Xia Ming looked at the tooth in his hand, shook it, estimating that it weighed more than ten kilograms and was about 20 centimeters long, with a bottom diameter of about 10 centimeters, resembling half a canine tooth.
As for the material, Xia Ming walked a short distance away and cleaned it with snow. It was most likely rock, but it didn't quite look like it from the broken section.
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The section was black with a faint metallic luster, with many tiny white crystal-like grains attached to it. At the same time, there were faint traces of liquid flowing slowly inside the black section.
As Xia Ming kept changing angles, the section reflected a colorful light.
"Could this be a gem I've found? It doesn't seem like it."
Thinking this, Xia Ming returned to the excavator and looked at the pit from which the tooth was dug.
He scraped away the surface soil, and a small protruding rock section appeared before his eyes. Xia Ming placed the tooth on it and found that it fit perfectly, without any discrepancy.
However, the rock section in the pit looked like an ordinary bluestone and had no connection whatsoever to the tooth in Xia Ming's hand.
"Curious. Perhaps it's some kind of mineral crystallization, like pyrite or bismuth? Hopefully, there's no radiation involved."
With that in mind, Xia Ming took out his phone to search online and see if he could find any similar minerals. After all, there are countless types of minerals, and an ordinary person wouldn't recognize them all.
Just then, Wangcai, who was on the dam, suddenly barked and quickly rushed over. Its speed was comparable to when Xia Ming called it for food.
Wangcai soon arrived in front of Xia Ming and kept barking while circling around him, wagging its tail vigorously.
"Go away, stop barking," Xia Ming tried to stop it, but Wangcai continued barking and even hugged Xia Ming's leg, trying to climb up.
"What's wrong with you? My leg is covered in mud. Do you want this?" Xia Ming finally understood what Wangcai wanted.
"This is not something to eat. What if it's poisonous? I'll search online later."
So Xia Ming sat in the excavator's cab with the tooth, took out his phone, and started searching. Meanwhile, Wangcai couldn't wait and kept running in circles, then jumped onto the tracks.
Since the tooth was heavy and had a lot of soil on it, Xia Ming placed it under his feet, with the section facing outside the cab towards Wangcai, who was barking energetically.
As Xia Ming leaned back in the driver's seat, engrossed in his phone, he didn't notice that Wangcai suddenly stopped barking.
He saw Wangcai's front legs entering the cab, retreating onto the tracks, and stretching its neck to continuously lick the section of the tooth. In no time, it licked the white crystals on the surface of the section clean, and by the time Xia Ming realized it, it was already too late.
"Damn it, you foolish dog! How could you lick something like this? What if it's toxic?" Xia Ming got furious, ignoring his phone, and picked up the dog, scolding it loudly while holding its mouth shut.
Wangcai was completely deformed by Xia Ming's pulling, but from its squinted eyes and the tail wagging, it was evident how happy it was at the moment.
Xia Ming scolded it for a good
seven to eight minutes, not caring about the wetness on Wangcai's body. After examining it from all angles several times, he didn't find anything unusual and reluctantly eased his worries, but he would keep an eye on it.
"You foolish dog, you won't get any food for lunch today." Xia Ming was not in a good mood, threw the dog out of the cab, and picked up the tooth to take a look.
The tooth had lost many white crystals, almost completely gone; meanwhile, it had gained a lot of Wangcai's saliva, which was also all over the place.
Xia Ming took out a greasy cloth to wipe off the saliva from the tooth and wrapped it up, placing it at the back of the cab to prevent the dog from attacking it again.
"Get lost! Next time you eat something randomly, I'll break your leg."
Xia Ming checked the time and realized it was almost noon. His mother should be preparing lunch, and by the time he reached the bottom of the mountain, the food should be ready.
So he picked up the tooth, locked the door, and started walking down the mountain with Wangcai, taking one step at a time.
The reservoir was not close to Xia Ming's home, about one kilometer away. Usually, Xia Ming would ride a bicycle or an electric scooter up and down the mountain. However, due to the snow and the bad condition of the road, Xia Ming didn't want to take any chances and could only walk.
"When I have money in the future, I'll definitely fix this road properly." Xia Ming gasped for breath; the snowy mountain road was difficult to traverse.
But Wangcai, on the other hand, was in high spirits, full of energy. It kept darting around in the snow, leaving a trail of footprints behind.
It even suddenly disappeared into a nearby snow pit, startling Xia Ming. He knew the location of that snow pit.
This place used to be a communal toilet during the collective era. It had a diameter of seven to eight meters, and the overall depth was unknown, but the water inside the pit was about two meters below the surface.
The walls of the pit were made of blue bricks, straight and smooth. If domestic animals fell in, they basically had no chance of climbing out on their own. Of course, chickens were an exception, and ducks and geese, with their exceptional flying abilities, could manage if they tried hard enough and found the right angle.
A few years ago, this pit was used as a centralized disposal site for accidental animal deaths. Now, besides frogs and floating water hyacinths, there was nothing else in the pit.
Since no one in Xia Ming's village raised pigs, cows, or sheep anymore, even if some chickens or ducks died, they were simply thrown into the garbage bin. After all, the pit was quite far from the village, and no one wanted to bother.
