Chapter 4 4. Top of Wolf Mountain

At four o'clock in the morning on the seventh day of the seventh day, we drove to the foot of Wolf Mountain with Tashi to discuss the route into the mountain to find wolves. The Langshan mountain range stretches for more than ten kilometers, and the Langdutan wetland in front of the mountain is as big as the urban area of ​​Chengdu.Green returned to the wolf pack in this mountain range two years ago.What Yifeng and I miss most is Green's Old Wolf Cave. Tashi said regretfully, "That cave has long since been abandoned." Tashi stretched out his left hand and spread his five fingers on the hood of the car to form a mountain. "Langshan is in the shape of a claw. The main peak faces east, and the Liudao Mountains go west. The Langdutan Grassland on the west is now distributed to seven herdsmen." He pointed to his thumb and index finger, "The front mountain is where you used to be. The old wolf cave in the camp and Green, I saw it when I went up the mountain to burn incense. The old wolf cave has been trampled down by cattle and sheep. The front mountain is too disturbed by humans, and the wolves dare not come. They retreat to the middle finger and ring finger. The peak mountain range. Later, these two mountain ranges were also divided into pastures, and the wolves could only retreat, mainly appearing in the back mountain, and occasionally one or two can be seen in the canyon of Zhongfeng."

Yifeng and I were very worried, because we knew that there were cliffs and roads behind the back mountain, and the wolves here had nowhere to retreat. Seeing that we were silent, Tashi suggested, "Why don't we cross Langdu Beach from the west and enter the back mountain to look for it?" I shook my head: "Going into the mountain to find the wolf on foot, the probability of finding it is very small. If you search blindly, the wolf will have slipped away before you climbed the mountain." Go to the east and go up to the main peak to ambush quietly, and occupy the commanding heights, no matter which mountain or valley the wolves appear from, you can have a clear view from the main peak."

Yifeng was a little hesitant: "The distance between the eyes is too far! The focal length of our video camera and camera is not enough." "Be patient and watch from a distance first." I insisted, "Don't forget, the last shot of Green was alone, and he may not be in this pack now. The wolves are very suspicious, and this is the mating season. The mountain is the only place where you can choose a litter to give birth. If you disturb their last territory at this time, where do you tell them to retreat? What's more, after two years, the wolf pack may have grown a lot, and the new wolves may not know us. If you go to the back mountain, if you don’t meet a wolf, you’ll be disappointed! If you meet a wolf, it’s dangerous!”

Yifeng nodded and said: "That's right! There is a lot of snow on the top of the mountain, maybe there are traces." The route was determined, and we began to climb the main peak of Langshan in the dark.The gravel on the mountain is loose, steep and difficult to walk, and the fifty-sixty-degree slope will roll down if you are not careful.Climbing to a snow-covered place halfway up the mountain, I found a paw print left by a wolf a few days ago.Wolves always choose the safest and labor-saving path, so I followed the wolf path all the way, and it really saved a lot of effort.Yifeng walked behind me with the camera on his back, and Tashi searched around with binoculars while crawling.We turned our phones to silent, and the three of them dared not make any sound except for panting.There is no wind in the early morning, and even a cough can travel far in the valley.

