Cute Beast Food Garden

"Yeah." Si Dongmo nodded, acknowledging Qi Yan's identity as a little spirit beast, "I was afraid that I would scare you if I said it, and I was being tossed by the painted wolf at the time, so I didn't tell everyone the secret. Son."

"Actually, your thinking is right." After being surprised, Ah Jin's expression became solemn, "Spirit beasts are good, but people's hearts are hard to guess. There are many people in this world who are eager for the existence of spirit beasts, especially the spirit beasts that take shape. beast."

"Ah Jin, how do you say this?"

"Spirit beasts are different from humans. Not only do they have magical abilities, but they are also a considerable treasure. Some of them can heal, some are beautiful, and some can help people get rich. It aroused people's covetousness. I remember that boss Lan of the Fourteen Restaurant once knew a young pharmacist in the form of a spirit beast. It's a 'skillful doctor'."

He sighed, "It's a pity that when the secret of his status as a spirit beast was spread, more and more people with ulterior motives gathered around him, wanting to beat around the bush to obtain various benefits, and some wanted to treat him for free. Some even want to live forever, but without exception, they all seek this pharmacist. In the end, in order to avoid the intrusion of the world, the pharmacist had to give up the pharmacy and medical center he had run for many years and go away. "

Si Dongmo was silent for a moment, watching the fluffy fiery red figure running happily back and forth on the grass, and said softly: "My birds... don't have any special skills."

Ah Jin smiled: "Spiritual beast, being able to transform is actually a skill, and it looks like it is just a baby bird, and there is still a long way to go... It will grow up slowly, and when it grows up, it will grow up." Maybe there will be a lot of skills."

Si Dongmo looked forward: "Whether it has great abilities or not, it is still a little spirit beast. Qi Yan once saved my life and helped me many times. I want to protect him and not let him He was hurt by someone else."

Ah Jin said firmly: "Brother Mo, you have helped me and our family more than once. I will never tell anyone about Qi Yan's secret." He looked at his father and elder brother who were busy in the distance "If they ask later, you can say that something is wrong with your family. Qi Yan went down the mountain with the hunters last night."

"It's a good idea."

After breakfast, Xiaoniaotuanzi stood up from the ground and ran towards the remnants of the painted wolf.Staggering to the open space in the middle of the grass, it saw a pile of white skins and a shriveled wolf.

Unexpectedly, the wolf, the real body under the "coat" of the painted wolf, turned out to be surprisingly small, about the size of a medium-sized dog.His body was as thin as a stick, and his bones were slightly deformed, and his body proportions were strange.

Qi Yan suspected that in order to be able to successfully disguise itself as a human being or other kinds of beasts, it deliberately trained its bones into this crooked appearance.It also paid a huge price for camouflage.

"Father, what should we do with this wolf and this fur?"

Looking at the thin wolf and its "coat" scattered on the ground, Ah Sheng felt disturbed and lost his mind, and kept pacing back and forth in place.

"This wolf is very evil. I don't think it's safe to just bury it casually." Loeb looked serious. "This thing has to be burned with fire and buried underground."

"Burn the wolf, what about the leather?"

"Well, this leather is hard to say, and I don't know how this painted wolf made such a thing." Le Bo frowned on his hips and shook his head again and again, "However, we people can't use this leather, right? This is a painted wolf. own evil."

At this moment, he saw a round little fur ball jumping behind the painted wolf's head, stretched out its small beak, and pecked the back of the wolf's head a few times.

Although the painted wolf looked scary, how convenient it would be if its abilities could be transformed into his own!Isn't this wolf's technique similar to the disguise technique in martial arts movies?The little bird snorted out from behind the painted wolf, with a glimmer of hope in his heart.I don't know if my copying ability is still useful for a wolf that has already died.But even if it fails, it won't hurt to peck at it.

After packing up, Ah Sheng and Le Bo carried the painted wolf down the hillside, probably looking for a place to burn it and bury it.Ah Jin shook out a lot of things from the skin it took off, besides the panacea he found earlier, there were also some herbs, and even fragments of bones, which looked eerie.

