Chapter 196 (continued)

Yan Kexing a long stride and sat down in the back seat.

Shi Wen used his long legs to support the motorcycle, preventing it from tipping over.

Yan Kexing smiled and put his arm around his waist.

Shi Wen chuckled, then drove off, chugging his car towards the ditch.

As he rode, Yan Kexing suddenly turned his head to look at the barbed wire fence in the distance.

Shi Wen didn't notice his gaze, stopped the car, rolled up his sleeves, and went to scoop up some fish. "Shall we catch a couple more? Let the little ones have some too. I'll blend them into a paste in the blender later, then we won't have to worry about fish bones getting stuck in their throats."

Yan Kexing nodded, then asked, "What's that over there?"

"Which way?" Shi Wen, puzzled. She looked up and followed his gaze, only to find something hanging on the barbed wire fence. "You mean those over there?"

Yan Kexing: "Hmm."

Shi Wen looked closely and said, "They look like small animals such as mole rats, marmots, jerboas, and pikas. All sorts of small animals keep coming into the ranch. The little guys are having a competition to see who can catch the most prey."

They often Shi Wen that the cubs in the house, other than snow leopards, are not allowed to eat wild animals, but they really cannot tolerate various wild animals damaging the pasture's vegetation, so they will catch wild animals whenever they see them.

As for hanging wild animals on barbed wire, that was something Chasing Clouds did first.

It has a habit of hanging up its prey to display it, and other little creatures follow suit and also like to hang up their prey.

If left for a while, the wild animals hanging on the wire mesh become a spectacular sight.

Especially when there are too many mole rats hanging around, it can look quite frightening.

Mole rats are relatively large, lack external ears, and have eyes so small they are almost invisible, making them quite ugly.

One mole hanging there is ugly enough, but their little guy hung a whole row of them. No wonder Yan Kexing spotted them at a glance.

Shi Wen said, "They started hanging them up a couple of days ago. I wanted to hang more up there to deter other wild animals, and then take them down and dispose of them when we no longer needed them."

Yan Kexing, "Wouldn't that attract some carnivores to come and eat them?"

Shi Wen, "It shouldn't be, right? Chasing Clouds is so fierce, and it patrols the sky. It can see the slightest movement. Right now, no carnivore dares to come over, not even wolves."

Yan Kexing: "I'll take them down with you after hanging them for two days. They'll rot and cause some pollution."

Shi Wen, "That works too. The main problem is that wild animals are too active this season. Things might get better in a few months when the weather gets colder."

As they talked, the two carried the fish they had just caught from the ditch home, washed their hands, and prepared to cook dinner.

After a while, the little creatures playing on the grassland smelled the aroma of food and ran over from afar. The dogs ran the fastest, with the little snow leopard following behind.

Cong Zai, however, remained soundly asleep on its throne, only occasionally opening its eyes to glance at the various "woofing" and "meowing" sounds.

Another day has come to a peaceful end.

Before Shi Wen sleep, Shi Wen would specifically check the date. Life was so wonderful that he sometimes even forgot the exact date.

The weather in July was a bit hot, Shi Wen they had to turn on the air conditioning at noon.

Now, his family lets all kinds of livestock and poultry out early in the morning and brings them back around 11 a. m., so that the sun is too strong and the livestock will suffer from heatstroke if they are left out in the sun for too long.

Dogs are also prone to heatstroke. When they come back at noon, they are panting heavily, Shi Wen always worries me.

Fortunately, no matter how hot it gets here, the temperature drops immediately once you move to a shady spot.

The dogs stopped panting soon after entering the barn.

Shi Wen brought in a sliced watermelon from outside and called to the children, "Come and eat some watermelon!"

The watermelons were grown by their family; the rinds were so thin that they would split open with a single touch of a knife.

Shi Wen I picked some in the backyard this morning and moved them to the living room.

The living room floor was very cool. After sitting for a morning, it was just like it had been taken out of the refrigerator—sweet, cool, and with the unique fragrance of watermelon.

Shi Wen called out, the little ones immediately came over and lined up in front of Shi Wen, ready to receive their watermelons.

Shi Wen a piece, it opens its mouth, grabs it, and goes off to eat it.

Even the Cong Zai lazily came over and grabbed a piece.

Shi Wen casually called out, "Take the watermelon rinds to the pig trough after you've finished eating."

The little ones ate without looking up, but then they all responded in unison:

"Meow."

Woof woof.

"Hiss."

The next sentence is the sound of the Shi Suo; it used to eat watermelon, rind and all.

Now it's become quite picky about food. When it eats watermelon, it's just like any other little guy—it only eats the flesh and not the rind. Its life is quite refined.

Laibao and Guaibao do eat the fruit peels.

After distributing the watermelon to the little ones, Shi Wen went outside to turn over the dried vegetables.

The weather has been exceptionally nice lately, and their vegetables have yielded a particularly good harvest. He and Yan Kexing cut some vegetables into strips and laid them outside to dry.

Fresh vegetables have their own flavor, and dried vegetables have theirs. Shi Wen especially love dried vegetables, particularly when used in hot pot; the taste is absolutely amazing.

After drying the vegetables, he went back to clean up the watermelon rinds the kids had left over.

The little ones did as he asked, and most of them carried the watermelon rinds to the sow's trough. He didn't have much to clean up, at most he could wipe the floor.

To his surprise, the sow, who had always been very active, was now lazily staying in the pigpen and showed no interest in coming over to eat the watermelon rind.

Shi Wen frowned upon Shi Wen this; their sow was in the mid-to-late stages of pregnancy, a time when she needed to be carefully cared for.

This loss of appetite can indicate many things.

He climbed over the pigpen and went inside to look.

The sows huddled in a corner, listless, and didn't react much when he came in.