Chapter 2 2. The Wolf's Feast

The snow on the ground was half a foot deep. Ze Ren squatted on the pasture road to check the paw prints behind the ruts: "That's right, it's a wolf's hooves!" We searched for more than ten days, and finally found some traces of wild wolves.Yifeng stretched out his hand to measure the wolf paw print, which was as big as his palm: "Look, the wolf here is so big!" I took a closer look, and the huge wolf paw print seemed to jump out of the snow suddenly, grabbing my heart fiercely, every heartbeat of mine was under the control of the wolf paw.I tightened my scarf tightly, suppressing the chill in my heart, and looked around with my extreme eyes, not letting go of any moving objects on the snow field.

These days, I always heard Zeren say that the wolves in Taiweiruo village are the most brave and desperate on the Zoige prairie, because the herdsmen in this village only raise yaks and not sheep, and the wolves that fight bulls are much stronger than the wolves that slaughter sheep.The yak is the largest and strongest herbivore on this alpine meadow. Both the bull and the cow have sharp curved horns. The yak has a violent temper. Once the ox's strength comes up, 17 or 18 men can't hold it back.On the nearly 400,000 mu of grassland in Taiweiruo Village, each family has hundreds of yaks at least, and as many as thousands of yaks, forming large and small herds.The toughest prey must make the strongest hunter.

The three of us drove here at four o'clock in the morning today, ambush on the hill, and stayed there until six o'clock without seeing the wolves.At this moment, as soon as we went down the mountain and returned to the car, we suddenly found three wolf paw prints following our rut, and we went around the car to check.Wolves are on high alert for anything that suddenly appears in their territory.We originally came to track wolves, but were followed by wolves.The tires left traces of sniffing after the wolf's nose pushed through the floating snow. "It's a good thing the wolf didn't bite the tire, otherwise we wouldn't be able to get out." The veins beside Yifeng's temples were bulging into lumps.

"Prairie dogs like to bite car tires. Wolves don't do that. They are very suspicious. They don't touch people's things. They just want to check where we came from." Zeren said, "wolves can tell that this is not a car from our village." The snow and sand rolling on the wolf paw prints are very fresh. After a circle around the car, we walked straight to the direction we came from. Chase!We jumped into the car and turned around to chase the wolf. After driving two or three kilometers, the wolf paw prints submerged in the tall grass on the south side of the pastoral road.Across the wire mesh fence, the car couldn't get through and couldn't chase.I can only use the binoculars to search in the direction where the paw prints disappeared, where there is a little bit of wolf shadow.

Frustrated, Ze Ren said with a smile: "Bang Ke Totem, Bang Ke is drunk." (The wolf is coming, and the wolf is behind you.) In Tibetan, the wolf is called "Bang Ke", "Bang Ke" "Totem" means "the wolf is coming", which is what the prairie people used to scare children.This Zeren, who had been frozen all morning, was still in the mood to joke. I laughed dryly, and was about to answer, Yifeng slammed my shoulder: "It's really behind you, three!" really!The three big wolves slid across the snow like ghosts. Their paws were so big that they definitely matched the wolf paw prints just now.But these wolves are thin and thin, with slender legs, not as strong as I imagined.At this moment, they stuck to the fence and walked around a hundred meters behind us without anyone noticing. They were planning to cross the pasture track quietly and go to the mountain in the north. Who knew that we suddenly stopped to watch and found them. The wolves stopped. Step hesitated.As soon as I pointed the camera at them, the three wolves immediately dispersed, never letting my camera catch the three of them at the same time.While evacuating, they frequently looked around, observing what kind of "weapon" we had and how lethal it was.

The wolves scattered and retreated three hundred meters (the range of the rifle) and gathered again. "The wolf will not change direction easily if he decides to go to Beishan. Chase again! Stop them at the Beishan pass!" Zeren has dealt with wolves since she was a child herding sheep. I firmly believe in Zeren's assertion. Quickly turn the front of the car and chase after it!The wolves seemed to be in a hurry, and ran wildly on the snowy field, trying to catch up with the car!The pasture road was covered with snow, and the off-road vehicle's speed of 60 miles was already the limit, but the three wolves were gradually leading.The muscles of the big wolf running were tense, its four legs were drawn in a straight line, and the ribs on both sides of the chest were clearly exposed.When the big wolf passed the car window, he turned his head and gave me a look. I was startled, and I quickly rolled up the car window.

