In 1976, many major events took place in China.

First Premier Zhou and Zhu De died, then the Tangshan earthquake, and Mao Zedong died on September 9.

These events have an epoch-making impact on the entire country, but it seems that the impact on the area of Tiemu Mountain in Longzhong is not great.

The people who live here are most concerned about how to eat their stomachs.

It's an autumn twilight.

The eleven-year-old boy became a bell, came home from school, and ran on the sheep intestine path in the mountains.

He has dark hair, a broad forehead, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and slender limbs.

The wind and sun made him dark-skinned and malnourished, leaving him lean.

But he was full of energy, like those unobtrusive wild chrysanthemums on the hillside, blooming in the wind.

Cheng Zhong is very clever, and the knowledge in the textbook is not enough for him to stuff his teeth.

Although he is a bit of a fool on weekdays, his grades are not bad, and he has always ranked first in the class.

Cheng Zhong also loves to read, and he has read all the "idle books" (Dad's language) that he can find.

Even the scripts of the "Eight Model Plays" can be memorized backwards.

Of course, his favorite is those war novels that depict heroes, and it can be said that he can't put it down.

I often watched it in the middle of the night, and my family always thought he was wasting kerosene.

Sometimes I secretly watched during class, and I was discovered by the teacher a few times, and I was disciplined a lot.

He often falls into fantasies, imagining that he has become the protagonist of the book in those fiery years, for the country and the people, killing and slashing, happy and revenge.

He even hated that he was not born a few decades earlier, and did not catch up with the era of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation.

"It's really a wretch to live like this, you have nowhere to go, and you can't even fucking eat!" Cheng Zhong thought indignantly.

How did he know that a major turning point in his fate was just around the corner......

When night fell, Cheng Zhong returned to Chengjiawan.

Passing by the squad's wheat field, the noisy sound caught his attention.

"Dog, I've been following me for a few days, and today I finally got a pot end!" This loud voice was the voice of Ma Er, the leader of the militia squad.

"This Ma Er, who usually likes to bully people the most, has been showing off there all day long since the militia fired guns. It's so late today, I don't know who I'm looking for. Thinking so, Cheng Zhong quietly slipped into the wheat field, wanting to see what was going on.

There was a lantern on the ground, and there were four or five figures around it.

The steel gun in Ma Er's hand snapped loudly, and he was babbling about his heroic deeds.

A dog-like corpse lay on the ground, and three squeaky cubs crawled around the corpse.

"Now your brother Ma has made a meritorious service, and the production team is afraid that they can give you an extra hundred points of work!" Cousin Chengyi patted his ass again and again.

"Captain, the work must be recorded! I still want to go to the commune militia camp to see if I can record a third-class meritorious mile, and if I reward a few dozen more bullets by the way, I can wipe out all the wolves around our Tiemu Mountain!" Ma Er said.

"I think it can work!" Wang Jinchuan, the production captain, answered.

"It's just that how to deal with this she-wolf, you have to use your brain.

You can keep the skin off, wolf meat, I'm afraid I'm going to send some to the brains in the commune, I heard that that thing is a big supplement, they must be interested, maybe I really give you a big prize. Come on, let's have a good discussion!" he added.

Wang Jinchuan lifted the horse lantern and walked towards a nearby cave, Ma Er hesitated for a moment, and followed the captain into the cave.

The threshing floor was devoid of light and plunged into darkness.

The others did not follow in, and did not want to leave.

They rolled dry cigarettes, and in the light and darkness of cigarette butts, they chatted about marginal topics and wandered around the courtyard.

Someone peed on the wall.

Cheng Zhong knew their pitiful thoughts.

These people must be thinking of helping to pick up the she-wolf to see if they can mix wolf meat and improve their lives.

"What a godsend, I'm going to steal a wolf cub while they're not looking. This thought suddenly popped into Cheng Zhong's heart.

He didn't know where he got the courage, he sprang out of the corner like a cat, reached out and picked up a wolf cub, stuffed it into his school bag, and ran away.

Running to the gate of his house in one breath, he sat down and gasped for breath.

"Damn, they didn't find out, how lucky they were!"

Imagining Ma Er and the others looking for wolf cubs everywhere, puzzled and extremely angry, Cheng Zhong wanted to laugh out loud.

"But what can I do by stealing this wolf cub? just to get angry, or to save my next life?"

After calming down, Cheng Zhong realized that he had made a hot yam.

He asked himself again and again, but he couldn't find a clear answer.

Cheng Zhong entered the house lightly, and when he saw that only the hall and kitchen were lit, he quietly ran to the small cave where he lived.

Light the kerosene lamp and carry the little wolf cub out of the bag.

Weighing the weight in his hand, it looks like it weighs four or five pounds.

"This little guy should be full moon, so cute!" Cheng Zhong said to himself.

The little wolf cub stared dumbfounded, his body trembled, and he had not yet recovered from the fright.

Cheng Zhong carefully examined its body, and it was okay that it was not injured.

"But how do I raise it?" he began to feel anxious as he looked at the silly little fellow.

If Mom and Dad knew that he had brought back a wolf cub, they would definitely scold him to death, and maybe they would have to be beaten.

The main thing is that there is a shortage of food at home, and people are living a life of starvation, how can there be anything to feed it.

The most feared thing is that the big wolf will come looking for trouble.

I heard that wolves are very spiritual, and with the smell of cubs, they will definitely be able to find them.

When I think like this, I am as big as a bucket.

"Now send it back to the wheat field, the little one is absolutely dead. Stay, the family will find out sooner or later. ”

For the first time in his life, Cheng Zhong felt such a dilemma.