After finding that there was nothing else to use, he also took the skin down the mountain, piled up firewood and burned it up, lest this evil thing linger on and hinder people who entered the mountain in the future.

After solving the pack of little wolves who had been doing evil in the mountains for many years, Lejia and his son started their old business again, putting on their feet and climbing trees to pick pine cones.As for Si Dongmo, who spent the whole night fighting wits and courage with the pack of wolves in the woods, although he had outstanding physical strength, he was also exhausted right now, so he fell asleep sitting on the thick trunk of a pine tree.Qi Yan stayed by his side, helping to take care of their packages and pick up the pine cones that had fallen far away.

After noon, Si Dongmo woke up from his tired sleep, and saw the little bird squatting in front of him with his back turned to him, his fat little body was shaking, he didn't know what he was doing.

Si Dongmo stretched out his hand and poked the bird's back lightly, feeling that the furry body was soft and very elastic.Sensing the movement from behind, Xiaoniao turned her head, a pair of big light blue eyes were facing the man's dark pupils.

"Hey... what are you doing?"

But the little bird opened its mouth, seemed to smile at him, and then turned around again. A pair of small wings fluttered in front of it for a long time, and finally turned around mysteriously.It is holding a small bowl made of leaves, and there is still a puddle of water in it.

"You did this?" The man was a little surprised.When he went out, he only brought a bamboo tube as a kettle, which was just right for people to drink water. However, for the little bird, the bamboo tube was taller than its head, and it was very inconvenient to drink water.

Taking advantage of his spare time, Qi Yan did it himself, folded the leaves into a small bowl, only the size of a beer bottle cap, but just big enough for a bird to drink.

"Little clever ghost." Si Dongmo flicked its tail feathers and laughed.He got up and took his package, and was about to get some dry food out of it to fill his stomach, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a small thing flashing behind him.

"Hey, that's..."

He narrowed his eyes. "It's a squirrel."

Qi Yan also saw that the squirrel was bigger than himself, with dark fluff and thin body, but it had a big fluffy tail.The little squirrel was bouncing around on the ground, and found the pine cone it wanted among a pile of fallen leaves and stones. It hugged tightly with its two paws and clicked its teeth a few times, and finally put the pine cone inside. The pine nuts are peeled and eaten, and the remaining empty shells are discarded.

"Gujigu."

Qi Yan suddenly had an idea, he waved his wings at Si Dongmo, and pointed at the back of the squirrel.

"Ok?"

Although he didn't understand what Qi Yan wanted to do, the man rushed out like a hunting dog.He closed his hands in the middle, and firmly grabbed the little squirrel that had no time to escape.

The pine tree squealed and screamed, with a look of horror in its big eyes.Si Dongmo caught it in front of his eyes unhurriedly. Seeing the little squirrel waving its claws wildly in fright, the strength in his hand relaxed a little.

"Qi Yan, look, I've caught the little squirrel."

"Guguji..." The bird climbed up Sidongmo's arm until it reached the man's wrist.Squatting down, he aimed at the back of the little squirrel's head and pecked three times.

"Squeak..." The little squirrel was suddenly pecked on the back of the head, and immediately froze in place, his eyes gradually emptied, with a look of lovelessness on his face.

The bird jumped off the man's arm and nodded at him.As soon as the man let go, the little squirrel caught by him immediately flew out like a bullet, and then slipped into the forest and ran away.

"Guck."

The man watched the bird whirring on the ground, stretched its wings, stretched its legs, twisted its buttocks, and seriously did a set of warm-up aerobics, then took small steps and ran towards the pine forest.

"Qi Yan, where are you going?"

"Cuckoo..."

The little bird chirped a few times, and soon disappeared.Si Dongmo sat on the spot and drank a few sips of water. He couldn't leave here rashly, because the father and son of the Le family were still in the tree, so he had to stay there and help take care of them.

Qi Yan came to the forest alone.He chose a pine tree that had not been picked before, and then took a deep breath, grabbed the trunk with his wings and feet, and climbed up quickly, as nimble and nimble as a flying squirrel in the forest.

