CH 20.4

The Buddhist bear looked at the Persian cat that was sitting, by its right was a treacherous monkey smiling at him: “…”

The world outside is too dangerous. The monkey has too many tricks, Bear wants to go back to the cave.

Monkey Mother was exposed, so she took the initiative to increase the bear’s membership service for one month.

Bai Xia Xia …I finally know why I can’t earn money! Poor people can’t have dignity!

Black Bear …the truth is that I don’t really want it.

Sigh, trying to decline will be too troublesome. This monkey’s smile is too horrifying, Bear hates and fears having dealings with Monkey Mother, forget it, let’s end this fast and run away, so long as it’s worthy of my honey it’ll enough.

Let’s return to the cave while it’s early, conversing, fighting, stealing food, no matter what it is, Bear only wants to silently stay alone.

If it was not because this time, when it was scooping honey, it failed when it was almost done and was stung by bees. And because it could not pull out the stinger in its nose, Black Bear would not have come out.

Bai Xia Xia was very interested Black Bear, the bear was soft, a bit… excessively shy.

She sat in front of the bear, Black Bear sneakily glanced at her, then it hastily turned away its black furry body, leaving its back to Bai Xia Xia.

Bai Xia Xia silently took back her friendship colluding paw.

“Monkey Mother, I want to ask you about something.” Bai Xia Xia approximately described the location of the cave, she remembered that two wild monkey troops wandered close to the cave, snub-nosed monkey troop and macaque troop, Monkey Mother should know more about monkey troops.

Snub-nosed monkey

The monkey king among the macaque troop was very easy to find; the snub-nosed monkey troop did not have a monkey king, the group was conformed by old, middle-aged, young, and baby monkeys. Small families composed small teams, male offspring near adulthood formed separate male colonies, and they seemed to listen more to the old monkeys. Their food was given first to the old monkeys, so they held ‘the virtue of filial piety’. Bai Xia Xia remembered a bit, but she was not clear on who was the boss in the snub-nosed monkey troop.

Bai Xia Xia asked carefully, she had to make the monkeys in charge of each troop give the order, so that things could be found the fastest possible.

*

At dusk[1], the radiance of stars brightly shone in the night sky. The nights in the mountains were particularly clear and bright.

Guo Chao Ming and the others, under the leadership of Professor Wen and the police dog, tossed through back and forth, wanting to find trails.

However, the monkeys had jumped into the cave directly from the trees, and when they left, they did not leave any traces either.

No matter how incredible Professor Wen was, how could he distinguish where the cultural relics could be based on the few remaining footprints in the cave?

The police dog did find a place by following the smell, but the mixing of all types of smell, plus the disturbance of distance and time, made the police dog messily turn around in circles in a single spot, until it went to the side of the trainer’s leg with drooping ears to sit down.

The situation fell into a deadlock, and darkness was near; Guo Chao Ming and the others made a camp in place, deciding to wait until tomorrow to do anything else.

There were dangers everywhere outside of the safe zone, so they chose a sheltered place to set up a tent and start a bonfire.

Everybody worked for a whole day, so they were all exhausted. Guo Chao Ming was responsible for the night watch along with three other team members, Professor Wen sat by the bonfire looking at his notes, then he took the initiative to explain to Guo Chao Ming: “I came here about two years ago, back then, I did a basic survey with the team, and I recorded it all in my notes, by reviewing it, it’ll be more convenient tomorrow.”

The team that Wen Dong had gone with had stayed in Cuilian Mountain for three months, this was also the main reason why Song Bei had asked him to come here.

“Wu~”

Voldemort Da Hua was nestled behind the bushes, a bit distanced from the camp. It was so sleepy that its eyes were teary, and it yawned unstoppably. Its head was placed on top of the forepaws that were close together, Xia Xia said, I can leave when the two-legged beasts wake up.

The sun still had not risen yet, the well-trained members of the action team that oversaw putting away the tent put away the tent, those responsible for making breakfast made breakfast, the division of work was clear-cut, their movements were fast and steady.

“Wuwu~” Da Hua was sleepy, continuously yawning. The big, beautiful tiger waved its tail, then stood up and left with a grumbling expression— —this group of stupid two-legged beasts, they really know how to choose places.

The ugly pig’s territory, that guy… Xia Xia said that it must be about five hundred kilograms, it’s an oversized wild pig.

They caused me to lay here and stay up guarding for most of the night, Bodyguard Da Hua unhappily scratched the ground with his claws, then ran away silently.

The two-legged beasts have guns, and they have so many people. The stupid pig should stupidly bump into them, why should we care about it!

The fat tiger came quietly and left without anyone noticing. However…

“Vice Captain, these claw marks…” The team members simply ate the pancakes that they had brought, then promptly set out on their journey, the place where Da Hua had laid on was a place that they had to go through.

Professor Wen took two steps over and compared the footprints, he also carefully observed the fallen bushes, then gasped: “A tiger!”

“This tiger couldn’t have laid here the whole night, staring us the whole time, right?”

The trainer was leading along the police dog, Last night, the police dog actually didn’t bark, could it be that it was too tired and fell into a dead sleep?!

Even the team members who had excellent psychological qualities, in this moment, were not scared lightly. Who could have thought, that when you set up a camp to sleep, there would be a tiger hiding in the darkness and staring at you?!

Guo Chao Ming and the people who were doing night watch did not notice anything strange either, maybe it was because Da Hua did not show murderous intent and hostility.

It could have also been because feline animals’ hiding ability was too incredible. Just like the people who always lived in forests and prairies, they were in the sights of tigers most of the times, but they could safely live.

The reason why tigers did not take the initiative to attack humans, on one side it was because of fear, on another side it was because of disgust. They did not like to be in contact with humans, unless they were extremely hungry, only then would they choose humans as food, otherwise, they were actually more willing to choose their common recipe.

Guo Chao Ming had been through professional training, and his capability was more powerful than others. However, tigers were the true kings of the forests, they were natural predators.

Not discovering it was normal.

Professor Wen was so scared that his whole body was covered in goosebumps, thinking about how he had almost become the food in a tiger’s mouth while he was in his dreams… I dodged a calamity ah!

Everybody stared at the faint claw marks on the ground, then unconsciously let out a long breath.

“It may not have necessarily come to eat us, maybe, it came to protect us?” Guo Chao Ming smiled, thinking about the tiger that wanted to follow him back home, he jokingly said.

“If it really wanted to make a move, it would’ve long charged over.” No one believed Guo Chao Ming’s words, but at least they were able to make people relax a bit.

Professor Wen also agreed: “Maybe it discovered that we were a bit troublesome, adding on that it wasn’t hungry, it left.”

Guo Chao Ming was not very sure either, about whether this tiger that had suddenly appeared and guarded them for a big part of the night was that one or not.

Cuilian Mountain was too big, there was definitely not only one tiger.

“Let’s get on our way faster, to arrive earlier.” Wen Dong compared the map: “Two years have passed; the monkey troop may’ve already changed to a new territory…”

Translator’s comments:

Guo Chao Ming guessed right.

Looking forward to the appearance of the wild pig.

Translator’s notes:

[1] 金乌西坠 means ‘the golden bird of the sun sets in the west’. It’s part of the idiomatic expression ‘金乌西坠，玉兔东升’ and the second part translates to ‘the jade hare of the moon rises in the east’. It means sunset or dusk.