At the entrance of the aid station, Wei Ran and Ji Ma looked at each other and said in unison, "Let us help too."
"There is something we can do"
Suisui, who was a little slow to react, rushed to answer. As for the Katenka sisters, they had already silently taken out a pair of plastic-sealed medical rubber gloves from their pockets, tore them open and put them on their hands.
The person in charge of the rescue station, Bi Ran, was stunned, looked at each other with his sister Maya, smiled and nodded, "I'll prepare tools for you, Maya, you take Aurora to prepare food for them.
"
"Come with me"
Maya held Suisui with one hand and greeted the Katenka sisters with the other hand, leading them into the three-story red brick building surrounded by barbed wire fences in the middle.
The first floor of this building is like a small slaughterhouse. On the hooks hanging from the top of the head, there are skinned sheep hanging one after another. Several uncles who look to be in their fifties or sixties are each holding knives.
Cutting up the mutton.
"Are these for wild animals?" Suisui took the mask from Maya and put it on, while curiously asking her doubts.
"To be precise, it is prepared for those animals that have lost their ability to hunt. Those who can still hunt will directly give them live sheep. Like those eagles whose feathers have been clipped, before new feathers grow out, they will
We can only rely on artificial feeding."
While talking, Maya skillfully found a few pairs of long-sleeved kitchen gloves from the cabinet near the door and gave them to sisters Suisui and Katenka. At the same time, she kept explaining, "Even my parents'
Most of the sheep raised in the pasture are for these poor little guys."
"Your family is really rich," Suisui couldn't help but sigh.
“It’s not nearly what you think.”
Maya casually picked up a meat cleaver and a strip of mutton, and while cutting it into long strips, she explained, "Many of the sheep raised in my parents' pasture were collected from nearby herdsmen's homes in the autumn.
Sheep, they’re very cheap.”
“What is the sheep in question?”
Anfisa followed the former's example, picked up a piece of meat and a knife, and asked curiously while cutting it.
"For example, sheep that are born with disabilities, such as ewes that are unable to give birth to lambs, or sheep that have infected hooves or are simply too old and need to be culled, these sheep are very cheap."
Maya said with a smile, "Of course, the sheep that entertained you yesterday were all healthy sheep. My father raised some extra for himself to eat."
"Are those cows and horses like this too?" Anfiya helped Suisui ask the question she wanted to ask.
"They are not"
Maya pointed in the direction outside the door, "In addition to managing this rescue station, my brother Biran is also doing the breeding of beef cattle and dairy cows. Those horses were raised by my father to participate in the sheep-catching competition. Those horses
The competition also allows him to earn some money.
It’s just that most of the money they earned was invested in this rescue station, and together with some official allocations, the little ones here finally don’t have to go hungry.”
"So you didn't just invite us over to have fun, right?" Suisui asked with a smile, holding a meat cleaver in his hand, obviously having guessed the other party's previously unstated intention.
Maya smiled gently, "This is the advice Ji Ma gave me. It was also because of this advice that I decided to bring him to my home to see it."
"So the hot spring..."
"I'm just worried that if I tell the truth, it will be difficult for you to refuse. After all, there were so many people there at the time, including Inta's friends."
Maya put down the meat cleaver in her hand, "Aurora, we are friends, so I can't embarrass you, right?"
"So scumbag Ji didn't fart in the hot spring?" Anfiya asked her sister in a low voice.
"He is a scumbag, but not an idiot." Anfisa responded in a low voice, "I guessed at that time that the scumbag would not do such disgusting things."
Aurora glanced at the whispering Katenka sisters with a smile, and also stabbed the greasy meat cleaver in her hand on the wooden pillar, and said with extra confidence, "Don't worry Maya, I will bring enough fat." The sheep feed the injured little animals outside! I’m even sure to find a long-term meal ticket for each of those little animals!”
"What do you want to do?" Maya asked curiously.
"Who doesn't want to raise a protected animal?" Suisui took off her greasy gloves with a smile, muttering in Chinese, "Even if it's a protected animal in the clouds!"
"What are you talking about?" Maya asked with a confused look on her face.
"Nothing!" Suisui pointed to the two or three pieces of mutton she had just cut by herself, "Are these enough?"
"These can feed at most a peregrine falcon"
Although Maya said that, she still grabbed the meat strips the four of them had just cut and put them into a tin bucket. "Next, do you want to feed the foxes, wolves or golden eagles first?"
"Children only do multiple-choice questions!" Suisui waved her hand, "come one by one, and those who don't eat meat also need to be fed."
"Let's go!" Maya picked up the bucket and walked to the nearest area with Suisui and the Katenka sisters, who were still holding a large piece of mutton in their hands.
