Chapter 83

Dharma Protector: "Woof!"

The Guard noticed something amiss in Qing Mengzhu's voice, and instantly lowered his head meekly and slyly ran to the side.

The Dharma Protector still held its head high, barking at every word Qing Mengzhu spoke, looking extremely defiant.

Qing Mengzhu laughed in exasperation, "You rascal, you need to be taught a lesson!"

The Guard are alright, but the Dharma Protector has been a bit too lively lately.

After catching the bamboo worm, Qing Mengzhu took it back to the courtyard and locked it up.

The Dharma Protector was truly unconvinced, Qing Mengzhu kept it from going outside.

When Ming Chunxi returned in the evening, it was still in the yard.

Ming Chunxi noticed something was off about the guy's expression and asked, "What's wrong, Dharma Protector? You look so angry."

Qing Mengzhu: "It's a bit too lively and doesn't listen to commands. I'll lock it up in the yard as a lesson."

Ming Chunxi glanced at the Dharma Protector: "I knew it! Why that little expression?"

Ming Chunxi moved a chair and sat in front of the Dharma Protector, tapping its head. "You rascal, something's been off with you lately."

The Dharma Protector looked up at Ming Chunxi, who was speaking earnestly, then turned around and faced away from him.

Ming Chunxi pulled the Dharma Protector back, asking, "You understand, don't you?"

The Dharma Protector did not answer, but instead knelt down and rested his head on his front legs.

Ming Chunxi pulled it aside to scold it. It hates being lectured, so it put its ears down and pressed them tightly against its head, showing only the whites of its eyes. It looked quite pitiful.

Ming Chunxi rubbed the dog's head, forcing it to listen.

Ming Chunxi spoke for a while before letting the Dharma Protector go. After listening, the Dharma Protector stood up and ran to the storeroom to hide, adopting the strategy of "if you can't afford to offend him, then avoid him."

Qing Mengzhu watched as the Dharma Protector ran off into the distance, then approached Ming Chunxi and poked his chest. "You have such a twisted sense of humor, coming home from work and bullying the puppy."

Ming Chunxi: "I'm educating it."

Qing Mengzhu: "Is it fun to educate it?"

Ming Chunxi nodded. "Fun."

Qing Mengzhu couldn't help but laugh, "You look so proper, but inside you're all black."

Ming Chunxi lowered her head and Qing Mengzhu, "It's not dark."

The two kissed in the yard, then sat down to prepare vegetables and exchange stories of their new experiences.

Ming Chunxi talked about their work, Qing Mengzhu said that she had encountered an owl that day.

Ming Chunxi: "Which kind of owl?"

Qing Mengzhu shrugged. "I'm not familiar with owls, so I didn't recognize it. But I noticed its eyes were red, big, and round, which is quite different from what I imagined an owl to be."

Ming Chunxi didn't know much about owls either. "Does it catch hazel grouse in the bamboo forest?"

Qing Mengzhu: "I don't know. I read online that it's a nocturnal animal, only active at dawn and dusk, and usually sleeps in its burrow during the day. If we keep the hazel grouse locked up at night, there shouldn't be any problem."

They built a shed in the bamboo forest and equipped it with chicken coops, where the hazel grouse would rest at night.

As long as the hazel grouse is properly secured, the owl will have no way to get into the coop.

Qing Mengzhu said, "Let's observe for a few days. If the owl catches a hazel grouse, we'll think of another way."

Ming Chunxi: "Then should we count the number of hazel grouse?"

Qing Mengzhu: "I'll just count them every morning when I let the hazel grouse out."

Qing Mengzhu didn't take the owl seriously. Their hazel grouse moved in flocks, led by a large, aggressive hazel grouse.

A single hazel grouse is no match for an owl, but a flock of hazel grouse should be quite intimidating to an owl.

Besides, with the red fox and two dogs watching over things, the owl probably wouldn't dare to come over normally.

Qing Meng had a good plan, but when she opened the courtyard gate the next morning, she found several puddles of black, smelly, mud-like stuff outside.

It was barely dawn, Qing Mengzhu hadn't turned on the courtyard lights. When she went out, she almost stepped on that thing.

