Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Looking for things on the endless ice sheet was a hard job. Apart from the physical
fatigue, the excessive dullness of it caused mental exhaustion.
Therefore, the group of people took a long noon break, during which they could feel free
to drink and eat, play cards while chatting, and relax by entertaining themselves.
Li Du quickly won the favor of the hunters, not only because he saved a number of
people who fell into the water, and not only due to his admirable drinking skills, but also
thanks to his temperament and character.
Meteorite hunters were essentially the same kind of people as treasure hunters. The
Ford brothers and Steve were born with a lot of money. The way they spoke sounded
very well-bred and classy.
This distanced them from the hunters, who were considered by both sides to be
mercenaries, which, of course, they were, so the hunters did not have casual chitchat
with their employers.
Unlike them, Li Du was a treasure hunter and knew how to deal with these people.
Both sides quickly got to know each other, chatting over fragrant roast chicken and
warm liquor.
The hunters were not as educated as he was, but in the way of real-world experience,
all of them were intelligent.
Seeing that Li Du had gone out of his way to be friendly with them, one of the hunters
asked over a glass of wine, “Li, you seem to be interested in us? Don’t deny it, I can feel
your interest.”
Li Du made no secret of it and said with a big smile, “Yes, I heard you had been to
Siberia? I plan to go there after a while, so I want to ask, do you know Siberia?”
At this, the hunters burst into laughter.
Hankway said, “Do we know anything about Siberia? Guys, tell him who we are!”
“We are Nenets, Li, so do you think we know anything about Siberia?” they laughed
loudly.
The young man who had taunted him earlier, Hudi, was now so eager to be friendly that
he asked, “What do you want to know about Siberia? We Nenets can tell you anything.”
In the morning, when Li Du and Hankway spoke, he briefly heard Hankway mention the
word ‘Nenets’.
However, with the man’s moderate English and vague accent, Li Du couldn’t quite make
out what he was talking about. Now that he heard the babble of the other people, he
knew who they were.
The Nenets were one of the indigenous peoples of Siberia.
After deciding to go to Siberia, he began to learn about the vast, frigid region, among
them the Nenets Okrug.
‘Nenets’ was a native word which simply meant ‘people’, but because so few people
knew the Nenets language, and the Nenets have never been an important part of
humankind, both the people and the area they came from had become known by that
name.
Many years ago, the Nenets, who call themselves the Samnite, explored history, tracing
their origins back to the Ding Ling, one of China’s ancient northern peoples.
During the Han dynasty in China, a group of Ding Ling people migrated northward along
the Yenisei River to reach the coast of the arctic ocean. Some of them crossed the Ural
Mountains.
Later, these people absorbed the language and cultural elements of some of the local
residents and gradually formed a new nation, the Samnite, now known as the Nenets.
In terms of race, the Nenets, like the Chinese, were all yellow skinned, just as what Li
Du saw from the appearance of Hankway and the others.
However, after many years of assimilation, they drifted apart from their original race and
spent more time with the Russians, especially starting from the late 16th and early 17th
centuries, when all the regions inhabited by the Nenets were conquered by Russia, and
eventually their race became a little bit of a mixture of Asian and Caucasian.
The Nenets were one of Siberia’s nations, a small but widely distributed ethnic group
that, like the land they inhabited, had a long history.
The Nenets autonomous okrug was located in the northernmost part of Siberia,
stretching from the Kanin Peninsula in the west to the Yugorsky Peninsula in the east.
Li Du was pleased to meet the Siberian natives and talk about Siberia with them.
No wonder these people were meteorite hunters. Siberia was a vast area, and because
of its unique geographical location, it has not been developed much by humans, and the
ancient natural landscape was maintained.
Siberia was home to the most abundant meteorite mines on the earth’s surface, where
many meteorite hunters went to look for treasure.
However, as Li Du knew, not many Nenets were meteorite hunters. Many of them were
reindeer herders, traveling over the tundra with their herds, fishing, hunting, and
trapping.
When Li Du asked about that, Hudi punched his left leg angrily and said, “It was all
because of the damn capitalists. They’re invading our homeland. We had to find other
ways of making a living.”
“Over twenty years ago, a Russian natural gas company came up with the Yamal plan,
you know? A long-term plan to tap for gas on the Yamal peninsula?”
Li Du nodded. He knew the project, which began in the 1990s, introduced tapping into
Siberia’s vast reserves of natural gas, which was now transported by pipeline to
Western Europe.
“They drove us out of our area and gave us some money to appease us. Damn it, we
had no choice but to find other ways to survive. Brother Hankway took us to hunt for
meteorites…”
A man named Coulson laughed and said, “It’s not a bad job. We make a lot more
money than raising reindeer.”
“But I’d rather go back and herd reindeer. I loved my herd,” Hudi shot back.
Since ancient times, the Nenets have relied on reindeer to survive. The reindeer was
the symbol of their people, and they had deep feelings towards this animal.
The Nenets reindeer herds provided clothing, housing, food, transportation and cultural
identity for these people.
Drinking and chatting, Li Du gradually got to know more about Siberia.
The Arctic and Siberia have been changing rapidly in recent decades. As temperatures
rose, the permafrost thawed in some parts of the tundra. Although this might make
mining easier, it disrupted nature’s ecosystem.
Starting in the spring, Siberia would gradually become muddy and some lakes would
shrink and disappear, making life there more difficult.
They gave Li Du a lot of useful information about the things to prepare for his trip to
Siberia, and they warmly expressed their wish to serve as his local guides.
Li Du generously promised to pay them appropriately if they would help him.
In this way, his trip to the Antarctic coincidentally helped him connect with the residents
of the Arctic, which was a kind of wonderful fate.