The sky was getting brighter, and we finally stood on the main peak of Langshan Mountain. Looking along the six main mountain ranges of Langshan Mountain extending westward, we can see the magnificent scenery hundreds of miles away.The blue sky and bright moon, the blue mountains and quiet grass, Langdutan sleeps peacefully under a layer of thin smoke, and there is no movement in the mountains. We searched the snow along the mountain ridge, and the trail of wolves I followed extended to a fence. When I got closer, I saw wolf fur hanging on the fence, and wolf paw prints gathered from all directions passed under the fence. These overlapping paw prints have become blurred with the melting snow.After climbing over the fence, there are still traces of wolves playing, rolling and grooming their fur on the snow, and new or old bone fragments and wolf dung can be seen everywhere. This mountain is actually a place where wolves often gather!I suddenly remembered that the night Green returned to the wolf pack, didn't the wolf king's howl of assembly come from the main peak?I had a cold war, sweating all over my body and suddenly turned cold. I thought I would not disturb the wolves before I climbed up to the main peak to observe from a distance, but I didn’t expect that the top of the wolf mountain was their point of command.When I was climbing the mountain, I didn't think it was strange to see the trail of a wolf. First, it was because it was a paw print a few days ago, and second, when I was stationed at Wolf Mountain, I used to follow the lone wolf route to find the wreckage for Green.Unexpectedly, the line we followed today led us to the old nest. This is an exciting and important discovery!But it takes courage to stay here. It is uncertain whether the wolves will appear around here today. Lone wolves do not attack people, but what attitude will the wolves have towards people who break into their last territory?

"Listen!" My ears suddenly caught a mysterious and deep voice, it was a howling wolf, but it was completely different from the high-pitched wolf howling I had heard in the past. Mai, coming close to the grass, is very penetrating, like a ghost whispering behind him. The three of them searched for the direction of the sound back to back at the same time.However, when we listened intently, the grass was quiet and the wind stopped, the whispering voice disappeared, and the mist in the valley slowly dispersed, as if what we heard was an illusion at all. While I was in amazement, the back of my neck felt hot, and a ray of sunlight shot across from the mountain ridge behind me, making people dare not look sideways. The sun is rising!The mountains in the west turned into golden mountains in an instant, and then burned like a fire, the blue sky burned into purple, the sun quickly advanced from the distant mountains, engulfing the dark land, the sea of ​​morning mist evaporated in a blink of an eye, and the frozen water bubbles reflected Facing the bright sunlight, like eyes opened suddenly, Langdutan woke up.

The shadows of the three of them stretched long on the mountain range, which was particularly eye-catching, and we quickly got down on the ground.Tashi narrowed his eyes and waved for us to move down and hide in the shadows in front of the mountain.The three of them crawled to the side of the bushes to hide against the snow surface, while Yifeng pushed aside the bushes and narrowed his eyes to search the mountains inch by inch. Half an hour passed, and there was no movement at the bottom of the mountain except for the sun spreading out. Yifeng asked softly, "Which direction did the wolf howl come from?"

Tashi said: "I didn't hear clearly. If the wolf is quietly, even if it is under our noses, we can't see it. Now only the wolf is not moving and I am not moving. Just wait." Yifeng gently closed the bushes, shrank back, and looked down, there was a pile of dried wolf dung under his nose. He moved his body, pushed a pile of snow to cover the wolf dung, and said to my ear: " Let's break into the head of the Tiandihui, what if the guests want to have a meeting here? I don't want to be a meeting meal." I pushed him away: "We are all here, what are you afraid of!" After saying this, I glanced behind me with a guilty conscience.

The frost on the fence melted, and the dewdrops fell down the steel wires one by one, knocking like an hour hand, and the sun continued to occupy the mountains. As the light advanced, I suddenly noticed a pin-nosed bright spot on the ridge of the back mountain. If it wasn't for the sunlight that turned him into black and white, I would hardly have noticed him.As soon as my eyes lit up, I didn't dare to look away. I touched a set of binoculars, and the thing happened to look sideways. "Wolf! There!" I suppressed my voice and bit my tongue in excitement. "Where? Where?!" Yifeng couldn't find it, and wished he could pull out his eyeballs and throw them over to look!

That wolf should have been lying on the mountain ridge all the time, and he and the color of the mountain are one.After I pointed, the wolf looked at us and stood up, as if growing out of the mountain. The oblique sunlight elongated his black shadow, magnifying the target five or six times. Yifeng finally saw it, and said in a hoarse voice: "Oh my god, he's so small, it's a good thing you can see him." The wolf must have spotted us a long time ago, from the moment we went up the mountain.He just observed quietly, and even took the time to send a low-key WeChat message to his companions—"Attention all units, three people have come to the mountaintop club, and they are still in ambush, little boy."