Qing Mengzhu couldn't help but raise her voice. "What is this?"

Following behind him, Ming Chunxi turned on the overhead light above the courtyard gate. "It looks like some kind of animal droppings. I saw some undigested bones inside."

Qing Mengzhu: "Really?"

Two dogs came out, sniffed around the piles of things, and then barked angrily. "Woof woof woof!"

Ming Chunxi took out her phone. "We'll know if we check the security footage."

Qing Mengzhu leaned closer. "Let me see."

Their surveillance cameras are equipped with infrared sensors, so they capture clear images even at night.

Ming Chunxi directly scrolled through the monitoring to the several abnormal time points alerted by the software. When they saw the second abnormal point, they saw an owl squatting at their front door and defecating on the screen.

Ming Chunxi in, you'll see an owl pointing at the door, its big, round, red eyes looking rather eerie.

After reading it, Ming Chunxi scrolled to the third anomaly.

The third unusual thing was that the owl came to poop, about an hour and a half after the second time. It may have finally accumulated some feces and came over to poop again.

Then came the fourth and fifth anomalies. When they opened them, they found that they were all videos of owls defecating.

No wonder there was so much poop at the gate!

Looking at the time, Qing Mengzhu exclaimed in shock, "It practically ran over and pooped all night!"

The owl pooping times are at 1:26 am, 3:03 am, 3:57 am and 5:19 am.

It pulled five times in a row, and I don't know where it flew from.

Qing Mengzhu stared at the owl on the screen and couldn't help but say, "This vengefulness is truly astounding."

Ming Chunxi: "Quite clever."

Author's Note:

Owl: If I can't beat you, I'll just poop in front of your house! coo coo

There will be an extra chapter today, around 10 PM tonight!

Chapter 83

The owl in the bamboo forest was extremely vengeful, but it wasn't the type to relentlessly pursue its revenge. Once it had taken its vengeance, it ignored Qing Mengzhu and the two dogs.

Ming Chunxi and Qing Mengzhu went up the mountain together. When they saw an owl flying overhead, they looked up at it several times before confirming, "It's a collared scops owl."

Qing Mengzhu also looked and said, "A small owl, right? It's so quiet when it flies by."

Ming Chunxi: "Its wings are wide and its feathers are soft, which helps to muffle sound."

Qing Mengzhu: "No wonder! I was wondering how it could catch its prey when it flies so slowly!"

This owl is not only good at hunting, but also quite skilled.

Qing Mengzhu had personally witnessed it catching various kinds of mice several times, probably to take them back to its nest as food reserves.

As the environment in the bamboo forest improved, more small animals appeared. Various insects attracted various birds, and snakes and rats gradually increased in number.

Among small animals, rodents should be the most numerous. Qing Mengzhu recognized several small rodent species, including the Chinese field mouse and the house mouse. To his regret, there were no famous bamboo rats in the bamboo forest.

Perhaps bamboo rats don't grow in their area, so even if bamboo is planted, bamboo rats are unlikely to come here.

With the increase in wild animals in the bamboo forest, red foxes also like to stay in the mountains.

With abundant food here, its hunting success rate has increased dramatically, and it can sometimes even bring food back to the otters.

Whether it was because the red fox and the two dogs were keeping watch in the bamboo forest, or because the owl simply didn't like hunting birds, the hazel grouse at Qing Mengzhu's house were not bothered by the owl at all.

Now the hazel grouse are eating more, exercising more, and look much more energetic than when they were raised in the backyard. They are also growing very quickly.

Qing Mengzhu expressed satisfaction with this.

As long as the owl doesn't eat hazel grouse, it's a good owl, and he doesn't mind at all that it lives in the bamboo forest.

Yesterday, I spent the whole afternoon weeding in the bamboo forest, Qing Mengzhu didn't return home until evening.

When he got home, Ming Chunxi had already returned and was entertaining Zhou Yan, who had come to visit.

Zhou Yan stood up and said to Qing Mengzhu, "I got some good dry-aged beef these past two days, and I brought it over for you to try."