In the middle of the night, the two dogs in the backyard barked, and Lu Yunfeng got up, opened his eyes, and turned over to get out of bed. Qin Xiaozhou, who was sleeping soundly beside him, did not move. Originally, Qin Xiaozhou insisted on staying in the woodshed, but Zhao Fang went to Li Fengxian's house and brought back a straw mat for her to sleep on, so she moved back to sleep.
Lu Yunfeng got out of bed, dressed, and went out. Zhao Fang, still wearing her clothes, opened the door to the side room and said urgently, "Dayun, the dog is barking."
Zhao Fang didn't dare close her eyes all night, just waiting for the wild boar to come. She listened intently into the night, and whenever there was any noise, she would get up and call for help.
"Okay." Lu Yunfeng said as he ran out, "Mother, you go back quickly and take good care of the child. We'll go on our way."
After locking the inner courtyard gate, the sound of wild boars running could be heard outside. Judging from the sound, there were at least forty or fifty of them. Lu Yunxing went to the woodshed to get a machete and went to the backyard. The Lu family's courtyard wall was very high, and wild animals could not get in unless they could fly. Only the backyard gate was the least sturdy. It had been completely reinforced during the day, but it was not a new gate, and there was still no guarantee that wild boars could not break in.
Lu Yunfeng laid a lot of thick logs across the outer wall outside the gate. If the wild boars wanted to push the gate open, they would have to push the logs aside first.
The two brothers and Li Changpu climbed onto the wall and looked out, lighting torches. Lu Yunxing took a closer look and said, "There are even piglets. The snow was too heavy this year. It seems there's nothing left to eat in the mountains."
Otherwise, the wild boar herd wouldn't have brought such small cubs into the village. Li Changpu sighed, "The frost came early this year, and it snowed for more than a month. There are still more than half a month until spring. With wild animals running rampant in these mountains, people can't live in peace."
Many of the herbs he planted this year also died from frost.
"We need to kill these wild boars, otherwise they'll keep coming back." Lu Yunfeng said worriedly. It takes more than half a month after the start of spring for the wild grass and vegetables in the mountains to slowly sprout. For a whole month, the wild boars will have nothing to eat and will only run to the village.
"Too many." The men were somewhat intimidated. They had never seen so many wild boars in their lives. These wild boars were incredibly strong. "There are fifteen or sixteen adult boars and twenty-three or twenty-four sows. No, we can't kill them all."
The wild boar charged down from the orchard, causing chaos among the chickens and dogs. At the foot of the mountain, the group was split into two by the Lu family. One group went to eat vegetables in the back garden, while the other group tumbled and ran into the fields from the front gate. Lu Yunfeng had placed two large animal traps on the hill where the two groups had been separated, hidden among the dead leaves. With a bang, the wild boars screamed in agony.
"Hey! Got it!" Several burly men waited for the wild boar herd to disperse before heading out at dawn to find the two boars caught in the trap. One of the boars, with a head that was only half its normal size, had its left hind leg caught. Despite its strength, it managed to drag the trap to the riverbank. Its wound was frozen, and it lay on the ground panting. When it saw the men, it staggered to its feet, bared its tusks, and tried to attack. Lu Yunfeng grabbed his knife and slashed at it, bringing the boar down in just a few strokes.
Li Changpu patted the wild boar and laughed, "This boar is quite fat!"
I guess I gained a lot of weight in the fall and summer, and I haven't lost any weight even though it's been almost three months since winter started.
Lu Yunxing and Li Changpu carried the wild boar to the yard to deal with it, while Lu Yunfeng went to look for another animal trap. After carefully searching for half an hour, he finally found it on the north-facing hillside. A three- or four-month-old piglet was caught in the trap, its belly still rising and falling with breathing.
This small wild boar was not easy to kill, so Lu Yunfeng took off the trap, carried the boar back to the inner courtyard, and put it in the cage.
Qin Xiaozhou lay in bed until her back turned blue, and even the back of her head felt sore and swollen as if it were blocked. There was wild boar hunting and pig slaughtering outside, and she loved excitement, but she could only stay in bed, feeling extremely bored.
Lu Yunfeng came in and touched her hand. "When did you wake up? It's just dawn, go back to sleep. Your hands are cold, I'll warm them with hot water later."
"Xiao Si said you guys caught a wild boar, and he can go see it, while I can only lie here." Qin Xiaozhou felt hopeless. She had been awake ever since Lu Yunfeng left and hadn't been able to fall back asleep. The feeling of just lying here waiting for news was really awful. "I'm so bored. I want to go play. I want to go hunt wild rabbits in the bamboo forest."
I don't usually go out, but not going out and being unable to go out are two different things.
“It’s snowing outside, let me carry you to sit under the eaves.” The rocking chair was placed under the eaves, and Lu Yunfeng put a thick quilt on it.
With its blue bricks and gray tiles, red plum blossoms covered in snow, and a square courtyard where children played, Qin Xiaozhou suddenly felt a sense of tranquility and serenity. "You know," he said, "we might as well have hunted wild boars and sold them this year."
Lu Yunfeng brought over a cup of soy milk, "Hold it in your hands to warm it up."
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, married women returned to their parents' home. Wang Dahe had no brothers or sisters, so he filled the water vat at home and was about to carry the wood to the Lu family's house when Lu Yunfeng knocked on his door first and gave 150 coins to Wang Dahe's mother.
Wang Dahe's mother refused to accept the money, saying, "This piece of wood wasn't thick enough, that's why it didn't sell. I can't accept this money."
Lu Yunfeng was clear: if Wang Dahe wouldn't take the money, he wouldn't take the wood either. In the end, Wang Dahe's mother had no choice but to leave the money behind. The back door of the Lu family was finished in one morning; it was thick and heavy, so much so that even a wild boar and an ox couldn't pry it open.
Looking at the door, Zhao Fang's anxious heart finally calmed down. It wasn't until after lunch that Wang Lishi came to the door with Dayu, her heart and eyes full of worry, "Dayun, you came back from the county town yesterday. Is the county town still peaceful?"
Lu Yunfeng said, "Fenggu County is very peaceful. The refugees we received have been properly resettled. There are always refugees coming from the west. Most of the city's garrison is in the west. Don't worry, Auntie, our county will be fine."
“It’s not that I’m overthinking, but my daughter hasn’t come back.” Wang Li was extremely anxious. “We had agreed that none of her siblings would go to pick her up so that she and her husband could come back together, but we still haven’t seen her.”
Lu Yunfeng asked in surprise, "Li Zhen and Ye Su haven't returned?"
Wang Lishi had no daughters, so the only one she could refer to as her daughter was Li Zhen.
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