop being sarcastic at a time like this, run!"
It turned out that Shen Qingqing would never make such jokes when she was at home. Zang Lijun felt that her daughter's personality was more cheerful than before since she came back, which made her happy.
But we should wait until the wild boar problem is solved before we can be happy.
Who knew that thing would be so terrifying up close, and so destructive, like a car that was rampaging around!
Zang Lijun truly regretted bringing her daughter to see the spectacle.
Seeing that the wild boar had been hit, it became enraged and, after recovering, charged at the nearest house's wall, smashing it with a loud bang. The people inside screamed, and Shen Qingqing heard that some of the people around her were so frightened that they started to cry.
"Help! Help!"
This small group of people were all fleeing in the same direction as Zhao Hailin. It was all Zhao Hailin's fault for attracting the wild boar's attention first, and for making too much noise while fleeing, causing the wild boar to ignore the people in the other direction and instead catch up with them.
With no village or shop in sight, the surrounding residents were frightened and locked their gates tightly. Unable to find a place to hide and too afraid to stop, they could only run forward headlong.
Even Zhao Hailin's parents harbored resentment towards their son.
There were too many people in the village, and screams echoed from one side to the other, driving the wild boar into a frenzy. It showed no sign of stopping. Seeing that things were not going well, Shen Qingqing decisively let go of Zang Lijun: "Mom, Dad, you go first."
After she finished speaking, she noticed an axe left behind by someone else while chopping wood on a woodpile in the corner of the wall. She picked it up and weighed it in her hand.
Zang Lijun and Shen Mingjiang came to an abrupt stop. Shen Mingjiang, who had been silent for a while, couldn't help but ask, "Qingqing, what are you trying to do?!"
After he finished speaking, he tried to pull his daughter, but he couldn't budge her.
"Dad, don't worry about me. I'll try to distract the wild boar. You guys find a place to hide." Shen Qingqing didn't want to explain. She looked at the axe in the light from the doorway and found that it wasn't very sharp anymore, so she had to put it down regretfully.
Let's think of another way.
Shen Mingjiang couldn't understand what his daughter was doing. He felt that the way she looked at the axe was not like she was looking at a familiar farm tool, but more like she was examining whether the weapon was suitable for her.
His calm gaze was strangely unfamiliar.
Zang Lijun, enraged, exclaimed, "Are you crazy? Come home with me!"
After saying that, she wanted to go behind her daughter to help cover her, but Shen Qingqing pushed her away: "I'm really fine, Mom, don't you believe me?"
Shen Qingqing wasn't a talkative person, and she didn't want to waste her breath proving herself to her parents. After saying that, she ran towards the wild boar, putting her thumb and forefinger in her mouth and letting out a melodious whistle.
Attracted by the whistle, the wild boar turned toward her, panting, and the fleeing people couldn't help but stop in their tracks.
Seeing Shen Qingqing running towards the wild boar, they clutched their chests, exchanging shocked glances.
"Has she gone mad?"
"Going out to study has ruined your brain!"
"But she's buying us time to escape..."
Shen Qingqing stopped after running for a while. She had no advantage in fighting wild boars head-on, and she wasn't going to be foolish. She ran in the opposite direction just to distance herself from her parents.
Once she had created enough distance, she slowed down, observing the wild boar while analyzing the situation with remarkable composure.
Wild boars are dangerous, but they are still animals and are far less dangerous than giant zombies.
Shen Qingqing had once dealt with a giant zombie on her own for about ten minutes in a simulation pod, so she wasn't afraid of facing a wild boar alone.
Moreover, this is the village where she grew up, and every blade of grass and every tree is etched in her heart. For Shen Qingqing, this is far more advantageous than fighting in the simulation pod.
She felt most at home here.
Wild animals have the keenest instincts. After a brief standoff with Shen Qingqing, the wild boar realized that she wasn't nervous at all and actually became wary. It didn't take any action for a short time, but instead kept snorting, showing its agitated nature.
The whispers gradually subsided.
They looked at Shen Qingqing in disbelief.
Despite being just a young girl, her composure in the face of wild beasts made even the neighbors who had watched her grow up feel ashamed.
That girl who never smiled and only knew how to bury herself in her books had this side to her.
So... she wasn't lying, she really does have the ability to lure the wild boar away?!
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