CH 20.5

Walking fast while hastening one’s journey in the forest was not possible, originally, Wen Dong looked for the small road that they had opened that year to follow. When they arrived, they discovered that that path had already been covered by the overgrown thicket. With no other way, the team members opened a path at the front, and after walking a bit more than an hour, Professor Wen exclaimed in surprise.

“It’s here!” Professor Wen hugged his notebook, then lectured with great interest, “I’m telling you, the social structure of the snub-nosed monkeys is in fact extremely interesting…”

When it came to what Professor Wen was good at, he obviously became a lot more excited, he eagerly[1] prepared to shine. Wen Dong led the team to observe all around, very soon, they found the assembly point where many snub-nosed monkeys played and fought.

“Monkey troops will accumulate the food that they find on a fixed tree hole, we should first follow them to find the tree hole where they store food, it will somewhat waste some time. Captain Guo, how about we divide into two teams to work…” Professor Wen rolled up his sleeves to start working, the time for him to shine had arrived!

He spoke very enthusiastically, but no one responded for a long time. Wen Dong doubtfully turned his head, then found out that Guo Chao Ming and the other team members seemed to be staring at a tree in west, their eyes were so bright that they were scary.

Wen Dong ???

It was not only them who were looking, the police dog was also barking excitedly in a flurry, the trainer could not contain him despite pulling at it, so he used all his strength to press it in place.

“What are you all looking at…”

Professor Wen silently stared at the two snub-nosed monkeys that were rapidly coming over to their side while throwing around a box high up in the air.

“Ji, ji, ji~”

One of them that was comparatively bigger glanced at that group of stupid and dazed ugly people, its paw pointed in the air: “It’s them! The elder monkey said so, that throwing it to them is all that we need to do!”

“If this group of ugly people that have no fur don’t catch it, then it’ll be disastrous for us.”

“Hm… let’s jump a bit lower, then there’ll be no need to be afraid that they won’t be able to catch it!”

“Captain, I’ll go get it!”

One team member took the initiative to roll up his sleeves in preparation for climbing the trees, Guo Chao Ming stopped him: “Don’t worry, let’s wait.”

He had a very strange feeling, that the box would be brought over.

“Professor Wen, those two monkeys are always looking over to our side, why?”

Professor Wen was a bit dejected, his lofty aspirations were suddenly met with defeat, which made him feel uncomfortable from containing them, but there was some vague sense of surprise. He weakly said: “Let’s just watch the monkeys eh.”

Team members: …

The two snub-nosed monkeys put on an act and playfully jumped down from the tree: “The elder monkey said, we need to act like we were careless, then throw it to them.”

“Does my act look like that or not?”

“It does! And I?”

“Not at all!”

“…”

“Is this group of hairless guys stupid! We already ran up in front of them, but they still don’t know to pick the fruit!”

The two snub-nosed monkeys had no other alternative than to jump down from the tree, and then very unintentionally tossed the box towards the crowd: “Ji, ji, ji!”

The two monkeys then sat in front of the foolish group of people and perfunctorily expressed their rage: “Ji, ji, ji!”

Their fingers pointed at the box, signaling them to return it.

Their act was extremely half-assed. When they saw that no one paid them any attention, the two snub-nosed monkeys symbolically got angry, then turned away their faces and ran away swiftly.

Xiao Fang hugged the box dumbfoundedly, the group of people had the same dark expression with question marks on their faces.

Just like this?

We found it just like this?

This easily?

So miraculously?!

Without even giving people the time to react, the box already came back by itself?!

We very cautiously, found a blank for ourselves?

In their group, including Professor Wen, no one had slacked off or been lazy, they had used all their efforts to go into the mountains to do the searching, even so, they had all known that getting back the cultural relics would be very difficult.

And even if they found them, the cultural relics could have already been damaged.

But everybody still had some hope in their hearts, what if they encountered a stroke of luck, or a miracle happened, and they were to be able to find a trail?

Their expectation value was low, and yet, the miracle really appeared… the box very simply appeared by itself, self, lf…

Everybody had the dazed, unreal feeling of stepping on clouds.

“We found it! We’ve found it! We’ve found the cultural relics!” Xiao Fang hugged the extremely real box; he was the first to react, and he was so excited that he started jumping.

Guo Chao Ming took in a breath, he held an unlit cigarette in his mouth, “Open the box first to take a look.”

Fortunately, Old Liao locked them in a box, otherwise, if the cultural relics suffered tremendous damage, it may have already been broken into pieces by the monkeys.

“Ok, ok, ok!” Xiao Fang’s words were a bit incoherent; his hand tremblingly took out from his pocket a key that was wound around in wire, he fiddled with the keyhole for five to six minutes and slowly opened the box.

There were very few things inside the box, but they were the most precious ones that Old Liao had picked in his rush.

“We’ve found them!”

Xiao Fang very carefully locked up the box once again, the team members were also very happy, everybody’s hard work were not in vain. The only thing was… the way these things had come back was too much of a fantasy.

“Professor Wen, those monkeys seemed to have intentionally brought the things to return them to us, what do you think?”

“That’s just too intelligent! Professor Wen, are all monkeys in the mountains this intelligent? You’re an expert, could you analyze the situation from just now?”

“Professor Wen, are snub-nosed monkeys more intelligent than other monkeys…”

“Professor Wen…”

Everybody surrounded Professor Wen to ask all at once, having unprecedented interest in monkeys. There were also those that wanted to go and tease the monkeys, but they were nationally protected animals, and they also climbed up high, so they gave up.

Since we can’t communicate, here’s a big expert, a big professor ah! Explain to us fast!

Professor Wen: “…” You ask me, then who do I go to ask! I’m also very dumbfounded, okay?! I’m more dumbfounded than you!

“…there, there’s definitely a reason for this…” Professor Wen felt bitter in his heart, Professor Wen was even more confused because of his field of study, but Professor Wen did not say it.

On the tallest branch deep in the forest, there was an old monkey that was so old that its fur was fading, “Little kitty, the thing has been done.”

Bai Xia Xia distantly looked at the excitement on that side, she slightly lifted her paw, then aloofly and arrogantly nodded with her chin: Today, Cat is called Lei Feng, doing good deeds without leaving behind a name.

Bai Xia Xia, who deeply hid her merits and name, looked at the stupefied people that had been stunned by the surprise that fell from the sky, at all the faces that had smiles that could not be hidden, and followed in rubbing her paws excitedly too, there was a bit of secret happiness.

Hei hei, you all don’t know who the big boss behind the scenes that made a miracle fall from heaven is!

Today, Meow Meow successfully found the cultural relics, it was a no-brainer, so meow can lift my head and puff out my chest, I’m proud!

“Congratulations, quest completed!”

Bai Xia Xia: Meow~

Translator’s comments:

Professor Wen: It’s time for me to shine…

NOT! It’s time for the monkeys to shine.

Thanks Zazu Le for becoming a patron!!

Translator’s notes:

[1] Idiomatic expression ‘摩拳擦掌 (mó quán cā zhǎng)’: lit. translation: ‘rubbing fists and wiping palms’. It means ‘eagerly’, ‘excited’, or ‘prepared to start’.