bookrebus Chapter 209 The Crisis of the Great Lonely Elder in Xiaolingtun
Chapter 209 The Crisis of the Great Lonely Elder in Xiaolingtun
The production team's pigsty housed dozens of sows, and every year when the sows squealed in the spring, it would attract a large male pig from the mountain.
Some of the older pigs were a bit timid, pacing anxiously around the pigpen. Others were bolder, leaping into the pigpen and wrestling with the pigs for three hundred rounds that night. But the next morning, the older pigs were too weak to jump out, so the production team caught them, slaughtered them on the spot, and sent their meat to the canteen.
Xiaolingtun also encountered the same thing. A large male pig visited the sow pen. When they tried to catch the large male pig, it was so strong that it frightened the young men in the village. In the end, even the old hunters were mobilized, but they still failed to catch the mud-covered male pig.
After the large, solitary male wild boar escaped, no one in the village, except the pig farmer, remembered it. It wasn't until a few months later, when the sow gave birth, that the pig farmer discovered that the subsequent litters were all offspring of wild boars—complete wild boar mixes. This infuriated the pig farmer.
The mother was puzzled. Aren't they all piglets? Why is wild boar meat not popular?
Many people think that if a large, untamed male boar goes into the pigpen, the pig farmer profits, since they don't need to borrow breeding boars anymore. Why do pig farmers dislike wild boar crossbreeds so much?
Li Ju'an told his mother that wild boar meat was not only tough but also had a low meat yield. While domestic pigs, raised similarly, grew very quickly and were ready for market in just a few months, wild boar crossbreds wouldn't gain weight no matter what feed they were given. They remained thin even after a year; what pig farmer would want such pigs?
Besides, wild boars are wild by nature. When they hear the calls of wild boars on the mountain, they get itchy and want to run up the mountain for a stroll, sometimes leading the entire pigsty to jump over the pens and run away. Who wants to see pig farmers' hard work all year round go to waste?
The leader of the Yangko dance team sighed and said, "This is all my fault. Last time, I and a few old hunters went to shoot, but we missed and that big lone wolf got away. The big lone wolf remembered this incident and came to harass us every few days for the next few months. At first, it came alone, but later it came with a lot of big lone wolves."
The solitary male wild boar usually lives alone in the wild. Unable to find sows to have a harem, he remains a bachelor, going wherever he feels most comfortable. But after the incident with the tiger king, many wild boars gathered into a large group, banding together to fight against the tiger king.
Li Ju'an guessed that it was during that period that Da Gu Gong and several other large solitary pigs walked together, and even when they went to Xiaoling Village to find sows to have fun, they were in groups.
He accepted the eggs, wine, and grain as payment, and said, "Alright, I'll go take a look after the fifteenth."
The leader of the Yangko dance team widened his eyes and said anxiously, "I reckon we'll have to do another one in the next few days. If we do it after the fifteenth, our village won't have a good New Year."
His words were spoken so urgently that Li Ju'an was also annoyed. "What's wrong? Just because your village didn't have a good year, does that mean we don't have to celebrate either?"
When the leader of the Yangko dance team saw his face darken, he quickly smiled and took out a bag of things, leaning close to him and saying with a smile, "Li Pao, I've heard that your traps are very reliable. Here's some wire and steel rope for you."
"As long as Li Pao comes to our village to set a trap, the villagers will be at ease. We must catch the livestock before the fifteenth."
His words were opportunistic.
Li Ju'an thought to himself, "This is quite a compliment. If my trap fails to catch Grand Master Gu, people will gossip about it behind my back. Nobody knows when Grand Master Gu will come next time, or even if he will come at all. If Grand Master Gu happens to not want to come during the New Year and tries to hide at the sound of firecrackers, then my plan will have been for nothing."
Seeing that he was unmoved, the leader of the Yangko dance team smiled and stuffed the fruit candies from his pocket into Li Xiao's hand, which made him feel better.
"This girl is so well-behaved and lovable."
Li Xiao was very perceptive and didn't dare to take it, glancing at Li Ju'an and his mother. Li Ju'an nodded, and Li Xiao smiled and said, "Thank you, Uncle."
"Alright, good boy."
When the leader of the Yangko dance team saw that Li Ju'an had agreed, he felt a huge weight lifted off his shoulders. Before leaving, he left Li Ju'an a woven bag filled with wire snares and steel cables.
According to Li Ju'an, he only agreed to take on this job because of the 40-meter-long steel cable. This kind of steel cable couldn't be bought in the market; he had to go through connections to buy it from someone at the forest farm, plus a few cartons of cigarettes, a case of liquor, and extra money.
The sound of firecrackers outside was deafening, as it is customary for married daughters to return to their parents' home on the second day of the Lunar New Year.
The Zhang family next door was bustling with activity; their daughter, who had married far away, had returned home and started visiting relatives. The daughters of the Lu and Sun families also brought festive gifts to wish their relatives a Happy New Year.
Li Ju'an sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), his feet propped up on the edge, listening to his mother nagging Li Xiao, saying that she should marry someone nearby, not too far away, otherwise she wouldn't be able to come back on the second day of the Lunar New Year, and her family wouldn't be able to take care of her if she was bullied outside.
Li Xiao didn't understand any of this, and just nodded in agreement in a daze.
Li Ju'an inspected the wire snares brought by the people from Xiaoling Village.
This thick iron wire is really hard; it feels very solid. It's a genuine thick iron wire that I've never used.
He held pliers in his hand and began bending thick wire to make clamps. Just then, Lu Zhiqiang came over for a visit, complaining to him that the women in his house were crying and laughing too noisily. He felt his temples throbbing and couldn't stand the shouting of these old ladies, so he had to run out and hide in Lu Zhiqiang's house.
Lu Zhiqiang originally wanted to play cards with Li Ju'an, but when he saw Li Ju'an playing cards again, he laughed angrily and said, "Li Ju'an, you really don't waste any time during the New Year. Where are you busy this time?"
Li Ju'an pulled him down to sit, gave him a pair of pliers, and told him to do it together.
"If there's free wire, why not make some? We can make small traps to set in the mountains, and we can also use them to catch mice in the kitchen."
The village was infested with rats, so having plenty of wire meant we could make more traps. With fewer rats in the kitchen, my mother could finally feel more at ease.
Lu Zhiqiang thought it made sense, so he sat down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) with his legs crossed and joined in making clips.
If you buy them at the market, it's expensive to buy too many clips, so people in the mountains bend wire and make them themselves. But the results are worlds apart.
Li Ju'an's wires were all the same size and very neat. There are two key points to making a small clamp: one is that the two semicircles must fit together perfectly, so that the spring force can be concentrated in one direction. Otherwise, even if you manage to trap a mouse, the prey will escape.
Another point is that the bend at the trigger point needs to be tight, so that the left and right sides fit together perfectly. Otherwise, the bait will be eaten before the trigger is even activated. This isn't a trap anymore; it's just feeding mice. It's laughable, and people will call it utter nonsense.
The traps Li Ju'an made were the perfect size to catch mice. Even if they were used to catch pheasants and hazel grouse in the wild, it wouldn't have been a waste of his efforts.
Lu Zhiqiang bent a lot of wires of all shapes and sizes. He spent a lot of time and effort, complaining so much that he got blisters, before he finally made two. The two clips were one big and one small, and they didn't look very sturdy.
When Lu Jinyang and Lu Wenqian came over and called Lu Zhiqiang away for dinner, the two of them stared at the strange-looking clip and laughed for a long time.