After the snow stopped, Wen Qian went up the mountain again. She had seen traces of wild chickens, and then tried to make a wire trap using the methods described in a book, hoping to catch some wild chickens.
She had previously bought snow goggles to prevent snow blindness, and they came in handy now.
She assembled the accessories she had purchased earlier, and went to try them out in the distant mountains, but they made quite a loud noise, like setting off firecrackers. Wen Qian didn't dare try it too many times and came back.
In her dream, the snow was constantly falling without stopping. Wen Qian wondered if it might not be this winter.
Later, when the sun came out, the snow melted bit by bit, and it became even colder than before. Wen Qian froze more ice blocks, planning to use them next year.
Her wire trap had actually caught a wild chicken.
After mastering this skill, Wen Qian didn't try it again. She was attempting to learn other skills.
She tried to find things to do for herself every day, unable to lie in bed or stay by the warm stove.
Sometimes she read books to learn knowledge, and sometimes she tried to make things.
The body cannot stop working, and the brain cannot stop thinking.
Once a person slackens, inertia will quickly overwhelm them. She never felt that having space and storage meant she could rest easy.
She had previously purchased a lot of fabric. In addition to the down jacket she bought, Wen Qian planned to make a few pieces of clothing herself.
Because the stove was set up in a north-facing room, the window faced the back canyon.
When they initially dug the foundation for the house, they had dug out the foot of the slope, resulting in a ledge about two meters high.
Wen Qian's previous bedroom had a large window in the old style, so she didn't sleep there, but rather in the room with the stove.
During the midday when the sun was directly overhead, she would come to this room for exercise.
When the snow melted, it dripped water in front and behind the house, feeling like it was raining.
The ground in front of Wen Qian's door wasn't paved with concrete, so when the snow melted, anyone walking would get mud on their feet.
Fortunately, the toilet was already installed inside the house. Otherwise, going out once would mean getting two pounds of mud on one's feet, and the muddy conditions would be unbearable.
For this reason, no one came to Wen Qian's place.
Wen Qian tinkered with things at home by herself, and no one knew what she was doing.
But during this period, she did see a trail of footprints that circled around the side of her house before leaving.
Moreover, these footprints didn't come from the little Chen Depression path near Auntie Chen's place, but rather from the mountain slope behind her.
In other words, someone had bypassed the little Chen Depression and come over the mountain behind them. Wen Qian found this strange, but when she asked Auntie Chen, the other party said the prints weren't theirs.
Wen Qian became more vigilant. In the bitter rural winters, there were always petty thieves coming to steal chickens and dogs, quite literally.
Every winter, the village dogs faced hardship, as mutton and dog meat hot pot were quite popular, and some people wanted to make a quick buck. They didn't raise dogs or sheep themselves, but stole other people's dogs to sell.
Wasn't it just an easy profit?
Auntie Chen's family used to have a dog, but it got stolen every year.
Sometimes they even came to steal it three times in one night, until Auntie Chen herself sold the dog.
Wen Qian was worried that someone might be casing her place. When she mentioned this, Auntie Chen was a bit concerned too.
With Wen Qian living alone, she asked if she wanted to come stay at her place.
Wen Qian refused, but also checked and reinforced all the doors and windows of her house.
Before going to bed, she placed objects behind the main door and the door on the flat roof.
Some things she would eventually have to face alone. And if she was overly pessimistic and thought that if someone really came looking for trouble and she couldn't escape with her abilities, then it would just be her fate.
Wen Qian could stay at Auntie Chen's place for a few days, but how many? After all, she wasn't part of their family, so she couldn't stay there forever, could she?
Ultimately, favors have to be repaid. If her secrets were discovered, would they still treat her the same as before?
The human heart is better left untested.
After some time, when Wen Qian and Auntie Chen went to town, they heard that all the chickens in one village had been stolen. Someone had dug a hole in the wall and taken every single one.
In rural areas, raising chickens is very difficult. In the past when villages had more people, the surrounding weeds were cleared, and small animals didn't dare come near homes.
Now villages are quite desolate, with fewer and fewer people and denser forests. Some small animals became bolder, dragging chickens right into the thickets, without leaving a single feather behind.
Auntie Chen said that when raising chickens nowadays, from chicks to edible age, the attrition rate was over half. So when chickens that were painstakingly raised got snatched all at once, there was nothing to do but curse.
In their area, no one reported chicken or dog thefts to the police station, as it was too remote, so they just had to let it go.
Auntie Chen's son bought them a surveillance camera to install at the door, saying it might act as a deterrent.
Wen Qian thought this was a good idea, so she bought an inexpensive one for herself too.
After that, there were no more strange footprints near her home, probably because the other party realized they didn't raise chickens or ducks.
One morning, Wen Qian was reading a book in the heated room when her phone vibrated with a notification from the surveillance camera that someone was at the door.
Wen Qian called Auntie Chen, asking if any vehicles had passed through their village, but Auntie Chen said no, someone had just walked past her front gate while she was in the kitchen.
So Wen Qian took a kitchen knife and a sharpening stone, and went to open the main door.
Wang Xiaoping, who had been trying to peek through the window, was immediately startled. Before she could explain, she saw the knife in Wen Qian's hand and retreated two steps back.
Unfortunately for this lady, she had accumulated a few pounds of mud on her shoes while walking over, and stepped back unsteadily, plopping right down on her bottom.
Fortunately, it was on the covered walkway and not the muddy yard, but Ms. Wang was quite frightened.
Wen Qian held the knife in one hand and the sharpening stone in the other, scraping the knife against the stone.
The familiar sound of sharpening a knife rang in Ms. Wang's ears, causing her heart to pound with fear.
"What's the matter? Want me to see you off to the next life?"
"Child, please calm down. I know you resent me, but I had my difficulties too. I apologize to you, I was in the wrong."
"Are all your family members dead?"
What? Wang Xiaoping didn't know why the other party was cursing her like this, but she felt that the other party still hated her and was thinking about her.
If she could dispel that anger, perhaps they could reconcile.
She felt human hearts were made of flesh, so if she kept persuading and talking, maybe it would work.
"I asked if all your family members are dead? Why did only you come alone?" Wen Qian impatiently asked. "Since this is an apology, how come there's not a shred of sincerity? Where are the rest of your family?"
"Well, uh, the weather isn't too good, so I came alone." It seemed she came with too few people, so Wang Xiaoping decided to bring her whole family next time, thinking it might change Wen Qian's mind.
"On this visit to see me, does your family know about it?"
"They, they don't know. Otherwise, they would definitely have come with me." Wang Xiaoping's intention was to say that their not coming wasn't because they didn't want to, which was an explanation for Wen Qian's question.
Hearing this, Wen Qian smiled in satisfaction.
"Oh? So they don't know where you went?"
"Yes, yes, they did say before that they wanted to come, but the timing didn't work out."
Wang Xiaoping's intention was to put her family in a positive light, but then she saw Wen Qian raise the kitchen knife.
Walking towards her.
