Chapter 837: Worse Than a Beast

After eating and drinking their fill, the sky gradually darkened. The two of them sat on the open ground in front of the dugout, each pinching a cigarette, beginning to blow clouds of smoke.

Exhaling a puff of smoke, Wang Li suddenly asked Wang An

"Fourth Brother, do you think there's only that one litter of wild boars near these crops? And most of them were killed by us."

Wang An looked at the pitch-black night before him and said casually

"Who knows. Anyway, it'll definitely be quiet tonight. After all that commotion, nothing should be coming here."

The reason Wang An said this was primarily because animals, before coming down the mountain, act based on the scent of humans—mainly various odors.

Take wild boars, for example. When they come down the mountain to ravage crops, they don't just charge blindly; they conduct reconnaissance.

If the human scent—that is, the various odors—is particularly strong in a certain area, you can rest assured that wild boars absolutely will not come to that place for a short period of time.

Many people say animals aren't as smart as humans, but in certain fields, humans really are inferior to animals.

For instance, in his previous life, Wang An had heard a story while inside the "fence."

Before entering the fence, a certain cellmate had once bought four boxes of half-cooked side dishes and a box of packaged rice—the kind of food that can be eaten immediately after heating.

After this person heated the food at home, he felt the taste was excellent; not only did it taste good, but it also looked very nutritious.

At that time, a stray dog that frequently lingered near his house came over, drawn by the aroma. The man, being very kind, scooped out some rice and dishes to feed the stray dog.

Then, a dramatic scene unfolded. The dog merely sniffed the food, didn't take a single bite, turned around, and left.

Seeing that the dog wouldn't eat, the man didn't think much of it, assuming the dog wasn't hungry, and continued eating and drinking.

After a while, the dog returned, but this time it was carrying a half-bucket of leftover instant noodles in its mouth, left behind by someone.

The dog then placed the half-bucket of instant noodles in front of the man.

It was clear that the dog was telling the man to eat the instant noodles instead.

By this time, the half-bucket of noodles was not only cold, but because they had been soaking for too long, the noodles had become soggy and completely deformed.

Immediately after, before the man could react, the dog grabbed the rice and dishes he had bought and threw them directly into the trash can.

After throwing them away, the dog barked a few times at the trash can and then gestured for the man to eat the instant noodles.

To be honest, when Wang An first heard this, he was a bit confused.

Mainly because Wang An had stayed in the fence for too long and had become quite disconnected from society, so he didn't quite understand what the man was trying to express by telling this story.

At first, Wang An thought someone had poisoned the food to harm the man.

After all, if a dog refuses to eat normal food, there must be something wrong with it.

Later, through the man's explanation, Wang An learned that it wasn't that someone had put poison in the food, but that the food itself contained "medicine"—and very powerful medicine at that.

One must realize that normal food, if left in the summer, would spoil in less than a day.

Yet the food this man bought could be stored for as long as half a month, even after being opened and heated.

The reason for saying this was that this cellmate of Wang An's was not a very hygienic person; as for cleaning his room, it depended entirely on his whims.

Thus, half a month later, while cleaning, the man discovered that the food the dog had thrown away was still in the same state as when it was discarded. Not only had it not grown mold or spoiled, but the color remained as bright as ever.

Hearing this, Wang An finally understood that there was something wrong with that rice and those dishes—something seriously wrong.

Of course, Wang An didn't care much about the food being problematic; caring about it was ultimately pointless. For someone inside the fence to worry about such things would be absurd.

However, the behavior of the stray dog left Wang An genuinely surprised for a long time.

Through this incident, Wang An's greatest realization was that when it comes to eating and drinking, humans are inferior to beasts!

The people who made that food were worse than beasts.

The people who ate that food were inferior to beasts.

Even a dog knew the food was problematic, yet humans didn't fucking know; not only did they not know, they actually found it quite delicious.

Why the fuck is that? Whose fault is it, exactly?

While Wang An was lost in these random thoughts, Wang Li continued to ask

"Fourth Brother, are we still keeping watch tonight?"

Hearing this, Wang An instinctively said

"Watch my ass. I'm not keeping watch. Besides, if there's any movement, the dogs will bark. In a bit, we'll just sleep; whatever happens, happens."

It must be said that with Wang An's completely nonchalant attitude, this was absolutely not the demeanor of someone protecting young seedlings. He was using the protection of the crops as a front just to sneak away and slack off in the fields.

But in truth, Wang An didn't actually think that way. Although his prediction might not be perfectly accurate, after all the shouting and commotion from so many people during the day, if any mountain beasts still came to ravage the crops, it would mean the beasts' noses were broken.

Upon hearing Wang An say this, Wang Li immediately smiled happily and said

"Anyway, I'll listen to you. Whatever you say goes, hehehehe..."

Clearly, Wang Li didn't want to keep watch either.

The two of them sat outside for a while longer before returning to the dugout to sleep.

Sure enough, just as Wang An guessed, the night was exceptionally quiet.

Not only did no wild boars come, but they barely heard any cries from wild beasts.

Thus, after a very peaceful night, the next day arrived in the blink of an eye.

Before 5:00 AM, Wang An and Wang Li were already up.

Mainly because they had gone to sleep too early the previous night, and after being woken up by the urge to urinate, they couldn't fall back asleep.

After urinating, Wang An looked at the surrounding crop fields shrouded in mist and suddenly felt that living for a day in these mountains, far from the hustle and bustle, was actually quite nice.

He distributed the steamed buns brought yesterday and the remaining half of the small wild boar from yesterday's lunch to the dogs, which settled their breakfast.

As for Wang An and Wang Li, they reheated the leftover roasted suckling pig and toasted the remaining two steamed buns in the pot, making do with that for breakfast.

After the morning routine, the bored duo rode their horses and led the pack of dogs for a loop around the area.

Of course, they weren't just wandering for the sake of it. The two of them mainly wanted to familiarize themselves with the surrounding terrain and the locations of traps and clamps, while also checking which nearby woods had the most squirrels.

(End of Chapter)