But before Xia Ming could go to the rescue, Wangcai unexpectedly jumped out of the restroom. It made Xia Ming suspect that the restroom might already be filled by someone.
However, he didn't approach to check. What if he fell in? He had heard his grandmother tell stories about people drowning in that restroom. Besides, he didn't have the jumping ability of a dog, nor could he swim. As the saying goes, he's not even as good as a dog.
"Wangcai, you foolish dog, enjoy while you can. One day, I will definitely break your leg." Xia Ming muttered in frustration.
Seemingly sensing Xia Ming's displeasure, Wangcai trotted over to him, wagging its tail and looking up, seeking approval.
But before Xia Ming could extend his hand to pet the dog's head, Wangcai dashed away again, without leaving a trace.
"You truly are a dog." Xia Ming fumed, forming a snowball and throwing it at Wangcai, but unfortunately, it missed.
Watching the dog grow further and further away, Xia Ming could only sigh helplessly. He took out his phone and snapped a picture of the dog, adding a caption: "In a world dressed in silver, a fading yellow figure. Its ancestors were once wolves, but now it's a dog."
Click, send.
Exhaling a breath of white mist, Xia Ming unzipped his black down jacket as it was getting warm.
Just then, his phone suddenly rang, and it was his dad calling. No need to guess, he was probably asking when Xia Ming would come down for lunch.
"Hello, Dad, I'm already on my way down, I'm halfway there. Yeah, I didn't ride the bike, the road is too slippery, so I'm walking. I'll be there soon, that's it."
Just as he hung up the call, the phone rang again, but this time the number format started with +0060. Without hesitation, Xia Ming hung up.
"As the year-end approaches, there are more and more scam calls, and the scammers are now chasing their targets for better performance," Xia Ming lamented, shoving his phone into the side pocket of his down jacket.
Due to sweating from the walk, his jacket was open, and the pocket was not in its original position. He tried several times to put the phone in but failed.
Xia Ming had to lower his head to see the exact position of the pocket.
However, while looking for the pocket, he couldn't pay careful attention to the path. He stumbled upon either a tree branch or a raised patch of soil on the snowy ground. He lost his balance instantly and fell forward.
Leaving a large cross-shaped imprint in the snow.
Fortunately, the snow was quite thick, and fortunately, he was wearing multiple layers for winter, or else the consequences would have been worse.
"Phew," Xia Ming struggled to lift his head, spitting out the snow in his mouth and shaking off the snowflakes on his head.
"Darn it, may you go on eighty-eight blind dates during the New Year and fail every single time." Xia Ming cursed the scammer who had just called him, releasing a malicious curse.
If it weren't for that call, he wouldn't have fallen so miserably.
Just then, a yellow figure appeared in front of his eyes. It lowered its head, looking at him with a mix of curiosity and questioning, along with a part that seemed eager to try.
"Wangcai, do you believe that I'll stew you when I get back?" Xia Ming threatened through gritted teeth.
Helpless, because at this moment, Wangcai had slightly raised its right hind leg.
As Xia Ming prepared to get up,
Wangcai turned and ran, quickly disappearing from Xia Ming's sight.
"You come back here, damn it," Xia Ming shouted, while simultaneously inhaling sharply. He felt a sharp pain as if a knife had cut through his left hand.
Raising his hand to look, his palm was covered in blood, and a two to three-centimeter-long cut appeared in the palm. Fresh blood was continuously oozing out from the wound.
"Who has no decency and throws broken glass on the road?" Xia Ming cursed, grimacing in pain.
Upon closer inspection, it seemed that the stone fang he had dropped had scratched his hand.
Because of the fall, the stone fang had scattered from the cloth.
And Xia Ming's left hand happened to press against the sharp edge of the stone fang. The sharp cross-section, combined with the compression from Xia Ming's body weight, immediately caused a cut.
Thus, with a sharp sound, Xia Ming successfully broke the defense, shedding his first blood of winter, First Blood.
Seeing that the wound seemed to be bleeding profusely, Xia Ming quickly grabbed a handful of white snow and covered it. The snow quickly turned red.
But Xia Ming couldn't worry about it now. He didn't have any means to stop the bleeding on his person. Tearing up his clothes was not an option.
A torn cloth? No, Xia Ming didn't want to risk infection.
After all, he was only a few hundred meters away from home. There was Yunnan Baiyao (a Chinese medicine used for treating injuries) and plenty of clean pieces of cloth at home.
Grabbing the stone fang, he stuffed it into the same pocket as his phone and hurriedly ran home.
As he ran, he pressed his right hand against the wound.
In no time, he rushed into the house.
"Mom, Mom, where is the Yunnan Baiyao in the house?" Xia Ming shouted.
His mother shouted back from the kitchen, "It's in the drawer of the ancestral altar, look for it yourself."
The ancestral altar was the long table in the center of the main hall, also known as "Tiao'an" or "Guangzhuo."
The ancestral altar in Xia Ming's house was very old. Apart from the two drawers on the sides, there were four additional drawers in the middle. This ancestral altar was older than Xia Ming himself because it was the furniture his parents had when they got married. Furniture came first, then him.
Xia Ming searched through each drawer one by one and finally found the Yunnan Baiyao in the rightmost drawer. He wished he had started searching from the right side.