Wolf's Return to the Wild Chapter 25

I once felt inspired by an essay titled "The Road to the Prairie" written by a female writer more than ten years ago. She wrote: "There is actually no road deep in the grassland, because there is no need for roads at all on the grassland. Walking on the grassland , all you need is the direction. The direction is the road in the grassland. Just point wherever you go, and it will be the road. No matter where you go, you will not be able to walk through the grassland. It’s not a topic. The road in the grassland is a kind of carpet that extends infinitely with your steps... The road in the grassland can be modified and corrected at any time. It is the oldest and most primitive in the world. The form of the road, the freedom of the grassland is determined by the free road of the grassland... If one day, the road on the grassland is replaced by a highway that is straight, solid and cannot be changed at will, then we will no longer have "Free grassland."

When I was a child, my understanding of the grassland was based on the description of the Red Army crossing the grassland in the textbook. There were muddy wetlands and swamps everywhere. At that time, I thought it would be great if there was a road that could safely pass through the grassland. Unexpectedly, in just ten years, this safe road would become a "dream come true", and along with it came the social changes sweeping through the grassland. Only then did I clearly feel a terrible human power.

When riding a horse on the grassland, no matter how far you go, you can vaguely see the highway lying dazzlingly in your field of vision, like a knife mark in the hinterland of the grassland. The grassland roads that used to be able to be corrected at will like flexible blood vessels have become rigid. Foreign civilization and groups of tourists are like germs eating away at the organs of the old people in the grassland along the hardened arteries.

Just following the regular road already made me feel that the freedom of the grassland was being lost, and now that I was walking with a wild wolf, there was no way to find it. I tried to stay away from the road as much as possible to pick up the remaining feeling of freedom, but as I walked, these small roads to freedom were cut off by the ubiquitous fences. Although I brought Green to the grassland with enthusiasm and persistence, where were the wolves? Where is his home? Where is our path?

Duoji and I were walking and chatting on horseback. Soon, the endless fence blocked the way and the horse could not pass. There was a high mountain in front of us.