As the wolves accelerated, they slanted towards the front of the car.Twenty meters away from the front of the speeding car, a wolf passed by, and Yifeng quickly let go of the accelerator.More than ten meters away from the front of the car, the second wolf flew across the pasture road, and Yifeng stopped slightly, but the third wolf did not slow down.Five meters!Yifeng slams on the brakes!The seat belt tightened, the rear of the car flicked, and amidst the exclamation of the crowd, the wolf had already arrived in front of the car like an arrow, leaped from the middle of the pasture road, and flew over the fence.

A long gray rainbow was drawn across the shadow of the wolf... The wolf landed lightly, breathing evenly.The driver broke out in a cold sweat, but the overtaking wolf didn't change his face.The wolves looked at the off-road vehicle with disdain, obviously knowing that the vehicle would not be able to climb over the fence.The three wolves crossed the mountain pass calmly, took one last look at us at the pass, and disappeared. Zeren came back to his senses: "For these slickers, it's the easiest way to cross the mountain at the pass, and the wolf only follows the old way. He can't believe in other ways."

"These three wolves are too desperate, they can wait for people to leave before leaving..." The car had already been turned off, and Yifeng's foot was still firmly on the brake and trembling. When we got out of the car to look, the trail of the tail of the car almost covered the last wolf paw print. Fortunately, the wolf jumped fast! "Wolves live too hard, so they are not afraid of death." Zeren said, "The wolves here are active in the morning and evening, and it's time to close the team. From the wolf's point of view, we repeatedly chased them, and it was obvious that we were chasing them. Yes, those who come with a purpose will never leave easily."

I stared at the mountain pass. Although the snow was heavy, it was not too high. The clear wolf paw prints on the snow lured me provocatively, "Chasing me, isn't my whereabouts obvious?" The more I looked The more unwilling he was, he rolled up his sleeves and rushed up the mountain. Zeren was worried and followed closely behind. When I was out of breath and climbed to the ridge and looked down, those paw prints had already extended for an unknown number of kilometers on the snow field. "Green..." I took a deep breath and shouted in the direction where the wolves were heading away.