The bird has a small body and short legs, but with the help of the squirrel's skills, it was able to climb without breathing, and quickly climbed tens of meters.It didn't dare to look back and look down, so it could only jump up desperately.

This pine tree is not too tall.After climbing all the way to the top, Qi Yan stopped and took a few breaths.The thing he wanted the most—a pine cone—had appeared in his field of vision.

When picking pine cones, pine trees don't use bamboo poles like people do, but knock them down first, and then go to the ground to pick them up and eat them.Qi Yan now has the same climbing skills as a squirrel. He moves quickly between the branches of the big tree. When he sees a pine cone, he picks it off and throws it down from the branches.

Skill acquisition!After confirming this point, Qi Yan didn't stay on the top of the tree, he climbed down the tree carefully.When he got out of the layers of needles, he saw the man standing under the tree looking up, his face was a little anxious.

"Qi Yan! Where did you go..."

Seeing a ball of fiery red poking out from among the leaves, the man breathed a sigh of relief: "How did you get to such a high place? Come down quickly, I'm worried."

"Guji." The little bird yelled joyfully and jumped down from the tree.The small body floated into the air like a parachute, and fell into the man's palm precisely.

"Well... it looks like you've grown a bit bigger than before."

It's not just Si Dongmo who thinks so, Qi Yan himself also feels that his body has grown a bit bigger.Maybe in a few days, I won't be able to stand firmly in his palm like now.Thinking about it this way, I feel a little regretful.

"This pine cone, you knocked it down from the top of the tree, right?"

Si Dongmo asked, pointing to the scattered pine cones on the ground.

"Guji." The bird shook its head triumphantly.Seeing the man staring at him thoughtfully, he suddenly said, "Qi Yan, did you use some method to learn the skills of a squirrel?"

Wow, can you tell?

The little bird opened her light blue eyes wide, but still nodded in a daze.

"I knew it." The man smiled lightly and patted its little head, "A Jin said that spirit beasts often have special abilities. It seems that your ability is to learn the abilities of other strange beasts, right? Before going down the hill last night, you blew out fireballs, spit out venom, and smashed the ground. These are probably not your original skills. At least I know one—that transparent venom should be from giant shellfish Learned there."

Qi Yan stared at him intently.This Si Dongmo looked dull and honest, but his observation ability was quite keen.

"...So, you told me to catch squirrels just now to learn how to pick pine cones?"

The man pondered for a while, and at this time there was a rustling sound from the tree, and the Le family and his son came down from the top one after another.Si Dongmo went to support them and let them land safely.

"Hey, Brother Mo, are you awake?"

"Wake up. It's already past noon, let's find something to eat."

"I still have dry food in my bag, why don't you eat some first?"

"Ah, it's okay, I haven't finished eating yet."

After they picked up the pine cones on the ground, they dragged their bags and walked to the next place.Lo Bo was getting old and exhausted from picking all morning. At this time, he just lent Si Dongmo his foot tie, and he sat under the tree and started tidying up.

When he buried his head to collect it, he suddenly heard a clicking sound.Looking up, I saw a little red bird hugging a pine cone with its wings, pecking quickly with its sharp beak, cracking the hard shell and peeling out the pine nuts inside.

Squirrels eat pine nuts with their sharp teeth.But the chick has no teeth, so the acquired shelling skills are transferred to its mouth, relying on the sharp beak to peel the pine nuts.It clicked non-stop, peeling well and quickly, and within a quarter of an hour, a pile of fragmented shells fell around, while the peeled tender pine nuts were neatly piled up on the other side.

"Hey, you little bird, you're quite nimble." Loeb laughed, looking down at the pine cone in his hand, "It's no easier to peel than almonds, cashews, etc. We pick them every year. The pine cones have to be sent to Lao Tan’s house, please ask them for help. If you want to peel them yourself, it will be very troublesome..."

It's really troublesome, but now that Qi Yan has the shelling skills of squirrels, it's much easier to work again.While they were picking, Qi Yan peeled the shells, which could save a lot of time and also reduce the weight of the pine nuts brought back by Si Dongmo. After all, most of the weight of the pine cone lies in its shell, not the pine nuts in the middle. .

