“I’ll bring a world map tomorrow,” Chen assured him. “You can study it all you want.”
“All right. You’ve worn yourself out the past few days, so go home and get some rest.” When he saw that Chen was hesitant about leaving, he said, “You want to ask how to get to that litter of cubs, is that it?”
Chen hesitated, then nodded. “It’s my first time, Papa, so you have to tell me how to do it.”
“I don’t mind telling you,” Bilgee said, “but it’s not something I want you to do often.”
“Of course,” Chen promised.
The old man took a drink of tea and smiled mysteriously. “If you hadn’t come to me, you’d never get your hands on that litter of cubs. First of all, give the mother wolf a reprieve. Don’t pass the point of no return in matters like this.”
“Are you telling me I’ll never get my hands on them?” Chen asked anxiously.
The smile left the old man’s face. “Well, you tossed explosives into the first tunnel and crawled into the second. You left your smell inside and sealed up both holes. She’ll move tonight, that’s for sure. She’ll dig another hole and tunnel her way in. Then she’ll bring out her cubs, one at a time, and deposit them for safety in a temporary den. In a few days she’ll find a new permanent den, someplace humans will never find.”
Chen’s heart was beating wildly. “Is this temporary den somewhere that can be found?” he asked.
“Not by people, but maybe by dogs. That yellow dog and a couple of the black ones ought to do it. By the look of things, you’re not going to be talked out of it.”
“Papa,” Chen said, “why don’t you go with me tomorrow? Yang Ke says that the wolf has tricked him enough already.”
“I have to go up north to check the traps,” the old man said with a little laugh. “We caught a wolf last night, but I haven’t touched it. The wolves up north have returned. They’re hungry, so I might remove all the traps tomorrow. I think you should rest up the next couple of days to get ready for the hunt. We can take care of this other matter after the hunt.”
Chen blanched, and the old man noticed.
“Or,” he said more agreeably, “you and Yang Ke go check things out tomorrow. The wolf smells will be strong, so let the dogs sniff around, and I’m sure you’ll find it. New dens aren’t very deep. If she moved her litter to another old tunnel, they’ll be out of reach. Luck plays a role in stealing wolf cubs. If you can’t get to them, I’ll go take a look. I won’t let Bayar crawl into a den unless I’m there.”
Bayar, exuding confidence, said, “I could wriggle through the hole you found. If you’d taken me with you today, you’d have your cubs by now.”
Yang Ke was waiting for Chen when he arrived back at the yurt. Chen reported Bilgee’s conclusions and recommendations, but that did little to ease Yang’s concerns.
A burst of intense barks woke Chen in the middle of the night, and he knew that somehow Erlang had made it back home, that no wolf pack had gotten him. He could hear his powerful footfalls outside the yurt as he took up his guard duties. He should have fed him and tended to his injuries, but he was so tired he rolled over and, as soon as Erlang stopped barking, fell back to sleep.
When Chen awoke the next morning, Yang Ke, Gao Jianzhong, and Dorji were sitting around the stove drinking tea and eating slices of meat as they discussed the theft of the cubs. Dorji, a cowherd with Team Three, was a clever and experienced man of twenty-four or twenty-five who had come back to herd cattle after graduating from middle school. He doubled as the brigade’s bookkeeper and was a hunter of renown. Yang Ke had invited him over out of concern that they would once again fail or would run into danger. Dorji would be their adviser and bodyguard. He was a cautious hunter, one who never loosed his hawk until he saw a rabbit, and his presence greatly enhanced the chance of getting the cubs.
Chen rolled out of bed, got dressed, and greeted Dorji. “I hear you wormed your way into a wolf’s den,” Dorji said with a smile. “Be extra careful from now on. Now that she’s picked up your smell, she’ll come after you no matter where you go.”
That came as such a surprise that Chen got all tangled up in his down coat. “Does that mean I’ll have to kill her, so she won’t kill me one day?”
“I was just teasing. Wolves are afraid of humans. Even if she picks up your scent, she won’t dare get too close. If they were that good, I’d have been eaten long ago. I went into a tunnel once when I was thirteen or fourteen and brought out a litter of cubs. And I’m still around, aren’t I?”
Chen relaxed. “You must have killed a lot of wolves over the years.”
“Sixty or seventy, I guess, not counting cubs. With them you’d have to add seven or eight litters.”
“Seven or eight-that makes fifty or sixty cubs, so altogether a hundred and twenty or thirty wolves. Haven’t they ever tried to square accounts with you?”
“Of course they have. Over the past ten years, wolves have killed seven or eight of our dogs, and too many sheep to count.”
“If you kill off all the wolves, what will you do with your dead?”
“We Yimeng Mongols are like you: we don’t feed our dead to the wolves; we bury them in coffins. The Mongols here are backward.’
“The Tibetans feed their dead to eagles. Here it’s wolves. If you kill off all the wolves, won’t the locals hate you?”
“You can’t kill off all the Olonbulag wolves. The government tells us to hunt them, saying that each wolf killed saves a hundred sheep and each litter of cubs taken saves ten flocks. If you think I’ve killed a lot of wolves, you should see the champion wolf hunter of the Bayan Gobi Commune. One spring a couple of years ago, he brought out five litters of cubs, almost as many as I’ve managed over a decade. Lots of people from outside live in Bayan Gobi, including Mongols from Manchuria, and many of us hunt wolves. That’s why there are fewer wolves there than here.”
“How’s their livestock production?” Chen asked.
“Not as good as here. Their grazing land is inferior, because there are so many rabbits and field mice.”
Chen finished putting on his coat and went outside to look at Erlang, who was eating a skinned lamb. In the springtime a lamb died from injury or sickness or the cold every few days, and they were fed to the dogs, which wouldn’t eat them before they were skinned. Chen saw that he kept looking over at the lambs as they frolicked in the pen while he ate. Chen called him, but instead of looking up, he remained sprawled on the ground, his tail waving slightly. Yellow and Yir, on the other hand, came running over and laid their paws on his shoulders. Yang and the others had already treated Erlang’s injuries, but he kept trying to remove the bandages with his teeth so that he could lick his wounds himself. Going back up the mountain was not going to be a problem with this spirited animal.
After breakfast, Chen went to the neighboring yurt to ask Gombu to watch the flock for him. Seeing that Chen and Yang were determined to lay their hands on a litter of cubs, Gao Jianzhong also appeared to get the itch, so he asked Gombu’s son to watch his flock for the day. On the Olonbulag, stealing a litter of wolf cubs brought glory to anyone who could manage it.
The four men set out for Black Rock Mountain with their tools and weapons, a day’s provisions, and two dogs. A cold front came at them like an avalanche, but left like silk from a cocoon. Four or five days had passed without the sun breaking through the thick cloud cover; on the gloomy grassland, herders’ faces gradually gave up their wintry purple hue in the spring and turned ruddy red. New grass beneath the snow turned yellow, slowly, like hotbed chives under a blanket, showing no trace of green. Not even the sheep would eat it. Dorji’s face creased in a smile as he looked up at the puffy clouds and said, “The frozen ground has kept food out of the wolves’ bellies for some time. Last night the barracks dogs were barking ferociously, and it’s a sure bet that the pack has returned.”