The name is blown away by the wind... Ze Ren asked, "Are you still chasing him?" I fell to the ground shaking my head and panting, and the last cry drained all the oxygen in my alveoli. "Don't be discouraged, they left you a consolation prize." Zeren reached out and plucked a pinch of wolf's mane from the fence in front and handed it to me.This is what the wolves got on the wire when they got through the fence.There is some warm wolf down in the tall wolf mane, which was still attached to the wolf's body more than ten minutes ago, and now it is swaying at my fingertips, like a light brown flame, igniting a warm feeling in my heart.It has been two years since Green left me, and today I touched the wild wolf hair again, and I carefully clipped it in the back cover of the phone, so it is intimate and warm.Even the slightest bit of a wolf is worth cherishing for me.Green, I'm back and looking for you, where are you? Yifeng squatted by the fence next to the pastoral road to analyze the paw prints. When we came back, he got up and patted the snow on his gloves. "I've seen these wolf paw prints one by one. There is no Green in the 'Desperate Three Wolves'. I also measured..." He pointed to the claw marks left by the last big wolf when he leaped over the fence, "He jumped to the ground The distance is more than three meters, and the height of the fence is 1.6 meters. Wolf jumps over the wall, have you ever seen such a powerful bounce!" "Of course I've seen it! When I recovered from my illness and went back to the grassland that year, Green jumped out of the two-meter-high wall of the mastiff farm and threw himself into my arms from afar... Sigh..." I felt a burst of pain in my heart. The tide is cool, with a little emotion and a little loss.What a sweet leap for Green at the beginning, he knew that his relatives were finally back by him!He crossed all obstacles and told that person: "I believe in you, I want to be with you!" But the jump marks in front of him were clearly full of doubt, rejection and guard, and the wolf would rather risk his life to hurdle to warn people: "Don't come near me!" , I don’t trust people to death.”This rise and fall, one is eager to meet, the other is eager to stay away, there may be just a step between man and wolf. The three discussed how to go next, and Zeren suggested: "If there is no Green in this pack of wolves, it is meaningless to follow them. They must go back to the mountains to sleep at dawn. If we follow again, these wolves will definitely lead us around. It's a waste of effort. It's better not to disturb them, follow the way they came to see what they did last night, maybe you can meet wolves who haven't evacuated." The off-road vehicle drove along the grazing road towards the way the wolf had come. Climbing up a mountain, the morning glow has burned the snowfield red.We stopped and looked around, and there was something wriggling in a peanut-sized ball in the pasture far below the mountain.Yifeng used a set of binoculars: "It's not a pack of wolves...and it's not a vulture. It's people, eight or nine...it seems to be surrounded by something..." Before the words were finished, a resentful howl of wolves suddenly sounded from the foot of the opposite mountain. In an instant, many howls followed closely behind.I just felt the ends of my hair fly away, and my fine hair was howled. The chill from the desolate howl of the wolf penetrated from the top of the sky to the bottom of my feet, freezing us in place.There was nothing in my mind, only the stormy sky and the howling foothills in front of my eyes. Never heard such a haunting wolf howl in broad daylight.What made them so desperate?The howling of wolves stopped, and our eyes coincidentally turned to the group of people down the mountain. When we rushed to the pasture at the foot of the mountain, we saw nine people tying a huge dead yak with hemp ropes, trying their best to drag it to a pickup truck a hundred meters away. "Ah Ruo, Jorge! I'm Jack Dingnan Archa?" (Hey, hello! Can I have a look?) I shouted and ran forward. The dead one was an old pack bull, weighing about a ton. Judging from the growth rings on the bull’s horns, it was more than 30 years old. The coagulated blood on the horn was stained with wolf hair, and the four fresh tooth holes on the side of the cow’s neck were still dripping blood. There are numerous bruises on the body, scratch marks on the belly, a part of the tail was bitten off, and there are many holes on the hind legs, which were hunted by wolves.While taking pictures, I asked: "When did Bang Ke kill the cow?" Everyone was a little surprised at me and Yifeng, the Han people who appeared suddenly, and they were even more surprised to hear me speak half-baked Tibetan. They looked up and down, but didn't answer.Zeren stood beside me, exchanging a few words in local Tibetan with everyone with a serious face. Then the little rancher nodded at Zeren, and said to us in unfamiliar Chinese: "Since the middle of the night last night, more than two hundred yaks here have been fighting with five or six bangkes. I originally thought that all the yaks I raised were big yaks, and the bangke couldn’t win, but I didn’t expect this old yak to be overturned at dawn.” On this grassland, it also describes the hunting behavior of wolves. But the colloquial language is clearly distinguished-the wolf is "slaughtering sheep" and "beating cattle". The difference between "slaughter" and "fight" shows that hunting yaks is no easy task. I secretly regretted that I missed it. I guess when we were ambushing on the top of the mountain, the wolves on the other side of the mountain were fighting hard with the cattle.The "Desperate Three Wolves" who followed the car may be the last to evacuate.If such a big cow is not dragged away, it will be enough for the wolves to eat for a week. When we heard that the annual income of this herdsman's family was only 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, and the loss of a yak was 7,000 to 8,000 yuan, Yifeng and I felt a little guilty.We released the little wolf Green on this grassland, and now seeing herdsmen's yaks being beaten to death by wolves, they seem to feel that their own children have brought them a loss.With an inexplicable sense of "guilt", I asked, "Do you want to help?" "Of course!" Everyone was worried that they couldn't drag the cow. Yifeng and I carried the rope on our backs to help them drag the cattle together. Zeren hesitated for a moment, and then came over and pulled the rope. The dead yak was estimated to weigh a ton when it was whole, and a dozen people could not lift it.So the herders disemboweled the dead cow, discarded all the internal organs and straw bags, and reduced the weight by one-third, leaving only the meat shell.They tied