Yang Bao heard this and responded with a bitter smile, "Uncle Yang naturally believes you can do what you say, and most people in the village will understand, but I’m worried that if so people want to use this incident to cause trouble for your family, the situation might escalate, and it might even get reported to the Governnt!"
This was his real concern!
Mo Yan, puzzled by his words, asked, "The wild beast hasn’t hard any of the villagers, so even if it does get reported to the Governnt, would they care about such a matter?"
Seeing her genuinely unaware, Yang Bao explained the reason.
Many years ago, Jing City was struck by a severe snow disaster, and the wild beasts of Yuhua Mountain, unable to find food and suffering from the cold and hunger, banded together and wreaked havoc on several villages nearby, causing no small trouble for the livestock. Ordinary Peasants, who regarded their livestock as their livelihood, would not let wild beasts harm them.
The villagers of several villages banded together, ard with knives and sticks, and killed many of the beasts, selling their hides and at for a good amount of Silver Coin.
However, no one expected that the wild beasts’ desire for revenge was so strong. They rallied even more companions and stord into the villages, not only killing the livestock but also any villagers who dared to resist. In just over ten days, the several villages saw fifty to sixty people killed or injured. When the incident reached the Court, the late emperor was outraged. He issued an imperial edict personally, ordering the Governnt to eliminate those harmful wild beasts...
"What happened after that?" Mo Yan urgently inquired. Although she felt that wild beasts also had lives and their fate shouldn’t be decided by humans, since they had killed livestock and hard innocent villagers, even though there was a reason behind it, it was mostly their fault, and they couldn’t be wronged if the Governnt hunted them down.
Yang Bao shook his head, took a deep breath, and continued, "The surviving villagers thought they would be saved as long as the Governnt killed those harmful wild creatures and could avenge their relatives, but they didn’t realize that the ferocious beasts, having lost companions, fled back into the mountains to summon even more wild beasts for revenge. Not even the hundred or so Governnt soldiers could resist; dozens were killed or injured..."
Mo Yan was taken aback upon hearing this. Was this a fight to the death?
As if reading her thoughts, Yang Bao nodded, his face flashing with deep fear, "The Court then sent a thousand elite soldiers, who suppressed that group of wild beasts without letting a single one escape back into the mountain. Everyone thought it was over until a few villagers went into the mountains to set up traps for wild chickens and rabbits for food the following spring; none ca back! For a long ti afterward, no one dared to enter the mountains. But you need the mountain to live if you’re near it—collecting firewood, finding rare fruits and wild vegetables to sell in the city in exchange for oil, salt, soy, and vinegar. It didn’t take long for people to resu going into the mountains to pick mushrooms, and when they didn’t return by the evening, the whole village was asked to search for them; all they found was a torn shoe."
At this point, Yang Bao let out a long sigh. He was only seven or eight years old at the ti and was so scared by the incident that he didn’t dare to sleep without an adult nearby, not even for half a day.
Back then, there were thirty or forty families in the village, over a hundred people, all relieved that the wild beasts hadn’t reached their village. But because it felt unsafe to live at the foot of the mountain, any family with so spare money tried to move away, for fear that one day the wild beasts would break into the village and cause disaster.
Subsequently, Liu Yang Village declined, with only a dozen hard-up households left that couldn’t move. Fortunately, over the decades, no incident of wild animals entering the village occurred, or else the few villagers remaining wouldn’t be enough for the wild animals to share. Over ti, villagers of the nearby areas gradually forgot about the incidents and would still go into the mountains, but they never dared to step half into the deep mountains again, heeding the words of the elders at ho.
"Uncle Yang, is it because of this incident that once there are wild beasts in the village, it must be reported to the Governnt for them to handle?" Mo Yan asked with so difficulty.
The thought of so many innocent lives lost in that disaster weighed heavy on her heart, and she also began to worry about the three beasts. Once the villagers knew that three beasts were living at her ho, she could almost predict the outco: either the beasts would be driven away or her family would have to move.
Yang Bao nodded, "Indeed, although it has been decades and there aren’t many who rember the tragedy, the Governnt will not forget the late emperor’s direct order."
Mo Yan frowned, the matter with the Golden Beast was indeed a tricky issue. Even if she could ask Yan Junyu to help suppress the matter, the villagers would still hold a grudge against her family. For now, the only solution was to send the Golden Beast to Space, and after its wounds were healed, release it back into the mountain.
But what about the three beasts? Are they to live their lives always hidden? Dabai was fine, as it originally lived in the wilderness and would never have joined human society in Liu Yang Village if not for her; Little Flower and Mao Tuan, however, were a different story. Even if they could survive in the wild, having grown up among humans since they were young, their attachnt to human society was much stronger than to the mountains. She couldn’t bear to drive them away, and even if she could, they wouldn’t want to leave.
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