Just as he was sweating on his forehead and at a loss, his mother's voice came from the yard:

"Zhong'er, why are you going home so late?

"Oh, I know, you eat first, and I'll come!"

Cheng Zhong hurriedly stuffed the little wolf cub back into his schoolbag, put the schoolbag deep at the foot of the kang and hid it, and then hurriedly went to the hall to eat.

When it is said to be eating, it is actually drinking soup.

In the territory of Longzhong, there has been nine droughts in ten years, and there has always been a shortage of rations.

During the day, you can eat a full meal at noon for work.

When I slept at night, the family dealt with a large pot of thick soup.

Cheng Zhong went to school, and he had to run ten miles of mountain roads every time, carrying some rough dry food on his body, plus finding something to eat along the way, which was barely surviving.

At this moment, Cheng Zhong was drinking the soup absentmindedly, while his eyes were rolling, thinking about how to hide it from his family.

As soon as he put down the bowl, he stood up and walked out of the house.

"I don't sleep at home tonight, my godfather always calls me, I'll go to my grandfather's sheep kiln tonight to sleep. You can also read a book at night, and spend less on kerosene at home. ”

Cheng Zhong said as he returned to the small kiln where he lived, picked up his schoolbag and ran out.

Dad was still yelling behind him, but he turned a deaf ear and didn't stop, and in a blink of an eye he ran out of the gate.

He really didn't have a choice.

Cheng Zhong's family has a large population and many children, and the adults are busy with various tasks and have too little time to pay attention to the children, so there is more room for them to be free.

As long as you don't get into trouble, it's perfectly fine to go to sleep somewhere else.

Everyone knows that Grandpa is very good to Cheng Zhong.

Godgrandfather Liu Changfu lost his wife at an early age, had no children and no daughters, and the whole family did not have to worry about feeding alone.

He was the most competent shepherd.

During the day, he herded sheep for the production team, and at night lived in a small cave in the sheepfold to guard the sheep, and he never lost a sheep or was eaten by wolves.

Grandpa likes Cheng Zhong and often asks him to go to the sheep kiln to play, and Cheng Zhong occasionally goes over to sleep with him.

Cheng Zhong heard his grandfather say that there are ewes giving birth these days, and he was thinking in his heart just now to see if he could let the wolf cubs eat some goat milk, so that it would be better to feed.

"The most important thing is that if the male wolf comes to the door, it will not be able to scare the family. After all, it is normal for wolves to enter the sheepfold, and it is too abnormal if they run into people's homes. Cheng Zhong thought as he walked.

When Grandpa Godfather saw Cheng Zhong, he was so happy that his face was full of wrinkles and bloomed like a chrysanthemum:

"Ho ho, it's still my Zhong Wazi who is good, I don't dislike the dirty smell of the sheepfold, come and accompany my grandfather to watch the sheep!"

The bell didn't squeak.

He took a big stride and stepped onto the godfather's kang, opened the schoolbag casually, and a squeaky little cub appeared in front of the godfather.

"Grandpa, look what I brought. Cheng Zhong said.

"Oh, this thing doesn't look like a wolf cub?" said Grandpa.

"No, no, no, Grandpa is really good at telling jokes. It was I who got a puppy from someone else's house. Cheng Zhong said.

"Did your parents scold you? Or give it to your godfather, and when you grow up, you will follow your godfather to guard the sheep." The godfather said with a smile.

"I want to take it for two days first, and I don't know if I can keep it or not. Godgrandpa, it wants to drink goat's milk from you!" Cheng Zhong deliberately lifted the cub up and rubbed it on Grandpa God's body a few times.

"Hey, if you want to take advantage, just say it. But these days are okay, just a few ewes have lambed. You wait, I'll milk some milk. ”

Grandpa didn't ask much, Ma slipped off the kang, took an empty bowl and went out.

After a bag of cigarettes, he came back with a large bowl of goat's milk and put it on the kang.

I don't know if I saw the white milk, or smelled the sweet smell, the wolf cub got up with a wheel, put his mouth close to the big bowl, and licked it happily.

"Drink slowly, drink slowly, with Zhong Wazi's face, there will be enough goat milk tonight!" said the godfather as he stroked the cub's back.

Soon, the bowl was at the bottom, and the cub's belly became round, and when it was satisfied, it leaned over and licked Cheng Zhong's hand, and then licked Grandpa's hand.

Then, it staggered between Cheng Zhong's legs, arched its mouth a few times, found a safe place, and fell asleep.

Grandpa Godfather lay there smoking dry tobacco.

Cheng Zhong carried the cub to the pillow and let it sleep against the pillow. I climbed on the kang to read novels.

Because he was afraid that the male wolf would find him, Cheng Zhong was a little worried and couldn't even read the book.

Subsequently, I lay down to sleep, and I didn't sleep soundly.

I was in a daze all night, and nothing happened.

The next day, for fear that the teacher and classmates would find the wolf cub, Cheng Zhong did not dare to go to school.

But he still went out normally in the morning, wandering aimlessly around the mountains around Mount Temu.

He wanted to find the father of the wolf cub, or let the male wolf find him.

As long as you hand over the cub, even if you succeed in saving a life, you don't have to worry about it anymore.

Cheng Zhong thought about it at night, as soon as the male wolf saw him, he put down the cub and ran. When the male wolf saw that his son was not harmed, he would not be embarrassed by him.

When the cub was so hungry that he squeaked, he took it in his hand, took out his own dry food from his bag, chewed it and fed it.

Until nightfall, there was no shadow of the male wolf.