With the reference ratio, we pay more attention to the bright spots that are almost as small as him.We soon discovered that there was another wolf halfway up the mountain, and it also stood up after the previous wolf, staring sideways at our side, but the two of them had no intention of retreating at all.After a while, the two wolves looked at the distant sky in unison. I looked up and saw a few falcons circling in front of the Zhongfeng Mountains, and two wolves ran towards the falcons immediately. "Keep an eye on them!" I told Yifeng, and turned to look down in the direction of the eagle. Another wolf spot appeared on the plain and gradually approached the main peak.This wolf spot is relatively large, as if it just came back from hunting and still has something in its mouth.The two wolves before quickly came forward to stop him. From the binoculars, I felt that the wolf's head and neck were much thicker than the other two wolves, like a lion's head. It is estimated that he often holds prey, and his neck is quite strong. .The three wolf spots all stopped in place, apparently they were exchanging information, and then looked up at the eagle. The falcon flew over, circled twice over our heads with a long screeching sound, and then flew back above the wolves. The three wolves immediately moved to the distance, and retreated to a distance of one kilometer from us in a straight line. After a while, maybe they felt that the distance was safe enough, so they gradually relaxed and chased and ate each other by a ditch.I removed the binoculars and compared them with the naked eye. At this distance, people's naked eyes can't see them at all. While the wolves were frolicking, the falcons quickly landed by the ditch, probably pecking at the leftover bone and meat left by the wolves. "There's another one over there!" Tashi pointed at Zhongfeng mountain beam again. "There are also over there!" "And over there!" In a short period of time, wolf spots appeared in the canyon, plain, and back mountain at the same time, which was dizzying. We didn't expect to see so many wolves at once, and we were as excited as if we had won the jackpot.Yifeng turns the camera greedily, trying to capture all the wolves in the shot. Tashi kept counting wolves: "Five, six, seven... This is considered a big wolf pack in Zoige today." After the wolves appeared, they stopped and stared at us from time to time, obviously knowing that we were here, and then they crossed the mountains and gathered in the direction of the three wolves.It seems that the wolves acted separately last night. Perhaps the first two sentinel wolves were waiting for the last big wolf to return from hunting, and the wolves reunited by the ditch. "Are there any wolves? How many are there? Is there Green?" I was in a hurry, and the only telescope was in Tashi's hand. "Seven, it seems that they are all there, and they started to go into the valley. It's too far away, and it's hard to see if there is Green." Seeing that the wolves were about to enter the shadow of the valley, my blood pressure soared, and I stood up with a "boo", and there was no chance if I didn't shout again! "Green—" There was an echo in the mountains.The wolf spots slowed down, stayed for a while, and continued to walk, but one wolf spot stayed and stopped in place. My heart trembled: "Green—Green—" Yifeng stared at the wolf shadow on the camera screen, the sunlight was too strong, and the LCD screen was so dark that it was almost invisible. "Call again! He's looking at you!" Tashi saw a little more clearly through the binoculars, and he and Yifeng also got up and shouted. "Wolf point" is still there, not advancing or retreating, I can't see his expression, or even his movements.He was just a bright spot reflecting the morning light in my line of sight, but my whole body seemed to be lifted and floated by an inexplicable warmth. I didn't even look at what the other wolves were doing, but I was caught by this wolf. Attracted firmly, his eyes condensed into an invisible kite string, and he was holding me at the other end.Is this the mother's sixth sense for her son? I wanted to capture that feeling, to be sure...he was my Grimm?The wolf's eyes far exceed human eyes, he should be able to see me, right?I jumped on the mountain and waved to him vigorously: "Green—" Even if he takes a step towards me, I can be more sure; even if he answers, I can be more sure.But he was still there, not coming or going. Until the other wolves had evacuated, another wolf suddenly appeared on the ground behind the "wolf