Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After resting against the tree for a while, Gu Nianzhi felt way better. Standing up, she took out her phone from her pocket and took a look. It had already been the fourth day. Her phone had less than 50 percent of battery life left, but there was still no signal. Thus, there was no chance for her to be connected to the Internet at all.
She tried calling again. This time around, though, she only called Smith and not the police, but still no one picked up. After ringing a couple of times, her call was directed to voicemail.
Gu Nianzhi felt something was amiss. Holding onto her phone, she sat down on the grass patch in front of the tree and rearranged everything that had happened. However, before she could even think, the little black bear rolled over like a ball. Along with it was a roundish thing.
Leaning against the tree, Gu Nianzhi saw the bear push the thing towards her. What was that? Gu Nianzhi looked at the roundish thing that was just rolled over to her side and screamed.
Ahhhhhhhh! It’s a beehive!
Gu Nianzhi ran for her life! However, she was a little late. Swarms of bees had already flown out from their hive and began chasing after Gu Nianzhi. She quickly used her jacket to cover her face, cursing as she ran. Did I even get the hive down?! Why are you guys chasing me?! Horrible bees who only attack the weak, go chase that bear if you’re so capable! Why chase an innocent party now?!
Sadly, the bees could not understand her. They stung her exposed wrists and arms. Gu Nianzhi was in pain and itching. In no time at all, huge bumps began appearing on her arms. As she did not know where to run, and her head was covered by her jacket, she fell into a small pond by accident.
Plop! It was an almost silent fall without any splashes. Seeing that Gu Nianzhi had hidden underwater, the bees dispersed. After staying there for a while, Gu Nianzhi finally climbed up to shore. The bees were gone, but her phone had gone underwater again. However, she was already experienced this time around. Calmly, she sought a spot with strong sunlight and placed her phone there.
It seemed like the little black bear knew that he had done something wrong. It hid in the forest and only peeked at her from a distance. It did not dare to go over to her and did not push the hive that it liked over. Gu Nianzhi saw the hiding little bear from the corner of her eyes and decided to ignore it. She went looking for some sharp branches to use to fish.
There were many lakes in the Alps that were formed during the ice age. There was a lot of whitebait in the lakes, and they were fat and fresh. They should taste amazing, but it’s a pity that I don’t have seasoning, Nianzhi thought as she ate the whitebait, turning green.
After securing the fish, Gu Nianzhi cut them open with her Swiss knife and placed them on the makeshift rack to barbeque. The little black bear finally couldn’t resist the smell of the fish and crawled over sheepishly. The damned hive was still by his side.
Knowing that the bees from the hive had already dispersed, Gu Nianzhi wasn’t afraid anymore. She glanced at the hive and remembered that honey could be a form of seasoning as well. If I were to smear it onto the fish… Gu Nianzhi licked her lips and got hungrier at the thought.
The little black bear pushed the hive to her side, and circled around her and the barbeque rack, seemingly curious. Gu Nianzhi kept a straight face and used a branch to bring the hive over. Then, she took out her Swiss knife and opened a hole in the hive to retrieve a scoop of wild honey.
This little bear was actually smart! The hive, which he had found, actually had a lot of honey in it. Gu Nianzhi got a huge, overflowing scoop of it from just randomly digging into the hive. This was pure, wild, manuka honey! I’ve heard that it can boost sexuality. Gu Nianzhi rolled her eyes as the thought came to her mind.
Did the little bear just bribe me with a bee hive? Gu Nianzhi dissed herself for being so easily won over but continued smearing the honey onto the whitebait.
Seeing that Gu Nianzhi did not eat the honey from the beehive but instead began smearing it onto a fish, the little black bear began to panic a little and turned faster in circles beside her. Gu Nianzhi was dizzy just looking at it, so she pretended to ignore it and continued to smear the honey onto the fish before placing it on the rack to barbeque. The little black bear ran away the moment the fire began burning. Animals were all afraid of fire. That was their nature.
