Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year, a rare day when married daughters can openly return home, but Li Zhen has not come back.
Zhao Fang comforted her, "Sister-in-law, don't worry. Perhaps the snow is too heavy and the two children are slow on the way."
Wang Li had no choice but to go home and wait. By the afternoon, there was still no sign of him. So she brought Daya back to the Lu family and held Zhao Fang's hand, saying, "Sister, please look after Daya for me again. I'm going to check on my son-in-law."
"No." Zhao Fang dared not let him go now. He was almost fifty years old and his legs were slow. Who knew what kind of accident might happen if he went to the county town in the freezing cold? "Winter days are short, and it's getting dark now. Go tomorrow, early tomorrow morning. I think your son-in-law is capable, and the county town is peaceful. Something must have delayed him. Don't worry."
Married daughters rarely stay overnight at their parents' home, but the Lu family was harassed by wild boars every night, so Li Changpu wasn't in a hurry to bring his wife home and stayed at the Lu family's house instead.
In the afternoon, I also took the wild boar I caught last night to the village to sell.
Sitting in the kitchen for dinner, Lu Yunxing sipped his meat soup and said, “Look at the way those people looked at us today. Last night, when they heard the noise, they all stayed in their homes and didn’t move. Today, they’re all envious when they see us selling wild boar meat.”
Li Changpu was also a little annoyed. "It's far from the village, but with such a commotion, and the dogs barking like crazy, I don't believe they really couldn't hear a thing."
Lu Yan huffed, "Hmph, let them hide. Look what they did to the fields at the foot of the mountain last night. Who knows if they'll come straight into the village in a couple of days?"
"There's not much winter wheat to eat in the fields, but there are plenty of vegetable gardens in the village. Who knows if wild boars will follow the scent and find their way to the village tonight?"
Qin Xiaozhou didn't believe that the villagers hadn't heard anything. The village chief's house was in the middle of the village on the east side of the river. The village chief was sick, and three men had gone to Linshui County, leaving the village unattended. Wang Li was trying his best to organize the villagers to guard the village, but the other villagers obviously didn't care and stayed away. Even those who had agreed to guard the village were hiding and not showing up.
Wang Lan sighed. The commotion last night was so loud that she tossed and turned all night, even hearing wild boars running around the corner of the yard. "How are our chickens, ducks, and geese? How many are left?"
Lu Yunxing had been taking care of the orchard for quite some time. He watched the chickens and ducks grow up before taking them to the county town to sell. He also had played with the rabbits countless times with Xiao Si. Now that the wild boars had come, the chicken coop had been destroyed, and most of the chickens, ducks, and rabbits had died. "It's cold now, so the meat will keep. We'll send the dead chickens and ducks to the county town after the snow stops in a couple of days and make soup to give to the refugees."
“Okay.” Lu Yunfeng put steamed pork in Qin Xiaozhou’s bowl. She looked at it for a second and the dish appeared in her bowl. “I’ll go and dig the traps we dug before tomorrow. Every little bit helps.”
Those traps were dug in the spring, almost a year ago, I wonder how they are now.
With wild boars rampant and the villagers doing nothing, the Lu family had to find a solution themselves. Qin Xiaozhou said, "It's alright, we can just keep our doors closed. In less than three days, the village won't be able to sit still."
The Lu family has the ability to organize a hunting team without any problem, but neither Qin Xiaozhou nor Shen Zexing are satisfied with the indifference of those people and do not want to be taken advantage of.
"Okay, we'll wait." Zhao Fang was also disheartened. She had already spoken to Wang Li about the situation, but he still hadn't shown up last night.
Lu Yunfeng took out a bow and arrow. "This is my grandfather's treasure. There are only eight arrows. He used to cherish every single one and was reluctant to use them. When he taught me, he used a bow and arrows made of bamboo and never touched this."
Lu Yunfeng, drawing his bow and string, looked like an invincible general. Qin Xiaozhou watched him intently. "You want to hunt with a bow and arrow?"
"Hmm." The taut string released with a soft twang. "The prey has already come to our house. Now is the time to use it. I've also prepared long bamboo sticks. We can attack wild boars from the yard wall. Don't worry."
With food in the fields, wild boars came one after another. The Lu family sold wild boar meat every day, while the villagers could only watch their fields being ravaged day by day. Finally, someone couldn't sit still any longer. "Let's join forces and go hunting. Look, it's still the New Year holiday. If we catch two, it'll be enough for ten families to have a good and bountiful New Year. The meat will be delivered to our doorstep. We can just hide and watch the Lu family eat big chunks of meat every day."
"That's right. I heard that the women of the Lu family can hunt wild boars. They even caught a piglet and are raising it. How could seven or eight of us grown men not be able to hunt one or two?"
"Alright, don't be a coward, let's go hunt wild boars tonight."
Thirteen or fourteen burly men, carrying torches, machetes, and rope nets, stood guard at the entrance of Qingzhugou in Xishan. "Did the wild boar escape from here?"
"Judging from the footprints on the ridge, they must have come from here. We need to keep a close watch and hunt wild boar tonight, otherwise there will be no hope for the winter wheat in this large area of fields west of the village this year."
When Lu Jia closed the gate, he saw the people at the foot of the mountain, chuckled, turned around and went home. He said to the people in the courtyard, "They really can't sit still. Come on, let's go to the back wall."
Tonight is another uneasy night; the cries of wild boars, dogs, and people have been making noise all night.
The next morning, Zhao Fang came to report, "Last night we caught five piglets and a big boar. It seems that the village also caught two big boars. I never thought that this year's wild boars would become our meat. Da Yun decided to let our in-laws take a piglet home to raise, and we also got half of the big boar."
News of the wild boar infestation in Wangjia Village quickly spread to nearby villages. It was also said that piglets had been caught and raised. Everyone was envious, and men in their twenties and thirties started coming in groups to hunt wild boars at the exits of various valleys in Xishan.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
