Chapter 45 (continued)

Shi Wen turned to Zhu Ji and said, "You all rest here for a bit. I'll take the marmot back and see what's going on."

Zhu Ji, hands in his pockets, asked, "Don't I need to come with you?"

Shi Wen his hand and said, "I'll go fix the beehives later."

Shi Wen talking to the dogs for a while, An Wa realized that they were going to take the marmot back.

An Wa was a little reluctant, but under Shi Wen's firm gaze, it stood up and led Shi Wen forward.

The other dogs realized what was happening and followed An Wa, running happily.

After running for more than ten minutes, Shi Wen saw the messy snow and human footprints ahead, and it suddenly dawned on me—wasn't this where snow leopards roamed?

Something about what Shi Wen feels off.

He continued driving his motorcycle forward.

Just over two hundred meters from where the snow leopard ambushed him, the dogs ran to a cave entrance and stopped.

From a distance, it wasn't very clear, Shi Wen got closer, they discovered there was a wide, large hole.

There were snow leopard paw prints on the freshly dug soil near the cave, as well as on the remaining snow. Shi Wen would never mistake the snow leopard's paw prints.

Upon Shi Wen all this, Shi Wen suddenly realized—this hole was dug by a snow leopard!

The snow leopard may not have come to the ranch to ambush him or to catch cattle and sheep, but rather to catch marmots to eat.

Unexpectedly, while the snow leopard was hunting, he happened to be patrolling with An Wa.

The snow leopard felt threatened, so it went into hiding.

Upon seeing An Wa, the snow leopard likely mistook her for An Wa and tried to capture An Wa.

As a result, An Wa was not only caught, but he also knocked her unconscious with a single punch.

Shi Wen glanced at the fat marmot still hibernating in the bag, then at An Wa, who was squatting to the side, also with yellow and white fur.

Suddenly, it's not surprising that the snow leopard mistook An Wa for a marmot.

Shi Wen reached out and ruffled An Wa's hair.

This guy really got himself into trouble out of nowhere.

An Wa squatted to the side, wagged her tail, and tilted her head slightly. "Eek?"

Shi Wen patted its neck and said, "It's alright."

An Wa wagged her tail again.

Since the snow leopard might be there to hunt marmots rather than attack livestock, we need to clarify this with Zhou Hongzhong to avoid wrongly accusing it.

After receiving the call and hearing the details of the incident, Zhou Hongzhong exclaimed in sudden understanding, "We were wondering why such a cautious animal as a snow leopard would suddenly attack your ranch! Now we know!"

Shi Wen, "I didn't expect that either. Maybe the temperature dropped too drastically this cold wave, making it difficult for it to find food on the mountain, so it came down."

Zhou Hongzhong: "Possibly. Snow leopards are quite intelligent. It probably found the marmot burrow using its experience and was trying to dig the marmot out, but it encountered you halfway through. Seeing that you had a dog with you, it probably wanted to take a break and attacked the dog instead."

Shi Wen, "I guessed that was the case too."

Zhou Hongzhong laughed, "The case is solved now. But since it did come down the mountain, it's not unjust that it was caught."

Shi Wen asked, "So how is it now?"

Now that the misunderstanding has been cleared up, Shi Wen some sympathy for the snow leopard who had been punched by him.

Zhou Hongzhong said, "It's doing very well. It just had a slight concussion, but after two days of rest, it's completely recovered. We collected a blood sample, put a tracking ring on it, fed it a few times, and then released it up the mountain."

Shi Wen: "Released back into the mountains?"

Zhou Hongzhong: "Yes, our care over the past few years has been quite effective. Its living environment should be better than it was two years ago, so it should survive. If all else fails, we can use the tracking ring to bring it down later."

Shi Wen thinking about it, I felt it was acceptable, so I stopped asking.

Zhou Hongzhong then said, "We've taken in a batch of Wanderer sheep. Would you like to adopt one?"

Shi Wen, "Even sheep Wanderer?!"

Those are sheep!

How can ingredients that roam the grasslands be considered "Wanderer"?

Zhou Hongzhong laughed and said, "This is a pastoral area, so what's so strange about having Wanderer sheep? If a ewe gives birth outside and the owner doesn't notice, it might have to become Wanderer. Or some sheep might simply get lost and become Wanderer."

Shi Wen, "In that case, shouldn't we find them owners?"

Zhou Hongzhong: "The list has been posted for a week, but we can't find any. These sheep are in pretty bad condition, all skinny, and none of them have been castrated, so not many people are willing to adopt them."

Shi Wen understood.

Uncastrated sheep have a strong, unpleasant smell and don't grow fat. Taking one home also carries the risk of infecting your own healthy sheep, so not many people are willing to adopt this person.

Zhou Hongzhong expressed his helplessness. "We usually don't want to take care of them, but it's been too cold these past few days, and they're about to freeze to death outside, so we have no choice but to temporarily take them in. We were already short-handed, and now we have to take care of feeding, watering, and cleaning up after several sheep, so we're even more short-handed."

Shi Wen, "That's true."

Zhou Hongzhong: "We can't keep keeping them forever; we need to find them a home. Do you want them? If so, we'll send them over directly. They've all been quarantined and are healthy."

Shi Wen they prepared a lot of pasture this year, and their existing pigs, cattle and sheep will definitely not be able to consume it all, so raising a few more sheep will not be a problem.

With that in mind, he readily agreed.

Zhou Hongzhong said happily, "Okay, I'll drive it over to you tomorrow morning."

Shi Wen, "There's no need to be in such a hurry."

Zhou Hongzhong: "We've been looking for someone to take over for a long time, thankfully you don't mind. It's settled then, I'll send it over to you tomorrow morning."

After hanging up the phone, Shi Wen stuffed the marmot from the bag into its burrow.

After thinking for a moment, I dug up some soil from the side and filled it back in.

Marmots hibernate, but they don't sleep for the entire winter. They might wake up briefly after a while when their body temperature rises, and then they burrow deeper into their burrows.

There's nothing we can do Shi Wen is all the help we can offer them.

Shi Wen led the dogs around to the beehives, covered them with felt, and went home.