Gu Nianzhi looked at the fire and saw that the little bear had run into the forest and started to peek at her from a distance again. After contemplating, Gu Nianzhi took two of the bigger fish she caught, walked to the forest, and placed them near the bear.
Bears are able to eat fish. Gu Nianzhi remembered seeing this piece of information at the zoo. However, she did not intend to give it any fish with honey, because she did not want it to taste cooked food and fall in love with it, as it would affect its survival skills in the future.
After exiting from the forest, the little black bear looked at the fish that Gu Nianzhi placed there, held them in his paws, and rolled around on the ground. Gu Nianzhi was speechless. She turned and went back to her barbeque rack. A sweet fragrance welcomed her. She gulped. That smells so good! Most likely, it was already done.
Gu Nianzhi’s culinary skills had improved tremendously over the past few days. From making the fish burned and crumbly, she was now able to barbeque it to perfection—crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Other than not having seasoning, it was already very palatable. Now that she had added some wild honey, mmm~ It smelled so good, she almost swallowed her tongue along with her saliva.
Gu Nianzhi couldn’t help herself. She grilled two more whitebait and finished them. She licked her fingers and smacked her lips after she was done eating. This was the best meal she’d had in the past few days.
She felt way better after a good meal, and did not feel as hopeless and down anymore. Walking to the shore of the pond, Gu Nianzhi sat down and looked at the sunset. It was beautiful. The clouds were hues of orange, purple, and pink. It was dazzling. However, Gu Nianzhi’s thoughts were not on the sunset’s beauty.
After the last few days, Gu Nianzhi had no choice but to face a fact: someone wanted her dead, and that person had great influence over a huge area. That person also knew how to plan meticulously and had already managed to influence the police division in Munich. The person had definitely joined forces with Seth’s stepfather, York. Also, the person had H3aB7, the chemical that had been used on her back in the Hua Xia Empire. And the scarf—the person knew about the scarf as well. No. The scarf might be a hoax. Maybe Huo Shao did not even send it.
However, Gu Nianzhi thought about it carefully and her brows furrowed. That is unlikely, too. The scarf should be from Huo Shao, because the color and design of the scarf were all to my liking. Only Huo Shao would know that. No one else would be able to get something that I liked so much.
If the scarf was really from Huo Shao, then everyone who knew that Huo Shao sent me a scarf could be a suspect. When she thought about it like that, she couldn’t even be sure if Huo Shao was in Germany anymore. If that person was able to falsify even his text messages, then what else could they falsify?
Gu Nianzhi looked at her phone. It was only left with 20 percent battery. How could she get out of the forest if she still could not call anyone? There was no internet connection available here, so she couldn’t even look at maps. She did not know where she was. It seemed like she only had one way out right now, and that was to follow the stream and walk down. That way, she would be able to get to somewhere there were people, wouldn’t she?
As long as she managed to get out and get to people, she would be able to contact Smith. If not, she would call Yin Shixiong or Zhao Liangze. She regretted so much now that when she had called Yin Shixiong and Zhao Liangze previously, she did not mention anything about being attacked. If she had, they would definitely rush over to Germany to save her. They were her real backups!
Gu Nianzhi pulled herself together, raised her arms, and flailed them around. It was only then she realized that the little black bear was squatting beside her, admiring the sunset along with her. Gu Nianzhi looked at the bear. This bear must have become a fairy or something. -.-
The human and bear duo sat there quietly and bathed in the beauty of the sunset. The light from the sunset pulled Gu Nianzhi’s shadow even longer, and little bear’s round shadow became oval. It was cute.
She remained sitting until the sun had completely set and the surroundings became dark. The birds had returned to their nests. There were birds chirping occasionally, making Gu Nianzhi feel that she wasn’t alone. Even so, it still felt dangerous.