point", walked up to him and whispered, and finally the two wolf shadows walked into the valley.My eyes were "broken", and I staggered as if I lost my center of gravity, looking at the empty mountain with a sense of loss.No confirmed Green, no response, not even wolves left to wait for us... Well, those two wolves might just be backing up for the pack. Grimm—the last call echoed low in the empty valley.When the wind blows, everything is drowned in the sound of the wind.I sat on the top of the mountain, my blood was getting colder, my heart felt like a big hole had been opened, and the cold wind was blowing through my chest. Tashi patted the centella asiatica stalks on his sleeves: "Let's go, the wolves are closed, and they won't come out again today." Yifeng and I didn't move, looking at the valley in disappointment, neither of us was willing to leave. Tashi thought for a while: "Why don't we walk along the mountain range, go down from the front mountain, and take a look at the Laolang Cave you are thinking about." Only then did we cheer up and set off again against the scorching sun and freezing wind. In the afternoon, the snow on the mountainside melted, and the old wolf cave was hidden in the bushes. As Tashi said, it had been trampled down by cattle and sheep. Yifeng wiped his sweat with his cuffs, half-kneeled in front of the cave, and slowly scraped away the clods at the entrance of the cave.The entrance of this cave has also been trampled down by cattle and sheep before. Green used to dig out this collapsed home so frantically. This is his most cherished place.At that time, Yifeng said: "Let's tide over the difficulties together and find another wolf cave."The words are still in my ears, but the wolf has disappeared.Yifeng sighed, digging, as if opening dusty memories.Tashi and I also silently joined Yifeng's excavation. The hole that was cleaned was much larger than I remembered. I knelt at the hole and sniffed in. There was no familiar smell of wolf smell, but there was a vague... smell of gunpowder?I was a little puzzled, so I took a closer look into the cave to block the sunlight with my hand, let out the cave entrance and said, "Come and see, why do I think the scratches on the cave wall are a bit weird, they don't look like animals digging them, but they look like shovels and shovels." where?" Yifeng buried his head to look at the cave wall, Tashi simply took off his coat and crawled into the cave. After a while, Tashi shrank back from the darkness holding a handful of things, shook the dirt off his head, and spread his hands—a handful of red paper scraps from a firecracker. "Damn it, the hole has been dug out! This is a thunderbolt, very violent! The hole is full of cannon fodder!" Yifeng took the faded red paper scraps and took a closer look: "It's been a while! Is this nest being bombed to hunt down wolf cubs or to bombard big wolves?" "I saw the cave collapse when I went up the mountain to burn incense last year. Maybe it was blown up shortly after you left." My goodness, this used to be Green's home!What has happened since we left!My heart was burning, and I stood up suddenly, my head was dizzy, my chest seemed to be pressed by a huge stone, and I was short of oxygen and couldn't breathe. "Are you okay?" Tashi asked. I waved my hand, grabbed Yifeng's arm and barely stood for a few seconds, only to feel Langshan turning around in front of my eyes, my eyes darkened, my legs softened, and I fell headfirst.Yifeng hurriedly grabbed me and helped me to sit down. Tashi opened his coat to cover me from the sun, and comforted me repeatedly: "Don't worry, don't get angry! How many escapes are there in this wolf cave? Green will be fine. It must be among the pack of wolves just now. Go back and watch the video, it must be there!" As soon as we got back to the hotel, Yifeng and I couldn't wait to export the video. Yifeng magnified the image of the pack of wolves captured on Wolf Mountain on the computer as much as possible. I bit my fingers, held my breath, and stared at the screen, not letting go of any details.From the first wolf found to the last pack of wolves assembled, rewind, replay, freeze frame, slow motion... until it was dark, the nails were gnawed bald, and it was impossible to confirm whether there was Green.We were on the top of the mountain in the morning, and the wolves were almost invisible to the naked eye. We had hoped that we could see them clearly by zooming in on the camera, but the picture quality of the digital zoom was too poor. In the video, there were only groups of blurred