Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Wake up!”
“Wake up!”
“It’s time to wake up, sleepy heads! Don’t make me come in there to kick your butts!”
Morning, Zhang Zian was bundled in his tiny blanket, woken rudely by Peter Lee’s rough voice.
Can’t it become a sweet, gentle, voice like Zhi Ling’s?
“Zian~ Wake up~ The sun’s warming up your butt~”
A sweet, gentle voice just like Zhi Ling’s rang by his ears.
Zhang Zian’s eyes were closed, his lips splitting into a heavenly smile, before… slapping Richard away with a back-hand.
“Gah!”
“Go away!”
You could figure out with your knee caps that Zhi Ling would not appear in this desert!
“How boring… I know you don’t like women, but you have to be gentle! Geez, you’ll have someone wake you up to wrestle tomorrow, look forward to it!” Richard groomed its feathers with its beak, gleefully torturing Zhang Zian.
Zhang Zian only managed to sleep after rushing about for nearly an hour last night, and the sleep isn’t even of great quality. He can’t compare at all to this wretched bird that had a great sleep. Maybe he should just off the bird while he has the chance.
“Wow! What is this? Foxes? Where did they come from?”
“Amazing! These foxes are so cute! Look at them sleeping, my heart’s melting!”
“Come look, there’s a few amazing foxes here!”
The commotion came from outside, those members that had already woken up to wash up or relieve themselves found the fennec foxes in the cages, and started shouting in shock.
It’s no wonder, waking up to find a few strangely cute foxes that popped out of nowhere in their camp, anyone would be surprised.
Zhang Zian let Richard off for once, donning on his coat as he got out of his tent.
He’s not afraid of losing it in the desert anyway, leaving the cage right beside his tent is no issue, and it is extremely visible.
The fennec foxes had a good meal last night. With their sharp ears, they could hear the humans waking up one by one, but they seemed to have accepted the fact that they were locked up. Since they couldn’t leave, then they could only accept what came by their way so as to prevent losing too much energy.
It’s cold at night, and with the sun not fully up yet, the morning breeze is still cooling.
Every cage has two or three fennec foxes squashed together as they slept, curling up with their ears, bigger than their face, cushioning their furry tail that’s almost as long as their body. Only when the humans got too noisy, did they lazily open their eyes, before closing them again. Occasionally, they flicked their tail about or scratched at their head, or opened their mouth wide for a yawn.
Their bodies are small, and seemed even less harmless than usual domesticated cats or dogs, as though they could just pick them up and play with them.
Everyone gathered around the cages, increasingly curious about these mysterious small foxes.
“Where did these foxes come from? They couldn’t have possibly ran into the cages themselves right?”
“Even if they did, how can they lock the cage up themselves? They aren’t that smart.”
“I really do with the turkey in my fridge would run into the oven by itself and cook itself…”
Jokes aside, everyone knew that the foxes would never run into a cage and lock it up themselves, so someone must have went out and caught them after everyone had slept. But who?
The Soldier squatted beside the cages, thinking before talking, “I know who it was. Someone left their tent for a long time last night during my guard shift. They didn’t come back for a long time, and I thought they were taken away by some monster in the desert. Just as I was going to find someone for help, he came back… So it must be him, only he has the time to.”
He looked towards Zhang Zian’s tent, meeting Zhang Zian’s eyes straight on.
“Jeff, you have violated the first rule of the group, that we cannot leave the camp grounds by ourself, especially without informing anyone before hand,” The Soldier sternly reprimanded him.
“I’m sorry, it was my fault.” Zhang Zian raised his hands up in surrender, “I promise I will never do it again next time.”
He didn’t try to provide excuses, because rules are rules, and there shouldn’t be exceptions for anyone or anything.
Seeing that there were a lot of people gathering in one area, Peter Lee and Weikang came over to understand what was happening too.
“What’s going on?” Peter Lee asked.
The people automatically split into two groups, leaving a path in the middle.
“Eh? It’s the fennec fox!” Weikang immediately recognized the rare Sahara Desert animal, rushing over to observe it closely.
Even though fennec foxes aren’t part of the endangered animal list, they still are rare animals. Their numbers and distribution in the desert is still a mystery, and no one knows exactly how many there are. There might be a lot, or might be only a few. It’s too difficult tracking down these nocturnal animals in the vast desert.
Weikang’s four students followed behind him. The four of them, usually a pretty harmonious bunch that would gather together to play games, have now distanced themselves from each other, as though bearing a grudge. True friendship really does show in the midst of trouble.
“How did these fennec foxes end up here?” Weikang asked, confused.
The Soldier pointed at Zhang Zian, “Jeff didn’t follow the rules last night, and had left the camp by himself for more than half an hour. He was the one that brought these foxes back.”
Peter Lee frowned, but Weikang didn’t have the time to care about these rules, gaping in shock, “Xiao Zhang, you…”
Zhang Zian nodded, “I didn’t leave camp purposefully. My stomach was hurting last night, so I got up to use the washroom. When I reached the spot, Famous heard some commotion behind the sand dune near us. I was worried whether it would be some dangerous animal, so I quietly made my way there, and found these fennec foxes. Professor Wei, you should know that these animals have amazing hearing. Under those circumstances, if I come back to the camp to call for someone else, these fennec foxes definitely would have run off. So, I made the decision and tried to catch them by myself.”
Even non-experts would know that these fennec foxes would have amazing hearing just by looking at those comically large ears.
Zhang Zian’s words weren’t contradictory at all, and strictly speaking, he didn’t even leave the camp by himself, Famous was with him. In many times, especially outdoors, a dog is much more useful than another human.
“Then… how did you catch them? These foxes are really agile.” Weikang was still very confused.
Zhang Zian fished out his flashlight, “I used this. I coordinated with Famous and Fina. They chased the fennec foxes towards me, and I dazed them with the intense light, it’s that simple.”
They definitely thought that Famous must have played the greatest part in this, as there’s a type of dog called hunting dogs.