Gu Nianzhi rolled her eyes and decided to call Smith again. As expected, no one picked up, and her call was diverted to voicemail. Gu Nianzhi hung up immediately. After so many days and so many calls being diverted to voicemail, if she still thought that Smith was just busy, she’d be stupid. Gu Nianzhi was already almost a genius when it came to computer programming. Moreover, she had learned from a top-rated hacker, Zhao Liangze. If she had guessed correctly, Smith’s mobile phone had been tagged with Trojan horse software, because all her calls were diverted to voicemail.
Gu Nianzhi’s expression darkened, but a sense of justice came from within. Chuckling, she thought, they’re trying to fight me with wit and brains? I shall accompany you, then! Pursing her lips, she started the hacker program on her phone. This was a program she had written in her free time. It could trace the address of the party that had tagged the software.
It was actually a simple data search program. There were two systems in phones nowadays, one of them being the traditional one, which connected through wires with fixed numbers. The other one was a web phone system. This was easy to check. It was Gu Nianzhi’s forte.
The traditional system was harder for a hacker to track, but it was easy for Gu Nianzhi, because she had Huo Shaoheng. From there, she could easily get the telephone placements from the world. Therefore, it was included in her little program.
After contemplating, she attempted to call Smith again. Shortly after, her call was diverted to voicemail. Gu Nianzhi still remained silent, watching her program work. In just five seconds, she had gotten the address of the voicemail. It was a place that was near to the town in Munich.
“Are you stupid or what? You think I wouldn’t know you’re using a Trojan horse? Be aware that I can get rid of all of you in no time!” With that, she hung up. After dissing the person on the other line, she felt way better and returned to the beech tree. There was a nice big rock there that she could rest against. The little bear and its mother rested there last night.
The mother bear had not been with the little bear the entire day today. No one had any idea where she went. However, Gu Nianzhi did not dare to be careless. She still climbed up the tree and returned to the middle of the branches, just like last night, and slept with the birds. However, the thing that surprised her was that the little bear climbed up with her as well. It found a comfortable branch near her, hugged it, and fell asleep.
Gu Nianzhi was really speechless regarding this bear. She couldn’t worry about it anymore. It did not have any ill intentions, anyway. She could tell by now. Moreover, with it around, other beasts wouldn’t dare to go near her. Therefore, Gu Nianzhi fell asleep peacefully. She fell asleep almost instantaneously, as she was extremely tired.
Even though she was fast asleep, the person in charge on the other end of the voicemail was panicking. He frantically went to look for his boss. “Boss! Boss! Bad news, boss! That woman knows… knows that it’s us! And she even wants to get rid of us!”
“Bullsh*t!” the man reprimanded him. “How could it be?! She’s still roaming around in the Alps! How could she know?!”
“Listen to this!” The person in charge of the voicemail played Gu Nianzhi’s recording to the man.
Albeit taken aback after listening to the recording, the man composed himself within seconds. “She was just pranking you. You’d be dumb if you believed her!” he said like he didn’t care. Then, he asked, “Have you managed to locate her, though?”
They were able to track her as long as she made a call. “Ye… Yes I did…” The person asked again, “We really don’t have to disperse?”
“Send her location out for the team to receive it. Our boss ordered that we have to disperse already, anyway, so inform everyone that we’ll be leaving in five!” the man commanded firmly.
He’s afraid, after all. The subordinate secretly dissed his boss. Pity the big boss isn’t here. Had she been here, I could have lodged a complaint, and who knows? I might be able to take his place instead.
The subordinate packed as he allowed his thoughts to drift, and left the villa in the suburbs of Munich.
…
On the fifth day in the Alps, Gu Nianzhi woke up to rain again. The leaves from the beech tree she was in were also yellowing, and thus, offered no shelter from the rain. She was drenched. Hugging her knees, she trembled among the branches.
The little bear had woken up a long time ago, but it didn’t wake her. It was merely digging into the tree trunk, full of focus and vigor, just like a woodpecker. Hearing sounds from Gu Nianzhi’s direction, the little bear turned to look at her before calling out into the air twice. Then, without warning, it jumped out of the tree, just like that.
Gu Nianzhi was truly speechless with this bear.
