Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The police’s attitude was more lenient than Li Du thought it would be. They said they would be slow, but Li Du did not expect them to be so slow.
He waited for more than half a day at the mouth of the cave. He did not see the police in the afternoon, so he did not want to wait anymore. Anyway, the poachers were locked in the cages, so they did not have to worry about them escaping.
Li Du looked at the sky and finally waved to his men. “Let’s not wait any longer. Let’s just leave!”
Brother Wolf and Godzilla immediately began to pack up, and then the group of people left the cave.
When the little condor that was basking in the sun saw them leaving, it blinked, suddenly stood up, flapped its wings and called out.
Li Du turned his head. The baby bird ran out of the cage. It trailed behind him as fast as a big pheasant. Then it shrunk its neck and crouched down.
Seeing this, Li Du couldn’t help but smile. He said, “So, you want to go with me?”
The little condor blinked and squatted beside him like a puppy.
Li Du crouched down, reached out and picked it up. It looked big, but it weighed very little, maybe four or five kilograms.
He held the young condor in his arms. The bird didn’t struggle much. Ah Bai, who was sitting in his backpack, poked his head out and stared at it.
Brother Wolf asked, “You want to take the bird?”
Li Du said with a smile, “If I can feed it, I’ll keep it. If it can’t follow me, we will contact the animal protection organization and give it to them when we get down from the mountain.”
Lu Guan said, “Why can’t we feed it? They can eat practically anything, even rotten carcasses. They should be easier to feed than chickens and ducks.”
As they talked, they went into the mountains and disappeared into the thick forest.
They did not really leave the cave. This was all part of Li Du’s strategy. He took Brother Wolf and some others to find a place to hide, and then they took turns to climb the tree with a pair of binoculars to monitor the area of the cave.
Li Du wanted to fish out that pair of Ukrainian brothers. He believed that those two people would not go very far. They would probably bring a pistol and come back today.
Although the police and poachers told different stories, these brothers were dangerous criminals. Therefore, Li Du figured they would try getting revenge. Li Du dashed into their nest, set fire to them almost killed them, and they would not leave him alone.
Li Du felt that if the two brothers were nearby, they would eventually appear. Not to say anything else, their companions were in the cave, and if they wanted to get revenge, they would be more successful with many people together.
It was sunset already, but the two brothers did not appear.
Lu Guan whispered, “Boss, let’s just leave, perhaps the brothers won’t come back. Even if they do come back, the place is so big we might not meet them.”
Li Du said, “We must make sure everything is foolproof. There is too much uncertainty in the mountains and forests. What if they come back and bring a group of people to attack us?”
Lu Guan shrugged. “You’re the boss, you call the shots.”
They waited nearly a day until the police arrived in the afternoon.
The police went into the cave and freed the poachers from their cages, then handcuffed them and led them down the mountain.
Li Du left behind the poachers’ mobile phones, which contained enough evidence for the police to send them to prison.
There was no need for him to stay, and now that the poachers were captured, there was no more incentive for the brothers to appear again.
Li Du wanted to go and say hello to the police, but he was afraid they would not let him keep the young condor, so after some thought, he decided to leave.
After this unexpected run-in, three more days passed.
Li Du and his team returned to the ruins of the Kochena tribe, and according to the scenes seen in the time-reversal of the film, Li Du found the way that the chief and the photographers had followed, climbing up the mountain to find the treasure.
The buried treasure was not supposed to be very far away from the tribal location, but as the terrain was so rugged, trekking all the way was a lot longer than could be expected from the air distance. It would take them a full day to cover the four or five kilometers separating them from the spot.
According to the photographer, they only traveled more than half a day, which many treasure hunters used to estimate the distance between the site and the tribe’s location.
The reason for this was that the chief and the photographer took a short cut to the hidden treasure, and the short cut led them through a few caves.
In this area, there are many caves in the mountains, and the camp of the Kochena tribe was the same one where the poachers, Li Du, and the others stayed.
What’s more, many of the caves had two entrances, running up and down. Therefore, climbing from one hole to the other could take half an hour, while walking through the caves would only take a few minutes.
The photographer was blindfolded, and natives helped him along, so he had no idea that they had walked through the caves, and that some of the caves were filled with trees, vines, and weeds that were hard for the unacquainted to spot.
Li Du easily discovered the location of the caves through the film experience, and he led the way through six caves that were not far from the treasure.
It was not easy to walk through the caves. After more than a hundred years, no one knew exactly what was going on inside them now. He sent Ah Ow and Ah Meow to check out the situation. Sometimes Ah Bai would go in too.
The tribal medicine was very effective indeed. Ah Bai’s wound was healing rapidly and he was no longer in pain at all. After it ate heartily for a few days, it gained back its energy.
Li Du was prepared to buy a few bottles of this kind of medicine when he went down the mountain. It was very effective for external injuries, and he thought he might be able to gain a patent.
Fortunately, he was aware that the caves were indeed dangerous. Bats inhabited some of them, and some were almost turned into snake nests. Ah Meow would bring out a few snakes sometimes. There were venomous snakes among them too.
Every time they came across a cave on a more populated road, they would take a rest and pretend to be mere tourists, which was a waste of time. By the time they arrived at the gold treasure area, a whole day had passed.
Lu Guan and his entourage were amazed that Li Du could always find the hole in some seemingly impossible places, as if he were familiar with them, which made everybody feel strange.
However, Brother Wolf and Firecracker knew what to ask and what not to ask. Godzilla and Driver were naturally taciturn, so only one person who would ask questions persistently was Lu Guan.