The group stayed in the pine forest in the mountains for four full days.It was the night before going back home, they ate grilled fish, hare and dry food around the fire, drank the spring water in the mountain, and counted the pine cones happily.

"One thousand and one thousand..."

A Jin picked up two pine cones with great interest and held them in his hands, not afraid that the shells would pierce his hands, so he turned them over and over in his palm.With an unconcealable smile on his lips, he poked his brother: "Brother, tell me, if what we plucked from the pine trees were not pine cones, but copper plates one by one, that would be great!"

"Hey! It's a good idea. If the top of this pine tree is really made of copper, the villagers from all over the world will come to grab it. How can it be your turn to pick it? I'm afraid that people's shoes will be handed over to this hillside." Get flat."

"Oh." Ah Jin drooped his head, weighed the pine cone in his hand, and sighed, "It's hard to make money, it's really hard to make money!"

Si Dongmo laughed and said, "Ah Jin, although this pine cone is not a copper plate, it can be replaced by a copper plate!"

"That's true." Hearing what he said, Ah Jin stared at the pine cone and laughed again, "The price of this pine nut is one of the highest among dry goods, and it is not in vain for us to spend so much energy to make a special trip. Come into the mountains to pick them. The peeled pine nuts can be sold for dozens of copper coins per catty!"

"It's so valuable... Then if the pine trees were not so tall and difficult to climb, wouldn't many people also go into the mountains to pick pine cones?"

After staying in the pine forest for four days, apart from a few of them, no other mountain people came to pick pine cones.Si Dongmo was curious about this question, while Ah Jin showed a slightly smug expression, threw the pine cone back into the cloth bag, and then said to Si Dongmo with a mysterious face: "Brother Mo, in fact, there is a lot of interest in picking pine nuts." It’s not difficult to climb trees if your feet are pricked, but why are there so few people picking pine cones? Because, besides these, there are other important reasons..."

Halfway through the conversation, Ah Jin played tricks again.Le Bo coughed dryly: "Ah Jin."

"Hey, Dad, you see we're leaving anyway, so it doesn't matter if we talk about it?"

Si Dongmo looked at the two of them, "What's the matter? Seeing how you want to say it but dare not, isn't it a very dangerous and frightening thing?"

A Sheng glanced at his father, and said falteringly: "Uh... that's about it. The scariest thing for a pine nut picker is that besides accidentally falling from a tree, he is also afraid of seeing the 'pine tree fairy'. '."

Lo Bo took a sip of water and said calmly: "Forget it, anyway...things like that happen less now, so it's okay to tell you about it."

He pointed to the top of the tree, "In the past, when no one came to this pine forest, the tops of some trees would become the residence of the green-crowned pine eagle. It is a very fierce eagle with a brown-red color all over its body. The feathers on the top of the head are emerald green, and they are very big. Moreover, they eat meat, all kinds of small animals, pheasants, rabbits, voles, and even... children."

While speaking, Loeb's night bear Xiaodai also crawled out of his package.The little bear held a pine cone that he got from nowhere, stuffed it into his mouth and bit it a few times, but found it was not tasty, so he threw it aside.As soon as he looked up and saw a fiery red bird standing above Si Dongmo's head, the little bear came over excitedly and stared at the top of Si Dongmo's head.

Si Dongmo casually picked up the little bear and let it lie obediently in his arms, so as not to suddenly pounce on the little bird.The little bear looked at him with some fear, but he didn't dare to struggle and move, so he could only hold the man's clothes tightly with his little claws, looking pitiful.

Loeb continued: "The green-crowned pine eagle hunts small animals in the woods for food during the day, and sleeps in the bird's nest on the top of the tree at night. But one day, someone came from outside the mountain to pick mountain products, and they picked wild fruits. , dig wild vegetables, and climb to pine trees and knock down the pine cones with bamboo poles. Fearing that their nests would be knocked down by the mountain people who picked pine cones, the pine eagles attacked people from the trees and pushed the people who climbed up the trees away. down, or scratch their faces with their claws."

