In the morning, they set off again.
They were now deep in the heart of the forest, and no matter if they advanced or retreated, they could not easily leave the forest.
The herd of red deers was still following Zhang Zian, about 20 meters behind. The first deer was staggering in front, while the rest followed behind leisurely, focusing on finding salt from the soil and grass.
After a midnight rest, the deer had recovered some strength. Although it still couldn’t run, at least it could walk.
At first, Zhang Zian used salt to lead the deer to check on the condition of the deer’s infection of the prion. There were no signs of infection or disease for the time being, so it was reasonable to say that he did not need to continue leading them. However, he found that the deer had a talent for finding water, which was very important in the forest. Even if he no longer sprinkled salt, the deer seemed to not intend to leave.
As the injured deer walked, it turned its head back to look at Qingqing from time to time. It wasn’t looking at the herd of deer behind it, but something further away.
Zhang Zian looked through his binoculars, but he could only see the dense forest.
“What is it looking at?” Old time tea also noticed this problem.
“I don’t know,”
Zhang Zian shook his head, but there was a faint worry in his heart. Could it be that the black bear had a grudge and had been quietly following them, waiting for an opportunity to take revenge?
That was a possibility.
The territory of an adult male black bear was dozens of square kilometers wide. The black bear had left its nest for a day or two, probably to hunt and patrol the territory, or to mate with a female bear. For it, Zhang Zian was a hateful invader. Not only did he make it suffer, but he also took food from its hands, so it was inevitable that it would hold a grudge.
It was afraid of the bear-proof spray’s power and didn’t dare to rashly attack again. Instead, it followed from far behind, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
As an old rival in the forest, the leading buck might have some kind of intuition and knew that the black bear was following them, so he led the herd to follow Zhang Zian, because he felt that he could easily defeat the black bear and protect the herd.
What could Zhang Zian do? He was also in despair. Whether it was the herd of deer or the black bear, they could follow if they wanted to. Anyway, he would not stay in the forest for long.
A piece of news that was both happy and sad was that after dawn, the fog gradually dispersed, revealing the cloudy sky. The sun was still not visible, but at least the visibility had improved.
Last night, he had focused all his attention on the black bear and did not pay much attention to the elfin’s movements. Now, looking at the electronic map, he found that he was closer to it. It had been wandering around somewhere and did not continue to run.
Famous found Mike’s smell again and continued to track him.
Mike was not walking in a straight line, but more like an S-shape. In order to expand the search area in the forest as much as possible, Zhang Zian could only follow his route to avoid losing him.
The spotted owl and Richard were napping on top of his backpack. He wanted to take a nap too. He slept too little last night and could barely keep his eyes open. However, he had no choice but to continue walking and try to leave the black bear’s territory as soon as possible. Although this often meant that he would enter the territory of another black bear, he had no enmity with the other bears.
After walking for another morning, as the weight of the backpack gradually decreased, and Zhang Zian had adapted to the way of walking in the forest, he could vaguely feel which places were easy to walk and which places were difficult to walk. He could also avoid some hidden pits covered by dead leaves, unlike the previous two days when he only found them after stepping into them.
Even so, due to the twists and turns of the route, he did not go far in a straight line in the forest.
After lunch, they continued their journey.
As they walked, the spotted owl, which had been standing quietly on the backpack, suddenly became restless. It spread its wings and whimpered on the top of the backpack, turning around in circles anxiously.
Richard was squeezed to the edge of the backpack like a bullied little wife. If he squeezed any more, he would have fallen off the backpack.
“Kaka! I’m a tiger that has fallen from the sky, so don’t you go too far, you owl!” It clamored fiercely, but its body kept retreating.
Zhang Zian didn’t know what was going on, but he felt that the two birds on his backpack were quite restless. He asked Richard to be quiet and not bully the newcomers.
Richard was indignant. He was the one being bullied.
After walking forward for another ten minutes, Zhang Zian suddenly felt that his backpack was a little lighter. At the same time, he heard Richard’s happy voice,””Kaka! This freeloader had finally left! You’re tactful. Remember, you’re not allowed to appear in front of this great master in the future!”
Zhang Zian turned around and looked up, only to see that the spotted owl had already landed on a horizontal branch.
He had checked its injury this morning, and the burn had not fully recovered. When he tried to pull the injured wing, it would nervously retract its wing, but the other side was fine, so he guessed that the injury still felt pain.
“We have to continue moving forward.” He pointed to the front and repeated it twice. He even patted the top of his backpack, signaling for it to come back.
It turned its head and looked around, still holding the branch tightly with its claws, showing no intention of returning to the backpack.
Zhang Zian waited for two or three minutes, taking it as a break, but he couldn’t wait forever, so he waved goodbye to it. “Okay, see you later. Be careful in the future.”
Finally, Richard could occupy the throne at the top of the backpack, and he kept urging him to leave.
While he was resting, famous didn’t rest. It ran in front to explore the way. At this time, it trotted back and said,””There are signs of people up ahead.”
“Oh?” Zhang Zian was shocked, and he didn’t know what to feel.
He had been in the forest for almost three days, and because he was not walking on the official recommended hiking route, he had not seen a single person along the way. Logically speaking, when he heard that someone had appeared, he should be as happy as if he had met an old friend in a foreign land, but who would appear in the depths of the forest like this?
“Melgen?” He asked.
Famous shook its head.”It’s the smell of a lot of people, and a lot of animals. There’s even a very strong smell of gasoline and machine oil, and…The smell of blood.”
He was stunned for a moment before he immediately reacted.”It’s a slaughterhouse!”
The only place in the forest that could meet these conditions was the slaughterhouse.
Could it be …
He looked up at the spotted owl again. Could it be that this little guy was injured when he crashed into the electric net of the slaughterhouse?
If the slaughterhouse built in the forest was not installed with a power grid, many carnivores and scavengers would be attracted by the smell of blood, which would cause great trouble and threat to the slaughterhouse equipment and employees.
No wonder it refused to move forward. It probably recognized the nearby terrain and knew that the power grid that hurt it was right in front. The pain of being electrocuted was still fresh in its memory, so it was afraid to move forward. Even if its injury was not healed, it did not want to stay in his backpack.
