Free Web NovelChapter 188: Chapter 188: Iron-Eating Beast
Zhang Aihua and Song Yufang looked over. Hearing the commotion, the others subconsciously looked over too.
Zhang Yiwen and Brother Qiu both brandished the sticks in their hands.
The sticks had green rings wrapped around them, looking like seaweed just pulled from the ocean.
Zhang Aihua walked over. After getting a closer look, he thought it didn’t quite look like seaweed and asked, "What is this?"
Zhang Yiwen said happily, "Dad, this is a grass we found in the snow. There are rats living around it, this big! We can set cages to catch them!"
When Zhang Yiwen said they’d found grass and rats, the others, who had been about to disperse, grew interested again and gathered around.
Looking closely at the grass on the stick, they saw it had sharp, serrated edges from top to bottom. "This grass looks like trouble."
Zhang Aihua said, "We can’t eat this nasty grass, but the rats can. Let’s go try and catch them!"
"Alright!"
Everyone gathered at once. They went into the cave to dig out the trap cages they had made and also brought some grain.
Compared to grass, grain would surely be more appealing to these rats.
The group trudged for a long time, but all they saw was a vast expanse of white. They almost thought Brother Qiu had led them the wrong way.
Of course, Brother Qiu hadn’t gotten them lost. He’d even made markers. Pointing at the deep snow in front of them, he said, "The grass and the rats are hidden under this snowpack."
Everyone quickly used their sticks to test it out.
The sticks slammed heavily into the snow, and sure enough, green streaks were revealed.
It was growing quite vigorously.
They didn’t see any rats, though. They had probably been scared off by Brother Qiu and Zhang Yiwen earlier.
Zhang Aihua dug out the roots of the grass from the snow. He found that the rhizomes were quite white and tender, about as thick as a finger. They looked pretty tasty and were probably what the rats ate.
But digging them out wasn’t easy because the snow was too deep.
If only they had Jiang Si’s transport vehicle, they could just scoop it all up with its giant shovel.
But they didn’t, so they could only dig up a few for a small snack.
Everyone set down cages in the surrounding area, waiting to see if any rats would go straight into them.
But they waited for a long time, and not a single rat took the bait.
There were probably too many of them, and their scent was too strong. No matter how delicious the food, it wasn’t enough to tempt the rats.
The group could only dig up a few of the roots to take back with them.
Song Yufang and the others were waiting for Zhang Aihua’s group to return.
After a long wait, they finally saw them in the distance.
Zhang Yiwen excitedly bounded over. "Dad, did you catch any rats?"
Zhang Aihua shook his head. "They’re too clever. We’ll have to go back tomorrow to see if any get caught. But we did dig up some of the roots. We’ll feed them to the chickens first to see if they’re safe."
Song Yufang took one and looked at it. It was small and adorable, a bit like a miniature radish.
She laughed. "This is so tiny!"
Zhang Aihua said, "It might be small, but at least it’s a wild food source. If we run out of things to eat, we can go get some."
Song Yufang nodded. "That’s true."
Zhang Yiwen was curious. ’I wonder if the texture is the same as a radish.’
’If it’s like a radish, that’d be so boring.’
Song Yufang chopped up the root and fed it to the chickens. The next day, they were still alive and kicking, so the group boiled a few to taste.
One bite revealed a surprising combination: the taste of corn with the texture of a sweet potato.
Although it was a bit strange, the more they ate, the more they found it was actually quite good.
Zhang Yiwen immediately said, "Dad, let’s get some to send to Mr. Qin and his group. Maybe they’ll give us something in return."
Zhang Aihua laughed. "Why are you thinking about that? You’re too young to be so shrewd."
Song Yufang said, "We really should dig some up for them. They’ve given us so much, after all."
"Mm, let’s dig some up then. And see if we can catch a few of those furry rats to raise."
The chicken and ducklings Jiang Si and the others gave them could only survive in the temperature-controlled cave, but these rats could adapt to the ice and snow, so they could raise them anywhere. The only question was whether they would eat seaweed.
If they didn’t, they would just have to wait until their next batch of radishes was harvested before trying to raise them.
「The next afternoon」
Zhang Aihua and his group headed back to the place where the rope grass grew.
Just one night had passed, but the howling wind had already erased all traces of their visit from the day before.
Luckily, everyone knew the approximate location of the cages. They poked around with their sticks, and before long, they were lifting the cages out of the snow.
The one-way cages each held about five or six furry rats. Everyone was quite happy; skinning them should yield a few ounces of meat.
This kind of meat should be pretty tasty.
Wild animals usually carry bacteria and shouldn’t be eaten casually. Zhang Aihua remembered this.
He said to the others, "Let’s take them back and observe them for a while first."
"Alright."
They took the furry rats back, but just as they reached the cave, they felt the cages in their hands grow lighter.
They put the cages down to look. Good grief, the iron cages had been chewed clean through, and all the rats had escaped.
Brother Qiu exclaimed, "These aren’t rats, they’re Iron-eating Beasts!"
Zhang Yiwen chimed in, "Most rodents can chew through iron. It’s not as hard as we think."
"Alright, well, they’ve all escaped. Should we try to catch them again?"
Zhang Aihua frowned, suddenly realizing a serious problem.
’It seems we’ve brought a huge problem upon ourselves.’
’Will these rats get into our stores of salted fish?!’
Zhang Aihua ordered, "Catch them, now! Set the cages, quickly! Kill every single one you catch. Don’t let them start breeding."
Zhang Aihua was anxious, and his anxiety spread to everyone else.
Holding torches, they searched everywhere. One by one, they started spotting the furry rats.
But these rats had a keen sense of smell and quick reflexes.
After a great deal of effort, they managed to catch twenty of them, but it was unclear if that was all of them.
Song Yufang said, "They’re just regular rats. They probably can’t cause too much trouble, can they?"
Zhang Aihua shook his head. "If they have no natural predators, they’ll multiply rapidly. Our food stores might not even be enough to keep up with them. The scariest part is their teeth. They’re only a little bigger than hamsters, but they can chew through thick iron sheets. If they were to bite a person... the consequences would be unimaginable."
"It’s my fault for not thinking it through. I never imagined something so small could be so formidable."
Song Yufang sighed. "Then let’s just set more traps and see."
"Maybe they got scared and ran off on their own."
"That would be for the best."
Zhang Yiwen said, "What’s there to worry about? A cat is a rat’s natural enemy. We can’t find a cat, but we can find a dog!"
"We can just borrow the dogs from Mr. Qin’s group to help!"
"If the rats spread to their place, they’d be an even bigger threat to them, right?"
Zhang Aihua nodded. "If we can’t handle it, we can go and ask."
They had to solve this as soon as possible to avoid the danger.
