Huang Huang was given to Chen Zhen by the old man Bilig and Gasmail, and Yi Le was brought over by Yang Ke from his landlord's house. The herdsmen of the Elun Grassland always gave their best things to the students in Beijing, so when the two puppies grew up, they were more outstanding and famous than their siblings. Later on, Ba Tu often liked to invite Chen Zhen or Yang Ke to hunt foxes together, mainly because he liked these two dogs. During the winter of last year, Huanghuang and Yi Le had already caught five big foxes. The fox-fur grassland hats that Chen Zhen and Yang Ke wore in winter were gifts from these two dogs. After the Spring Festival, Isle gave birth to a litter of six babies. The other three were taken away by Bilig, Lanmuzhabu, and other educated youths. Now, there were only three left. One was a female and two were male. Two were yellow and one was black. They were chubby and looked like little suckling pigs. They were extremely cute.
Yang Ke, who was meticulous by nature, doted on Isle and the puppy too much. Almost every day, he had to cook a big pot of thick porridge for Isle with meat broth, minced meat, and millet, and used up more than half of the millet that the grain station had given to the educated youth. At that time, the rations of the Elun educated youths were still based on Beijing standards, 30 catties per person per month. But the variety was very different from Beijing: 3 catties of fried rice (fried millet), 10 catties of flour, and the remaining 17 catties were all millet. Most of the millet was fed to Isle, and the few Beijingers could only eat meat like the herdsmen. The monthly ration of the herdsmen was only 19 catties, and the least was the millet. Millet meat porridge was the best dog food for female dogs. This was a technique that Gasmai had taught them personally. Yi Le had a lot of milk, so the puppies that Chen Zhen kept were stronger than the puppies of the herdsmen.
The other strong and tall black dog was a local Mongolian breed. It was five or six years old, with a square head, wide mouth, wide chest, long legs, and a long body. Its roar was like a tiger's, ferocious and desperate. Its body was covered in scars, and there were hairless black skins on its head, chest, and back, making it look ugly and majestic. It used to have two round yellow eyebrows the size of a dog's eyes, but one of them seemed to have been bitten off by a wolf. Now there was only one left, which matched its two eyes, as if it had three eyes on its face. Although the third eye did not grow in between the eyebrows, it was still three eyes. Therefore, Chen Zhen and Yang Ke called it Erlang Shen from the beginning.
Chen Zhen had picked up this fiendish big dog on his way to the supply and marketing cooperative of the neighboring community to buy things. That day, on the way home, Chen Zhen always felt a chill on his back, and even the cow was startled. When he turned around, he saw an ugly dog the size of a giant wolf. It stuck out its tongue and followed behind him without saying a word. He was so scared that he almost fell off the ox cart. He used the bull prod to chase it away, but it did not leave. It followed the ox cart all the way home. Several horse herders recognized it and said that it was a vicious dog with the bad habit of biting sheep. It was kicked out of the house by its owner and had been wandering in the grasslands for almost two years. On snowy days, it would suffer under the broken wall. During the day, it would hunt, catch hares, catch otters, eat dead animals, pick up wolf food, or fight with lone wolves for food. It was no different from a wild dog. Later, it found a few families, but it was kicked out of the house a few times because it bit a sheep. If it wasn't for the fact that the herdsman had killed a few wolves, he would have killed it long ago. According to the rules of the grassland, the dog that bit the sheep must be killed to prevent the domestic dog from turning into a thief, and the domestic dog from turning back into a wild wolf, disrupting the line between the dog and the wolf. It could also serve as a warning to other wild dogs. The herdsmen advised Chen Zhen to chase it away, but Chen Zhen felt that it was very pitiful and was very curious about it. It could actually survive in the cruel grassland where wolves were in packs and ice and snow. It must be very capable. Besides, ever since he moved out of the old man Billig's yurt and left the majestic wolf-killing dog Balle, he seemed to have lost his left and right arms. Chen Zhen told the herdsman that the dogs they hired were all fast hunting dogs and were young. They just needed such a big dog to guard the house. It was better to keep it for the time being and see how it worked. If it killed the sheep again, he would pay for it.