Just as these girls were killing the foxes with the mutton in their hands, at the entrance of the rescue station, Wei Ran and Ji Ma followed Bi Ran and the two little girls who were concentrating on their work, carefully cutting open the raptor quilts. The eyelids were sutured, and then the glue on their feathers was cleaned, and a numbered plastic ring was fixed on each of their legs.
Compared to those girls who are trying to find ways to help wild animals get enough to eat, the work of Wei Ran and others is much simpler.
Under their busy work, each raptor reopened its eyes and spread its wings, and was then coated with anti-inflammatory drugs. After careful identification by Biran and his staff, they were classified according to various factors such as health status. .
Also helping in this protected area are the helpers from Inta, but their work is more focused on patrolling the protected area.
Of course, after there were no external threats, these hunters who had grown up in the polar circle put all their interest in learning to ride horses.
Near noon, Suisui, who had taken a lot of photos with a saiga antelope born at the rescue station, also discussed their sheep-killing plan with Maya. The raptors in the container truck at the door were also at Weiran and Jima.
With help, they were all admitted to wards at all levels of the rescue station.
After having a sumptuous lunch on the second floor of the rescue station, Uncle Soslan who came with me warmly extended an invitation, "Jima, do you want to go to my sheep-catching arena?"
"Uncle Soslan, are there any competitions recently?" Suisui asked excitedly.
"There are no games this season"
Soslan explained with a smile, "The sheep-catching competition usually takes place every spring or summer. How about it? Children, do you want to go and have fun?"
"Haven't you always wanted to learn?" Wei Ran deliberately squeezed Ji Ma.
"Of course!" Ji Ma stammered, patting his chest, "I will definitely learn to ride a horse! Don't forget, I am also a qualified hunter."
"Then let's set off now! Ji Ma, remember to call those friends from Inta!" As Soslan spoke, he was already riding on the horse neatly.
Hearing this, Ji Ma immediately greeted the Inta hunters who had just had lunch and had not yet had time to leave. With the help of the staff at the rescue station, they awkwardly sat on their horses.
Under the leadership of Uncle Soslan, more than 20 people on horseback slowly left the rescue station and headed towards the farm. However, the location where they finally stopped was about four to five hundred meters away from the farm.
A flat open space almost the size of two standard playgrounds surrounded by wooden railings.
Unlike the surrounding Gobi Desert, pastures and rescue stations, this open space is not only barren of grass, but not even a large stone can be seen. Wherever you look, you can still clearly see the ground covered with some snow.
Saw a large number of dense horse hoof prints.
At both ends of this open field, there is a circular cement platform wrapped with a used car tire. The height of the cement platform is about the same as a stirrup.
Just when Jima was about to ask where he should learn from it, there were men of thirty or forty years old in traditional Kazakh costumes rushing over on horseback, shouting.
At the head of the horse herd, Maya's brother Anton was riding on the back of a maroon horse, holding the reins and whip in one hand, and carrying the body of a black sheep in the other hand, and rushed straight towards the field.
In the center, he stood up straight with his stirrups, rounded his arms and threw the black sheep in his hand hard.
Almost as soon as the sheep landed, the horses that had just automatically divided into two teams immediately rushed over like a swarm. Anton, who had thrown the sheep, also controlled his mount to run towards the crowd without slowing down at all.
The horse jumped over the waist-high wooden railing in a graceful movement.
"Jima, Victor, and our friends from Inta, do you want to go in and have some fun?" Anton greeted warmly while standing in the stirrups.
"I... let me forget it?"
Ji Ma swallowed hard. In such a short time, the body of the black sheep had been picked up from the ground more than once by the knights who were galloping, and thrown to their companions more than once.
They even snatched the sheep carcasses from other people's arms from the back of a high-speed horse.
Even everyone can clearly see that in this extremely fierce snatching that has just begun, several horses have been thrown to the ground, and several knights have fallen off their horses. But whether they are horses or people, their
Except for a hurdle vest representing different teams, there was no protective equipment at all. Those who fell off the horse immediately got up, hugged the horse's neck and jumped on the horse's back.
"This looks more exciting than rugby!" Suisui sighed with her eyes widened, while the Katenka sisters and Wei Ran beside her also nodded subconsciously.
Indeed, as she said, if we had to make a metaphor, American football could at best be regarded as a collision between heavy infantry, but this sheep-catching game was more like a bloody fight between light cavalry.
Seeing that no one wanted to participate in the competition, Anton, who was joking, naturally did not force it. Instead, he took out a loudspeaker from his horse and slowly introduced the rules of the competition to everyone.
Obviously, this highly entertaining and visually impactful competition is a "performance" specially arranged for everyone.
Of course, it was precisely because it was so exciting that it completely scared away Jima's naive idea of participating in the sheep-catching competition.
