45. The story of the wolf

A cup of tea, a pillar of sandalwood. An elderly member of the community, a 100-year-old grandmother, tells a strange story about wolves.

Wolves, often described as ferocious animals, sometimes raid travelers in pairs, and sometimes enter villages on horseback. In places where science and technology are underdeveloped and people's self-defense ability is poor, wild wolves have always been a nightmare for villagers.

It was in Shanxi, which was close to liberation. Although there is a seismic transformation underway on the land of China. But for the small mountain village where the 100-year-old grandmother lives, it seems to be too far away, and they still live according to the way of "working at sunrise and resting at sunset". Because their mountain villages are so isolated, they are hardly disturbed by war. However, this small mountain village is not a sacred place in Taoyuan, and there is a dangerous element that always threatens the villagers of the mountain village. That's the wolf.

There is a large group of wolves in the mountains, and the other seasons are fine, but when it comes to the snow-covered winter, because there is no food in the mountains, the wolves often attack the villages. If they just steal chickens and dogs, they can tolerate it, but they still eat people. Many friends must have read Mr. Lu Xun's work "Blessing", in which Xianglin's description of the wolf taking away her son is terrifying. In those days, wolves did attack people, especially children.

One winter evening, the villagers were all working in peace. Because the Chinese New Year is approaching, the villagers are preparing New Year's goods, cooking blessings, and the village is full of joy. But the peaceful and serene atmosphere was instantly shattered by a terrible cry. The villagers put down what they were doing in amazement and followed the crying voice.

At the entrance of the village, a middle-aged woman stumbled towards the crowd with her hands over her face. Even more terrifying, large patches of blood flowed from between her fingers. The villagers were stunned by the horrific scene.

Soon, a big stout man ran out and grabbed her, "you, what's wrong with you?" The middle-aged woman cried wow, her cry was indistinct, and the big man gently pulled away her hand, oh my God! The horrific scene stunned everyone, and some of them couldn't help but turn their heads sideways and couldn't bear to look at it anymore. I saw that the woman's face was bloody and fleshy, and her nose, lips, and eyelids were all out of place. The big man shouted anxiously: "the kid! You, you, what's going on with you? The middle-aged woman said indistinctly: "Wolf, wolf, quick, fast, big fat let the wolf go." In a word, it scared the big man, Da Fat is his son, who is not yet two years old this year, and he just knows how to walk. Hearing that his son was taken away by a wolf, Dahan suddenly became anxious, he roared angrily, picked up a hoe and rushed to the entrance of the village.

The surrounding villagers were anxious when they heard that the child had been wolfed, and more than a dozen strong young men greeted each other with sticks and rushed out of the village after the big man.

This generation is mountainous, with dense trees, and the group runs out of the village, where there is nothing left but some traces of struggle. Dahan's eyes were full of fire, but he looked at the large woodland and didn't know where to start. Just then, an old hunter from the next village passed by. The two villages were not far apart, and they knew each other, and the old hunter immediately dropped his prey and joined the rescue team. He carefully observed the traces on the ground, and used his years of hunting experience to quickly analyze the wolf's direction. Under his guidance, more than a dozen people chased down.

Actually, the wolf didn't go very far. The wolf was running very fast, and if it fled at full speed, these people would not be able to catch up with it, but today it was different, it still had a child in its mouth. The wolf's physical strength is also limited, and after running for a while, it is already a little unable to walk. At this time, the villagers also approached. When they saw the wolf, the people cheered up. The wolf was frightened and dragged the child up a small dirt slope. At this time, its physical strength has also reached its limit. It put the child down, breathed a sigh of relief, and prepared to open its mouth to take the child in again. Speaking of this, the old grandmother sighed: "This child is fateful, according to the experience of the old people, the wolf often can't bite a person to death in the first bite, but as long as he changes his mouth, this person is ninety percent dead." ”

Just when the wolf was about to change his mouth and bite again, because it was on a dirt slope, the wolf was physically exhausted at that time, so he did not put down the child when he put it down, and the child moved and rolled down the dirt slope. The wolf took a bite into the air. This saved the child's life.

At this time, the people had chased more than thirty meters away, and the old hunter saw it clearly, and hurriedly took off his shotgun, wanting to fight the wolf but did not dare to shoot, for fear of hurting the child. In desperation, the old hunter fired a shot into the sky. There was a loud "bang" that startled the wolf. The animal had a natural fear of the sound of gunfire, and the wolf did not dare to stay any longer, and turned his head and fled into the forest.

People ran down the dirt slope and quickly found the child. The big man picked up the child and checked it, the child was still breathing, and several holes were bitten in the neck. The people returned to the village and quickly found Lang Zhong to treat the child. Only then did he have time to question the middle-aged woman carefully.

Here's how it happened. The woman, the child's mother, took advantage of the rest time to take the child to the entrance of the village to play, but she didn't expect that it was winter, and it was the time when the wolf couldn't find food, so she was targeted by a wolf that came to prey. The wolf pounced on the woman and bit the child. The woman was startled at first, but then she pounced on the child, and the wolf turned around and stuck out his tongue and licked her face, and the woman felt a sharp pain on her face as if it had been brushed with a steel brush (the wolf's tongue had fleshy thorns). The wolf took advantage of this time to pick up the child and run away. The woman ran back to the village to ask for help in severe pain, and the scene at the beginning of the story occurred.

The medical conditions in the small mountain village are very backward, and the people in the village have relied on Langzhong in the village for treatment for generations, and there is no concept of going to the hospital at all. So in the face of the mother and son who were so seriously injured, they could only use the most primitive methods. That child, Lang Zhong gave up after simply stopping the bleeding and disinfecting his wounds. The mother's situation was more tricky, her face was torn by the wolf's tongue, and Lang Zhong was helpless. Then an old lady had an idea, she ran home and killed a chicken, then peeled off the chicken and put it on the woman's face while it was hot. Then dig holes in the eyes, nostrils, and mouth.

This is also a miracle, both mother and son survived, but the mother had to re-apply the chicken skin every few days in the future, and the child's neck left four holes that did not grow tight, and when he drank porridge and water, it would leak out. But the life span of both mother and son is not short, and they both lived to be more than eighty years old.