"In the beginning, people were afraid to approach the pine tree because they were afraid of being injured by the pine eagle, but later they found out that although the green-crowned pine eagle is fierce, it also has obvious weaknesses. In the villages at the foot of the mountain, there are often snake belly flowers and snake belly flowers. The scent of flowers is harmless to humans, but the green-crowned pine eagle has almost no resistance to it, and will faint after smelling this scent."

snake belly?Qi Yan thought of the circle of big flowers planted on the edge of the field in Si Dongmo's house.It seems that it's not just Si Dongmo, many villagers in this area have planted this big strange flower around their fields.

"People put the juice of snake belly on themselves, and then climb to the top of the pine tree, in this way to stun or expel the pine eagle. , They have nothing to do with the people who climb up the tree to knock on the pine cone, so they have to watch them approach their nests. Until one day, they came up with a bad move."

Si Dongmo frowned slightly: "What harm?"

"The green-crowned pine eagle likes to catch small things like pheasants and rabbits and eat them in their nests. They have a habit of eating meat. They like to eat up the meat of their prey, and then pick out the whole skeleton. Throw away whole.

In order to prevent people from climbing the tree, they hang the skeletons of small animals that have eaten up on the top of the tree.As soon as the man climbed up the tree and saw a pair of bones hanging on the tree, he was so frightened that he slipped down from the tree and fell to the ground. "

Si Dongmo was slightly taken aback suddenly.

"Uncle Lo, the villagers must have panicked when they first saw the bones, but in the end, rabbits and mice are just small animals, and their bones are not enough to scare people away from climbing trees."

"Well..." Lo Bo nodded slightly, looking at Si Dongmo with complicated eyes, "That's right... Such a trick can only be prevented for a while, and people will soon know that those bones hanging on the top of the tree are just pine bones. The eagle is using it as a cover to frighten them."

Hearing this, Qi Yan suddenly had an ominous premonition.

I heard Le Bo continue to say: "The green-crowned pine eagle saw that the bones of small animals were not enough to scare off the people who picked the pine cones, so one day, they flew quietly into the village at the foot of the mountain and took away the children of the villagers... "

Lobo took a sip of cold water abruptly.His two sons also lowered their heads and did not make a sound.Si Dongmo trembled slightly, Qi Yan could feel from his eyes that the man had already guessed the end of the matter.

Loeb said in a deep voice: "One day, a pine tower picker climbed up a pine tree. When he peeled off the leaves and climbed to the top, he saw a human skeleton hanging high on the top of the tree crown. , the bony face was facing him, and the rags of the child's clothes were still hanging on his body, swinging and swinging with the wind..."

Qi Yan took a breath.In the middle of the night, there was a gust of gloomy wind in the forest, and the bird swished and hid in Si Dongmo's hair, his plump body trembling a little.

"People broke into the territory of the pine eagle, and the pine eagle ate people's children. Alas..." Loeb sighed and shook his head, "When the child was found to be taken away and eaten by the green-crowned pine eagle, and the bones were still hanging on the tree. After going up the mountain, the people at the bottom of the mountain were full of grief and resentment. They gathered all the able-bodied laborers in the village, lit torches and took sticks, and climbed up one pine tree after another, knocking down all the nests of the pine eagles. All the birds in the nest were driven away or shot to death with arrows, and all the unhatched eggs were thrown on the ground and smashed until there were no more green-crowned pine eagles in this pine forest."

The ending of the story is very sad to hear.Si Dongmo was silent for a while, then asked: "Then, what does Fairy Pine Tree refer to...?"

Le Bo sighed: "It has been many years since the green-crowned pine eagle cannibalized people, and now the pine eagle is no longer seen in this forest. For so many years, the child's bone hung by the pine eagle on the tree Some of them were also taken back by the villagers, but there are still some bones that could not be taken back or the bones of small animals still left on the trees.

After being exposed to the wind and the sun, the branches of some pine trees are gradually broken or broken, and the bones hanging on the branches are also crumbling.Sometimes when a person climbs a tree, a gust of wind blows unexpectedly, and with a bang, a skeleton falls from the sky and hits the person's face, scaring the person to death. "

"The bones that fell or remained from this tree are called 'pine fairies'."