Chapter 119: Raising

However, with the nets surrounding them, they couldn't get far even if they wanted to run. The timid ones hid in some patch of Grass or up in the trees, which was indeed hard to find in the middle of the night. After searching a few more times, Baifeng and the others truly couldn't find any more chickens that had slipped through the net, so they decided to finish up and head home.

The chickens were very restless in the bamboo cages, constantly flapping and struggling, but it was of no use. They would have to stay in the cages for the next two days; Baifeng would start building a chicken coop as soon as he got back.

It was already early morning when they returned to the tribe. The other tribespeople were long asleep, but the Soldiers on patrol duty on the city walls were still quite diligent and hadn't been slacking off.

Baifeng and the others first tallied their spoils. They had sent out over a hundred people and only managed to catch twenty-seven chickens. There were only six roosters; the rest were all hens. It was hard to see clearly at night, but one could judge the sex by their size.

They put them into the warehouse; the pitch-black room could still give them a sense of security. Occasionally, the sound of flapping wings could be heard, but there was no other movement.

Baifeng snuck back into his room. Sui was sitting on the kang, asleep. It looked like she had been waiting for Baifeng, but she hadn't been able to fight off the sleepiness and had fallen asleep in that position.

Baifeng helped her lie down flat and covered her with a quilt. Sui didn't wake up; she smacked her lips, let out a hum, and continued sleeping. Baifeng also quickly lay down to sleep; he was truly exhausted after being busy for most of the night.

The next day, Baifeng slept in. He didn't get up until Sui pulled back the curtains and the sun made it uncomfortable for him. By the time he had washed up, the other tribespeople had already been working for quite a while, though the hunters who had gone out to work the night before were all listless—after all, they couldn't sleep in like Baifeng.

Seeing that they were truly lacking energy, and since they didn't need to go hunting now after being busy for so long last night, Baifeng told them they could go back to sleep and get up in the afternoon. They all cheered and quickly returned to their rooms to catch up on sleep.

Once Baifeng had slept enough, he went to the warehouse to check on his chickens. Without his word, no one dared to handle these chickens themselves. Because Baifeng had slept for quite a while, no one had paid any attention to them, even though the chickens were crowing in the warehouse.

Opening the warehouse, as soon as the sunlight entered, Baifeng was finally able to take a close look at the appearance of these wild chickens. He counted them again, and the number was no different from the count last night. As for why there were so few roosters, it was obvious: sporting such bright feathers and lacking the ability to fly and escape like other birds, these wild roosters didn't have long lives.

However, the appearance of the hens made Baifeng feel that these were definitely wild chickens—a type of wild chicken he had never known before. The hens were particularly small, just a bit larger than quails, with short necks and sharp beaks, very different from the hens of later generations.

But it didn't matter. Baifeng felt that this type of chicken could definitely be domesticated into the kind of poultry from later generations, because the tribespeople had already said they were crowing in the morning; that was a sure sign. Baifeng hurriedly had the tribespeople build a temporary chicken coop so the chickens could get out of the cages first.

There was enough space and plenty of people. Beside the vegetable garden, a group of people started working at the same time, and soon they had tied together a bamboo prison with bamboo that no chicken could possibly squeeze out of...

A bamboo prison was a bamboo prison; besides, keeping the chickens locked up was just like being in prison anyway. They only left a small door, positioned quite high up. After throwing the chickens in and tying the door shut, even if these wild chickens were incredibly clever, they couldn't possibly reach the knots to untie them.

They threw them in, then put in some pond snails and the earthworms originally prepared for the fish. As soon as they were thrown in, they happily began to feast, completely unconcerned about their environment or their state.

No wonder chickens were meant to be domesticated; their temperament was actually suitable for raising. Take sparrows, for example—not to mention whether they had any value for raising, their temperament alone made them impossible to keep. They wouldn't eat what people gave them, so throughout history, while people had raised all kinds of birds, no one had ever raised sparrows. If someone managed to raise a sparrow, it would definitely be a cause for amazement.

There were quite a lot of weasels here. There had already been several incidents of weasels and foxes stealing meat. Because they were relatively small and stealthy, it was purely a thief's behavior; even with people on guard, it was hard to discover them. Wolves, on the other hand, were like blatant robbers; moving in packs made them easy to spot.

Of the few wolf cubs the Baifeng tribe was raising, only six out of over a dozen had survived. Baifeng had two silver-gray ones, and the other tribespeople had four in total. The main thing was that Baifeng had patience, while the others felt that wolves were so detestable that it was a waste of food to raise them, so they were just perfunctorily carrying out Baifeng's task; it was better if they died.

The two Baifeng was raising were already half-grown and quite clingy, but they also had a wild side just like wolves. The main thing was that they were affectionate and looked cute; no wonder many people picked up wolf cubs and raised them for a long time before realizing they were wolves.

Their temperament wasn't much different from a dog's, except that they were a bit too restless. They would bite everything, and they would chase after anything they saw. Baifeng knew they were practicing their hunting skills, but the other tribespeople didn't think so; they always felt that these wolves would bite the Tribal Chief to death in the middle of the night.

As for how to change the tribespeople's minds, it would depend on whether they could show some good behavior. Baifeng had even given them names: the slightly larger one was called Changwei, and the smaller one was called Laifu. He often saw Changwei beating up Laifu.

Usually, when going out, Baifeng would take them both along, mainly to build a bond. Ever since Sui, his little shadow, stopped following him every day, it seemed a bit boring to wander around alone.

However, they were always tangled around Baifeng's feet, pulling at every step, tearing at Baifeng's pant legs. If they bit into his skin, they knew to hold back and wouldn't injure Baifeng, though their little sharp teeth were still quite painful.

To prevent them from harming people and to help them adapt in advance, Baifeng put collars on them. However, whether it was rope or leather, they couldn't last a day before being torn to shreds. So as not to waste things, Baifeng just ignored them for now, waiting until they were bigger to put on Iron chains.

Of course, Baifeng couldn't fully trust them, so when they were small, he kept them in his room. Now that they were this big and had the ability to ambush and kill Baifeng, he built a doghouse outside his door for them to live in, treating it as guarding the door.

Bringing them to the side of the chicken coop, the two were already restless and started digging at the ground. Baifeng felt this wouldn't do; maybe by tonight they would dig their way in and bite all the chickens to death.

So he went to the warehouse to find a fox skin that hadn't been processed yet, propped it up to look like it was alive, and in front of the two little wolves, he used the fox's claws to dig at the ground. The two of them followed suit and dug along.

Then Baifeng suddenly stood up, kicked the fox skin, and then picked up a wooden stick and smashed it a few times. The two little wolves were scared into squeaking on the spot, tucked their tails, and ran away. Laifu was even scared into peeing himself.

Baifeng stopped his actions and waited for them to come over. Baifeng continued to dig with the fox skin, but this time the two of them didn't dare to dig. Then, in front of them, Baifeng beat the fox skin violently again. Afterward, Baifeng pulled Changwei over and used its claws to dig the soil. It was so scared it just squeaked and wanted to break free. Baifeng let it go and switched to Laifu; Laifu was just as scared and struggled.

It seemed the education was effective; at least now they didn't have the guts to steal chickens. As for the ones others were raising, they didn't care at all. They raised them directly in their houses and trusted the little wolves they were raising more than Baifeng did, because for those who didn't trust them, the wolves they raised had long since died.