A few months passed, and Erlang Shen did not bite the sheep. However, Chen Zhen could tell that it was enduring it and taking the initiative to stay far away from the sheep. Chen Zhen heard from the old man Billig that in the past few years, there had been a lot of vagrants who came to the grasslands to do odd jobs, and the few stray dogs on the grasslands were almost wiped out. They tricked the stray dogs into mud houses and hung them up to choke them to death. Then, they skinned them and ate their meat. It seemed that this dog was almost eaten by someone. It might have escaped at the last moment. It didn't dare to wander or be a wild dog anymore. Stray dogs were not afraid of wolves that ate sheep, but they were afraid of people who ate dogs. This big, vicious dog roared the loudest when it saw the sheep guard at night. It fought the most fiercely, and there was often wolf blood on its mouth. After a winter, Chen Zhen and Yang Ke's sheep were rarely eaten or bitten by wolves. On the grasslands, the dogs 'main tasks were to spend the night, guard the house, and hunt. During the day, the dogs did not graze with the sheep. Moreover, there were stone pens with lambs in spring, which also separated the dogs from the sheep. These conditions might help this evil dog slowly turn over a new leaf.
In Chen Zhen's yurt, the other educated youths were also very friendly to Erlang Shen and always fed him until he was full. However, Erlang God had never been close to anyone, and he did not show any gratitude to his new master for taking him in. It didn't play with Yellow-Isle, and even when it saw its master, it shook its tail so little that it was almost imperceptible. When it was free during the day, it would often wander alone on the grassland or lie in the grass far away from the yurt. It looked into the sky and pondered. Its slightly narrowed eyes revealed a yearning and nostalgia for the free grassland.
At a certain moment, Chen Zhen suddenly realized that it did not look like a dog, but more like a wolf. The ancestors of dogs were wolves. One of the earliest ethnic groups in the northwestern grasslands of the Celestial Dynasty, the Quanrong tribe, believed that their ancestors were two white dogs, and the totem of the Quanrong tribe was dogs. Chen Zhen often wondered how the strong grassland people could worship the domesticated dogs of humans. Perhaps thousands of years ago, prairie dogs were unusually ferocious and wild, or perhaps they were wolves that had not lost their wolf nature and had some dog nature? The white dog worshipped by the ancient Quanrong tribe was probably a white wolf. Chen Zhen thought, could it be that this big vicious dog he picked up was actually a dog with a wolf's nature? Or a wolf with a dog's nature? Perhaps it was showing signs of severe atavism?
Chen Zhen would often deliberately get close to it, squatting beside it, stroking its fur and scratching its itch, but it rarely responded. It was hard to tell if his gaze was deep or dull, and his tail was wagging very lightly. Only Chen Zhen could feel it. It did not seem to need human caress or dog sympathy. Chen Zhen did not know what it wanted, nor did he know how to let it return to a normal dog life. Like Huang Yile, there was work to do, food to eat, someone to take care of, self-reliance, and a worry-free life. Chen Zhen often thought of something else, could it be that it did not miss the normal life of a dog and planned to return to the world of wolves? But why did it pinch the wolves as soon as it saw them? It was as if there was an irreconcilable hatred between them. From its appearance, it looked completely like a dog. Its black fur drew a clear line between it and the yellow-gray wolf. However, the wolves of India, the Soviet Union, the United States, ancient Rome, and the ancient wolves of the Mongolian grasslands had all adopted human children. Could wolves not take in dog children? However, if it joined the wolf pack, the herd of horses, cows, and sheep would suffer. Perhaps the most painful thing for it was that neither the dog nor the wolf accepted it, or it did not want to go to either side. Chen Zhen sometimes thought that it was definitely not a wolfhound. Although wolfhound was fierce, it was full of dog nature. It could be a rare dog wolf, or half of a dog wolf, or a wolf that was slightly more than a dog. Chen Zhen could not figure it out, but he felt that he should treat it well and slowly ponder over it. Chen Zhen hoped that he could become its good friend. He planned to call it Erlang God instead of Erlang God in the future. It sounded like Erlang, which was similar to the sound of two wolves.
Chen Zhen waited for Yang Ke and Liang Jianzhong to wake up. Outside the yurt, he continued to feed the dogs, play with the puppies, and stroke the expressionless Erlang.
The four of them had been living in their yurts for more than a year. There were four people: a stable, a cowherd, and two shepherds.
The strong and capable Zhang Jiyuan was a stable boy. He followed Batu and Lanmuzhabu to herd nearly 500 horses. Horses ate a lot and wasted a lot of grassland. In order not to compete with cattle and sheep for food, they had to often graze far away. In the wilderness deep in the mountains, where wolves roamed, far away from the camp, they lived in simple yurts that were only big enough for two people to sleep in. They used small iron rings and horse manure stoves for picnics. They lived a more primitive life than the yurts in the camp. The job of a stable keeper was dangerous, arduous, and responsible. However, stable keepers had the highest status among the herdsmen. This was the proudest profession of the people on horseback.
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