Adopt an old man

In the depths of the dense forest in the mountains, a wild boar with its back on the ground and its legs facing the sky kept "humming ~", tired of humming, took a breath, and continued humming, as if singing a song of moaning/groaning without illness.

A boy came out of the cave on the side, wearing a tattered clothes on a cold autumn morning, covered his mouth with the back of his hand and yawned softly, came over to untie the cloth wrapped around the hooves of the wild boar, Turn around and take it back to the cave, and lay it on a simple bed mixed with weeds and old clothes.Last night, the boy slept on it, and it seemed more comfortable than the bed at home.

After leaving the cave, he walked to the side of the wild boar with its four feet in the sky, bent down and moved away the few stones that were holding the wild boar.

He stood up and clapped his hands, "I have to go back early, you will stay in the cave today and don't come out, try not to take off the camouflage at the entrance of the cave when you go in."

The wild boar was on all fours and still humming endlessly. The boy made a gesture to pick up a slender branch placed at the entrance of the cave. After seeing the movement, the wild boar ran back to the cave very quickly.

With a peaceful expression, the boy walked to the entrance of the cave and put back the camouflage damaged by the wild boar, picked up the chrysanthemum on the ground and put his hand on the bridge of the wild boar's nose, "Okay, there is still food in the cave, don't come out today, this chrysanthemum / I will return the flowers to you, and I am leaving."

Before the boy could turn around, the wild boar ate the broken chrysanthemum into its mouth with a "hum chi hum chi", then turned around and walked further into the cave.

The boy chuckled, threw the branch away, and turned to leave.

At the entrance of the village on the other side, Pheasant brought a few brothers over to change defense, "Brother Mumu, we are here to replace you, go back and rest."

Mu Mu, who was still frowning and thinking about the strategy to deal with the bandits, raised his head and smiled at the few people walking towards him: "No hurry, when my father wakes up, let's discuss together how to deal with the bandits this time."

"Bandit?" Can a wild boar be considered a bandit?The pheasant thought that Mu Mu was joking, "After the trap was set last night, the monkey said that he would capture the wild boar that went down the mountain and raise it in captivity. When winter comes, we will just kill and eat the meat. Brother Mu, I think this idea is very good. ah."

"I think it's good too, don't you, brother?" Shui Sheng walked over, covering his yawning mouth with his hand, just in time to hear what Pheasant said.

Mu Mu scratched his younger brother's messy hair, and said to everyone with a serious face: "After you go back at night, a wild beast stepped on the trap we set up, and the footprints don't look like wild boars, and the beast should have an owner. "

Shuisheng slapped off Wood's hand, and lifted the sharp fork on the handle, "Is there a master? Could it be that the wild boars have learned to live in groups now, and they are going down the mountain to grab food?"

Mu Mu smiled and hammered at him, "There is a master and not an accomplice, and the one stepping on the trap doesn't look like a wild boar."

"Where is the place where the beast stepped on the trap, take me there to have a look." It was the village chief who came in a hurry to speak. Last night, Shuisheng led people to help Mumu set up defenses around the village. He was alarmed, so the village chief also He came out early to inspect the defense situation, and what Mu Mu said just now attracted enough attention from the village chief.

In the early years, there was a severe drought in this land, and many villages did not have enough grain to survive the winter. The young and middle-aged people guarded the autumn with trepidation. When the winter was about to pass, everyone slacked off. It was cold, and many people thought that there would be no bandits coming due to the heavy snow, and they hid in the house to warm themselves by the fire.

Unexpectedly, when the night was coldest, a large group of people broke in with flaming bows and arrows. The village suffered heavy casualties, and the most difficult year was spent eating tree bark and drinking snow water. That was the year when Mu Mu's mother was robbed. kill.It was also that year that Mu Mu carried the stone back in the cave where the wild boar lived in the mountain forest.

This natural child was found eating wild boar's milk/water until it was five months old. Most people regard this natural child as a symbol of auspiciousness and prosperity. The village had a bumper harvest in the second year. There is a surplus, and the population has doubled.

It's just that the aborigines' painful experience back then is unforgettable, and they have to strengthen their vigilance at every sign of trouble. Now that someone with a wild beast came to the village entrance, everyone has strengthened their vigilance in their hearts.

"I checked it carefully at night, and the footprints should be of large beasts. The footprints of humans are not very big, and they don't look like young adults." I can't tell what kind of beast it is from the traces, and I can't rule out the possibility that it's the wild boar that went down the mountain at night."

The village chief frowned and thought for a while, "Apart from footprints, are there other traces at the scene?"

"Brother, are you sure it's a beast and not a human who stepped on the trap? The trap has been used too much, and no beast in the mountains will step on it anymore." Shui Sheng interrupted suddenly.

"Yeah, it's very difficult for the traps to hurt those animals now." The pheasant behind him also echoed.

Wood paused for a moment, "It was definitely stepped on by a beast, there was a puddle of feces left on the ground, it seems that the beast must have had a bad stomach, collapsed, and accidentally stepped on the trap.