the ropes to the yak's four legs and horns respectively, and everyone carried a rope on their backs like pulling a rope, shouting and working together, and finally they were able to drag the dead cow.The frozen marshes are full of pits and bags, and cars cannot drive in. Horns and hooves are often hooked in the haystack mounds. Twelve people have one foot deep and one foot shallow. It is difficult to drag. After a break, the distance of 100 meters dragged for more than an hour.Yifeng was so tired that his lips turned purple, and he kept taking asthma medicine. Zeren and I were sweating profusely, lacking oxygen and fatigue. After working until noon, everyone finally loaded the dead cow into the pickup truck. The rancher patted his sleeves, turned around and left without saying thanks.Although the indifference of the herdsmen surprised us a bit, we didn't pay much attention.While thanking Zeren for his help, we boarded the car again. Also the wind starts the car.The person who dragged the dead cow together stopped us, saying that the pickup truck would not be able to hold people when it was loaded with cows, and two people wanted to take our car to a neighboring village.We agreed without hesitation, feeling that even if we did one more thing for the herdsmen, our guilt would be reduced. On the way, Zeren didn't say a word, but the two people in the car chattered happily about selling meat to make money. The more I heard it, the more I didn't like it: "The wolf killed the cow, why don't you feel sorry at all?" ?” "What do we regret?" The man smiled, "Look at it, the wolf has beaten the cow and has not eaten the meat, and it will have to be beaten again tomorrow." There was a bit of schadenfreude in his words. I was puzzled and wanted to ask again, when the cow transporting pickup truck stopped in front, the people in the truck got down and greeted the two people: "Hurry up, there's still a dead cow over there." A flock of vultures flew in the west pasture, and there was indeed a cow carcass lying underneath.In the afternoon, the sun was strong, and there was already a bit of rancid smell floating over.A group of people jumped out of the car excitedly and ran to the dead bull. Then Ze Ren said in a deep voice: "Go, don't wait for them!" We had long been suspicious, and immediately drove away from the ranch. "Who are these people?" Yifeng asked. "They are all cattle dealers who buy dead cows. Don't mess with these people. You will know later." I was taken aback: "What are they taking the dead cow for?" "Sell it to you city people to eat." "what?!" After I asked, I found out that these people wandered around various ranches, buying all kinds of cows that died of disease, plague, old age, freezing, and wolves at a price of 700 to 800 per head. The price was about 2,000 yuan and sold to Erdao cattle dealers. The beef was finally sold to markets in Hongyuan, Songpan, Jiuzhaigou and Chengdu, as well as other cities.If the carcass of the cow has spoiled, the purchase price will be lower, and it will be made into strong-flavored beef jerky and sold in tourist spots, and almost no one can taste it.There are quite a few people doing this job on the grassland, some of them have been doing it for more than ten years, and they often have a strong background, so no one can control them. After listening to Zeren's narration, Yifeng and I were more disgusted than swallowing a fly.Just now we were full of apology to help drag the cows to "redeem", but we didn't expect to help these criminals!The kind of foolishness of being sold and counting the money made us want to slap ourselves.I was anxious: "Zeren, why didn't you tell me earlier?" "You ran over as soon as you got out of the car. I didn't have time to stop you. Those people were doing illegal things. They saw you taking pictures and thought you were a reporter. You didn't even know that someone was walking behind you with a killer knife. I Hurry up and say that you are my friends and are here to travel. They didn't attack you because I was a local. You are not vigilant and have a quick temper. If you know it, you will definitely be in danger. There are many fugitives with murders hiding in the prairie. Just doing poaching and selling dead cattle for a living. They put down the two outsiders just incidentally. After killing the people and throwing them on the grassland, a group of vultures will fly over and eat up the corpses in twenty minutes If the wild dog gnaws the bones, and the wind and sand bury the clothes, the person will disappear." No wonder Zeren leaned close to me and talked to the group of people when I was taking pictures. It turned out that I didn’t even realize I walked through the gate of hell. Fortunately, Zeren protected us.Both of us were dripping with cold sweat, thanking Zeren repeatedly for saving his life. Ze Ren was embarrassed by our "benefactor" and said with a blushing face, "Don't say such kind words, we are friends, but when I'm not around in the future, you need to be careful." In the setting sun, looking back at the pastures that have drifted away, you can still vaguely see the northern foothills where the wolves disappeared.We take some comfort in the fact that at least there are offal discarded by herders to feed the wolves.Zeren replied indifferently: "Wolves don't eat things that have been touched by people. Usually, the poachers are the ones who follow the dead cattle dealers. They poison the traps and scare the wolves." It was getting dark... The car was bumping on the pasture road. That day was February 9, 2013, New Year's Eve. In the direction of the county town in the distance, the sound of firecrackers exploded across the sky. The birds and beasts were so frightened that they stopped crying at night, and the scattered fireworks instantly robbed the brilliance of the Milky Way.It's the New Year's Eve in the human world, but the dark grassland has fallen into a dead silence.How much I don't want to rush to that glamorous "world". It's Chinese New Year, and every household in the metropolis should be decorated with lanterns and festoons, and watch the "Spring Festival Gala" lively. Who knows that "the wine and meat of rich families stink, and the roads are frozen to death".I heard the sad and angry howling of wolves in the wilderness again. I knew that group of hungry wolves must be sad at the end of the new year. They didn't leave the carcasses of oxen, old cows, or rotten cows. How could they survive this winter? Just two years ago today, the little wolf Green took his first step away from human beings, maybe he was also among this group of hungry wolves.Or maybe we don’t know when, living far away in the city, we actually eat wolf food, and the leftovers of wolves are placed on the festive table at this moment.