wolf shadows like water mist. If you don't run, you can't even tell whether it's a mound or a wolf shadow, let alone identify Green from it.It's hard to meet a pack of wolves coming out of the mountain, but the feeling of not being able to see clearly is more cruel than not being able to see at all. Yifeng closed his sore and swollen eyes, rubbed his temples and said, "No way, it's too far away, and it can only be photographed with professional equipment. If you want to achieve a clear recognition, you must use a super telephoto, a large barrel." "Okay, then go back and buy professional equipment, and then shoot again! The ultra-telephoto should be the clearest, and every wolf's appearance should be taken as a close-up, and the eyes of the sky should be used. I don't believe I can't recognize him. Also, by the way Prepare infrared and night vision devices, in case wolves appear at night, it would be even better if you can take aerial photos, as in today's situation, you can see clearly when you fly over..." Yifeng stared at me, didn't answer, just shrugged his eyebrows. "Okay, that's the deal. I've already saved hundreds of thousands of manuscript fees. You don't have to save it for me. Let's buy dead yaks and feed the wolves with the rest of the money." "The rest?" Yifeng used his index finger to gently pick the goosebumps under his ears. "That's right..." I was taken aback, "Is there any left?" "You are very heroic, I don't want to offend you, but have you heard the phrase 'three generations of poor photography'? Professional equipment is very expensive, and lenses are even more expensive. According to your requirements, it may cost several million." "So expensive?!" My eyes widened in shock and my cheeks puffed up, "It would be great if he had a GPS." "Hehe, didn't you say that you wanted him to go back to the wolves in an inhuman way? Now you regret it again?" I drooped my head and said nothing.I am not a scientist, and Green is not a research subject. I really didn't want to install a tracker on "my son" just because I wanted to know Green's whereabouts. The risk of wolves being repelled, when Green approached wild wolves for the first time, he was bitten and fled back.I don't want him to be killed by the wolves as an "undercover agent" after he returns.But now the man-made disturbance on the grassland is much more serious than it was two years ago. Whether the "son of the wolf" is dead or alive really makes me worry. When I was depressed, my phone rang, and the other party was a lady, who spoke very politely: "Mr. Li, we are from the Ruoergai Forestry Bureau. The wolf from the special police force, we cooperated with the forest police to rescue him. The wolf seller is Co-op, the army has dealt with them seriously. As for the wolf, he has been chained for too long and his physical condition is very poor. Experts say that he has never preyed on himself and is not capable of surviving in the wild, so he can only be sent to Chengdu It's the zoo." "Predation can be practiced, and the wolf itself is in the grassland, but sent him to the city..." I was a little anxious, "Can we try harder." "I understand your feelings, but the official rescue can only be done according to the rules. We stop the trafficking and send the rescued animals to qualified rescue agencies or zoos, and it is absolutely impossible to hand them over to individuals. Wild animal breeding requires a lot of procedures, and you Now there are no conditions. Besides, the wolf has been chained up since childhood. Experts believe that it is useless to release the wolf. Take a step back and say, even if it is really handed over to you, you are fully sure that you can release the wolf that has been raised to such a large size. Are you home?" "No." I thought of the howling of the wolf on New Year's Eve, and my heart ached, "But even if there is a little hope, I have to try again. Wolves can't be rewilded in a day or two. If the experts don't have the energy, we are willing to do this." do it." "There are people's pastures everywhere on the grassland. Where do you put them? If the herdsmen's cattle and sheep are hurt, they will have to trouble us. We don't compensate wild animals for accidents. You used to release Green quietly. But there are too many people who know about this wolf. If we let the wolf out, any cattle or sheep killed by wild wolves may be said to be caused by this wolf, and there will be trouble at that time." The other party stopped. After a while, he asked again, "Did you find your Green?" "No." My heart hurt even more. "Well, to