"

Shui Sheng felt rather strange listening to him. If bandits were coming, why did they bring a sick mount?If there is time to erase the traces, why only erase the mounts and not own?Where did the wild boar that went down the mountain last night go?Could it be that the animals in the mountains became spirits and came down to provoke them?

Soon the group of people arrived at the weeds not far from the forest, and behind the weeds, the footprints stretched all the way into the forest.

"Is this the place where the wild beast stepped on the trap?" Shuisheng couldn't wait to look at the marks left on the ground, and was delighted after seeing it, "That wild boar is seriously ill, hahaha, the poop is like water. "

Mu Mu ignored the laughing brother and asked his father to go to the place where the footprints were clear. "The clip and the previous footprints were almost covered by the footprints of my brothers and me. It is difficult to tell whether they have entered the village. Last night I chased and howled." When the sound came here, I was worried that this was a trap set by the bandits, and deliberately lured us out, so I didn't continue to chase."

"It's good to go back." The village head looked at the footprints on the ground and thought for a while, then suddenly looked at Shuisheng, "Shuisheng, how do you determine that this beast is a wild boar?"

"Father, among the pigs raised in the village before, there was a diarrhea, and the poop was exactly the same. I'm sure it's a wild boar." Shuisheng stood up and pointed to the poop and replied loudly, as if he had made a great contribution.

After confirming that the beast was a wild boar, the village chief squatted down/body and carefully looked at the marks left on the ground. Because it had rained not long ago, the footprints were very clear.The wild boar has a lot of weight, and it stepped on the ground one by one. The traces in the pits have no obvious differentiation of the two toes. The pits stepped on by the front hooves are slightly shallow and there are marks of traps. The traps should be caught on the small/legs , the rear right hoof has a not-so-obvious differentiation of two toes. From the direction of the differentiation toes, it is running towards the entrance of the village. Ask people such as Mu Mu, Shui Sheng, and Pheasant to look at it and carefully identify the traces of other wild boars. There are traces of clips on the left front hoof, and there are traces of differentiation of two toes on the rear hoof.It's just that the direction of the differentiation of the two toes is towards the village entrance instead of the mountain forest.

Wood picked up a stone from the ground and kept imitating the movement of wild boars running away from the shallow pit. The edge on one side of the stone made another shallow mark on the soft soil, but there was a shallow mark on the rear right hoof in all footprints, which should be Not the marks left by stepping on stones.

Seeing his movements, Shui Sheng found it quite interesting, ran over and knelt down and asked him, "Brother, what are you doing?"

Just as Mu Mu was about to answer, he suddenly saw the buttons on Shui Sheng's clothes, and stretched out his hand to pull the buttons closer for a closer look.

"Brother, what are you doing?" Shui Sheng was a little frightened by the wood, and spoke in a hurry.

The village chief looked at him, "What are you two brothers doing? Shuisheng, stop yelling all the time, it's too shameful!"

Shuisheng pulled back his clothes, tidied them up, and argued, "My brother..."

"Father," Mu Mu stood up, holding the stone firmly in his hand, "the wild boar's feet should be wrapped with cloth to erase footprints, and the toe marks of the rear right hoof, I guess, are most likely buttons of old clothes scratched."

The village head nodded, "It should be right. Go back and ask everyone to take precautions. During this period of time, work harder, get the grain back as soon as possible, and concentrate on guarding it."

"Yes"

The stone erased the footprints around the entrance of the cave as he walked. When he went down the mountain, he saw a group of people doing something in the weeds not far away. He sighed and turned around, and turned back to the village from another road.

When I was still at the entrance of the village, I heard someone calling myself, and ran over quickly, it was a monkey.

"Brother Monkey, I'm here, what do you want me to do?"

The monkey turned around and saw Shi Shi running over in a hurry, with a part of his clothes torn off by something, "Shi Shi, where did you go this morning? And what happened to your clothes?"

Shi Shi turned his head and looked at his clothes, "I couldn't sleep, so I got up early and went to the mountain to pick some fruits, but a beast trap from somewhere on the ground almost caught me. I thought there were bandits, so I was in a hurry to go down the mountain, and was caught by a tree branch."

Monkey: "So careless?"

"Oh, I have to trouble Er Niang to help me sew clothes again." In the morning, the sun only showed half of his face, the cold air penetrated through the torn part of the clothes, Shi Shi put his hands on his shoulders, "Brother Monkey, what did you call me?" ? If you’re not in a hurry, I’ll go back and change clothes, it’s freezing to death.”

The monkey waved his hand, "Then you go quickly."

After a while Shito put on his clothes and came out, and asked again, "Brother Monkey, what's the matter?"

The monkey put his arms around his shoulders, "It's nothing, I just asked you to get up and harvest the crops earlier." After Shitou nodded and said "Oh~", he continued, "A man with a horse came to the village last night. His The mount stepped on the animal trap, and then the two ran away. The village head and Brother Mu suspected that the harvest in the village on the other side of the mountain was not good, and they wanted to come here to grab food, so they asked everyone to collect the food and take care of it.”