Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Ah Bai jumped onto his back and Ah Ow initially froze, but then started to stir uncomfortably.
The little white monkey wrapped its two long arms around Ah Ow’s neck. It placed each of its legs on one side of Ah Ow’s body, as though it was riding a horse.
To be precise, it was more like taming a horse. That was how it looked when riders broke in unruly horses.
However, Ah Ow was much more intelligent than wild horses. When she realized that jumping around would not shake Ah Bai off, she threw itself down, lowering her body to the ground.
Ah Bai was truly agile. Just as it was about to fall, it threw out both of its arms and legs to allow it to spin half a round on Ah Ow’s neck.
Ah Ow angrily turned his head and snarled. Ah Bai jumped down.
It stood there and thought for a second before it ran into one of the cars to retrieve some preserved meat.
When Ah Ow saw the meat, she stuck out its tongue and started to lick her lips. Then she ran over, tail wagging.
Ah Bai raised the preserved meat high up and Ah Ow circled around it, licking her lips and growling.
Seeing that, Ah Bai jumped onto Ah Ow’s back again. Ah Ow was displeased. She shook Ah Bai off, and the monkey jumped down and threw the preserved meat back into the car.
The door of the car was shut and the window was high up. Ah Ow was unable to jump in and could only look through the window at the meat inside the car. She was almost drooling.
Ah Bai went forward and gave Ah Ow another scratch on the neck and belly. Ah Ow comfortably stretched her hind legs and let out some calls, suggesting she was enjoying the scratching.
After a while, Ah Bai climbed into the car and passed a piece of the preserved meat to Ah Ow, who finished the entire thing in a bite.
Having been scratched and fed, Ah Ow was finally appeased. When Li Du set off once again, Ah Bai jumped onto Ah Ow’s back and once more wrapped its arms around Ah Ow’s neck, as if it was riding a horse.
Although Ah Ow was still unenthusiastic about having a rider, she did not throw Ah Bai down.
Hence, in the afternoon, while Li Du was riding the motorcycle to lead the pack in front, he was accompanied by a white monkey who was riding a wolf.
The strong wind blew against them and while Ah Bai was uncomfortable bumping from side to side on Ah Ow’s body, it was still rather pleased with itself.
After searching for the next two days, they did not make any discovery. Li Du felt a little discouraged. He felt that he had expended too much effort and achieved nothing.
The meteorite hunters were highly patient and tough-minded. They retained their spirit and were always as serious and thorough in the search as they were at first.
Hawking noticed that Li Du was getting impatient and smiled. “Mister Li, have patience. It’s a slow job searching for meteorites. We often go without finding any for a year or two, and some people have never found one in their lives. So, consider yourself fortunate, your luck is already very good.”
Li Du said, frustrated, “The efficiency of doing it like this is too low. There must be something unique to the meteorites, right? Can’t we use those characteristics as clues in our search?”
“We are using those right now,” Hawking raised the explorer’s stick in his hand. There were two current loops attached to the stick, a big and a small one.
There was a certain amount of iron in the meteorites in Severnaya Zemlya. The current loop could form an electromagnetic field. It would sound an alarm at the presence of iron.
However, the territory they had to search was huge compared to the radius that the tool could cover. Hence, it was still a rather hard task to search, even with it.
Li Du had a suggestion for Steve. Steve could install a mega-sized electromagnetic circle in a car. Then, if a few such cars drove around the area, the efficiency would be much higher..
Steve, however, said that that would not do. They had done that before and realized that there was plenty of iron in many types of rocks, not just meteorites. They had to rely on their eyes to evaluate the shape of the rocks too, to be sure.
At night, Li Du returned to the campsite and sat by the fire to rest his feet. It was another day without any finds. He had lost his patience.
Steve walked over to him with a bottle of beer and said, “Here, have something to loosen up.”
Li Du was just about to take the beer from him when they heard a gunshot from some distance away. The gunshot sounded as if it were pretty far away from them, as the sound was barely audible.
Li Du was unsure of what he had heard and looked at Steve, meaning to ask him.
He had yet to speak when more muffled gunshots rang out from a distance. Bang! Bang! Bang!
Brother Wolf rushed over and said, “It’s an M16, and there’s an also AK-47. They are not too far from us, around three kilometers away.”
Steve reconciled the facts for a minute and said, “Three kilometers? That should be near the tundra. If the gunshots were from an AK-47, those must have been the rangers who fired.”
“Who would they be firing at?” Li Du asked, staring into the darkness ahead.
Steve shook his head slowly and said, “Not sure, but it should have nothing to do with us.”
Regardless of whether it had anything to do with them, Brother Wolf and the rest of the bodyguards heightened their cautiousness and got ready to fight.
After the first couple of shots, the place quieted down. However, after a few minutes, there was another series of shots one after another. As they rang out from some distance away, they could not hear the shots clearly and could only deduce that both parties involved in the fight seemed to have quite a few rifles.
Li Du looked at Steve and asked, “Shall we go over to find out what happened?”
Steve asked in return, “What do you think?”
Li Du thought for a second and said, “We have the helicopter. We can fly over and check out what happened so that we can be better prepared.”
Big Ivan started the helicopter. The long rotor of the Mi-171 spun, starting a strong gust of wind.
Li Du and Steve got into the helicopter and Brother Wolf wanted to stop them. He did not think it would be wise to stick their heads out.
Steve had half a mind to give up on going, but not Li Du. He had his little bug to mobilize. As long as they were near the place, he would be able to find out the exact situation.
However, Steve had decided to join in to check out what the drama was about.
The helicopter slowly rose to the sky and then sped in the southwestern direction.
The vision from above was great. Not long after they started the flight, Li Du could spot what looked like sparkles in the darkness, indicating the muzzles of firing guns.
He took the binoculars for another look but could not see clearly. However, he could tell that there was a bunch of people surrounding the campsite of the tundra rangers. The firing was aimed at the campsite where Li Du had been previously. The attacks were coming from all directions.
“Those stubborn old men are in trouble,” Steve said.
Li Du said, “What could have happened? Even now, when the gangsters fight, they daren’t use rifles. Though this is Russia, there’s still some law around here!”
Steve put down the binoculars and said, “Not sure, but the protectors have indeed experienced real struggles. Remember when I mentioned that at their peak, there were thirty rangers here? Now there are only half left.”
“The rest died in a battle?” Li Du asked, shocked.
Steve shook his head, “No, only two of them were killed. The rest of them fled, as they could not handle the stress of living here. It’s not easy to protect nature in such a place. Just like how you Chinese have endangered species protection zones, some unscrupulous men challenge the authorities there as well. The poachers have weapons that kill not only animals but also men.”
Li Du was aware of that. When he was in secondary school, there had been a noble animal protection team leader who had been harmed by one of the poachers. The issue had caused a big stir in the past.