be honest, there are too many cases where wolves on the grassland are being poached and their nests are taken out, and we can't control it. But the county magistrate attaches great importance to this wolf and rescued him personally. A wolf has been dispatched, which has never happened before. If the rescued animals are transferred to individuals, the procedure will be illegal and the contradictions will be very complicated. You understand. I think this wolf should be sent to the zoo. Chengdu Zoo has arranged a special car to pick him up. We can only deal with it according to the rules and regulations. You don’t need to worry about this matter. Your personal ability is indeed limited. The county magistrate knows that you may not be able to accept it, and she is too embarrassed to call you , so let me tell you that the law is like this, and there is nothing we can do about it.” "...Thank you..." After answering the phone call, we felt very depressed. It seemed that the wolf was sent to the zoo as a foregone conclusion.Such a big China does not have a wolf protection center, even if we have a small wild animal rescue station on this grassland.We have the heart to save wolves, but the name is not right. "This wolf... finally... can't die," Yifeng didn't know what to say, "you'd better call 'Old Wolf', so that the old man won't worry about it." "Old Wolf" is Jiang Rong, the author of the novel, we call him Old Wolf.He has a deep affection for wolves and grasslands.More than 40 years ago, as an educated youth, he joined the queue in the Elun Grassland of Inner Mongolia and lived there for eleven years.He is the person who understands wolves best in China today. The wolves he understands are not specimens, genes, or materials, but living wild wolves with flesh and blood galloping on the grasslands.He drilled through wolf dens, dug out wolf dens, raised cubs, fought wolves, and lingered with wolves.In that era, they beat and destroyed wolves, and at the same time loved and respected wolves.He understands the character, emotion, and behavior of wolves. He has a particularly keen intuition for wolves, and he can analyze the wolves' thoughts and possible actions closely.Someone once saw the old wolf loves wolves and studied wolves, and wanted to give him a wolf specimen, but he flatly refused: "No! It hurts to see it, I want them all to live and live well on the grassland." The old wolf pays special attention to the wolf, and the old wolf also saw the news from the readers on my Weibo.He heard that we came to the grassland that day, and he called almost every day to care about the progress of saving wolves.Now I can only tell him that the prairie wolf had to leave the grassland to survive. "Poor thing, a wolf leaving the grassland is like a man without a soul, just an empty shell." The old wolf sighed in a deep and vicissitudes, "Alas...but what she said is the truth. Although I don't want the wolf to be imprisoned Entering the zoo, but at least the government came forward to publicly stop an act of selling wild animals, which is a good start! The county magistrate really did his best to mobilize so many departments to save a wolf during the Chinese New Year. You have to thank her very much. It’s a pity that China’s laws are so awkward. What worries me even more is that the life of the grassland is dying, and the wolves on the entire Chinese grassland are dying. Did you know that in 2009, Beijing Satellite TV pulled a good A large formation, with all kinds of advanced equipment, organized strange people and strangers to hunt for wolves on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. As a result, after several months of turmoil, no wolf fur was found. The situation in your Ruoergai grassland is not bad, at least you can still see wolves for now. , maybe in a few years, there will be no more wild wolves in China. The grasslands of Inner Mongolia have been destroyed, and I have witnessed its last original beauty.” I think of the picturesque Swan Lake, Shaoyao Valley and the shocking scenes of the wolf-horse battle in the movie, and I also think of the situation of the Inner Mongolia grassland full of mines and dusty sky that I saw a few years ago. It is really impossible to combine them into one place. I couldn't help asking the old wolf: "Forty years ago, the grasslands of Inner Mongolia were really so beautiful. Did there really have been so many wolves?" The old wolf said bitterly: "After forty years, no, maybe ten years later, people will ask you the same question." Both generations were silent.